I have a hard time hearing this "farmer league" argument over and over again. Is Ligue 1 easier than PL? Of course, but the difference isn't as enormous as most PL fans pretend in a pretty condescending way.
First, Ligue 1 is PL's favourite market and you have several major PL players playing better in england than they did in France, even during their first year in PL. It means that it's not a whole different sport their. Hazard and Kante are arguably 2 of the best players in PL and had no trouble adjusting to it.
Second, someone said Neymar is making french defenders look ridiculous in L1. He pretty much did the same thing everywhere and if L1 really lacks great offense players, the defense level is more than decent.
Third, competition is supposed to be far harder in PL and there's allegdly no good team in France besides PSG. Well it didn't prevent ManCity from winning the championship last year with 100+ points and a 13 points lead. Was PL a farmers league when Arsenal finished the season unbeaten in 2004? I don't think so. I'll had that Mbappé scored twice at 18 (barely) when Monaco eliminated City 1.5 years ago. It really is a shame they tend to sell their best players every year, it weaks L1 tremendously.
To be frank, only idiots call it a farmer's league.
Also, it's a shame that they do sell their best players, but it has a benefit too. In France, there is an absolute need to develop young players, and it benefits greatly the overall talent pool in France and the national team. In a league like the premier league that's loaded, there is far less of an emphasis on youth development and it's very hard for young English players to break through to the better teams.
I feel it's only a matter of time before another group invests heavily into another Ligue 1 team and creates a bit more competition for PSG, but right now the league is a great place for talent development and with that comes quick sales and a difficulty to hold on to said talents for long.
As far as the criticism of a 19 year old kid deciding to play for his hometown and try to win their first major European trophy instead of going off to Madrid (who did match Monaco's demands for a transfer) or Barcelona right away, I think that's just lazy. Mbappe would walk and shine in any team in the world, and would have just as much if not more of an impact. He's becoming a bit more selfish, whereas last season he was catering far too much to Cavani and Neymar. The one person I do feel bad for is Cavani, who is not getting much of the ball at all so far this season where Mbappe and Neymar are developing a really solid understanding but kind of forgetting about their frontman.
I do wonder if he's pretty close to his peak ability already though. Most footballers improve on their decision making and footballing IQ more than they do their technical or physical ability. Mbappe already has incredible maturity and a great footballing brain. He may therefore be much closer to his ceiling than say Cristiano Ronaldo was as a youngster, whose decision making was poor.
People were saying that after his first season at Monaco when he was still 18. He's already shown massive improvements in his passing, dribbling, influence on the game, etc. This is a guy that is literally getting better every month, and yet I don't think he's anywhere close to his ceiling. His decision-making is great for his age, but it's nowhere near what it can be. He creates so much danger and mismatches with defenders, and draws far more attention but still misses at times easy openings for his teammates. He's still missing some easy chances, like the game where he scored 4 goals and missed three easy chances. He is absolutely terrible in the air, and has to build up his body a bit more to deal with the physical pressure defenses try to put on him.
The good thing about him is that he is madly driven, similar to CR7 in that regard, and I can't see him losing focus or not improving to all-time great heights as long as the injury gods are kind with him.
