Paris Saint-Germain’s cheapest piece of summer business is already the one causing the most unease. Lucas Digne was left out of the PSG squad entirely for Friday night’s 2-1 defeat to Monaco, and according to PSG Talk the omission was for sporting reasons rather than fitness — a pointed piece of early management from Luis Enrique towards a player who has been at the club a matter of weeks.
The Lucas Digne PSG omission, explained
Digne completed his return to Paris from Aston Villa on 10 August for a reported fee of around €7m, taking the number 12 shirt. He was not signed to start. Nuno Mendes remains the first-choice left-back, and Digne’s brief was to be the experienced, affordable cover behind him — the sort of signing that only becomes a story when it goes wrong.
It has gone wrong quickly. PSG Talk report that Luis Enrique is already unhappy with the left-back’s standards and effort levels, which is a striking judgement to reach three league games into a season. They also trace the difficulties back before his arrival: days after the move was announced, they write, Digne conceded a decisive penalty on international duty as France went out of the World Cup against Spain. Paris did not sign him for his international form, but it set a tone that has not yet been broken.
A squad that cannot afford loose ends
The timing is what makes this awkward. Paris are winless after three Ligue 1 matches — 2-2 away at Rennes, 2-2 at Lille, then Friday’s defeat to Monaco — and the same L’Equipe ratings sheet that put the goalkeeping department under scrutiny handed out fours and fives to most of the outfield players. Luis Enrique’s teams are deliberate slow starters, built to peak in May rather than September. But a coach already publicly recalibrating a new arrival’s attitude is not a coach who feels he has depth to spare.
The other problem is the calendar. The transfer window shut on 1 September, so if Enrique decides the backup left-back position is not covered to his satisfaction, there is nothing he can do about it until the winter. A Champions League defence, a title race and a FIFA Intercontinental Cup final in December is a lot of football to get through with one trusted senior option on that flank.
The context people keep getting wrong
Digne is often filed as a Parisian coming home, and that is only half right. He was born in Meaux, in the Paris region rather than the city itself, and he is a Lille academy product — he arrived at the Parc the first time as a signing, not a graduate. His career since has taken in Roma, Barcelona, Everton, Villa and now a second spell in the capital, and it has rarely been short of upheaval. Our full profile of Lucas Digne sets out how much road he has already covered.
None of which makes this a crisis. As PSG Talk themselves note, he was bought as inexpensive insurance, and an insurance policy having a bad fortnight is not a catastrophe. Squad players get dropped, respond and are quietly reintegrated all the time — and Enrique has form for using exclusion as a message rather than a verdict.
What to watch next
The tell will be the next matchday squad. If Digne is back in it, this was a nudge. If he is left out again, with Nuno Mendes carrying the left side alone through a Champions League defence, then Les Parisiens have a hole they closed too cheaply and cannot reopen until January. For a club that spent heavily and decisively almost everywhere else this summer, that would be an oddly small thing to be undone by.
