Lionel Messi | Joins Inter Miami (pg4111)

[sir baconface]

According to a lot of people on here Lionel Messi isn't good enough for City. A strange opinion in itself but I reckon everyone of us would be absolutely gutted and green with envy if he signed for the Rags or Dippers

Name one. Plenty have said he brings more issues than he solves. However, there are more posters with comprehension difficulties or shit eyesight than posters who don‘t think he’s good enough.

 

[RayCTID]

Messi has never carried Barcelona, he's been the jewel in their crown. They simply don't have the team behind him any more. When you compare the team to any of theirs in recent history it absolutely pales in comparison.

We don't have the team either

 

[domalino]

Can you explain how him pretending he is leaving, every few years, then getting a pay rise, is done for love of the club ?

If Van Dijk does it next season & signs up, & Liverpool sell it as 'love' as in 'this means more' what will our reaction be, when we stop laughing ?

Barca get away with this bullshit all the time.

Messi has had them by the balls, for years

I think you're doing a disservice to simply say he "pretends" he's leaving. I believe TH and others have said we were genuinely close in 2016, and the word out of Barcelona is that he's serious this time.

You have to look at it from his perspective where he wants to be a one club man, stay at Barcelona forever, outside a little trip to Newell's Old Boys when he's nearly 40, and win everything and establish his legacy as the best.

But on the other side of that, he's gone 5 years without a CL. The club has wasted his best years, the president has taken the club to the edge of financial ruin. They've brought in progressively worse coaches, they've spent insane amounts of money on increasingly failing transfers who only play their best money in his position, and now they've even sold off a young player, Artur, to avoid paying personal financial penalties because of their financial mismanagement.

Christ, the board secretly hired a social media company to lead attacks on Messi and his wife, and Xavi and Pep, because the board felt he had too much power. Just think through how insane that is!

They should never have lost the league this season, or the Copa del Rey last season, and there's only so much Messi can do when the defence behind him lets in 4 goals at Anfield, 3 goals in Rome. Messi was incredible in the Anfield match, and the players around him just crumbled.

He is genuinely torn, and they have convinced him the last couple of times he's thought about moving, with promises of a change of direction etc. but it never happens. And that's reflected in the last contract he signed in 2017 where he negotiated the clause where he can walk away for free.

If he stays this time, just like last time, it doesn't mean he wasn't serious about leaving, it just means a 50/50 decision came down the wrong way.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Have to agree. There’s way too much for him to risk moving when he’s already considered the GOAT by pretty much everyone. His legacy is complete. He’s got nothing else to fight for except his perpetual pay rise.

I don’t think he’s got the balls to come the premier league.

I don't, he wants to be 'the' one imo & has seen how difficult that is in international football.

He paid his debt for his 'love' of Barca & could have left several years ago, if he had any balls to do so.

Instead, he screwed more money out of them & stayed.

If he does leave now, it will be simply because he thinks they are so shite, he can't play at his level anymore & has no real choice other than go, retire, or sink.

It won't be down to his 'love' of Barca if he stays.

 

[Neville Kneville]

I think you're doing a disservice to simply say he "pretends" he's leaving. I believe TH and others have said we were genuinely close in 2016, and the word out of Barcelona is that he's serious this time.

You have to look at it from his perspective where he wants to be a one club man, stay at Barcelona forever, outside a little trip to Newell's Old Boys when he's nearly 40, and win everything and establish his legacy as the best.

But on the other side of that, he's gone 5 years without a CL. The club has wasted his best years, the president has taken the club to the edge of financial ruin. They've brought in progressively worse coaches, they've spent insane amounts of money on increasingly failing transfers who only play their best money in his position, and now they've even sold off a young player, Artur, to avoid paying personal financial penalties because of their financial mismanagement.

Christ, the board secretly hired a social media company to lead attacks on Messi and his wife, and Xavi and Pep, because the board felt he had too much power. Just think through how insane that is!

They should never have lost the league this season, or the Copa del Rey last season, and there's only so much Messi can do when the defence behind him lets in 4 goals at Anfield, 3 goals in Rome. Messi was incredible in the Anfield match, and the players around him just crumbled.

He is genuinely torn, and they have convinced him the last couple of times he's thought about moving, with promises of a change of direction etc. but it never happens. And that's reflected in the last contract he signed in 2017 where he negotiated the clause where he can walk away for free.

I agree he will be 'torn' but I don't agree on the reasons he's 'torn'.

It's all about him, imo, not because of 'love'.

He won't have the same power anywhere else.

 

[decmancity]

I think we will see a 'new' Messi if he joined us, fresh start. He won't be expected to deal with all the internal politics and even international 'Catalan independency etc' politics. He just has to turn up and play football, he will be with his best mate Sergio in what could be his last season and back with his favourite manager.

 

[domalino]

I agree he will be 'torn' but I don't agree on the reasons he's 'torn'.

It's all about him, imo, not because of 'love'.

He won't have the same power anywhere else.

I don't think he gives a shit about power. If he did, he could get the entire board sacked tomorrow by just going public with criticisms of the things they've done to him, his family and the players. He could simply make an ultimatum publicly or privately, him vs. the board, and they'd all be gone by tomorrow morning.

If he cared about power, Dani Alves wouldn't have been pushed out, Setien wouldn't have been hired, Koeman wouldn't be the new coach, Suarez wouldn't be on the way out.

 

[sir baconface]

Only on bluemoon would people be debating positives and negatives about signing the greatest player of all time. Fck me.

If it was incontestable, they’d be no fcukin debate.

 

[Neville Kneville]

I don't think he gives a shit about power. If he did, he could get the entire board sacked tomorrow by just going public with criticisms of the things they've done to him, his family and the players. He could simply make an ultimatum publicly or privately, him vs. the board, and they'd all be gone by tomorrow morning.

If he cared about power, Dani Alves wouldn't have been pushed out, Setien wouldn't have been hired, Koeman wouldn't be the new coach, Suarez wouldn't be on the way out.

I'm sure he does. And I'm sure he'd fuck off, if they signed Ronaldo.

 

[ADegenerate]

I don't, he wants to be 'the' one imo & has seen how difficult that is in international football.

He paid his debt for his 'love' of Barca & could have left several years ago, if he had any balls to do so.

Instead, he screwed more money out of them & stayed.

If he does leave now, it will be simply because he thinks they are so shite, he can't play at his level anymore & has no real choice other than go, retire, or sink.

It won't be down to his 'love' of Barca if he stays.

Like all of us, i’m not completely sure. I think we’re all close to the same POV minus a few personal deviations of where his headspace is at.

I partly agree with you, @domalino, @twosips, and genuinely most posters in this thread. What do you do when you’re the GOAT, but haven’t done it internationally? I think a move to the premier league completely cements that. The easy route is to stay at barca with an easy end to your career while risking nothing and maybe fighting for one more league title and a CL or completely risk embarrassment and coming to City.

That’s the real risk and I don’t think he has the disposition to do it personally.