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PSG start league campaign with trip to Hervé Renard's Lille

PSG begin their quest for a fourth consecutive Ligue 1 championship at Lille. The hosts have a new manager in the shape of Hervé Renard. He has taken Zambia and Cote D'Ivoire to the Africa Cup of Nations title and will be keen to show he can replicate that success in a domestic setting.

Hervé Renard takes charge of a Lille side aiming to improve on last season when they finished in eighth place.
Hervé Renard takes charge of a Lille side aiming to improve on last season when they finished in eighth place. AFP/ Issouf Sanogo
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It's less than three months since Paris Saint Germain won their third consecutive Ligue 1 title. The champions have celebrated the hat trick by recruiting three players over the summer.

Goalkeeper Kevin Trapp joined from Eintracht Frankfurt for 9.5 million euros and midfielder Benjamin Stambouli moved from Tottenham Hotspur for nine million euros.

The marquee signing came on Thursday when Angel Di Maria was captured from Manchester United for 63 million euros.

The 27-year-old Argentina international is the second most expensive player in French football history.

With PSG's Qatari backers ready to highlight their financial potency at the start of the 2015 campaign, it appears that the main intrigue in France this season will be who finishes second and third.

PSG boast the two costliest players in the league. The Uruguay international Edinson Cavani set them back 64 million euros in 2013 when he left Napoli and now, with another South American in their ranks, PSG have made plain their intention to make serious inroads into the Uefa Champions League after last season's quarter-final exit to eventual champions Barcelona.

It was only towards the end of the season that PSG pulled away to clinch the French title. When PSG travelled to Marseille in April with seven games to go, they, their opponents and Lyon were in a fight for the championship.

Marseille cracked first and then eventually Lyon.

The acquisition of Di Maria has been made to smooth the domestic process.

Lille finished last season in 8th. New coach Hervé Renard made history in February when he became the first coach to lead two different countries to the Africa Cup of Nations. He steered unfancied Zambians to the crown on a sultry night in Libreville in 2012 and disciplined mercurial Ivorians to the title in Bata in 2015.

"We're aware of what we have to do," said Renard on the eve of the clash with PSG. "But it's a new season and so we all need to have a bit of patience. Of course the problem is that in football there's a lot of impatience."

It's an evaluation that could be so easily applied to the visiting champions. After an unprecedented treble of Ligue 1, Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue, supremacy in France may appear rather drab. Salience involves brilliant performances on foreign playing fields.

Hungry pursuit of Euro glory can sometimes lead to domestic hiccups. PSG's owners need only look over the English Channel at Chelsea Football Club to consider how fine the line is between ambition and manic desire.

The Londoners reclaimed the title in 2015 after a five year search. Ironically it was in 2012 during one of their most abject periods in the Premier League that they won the Uefa Champions League with an uncelebrated manager in Roberto di Matteo.

The 19 other clubs in Ligue 1 may not have PSG's cash but they can at least console themselves. Money can certainly buy Angels but the Gods of football can make their lives hell.

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