Lionel Messi | PSG Watch

I do find it kind of hilarious that - due to Spanish law - Messi's contract with Barcelona was so obscene that even after a 50% pay cut, he was STILL looking at €1.3m+ per week.

Make no mistake, he made around €500m from Barca over 4 years. His contract - and his threats to leave during the '16 season - contributed heavily to Barca's financial demise. Personally, can't stomach this Holier than Thou attitude.

No player is worth that much. No player. You can argue that "Oh, Messi brings in revenue" etc. Really? If the deal was so good, if the revenue he brought in was so significant, why are Barca in financial ruin now?

Messi's contract was obscene and had a big part in their financial ruin - especially considering it set the benchmark for other players joining too, see Griezmann on an obscene €800K+ per week too.
 
Kaos said:
I might be bitter but is it me or does that team look comically unbalanced? That front four doesn't look like it'll track back and work hard defensively, leaving a lot of the legwork to the double pivot of Veratti and Wijnaldum which I'm not entirely convinced will work.

Sure it looks great on FIFA, but in the real world I can see them getting caught out against high tempo sides in the Champions league.
Click to expand...
Probably Paredes in place of Di Maria, but those twitter accounts are all about shoehorning as many big names in as possible.

Wouldn't be surprised if Kimpembe still plays a lot of games for them too.
 
You have to love people taking the moral high ground and also using terms like farmers league.
 
Poltophagy said:
He has destroyed his legacy. My estimation of him plummeted when I heard the news. Of all the clubs he could have gone to, he chose the most plastic, despicable of them all just to line his pockets.
Click to expand...
If the rumours are true, he is taking home 1M per week and a 21M signing on fee.
 
Even as an ardent fan of Messi, I just have to say that he just proved that Ronaldo actually took a challenge.
 
To those criticising Messi for the move what was he meant to do? With the way football is atm his choices were pretty much limited to the oil clubs.

Ronaldo will have a similar problem if he leaves Juve next year. The landscape of football has changed now especially with the Italian and Spanish clubs being a non factor financially.
 
MadMike said:
What facts? The fact that English league is clearly stronger than the French. It's not a fact? When did you last look at rankings?

LuVgTM7.png



What has laying waste to every top English team even have to do with it? The league is still a bigger challenge than the French.

It's not Messi's quality we're arguing against, it's his appetite to take on another hard challenge. He's going to the worst of the top 5 leagues, joining a team that's won the title 7 times in the last 9 years and one that has 10 times the budget of the second team. Again, facts.

Your strawman arguments are laughable.
Click to expand...

Exactly this.
 
Zlatanator said:
Even as an ardent fan of Messi, I just have to say that he just proved that Ronaldo actually took a challenge.
Click to expand...

He took a challenge by joining the current 7 times in a row Serie A champions?
 
That's why for me Ronaldo has been the GOAT and always will be. Messi's just a stat padder.
 
I've been a huge fan of Messi. For me, he's easily the greatest player of all time, but I'm not a fan of this. What a boring and depressingly obvious move. Don't really know what else I expected because it was always going to happen when it was revealed he was leaving Barca, but fecking hell. What a letdown.

I mean, who fecking cares really. He'll probably score about 300 goals by December and win the league by 60 point or whatever and maybe the Champions League, too. But who cares. Doesn't really mean anything. The guy has done so much in his career that it doesn't affect his legacy for me too much, but it does leave a blot on it to some extent.
 
Zlatanator said:
Even as an ardent fan of Messi, I just have to say that he just proved that Ronaldo actually took a challenge.
Click to expand...

When Ronaldo joined Juventus they had won what? 7 straight Serie A championships? What a challenge.
It mainly became a challenge because Juventus spent all their money recruiting Ronaldo and couldn't afford other good players around him.

EDIT : didn't see JPRouve's comment, sorry pal.
 
Last edited:
Ronaldo left Madrid for Juventus who won the Serie A 8 consecutive years from 2011-2019. Wouldn’t that be classified as a ‘lazy’ transfer too?

Messi has been carrying Barcelona for years while they were on a ‘decline’ and if it wasn’t for the contractual and financial mess he would still be playing at Camp Nou. A player his calibre comes with great wages and options are limited for clubs in times where budgets are tight. It’s not as if clubs were fighting for his signature. Posters using this transfer for their Ronaldo/Messi debate should try to look at these matters as objective as possible.
 
JPRouve said:
You have to love people taking the moral high ground and also using terms like farmers league.
Click to expand...

Players just can't win, people will always not pick everything. Most of the time these opinions are so far from reality too.
 
JPRouve said:
He took a challenge by joining the current 7 times in a row Serie A champions?
Click to expand...

And one season before Ronaldo signed Juve were CL runners and 3 seasons later Juventus reached a quarter final, and two 2nd round exits.

one can objectively argue that Juventus have done worse in the champions league when Ronaldo came in and not ‘better’ in the league considering their record already in the serie A.

PSG have reached 1 final since their project started in 2011 with their new owners. So in 10 years of heavy investing they only reached 1 final and 1 semi final even with their star players. There is definitely a challenge there for Messi with those numbers in mind, those who deny that are simply to naive or to emotionally invested in the Ronaldo vs Messi debate.
 
bond19821982 said:
Yeah, nothing to do with a team that offers him the most chance of winning a CL.
Click to expand...

Yeah cos I'm sure none of the other contenders even bothered enquiring. He would make almost every serious team contenders. He could have gone City, Chelsea, Liverpool or us (assuming in all cases he stops asking for a stupid amount per week). Bayern same. Of course PSG are huge contenders and will be favourites with or without him but it's nonsense to assume that he went just because they are the only club he could win the CL with and not to do with his insane wage there

I have no issue him going there but trying to pass it off as anything but him trying to grab a big bag of money is ridiculous
 
MadMike said:
If he had come to the EPL for City then he'd be challenging himself against United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal.
Click to expand...

Meh, Messi would play at City and perform against those teams again.
He has scored an incredible 26 times and picked up 6 assists in 34 matches against the best PL sides.
Would destroy the smaller PL teams.
 
I knew the Ronaldo crew would be saying Messi took the easy option. Ronaldo went to Juve who won 7 in a row when he joined, PSG have lost the title twice in the last 7 years, one being last season so that argument is a bit redundant.

Playing for Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juve, the biggest clubs in their countries is hardly a challenge is it.

Messi is 34 now and has gone to an inferior league to LL which is exactly what Ron did.

If either wanted a challenge then they would have both went to the PL at 34 but both took a step down.

It's stupid that anyone could even think Messi wouldn't have ripped the PL apart in his prime and their argument is "but you don't know for definite".

He out scored and out assisted Ronaldo in most seasons in the same league. In his prime for Barca he scored 73 goals and got 29 assists in 60 games. He has 26 goals and 6 assists in 34 games vs the top 6 PL teams. He doesn't really need to prove himself because it is clear how good he has been.
 
DutchCruijff said:
I do find it kind of hilarious that - due to Spanish law - Messi's contract with Barcelona was so obscene that even after a 50% pay cut, he was STILL looking at €1.3m+ per week.

Make no mistake, he made around €500m from Barca over 4 years. His contract - and his threats to leave during the '16 season - contributed heavily to Barca's financial demise. Personally, can't stomach this Holier than Thou attitude.

No player is worth that much. No player. You can argue that "Oh, Messi brings in revenue" etc. Really? If the deal was so good, if the revenue he brought in was so significant, why are Barca in financial ruin now?

Messi's contract was obscene and had a big part in their financial ruin - especially considering it set the benchmark for other players joining too, see Griezmann on an obscene €800K+ per week too.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's completely wrong, especially the last part.
 
The holy trinity 68 said:
I knew the Ronaldo crew would be saying Messi took the easy option. Ronaldo went to Juve who won 7 in a row when he joined, PSG have lost the title twice in the last 7 years, one being last season so that argument is a bit redundant.

Playing for Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juve, the biggest clubs in their countries is hardly a challenge is it.

Messi is 34 now and has gone to an inferior league to LL which is exactly what Ron did.

If either wanted a challenge then they would have both went to the PL at 34 but both took a step down.

It's stupid that anyone could even think Messi wouldn't have ripped the PL apart in his prime and their argument is "but you don't know for definite".

He out scored and out assisted Ronaldo in most seasons in the same league. In his prime for Barca he scored 73 goals and got 29 assists in 60 games. He has 26 goals and 6 assists in 34 games vs the top 6 PL teams. He doesn't really need to prove himself because it is clear how good he has been.
Click to expand...
They should read this before jumping in.
 
Of course he has taken the easy option. He has gone to the weakest of the 5 big leagues for the money, he is semi-retiring.
 
JPRouve said:
He took a challenge by joining the current 7 times in a row Serie A champions?
Click to expand...
Yes. He joined to win another CL for a third different side in 3 different countries.
His second such challenge after moving from Utd to a poorer Madrid that played in the same league as the best side in Europe.
Meanwhile Messi is moving for the pay cheque at 34
 
Just a boring move innit, at least he’s out of sight out of mind for most of the season.
 
Winning the CL is a challenge, since PSG are not a super balanced side with a lot of divas and underachieved most of the time. Winning the CL with PSG would be the final nail in the coffin for the goat debate, as he would win another Ballon D'Or as well if he performs as we know.
 
cyberman said:
Yes. He joined to win another CL for a third different side in 3 different countries.
His second such challenge after moving from Utd to a poorer Madrid that played in the same league as the best side in Europe.
Meanwhile Messi is moving for the pay cheque at 34
Click to expand...
How did that go?
I mean Messi ie moving to win a CL too.
 
Real Name said:
How did that go?
I mean Messi ie moving to win a CL too.
Click to expand...
Is he moving to win the CL or because the richest club in the world are going to give him more than any other club. Who could possibly say.
 
cyberman said:
Meanwhile Messi is moving for the pay cheque at 34
Click to expand...

This has to be a joke. Ronaldo also moved for a big fat paycheck to the point where juventus can't recruit decent players to balance the squad.

Those double standards are getting ridiculous.
 
cyberman said:
Yes. He joined to win another CL for a third different side in 3 different countries.
His second such challenge after moving from Utd to a poorer Madrid that played in the same league as the best side in Europe.
Meanwhile Messi is moving for the pay cheque at 34
Click to expand...

We are talking about 34 years old players here. Both went to teams that paid them a fortune and have been by far the best teams in their leagues with the small difference that PSG just lost the title. Neither picked a particularly challenging situation.
Which makes sense since they were both at the end of their careers.
 
Real Name said:
How did that go?
I mean Messi ie moving to win a CL too.
Click to expand...
Messi is moving because he isn’t allowed to stay at Barca. He was literally crying days ago as he told us this himself.
He isn’t moving for the challenge, he is moving because he isn’t allowed to bankrupt Barca any further.
Ronaldo won 4 CL in 5 years
 
Oly Francis said:
This has to be a joke. Ronaldo also moved for a big fat paycheck to the point where juventus can't recruit decent players to balance the squad.

Those double standards are getting ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Glad you agree that Messi is moving to PSG only for the €€€. Refreshing to see a supporter of a plastic club with such self awareness.
 
Zlatanator said:
Even as an ardent fan of Messi, I just have to say that he just proved that Ronaldo actually took a challenge.
Click to expand...
:lol: Ronaldo went to a weaker league than la Liga and to the team that won the title 7 times in a row. Get real.
 
Didn't Messi actually join the only club that could afford him?
 
cyberman said:
Messi is moving because he isn’t allowed to stay at Barca. He was literally crying days ago as he told us this himself.
He isn’t moving for the challenge, he is moving because he isn’t allowed to bankrupt Barca any further.
Ronaldo won 4 CL in 5 years
Click to expand...
At Juve he didn't. Also part about him bankrupting Barca is pretty funny. Not to mention silly.
 
Giggsy13 said:
Glad you agree that Messi is moving to PSG only for the €€€. Refreshing to see a supporter of a plastic club with such self awareness.
Click to expand...

Most players move for money, that's why certain leagues have attracted the best players. It's not exactly a new concept.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.