What makes this summer's Kylian Mbappe contract saga different from the previous ones? Money, to start with. Like the €700 million ($773m) package (€300m in transfer fees, the rest in wages over several years) that Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal are supposedly putting on the table. It's enough for NBA stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James to sit up and take notice.
Or the fact that, unlike the last time, Paris Saint-Germain immediately went to DEFCON 1, leaving him out of their preseason tour and sending him instead to train with the club's undesirables like Georginio Wijnaldum and Leandro Paredes -- aka the players they're trying to move on and who don't fit coach Luis Enrique's plans.