The Lionesses goalkeeper moved to Paris to win trophies and compete with Europe's elite, but it has been another underwhelming season for the club
When Mary Earps signed for Paris Saint-Germain last summer, she was ready for big things. "Hearing about the ambition of the club, they want to be the best team in Europe, the best team in the world, and that's exactly what I want to be," she said. But a disappointing first season in France finally finished on Friday, as Wendie Renard's 'Panenka' penalty drifted beyond the Lionesses goalkeeper to seal a title-clinching 3-0 win for Lyon, leaving the Parisians without a trophy to their name this term.
That's not on Earps. After her place on the bench in PSG's second league game of the season sparked concerns that she might not be the team's No.1, she's been ever-present in the competition and helped the club from the capital boast the second-best defensive record in the division, only behind Lyon. Indeed, only Christiane Endler, the starting shot-stopper for the French champions, has kept more clean sheets this season than the England international.
But Earps has had to witness, first-hand, the chaos that so often surrounds PSG and condemns them to these disappointments. This year, the men's team appear to have been spared from the circus; Luis Enrique's side have won two trophies already, are in Saturday's French Cup final and will face Inter the following weekend in the Champions League final. However, that has all coincided with the women's side playing a more prominent role in the nonsense, in a season that ended with them trophy-less, manager-less and completely absent from the Champions League proper.
Wing ChongBig loss
It all started back in June, when head coach Jocelyn Precheur left the club. The 43-year-old was coming off the back of a promising first season in charge of PSG, in which he delivered what was just a fifth major title in the history of the women's team by winning the French Cup. To lose him was a blow; to lose him to the club they did will have hurt more.
Precheur became the new manager of London City Lionesses, a side in the second-tier of English women's football. Make no mistake, London City is an incredibly ambitious club. Owned by Michele Kang – who, just to rub salt in PSG's wounds, also owns their biggest rival, Lyon – they spent the summer recruiting top international stars with the aim to win promotion to the Women's Super League right away. By getting a point at Birmingham City on the final day of the Championship season last month, they achieved that goal and will play in the top-flight next season, but it certainly didn't paint the picture of PSG being an elite side for Precheur to leave for such a challenge.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesBad start
There was, however, reason to be optimistic about Precheur's successor, Fabrice Abriel. The former Lorient, Marseille and Nice midfielder was coming in after three successful seasons in charge of Fleury, a club with a lower-league men's side and, as such, lesser financial might. In three seasons there, Abriel guided the team to three top-five finishes, two French Cup semi-finals and, in his last year, the final.
However, things did not start well. Abriel's first competitive game in charge of PSG was a disappointing 3-1 defeat to Juventus in the first leg of their Champions League second-round qualifier. There was still an opportunity to progress for a PSG side that was packed with talent and set to host the second leg. With top France internationals like Marie-Antoinette Katoto, Sakina Karchaoui and Grace Geyoro, there was every reason to believe they could turn things around, but another under-par performance meant they lost 2-1 and exited the competition before the group stage.
Getty ImagesConsistent controversy
The pressure was on Abriel early, then, having failed to even make the Champions League proper, and the scrutiny would only increase with each passing week, especially as reports of fall-outs with players started to emerge. At the start of the season, Geyoro was surprisingly stripped of the captaincy and, despite being one of the team's best players, missed three games shortly afterwards. Speaking to in November, she said: "I can't control what people say or what happens. I can't do anything about meanness or injustice."
Geyoro has not been the only stand-out in this squad to find herself out of favour, either. Earps herself has missed games, while when Karchaoui scored in the Championship play-off semi-final win over Paris FC earlier this month, not long after being dropped for several weeks by Abriel, the words of team-mate Elisa de Almeida were telling. "You know as well as I do that without a player like her on the pitch, it's more complicated. And her goal is just… As you might say, karma," she said, with a smile.
And then there is Katoto, PSG's all-time top-scorer and one of the best strikers on the planet. She, too, has been omitted from the team on more than one occasion and is set to leave the club this summer when her contract expires, with reporting that she will join rivals Lyon. Unsurprisingly, then, Abriel's management concerned many in the squad, particularly when it wasn't returning results to bring success to the club.
Getty ImagesUnsurprising change
As such, it was no shock when the PSG boss was dismissed at the start of this month. The decision came off the back of defeat in the French Cup final to Paris FC, for which Earps, Karchaoui and Katoto were all named to the bench. Summing up the chaos at the club, though, was the delay of any official announcement.
reported the news of Abriel's departure on Monday, May 5, with it not until the Wednesday that PSG said anything. That was in a 13-word post on , just a few hours before a league fixture against Nantes, when the club's account simply wrote: "The team will be coached by Paulo Cesar for this match vs Nantes."