No one is comparing Messi to individual players but no matter how good he is Messi would not have taken an average club to the same success as Barca has had in the past ten years.
It works both ways. Messi needs a great team around him to make the difference and a great Barca team needs Messi.
This idea that Messi is almost the sole reason Barca have had success is ridiculous.
Previous to last season Barca had won one major title in three years with Messi putting in some of his greatest ever seasons....Barca couldnt win as team around him was not good enough.
Barca was more or less ALWAYS one of the best 2-3-4 teams in Europe.
Cruijff's dream team from early 90s won 4 La Ligas in a row and 1 CL in 1992.
Van Gaal's team from late 90's was extremely good with Rivaldo, Figo, Kluivert, Lucho and Pep.
Rijkaard's team from early 00's won 2 La Ligas after 6 years of waiting, and won a CL in 2006.
Those were 3 awesome teams from the last 20 years, without Messi.
And then, you have two, equally as good teams from recent years, WITH MESSI.
Now, imo, when you remove Messi from any of these 5 teams (Cruijff, Van Gaal, Rijkaard, Pep, Lucho), you get 5 Barca's teams who were the best or one of the best 2-3 teams in Europe for 3-4 years.
Some of these teams were lucky (or good enough) to win a CL even on their own, without Messi (like Cruijff's team in 1992 and Rijkaard's in 2006').
Some were unlucky, like Van Gaal's team from late 90's (for example, in 1999, Barca was in a group stage of CL with Man. Utd who won the title in the end, and with Bayern, who lost in a final against Man. Utd). So, some of our teams had zero luck in some key moments of matches or in a draw.
Anyway, imo, Pep's team or Lucho's team, when you remove Messi from that team, aren't better than Cruijff's, Van Gaal's or Rijkaard's team.
Those were all, imo, equally insanely good teams, who could win CL trophies and multiple La Liga titles.
But now, when you add Messi and a privilege to have him in his prime in your team, to any of these 5 Barca's teams, then you get=the best team in the universe.
So, while Pep's team was awesome (with Messi), and while current MSN is awesome with Messi, for me still, the same would happen in any other era.
In Cruijff's era:
-- imagine Messi-Romario-Stoichkov trio
Or imagine 1996's duo:
-- Messi and Brasilian Il Fenomeno Ronaldo, lol. That would be the most lethal duo in the history of all sports, probably.
1999:
-- Figo-Rivaldo-Messi (+Kluivert)
-- and Lucho, Pep, Cocu behind them (lol)
= they would surely win 3-4 CL titles in 7-8 years
= without Messi, they won zero titles, and Galacticos took all the glory
Or even imagine if Messi was 10 years older and that we would have prime Messi-prime Ronnie-prime Etoo for 5-6 years
-- they would again win 3-4 CL titles in 6-7 years
So, yes, Messi can't play with bad teammates. Like in Argentina.
But any of our famous teams from the last 20 years, if you add Messi to those teams, would turn into a sextuple winning teams.
So, what is the difference between Rivaldo-Figo-Kluivert and Neymar-Suarez?
= the latter two had Messi and this is why they won a CL
If Figo and Rivaldo had Messi, they would have won multiple trebles and sextuples.
But also, if you remove Messi from Neymar and Suarez, you get only a mortal-Barca.
Like any other of these 5 teams.
So, Messi is WHAT makes the difference and what turns world-class Barca's team into a Godlike team.
Neymar and Suarez are just awesome players, like 10s of other during last 20 years (Romario, Stoichkov, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Figo, Kluivert, Ronnie, Etoo, Henry) who would, without Messi, won 0 or 1 CL titles during their spell at Barca, as happened with all other of our legends, who played WITHOUT Messi.
I tweeted one of them .
