It's all a bit complicated. What I don't understand is, If Messi doesn't have any demands on wages and doesn't put any pressure on the club, then what are they arguing about?
It's a bit strange to go on a tangent and trashing your most valuable asset all by yourself?
Some believe the writing has been on the wall since Rosell announced himself as a candidate. Even if you go back to an old documentary of when Rosell was under Laporta after the Ronaldinho signing, it revealed two things. One, that eventhough he was a big reason why Ronaldinho was successfully signed, he was also one of the first within the club to call for his sale - even before Ronnie started to implode. Two, he pushed for Rijkaard's sacking early in his first season, prematurely.
There's a sense that he's very corporate and not having been a player at the club or a footballer really, he is all about the bottom line rather than the football. You could argue that Laporta was a bit too much of the other extreme, he was all about the football and not enough about the bottom line. Would've been a great marriage had they worked out together but two egos like that with diametrically opposite directives were always going to clash I guess.
jojojo tried to paint a picture with some tabloid
esque stories that Messi & his reps were angling for a pay raise, even flirting with other clubs. This has never been substantiated. However, when RM made media waves with the big raise CR got, the invariable question then became,
how can you not increase the wages on the world's best player when he's making less than CR?
I have nothing to go on regarding him or his reps pushing for a pay increase in light of CR's renewal terms but would I be opposed to it? In principle, I am against it but I also think there are exceptional circumstances to consider as well. Messi is arguably the greatest player or athlete in any sport of all time. How hard would you work to keep a player like that happy and at your club? Moreover, a player who handles himself like a modest, hard working member of the group rather than a prima donna? Considering all the implosions in football, the one time I think you alter your guidelines is in this sort of specific situation. Unless his demands are unreasonable, which they've never been, then you keep the best player the best paid
As for why would Rosell then say in the press what I just did (Make the best the highest paid) yet let his VP trash Messi while today another loyalist does the same in response to Leo's response to all of this? Maybe that's why he's going on his 4th Communications Director in his short spell as President. But maybe he's also trying to play this out in the press as he did with Valdes, Iniesta, Pep et al and attempt to provoke Messi. Messi, on the other hand, maybe he's indirectly pressuring for a pay hike but not singling anyone from the club out - until he was directly implicated. On top of which, the latest anti-Messi campaign being played in the public may not have been defended vigorously enough by Rosell & his board either. Something that Pep & Laporta have complained about publicly before when it comes to Barcelona matters in the media.
It is all complicated but that hasn't been the case in several years...since Pep really. Prior to Pep, this sort of drama was RM
esque in it's circus like atmosphere. I figured it was going to cycle back again but it's hard to fathom how they'd let it return after how great things had been. I imagine this sort of nonsense doesn't remotely happen in England.
I don't know who was comparing him to Zidane, but they clearly got it wrong since they are chalk and cheese and Zidane was a superior footballer.