French club Paris St. Germain have officially announced themselves as big spenders on a day they concluded their signing of Javier Pastore for a fee of 42 Million Euro's, nearly doubling the highest standing transfer fee paid by a French club.  PSG's success, where others failed, brings a summer of speculation over the Argentines' future to a close. Pastore joins the ranks of a PSG side that has seen an injection of funds after 70% of the club's controlling interest was bought by the Qatar Investment Authority. Call them the French Man City, or the Parisian Malaga, no-matter PSG is the newest of the European "Super Clubs," and it's about time.  Pastore joins fellow new-boy's Salvatore Sirigu, Jeremy Menez and former Lorient striker, Kevin Gameiro. For a city as large and prominent among world cities, Paris is in need of a successful storied club, one that Parisian's can commiserate  about, over a baguette or a crepe.

Of late, PSG has been billed as a middle-weight club in Europe. Consistently throwing punches in the mid to upper-table range of League 1, but is a side that hasn't won a title for  more than a decade. Last year they pushed hard and were rewarded with a Europa League spot, a success that from now on will be deemed as not good enough. A combination of manager Antoine Kombouare's fiery nature and fresh talent, a leap up the table seems perfectly feasible, if they get the formula right. Challenging for the title will not happen overnight, as the "suga-daddy," oil Sheiks would like to think, but with the players they have signed, and taking into account last years results, should at least be securing a Champions League spot this season. The virtue of patience must be exercised, for the cobbles of Paris won't be paved with rose's just yet.  All you have to do is look at the time it took, and is still taking Man City to settle after their influx of funds. This said, Kombouare has picked up some solid talent this summer, but now the man with target on his back, has to only whip out his beakers, rubber gloves, and work on some chemistry. Failure to make an impact will, as history has shown, could be in the cards as money has the power to increase the expectation, putting peoples loyalty to the test.  As Andy Brassel astutely put it, " Money raises profile and creates excitement, but rarely does it provide certainty."

This chemistry may be hard to come-by, and PSG fans may have to tough it out for a while as the mold sets. Their patience has already been put to the test as PSG lost their opener to Lorient 1:0. Like I said the mold needs to set, and If anyone can act as a bath of ice water, it's Kombouare. What seemed to be an issue with Mark Hughes' tenure at Man City was he let the high price tags give his players a false sense of entitlement, to under perform, challenge authority and in the case of Robinho, piss off back home to Brazil, for a little sun on the Copacabana. Kombouare will be having non of this! A straight- shooter, personified in an instance of shouting,“Shut your face! Come here and see!” after PSG keeper Apoula Edel shined him on over a mix-up with defender Sylvain Armand leading to a consolation goal in their 2-1 victory over Toulouse. Complacency will not be tolerated, and even if you're "worth" 56 million Euro's, you're gonna follow his demands. In his playing career as a rugged central defender,  Kombouare got a reputation of berating referees, and has transferred this petulance to his coaching style. His man-management is glove-like, which is the tonic needed if PSG are to avoid the same precarious situations seen up at Manchester.

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