If Messi goes to City then he is no longer the GOAT.
Lionel Messi
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
- Status
All these guys arguing about the true mercenary in the eternal Ronaldo vs Messi debate 
Messi wants to leave because Barca are completely mismanaged.
Ronaldo left United because he dreamed of playing for madrid. Then left madrid because he won it all.
Neither can be classified as mercenaries. A mercenary is someone who keeps moving clubs constantly to increase their wages.
Messi wants to leave because Barca are completely mismanaged.
Ronaldo left United because he dreamed of playing for madrid. Then left madrid because he won it all.
Neither can be classified as mercenaries. A mercenary is someone who keeps moving clubs constantly to increase their wages.
All these guys arguing about the true mercenary in the eternal Ronaldo vs Messi debate
Messi wants to leave because Barca are completely mismanaged.
Ronaldo left United because he dreamed of playing for madrid. Then left madrid because he won it all.
Neither can be classified as mercenaries. A mercenary is someone who keeps moving clubs constantly to increase their wages.
To be honest I don't think Messi is mercenary. He has earned the right to go wherever he want. But Barca fans here are claiming how his exit is different and Ronaldo was mercenary. Both are not mercenary. You can't have different parameters to judge.
I sooooo hope this goes to court
That seems inevitable at this point.
La Liga starts in less than two weeks by the way
they're going to be starting the season in so much turmoil, Koeman will age 10 years in his first two months as manager thereI'm not up to speed on this. I read that La Liga "ruled" that the release clause applies still. Doesn't this go to a higher court - a neutral court, as La Liga is obviously an interested party (potentially losing its main draw)?
La Liga definitely don’t want to lose Messi. That’s La Liga done.
I’d be absolutely amazed if a higher court and eventually CAS doesn’t rule that the clause was CLEARLY intended for the end of the season.
Twatty move from all to try denying that.
Coming from a United fan that would obviously love to see Messi stay at Barca.
Another back hander to CAS for City to get what they want?
with all this, Messi cannot possibly go back to Barcelona. Finally time to see him in another league, if he wants to be in same galaxy as the GOAT
Same. If they'd have the same end to the season in the regular months, he would have exercised his right to leave on a free. Surely the interpretation of that clause surely applies to the end of a season rather than a specific date, and if there is any uncertainty, the intention of the clause should favour his argument.
Pele? Fair enough
My greatest fear is without Messi and closed doors they manage to get the best out of Griezmann and Coutinho and turn back into a great sideThat seems inevitable at this point.
La Liga starts in less than two weeks by the way
Hopefully this will derail any chance of that
As unlikely as it is it would be hilarious if after all this he went to City and bombed
Yeah even if he goes they could still have a good season if they get the best out of a few players who have been mismanaged and manage to bring some good players in. The problem is that this seems to be taking over everything and I don't see them making any transfers at all before they solve this.
It's now been overshadowed but the Suarez situation is still yet to be resolved too
Ha ha! 3 clubs in 15 years = mercenary.
In a weird way I think without Messi they could go on to be better.
Messi is a circus in himself, they are clueless without him. It's like us with Pogba but on a 1000x scale.
When Pogba got injured we actually grew as a team because we couldn't rely on him anymore. It won't happen quickly but a front 4 of
Fati/Griezmann/Dembele/Coutinho really isn't that bad, just lacking a decent number 9.
Financially Messi is draining them so much they almost need this to happen, they can't keep it up where as the Oil wankers can.
Yeah even if he goes they could still have a good season if they get the best out of a few players who have been mismanaged and manage to bring some good players in. The problem is that this seems to be taking over everything and I don't see them making any transfers at all before they solve this.
It's now been overshadowed but the Suarez situation is still yet to be resolved too
I was hoping we’d keep Suarez for the bench but his salary is too high. Maybe we go for Depay or something, don’t think I want Martinez. Such a sad state of affairs the club has become.
...right
Apparently and they of course know Ronaldo leaves for money but Messi doesn’t leave for money.
Madness, neither of them are mercenaries.
Messi could join the likes of Bayern or Liverpool for a very good salary, or he could join a shit supported club for a fecking fortune.
Agreed though, neither are the mercenary type here.
I've seen a lot of mercenary players and neither Ronaldo or Messi seem to fit the type. Ronaldo played for 3 clubs in 15y and gave 110% for every club he played while winning titles. Messi also gave everything to Barcelona and he earned the right to leave for whatever reason he wants
He just want out and Man City are his only available option.
Satanic dwarf
Yeh I don’t know why people feel the need to bring up Ronaldo transfer here. But if you ask me, the only real difference is, Ronaldo leaves in rather good terms, including Real fans, and his last game is CL final win with a trophy, and he leaves the team after having a successful season, and fans feel grateful to his service there. Messi leaves in rather bad terms, including their fans, facing a possible court dispute with Barca, and his last game was 2-8 loss to Bayern in trophy-less season.
Whatever their motives behind their moves is only pure speculation here, we are not really their spokesperson or share their same mind. It’s really pointless arguing those.
I don’t mind both of them moving at late stage of their career though. They have been at same club for so many years, won everything. Moving at age 33 to new country is totally understandable, and respectful decision.
Last edited:
i wonder if Messi is willing to come to us for 150k a week. Daysleeper assures me Messi isn't a Merc like any other player
I’ll be depressed for many years if I have to watch the world’s best player, maybe even the best ever playing for City.
? It's a sweeping statement about the next generation of youth. Not directly implying they are all Tik-Tok stars calm down. Anyway don't be in denial - no one cares if City struggle to fill their ground, if they have shite support..if they are oil backed etc etc. We all know them signing Messi will further the clubs status in all directions. So long as they have money and continue to invest they will end up like Chelsea are now after Abramovich backed them heavily early on.
As many people have posted on here in this topic alone, history is not a major factor. Besides Manchester City are forcibly creating their history (no matter how long it takes). Football clubs, like many things in life are cyclical. Maybe Manchester and Arsenal can compete in the future but for now in the Premier League at least, advantage goes to City & Liverpool. The fact the GOAT wants to sign for City speaks volumes to me. Makes me sick as an Arsenal fan don't get me wrong. But it is what it is.
Why for many years, you can be depressed as long as he's there, maybe it wont be many years.
I don’t like Man City. That’s a given.
However, he would be going to a manager who he had incredible success with, to a team that with his help would be genuine contenders for the prizes he craves, in the most competitive league in the world at 33. If he goes to City, it’s to win things.
He’s not going to China. This is not the Robinho transfer in 2008, where it was a legitimate claim the player was just going for the money. Things have move on.
Unfortunately you need to get you head out of your ass and accept that City is an attractive place to go.
I wonder if Messi can play the piano?
Doesn't look like they want to loose out on him.
They will enter a decade of the dark ages similar to Serie A did for a decade after the fall of Milan teams and still not recovered. TV revenues will plummet. Smaller clubs are dependant on trickle down economy from TV money and will suffer hard. The appeal of stars like messi in asia, me, north/south/central america cannot be overstated. People dont have relations to clubs as much as stars outside main football countries, even some people that care for football 0.0% know who Ronaldo and Messi are. Juve social media went from a couple 100k's into millions after Ronaldo. It would be catastrophic on a massive scale for La liga.
Some of the posts here are hilariously biased and embarassing.
It shows that La Liga isn't about Messi and Ronaldo in that case, it's somewhat a form of survivorship bias where people are drawn to what they can see visually versus what they can't see.
Clearly the point to be made about La Liga is the way the TV rights has been distributed until recently has been completely wrong.
The reason the EPL is watched so heavily is how competitive it is, how it's branded and sold to different countries. That's where the failure of La Liga has been.
A two horse race for so many years, when in the EPL you have 4 in contention each year before a ball is kicked.
Messi and Ronaldo obviously made La Liga a big spectacle, but they've completely failed to adapt.
La Liga and the executive right now are the land of dinosaurs, with the presidential system, convoluted political systems and clubs and the La Liga structure in general just makes it not competitive whatsoever. It's not a league where they seek continuous refinement, but they seek to keep monotony of Barca and Madrid.
What's the deal here?
Legal contract says the deadline by which he could have terminated his contract has passed. Does it have anything about the season ending?
He will argue Covid..
Fraser stopped playing for Bournemouth because his contract had expired and he didnt want to temporarily extend it.. So clubs didnt have the benefit of the covid argument to keep players with contracts that had run out.. how does Messi make his case?
Legal contract says the deadline by which he could have terminated his contract has passed. Does it have anything about the season ending?
He will argue Covid..
Fraser stopped playing for Bournemouth because his contract had expired and he didnt want to temporarily extend it.. So clubs didnt have the benefit of the covid argument to keep players with contracts that had run out.. how does Messi make his case?
But it's a complete myth
You pretty much always know which 1 of 2 teams will win the PL, just like La Liga. PL teams obviously have more money to spend on players but to be fair the way they spend their money is hilariously bad.But it's a complete myth
In recent years it's only really been Atletico, the point is teams in the EPL are held to a higher standard in general.
The way the money has been distributed in La Liga just doesn't make the league as attractive or as competitive as the EPL.
For a very long time individual clubs got to sell the TV rights and negotiate the prices, which was a big flaw in La Liga.
The argument is that the actual date is arbitrary, and it is in fact the date of the end of the season, and given that the season was extended, so was the clause.
I can’t see how he can argue this effectively, and more importantly to do so, in the short time period needed to move this summer.
Depends how serious Messi is about moving, he’s angled lots of times before. If he does actually want to move, and can’t be persuaded to stay, Barca need to cut him loose, they can’t afford a grumpy Messi on £1m a week for the next year.
But it's a complete myth
More teams can win the league in England over a period though.
Only 5 titles out of the last 35 have gone elsewhere than the main two in Spain
If pep gets messi and they go on to win champions league, all it proves is that pep cant win it without him.
I agree that money distribution is a big flaw of La Liga and damages the competitiveness as majority of the money goes to 2 teams. I just don't think the standard of teams is lower than PL because English teams record against Spanish ones in Europe is bad overall and absolutely shocking in the last decade. I think the standard is quite bad in PL considering how much money the clubs spend.
- Status