Early on the morning of February 7, RMC Sport’s Fabrice Hawkins reported that Luis Enrique would be one of the contract extensions that would be officially announced in the game that night against AS Monaco.
The others signing new deals include Vitinha, Achraf Hakimi, Yoram Zague, and newly Nuno Mendes, who declined offers from Manchester United.
If Luis Enrique finishes his contract in Paris, which is set to run until 2027, it would make him PSG’s longest consecutively tenured manager of all time with four full seasons.
Right now, Georges Peyroche is their leader with his stint from November 1979 until June 1983.
What Luis Enrique brings to PSG
There are two main things that Luis Enrique has introduced to PSG that it was badly missing before his arrival. Continuity and culture.
As mentioned above, Enrique is likely to have the longest uninterrupted tenure for a manager in PSG history. For a club that has been struggling to find stability from a manager, that is very important for them to finally have someone who will stay for a long time.
The next, and most important part, of what Enrique has brought to PSG is a clear culture. In the past, there were plenty of examples of players acting like they were in charge.
Whether it was Kylian Mbappe and Adrien Rabiot skipping a team meeting before Le Classique in 2019 or Lionel Messi being suspended in 2023 for skipping training to go to Saudi Arabia, the club has had a lack of accountability for years.
While in previous eras players would feel they were entitled to certain things just based on their big name or their contracts, one of the biggest changes Enrique has made was getting rid of that mentality.
Players now have to earn everything under Enrique, and it has worked wonders.
He berated Kylian Mbappe for his lack of defensive effort in the first leg against Barcelona, and then Mbappe scored a brace in the return leg, including a goal where he won the ball back into Barca’s box and took it to the other end of the pitch to finish off their comeback victory.
He dropped Ousmane Dembele from the squad against Arsenal earlier this year due to disciplinary reasons and since returning, Dembele has looked much more focused and played as well as any player in the world.
He benched Gianluigi Donnarumma for Matvey Safonov against Bayern Munich after the Italian had a nightmarish performance in their previous Champions League match, and since returning Donnarumma has looked back to his best.
This mentality Enrique has instilled of making everyone earn their place has driven everyone at the club to bring their best constantly, as they know any complacency could see them dropped.
Enrique is also a manager that players love playing for. In the last few months, Joao Neves, Desire Doue, and Khvicha Kvaratkshelia were all convinced to play for PSG largely because of Enrique.
What does this mean going forward?
In Paris, every manager will be judged by their success in Europe.
While Enrique has certainly dominated in France, winning the Coupe de France, Trophee des Champions, and Ligue 1 last season then winning the TDC already this year, advancing to the semi-finals of the CDF and having a 10-point lead while being unbeaten so far in Ligue 1.
He did get PSG to the Champions League semi-finals in his first season, but they were unable to get over the final two hurdles and finally bring in their white whale.
We don’t know how the next few years under Enrique will go. Maybe it will be another Thomas Tuchel and he loses the dressing room, or maybe he is finally able to deliver that ever-elusive Champions League.
No matter how the next few years go, it stands true that Luis Enrique, and everything he stands for, is a breath of fresh air for a club that badly needed it.
