PSG’s sporting director, Antero Henrique announced in an interview with Yahoo on Monday that Rabiot has been banned from the first-team squad until further notice. Or until he signs a new contract, that is.

Rabiot’s current deal runs out in June 2019 and he told the club last week that he was not going to sign the lucrative new terms offered to him. Instead he wants to leave on a free in the summer.

As far as Paris’ hierarchy are concerned, Rabiot is not a PSG player anymore. He will continue to collect his salary but will never play for the first team again. Henrique is now hoping that he can sell the midfielder in January — in a similar way to how Arsenal sold Alexis Sanchez to Manchester United with fewer than six months left on his contract.china nike nfl jerseys cheap

Indeed, Rabiot is a much sought-after player. Barcelona believe they are the front-runners, but Liverpool, Tottenham and the two Milan clubs are also very keen. Ideally, PSG would want at least €20 million for him in January — which would be used straight away to buy another midfielder — but the dynamic is totally different for Rabiot, of course. If he waits for his contract to end, he will get a huge signing-on fee from his new club. But he also can’t afford not to play until next season, so it is probably better for him to leave as soon as possible.

Whatever happens, it’s a blow for PSG. They had invested a lot of time and effort in trying to convince Rabiot to pledge his long-term future to the club. They were ready to give him a huge pay rise, a big bonus and to make him a key part of the squad.

Even PSG manager Thomas Tuchel showed he rated Rabiot by giving him the captain’s armband earlier in the season. He could see his potential and, while he was not personally involved in the talks over a new contract, the German privately told Rabiot how much he liked him as a player.cheap nfl jerseys china nike

But cracks started to appear in the Tuchel-Rabiot relationship in October. Rabiot’s lack of discipline, as he arrived late for training and team meetings, was a sore point and the straw that broke the camel’s back came ahead of the game against Marseille at the end of the month. Rabiot and Kylian Mbappe arrived eight minutes late for the prematch team meeting and it was too much for the manager — both were due to start but were benched instead.