Just can’t see him leaving. I think It’s all smokescreen and a power play from him. 

sh*ts about to hit the fan down Barca way, as Messi has officially said he's leaving

He's throwing his toys out the pram taking his ball and going home because he can't get his own way

35 minutes ago, Ballack & Blu said:

sh*ts about to hit the fan down Barca way, as Messi has officially said he's leaving

"Messi has sent a fax to the club................."

f**k me, a fax? Does he think it's 1990 or something?

8 minutes ago, Nibs said:

"Messi has sent a fax to the club................."

f**k me, a fax? Does he think it's 1990 or something?

Didn't realise that faxes were still being used. What next from Messi? A telegram? Semaphore? Or a message tied to the leg of a pigeon?

Roman can sign him up now problem. He can clean Mason’s boots 

A way of avoiding any responsibility, the media won't talk about his lack of effort because it's always the club, other players, the manager, well basically anybody is to be blamed but him.

He as the best player goes invisible when the club needs him the most and so many good players couldn't fit in because he wants to hug the ball, but that can't be talked about because they made him look like he's bigger than the club that made him.

The club and him might end up in court because if he wants to break the contract and walk away but he would need to pay a huge amount of money, what a tragedy if that takes place because he is maybe the best player in their whole history so to end up in court as a legend with your own club is a big, big mess...

 

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

Just can’t see him leaving. I think It’s all smokescreen and a power play from him. 

Yeah, can't picture Messi anywhere else. He's been at Barca since he was 14. It makes no sense as there are few, if any clubs out there who would be prepared to break their wage structure and budget on him.

1 hour ago, Nibs said:

"Messi has sent a fax to the club................."

f**k me, a fax? Does he think it's 1990 or something?

He only sent that because they ignored his bleeper messages.

It would be cool to see Messi playing in Argentina, for a big club like Boca or River Plate but the economy is really bad so I don't think they would be able to afford him. He did watch the Copa Libertadores final that was in Madrid recently though so maybe he could consider it once his contract expires next year. Or just join Pep's City for free then. 

1 hour ago, Gol15 said:

A way of avoiding any responsibility, the media won't talk about his lack of effort because it's always the club, other players, the manager, well basically anybody is to be blamed but him.

He as the best player goes invisible when the club needs him the most and so many good players couldn't fit in because he wants to hug the ball, but that can't be talked about because they made him look like he's bigger than the club that made him.

 

I know this is a super popular take for Chelsea fans who can't stand Barcelona, but it's largely fantasy. In reality Messi had been winning games single-handedly for the last three years, which is why they got found out in the Champions League. 

Their president Bartomeu is the source and summit of all their issues. He has vastly overspent on players from 2015 onwards, squandering the cash from Neymar's sale on vanity purchases. Barcelona have not had a single marquee transfer success since Neymar, despite spending nearly €1bn Euros. 

Bartomeu also gutted and destroyed La Masia. The academy no longer contributes players or finances to the first team.

 

The biggest issue of course it's that it was all exposed earlier this year culminating in Bartomeu using social media to shift the narrative.

Messi might need to leave Barcelona not just for himself but to force the board's hand and bring in new boardroom management. 

1 hour ago, SydneyChelsea said:

I know this is a super popular take for Chelsea fans who can't stand Barcelona, but it's largely fantasy. In reality Messi had been winning games single-handedly for the last three years, which is why they got found out in the Champions League. 

Their president Bartomeu is the source and summit of all their issues. He has vastly overspent on players from 2015 onwards, squandering the cash from Neymar's sale on vanity purchases. Barcelona have not had a single marquee transfer success since Neymar, despite spending nearly €1bn Euros. 

Bartomeu also gutted and destroyed La Masia. The academy no longer contributes players or finances to the first team.

 

The biggest issue of course it's that it was all exposed earlier this year culminating in Bartomeu using social media to shift the narrative.

Messi might need to leave Barcelona not just for himself but to force the board's hand and bring in new boardroom management. 

That's just buying the populist narrative right there. Blaming the club and never addressing the issues of their best player, just like I said. The responsibility never seems to be on Messi, when he failed his national team he quit it only to be begged to come back in and then he picked who should be in the national team and failed again and fans view one of the best football nations that is Argentina as a below average team because "nobody ever helps Messi".

The academy of Barcelona had a once in 100 years generation that is about to end, their rebuilding is obviously needed and they are not the first team to have this problem, ManU's generation of the early 90's lasted a lot and since they finished their careers they have also been struggling to build a new strong team, we also struggle to find new leaders ever since our own best generation retired so it's really not fair to blame Bartomeu for not producing a second amazing generation right after the first one was done, that standard nobody can match.

So I don't buy that view at all, Messi never showed up in the last few years when it mattered the most and it took him a blunder of Christensen and Iniesta to score against us for the first time ever, but that was in the first knockout round, if you see him beyond the first knock-out round in Europe he has scored 0 away goals since 2013.

It's very observable that the whole club has setup for Messi to be happy, many years ago when they bought Ibrahimovic he scored in the first 5 league games which was a record and slowly but surely he was bound to become their new key player but that didn't fit with Messi and suddenly Ibrahimovic was on the bench and his relationship with Pep went down hill and he was first loaned out and then sold, they lost money on that transfer because they traded Eto'o and paid 59m for him only to suddenly decide that he simply can't be a bigger star than Messi and Ibrahimovic never understood why Pep simply stopped talking to him out of the blue.
When the whole team works for you, there should be a natural responsibility on your side, Messi never seems to take it. 

You can't tell me that good players like Griezmann and Coutinho forgot how to play as soon as they got to play with Messi, the normal thing would be that he makes them a better because he's so good, but he prefers his friends Suarez and Vidal instead. 

This talk about how Barcelona didn't sign good players for Messi is just made-up by the media and his fans, they signed Umtiti and Semedo for a bargain price, de Jong is one of the best that came out of that Ajax team and Arthur for less than 30m and sold him for 60m + Pjanic well that's all good deals and it was Messi who wanted Paulinho to join, you can't blame everyone else but Messi every single time something happens, it's not realistic and it's not fair.

The interesting thing about this is that people started talking the same story when it comes to the Argentinian national team, suddenly everyone thinks that Messi gets no help and that he has nobody to play with, I can list so many amazing players that played with him in his national team since 2006 when he was a kid so it's pretty obvious that the excuses for Messi are just one-dimensional, he has been playing his whole life in one of the best football country and for one of the biggest clubs in the world.

The common excuse that I have seen many times is that Higuain denied Messi a World Cup title. Where is his own responsibility there? If he really is the best player of all time, he wouldn't need someone like Higuain to win it for him, Maradona didn't need those excuses at all. 

Messi enjoyed playing most of his career with a big chunk of the players that are from the golden Spanish generation, that is arguably one of the best national teams of all time. He won the Golden Ball in 2010, went to the World Cup and couldn't do anything, all while his Spanish buddies casually became World Cup winners.

Barcelona gave him basically everything that he wanted, he in turn became the best La-Liga player of all time and one of the greatest players of all time, this knee-jerk reaction that can lead them to file law suits is a disgrace IMO.

My view on Messi as a player is maybe a bit harsh but talking about someone that is considered to be one of the greatest of all time, a high standard comes along with it.

 

Edited August 25, 20205 yr by Gol15

Barcelona are in for years of pain, whether Messi stays or not.

The club needs a serious rebuild, and there's deep problems within the club that starts from the top.

Surprised Southgate picked Maguire after the recent episode in Greece only to be dropped after the guilty verdict yet at the same time Sterling was dropped from the squad over minor handbags with Gomes.

Not a fan of the FA and Southgate, someone get this fraud out of the most prestigious sporting job in the country.

Surprised Southgate picked Maguire after the recent episode in Greece only to be dropped after the guilty verdict yet at the same time Sterling was dropped from the squad over minor handbags with Gomes.
Not a fan of the FA and Southgate, someone get this fraud out of the most prestigious sporting job in the country.

It's quite obvious why that happened, just imagine if it was sterling fighting in Greece and got arrested???

53 minutes ago, Imran_CFC said:

Surprised Southgate picked Maguire after the recent episode in Greece only to be dropped after the guilty verdict yet at the same time Sterling was dropped from the squad over minor handbags with Gomes.

Not a fan of the FA and Southgate, someone get this fraud out of the most prestigious sporting job in the country.

Wait, what’s it got to do with Lampard and why are you calling him a fraud? 

I enjoyed this comment on the BBC site on Messi's stated release fee of €700m :

 

700 million Euros? That's not a Messi Clause, that's more of a Santa Clause.

Quote

Leicester have apparently finalised a deal for Timothy Castagne from Atalanta to replace Chilwell.

So not those shiney twitter favourites as everyone was so sure. Though no doubt we will now be told he`s loads better than Chilwell even though he is a right back who played less than 50% of Atalantas games last season.

Romero to Villa for a reported fee of 8m Including add ons. 

He is miles ahead of anything we have ?

Messi is looking likely to stay at Barca after his dad met with the club, what tf does his dad have to do with his career anyway? It was all just a big ploy to get the last big contract of his career.

9 hours ago, sonic90 said:

Messi is looking likely to stay at Barca after his dad met with the club, what tf does his dad have to do with his career anyway? It was all just a big ploy to get the last big contract of his career.

Obviously his father is his agent.

I don't see any evidence that Messi is willing to drop this matter, and while the Barcelona board are drooling nitwits, it would IMO take a special kind of drooling nitwit to potentially let Lionel Messi go on a free. 

something like £150M should pacify Barca you'd have thought

I hope Messi ends up at City as I would like to see how Pep incorporates him into his system at Manchester City. Playing Messi, Aguero, Sterling and KDB in the same team he would need to revise the way the team presses, my guess would be that Pep will purchase Koulibaly at CB and transition to a 4-2-3-1 and play 2 defensive midfielders to protect the backline.

Why would you want to massively strengthen a rival? ?

18 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Why would you want to massively strengthen a rival? ?

It's very new age fan. I'd love a rival to strengthen with one of the best players in the worlds just to watch and see the bla bla

Nah. hopefully goes to Juventus or stays at his dumpster fire