Johan Cruyff, the Dutch legend for whom Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique holds great admiration, always used to say that the hardest task in football is not reaching the summit, but winning again after you have tasted it. Sustaining success is more complicated than achieving it. Defending titles demands a different mentality, especially when the winning side becomes the target everyone wants to bring down.
That idea runs right through Luis Enrique's project at Paris Saint-Germain, who enter a new season loaded with exceptional ambitions after claiming the throne of Europe. The team do not want to settle. They aspire to extend their dominance, to keep collecting titles, and to turn recent success into a long era of control.
As European champions in the past two seasons, Paris Saint-Germain have the chance to achieve a historic feat by winning the Champions League for a third consecutive time, becoming only the second team in the competition's history to do so. Domestically, the French club are chasing a third successive league title, another test of the group's ability to handle the pressures of success and the expectations of the supporters.
But the road to glory is not free of obstacles. Paris Saint-Germain have not begun the season in the best possible fashion, arriving at their meeting with Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium sitting sixth in the French league, having recorded three wins, two draws and one defeat. Even so, anxiety does not appear to dominate the mood at the club, and nothing suggests the early results have pushed officials to question the project led by the Spanish coach.
Cruyff's philosophy: winning repeatedly is harder than reaching the summit
Luis Enrique does not view the stuttering start as a crisis requiring a change of course. Instead, he treats it as part of a long season that cannot be judged on a limited set of matches, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation "BBC".
Paris Saint-Germain went through similar circumstances at the start of last season before regaining their balance and producing the results that carried them to the summit of Europe. The coach therefore appears convinced that the team possess the quality and experience to come through this phase, provided they maintain discipline and faith in the daily work.
Enrique spelled out that confidence with a question carrying a degree of challenge: "Do you want to bet against us?" The phrase was not merely a passing response to criticism. It reflected the coach's belief in his side's ability to come back, and his refusal to pass early judgement on a group accustomed to dealing with difficult situations.
Recovering form, though, is only half the battle. The real challenge is avoiding the trap of success. When players win everything, contentment creeps in easily, or they start to believe their status guarantees their place without the need to make the same effort.
Here one of Luis Enrique's most important tasks emerges: keeping his players in a permanent state of competition, and convincing them that past achievements grant nobody immunity from decline, and that the starting shirt is not reserved by name or by history, but by performance, readiness and commitment.
Long contracts and a clear message: the project is bigger than one generation
Paris Saint-Germain did not stop at expressing confidence in their coach through statements. They translated that confidence into practical steps confirming their desire to continue along the same path.
Luis Enrique signed a new contract running until 2030, a step that reflects the board's desire to build a long-term project under his leadership, far from the repeated changes that marked earlier periods in the club's history.
Alongside the announcement of the coach's contract renewal, the club revealed extensions for a number of important players, namely Joao Neves, Fabian Ruiz, Willian Pacho, Lucas Beraldo and Senny Mayulu.
These steps carry a clear message to the dressing room: the project does not stop with one particular group, and the club are planning for the future by holding on to their key pillars while continuing to develop players capable of adding something.
Stability is not confined to the players and the coach either. It extends to a backroom staff that has not seen major changes since Enrique arrived in Paris in 2023.
Joaquin Valdes stands as one of the most prominent figures around the Spanish coach, having accompanied him since the days of working with Barcelona's reserve team. He is not merely a technical assistant. He represents an important line of communication with the players on a personal level, and helps maintain the balance within the group.
Valdes performs a role that goes beyond coaching detail. He knows Enrique's personality well and can help him regain focus when pressures interfere with the demands of the job. He often appears in the background during press conferences, a scene that reflects his constant presence alongside the coach.
Rafel Pol, meanwhile, handles an important strategic side of things and works as the number two in the staff, completing a system that relies on the distribution of roles and stability in the way of working.
Squad depth: the weapon that changed Luis Enrique's calculations
Most of the details of the technical work have remained in place, but one of the most notable developments at Paris Saint-Germain is that they now possess a wider group of players able to feature without the team's level collapsing.
Last season proved that squad depth can be the difference between a team competing for titles and one that merely tries to reach them. A long season, with its succession of matches, travel, pressures and injuries, does not allow reliance on a limited group of players across every competition.
Enrique can now rest one or more first-choice players, and even leave some prominent names out of his matchday squads, without that necessarily causing a drop in the team's performance.
Ousmane Dembele was absent from the squad for the match in which Paris Saint-Germain beat Le Mans on Saturday, while Lucas Hernandez had earlier been left out at a previous stage of the season.
Such decisions do not necessarily mean there is a problem with the players. They reflect the staff's desire to manage physical loads and ensure the key men arrive at the big fixtures in the best possible condition.
That philosophy was there for all to see against Le Mans, when Enrique fielded eight players who do not usually feature in the starting line-up for the big games. When the score became level, he turned to four of his stars to settle the contest and secure the win.
It is an approach that confirms the coach does not simply want a first-choice team and a back-up team, but a group able to adapt to the demands of every match while retaining influential options on the bench.
Depth gives Enrique the chance to manage the season with greater flexibility and reduces the likelihood of his leading players being drained before the decisive dates. It also confronts everyone with the reality that competition for places will not stop.
The departure of the big names: why Paris do not fear change
Reshaping the team was not limited to widening the available options. It also included changes in the forward line, following the departures of Goncalo Ramos, Bradley Barcola and Lee Kang-in, according to the report.
Dani Gil, correspondent for Spanish radio station "Cope" in Paris, explains that the club have become more interested in signing players with a strong desire to improve, after some of their previous squad members won titles and received generous financial rewards.
Gil says the club were not able to give Barcola the playing minutes he wanted, which made the search for players with more hunger and ambition one of the aims of this new phase.
What matters about that outlook is where it places personal motivation: among the selection criteria, alongside talent and technical ability. A player possessing exceptional skills is not enough on its own to guarantee success in a system that demands constant commitment, a willingness to accept competition, and work according to rules set by the coach.
Mika Gouts and Ferran Torres are seen as examples of players seeking to prove themselves at a higher level, given how their careers differ from those of the names who have left the team.
According to Gil, the technical staff did not believe Barcola was capable of reaching the same level as Dembele, despite the technical flashes the French player showed. Those flashes were still enough to convince Liverpool to pay 123 million pounds to sign him, in a deal that reflects the value talent can acquire in the transfer market.
Enrique's vision is not built on keeping names simply for their fame, nor on the assumption that a player who contributed to winning titles will remain the best option forever. The basic criterion is the extent to which each individual can serve the team in the next phase.
Ferran Torres: from psychological struggle to the shark mentality
Ferran Torres offers one of the most interesting cases in this context, since his move was not merely another step in his professional career but an opportunity to regain his self-confidence and confirm his ability to make an impact.
The player went through a difficult period psychologically during his previous spell with Barcelona, especially when he was not playing regularly, despite managing to record his best goalscoring figures last season.
Torres worked on strengthening his mental toughness, to the point where he began calling himself "the shark", a reference to the desire to deal with challenges more ferociously and not allow obstacles to weaken his belief in his abilities.
Now, after scoring the winning goal for Spain in the World Cup final and succeeding in netting seven goals in France, he feels he has become a genuinely wanted player for the first time in his career, according to the report.
That feeling appears to be reflected in the way he handles his role within the team. He knows well the nature of the system he has joined, and understands that Luis Enrique does not build his project around a single star, but around a group working to shared rules.
In Enrique's teams, the striker does not come before the coach, and stardom is not granted as a permanent privilege. The coach sets the style of play, the standards and the rules of conduct, and the players must adapt to this system and integrate into it.
That is one of the pillars that explains Paris Saint-Germain's ability to do without players with big names, without losing their identity or being forced to rebuild the team from scratch.
From expensive deals to a complete system: a revolution beyond the first team
Perhaps the most important shift in Luis Enrique's spell is the way the image of Paris Saint-Germain has changed. After years in which the club were viewed as a project relying chiefly on gathering stars and huge spending, the team now present a different model based on technical balance, planning and making use of young talent.
The Qatari owners have handed Enrique powers and room to work they had never previously granted to any other coach at the club in this manner, which has allowed him to impose his vision on the details of the project, from selecting players to organising the daily work, through to developing emerging talent.
No longer merely a department separate from the first team, the academy has become part of the club's long-term strategy. Last season saw four academy graduates feature in the Champions League, namely Warren Zaire-Emery, Senny Mayulu, Quentin Ndjantou and Ibrahim Mbaye. That reflects the club's desire to open the path for young talent, rather than making outside signings the only option for developing the squad.
The new training base embodies this philosophy. The first team is located in the upper part of the complex, while the academy sits below, a picture that reflects the climb young players have to make in order to reach the highest levels of football.
Officially opened in November 2024, the complex took 350 million euros of investment and brings together for the first time the professional teams, the men's and women's academies and the school at a single site. It is not only about the buildings and facilities, but about an attempt to create a unified environment in which the club's various teams share the same principles and methods, while providing better opportunities to develop players and track their progress.
One philosophy from top to bottom
This methodology is applied according to a clear sequence that begins with the first team and extends to the age-group sides, so that Luis Enrique's philosophy becomes the basic reference point for the work inside the academy.
The under-23 coach is a former player, but the working method he follows is drawn from the principles Enrique applies with the first team, amid continuous meetings bringing together those responsible for the various departments.
Yohan Cabaye, the director of the training centre, communicates regularly with sporting director Luis Campos and Olivier Ganay, deputy director of the professional football department. Campos, Ganay and Enrique also make a point of attending youth team matches whenever the chance allows, to follow the talent and assess its development at close quarters.
The importance of this system became apparent during the most recent international break, when only four first-team players remained at the club, at a time when 16 academy players were away on duty with their national teams.
That situation allowed Enrique to spend the three weeks on the training pitch with the young players, giving them a rare chance to train in front of him and show their potential, away from the atmosphere of official matches and the pressures of competition.
One important aspect of the project emerges from that step. For the coach, the international break is not merely a period to catch his breath, but can turn into an opportunity to assess talent, discover future options and identify players capable of getting close to the first team.
Building the team, then, is not confined to what happens in the transfer market. It begins from within, through a system that links the academy to the coaching staff and the sporting department, and gives talented youngsters a clear path towards competing at the highest levels.
A wall between Enrique and the media: no room to cross the line
Luis Enrique deals with the media with clear reserve, preferring to keep a distance separating his professional life from journalists' curiosity. Asked what he had done during the three-week break, he simply pointed out that it was of no interest to anyone. The response confirmed his approach of setting clear boundaries between what concerns his work and what he does not wish to share with others.
The coach maintains cordial relations with a limited number of Spanish journalists, and may reply to their phone messages, but in France he follows stricter rules. No space for off-the-record remarks that can be published later, no coffee sessions with reporters, no private one-on-one interviews. He prefers his relationship with the media to be governed by an official framework that guarantees him control over his messages and avoids going into details he does not wish to discuss.
In his first year with Paris Saint-Germain he answered questions in Spanish, but he now uses French fluently, a development that reflects his integration into his surroundings and his ability to communicate with the local media directly.
His reserve does not make him a closed personality when it comes to football. When the conversation turns to the game itself, Enrique emerges as an interesting coach who holds clear opinions and does not hesitate to criticise what he sees as exaggeration in the coverage of events.
Before the Le Mans match, he began by noting that everyone, as usual, is preoccupied with the most trivial matters in football, before turning to the way the French media deal with Paris Saint-Germain's results.
In his view, when the team win, their opponents are looked upon as somehow inferior, while any stumble is turned into a catastrophe calling for alarm and doubt. It is a state of extremes in judgement, taking the team from the summit to a crisis in the media within a short space of time, even though the reality of a season is more complicated than that.
Manchester City: a meeting beyond the three points
All eyes now turn to the Etihad Stadium, where Paris Saint-Germain are preparing to face Manchester City in a match carrying technical and media dimensions that go beyond the competition for points.
Watch how Luis Enrique handles the questions on Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City manager who was previously his coach at Barcelona and his former colleague in coaching, as well as the charges brought against the English club by the Premier League.
The relationship between the two coaches looks set to feature in the picture, especially as Enrique makes no secret of his appreciation for Guardiola, while the meeting also offers an opportunity to talk about the Spanish coach's legacy and his influence on modern football.
Expect the two men to meet, in a scene that may carry significance beyond the usual courtesies between coaches. Enrique's comments may reveal his position on Guardiola's legacy, even if the legal case surrounding Manchester City is not the main focus of his remarks.
Both sides are aware that questions on these files may be put from the moment of arrival in Manchester, but the report indicates that Paris Saint-Germain's media team do not intend to prepare a unified response for the coach in advance.
That reflects the level of trust Enrique enjoys within the club. He is left the space to deal with the questions according to his own view and personality, without pre-prepared answers being imposed or any attempt to control every word he might utter.
Luis Enrique enters this phase fully aware of the nature of the challenges awaiting him. Winning titles has placed Paris Saint-Germain in an exceptional position, but it has also raised the ceiling of expectations and made every match a test of the team's ability to maintain their level.
Between the ambition of a historic treble, the work of renewing the group, developing young talent and imposing discipline inside the dressing room, the Spanish coach is seeking to prove that success does not only require glittering names, but a complete system that knows what it wants and how to get there.
Whatever the questions put to him in Manchester, Enrique is likely to appear as the personality everyone has come to know: razor-sharp, quick-witted, able to manage pressure and confident in his position within a project that grants him wide authority and even greater responsibility.
The real challenge, as Cruyff always used to remind people, is not to win once, but to find each time the motivation and the method needed to win again.