Former Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Ander Herrera has exclusively told Soccer Laduma what kind of problems he encountered at the French giants during his time in Paris.
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Following a five-year spell at Manchester United, the Bilbao-born midfielder joined the Ligue 1 stalwarts as a free agent in 2019. In France, Herrera made 95 appearances for PSG and claimed seven trophies, but narrowly missed out on the one piece of silverware the club's executives desperately want – the UEFA Champions League.
He and his then-teammates came agonisingly close in 2020, when they lost in the final against Bayern Munich at the Estadio da Luz in a game that was played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Herrera started in that match, playing 72 minutes before being substituted.
In an exclusive interview with Soccer Laduma, the 34-year-old, currently representing Athletic Club in Spain, detailed his experience of playing for PSG. In no uncertain terms, Herrera told us he believes the owners' ambition of winning the Champions League has made fans, and perhaps sometimes even the players, feel like collecting other titles is "not enough".
"It's different. I have the feeling that… first of all, it's a young club. It's only, I think, 52 years old. And, in the last 10-15 years, under the new owners from Qatar, in my opinion and with all respect to them, they've done some great things, but I think they went too fast in the building," he started.
"If I was in that situation, I would never say 'my objective is to win the Champions League'. The first day they arrived at the club, they said that, so after that, everything you do, they are not going to give you value until you win the Champions League and, in my opinion, that was a mistake because in football you have to go step by step, building day by day.
"Look at Manchester City, I don't like Manchester City at all, but I respect what they have done. They went day by day. They signed players for defence, and then they started building and building, they gave all the confidence to sporting director Txiki Begiristain. It doesn't matter if you don't win the first year or the second year or the third year.
"Football is not like this (snaps fingers). So that's the feeling I had when I went there. We won titles. We won the cups, we won the league, we played in the Champions League final, but everything was not enough. You know what I mean? No one was happy enough. The club was great with me. I spent three years there and played 100 games for the club in one of the best teams in the world, with some of the best players in the world.
"When you leave United, you feel like your heart is fulfilled. And in Paris, because it is so demanding, it's almost like you have done nothing and you have won maybe five or six important trophies, but you didn't win the Champions League. Now, it's going to be the same thing. They lost against Borussia Dortmund, a great team. I think they are having an amazing season. Luis Enrique is doing an amazing job.
"They are building a young team for the next few years, but I'm sure everyone is going to be a mess. They are going to say [PSG manager] Luis Enrique has to leave, that the team is not good enough, and I disagree. You have to give time, confidence and calm. As I said before, if you didn't win the Champions League, it doesn't matter what you do, it's not enough. That's the feeling and it's so sad because the people who work for the club are great, the owner Nasser Al-Khelaifi is an amazing guy who tries to help. But if you don't win the Champions League, no one is going to remember."
Read the full interview in last week's edition of the Soccer Laduma newspaper!
