Lionel Messi

Look at his salary from the leaked documents. Messi is the best player in the world, but he's paid an amount that will take up a massive proportion of any club's budget. It feels somewhat churlish to lament your club for no longer being the best team in the world, when they are paying you an amount that places real restrictions on what they can do with the rest of the squad, even for a super club.

If Sanchez is a financial burden at United, then what's Messi at Barcelona? He is an amazing player, very likely the GOAT, but the amount he is paid is so far beyond astronomical.

The club can make better decisions with the money left. That they've splunked their budget on nonsense doesn't mean Messi should have to take a pay cut below what he's worth.
 
And yet, had Messi's salary been lower, the club might have had the means to buy Neymar back last summer, who knows. Don't try to turn that into a black or white situation, the board making mistakes doesn't mean Messi's wage doesn't prevent Barcelona from buying even more players.

Wrong. PSG doesn’t want to negotiate with Barca. Your logic is very flawed. Instead of signing coutinho and dembele and Griezmann they maybe could’ve signed neymar.

psg were never serious about selling neymar and this Barca board has made
Mistake after mistake after mistake which has nothing to do with messi’s salary.

As for Wade, he was massively overpaid after lebron left when you look at wade’s production:

https://theathletic.co.uk/36500/2017/02/01/calling-bank-has-dwyane-wade-earned-his-contract/

He was far from a team player, bailed on the Heat because he felt he wasn’t paid enough only to rob the Bulls with his salary.

Finally came back to Miami as a broken player.

The nba has a hard salary cap, football does not. Messi sacrificed plenty making sure neymar and Suarez felt comfortable in Barcelona. He doesn’t even care about scoring goals anymore. Neymar was the one who left for more money but now wants to come back because he regrets the move? Yet this is messi’s fault?

Don’t think so
 
Of course he's a bloody captain. What are you talking about? There's more to being a captain than simply screaming in someone's face. He simply elevates everyone and inspires them by merely being in the pitch for a start. Who do you think players look to when things go to shit? Who do you think they look to when they're losing? Or need a goal? Or need someone to pull them through a tight game again?

If that isn't being a captain, i don't know what is.
As a player he is model but can't do it all the time, there are behind the scenes dressing room videos showing some of his team talks, they don't look inspiring at all.
 
I’ll never understand the need for someone like messi to want more money. He simply doesn’t need it. He could have retired at 25 and been set for life, his kids too. Why the hell do athletes always want more?

Because they’re worth it.

You know what’s cooler than a million dollars? A billion dollars.

And considering how much revenue they generate why don’t the clubs then lower ticket prices and jersey prices? Why should only the players ask for less?
 
You're confusing his abilities as a player and as a captain. That's 2 very different things. Nobody disputed his abilities as a player. He looked like a ghost during the entire second half before his assist to Aguero.

No one had a better performance against France with 3 goals. Messi was easily
The best player for Argentina in that game. Every team Argentina lost to in their last 6 international tournaments no one else was able to beat either.
 
Of course he's a bloody captain. What are you talking about? There's more to being a captain than simply screaming in someone's face. He simply elevates everyone and inspires them by merely being in the pitch for a start. Who do you think players look to when things go to shit? Who do you think they look to when they're losing? Or need a goal? Or need someone to pull them through a tight game again?

If that isn't being a captain, i don't know what is.

No, that's not what being a captain mainly is. A good captain makes you feel strong when you're down, motivates you, takes the fear on his shoulders and pushes the entire team when needed. Being a good captain isn't "give me the ball and 'i'll fix this for you" because with this mentality, you end up failining terribly in CL 3 year in a row if the "captain" can't actually save the whole team by himself. You can be a great captain and an decent player (like Didier Deschamps), or an amazing player and a poor captain. It's about many things including attitude. Look at Sergio Ramos when Madrid is having trouble in CL, it's just something else. You're supposed to look at your captain through a hard time and feel energized, and Messi just doesn't have this effect on people since he looks as down as the rest of the team. Remember what happened against PSG in Camp Nou? Who was the only one believing Barcelona could do it. Messi? No, it was Neymar. And i'm not even sure Neymar is captain material either.
Ronaldinho inspired a lot of people when he was on the pitch, and he would have been a pretty terrible captain too for different reasons.
 
I’ll never understand the need for someone like messi to want more money. He simply doesn’t need it. He could have retired at 25 and been set for life, his kids too. Why the hell do athletes always want more?

Well in regards to Messi, he's worth it that's why. That may sound absurd, but he is. Ask yourself, how much money has he made for Barcelona? Barcelona are a huge club whether Messi played for them or not. But with him they're a different beast. The amount of people who watch Barcelona simply because of him cannot be underestimated. I know i watch Barca for him. Couldn't give a shit about the team. And there's many people who do the same.

How many trophies have they won because of him? League titles, Champions Leagues, domestic cups. Think of all the money they've earned by winning them. Social media engagement, which is obviously a huge factor these days, goes off the scale when Barca tweet something about Messi. Marketing. Merchandise. He's made a fortune for them. So yeah, for him specifically, he's worth it.
 
Of course he is. Why shouldn't he get a big cut of the revenue he brings to the club? Imagine the spike in revenue if he came to United.
He does so he or anyone else really can't have any complaints about his contract. The problem with Barcelona is how they completely wasted the Neymar money.
 
Wrong. PSG doesn’t want to negotiate with Barca. Your logic is very flawed. Instead of signing coutinho and dembele and Griezmann they maybe could’ve signed neymar.

psg were never serious about selling neymar and this Barca board has made
Mistake after mistake after mistake which has nothing to do with messi’s salary.

ANY well documented report from France says otherwise. They would have let him go for 180-200M but Barcelona couldn't afford that amount of money so the deal didn't go through. Don't be too intoxicated by spanish propaganda.
 
Well in regards to Messi, he's worth it that's why. That may sound absurd, but he is. Ask yourself, how much money has he made for Barcelona? Barcelona are a huge club whether Messi played for them or not. But with him they're a different beast. The amount of people who watch Barcelona simply because of him cannot be underestimated. I know i watch Barca for him. Couldn't give a shit about the team. And there's many people who do the same.

How many trophies have they won because of him? League titles, Champions Leagues, domestic cups. Think of all the money they've earned by winning them. Social media engagement, which is obviously a huge factor these days, goes off the scale when Barca tweet something about Messi. Marketing. Merchandise. He's made a fortune for them. So yeah, for him specifically, he's worth it.

It’s not his worth I’m questioning. Rather his Personal decision to need more money. I feel like if I was in this position, with more money than I could ever spend in ten lifetimes, I’d consider playing for free just because I could.
 
No, that's not what being a captain mainly is. A good captain makes you feel strong when you're down, motivates you, takes the fear on his shoulders and pushes the entire team when needed. Being a good captain isn't "give me the ball and 'i'll fix this for you" because with this mentality, you end up failining terrible in CL 3 year in a row if the "captain" can't actually save the whole team by himself. You can be a great captain and an decent player (like Didier Deschamps), or an amazing player and a poor captain. It's about many things including attitude. Look at Sergio Ramos when Madrid is having trouble in CL, it's just something else. You're supposed to look at your captain through a hard time and feel energized, and Messi just doesn't have this effect on people since he looks as down as the rest of the team. Remember what happened against PSG in Camp Nou? Who was the only one believing Barcelona could do it. Messi? No, it was Neymar. And i'm not even sure Neymar is captain material either.
Ronaldinho inspired a lot of people when he was on the pitch, and he would have been a pretty terrible captain too.

:lol:

Christ. I genuinely don't know what to say to that. It's like you ignored everything i said. As for the parts in bold, that's EXACTLY what he does. How the hell you can watch Messi play over his career and say he doesn't "motivate" or inspire his team when they're down and need a lift just baffles me. Again, who do you think they look to when they're down and in the shit? When they need a lift? Because there's only one answer to that question. Again, there's more to being a captain than screaming or shouting at your teammates.

So what does Ramos do when Madrid are in trouble then?
 
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It’s not his worth I’m questioning. Rather his Personal decision to need more money. I feel like if I was in this position, with more money than I could ever spend in ten lifetimes, I’d consider playing for free just because I could.

Oh right.

Because what do people with money want? That's a rhetorical question, of course. But that's your answer.
 
No, that's not what being a captain mainly is. A good captain makes you feel strong when you're down, motivates you, takes the fear on his shoulders and pushes the entire team when needed. Being a good captain isn't "give me the ball and 'i'll fix this for you" because with this mentality, you end up failining terribly in CL 3 year in a row if the "captain" can't actually save the whole team by himself. You can be a great captain and an decent player (like Didier Deschamps), or an amazing player and a poor captain. It's about many things including attitude. Look at Sergio Ramos when Madrid is having trouble in CL, it's just something else. You're supposed to look at your captain through a hard time and feel energized, and Messi just doesn't have this effect on people since he looks as down as the rest of the team. Remember what happened against PSG in Camp Nou? Who was the only one believing Barcelona could do it. Messi? No, it was Neymar. And i'm not even sure Neymar is captain material either.
Ronaldinho inspired a lot of people when he was on the pitch, and he would have been a pretty terrible captain too for different reasons.
People seriously overrate captaincy. The captain should be the most respected player in the squad and a good captain earns the respect of most or all of his teammates. Messi fits the bill. The whole "inspiring" angle is overstated. That's the manager's job primarily.
 
As a player he is model but can't do it all the time, there are behind the scenes dressing room videos showing some of his team talks, they don't look inspiring at all.

Well of course he can't do it all the time - no player can. The point i was making is that saying he isn't a good captain is nonsense. Now if you was to say he's not very vocal, then that's fine. I can see that. But again, that's a very myopic way of judging a great captain.
 
:lol:

Christ. I genuinely don't know what to say to that. It's like you ignored everything i said. As for the parts in bold, that's EXACTLY what he does. How the hell you can watch Messi play over his career and say he doesn't "motivate" or inspire his team when they're down and need a lift just baffles me. Again, who do you think they look to when they're down and in the shit? When they need a lift? Because there's only one answer to that question. Again, there's more to being a captain than screaming to shouting at your teammates.

So what does Ramos do when Madrid are in trouble then?

Maked sure THAT doesn't happen in his locker room at half time when you're only down 1-0 in CL for starters.
jordi-alba-640x288.jpg
 
ANY well documented report from France says otherwise. They would have let him go for 180-200M but Barcelona couldn't afford that amount of money so the deal didn't go through. Don't be too intoxicated by spanish propaganda.

Barca were never serious about signing Neymar, he was still in the middle of suing the team for God’s sake.

Their bigger issue was the inability to sell coutinho and having just signed Griezmann. Barca could’ve sold enough players to fund neymar but handing out 420 million to 3 players in griezman, coutinho, and dembele was the issue

Not Messi, not even close
 
Maked sure THAT doesn't happen in his locker room at half time when you're only down 1-0 in CL for starters.
jordi-alba-640x288.jpg

Really? Cuz pretty sure Ramos got suspended for a match over a stupid foul and missed the second leg as Madrid crashed and burned against Ajax

You have no idea what you’re talking about
 
Maked sure THAT doesn't happen in his locker room at half time when you're only down 1-0 in CL for starters.
jordi-alba-640x288.jpg

Seriously? You're going to give me a blurry photo of someone wiping his face with a towel to try and disprove the fact that Messi is a great captain. Christ.

The way in which you seem to be judging his ability to captain a team is so myopic and superficial.
 


Some Barca fans on Reddit reckon there's truth in this ... citing that Ter Stegen publicly criticised Valverde, whilst Messi was a staunch supporter of him.

I've heard about Ter Stegen, Griezmann and De Jong, I think, telling the management that the training regime was far too lenient. Last season Marca had compared the amount of rest days players were getting — in November Barca had 26 and Real Madrid had 17, and after that the gap kept growing.
 
Really? Cuz pretty sure Ramos got suspended for a match over a stupid foul and missed the second leg as Madrid crashed and burned against Ajax

You have no idea what you’re talking about

What does it have to do with Ramos' leadership abilities? This is a ridiculous argument, he did something stupid thinking they could qualifiy without him and they didn't. You're actually proving my point showing that Real Madrid isn't the same in CL with or without Ramos. As far as i know, Messi WAS on the pitch against Liverpool.

Listen, if you want to keep pretending Messi is a great captain and leader, i'll let you be, it seems that your fan bubble is too thick to be burst anyway. Just don't be surprised the next time your team falls appart in CL by lack of leadership.
 
Seriously? You're going to give me a blurry photo of someone wiping his face with a towel to try and disprove the fact that Messi is a great captain. Christ.

The way in which you seem to be judging his ability to captain a team is so myopic and superficial.

And yet, i look at Messi's attitude and his teamates during the loss against France, Liverpool, Roma, Juventus and i'm fairly confident I'm right. Phenomenal player, poor leadership abilities.
 
What does it have to do with Ramos' leadership abilities? This is a ridiculous argument, he did something stupid thinking they could qualifiy without him and they didn't. You're actually proving my point showing that Real Madrid isn't the same in CL with or without Ramos. As far as i know, Messi WAS on the pitch against Liverpool.

Listen, if you want to keep pretending Messi is a great captain and leader, i'll let you be, it seems that your fan bubble is too thick to be burst anyway. Just don't be surprised the next time your team falls appart in CL by lack of leadership.

You’re ridiculous

Messi created EVERY chance for Barca in that second leg vs Liverpool

As for Ramos? More red cards than any player in la liga history. That’s leadership?

Ramos was a moron for his foul and admitting to it, everyone knows this. Where was Ramos leadership against Ajax? It was a stupid stupid foul. No one would ever praise him for that. Where was Ramos against Russia when Spain choked? Where was the leadership? This wasn’t like he was playing teams no one else could beat either like in Messi’s case.

I think he’s a great player but your criticisms of Messi are downright laughable considering Barca’s second best scorer in UCL has been Own Goal at times.

Absolutely moronic to blame Messi when without him they struggle in the group stage.
 
No, that's not what being a captain mainly is. A good captain makes you feel strong when you're down, motivates you, takes the fear on his shoulders and pushes the entire team when needed. Being a good captain isn't "give me the ball and 'i'll fix this for you" because with this mentality, you end up failining terribly in CL 3 year in a row if the "captain" can't actually save the whole team by himself. You can be a great captain and an decent player (like Didier Deschamps), or an amazing player and a poor captain. It's about many things including attitude. Look at Sergio Ramos when Madrid is having trouble in CL, it's just something else. You're supposed to look at your captain through a hard time and feel energized, and Messi just doesn't have this effect on people since he looks as down as the rest of the team. Remember what happened against PSG in Camp Nou? Who was the only one believing Barcelona could do it. Messi? No, it was Neymar. And i'm not even sure Neymar is captain material either.
Ronaldinho inspired a lot of people when he was on the pitch, and he would have been a pretty terrible captain too for different reasons.

Imagine believing this rah-rah nonsense.
 
And yet, i look at Messi's attitude and his teamates during the loss against France, Liverpool, Roma, Juventus and i'm fairly confident I'm right. Phenomenal player, poor leadership abilities.

Nah. You're pretty far from fecking right my friend.
 
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Barcelona clearly have a mentality problem and there is lack of leadership in the dressing room. Not just Messi's fault, the likes of Alba spent halftime at Anfield crying for 15 minutes while they were still only 1-0 down. Pique should be the cool head at the back but he becomes passive instead and doesn't comunicate. The body language of the players when they're in trouble in a big tie has been appalling, it's like they're defeated even though it's all still to play for.

If they had a Puyol there that doesn't happen. They might lose anyway but never like that where the team just crumbles completely.

Pretending that this is all irrelevant and the mental aspect of football has no impact on the game is plain wrong. As is putting the blame for Barcelona's problems all on Messi. He's the captain but he's never been that kind of captain and they should have found someone with those characteristics after Puyol and Xavi left.
 
What does it have to do with Ramos' leadership abilities? This is a ridiculous argument, he did something stupid thinking they could qualifiy without him and they didn't. You're actually proving my point showing that Real Madrid isn't the same in CL with or without Ramos. As far as i know, Messi WAS on the pitch against Liverpool.

Listen, if you want to keep pretending Messi is a great captain and leader, i'll let you be, it seems that your fan bubble is too thick to be burst anyway. Just don't be surprised the next time your team falls appart in CL by lack of leadership.

Where was Ramos’s leadership today? 4-1

And Ramos has no leadership with that stupid foul. Or any leadership for Spain when they choked against Russia
 
Well of course he can't do it all the time - no player can. The point i was making is that saying he isn't a good captain is nonsense. Now if you was to say he's not very vocal, then that's fine. I can see that. But again, that's a very myopic way of judging a great captain.
It's not myopic, effective and motivational communication is a big part of being a leader, it's not about shouting.
 
Where was Ramos’s leadership today? 4-1

And Ramos has no leadership with that stupid foul. Or any leadership for Spain when they choked against Russia

Come on now, don't be stupid, having leadership doesn't mean you win 100% of your games, or that your teamate always respond. Sometimes it just doesn't work. I'm very sorry for you if you don't see the leadership abilities Ramos has over Messi, you probably live in a parallel universe (and i'm far from being a Real Madrid fan).
 
Hasn't Messi always said he'd like to play a season or two in Argentina?

He could do that and just come back to live in Barcelona where his family are settled.

I certainly don't see him coming to play in premier league, certainly not Man. City given Pep might not be manager beyond 2021.
 
Think he'll only leave Barca when he's ready to go back to Argentina or the MLS etc. to retire.
 
It's not myopic, effective and motivational communication is a big part of being a leader, it's not about shouting.

The guy who i was responding to IS being myopic. It may be a part of being a leader, but it's not the only part. And it certainly isn't the only part of being a good captain in football.
 
The guy who i was responding to IS being myopic. It may be a part of being a leader, but it's not the only part. And it certainly isn't the only part of being a good captain in football.
It's not the only part, but I would say it's important.
 
This makes no sense. The NBA has a salary cap so leaving money on the table directly impacts the team's spending capabilities. Does Barcelona look like they have trouble spending money or bringing in players? They've spent well over €450 million the last few seasons bringing Dembele, Coutinho, Griezmann, De Jong. Their issue is bringing in the wrong players, not Messi's salary.

Absolutely. Barcelona’s transfer policy has been a disaster in recent years. Griezmann was a bizarre signing, Dembele is a waste of time, Coutinho... de Jong is the first player Barca have bought in ages who is properly fantastic and he’s already fitting in brilliantly.
 
Good chance for one of the Liverpool or PSG (if they win the CL) players to win the Ballandor this year. Messi was brilliant after his injury but he's been absolutely awful for the past month(by his own standards). I just can't see him or Ronaldo winning it this year so great chance for a different winner like in 2018.
 
Good chance for one of the Liverpool or PSG (if they win the CL) players to win the Ballandor this year. Messi was brilliant after his injury but he's been absolutely awful for the past month(by his own standards). I just can't see him or Ronaldo winning it this year so great chance for a different winner like in 2018.

The Euros will probably determine it. If France win it then Mbappe is surely a certainty. If the Netherlands then VVD.

I actually fancied the Dutch to win it but the Depay injury is probably too much to overcome now so France should win it.
 
The Euros will probably determine it. If France win it then Mbappe is surely a certainty. If the Netherlands then VVD.

I actually fancied the Dutch to win it but the Depay injury is probably too much to overcome now so France should win it.

I think Belgium will win it. Lukaku for it imagine that ;). Well De Bruyne should probably have it then or Hazard.
Give it to both Hazards as a collective reward maybe.

England win it so they give it to Maguire ;). They will probably never give it to a right back like TAA.
Henderson not sexy enough for it too. If Kane is back and scores a few he might get it.
Although they will probably give it to Messi anyway or something like that.