Neglectful PSG lack discipline and heart – qualities that cannot simply be bought

It’s just as well Qatar’s investment in football isn’t to be measured in anything as tangible as silverware. In the 12 years since it took over Paris Saint-Germain, Qatar Sports Investment has spent a little over £1.5bn on players – or, to put it in terms Nicolas Sarkozy would understand, the equivalent of 16 Dassault Rafale multi-purpose fighter jets. It has inflated football’s transfer market, changed the landscape of the sport, brought the emirate to unprecedented prominence, and got past the quarter-finals of the Champions League twice.

You can see why a vocal contingent of Manchester United fans dream of something similar, of a Qatari takeover of their own. Who wouldn’t want this? Which fan, raised in a Salford terrace on stories of Eddie Colman and Paul Scholes, Ian Curtis and Albert Finney, on George Best v Benfica and Bryan Robson v Barcelona, hasn’t yearned in their heart of hearts to become a rabble of egos promoting a petrostate with a questionable human rights record?

There were about 20 minutes when PSG were on top against Bayern, at the end of the first leg, after Kylian Mbappé had come off the bench. That spell was enough to raise major doubts about Bayern’s capacity to win the Champions League as pressure brought panic. They too, it seemed, were a team unused to being tested. Their struggles in chasing an 11th successive Bundesliga title may paradoxically case-harden them but Bayern are still a side with a budget 1.8 times that of their closest rivals. They too have become fatted on the easy meat of domestic competition – just not as much as PSG have.

Bayern fans displayed a banner that depicted their honorary president Uli Hoeneß, middle finger of his right hand raised, left hand wielding a cleaver to