Liverpool’s former director of football Damien Comolli tipped Paris Saint-Germain for big things when the French club were taken over by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011.
PSG were closing in on a move for Javier Pastore, having already signed Blaise Matuidi and Jeremy Menez, and Comolli envisioned an era of Parisian dominance.
"PSG could be in a league of their own for the next five to 10 years," Comolli told BBC Sport.
Arsenal scout Gilles Grimandi offered a similar sentiment.
"They are now on another planet,” Grimandi admitted.
It’s true that PSG have turned the French league into a monopoly, something that has been threatened this year by Monaco, but they haven’t made the splash in Europe that many predicted.
Since their Qatari takeover, PSG haven’t progressed beyond the quarter-finals of the Champions League and this year suffered a debilitating exit at the hands of Barcelona in the round-of-16.
To think of PSG without the money would be to remember a time when Antoine Kombouare was the manager and Nene was their best player.
They finished fourth in Ligue 1 in 2010-11. GiveMeSport has decided to take a look at how their team shaped up on FIFA 10 compared to how it looks today - and it’s remarkably better.
FIFA 11
GK | Gregory Coupet | 78
RB | Christophe Jallet | 73
CB | Sylvain Armand | 76
CB | Mamadou Sakho | 76
LB | Siaka Tiene | 70
RW | Ludovic Giuly | 76
CM | Claude Makelele | 73
CM | Clement Chantome | 75
LW | Nene | 80
ST | Mevlut Erdinc | 78
ST | Guillaume Hoarau | 78
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FIFA 17
GK | Kevin Trapp | 83
RB | Serge Aurier | 83
CB | Thiago Silva | 89
CB | Marquinhos | 82
LB | Layvin Kurzawa | 81
CM | Marco Verratti | 85
CM | Adrien Rabiot | 80
CM | Blaise Matuidi | 86
RW | Angel di Maria | 87
LW | Julian Draxler | 84
ST | Edinson Cavani | 86
And to think, until the summer PSG’s squad also included a certain Zlatan Ibrahimovic.