Lionel Messi | Joins Inter Miami (pg4111)

[BobbyBoy]

It's a grown up decision allowing him go. The benefit of one or 2 more years is negligible, they're fucked and need a total reset. Get Griezmann, Coutinho and Dembele off the books, retire Pique and Busquets, get the accountants in to refinance everything, rite the season off and go again next year. The list of freebies next season could rebuild them in one go.

 

[domalino]

no one can afford the next generation of superstars either.

You keep repeating this despite the fact it's completely made up nonsense.

These rules have been in place since 2013.

During which time La Liga has seen

Bale - new world record fee
Dembele - €140m
Coutinho - €165m
Griezmann - €125m
Hazard - €150m
Felix - €120m

I don't know where you've gotten the idea that the La Liga financial caps stops clubs spending but it simply is not true.

 

[Scottyboi]

The wages of Countinho Greizmann and Dembele is insane. Neymar going really made Bartmou do some crazy shit to try and stay competitive.

 

[nijinsky]

Of all the clubs he can join, and I don’t think it will be city, I think he’d be making a big mistake joining PSG.

There are few clubs more widely disliked. I hate the fact we are often spoken about in the same sentence. For whatever has been said about FFP, our club has always been built on community values with a strong local identity, and we’ve grown organically along with the premier league.

They don’t even try to hide their overspending. The Neymar and Mbappe transfers have distorted football finances. And this is a club that was never truly a big french side, and which played in a country which historically placed very little value on league football (from experience living in France, and even following PSG many years before they were bought).

I think many would end up rooting for him to fail, except for the 13 year olds on twitter who support players not club

Its was odd to hear JG say he was impressed at the family atmosphere at our club. Something we've always been rightly proud of. It seems among all the talk of money and trophies there are other things players really value. Didn't expect Jack to value it though. My mistake.

As for kids following players not clubs, I am amazed at the amount of PSG merch I see adolescents wearing in Spain. The majority will be Real Madrid fans, in the sense that they never miss RM on TV, like every other RM fan Ive ever met. But there is a definite kudos in wearing PSG branded stuff for teenagers. You see even more tatt than RM in that cohort, though not that many actual shirts. Obviously Neymar and Mbappe are huge draws for that age group but to me it seems like its just about wearing anything with the PSG logo. Almost like it feels edgey to wear hats, trackies, Tshirts. Similarly Chelsea gear is probably 2nd in popularity (again not particulary club shirts) even before there CL win. I think there's a lot of bling by being the baddest asses in the market.
I'd definitely put City in 3rd place in Spain in popularity but it tends to be younger kids wearing shirts, or young adults. Obviously a strong Spanish link with Silva and now Torres, but must also be about the club exposure from winning.
You occasionally see some washed up red scouse and rag rags but only on older blokes and maybe South Americans.
That's just my wonderings Ive definitely spotted in what is a very competitive market but I don't know whether its the player,the success, or media exposure (i.e huge transfers, two fingers to UEFA) that leads to the popularity. Messi obviously would be a whole other story.

 

[blingy]

I don’t see Messie cutting it in the prem under anyone other then Pep and anywhere other then City .. he would be sloged to death at Chelsea , Pep could get a tune out of him as he could pick and choose when to play him but couldn’t see Chelsea paying him a fortune and not wanting him to play most games. If he goes Chelsea I’d expect him to have a mussel problem January to March and recouping in a warmer climate.

 

[King Jay]

The wages of Countinho Greizmann and Dembele is insane. Neymar going really made Bartmou do some crazy shit to try and stay competitive.

Well Dembele was basically the next BEST WINGER in the World so obv he would get some money. Coutinho also made sense since Messi was the only one who was creative on the field and Coutinho‘s playstyle comes close to Iniestas. Griezmann was absolutely nonsense and imo the reason for all those problems. Signing someone who plays the position as your best player to put him in a position where he is just some average player makes no fuxkin sense.

at least they got Fati and Pedri. One of those gettin #10 probably too.

 

[Deleted member 81382]

Interesting that Pep said we signed Grealish because we were committed to him but in the same sentence said we were convinced Messi was staying at Barcelona.

It makes you think we wouldn't have signed Grealish if we knew Leo was going to be available. He looked a bit gutted when he said it too. Now that could just be down to the fact that the greatest player of all time is leaving the club he supports or it could be because we've just added another 200k to the wage bill which has effectively made it impossible to sign Messi.

I'm not saying Pep doesn't want Grealish because he clearly does but I can't believe that everyone at the club aren't kicking themselves that they didn't know the news about Messi's departure sooner.

All of this is irrelevant now anyway because we can't afford him. Grealish is already done and Kane is too far down the line, there's no way we're going to pull out of that deal now.

I don't mean any of this to sound like I'm underwhelmed at the prospect of signing Grealish and Kane because that would be incredibly spoilt, they are two very good acquisitions. It's just the thought that the ultimate dream of signing Messi could actually have happened this time if we had known he was leaving just a couple of months earlier.

 

[LevyBee76]

If he knew, why did he not come in 2014 and 2020?

He still does not want to leave Barca now.

If a company was paying me as much as he was being paid and been there 20ish years I might not want to leave, 2020 he did at least hand in a Burofax but gave up the fight as didn't want it dragging into court, but this is now a different prospect and for the moment he's already left barca, (I wonder how much they regret not releasing him last summer)

 

[Kippaxpete]

I don’t see Messie cutting it in the prem under anyone other then Pep and anywhere other then City .. he would be sloged to death at Chelsea , Pep could get a tune out of him as he could pick and choose when to play him but couldn’t see Chelsea paying him a fortune and not wanting him to play most games. If he goes Chelsea I’d expect him to have a mussel problem January to March and recouping in a warmer climate.

Best keep him away from the shellfish then.

 

[Chippy_boy]

I'm still convinced this is nothing but a circus and he'll end up signing for Barca once La Liga change the rules to allow it. An MLS designated player outside the wage cap scenario. Give both Madrid teams the same rights and everyone is happy and La Liga doesn't start to slip down the worldwide viewing figures

Absolutely agreed. The rules - which lets face it were put in place to favour certain clubs - will be adjusted to favour said clubs.