AS.com

Paris Saint-Germain Qatari owners "strongly" denies the rumours that have suggested there are negotiations going on between the French club and the Real Madrid coach José Mourinho, with next season in mind. As 'L'Équipe' reported today, Qatar Sports Investment said are no such talks.

At the same time, the club's sporting director Leonardo affirmed his confidence in the current boss, Carlo Ancelotti. But the rumours have surfaced at a time when PSG have just been dumped out of the French league cup, and have given away top spot in the championship to Lyon.

After a 250-million-euro investment, the Qatari-sponsored PSG project is not dominating French football as the owners had expected, which brings Ancelotti's role into doubt. The Italian hasn't set the Parc des Princes alight with his football, either.

According to the French press, confidence in the coach took a severe blow after the first league defeat of the season on the 11^th November. It was the start of a patchy month, which finished recently with a defeat to Rennes, a draw against Montpellier and the league cup exit at the hands of Saint-Etienne, again.

After making a stuttering start to the competition but then becoming a solid team (going unbeaten for ten games and only dropping points once), PSG have lost the invincible tag that they had made for themselves in a short time.

Opponents have lost a bit of the respect they once had for them, especially when their big star Zlatan Ibrahimovic isn't on the pitch. Ancelotti has the whole year ahead of him to rectify things, but the Italian knows that ending the year without silverware would be unacceptable for the Qataris. If that happens, the Doha-based owners will be looking for another quality coach to replace him on the touchline.