Lionel Messi

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Scriblerus said:
BBC World at One have a reporter from a Barcelona sports channel saying City are already negotiating a 2 year contract - Messi wants Guardiola to commit to two years as manager. Free transfer would be a legal argument, but Barca need money desperately and may be willing to take a huge cut on his release fee. Anyone know where City stand on the joke FFP regulations now? If they get him free they could offset the salary against his book value?
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If I'm not mistaken, his book value is 0 if there's no signing fee. Maybe they can pay him part of his salary as earnest money and activate that sum but usually, you buy a player for 50m, he's got a book value of 50m which gets deprecated over the runtime of the contract. If that fee is 0, well..

That's also the reason why homegrown talents, even if they develop greatly, have a book value of 0.
 
Messi will tear the league apart in PL. But I don't see Messi winning the case and getting a free transfer like he wants. It will probably be the 2nd most costliest transfer in history.
 
sammsky1 said:
I guess it will come down to Messi's personal desire to how far he wants to enhance his personal legacy and have different life experience. I'm not quite sure how earning abit more money for 2 years changes his life.

I'm sure he understands the difference between PSG/City and Manchester United in terms of historical and cultural equity and the potential reach each club provides him. Eg: if he joins PSG, most of the news reporting of his PSG career will be in French language, which dramatically limits its accessibility to global audience. Thats been a major issue for him, in terms of global exposure, whilst in Spain. Also if he is after a new life experience, why join up with his ex colleagues at City. Seems like a very boring and overly safe option.

If he wanted to be remembered at the best player that ever lived, Manchester United provides him that platform better than any other club available, given the status, scrutiny and exposure that he would enjoy.
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Global exposure has not been an issue for Messi ffs, what on earth are you talking about?

Also he won't even consider Man Utd as an option, and anyone who thinks differently is only kidding themselves. "Man Utd provides him that platform better than any other club available", fecking hell :wenger: So far off the mark you can only laugh.
 
sammsky1 said:
Suppose Messi loses out on the legal clause.

What if Barcelona wanted Martial or Rashford in return?

Would people still be in favour?
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Obviously no, but that's what all this fuss is about. The free clause, nobody can afford 700 million release clause.
 
dalriada said:
Discussion is academic really, at 33 he's not going to move to a club in the midst of a rebuilding exercise, so if he comes to the EPL it's probably going to be City, and mostly because of Pep.
It's a tempting thought having him at United, in the sense of "who wouldn't want Messi", but a player at the end of his career is a risk - worked well for a season with Van Persie and Ibra, but clearly would be a short-term solution and an expensive one at that. We also need players who really want to come to United and aren't just looking for big money, and sadly Messi is unlikely to fall in that category.
An intriguing thought - would Jose try and get Daniel Levy to coax him to Spurs?
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You’re not serious? :lol:
 
meamth said:
Obviously no, but that's what all this fuss is about. The free clause, nobody can afford 700 million release clause.
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The mood Messi is in, he would go on strike, or sabotage his performances to leave for a fair price.
 
I don’t see Messi getting his free transfer through the courts within the transfer window.

I reckon Barcelona, City and Messi will agree the terms of a transfer which Man City and Messi will then go to court to have refunded on the basis of CV-19 having an impact on the June deadline and Messi honouring the nature of the contract during an extraordinary scenario.
 
RobinLFC said:
Global exposure has not been an issue for Messi ffs, what on earth are you talking about?
Also he won't even consider Man Utd as an option, and anyone who thinks differently is only kidding themselves. "Man Utd provides him that platform better than any other club available", fecking hell :wenger: So far off the mark you can only laugh.
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Of course it's true. Our new club captain, who has very little emotional equity with the club or its fans getting arrested was global front page news for days. If the same story happened with Henderson, who has been at Liverpool for years and deeply loved, no one outside Merseyside would give a toss.

We may not have the best team any more, but our club is still box office, no matter what Klopp achieved with his *

Suggest you do some research on viewership numbers and the reach of Spanish press vs English press. As a commercial and marketing opportunity, United is the best platform for him by far.
 
RobinLFC said:
Global exposure has not been an issue for Messi ffs, what on earth are you talking about?

Also he won't even consider Man Utd as an option, and anyone who thinks differently is only kidding themselves. "Man Utd provides him that platform better than any other club available", fecking hell :wenger: So far off the mark you can only laugh.
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Yeah. Who the feck would want to join Manchester United. Nothing club. Far better going to the giants that are city, PSG and inter.
 
Is Amazon doing a documentary this season? If so, who with?

I imagine they'd also have an agenda to push.
 
sammsky1 said:
Of course it's true. Our new club captain, who has very little emotional equity with the club or its fans getting arrested was global front page news for days. If the same story happened with Henderson, who has been at Liverpool for years and deeply loved, no one outside Merseyside would give a toss.
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Just simply incorrect. If that was Henderson, Sterling, Kane, or any other top English player playing for a top English team, it would be just the same - but by all means keep sticking your head in the sand and keep thinking that you're more special than any of the other clubs.

We may not have the best team any more, but our club is still box office, no matter what Klopp achieved with his *
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Again, you literally said that Utd would provide the best platform for him to be universally regarded as the best player ever. While in fact you wouldn't. He'd make you a title contender but it's far from a guaranteed title even if he joins. If he joined City or Liverpool, both teams would win the league at a canter for one or two more years whilst competing deep in the CL too.

No one gives a feck about Utd's historical status and Messi probably wouldn't either. It's what Liverpool fans were slagged off for for so long. If he joins Liverpool and wins 3 leagues and a CL in 3 or 4 years, he would also have cemented his status as best there ever was. And this is all just a moot point anyway because if he retires tomorrow he'd already be regarded as the best there has ever been by a vast majority of football fans. Once again, he needs feck all from Man Utd.

Suggest you do some research on viewership numbers and the reach of Spanish press vs English press. As a commercial and marketing opportunity, United is the best platform for him by far.
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Messi is a global superstar. One of the biggest sport stars there is in the world, literally. He needs feck all from England to enhance that any further.
 
Mickeza said:
Yeah. Who the feck would want to join Manchester United. Nothing club. Far better going to the giants that are city, PSG and inter.
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I never said that. But there are reasons why City and PSG are the teams most mentioned - if Utd are even mentioned at all, it's because you're one of the only teams that could potentially pay him but let's be real, it's nothing more than a pipe dream imo. Fair enough if you disagree with that and you think you're a realistic destination for him, but I think you definitely are not. Neither are Liverpool by the way, not in a million years, so I'm not trying to shit on your team or anything like that.

The sheer arrogance (and ignorance) of the post I quoted is what ticked me off. You're not that special anymore compared to a lot of other clubs out there. And there have been hundreds of players in the last decade or so that have proven that history means little to nothing for them. Messi is known in every single corner of the world. Whether he plays for the 3th or 8th most supported club in the world, or 15th, it won't matter to him at all.
 
Pexbo said:
I don’t see Messi getting his free transfer through the courts within the transfer window.

I reckon Barcelona, City and Messi will agree the terms of a transfer which Man City and Messi will then go to court to have refunded on the basis of CV-19 having an impact on the June deadline and Messi honouring the nature of the contract during an extraordinary scenario.
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I guess if the court decides Messi is right two or three months after the closure of the transfer window and should've been allowed to leave but Barca didn't let him, he can sue them for compensation. In the end, if Barca's lawyers recommend them to let him go, it's possible that Barca will give in.

Also, it's been reported that La Liga and UEFA might support Messi's case due to the pandemic. Could be rough times if Barca forces him to stay.
 
ThinkTank@Cafe said:
Those who want Messi to United don't realize that they are voting for a Sanchez on steroids. Let it sink. Sanchez, in turn, was a Rooney on steroids.

Multiply the damage by 3. Even if Messi has a couple of tremendous seasons (which is not a fact), the transfer wouldn’t justify having ageing Messi for another 2 seasons. And he won’t sign a short term deal.

Another gamble of huge proportions. Falcao, SchweinSchneider, Di Maria, Sanchez...You never learn, do you?
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This is not the right take. This ain't it. Sanchez scored like 5 goals or less for us, I don't even remember. This is a guaranteed 30+ G/A for 2-3 seasons albeit a very expensive guarantee.

It's nothing like Sanchez
 
dalriada said:
Discussion is academic really, at 33 he's not going to move to a club in the midst of a rebuilding exercise, so if he comes to the EPL it's probably going to be City, and mostly because of Pep.
It's a tempting thought having him at United, in the sense of "who wouldn't want Messi", but a player at the end of his career is a risk - worked well for a season with Van Persie and Ibra, but clearly would be a short-term solution and an expensive one at that. We also need players who really want to come to United and aren't just looking for big money, and sadly Messi is unlikely to fall in that category.
An intriguing thought - would Jose try and get Daniel Levy to coax him to Spurs?
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I think that would be a marvelous idea.
 


Better that spin on things than the reality that I doubt he'd seriously consider us in our current state I suppose :lol::(
 
RobinLFC said:
Just simply incorrect. If that was Henderson, Sterling, Kane, or any other top English player playing for a top English team, it would be just the same - but by all means keep sticking your head in the sand and keep thinking that you're more special than any of the other clubs.


Again, you literally said that Utd would provide the best platform for him to be universally regarded as the best player ever. While in fact you wouldn't. He'd make you a title contender but it's far from a guaranteed title even if he joins. If he joined City or Liverpool, both teams would win the league at a canter for one or two more years whilst competing deep in the CL too.

No one gives a feck about Utd's historical status and Messi probably wouldn't either. It's what Liverpool fans were slagged off for for so long. If he joins Liverpool and wins 3 leagues and a CL in 3 or 4 years, he would also have cemented his status as best there ever was. And this is all just a moot point anyway because if he retires tomorrow he'd already be regarded as the best there has ever been by a vast majority of football fans. Once again, he needs feck all from Man Utd.


Messi is a global superstar. One of the biggest sport stars there is in the world, literally. He needs feck all from England to enhance that any further.
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* - Your lot can't even win a proper title. And even when you do win some diluted disputed version, celebrating in an empty stadium and on a laptop in your bedroom, because the Mrs wont allow you to watch it on TV in the front room, no-one gives a crap just a few weeks after.

Case in point: look at you, here on a United forum desperately seeking relevance. :lol::lol:
 
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If Messi does end up moving to City, it would only be fitting for United to buy Ronaldo. One last showdown for those two in the EPL.
 
Rolaholic said:
That poster actually thinking that adding the best player in the world wouldn't improve United, quite hilarious really :lol:
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I wrote a full line after that in sarcastic jest but it didn't seem to come up on the site. But yeh I agree it's pretty funny:lol:
 
Rolaholic said:


Better that spin on things than the reality that I doubt he'd seriously consider us in our current state :lol::(
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Can't imagine that, too. Barca is in a devastating state and the future is very complicated but they still had a better season than United. Chances are he'd even be worse off after the move (no offense). He's searching for a functional squad he can immediately win the biggest titles with (league titles and CL). From a competitive perspective, that leaves just a very small number of clubs. Liverpool, City, PSG, Bayern and Real I'd say. Liverpool can't afford him, Bayern won't and he won't join Madri which leaves PSG and City. PSG has Neymar and Mbappe, the game against Bayern has proven that they've got other issues than that. Squeezing him in would mean the team is even more out of balance. So City it is. Also makes the most sense. The club has probably more true Barca DNA than Barca itself in it's current state.
 
Fecking dippers coming on here to shite on United and the fans opinions on a United message board. Know your role you twats and learn some respect
 
sammsky1 said:
Its a huge issue!

After graduation, I stayed with my first employer for 11 years, and loved being there. Eventually I grew out of the place and needed to move on to develop. But when I moved to my next employer, I had an emotional hangover that lasted at least 18 months and was always comparing my new place to my previous one.

After a while, I had to admit to myself that my previous employer had 'indoctrinated me' and I had been 'institutionally cloned'. It wasn't a bad thing to be, as it was all legal and virtuous. But it was every difficult to shake this off, and relatively speaking, I failed at my 2nd employer, through no fault of theirs.

I fear this dynamic will be even more fierce for Messi, given he's been at Barcelona since being a boy, and the whole club was designed with him at the centre. Suddenly turning up in Manchester or Paris and travelling to new places and pitches will be a massive jolt to his system, no matter how much he tries to embrace it. It can quickly lead to a severe identity crisis and meltdown.
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Don't get me wrong, as fearful as I might be of it being a total disaster, that first game of his with the OT accouncer saying "and starting the game at number 11... It's Lionel Messi!" Would be so unbelievably electrifying it would be worth ANY money. Maybe even without any fans there.

If he WANTED man Utd and said "that's my club that's who I want to be" things might be different and having him around the players and the sheer draw he'd be to get youth players to join.... Some things are unquantifiable. He might be a disaster on the pitch but save our club in other areas
 
RobinLFC said:
I never said that. But there are reasons why City and PSG are the teams most mentioned - if Utd are even mentioned at all, it's because you're one of the only teams that could potentially pay him but let's be real, it's nothing more than a pipe dream imo. Fair enough if you disagree with that and you think you're a realistic destination for him, but I think you definitely are not. Neither are Liverpool by the way, not in a million years, so I'm not trying to shit on your team or anything like that.
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There’s no way we’d pay the wages just like there’s no way you’d pay the wages. City and PSG are state owned football clubs which is the only reason they will do it. Manchester United are the biggest club in the biggest league in the world. We have a huge global appeal. We have a young and talented attacking squad with the ‘project’ of returning a fallen club (if finishing 2nd and 3rd in 2 of the last 3 seasons is fallen) to its former glory. Oh and there’s all that history stuff too. So whilst I agree with your notion that there’s no chance we’ll sign him I completely disagree with the idea we’re just like lots of other clubs. We’re still a big attraction for most players. You’re right on Messi though, he transcends football and certainly doesn’t need us for exposure to boost his profile.
 
Top 10 reasons why I hope City can get him.

10) Would get to see one of the greatest players of my generation play every week in the PL, albeit his feigning years. I don't watch Spanish football except for the occasional el Classico.
9) Could put pressure on the board to obtain Ole's targets as it would mean increasing the gap further between City and United if they don't.
8) Would narrow the gap between City and Liverpool. More wishful thinking but there is a chance.
7) Would possibly destabilize the City squad due to his wages. Then again, City got around that by secretly paying their players from outside sources so this probably won't happen.
6) FFP - see #7.
5) Messi vs the best RB in the league. Am I right?
4) Ed Woodward will stop chasing him and move on to more obtainable targets.
3) Messi would tear Spurs apart resulting in Jose sticking his finger in Juan Manuel Lillo's eye.
2) We may finally get an answer to the age old question of whether Messi can do it on a cold wet night at Stoke. Okay, maybe not unless Stoke are promoted next season or City get them in one of the cups.
1) Would be Ole's first real test vs City.
 
Mickeza said:
There’s no way we’d pay the wages just like there’s no way you’d pay the wages. City and PSG are state owned football clubs which is the only reason they will do it. Manchester United are the biggest club in the biggest league in the world. We have a huge global appeal. We have a young and talented attacking squad with the ‘project’ of returning a fallen club (if finishing 2nd and 3rd in 2 of the last 3 seasons is fallen) to its former glory. Oh and there’s all that history stuff too. So whilst I agree with your notion that there’s no chance we’ll sign him I completely disagree with the idea we’re just like lots of other clubs. We’re still a big attraction for most players. You’re right on Messi though, he transcends football and certainly doesn’t need us for exposure to boost his profile.
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I also never said that Messi needs United to boost his profile. He's just a dipper with a temporary ego advantage.

I said that joining United would provide Messi with the biggest platform to for his future profile. I'm not sure how that is even remotely controversial. Put simply, his future is less impactful at City or PSG (and Liverpool too) and less people would care about his success than if he joined United.
 
peridigm said:
Top 10 reasons why I hope City can get him.

10) Would get to see one of the greatest players of my generation play every week in the PL, albeit his feigning years. I don't watch Spanish football except for the occasional el Classico.
9) Could put pressure on the board to obtain Ole's targets as it would mean increasing the gap further between City and United if they don't.
8) Would narrow the gap between City and Liverpool. More wishful thinking but there is a chance.
7) Would possibly destabilize the City squad due to his wages. Then again, City got around that by secretly paying their players from outside sources so this probably won't happen.
6) FFP - see #7.
5) Messi vs the best RB in the league. Am I right?
4) Ed Woodward will stop chasing him and move on to more obtainable targets.
3) Messi would tear Spurs apart resulting in Jose sticking his finger in Juan Manuel Lillo's eye.
2) We may finally get an answer to the age old question of whether Messi can do it on a cold wet night at Stoke. Okay, maybe not unless Stoke are promoted next season or City get them in one of the cups.
1) Would be Ole's first real test vs City.
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I'd love to have an answer for number 2
 
van der star said:
If Messi does end up moving to City, it would only be fitting for United to buy Ronaldo. One last showdown for those two in the EPL.
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We would at least try to do anything possible to make it happen if we had proper and serious football people at the helm but unfortunately we don't :(

Ronaldo wasn't happy at all at Juventus last season and now has an even much less experienced coach than Ole
 
If United aren't interested in Messi they better sign Sancho and the other targets, rivals are all strengthening.
 
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