What a joke story this has been. You'd have to think that Woodward played a part 
Lionel Messi
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
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Done exactly what rooney done with united and he still gets hounded for it today
Yep. Basically realised he wasn’t going to get his way. He’s now trying to spin this as some amicable gesture to step away and help Barca rebuild themselves, rather than the more accurate description of fleeing the sinking ship for a big fat payday.
And yet people still lap it up
Is that your answer to every opposing view to yours? Take a day off?
There are two (or more) sides, and none of us on here know 100% what the true motives are, so as folks do on a notice board, they're giving opinions based on the info available
Pushing to leave on a free though? That's just wrong. Barca should not get nothing for the best player in the world when he still has a contract.
On the other hand insisting on 700M is not right either, and both parties have made questionable decisions in agreeing these contract clauses.
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Fair enough. I was fairly certain he wouldn't have left. How many times have we seen reports of him giving up on Argentina?
He's quite good at controlling the narrative. Saying he doesn't want to go through court with Barca out of his love for the club has worked. In reality, going through court would consume too much of his time. Why go through all that when he can just leave on a free next season? He'd also have the bonus of waiting and seeing if the board are gone by then or if Koeman manages to make them competitive again.
Absolutely mess(i) and going to get worst. If I was a player, that's the last place I'd want to join. Your career could get lost in the madness over the next few years.....
Yeah sure, try taking that to court and see who wins. Messi literally just tried to and lost.
I can’t think of another player in world football who would get away with these comments. Even if they are true (which they seem to be)... but then I can’t think of a player who literally means as much to any one club as he does, probably throughout history we haven’t seen anything like him.
it would be a big move for the club to let him leave in these circumstances, it wouldn’t be worth the fan backlash, hence why they obviously are so desperate to keep him, maybe they can iron out the differences and he stays and finishes his career with the club, easily the greatest player in the their history.
Can you honestly imagine anyone else making comments like these about the club the play for and getting away with it? I will wait
it would be a big move for the club to let him leave in these circumstances, it wouldn’t be worth the fan backlash, hence why they obviously are so desperate to keep him, maybe they can iron out the differences and he stays and finishes his career with the club, easily the greatest player in the their history.
Can you honestly imagine anyone else making comments like these about the club the play for and getting away with it? I will wait
The transfer window would have likely closed by the time a court battle had been concluded anyway.
If he was genuinely interested in moving for a fee, then he would continue to negotiate with Barca and City to find a compromise. But he doesn’t. He wants to leave for free as it’s more money in his pocket. It’s a case of “I can’t leave on a free transfer now, so I’m going to do it next season”
Remind me when he went to court?
He literally said he didn’t want to take legal action.
Spanner.
Did you start following football yesterday? Neymar? Bale?I can’t think of another player in world football who would get away with these comments. Even if they are true (which they seem to be)... but then I can’t think of a player who literally means as much to any one club as he does, probably throughout history we haven’t seen anything like him.
it would be a big move for the club to let him leave in these circumstances, it wouldn’t be worth the fan backlash, hence why they obviously are so desperate to keep him, maybe they can iron out the differences and he stays and finishes his career with the club, easily the greatest player in the their history.
Can you honestly imagine anyone else making comments like these about the club the play for and getting away with it? I will wait
I think the issue is Messi has a clause that states he can leav
And we complain about Ed...
He basically did. Agreeing with blatter's slave comment and all that.
No reason it wouldn't. Verbal agreements are not privileged less than written ones.
The tricky part is establishing verbal agreements in cases of dispute, where he becomes a matter of one's word against another. Written agreements don't have this kind of ambiguity.
At this point you're dealing with trolls and/or people who are willfully/unknowingly being ignorant about the situation, and imprinting their personal biases on it
Guess he'd be fine if City and Barca find an agreement. He won't insist on going for free. He played the ball to Barca. Let's see what happens now.
To be fair, Rooney was trying to leave for citeh.
Imagine if messi tried to force a move to real madrid?
Sad but true!
I also don’t get this ambition thing. You can perhaps claim they bought badly (though most players were highly rated and sought after) but they have spent an absolute shedload!
I could create a counter argument that it’s Messi fault for not finding a way to integrate with such proven world class talent.
Barcelona are actually daft to to not sell messi with money and maybe 3 players to city. The guy leaves on a free next year. This was basically the ticket to a new rebuild.
Lets be honest messi is still worldclass at 33 but with a year left and so many aging players at the club this was the opportunity to head in a new direction.
Lets be honest messi is still worldclass at 33 but with a year left and so many aging players at the club this was the opportunity to head in a new direction.
Rooney wasn’t even from our youth academy and was already highly developed when we signed him!
Messi was a kid who couldn’t afford to buy a bread roll!
"Barca behaved professionally" and now you have completely lost the plot. Barto had instructed the offices to not answer ANY phone calls, they had been ghosting Messi's camp for weeks. All season long Messi told them he wanted to leave and they ignored or brushed him aside. He was never going to terminate the contract by June 10 due to the season still being in play. You complain about throwing the team chaos, but if Messi terminated his contract in the middle of the season everything would go belly up.
Why did Madrid accept less than Ronaldo's billion euro clause? But they did because he wanted to leave so they negotiated a 100M exit with Juventus. Barca hasn't the slightest clue with any direction or vision for several seasons now. Extremely poor hirings (Abidal was a legacy hiring, never ever a good technical director, he had zero experience). The problem is Barca didn't even want to attempt to negotiate with City for any fee. And what good is 150 million? It's very good in a rebuild year. What good was 222 million for Neymar? It's good when you don't squander the money with one moronic signing after another. To even begin to attempt to say the board behaved professional is an absolute joke. And the board was always trying to spin this as Messi being difficult. They are made up of politicians after all. Another user posted a great breakdown of all the things the board have done wrong in recent years, but yes, according to you, Messi is the bad guy here. The letter Mesi's father sent was a letter based on the contract and rejecting the fact that La Liga and Barca didn't see it as valid. He didn't need to mention compensation for a trasnfer fee bcause that wasn't in the original contract. They always wanted Barca to get some sort of compensation for his transfer but when Barca won't even begin to negotiate in good faith, it was never going to happen.
To even begin to attempt to defend the board in this situation show's how little you know, with all due respect. Check this out for how appalling of a job they hve done at running things. They are literally one of the least professional boards in the world for a major football club:
https://webcache.googleusercontent....tting_the_cardinal/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca
Honestly, Xavi loves Messi and will convince him to stay once the elections come into play. Xavi hates the toxic board hence why he turned down the job in January. Even Puyol was applauding Messi for leaving. That says it all. I don't want Xavi as manager as he doesn't have enough experience, but Messi is very fond of him and really respects him and vice versa from what I understand.
There is a clip of the president stating the terms of messi's free get out clause, maybe a year old or two. If it was granted by the club in the first place people cant blame the player for trying to claim it. People going on like he hijacked the club
Great questions.
a) No, that would be the worst, but considering he had this clause put in back in 2017, the board were the ones who accepted it being in there. Even if he left for free, Barca would still get his 100M wages off the books, plu the 63M singing bonus he would get if he remained with the team up until 2021.
b) That would be awful but I genuinly don't think Messi would do that. I genuinely think he loves the club and fans, but hates the board. He wouldn't sabotage them like that.
c) Well this is where you shouldn't keep a disgruntled player on the team. It's why Madrid sold Ronaldo despite him being under contract, and why they should've sold Bale to China when they had the chance instead of the comical circus around him. I do think Messi will give it a proper go, he only has a few years left hence the desperation to go to a competent team, not one run by children.
Good find!
Ronaldo did though. Difference is that Madrid were willing to sell him when he wanted out. Not holding him hostage.
Going to be a very interesting dressing room when Messi walks back into it.
Ronaldo said we enslaved him in 2008. And we still begged him to stay for another year...I can’t think of another player in world football who would get away with these comments. Even if they are true (which they seem to be)... but then I can’t think of a player who literally means as much to any one club as he does, probably throughout history we haven’t seen anything like him.
it would be a big move for the club to let him leave in these circumstances, it wouldn’t be worth the fan backlash, hence why they obviously are so desperate to keep him, maybe they can iron out the differences and he stays and finishes his career with the club, easily the greatest player in the their history.
Can you honestly imagine anyone else making comments like these about the club the play for and getting away with it? I will wait
I am not getting it either but not surprised at all to read a lot of pro Messi comments. Yes the board is bad but neither Messi nor Barcelona have the god given right to win every season. They came 2nd in the league and haven‘t won the CL since 2015! Wow, huge deal! They are allowed to come 2nd and not perform well in the CL for a few years just like every other big club. Barcelona can sign or develop whoever they want but hardly anyone will come close to Xavi/Iniesta or Neymar + Suarez in their prime.
Barca should just sell him for the highest possible price someone is willing to pay, rather than being hell bent on keeping him against his wishes. They have to let go sometime and think of life beyond him someday..
There's obviously no way anyone pays his 630m release fee, and as much I hate to see City get him, if they offered 150m, Barca should absolutely take it.
They could reinvest in 3 much needed top players for that.
There's obviously no way anyone pays his 630m release fee, and as much I hate to see City get him, if they offered 150m, Barca should absolutely take it.
They could reinvest in 3 much needed top players for that.
Ronaldo to Madrid is not the same as what messi is to Barcelona though.
Ronaldo has been to various clubs throughout his career. Messi has only ever played professionally for Barca. The love the fans have for him at that club are almost god like. Ronaldo didn’t get the same love at Madrid as what he does at Barca. Can’t imagine them ever waving white hankies at him!
He is god in their quarters. A idol like no other.
Blatter said that. Ronaldo's only fault was agreeing with Blatter.
Genuine question - you keep claiming that Messi did not want to leave on a free and always wanted Barca to get paid. Can you provide any link to back this up?
From the outside looking in, Messi has tried to enforce a clause that allows him to leave for free. What makes you so adamant that he is trying to do anything g else? Can you back that belief up?
It is a huge deal considering the resources they have in their disposal and the insane ammount of money they have splashed out on Dembele, Coutinho and Griezmann. They got De Jong, Ter Stege etc. All top young players at their position. No Barto fan, but he did invest hugely in the team. Just not wisely.
I think all Messi asked for was just Neymar. Griezmann and Coutinho just arent Barca players in mine opinion. I genuinely believe that in Griezmann's case that Messi just doesnt like him. Dembele's situation can be resolved because I think he's got the goods to become a real Barca player.
It’s a testament to how dull a transfer window this has been for us that this thread is still going strong 103 pages of nothing later.
begin thread
Messi: Can I leave?
Barca: Nah
Messi: Didn’t think so
end thread
begin thread
Messi: Can I leave?
Barca: Nah
Messi: Didn’t think so
end thread
Sure, but you could say this about almost any top club. Maybe Aguero and Co should start blaming the City „project“ as well because despite the money spent and a world class manager they only came 2nd and still haven’t come close to winning the CL? Or maybe he should just move to serial CL winners RM? But even then there is no guarantee that he would have more success there than he had at Barca in the last few years.
Fair enough if he wants a new challenge but I can‘t buy in the idea of Barca being the villain and him the victim.
He specifically said that there was no project whatsoever in the last few years, the board only tried to plug holes without a long term vision or anything like that. City definitely has one. I mean, not even Barca fans themselves deny that. There are the ones that defend Messi, there are the ones that criticize him (though the interview may have convinced many of those I guess) but you won't find a single one defending Bartomeu.
Barc a paid a PR agency in order to publicly damage the reputation of Messi (among others, like Pique, Xavi and Laporte) ffs. And not in the context of this transfer request but the election campaign of Bartomeu. This story surfaced as early as February and the allegations seem profound enough for the Spanish police to start fraud investigations. Let that sink in, this is completely wicked.
Honestly, I can't understand people not siding with Messi in this whole circus. Yes, Barca is the villain in this story. The only reason Messi's still there seems to be that he's not willing to drag them to court.
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