Paris Saint-Germain are doing themselves few favours at home in correcting an image of brusque lordliness since they acquired their new wealth.
When Leonardo, the director of football, said ahead of tonight's attempt to reach their first Uefa Champions League quarter-final this century he believed his squad "better suited to Europe than French football", it was taken as a snooty snub towards the domestic league.
The five French teams who have so far defeated the mega-rich PSG in the league this season will probably not lose too much sleep over that slight on their achievement.
Stade de Reims, firmly in the bottom half of a table led by the Qatar-backed Parisians, were the most recent Davids to fire a successful slingshot at the new Gallic Goliaths, winning 1-0 at the weekend despite having a player sent off.
Leonardo neglected to congratulate Reims, but complained about the surface on which the contest took place.
A haughtiness is perceived in certain PSG players, too.
Jeremy Menez, the gifted 26 year old who joined from Roma in the first summer - 2011 - of extravagant spending, has had a reputation for bumptiousness for much of his career.
His discomfort at being eclipsed in the hierarchy of stars at the club was transparent in the first leg of the Valencia tie, won 2-1 in Spain by PSG.
He declined to take part in the warm-up after learning he would be on the bench.
Menez has a thigh problem which may deny him the opportunity to make up for lost credit with the head coach Carlo Ancelotti at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday night.
A vacancy exists up front because Zlatan Ibrahimovic is suspended for the first of two matches, after his red card in Valencia.
Ancelotti is still able to call on Javier Pastore, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Lucas, who between them cost around €100 million (Dh478m).
The France international Kevin Gameiro, who has yet to play in Europe's most glamorous competition, is the option to lead the line in Ibrahimovic's - and perhaps Menez's - absence.
Even in Ancelotti's assembly of expensive talents, Ibrahimovic towers.
He leads France's goalscoring table by a distance, having struck 22 times in his first campaign in Ligue 1, from 24 appearances.
But there have been enough stints suspended - almost always a feature of a season for the strong-willed Swede - or nursing injury for PSG to learn how dependent they are on their gifted centre-forward.
Last month, Ancelotti responded to the fact Ibrahimovic had been whistled by a section of the Parc's crowd after a personally frustrating night against Marseille - in which the player still scored, late, and PSG won - by pointing out that when PSG play on the counter-attack, Ibrahimovic's greatest strengths are not best exploited.
His invention and dexterity with his back to goal are superb assets, as is his physical power in penalty box duels.
At the same time, Pastore, Lucas, Lavezzi and Menez, when the mood takes him, are probably more adept at swiftly turning defence into attack.
The suspicion grows that a first instinct to pass to Ibrahimovic is not always the best option.
Should David Beckham, signed at the end of January on a short-term contract and likely to make his first appearance in the Champions League since his 2010 spell with AC Milan, fulfil effectively the tactical forte identified in him by Ancelotti, the long, precise pass from deep, PSG's strength on the break would grow, and, most likely, bring Lavezzi and Lucas, the Brazilian who is also fresh to the squad, more to the foreground.
All of which adds to the intrigue around tonight's potential watershed of an evening for ambitious PSG. Reaching the last eight of a competition so high in the club's priorities would be a landmark appreciated by the owners.
If they do so with Beckham on the pitch, with all his associated status, the world will pay that little bit more attention.
And if they do so in style, without Ibrahimovic, the debate about how dependent they are, or should be, on the charismatic Swede will remain lively.
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