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Football Hipster Alert: AS Monaco might be really, really good

By Ryan Wrenn

Monaco's French midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko (L) celebrates with Monaco's Brazilian defender Fabinho after scoring a goal during the French L1 football match between AS Monaco and Lyon at the Louis II Stadium in Monaco on December 18, 2016. / AFP / VALERY HACHE (Photo credit should read VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images)
Monaco's French midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko (L) celebrates with Monaco's Brazilian defender Fabinho after scoring a goal during the French L1 football match between AS Monaco and Lyon at the Louis II Stadium in Monaco on December 18, 2016. / AFP / VALERY HACHE (Photo credit should read VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images) /
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MARSEILLE, FRANCE - JANUARY 15: Coach of Monaco Leonardo Jardim gestures during the French Ligue 1 match between Olympique de Marseille and AS Monaco at Stade Velodrome on January 15, 2017 in Marseille, France. (Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)
MARSEILLE, FRANCE – JANUARY 15: Coach of Monaco Leonardo Jardim gestures during the French Ligue 1 match between Olympique de Marseille and AS Monaco at Stade Velodrome on January 15, 2017 in Marseille, France. (Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images) /

There is no shortage of reasons why AS Monaco’s remarkable season should be promptly and easily dismissed. And that’s exactly what Leonardo Jardim’s team is counting on.

First, it’s a matter of the competition. Monaco sit top of Ligue 1, yes, but the French top flight is hardly the Premier League, La Liga or the Bundesliga. Dispatching the likes of Nantes and Caen is all well and good, but it’s simply not the level of competition league leaders face elsewhere in Europe.

Which isn’t to suggest that Ligue 1 is incapable of producing great sides. Paris Saint-Germain are a regular fixture in the Champions League knockout rounds — at least until they inevitably face Barcelona.

Once again though, this leads to doubts about Monaco’s credentials. With PSG adapting to life under Unai Emery and struggling to run away with the league for the fifth consecutive time, teams like Monaco and Nice are filling the power vacuum.

A more open league will naturally lead to some surprising — and temporary — contenders. One need look no further than the Premier League for examples of that phenomenon.

Finally, there’s the question of Monaco’s component parts. Just who are these players? Fabinho? Thomas Lemar? Tiemoué Bakayoko? Radamel Falcao? If these unknowns and flops are so good why are they playing for Monaco, of all places?

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And what kind of credentials does Leonardo Jardim have? But for a brief stint with Olympiakos in Greece, he never coached outside of his native Portugal. Outside of France, he remains essentially an unknown quantity.

Taken together — playing in a off-year for a league that barely features in the wider European football conversation with a team composed of no-names, kids and has-beens — it hardly seems possible that Manchester City should be worried when these sides meet in the Champions League knockout round in February.

There’s much more to Monaco’s story than that tidy little narrative however. Indeed, their story acts as a convenient microcosm for the arc football as a whole has taken over the last half decade or so.

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