“The pressure was too much at PSG”: Thiago Silva’s confession

Thiago Silva opened up in a lengthy interview with The Guardian, discussing Neymar and, most importantly, PSG.

The taste is still bitter in Thiago Silva’s mouth. The former PSG captain has not digested his relative failure in Paris. The ultimate goal was the Champions League, but PSG fell short. “Failures in the Champions League are the result of an overall process. Nothing happens overnight. Just because you have a lot of money doesn’t mean you’ll achieve everything. Football doesn’t work like that. When you don’t have a clear plan of what you want, things don’t work,” he said.

“At the beginning, the media comments were good, and there was a good feeling everywhere in France to support a French team. But two or three years later, everything changed. The comments were different. It seemed like there was something preventing people from applauding Paris. I still don’t know why.”

“My dream, like Neymar, Marquinhos, and Verratti, was to win the Champions League.”

“It’s something that hurt me because I saw the situation change and the pressure increase to win the Champions League,” the former PSG captain continues. “But that’s not how you win. It’s not an investment. It’s a matter of consistency year after year. We played in the Champions League, and we didn’t win. That shouldn’t have stopped us from moving forward.”

“Normally, even a failure allows you to progress. You take one step back and two forward. It wasn’t like that at PSG: we took one step forward and three back. It was really tough. The pressure was too much. When I arrived at Chelsea, I lost that weight of pressure. That’s not why I won the Champions League here, but I didn’t have that responsibility. I felt lighter, as if a truck had been lifted off my back.”

“My dream, like Neymar, Marquinhos, and Verratti, was to win the Champions League, I can assure you. Marquinhos still has a chance, but with PSG, it’s over for us. Neymar would have certainly liked to stay. Winning the Champions League was his dream,” he said.