Lionel Messi | Joins Inter Miami (pg4111)

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markbmcfc said:
The thing with Messi, is because he’s so much better than anyone else, he has to decline a certain amount before he’s even level with the best of the rest. He has to decline before he’s at the same level as KDB, for example.

He will decline with age but I’m not convinced it’ll be a rapid decline, and even if it is - he’s not gonna fall off a cliff, he’s gonna spend some time around the KDB level. I would’ve been happy with 3 years from him. I think we might get two and whilst it won’t be his peak best, it’ll still be Messi and it’ll still be at a ridiculous level.
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Yeah, the notion that he’ll suddenly have nothing to offer in 12 months time is a bit disingenuous.
 
Ah well, it wasn't to be.

I want to start off by saying that if people really think Lionel Messi has been stringing City along, used us and played us like a fiddle for a bit of attention or power play, I think that would be very disingenous and ignorant.

One thing here is, Lionel Messi wanted to leave Barcelona and join Manchester City. He is being held against his will by the club. People will complain and say that he didn't fight to come here, but if you have played for a club is huge as Barcelona, you are adored by the fans as much as Messi is, would you in Lionel Messi's shoes want to take the club to court? I don't think you would.

Messi clearly loves the club and does not want to put everyone connected with the club through that. The ugly part of this is that Bartomeu and Barcelona were prepared to drag this through the courts and go all the way just to come out on top. Another issue we have with signing a player as huge as Messi from the clutches of Barcelona is that things start to become really political. Have we ever seen the FA or the Premier League intervene on a potential sale of a premier league player? I can't think of a time when that has happened. It is clear Javier Tebas would do everything he could to block that move from happening. It is clear that not only is Messi going to have to fight against the club he loves, he would also be fighting against Spain and La Liga.

Barcelona have come away from this looking very vulnerable and extremely desperate. I think this whole saga has proved two things for me... 1. Messi is bigger than Barcelona and 2. He is also bigger than La Liga. Barcelona either way are absolutely f****d. If Messi would have left this season, their reputation as a club would have been in absolute tatters, especially when you look at what happened with the Neymar saga. They wouldn't have the same pull for a player seeing Messi just walk out of mighty Barcelona to join lickle City. Then on the other hand, they keep a player who is unhappy and could unsettle the team throughout the season and he could walk away for nothing next season with a huge loyalty bonus. Considering Barca are approximately 800m in debt, this could potentially cripple them financially. Messi will walk out on a free and they won't have the financal clout to rebuild the team (unless UEFA and FFP allow them to take out a 600-700m loan to buy players). I would not want to be Barcelona right now, they are an absolute mess.

I think we have to take comfort in the fact that Messi really wanted to join City. I think most of us dreamt of Messi playing for us this season, but some dreams just don't come true for whatever reason. A transfer saga as high profile as this was always going to get very complexed and looking at Messi's comments, i really feel sorry for him. People will argue that he is being paid over a million quid a week, but money doesn't always buy you happiness. It is clear that Messi is not happy and hasn't been for the past few years. He needs a fresh start under a manager he respects and trusts and under a board that back him and don't try and stab him in the back.

I am not going to sulk over this transfer and complain that we wasted a few valuable weeks because at the end of the day, we still have a month to get our transfer business done. If we finish well and end up with some cracking players, i will be very happy.

If we don't bring in some really good players, then i will be disappointed just like most of us will be. This is now a time to kick on and identify targets that will move us forward as a club.
 
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After all that’s happened it turns out that the winner is................. no one!!!!!!
Important to remember though, we have not been snubbed. Leo contacted us. He wanted us. He still wants us. Imagine 15 years ago when baconface was thinking he was king dick. The worlds greatest player wants to join us over every club in the world. If nothing else ever comes of this, that in itself should make you sleep easy tonight.
 
kaz7 said:
Didn't put up much of a fight did they

A brief summary of events so far: 1:22PM: Jorge Messi denies €700M release clause 1:45PM: La Liga prepare response to Jorge Messi 2:01PM: La Liga reiterate €700M release clause is valid 2:04PM: TyC Sport claim Lionel Messi has decided to stay
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Exactly. Something doesn't stack up with the timings. That interview was 20 mins long and was released only 4 hours after the statement by his dad.
Given it would of been scripted and probably had a couple of retakes built in then they would of had to of had this planned anyway so still feel this is the next planned step in forcing an exit albeit one now where all parties kinda win, city get the player, Messi gets his new challenge, barca save face with the fans and get much needed funds to rebuild.
Far too quick a change of heart for it to simply be conceding defeat you'd at least explore your options after the LA Liga rebuff but they went straight in with running the interview.
For me they've just moved the game plan on to the next stage.
 
BuryBlue1977 said:
After all that’s happened it turns out that the winner is................. no one!!!!!!
Important to remember though, we have not been snubbed. Leo contacted us. He wanted us. He still wants us. Imagine 15 years ago when baconface was thinking he was king dick. The worlds greatest player wants to join us over every club in the world. If nothing else ever comes of this, that in itself should make you sleep easy tonight.
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I’ve maintained this all along.
Messi’s declaration of it being us and no one else made this a win win situation for us.
It is great press for us. The biggest endorsement of our club and it’s management, no matter what spin the media attempt to put on it.

Assuming he’s not coming, we don’t get to see him fail here, which whether we like it or not was always a possibility, but we still get the kudos.
Barca in the meantime are in tatters.

Now if we can only address the actual gaps that need plugging in the team, we’re sorted.
 
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