Lionel Messi | Joins Inter Miami (pg4111)

[citytill1die84]

I think everyone underestimates how much Messi wants to win in these last 2/3 years of his career.

He and Aguero will be retired in 5 years and they can spend the next 40+ years being BFFs.

I really hope we sign him but I'm getting less and less confident as the days & weeks go by.

 

[eversince 76]

I’d rather we sign a young promising foreward with a look to the future rather than ending up with both Messi and Aguero.
And yes, when attracting this young promising player I’m fine with breaking the transfer record fee within the club.

 

[Chi-town blues]

Even if Leo came the other way?

One condition- miss bum bum

 

[kun]

I think everyone underestimates how much Messi wants to win in these last 2/3 years of his career.

He and Aguero will be retired in 5 years and they can spend the next 40+ years being BFFs.

I also think people over estimate the bond between Serge and Leo. Obviously they are really close but if they wanted to play in the same team they have had 15+ years to do it. They have hardly based their own career around each other.

 

[domalino]

I also think people over estimate the bond between Serge and Leo. Obviously they are really close but if they wanted to play in the same team they have had 15+ years to do it. They have hardly based their own career around each other.

Yep, I agree. Barcelona wanted to buy Aguero in 2015. They made an offer, the club said no. Neither Aguero nor Messi kicked up a fuss to try and force it and play together. Aguero happily stayed here and Barcelona bought Suarez, who is one of their greatest players of all time.

 

[SWP's back]

Why would Barca want Sergio when they deemed Suarez too old? Sergio does seem to have 1 foot out the door. Pep won’t play him and is deflecting onto his injuries when asked why. I hope he has a final moment left this season befitting his status at the club.

They deemed Suarez too expensive, in reality.

 

[domalino]

They deemed Suarez too expensive, in reality.

IIRC According to Sid Lowe, they also wanted to break up the dressing room a bit because there was a group of experienced players including Messi, Suarez, Vidal, Pique, Rakitic who were not happy with the running of the club and willing to speak openly about it when asked.

They offloaded the ones they could.

 

[Gumzy97]

Barca can promise Messi the world but the one thing they do not have is the best manager in the world in Pep.

 

[mrwhitenow]

I would bet everything i have that he won't come. He seems very happy recently, nothing to see with the last two seasons. Barça is starting a new cycle with the best president this club have never had, a coach who is a club legend and a lot of youngies from La Masia( Fati, Riqui Puig, Ansu Fati, Pedri, Ilaix Moriba, Mingueza,Ronald Araujo). These youngies are all extremely talented and entered the first team almost in the same time and believe me other will entered the first team next year. Basically it's exactly the same situation than in 2008 when the club had a disaster year, they went for the youngies and a coach who was also a legend of the club with the same president: Joan Laporta.

I don't know if you guys watched Barcelona since February? I did and i can tell you their identity is back and it's a pleasure to watch them play. Also, everybody believe they would have a white season but they will maybe end up winning La Liga and Copa del rey and that means they are competitive again. For me there is np chance he will leave Barcelona especially if Kun goes there like it seems to be.

It was last summer or never.

Isn't this the same Barcelona that just got smashed at home recently to PSG? Barcelona may do well against the La Liga teams, but let's be honest here... La Liga hasn't been that strong for a while. Man Utd just smashed Sociedad away, Chelsea recently just outplayed Atletico, and Chelsea also smashed Sevilla away a couple of months back.

Not a lot of people realize this, but when Laporta first came in that Barcelona's net debt was only 150m euros, but when he left it was actually 450m euros. So, he actually increased their debt by a lot. He also increased their wage bill by a lot. You cannot compare the likes of Puig, Moriba, Mingqueze and Araujo to Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Pique, Busquets, Pedro, Valdes, Cesc, Xavi and Puyol. Yeah, Pedri and Fati have great potential, but that's all it is. They had the likes Bojan, Tello, Rafinha, Bartra, Romeu, Deulofeu, Traore, Munir, Denis Suarez. Those players had high potential and were considered the next big thing, but it didn't pan out. That can happen to the list of players you just mentioned.

Laporta got extremely lucky during his time. He had a great youth system during his time. It's very rare to have the likes of Puyol, Xavi, Pique, Iniesta, Cesc, Messi, Valdes, Busquets, Pedro in your youth/team. You'd be happy with just 2 players like that, but he had a crap ton in his youth setup. Their youth setup isn't as strong as it was. They also got very lucky that Pep turned out to be a good manager. It's very rare you find such a manager already in your system. So, in other words, Laporta saved a lot of money. Laporta didn't have to deal with the FFP and COVID restrictions during his time. He never had to deal with an inflated market. He got the likes of Ronaldinho for 27m, Henry for 22m, Eto'o for 30m, Yaya Toure for 7m, and so on. Those players would easily go for 60m to 100m these days. Not sure how he's going to accomplish getting world-class players when Barcelona is in terrible debt.

Barcelona has 700m of short-term debt. Yes, that's short-term debt. Meaning, they have to pay that 700m euros back pretty quickly. They owe 266m euros back by June 30th, and they also have to pay another 160m euros by the end of the year. Yes, they can maybe restructure some of those payments, but they're still going to have to pay a lot back. That means, they won't have many funds for transfers or salaries for the big players. They also have to pay Messi a 33m loyalty fee in June. If they were to resign Messi, they have to give him a big signing-on fee. He would also probably demand to be the highest-paid player at the club, which be about 900k a week. They simply cannot afford to keep Messi at the club.... unless they release 3 or 4 players from the club. Unless Messi waives his signing-on fee, his 33m loyalty fee.... and if he lowers his wages by 70%, I find it hard to believe how they can keep Messi, especially with COVID affecting their finances recently. They've also lost a lot of money from getting knocked out of the Champions League so early. Also, they're not getting anything from ticket sales, and their tourism sales are obviously down. Everything is catching up with them. Time is running out.

Barcelona may have looked decent against the shitty La Liga teams in recent weeks, but they're years away from being a competitive team again. They're pretty close to bankruptcy if the debt doesn't get reduced quickly. So, keep believing that the future is bright for them.

 

[Chi-town blues]

Mate, Barcelona will never collapse. No matter what. That’s why they are in the position they are now. And it will be resolved. No one will ask how when or where. FFP rules or whatever rule there is, Barcelona will be protected.

So who is going to bail them out this time ? Government or bank ? Their biggest collateral is messi and when he fucks off they are done .
Covid says hold my beer.