Barça's Transfers and Rumors

[BBZ8800]

Didnt this had something to do with him not having received the Spanish citizenship by that summer and the number of non-EU players already in the team? He obtained the citizenship later in the fall of 2005.

I dont think the reason matters much, and maybe that was an excuse from laporta to try and justify this insane idea. It shouldn't had crossed anybody's mind to loan him. Some players you just keep at home. Loans rarely work for Barça.

True, Jombi.
In those days, we were allowed to have only 3 (or 4??) non EU players (and EU was different back then, Rakitic was non Eu player, for example), and every time we wanted to buy some player, we were allowed to have only 3 non-Eu players.
It is hard to imagine something like this today, though.
You weren't allowed to buy whomever you want. You needed to check his nationality and how many free foreign spots you have in the team.
So, you couldn't just go out and buy 3 Argentine or Brasilian players each Season...
You could have buy only Spanish, Italian, French and similar EU players, plus Brasilians and Argentine players with a dual citizenship.

I don't remember who was a foreigner then, but probably Ronnie, Etoo, and probably one out of Marquez or Edmilson.

I remember some talk back then how one of them will get a Spanish citizenship, so we will be allowed to buy another foreign player.
Also, there was a lot of cheating on passports back then, and all players suddenly had grandfathers from Italy and similar, to acquire a dual citizenship (EU citizenship).

About Messi, in the current era, he would surely stay if there would be no legal problems.
Back then, he was young, but also, he couldn't play because he was a 4th foreigner.

From Marca:
Leo Messi made his league debut against Barcelona's city rivals Espanyol, but he played only a few minutes, having come on as a substitute for his friend Deco. In fact he hardly did anything on the field at all, but Espanyol had been following his progress for quite some time.
In the junior sides, Messi had played a number of times against Espanyol. And Josep Manel Casanova, in charge of the lower teams, knew all about the boy's potential. One of the things that caught his eye was Messi's maturity, and at the end of that season, Espanyol considered requesting him on loan.
At that time, Messi did not figure very much in the Barcelona side, as ahead of him there were great players like Ronaldinho and Eto'o. Also, he had had problems over his passport and Barcelona chose not to use him to avoid any possible legal problems. Barça were in no way opposed to this loan idea. They knew full well that he could gain useful experience in another First Division club, and there weren't all that many options as Messi did not want to move away from the city. Everything looked to be on course to be signed and sealed in the final days of the 2005 summer transfer window.
However, in the twinkling of an eye, it all fell through. On the 28th August the traditional pre-season Joan Gamper Trophy was held, and Barcelona were playing against Juventus. And that day Leo broke through. He went mad, and attacked the Juventus defence time and again. In the end the Gamper trophy was won by the Italian side, but the Barça fans went wild with delight, knowing they had a new star in their team. They talked of nothing else.

Capello about that case:
Russia manager Fabio Capello spoke on Spanish radio on Wednesday night, where he revealed that he once asked Frank Rijkaard, during a match, if he could take Leo Messi on loan when in charge at Juventus.

"It's completely true that I asked Rijkaard if he would loan me Messi for Juventus. When the play had stopped for a minute (during the Gamper Trophy in 2005) I went over to Rijkaard and said: 'You can't play him because you've got three foreigners already. Why don't you let me have him for a year?' Rijkaard replied: 'We're going to clear up the situation in three or four months and for that reason I can't do it.' That's why Messi's debut was last in coming. I knew the value of my full backs and when I saw Messi play I knew he was special. I could see that he could do things that didn't occur to other players."

++ I don't remember anymore, but yes, he played well on Gamper, and around September, one of our foreigners (I think it was Ronnie or Marquez), suddenly found their grandfather in Italy, and an extra space was created for Messi (or even Messi found his grandfather in Italy, I don't remember anymore).
But I am 99% sure that we "created" one foreign spot suddenly, and that is the reason why we kept Messi (and why we considered to loan him in the first place).

 

[khaled_a_d]

Imo, Italian teams are not a good example for this debate.
Milan crashed not because of their policy but because of a Italian laws in early 2000s since when Italian teams needed to pay much higher taxes then the rest of the Europe, and then they slightly started to overpay and eventually they fell into the debts.

Inter, well, they are the crappiest team in the world, who would never have won a scudetto (something like a modern Liverpool) if Juventus wouldn't have been involved in a fixing scandal.
Then a crappy Inter (crappy because they had the worst sporting project for the last 20-30 years) suddenly bought half of the Juve's squad and with Juve in Seria B, and with Milan in financial problems, they turned into a winning team, when their only opponents were Roma in debts (in debts for the same reasons as other Italian teams, when they overpaid for Batistuta and other players in late 90s and early 00s, and especially since the Italian laws are not friendly towards sport lately) and Lazio in debts.

So, Inter getting on top is something like Atletico or Sevilla now rulling La Liga because Barca would get relegated and punished and Real bankrupted for some reason.

Anyway, I am also for buying older player TODAY while we have Messi.



We can easily buy some younger players in the next 3-4-5 players.
We won't be buying 29 year old players season after Season.

About a right mix of young and older players, well...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_UEFA_Champions_League_Final

Milan in 2007:
-- Dida 34 years in that moment
-- Oddo 31
-- Nesta 31
-- Maldini 39
-- Jankulovski 30
-- Gattuso 29
-- Pirlo 28
-- Ambrosini 30
-- Seedorf 31
-- Kaka 25
-- Inzaghi 34

-- only 3 players younger than 30:
-- Kaka 25
-- Pirlo 28
-- Gattuso 29

So, a mixture of youth and experience is just one option.
There are a lot of options HOW to win a trophy.

For example, our possible team in 4 years (Champions league final 2019):
-- Mats 27
-- Pique 32
-- xx defender
-- Vidal 30
-- Alba 30
-- Busi 31
-- Raki 31
-- xx midfielder (or Turan 32)
-- Messi 32
-- Suarez 32
-- Neymar 27
-- add Bartra 28, Roberto 27, Rafinha 26, Samper 24
-- and at least 1-2 gems will pop up from our La Masia in the next 4 years

Still, a quite "young" team without any player older than 32 (compare that with Milan's winning squads).
But, it is a known fact that Barca's fans are slightly obsessed with youth in general, and that a younger player always looks "better" and with more potential than some player aged 28 or 30.

Also, as I have said, Barca can easily rebuild in only 2 years with 2-3 players each season for 30-40 Millions (some younger players like defenders, midfielders or similar).
About attackers, we will either have Messi until his age 35, so no need to worry there about a new attacker.
Or we will sell him aged 33 for 80-100 Millions and use that money for a new attacker.

So, basically, we have young Neymar and we will have Messi until his retirement.
Basically, the only "expensive" signing which we need is a XX player after Suarez, one day.

And possibly one midfielder.
We have enough of defensive midfielders in Busi, Roberto, Samper.
We have enough of midfielders and we will buy some over years (or produce some new midfielders).
And in defense, we can always just buy a bunch of Mathieu's and Vermaelen's aged 28 for 20 Millions.

So, our future doesn't look that grey even now, when we will have all "older" players.
We will NOT need that many players to rebuild one day.

Italian teams suffered because of lack of youth approaches in addition to their financial problems .that isn't just about Milan or Inter .Even the national team struggled drastically because of it .the only bright prospect in the last half decade signed by French team .not an Italian
Juventus reached new heights in Calcio after half decade of struggles because of a good approach and vision to get young players along the veterans .they reached CL final for 1st time in a dozen years and 1st Italian team to even reach semi-final in last 5 seasons with players like Morata & Pogba as one of their main starts along players at their prime like Vidal ,Bonucci etc .even most of their older player was just 30 at the start of the season
Inter had been always competitive team who has been winning Calcio for 3 consecutive years b4 that treble year,whom they didn't have a single player from Juve btw at that season
Rebuilding is a word that we should avoid ,the fact that you are using it is really worrying .it can happen in a couple of years or couple of decades .consistent retooling and continuation should be every team real priority
There is a lot of ifs in your statement .we have proven we can do really bad in the transfer market b4 .we are already selling prospects after spending only 1 year .you out of all people assuming we will have gems out of La Masia even though it is struggling to bring us a starter since Pedro who is now 28

It isn't like we are talking about total rebuild .but there is no need to play with fire .the team really need more young player signed like we did with Neymar and really work on fixing La Masia and know how to develop youth even if it isn't in the club .look how Chelsea doing it .even RM right now is doing that better than us .

 

[Egert]

Monaco vice-president Vasilyev was yesterday in Barcelona for talks on Aymen Abdennour. No deal, but talks are well-advanced. [footmercato]

 

[xXKonan]

Wouldn't surprise me if he was our Mathieu/Adriano replacement.

 

[ThwiX]

If we buy him, they better sell Adriano.

 

[BBZ8800]

Italian teams suffered because of lack of youth approaches in addition to their financial problems .that isn't just about Milan or Inter .Even the national team struggled drastically because of it .the only bright prospect in the last half decade signed by French team .not an Italian
Juventus reached new heights in Calcio after half decade of struggles because of a good approach and vision to get young players along the veterans .they reached CL final for 1st time in a dozen years and 1st Italian team to even reach semi-final in last 5 seasons with players like Morata & Pogba as one of their main starts along players at their prime like Vidal ,Bonucci etc .even most of their older player was just 30 at the start of the season
Inter had been always competitive team who has been winning Calcio for 3 consecutive years b4 that treble year,whom they didn't have a single player from Juve btw at that season
Rebuilding is a word that we should avoid ,the fact that you are using it is really worrying .it can happen in a couple of years or couple of decades .consistent retooling and continuation should be every team real priority
There is a lot of ifs in your statement .we have proven we can do really bad in the transfer market b4 .we are already selling prospects after spending only 1 year .you out of all people assuming we will have gems out of La Masia even though it is struggling to bring us a starter since Pedro who is now 28

It isn't like we are talking about total rebuild .but there is no need to play with fire .the team really need more young player signed like we did with Neymar and really work on fixing La Masia and know how to develop youth even if it isn't in the club .look how Chelsea doing it .even RM right now is doing that better than us .

Khaled, Italians have a long history of playing with experienced players.
They always had teams usually older then the rest of the world/Europe.

About Inter, they have won their last title in 1989.
During 90s and early 00s, they were a subject of jokes in Italy and Europe because they have invested the largest amount of money, but they were never being able to win anything.
You know that story when Real invests 200-300 Millions, and Barca still wins all titles.

Well, the same was with Inter, except that they invested the largest amount, but Milan, Juve, Roma and Lazio were all better than them, for years.
Yes, Inter won some Uefa cups, but so did Parma.
Italy had 6 extremely strong teams during 1990-2005.
But still, only 4 of them won Seria A titles: Juve, Milan, Lazio and Roma.

In early 2000s, Parma bankrupted, Juve was relegated, Milan faced financial problems and Berlusconi wasn't in charge anymore, Roma almost banrupted, Lazio also almost bankrupted.
And THEN Inter managed to win several titles in a row.

A lot of people who were following Italian league used to say that Inter would have never won any title if Juve wouldn't have been relegated.

you out of all people assuming we will have gems out of La Masia even though it is struggling to bring us a starter since Pedro who is now 28

It isn't like we are talking about total rebuild .but there is no need to play with fire .the team really need more young player signed like we did with Neymar and really work on fixing La Masia and know how to develop youth even if it isn't in the club .look how Chelsea doing it .even RM right now is doing that better than us

When you say that we need younger players like Neymar, well, he is the most expensive signing in our history, and it is the kind of signings that happens once in 5 years usually.
So, expecting from us to follow that route doesn't make sense and it isn't profitable (and we don't have reach investors like Psg, Chelsea or City).

About rebuilding, I think that some of you are too worried and that you think too much about the future.
For the beginning, it is painful, but more or less, Barca was NEVER a favorite in Champions league before Messi days.
There were seasons, like 2006, when we were the best in the world.
But in the next season, we were just a random Top5 club again.

So, imo, some of our fans got used to the fact that we are Barca, that we are the best team in the world and that we can buy and do whatever we want.
Again, most of this happened ONLY or MOSTLY because of Messi.

When Messi will be gone, we will be just one out of best teams along Real, Bayern, Chelsea etc. One out of Big4 or Big5.

More or less, you are worrying that we will lose the title of the best team in the world.
But yes, we will surely lose that title when Messi will be gone.
We will be just a regular mortals again.

So, let's enjoy the last 3-4-5 Messi's years, and let's make a strong team, and after that we will see what to do next.

Imo, you have a few options:
1. let's buy older players, let's win a few CL titles with Messi, and we will think about the future when that moment comes
2. let's already turn to younger players for the future, like Pogba.
-- we will maybe lose CL titles in final Messi's years, but we will have a bright future
3. let's try to mix both NOW and FUTURE, but again, that can be risky, and then we could:
a) both WIN all CL titles in the next 3-4 years and win a lot of titles in the future
b) but also, we can both buy too young players, and lose CL titles now with Messi, and NOT win anything when Messi will be gone, because those young players will turn out to be not good enough (or any player will turn out to be not good enough without Messi)

I may be a pessimist, but I watched Barca's European matches (aka failures) during all 90s and early 00s (the same as you), and I am not too optimistic and romantic that we will be the same team without Messi.
I agree with the current policy, and let's try to win as many titles as we can with Messi.

After Messi, the world will be a much tougher place for us, with or without all Pogbas and Neymars of this world.
Even 5 Pogbas and Neymars won't guarantee CL title in the future.
(I want to say, one Messi alone makes more guarantees for a CL title than 5 players like Neymar, Pogba, Suarez etc together).
That is my opinion.

We won't actually turn into Chicago Bulls after Jordan, but Chicago Bulls will never be those Chicago Bulls with Jordan...

 

[khaled_a_d]

Khaled, Italians have a long history of playing with experienced players.
They always had teams usually older then the rest of the world/Europe.

About Inter, they have won their last title in 1989.
During 90s and early 00s, they were a subject of jokes in Italy and Europe because they have invested the largest amount of money, but they were never being able to win anything.
You know that story when Real invests 200-300 Millions, and Barca still wins all titles.

Well, the same was with Inter, except that they invested the largest amount, but Milan, Juve, Roma and Lazio were all better than them, for years.
Yes, Inter won some Uefa cups, but so did Parma.
Italy had 6 extremely strong teams during 1990-2005.
But still, only 4 of them won Seria A titles: Juve, Milan, Lazio and Roma.

In early 2000s, Parma bankrupted, Juve was relegated, Milan faced financial problems and Berlusconi wasn't in charge anymore, Roma almost banrupted, Lazio also almost bankrupted.
And THEN Inter managed to win several titles in a row.

A lot of people who were following Italian league used to say that Inter would have never won any title if Juve wouldn't have been relegated.

I am not sure why you keep pointing to the fact that they had struggles for some time (that time btw the Italian league was almost the NBA of football ,the fact they were the Jazz during Hakeem/Jordan era doesn't deny they were gr8 side) .they have built a team that won the league for some time .and they have won a CL .that is unrelated to Juve .that was due to gr8 work by the board and one of the best managers in the game as much as I hate to say
But that work was only focused on short term ,it hit back badly

When you say that we need younger players like Neymar, well, he is the most expensive signing in our history, and it is the kind of signings that happens once in 5 years usually.
So, expecting from us to follow that route doesn't make sense and it isn't profitable (and we don't have reach investors like Psg, Chelsea or City).

About rebuilding, I think that some of you are too worried and that you think too much about the future.
For the beginning, it is painful, but more or less, Barca was NEVER a favorite in Champions league before Messi days.
There were seasons, like 2006, when we were the best in the world.
But in the next season, we were just a random Top5 club again.

So, imo, some of our fans got used to the fact that we are Barca, that we are the best team in the world and that we can buy and do whatever we want.
Again, most of this happened ONLY or MOSTLY because of Messi.

When Messi will be gone, we will be just one out of best teams along Real, Bayern, Chelsea etc. One out of Big4 or Big5.

More or less, you are worrying that we will lose the title of the best team in the world.
But yes, we will surely lose that title when Messi will be gone.
We will be just a regular mortals again.

So, let's enjoy the last 3-4-5 Messi's years, and let's make a strong team, and after that we will see what to do next.

Imo, you have a few options:
1. let's buy older players, let's win a few CL titles with Messi, and we will think about the future when that moment comes
2. let's already turn to younger players for the future, like Pogba.
-- we will maybe lose CL titles in final Messi's years, but we will have a bright future
3. let's try to mix both NOW and FUTURE, but again, that can be risky, and then we could:
a) both WIN all CL titles in the next 3-4 years and win a lot of titles in the future
b) but also, we can both buy too young players, and lose CL titles now with Messi, and NOT win anything when Messi will be gone, because those young players will turn out to be not good enough (or any player will turn out to be not good enough without Messi)

I may be a pessimist, but I watched Barca's European matches (aka failures) during all 90s and early 00s (the same as you), and I am not too optimistic and romantic that we will be the same team without Messi.
I agree with the current policy, and let's try to win as many titles as we can with Messi.

After Messi, the world will be a much tougher place for us, with or without all Pogbas and Neymars of this world.
Even 5 Pogbas and Neymars won't guarantee CL title in the future.
(I want to say, one Messi alone makes more guarantees for a CL title than 5 players like Neymar, Pogba, Suarez etc together).
That is my opinion.

We won't actually turn into Chicago Bulls after Jordan, but Chicago Bulls will never be those Chicago Bulls with Jordan...

Look at Barca history and compare it to Bilbao prior to 1988 when Cruijff came to coach us
Barca : 10 league titles ,21 CDR .1 super cup , 3 European Cup Winners
Bilbao : 8 league titles ,23 CDR .1 super cup
Barca Now : 23 league titles ,27 CDR .11 super cup , 4 European Cup Winners ,5 CL ,4 Super cups etc
We weren't much better than freaking Bilbao ,Cruijff came and changed the club .he played huge role in making the club what it is today . Messi can win us 2-3 more CL but we would probably still own Cruijff more
Then came second phase with Laporta ,fixing what Gaspart did and then putting us to way higher level (again with help of Cruijff as advisor btw )
And while I hate to admit ,the Rossel management was able to help the club in establishing itself as world best in the media .they knew how to work with it better .the Messi vs Cr7 and what they got from Laporta era helped .but they helped the club in some aspects too
We became what we are today because of gr8 work for over 2 decades ,work on philosophy ,system ,academy ,sporting vision and high standard
The whole "we aren't gonna be as good after Messi ,let's just seize the opportunity" is basically an insult to hard work that lasted longer than life time of many members here .an insult to many gr8 legends who helped the club a lot and a hit to the future generations of our players .yes we always need to keep gr8 team being gr8 but that again should never be at any price

You are again putting options that suit your opinion .why making a team that would win now means ignore the future?
Why loaning our prospects to the best place they would develop instead of doing it in a random way then assess who is good enough to come back or who we should sell for an actual good price would hurt the team winning now?why having good scouting who is able to get us gems like Varane/Marquinhos/Verratti from time to time rather than Douglas would hurt our chances of winning now? why fixing La Masia who is clearly on decline would hurt our chances to win now?

Why is this even an argument when our coach actually use young players and give them the chance to play .we had only 1 back up forward for 3 positions last year b/c our coach trusted 2 19 years older to provide the team for minutes and if Munir didn't disappoint he could have taken over Pedro role
This isn't basketball for god sake ,the influence of 1 player is way way smaller .an building a team is more complicated man .we lost more CL with Messi than we won .we won 2 CL b4 him .we should always keep our standard high and preparing for future is a never ending process that is done at all level from 30 years old signing to 6 years old kids in the academy .
Messi is the greatest of all time .but life doesn't stop even after the greatest of all time

 

[ebc_99]

Bayern are a good example for us, they had the best team in Europe for 2 or 3 years without a truly top superstar player. When Messi hits his 30's Neymar will be in his prime anyway and if we are smart with transfers we can still assemble a top team and continue to be one of the best 3 or 4 clubs.

 

[Co0ter]

How many times did Messi's incredible individual performances and goals get us through big games and titles? We had one title before 2006, three in what 7 years now? Somehow I think it has a hell of a lot more to do with Messi than Cruyff.

We lost more CL with Messi than we won?! LOL that's all I need to read to know this conversation is going nowhere.

 

[Bran the Greenseer]

How many times did Messi's incredible individual performances and goals get us through big games and titles? We had one title before 2006, three in what 7 years now? Somehow I think it has a hell of a lot more to do with Messi than Cruyff.

We lost more CL with Messi than we won?! LOL that's all I need to read to know this conversation is going nowhere.

And how many CLs would we have won without Iniesta? I'm slashing 2006(his ball for Eto's goal) and 2009. Would we have won this CL without Neymar and Suarez? Porbably not. The years when messi was playing well but everyone else wasn't up to par we lost. The supporting cast is just as important as the star. Bayern were able to make it to what 3 finals in 5 years with Robben as their star? And Neymar WILL be better than him in his prime(Hell you could argue that he is already).

 

[khaled_a_d]

How many times did Messi's incredible individual performances and goals get us through big games and titles? We had one title before 2006, three in what 7 years now? Somehow I think it has a hell of a lot more to do with Messi than Cruyff.

We lost more CL with Messi than we won?! LOL that's all I need to read to know this conversation is going nowhere.

Yup,taking a statement out of Context is always a gr8 response .
And surely ,winning 3 CL didn't have anything with having half of the squad that won 2 Euro and the World cup with Spain ,or developing the academy that produced Messi .or the coaching philosophy that produced Lucho and Pep .or the transfer policy that brought Neymar and Suarez to help him
Messi couldn't even win a Copa America without a gr8 team . Many of our players won a world cup with out him .even the greatest of all time need gr8 squad to win .and while even the greatest squad will be lucky to have a player like him .a good team can win CL without Messi .that is why this called a team sport

 

[BBZ8800]

And how many CLs would we have won without Iniesta? I'm slashing 2006(his ball for Eto's goal) and 2009. Would we have won this CL without Neymar and Suarez? Porbably not. The years when messi was playing well but everyone else wasn't up to par we lost. The supporting cast is just as important as the star. Bayern were able to make it to what 3 finals in 5 years with Robben as their star? And Neymar WILL be better than him in his prime(Hell you could argue that he is already).

Messi is the icing on the cake.

We would won some titles without Messi, like in 1992 and 2006.
But then, we had a lot of teams that were extremely good during 90s and 00s.
But we didn't have Messi.

It is hard to explain in numbers, but this is how I see it:
1. a world BEFORE Messi:
-- who had chances to win a Champions league?
-- Milan 20%, Juventus 15%, Real 15%, Bayern 15%, Man. Utd 15%, Barca 15%, all other teams 5%

2. a world WITH Messi:
-- who had chances to win a Champions league?
1. Barca 50% in each season
2. Real 15%, Bayern 15%, Chelsea/some other top team in that Season 15%, all other teams 5%

3. a world WITHOUT Messi in the future:
-- who will have chances to win a Champions league:
-- Barcelona 20%, Real 20%, Bayern 20%, Chelsea 20%, all other teams 20%

So yes:
1. Barca won trophies BEFORE Messi
2. so yes, a team like Bayern, without superstars CAN win a CL sometimes
3. yes, we would struggle without Xavi and Iniesta also

But the point stands that we WERE NEVER the best team in the world.
We were always one out of top5 teams, even with Romario, Ronaldo (Brasilian), Rivaldo or Ronaldinho.
We were the best team in the world ONLY in the days when we had Messi.

We had Xavis and Iniestas even in the past. Lol, we had one Pep Guardiola, Xavi's teacher, or we had the Lion Lucho Enrique, we had Luis Figo, Rivaldo, Guardiola and Lucho in the same time in our midfield. Did we win CL trophies back then? No, something was always missing.

Xavi was awesome. Iniesta was awesome.
But we had more or less similar players like them over years.
Sometimes we won a CL with similar players, most of the times players like Xavi and Iniesta (alone without Messi) were not good enough.

On the other hand, we never had a player like Messi.

And again, I know, Messi alone without Xavi and Iniesta isn't that great.
But Xavi, Iniesta and Neymar without Messi aren't (imo) enough to do wonders. They would probably win 1 CL in 5-6-10 attempts, that is true.

Imo, if we had Messi in of our teams in 90s or early 00s, we would still win 3-4 CLs in those days.
Imagine Cruijff's dream team with Messi, lol.
Or imagine Van Gaal's Barca with Figo, Rivaldo, Lucho, Guardiola, all Dutch players and Messi. Lol. That team would probably be even stronger than the current team.
But without Messi, they couldn't do anything. Something was always missing.

Imo, people are now putting a too huge emphasis on Pep as a coach, on Xavi, Iniesta, Busi and other players.
Yes, they are a part of a team, and without them, Messi wouldn't be able to win trophies.
But without Messi, we would be just a random strong european team, like Bayern or Chelsea today.

Messi is at least 50% of our team.

But ok, sadly, people who believe that Xavi, Iniesta, Neymar and similar players are enough for CL trophies will probably get a slap in the face by reality when Messi will be gone.

Do you even remember how many Neymars and Iniestas our team had in the past, and was just a regular team, because we didn't have Messi...
Just one example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998–99_FC_Barcelona_season
-- Guardiola, Lucho, Figo, Cocu, Ronald De Boer, young Xavi
-- Rivaldo, Kluivert, Sonny Anderson, Giovanni, Zenden

And the last Season, we won almost all matches with players like Rakitic, Pedro, Rafinha and similar.
I mean, I adore Rakitic and those guys, but if a team from 99' had Messi, then Messi-Rivaldo-Figo-Kluivert-Anderson-Lucho-Guardiola-Cocu would virtually trash any team in the world with like 8:0.

But they didn't.
Because they didn't have Messi.
They had just 11 mortal players who were prone to mistakes and defeats...

(Jordan would never won trophies without Pippen and some other "workers".
But those guys alone would never be even in the top5 teams without Jordan.

Ok, Barca is stronger than Bulls without Jordan, but there are similarities with Messi and Jordan)

 

[xXKonan]

Replacement Left Backs if Adriano leaves.

 

[ThwiX]

Ricardo Rodriguez would really be something. Shame it's MD with their lists again. Never reliable.

 

[DonAK]

Vertonghen one of those who are linked to us every summer.