Thiago Silva’s suggestion that Angel Di Maria would be joining a bigger club upon leaving Manchester United for PSG this summer didn’t go down well at Old Trafford.
Di Maria has reportedly been in Doha to complete a medical ahead of a £44.3m move to the French champions and all at the Paris club have been quick to welcome him, even though the move hasn’t been made official.
Most recently Silva claimed:
“People now need to respect PSG as one of the big clubs in Europe.
“Real Madrid and Barcelona are probably on another level, but after that if you join PSG you are you probably taking a step up.”
Whilst there is no denying that PSG’s stature has grown since being taken over by a Qatari consortium, it is ludicrous to suggest that a move from Manchester United to PSG is a step up and one Twitter user was quick to point that out with a dry, cutting tweet.
Former footballer and current Norwegian pundit Jan Aage Fjortoft stated:
I all due respect mister Silva, you dont measure a Club after number of oil barrels. It’s titles, fans and tradition https://t.co/iUyCZsaoqx
— Jan Aage Fjortoft (@JanAageFjortoft) August 3, 2015
And we, like most rational people, tend to agree.
A team cannot be called great or bigger by the owner’s wealth. First of all Mr. Silva,you must understand that you are playing in such a league which is not so exciting, popular, difficult like EPL. The EPL itself is regarded as the best in the world.No other leagues are as popular, exciting and difficult. A team is regarded as great by the legends, tradition, number of fans throughout the globe, titles. PSG is a good team but not the great.