Today Allan Saint-Maximin became the latest young talent to join the Monégasque ranks this summer, following the lead of the likes of Bahlouli, Traoré and Lemar. Although he is being loaned straight out to Hannover, he is yet another example of this new policy of going for young players, which poses a stark contrast to the transfers the club were making 2 years ago – signing James Rodríguez for 45m euro from Porto or Kondogbia for 20m euro for Sevilla, who have now been sold for considerable profits (sold for 80m and 42m euro respectively). Other than a very different looking balance sheet, this shift in focus signals a change of philosphy for the club: instead of buying ready made talent, they are now going to develop it (albeit still for large sums of money: Ivan Cavaleiro joined for 15m euro).

While Monaco have also made a few gambles, notably on Stephan El Shaarawy, who had endured an injury ridden last couple of years but showed the world his promise in that half a season, the story of the summer has very much been to offload the big names and bring in promise. This was also seen in the deal which saw Falcao go on loan once again to the Premier League, this time to Chelsea, where another young talent in Mario Pasalic joined Monaco on loan.

Along with the likes of Anthony Martial and Bernardo Silva, promising players who are already at the club, the future does seem bright for Monaco – though their dependency of Jorge Mendes, the super-agent who was the architect in bringing the large amount of Portugal-based players to Monaco (Moutinho, James, Falcao, Silva, etc) may prove worrying, they seem to be reaping the rewards so far. The mix of young and old – the experience of Moutinho, Toulalan, Raggi with the attacking prowess of El Shaarawy, Martial and Cavaleiro (2 goals in 2 pre-season matches) could be striking the perfect balance for Monaco in the coming years.

However, is this new approach a positive step forward for the club in the long term or just a new profit-making conveyor belt of talent? Anthony Martial, who signed from Lyon a few years ago, has been rumoured to leave the club for the likes of Spurs in this transfer window after developing into one of the most promising strikers in France, as he showed to the continent in his performances in the Champions League. Similarly, another player who Monaco have developed recently, Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco, has been sold to Atletico Madrid. Does this point to an intention in selling these new players as soon as they turn out good? With Mendes involved, that would be a fairly likely scenario.

Then again, there have been a number of factors behind the scenes which have halted what seemed like all-out recruiting 2 years ago. One of which, Financial Fair Play, has been more at the forefront than the others but has been hanging over a lot of clubs’ heads since the restrictions first came down on a number of clubs. Additionally, Rybolovlev’s recent divorce cost him 4.5bn dollars, an event which severely dented Monaco’s spending power for a while. However, these FFP restrictions have recently been more or less alleviated for many clubs, giving them more freedom to spend, while Monaco’s ongoing battle with Ligue 1 chiefs was recently settled.

Overall, Monaco’s future does seem bright and their current squad looks more than able to compete in Ligue 1 as well as making a good run in the CL, however, there is always the possibility that these new players are only there to line Mendes’ pockets, and as soon as an offer comes in, they’ll be gone.