Fati_Future_BallonDor
Well-known member
Kim Kardashian was there...
Lionel "The Greatest of All Time" Messi V2
- Thread starter Barcaman
- Start date
CatalinR10
Senior Member
Iniesta Ultra
Senior Member
Hoping Miami pick up Puig now too.
ThwiX
Best midfielder around
Apparently one of the best players in the league so definitely a player they should get and need. Won’t be easy to lure him away from LA, tho.
Temptation
Well-known member
Would love to see Messi interact with Hollywood celebs. Personality is very different from Holly celebs so it'll make for an awkward encounter.
Out of curiosity, since when have you been following Barca? Every ultra successful period in football history is followed by years of average/mediocrity. RM went 32 years without an European cup between 1966 and 1988. Bayern went 25 years without one between 1976 and 2001. You have to keep this in mind first and foremost before just looking at the last 5-6 years at Barcelona.
You need to evaluate Messi and his Barcelona impact within the historical picture and not turn into "but but sporting project and amigos" parrot like you've been doing recently. Not hating on you as I do like your posts but I see one variation of this theme or another in your posts on Messi these days.
The broader picture is: Messi's rise (along with Xavi, Iniesta, Pep as the other main contributors) coincided with 4 CLs and 10 LLs in the most competitive era in LL history (AM being multiple time CL finalist, RM having their strongest era also or at least joint strongest, Sevilla winning like 5 Europa cups). 1,000 G+A. We also beat RM the majority of the time and handed them historic beatdowns during this 15 year stretch.
Messi loves money. He likes control. Not a single poster here has claimed he was a charity worker. Imagine you are a consensus GOAT in your profession...you wouldn't want to be paid and have things your way?But even then, I've found him to be reasonable relative to what he brings to the table. You simply can't argue with the results. For Barca, those CLs and LLs, and for Argentina, he led them to 2 WC finals, won Argentina the world cup, and other continental cups too.
Contrast that with wastemen like Lewa or Dembele, especially the latter whose agent tried to hold us hostage in the past and all this waste of jersey has contributed so far has been FUCK ALL in the business end of the season in CL or even key LL games. At least FUCK ALL compared to the 250 million we've invested in him so far. Messi's 550 million look like a fucking bargain in comparison, and let's not forget, he was dirt cheap for us, for his playing level, in his absolute prime (08-15).
What I would counter you and Birdy, and others on, is to focus on the other, unproven deadweights we have. Bartomeu in the past, Countinho, Dembele etc. etc. Don't waste your energy shitting on GOATs like Messi, Pep, Xavi, Iniesta. More often than not, they'll end up making you look like a
Earliest re-collection, the 94 CL final, so I'm born a sadist fan who endured the Gaspart years.
Messi being the Greatest ever, and the LaMasia generation of our most successful era, are a separate entity to how we reacted to their regeneration. And you not being able to separate the two is precisely what Bartomeu did leading to no succession plan, no ruthless culling of players who were past it, and the financial ruin of contracts increasing while sporting performance decreased.
I stated previously that in terms of Barcelona's Messi, he was always the franchise player and should have been paid as such. But the big issue was paying the surrounding players (lets call them the amigos) as franchise players while their performances diminished. And all of them together had too much pull to make the hard decisions.
Now to the last point, you are correct in a way. That we failed to acquire the supporting cast, and especially failed to replace Neymar, Iniesta, Xavi and Iniesta. That is undeniable. But what the post Covid bubble has exposed is that also, there is a salary cap, and that we were so heavily invested into that cap being towards Busquets, Messi, Alba, Suarez and there wasn't any room left to assemble the correct supporting players.
Anyways, it is done now, and everybody wins. Enjoy Inter Miami.
KingLeo10
Senior Member
Even the most ruthless club around haven't been able to be fully ruthless with their legends - see Modric and Kroos still being mainstays in the RM midfield last season.
It's easy to say in principle, but difficult to implement in practice. That's why the data almost always shows periods of great success at clubs is followed by periods of barren and struggles.
Don Juan Laporta Estruch
Well-known member
All the fawning over him with all the celebrities has become somewhat cringeworthy. It's sad to see him like this, an almost Harlem Globetrotters style act. He should still be competing at the highest level in Europe.
I won't be watching any MLS this season, nor will I be tuning in to the Saudi league, even though the best players in the world now play there, according to Ronaldo.
I'm actually surprised people here watched it last night.
I won't be watching any MLS this season, nor will I be tuning in to the Saudi league, even though the best players in the world now play there, according to Ronaldo.
I'm actually surprised people here watched it last night.
DonAK
President of FC Barcelona
Spending 400m and Dembele the only being a success, I guess, is arguably a bigger reason for our downfall. Not even counting the tens of millions wasted on other shit players.
And even with Dembele they went in with a 70-80m budget and ended up paying like 135m lol including add-ons which were supposedly easy to get.
Do you mean there wasn't enough left over after covid ruined our revenue or that there wasn't the salary room in the club prior to covid? Because the latter wouldn't be true at all.
soul24rage
Senior Member
Home of Barca Fans
