Messi leaving on a free

[tokyojoe]

20 minutes ago, Anubis said:

It’s all getting a bit messi over at the Nou Camp.

The've never gotten over us twatting them in 2019.

[Lee909]

So he is signing for PSG

 

Who won't be breaking any FFP rules after going full bosman and signing Donnaruma,Gini,Ramos and Messi this summer

They are 100% not cooking the books

[Strontium]

1 hour ago, Colonel Bumcunt said:

Why doesn't Messi go on tour, like sign one-season contracts for big money for teams looking to win their league? He could get 4 or 5 seasons out of it, possibly.

 

Like a latter day Stark

 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

On 05/08/2021 at 19:22, Special K said:

Hopefully it'll be the last we see of Barcelona for a while.

Remember a few years ago Bloos crowing about"absolute levels" because they were signing Delofeu and some other shirt-fillers from Barcelona, while we were going to Southampton for Mané and Virg.

 

Once Everton have touched you...

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Joseba Etxeberria played his last season for Athletic unpaid, because the club was skint. I wonder if Barca have considered asking Messi to do the same for them.

[aws]

We broke them. 

[TheHowieLama]

1 minute ago, aws said:

We broke them. 

And saved them millions.

[LFC 6 Times]

Fairly sad way for him to leave. Comfortably the best player of all time will just slip out the back door of the nou camp.

[KMD7]

7 minutes ago, LFC 6 Times said:

Fairly sad way for him to leave. Comfortably the best player of all time will just slip out the back door of the nou camp.

No chance 

[Lee909]

14 minutes ago, LFC 6 Times said:

Fairly sad way for him to leave. Comfortably the best player of all time will just slip out the back door of the nou camp.

 

4 minutes ago, KMD7 said:

No chance 

 

I agree with KMD7

 

Messi and Ronaldo are two of the greatest players ever, no doubt about that. But playing in todays game where the laws and style of play has changed so much allows them to look as good aswell. Messi likely would never have made it in Maradona era, look how small he is and only the medical treatment Barcelona paid for allowed him to grow to the size he has. Put many of the older players in todays game and with the upgrades in medical and diets etc and they would look as good imho. 

 

 

I was watching a clip of the best and worst of Souness the other day, and laughing at people claiming he could never play today, ignoring how easy he would have adapted his playing style. Watch them clips of the treatment Pele took in the world cups in 62/66 and Maradona right through his career,van Basten having his career cut short as he entered his peak due to the amount of bad challenges down the back of his achilles tendon. Nobody will convince they couldn't have played today and looked even better than they did on the shit pitches,heavy balls and awful physicality they had to deal with. The idea that Messi is far better than anyone thats put on a pair of boots is nuts imo. 

[m0e]

He's still produced unbelievable numbers at the highest level consistently for nearly 20 years.

 

There's no guarantee anyone else would have managed that, and the fact is, he's up against much fitter and much more talented defenders.

 

Let's not pretend he's not up there with the greatest ever.

[KMD7]

1 minute ago, Lee909 said:

 

 

I agree with KMD7

 

Messi and Ronaldo are two of the greatest players ever, no doubt about that. But playing in todays game where the laws and style of play has changed so much allows them to look as good aswell. Messi likely would never have made it in Maradona era, look how small he is and only the medical treatment Barcelona paid for allowed him to grow to the size he has. Put many of the older players in todays game and with the upgrades in medical and diets etc and they would look as good imho. 

 

 

I was watching a clip of the best and worst of Souness the other day, and laughing at people claiming he could never play today, ignoring how easy he would have adapted his playing style. Watch them clips of the treatment Pele took in the world cups in 62/66 and Maradona right through his career,van Basten having his career cut short as he entered his peak due to the amount of bad challenges down the back of his achilles tendon. Nobody will convince they couldn't have played today and looked even better than they did on the shit pitches,heavy balls and awful physicality they had to deal with. The idea that Messi is far better than anyone thats put on a pair of boots is nuts imo. 

This. 

I have no issue with Messi being lauded by people as the Greatest ever, he's got the career and stats to back the claim. But for me, no one is comfortably ahead of Diego when you're having greatest player conversations.

[Lee909]

3 minutes ago, m0e said:

He's still produced unbelievable numbers at the highest level consistently for nearly 20 years.

 

There's no guarantee anyone else would have managed that, and the fact is, he's up against much fitter and much more talented defenders.

 

Let's not pretend he's not up there with the greatest ever.

 

 

Nobody has, my first point was him and Ronaldo are two of the greatest ever, as KMD& has said its the "comfortably greatest ever" thats the issue

[KMD7]

6 minutes ago, m0e said:

He's still produced unbelievable numbers at the highest level consistently for nearly 20 years.

 

There's no guarantee anyone else would have managed that, and the fact is, he's up against much fitter and much more talented defenders.

 

Let's not pretend he's not up there with the greatest ever.

Don't think Lee was saying that in fairness Moe, just putting things into context when discussing different era's

[m0e]

3 minutes ago, Lee909 said:

 

 

Nobody has, my first point was him and Ronaldo are two of the greatest ever, as KMD& has said its the "comfortably greatest ever" thats the issue

That depends on how you want to define it.

 

Maradona didn't have the numbers. No where near. And that has nothing to do with getting fouled a lot.

 

Edit - I re-read your post and 100% agree with the general sentiment. Just offering a different angle on Messi.

[m0e]

Just now, KMD7 said:

Don't think Lee was saying that in fairness Moe, just putting things into context when discussing different era's

Yeah I see that now.

[Baltar]

FFP definitely is dead in the water if Messi goes to PSG. Their wage bill would be astronomical and totally unsustainable unless they're being pumped millions of dollars by the state of Qatar.

[Lee909]

4 minutes ago, m0e said:

That depends on how you want to define it.

 

Maradona didn't have the numbers. No where near. And that has nothing to do with getting fouled a lot.

 

 

 

 

Thats playing in that era in Serie A and yes fouling is a part of it, though Maradona wouldn't have put up Messi numbers as he is a bit of a different player. Also its far easier to put up Messi numbers when you have generally played with ronaldinho,Luis Suarez,Neymar,Griezzman,Xavi,Iniesta etc all your career. Buts thats a whole different argument, the day of the old school maverick number 10 has long gone sadly as the game has changed afr to much for it. 

[m0e]

3 minutes ago, Lee909 said:

 

 

Thats playing in that era in Serie A and yes fouling is a part of it, though Maradona wouldn't have put up Messi numbers as he is a bit of a different player. Also its far easier to put up Messi numbers when you have generally played with ronaldinho,Luis Suarez,Neymar,Griezzman,Xavi,Iniesta etc all your career. Buts thats a whole different argument, the day of the old school maverick number 10 has long gone sadly as the game has changed afr to much for it. 

That's all fair.

 

But you can't honestly be telling me that Maradona performed at a high level for more than 6, maybe 7 years.

 

Talent wise, there are lots of players in the conversation, as you pointed out.

 

But in terms of performance levels, consistency, and when compared to those in their own era, Messi and Ronaldo are definitely up there with the best ever, and I can't think of many rivals.

[Lee909]

2 minutes ago, m0e said:

That's all fair.

 

But you can't honestly be telling me that Maradona performed at a high level for more than 6, maybe 7 years.

 

Talent wise, there are lots of players in the conversation, as you pointed out.

 

But in terms of performance levels, consistency, and when compared to those in their own era, Messi and Ronaldo are definitely up there with the best ever, and I can't think of many rivals.

 

Maradona no a far shorter peak,he goes into the same lists with Gazza,Best, Garrincha as just to flawed off the field to do it. Again though you where done at 32 in earlier era, the advance in medicine and professionalism has added 5 years onto many players,as has the clampdown on tackling. Maradona did put up a good 8-10 years of fantastic football from breaking tbrough at 15/16 to his end at Napoli. 

 

 

I will fully admit to bias on older players as i preferred the game and glad i caught the tail end of the 80s to mid 90s and grew up getting old tapes of old games. I find football and players just very sterile today, athleticism can get players careers. I do think it likely growing up at a time when we didn't always have the money for sky so id say 70% of what i watched was Serie A and Champions league on itv and Channel . I didn't find Serie A boring and outside of Batistuta and Baggio the players i liked played as a  sweeper or what we woupd call a 6 or 10 today. 

[Aventus]

1 hour ago, Lee909 said:

 

 

I agree with KMD7

 

Messi and Ronaldo are two of the greatest players ever, no doubt about that. But playing in todays game where the laws and style of play has changed so much allows them to look as good aswell. Messi likely would never have made it in Maradona era, look how small he is and only the medical treatment Barcelona paid for allowed him to grow to the size he has. Put many of the older players in todays game and with the upgrades in medical and diets etc and they would look as good imho. 

 

 

I was watching a clip of the best and worst of Souness the other day, and laughing at people claiming he could never play today, ignoring how easy he would have adapted his playing style. Watch them clips of the treatment Pele took in the world cups in 62/66 and Maradona right through his career,van Basten having his career cut short as he entered his peak due to the amount of bad challenges down the back of his achilles tendon. Nobody will convince they couldn't have played today and looked even better than they did on the shit pitches,heavy balls and awful physicality they had to deal with. The idea that Messi is far better than anyone thats put on a pair of boots is nuts imo. 

Just imagine how many goals Dixie Dean would have scored. 

[DalyanPete]

6 hours ago, Aventus said:

Just imagine how many goals Dixie Dean would have scored. 

Nail on head and end of discussion

[Arniepie]

Maradonna for me.

Come very close to winning 2 consecutive world cups and that's not even taking into account what he did domestically.

Messi and Ronaldo are without a doubt in the conversation  but maradonna is top of the tree.

Phenomenal player.

[No2]

I think the best players would always be the best players regardless of generation. Ian Rush would put up Ronaldo type numbers if he was playing now, John Barnes would probably be in an inverted forward like Salah, it's only the Toshak type big man and hatchers like Gary Linekar that would struggle in the modern game. Souness would be the worlds best midfielder by a country mile. If Messi and Maradona swapped era's the results would be the same. 

[Harry Squatter]

9 hours ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Joseba Etxeberria played his last season for Athletic unpaid, because the club was skint. I wonder if Barca have considered asking Messi to do the same for them.

The greedy bastard is one of the reasons why Barcelona are in the shit financially. He could easily play for nothing and live off his endorsements until he retires. As soon as he doesn't get what he wants he is leaving.

 

Yet all the fans are outside the ground crying like someone has died.