different management now, Laporta has done a superb job so far considering the circumstances
Lionel Messi’s Obscene Contract
- Thread starter Port Vale Devil
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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.
What, a million and a half per week?
2, 3 times Neymar?
Few times any City player? (Well, on the books anyway)
down by 310%
If we "just gotta think logically", Barcelonas wages would never have been 85% of the total revenue, or carrying a wage bill that was about the same size as Liverpool and Manchester Uniteds combined total, nor would your debt be €1.2billion.
But yes, the potential £170mill two year contract, for one player, is clearly affordable wages for Barcelona
Hasn't he been in less than a year...?
I get the impression that you don't fully understand just how insane his wages are....You're talking more than doubling Neymars wages, stick him in Manchester City and his current wages would cause a 24% increase on Citys total wage bill. Manchester United and it'd be a 30% increase, Tottenham and it's a 47% increase.
We're talking some pretty fecking extreme numbers, to the point where it's highly unlikely that anyone else would come close to being daft enough to offer the same.
Yes and already far better than Barto who got Barca in this mess in the first place
But to say someone who's been in the job ten months or whatever has done a superb job so far...bit of a stretch, no?! He's barely passed his probationary period!
honestly Mate, the bar is so low from Barto that signing players on a free and dumping griezmann’s insane contract is a god send
I honestly don't think they'd pay him that much. Barcelona have been had.
Because the Barca fans would lynch whchever president lets him leave.
Hahaha fair enough...does sound like he's making the right moves having been left an absolute mess!
I struggle to choose between Barca's stupidity and Messi's agent being top quality.
So why is this a bad deal for Barcelona?
Because they're living well beyond their means and this is an absolutely massive contract?
Erm, they've wasted feckloads of money on non performing players. Get rid of them, or sell the chap who carries your team year in year out who also happens to be one of the greatest players to have played the sport? If Messi wants (that's key), he still has plenty of football left at the highest level. To half his wages and get rid of non performers like Griezmann, Coutingo etc is a definite win for Barcelona.
However, it won't mean much if they keep signing players like Aguero and Memphis but that's another issue.
I get that logic and agree but shedding those kinds of players won't be easy (they'll do well to get rid of griez to Atleti), whereas getting shot of Messi's absurd wages is an option. I reckon they should rip the plaster off with an eye on the long-term financial health of the club. Given their current financial state surely they should be jumping at any chance they can get to make those kinds of savings? I mean, even with Messi, can you see them winning La Liga or CL in the next few years? I genuinely can't.
Because they are financially a mess and Messi is 34. They have start thinking long term. Personally i think Messi resigning is a bad deal for him because they arent going to win much
Don't you think the current situation would provide the perfect reasoning to justify his departure? Laporta could put all the blame on Bartomeu and say that unfortunately there was no way to keep Messi without ruining the club. IMO it's speaking volumes that not only the Barca board but apparently even the. League are so keen on keeping him in the league. If that study is based on fantasy numbers or not but it seems many professional boards think Messi leaving would be a catastrophe not only for Barca but also the league.
I believe they have understood the need for a rebuild. Which is why they're pursuing those free transfers in the market abd trusting young plaaers such as Pedri, Fati, de Jong, Dest, Mingueza, Moriba, etc. But the signs are there that Messi in fact is so important for their revenue that losing him would make the rebuild much more difficult. Especially if you can keep him at 50% of his former wages.
I'd say this is a case of necessity being the mother of invention rather than any long term strategy. They really don't have any other options than to trust them. As for the 'Messi is so important to revenue that they'd be in trouble without him' argument - it's been done to death in this thread. Needless to say I land on the sceptical side.
The best innovations are driven by necessity
But I get your point. The fact that Barca considers a swap deal with Koke made me skeptical again, too. Has Pjanic written al over it again. Bringing in another CM when you have Pedri, de Jong, Puig and Moriba as young talents doesn't really signal 'we trust the young players'.Very true, tbf. These woes could actually turn out to be a good thing for them, long-term, if it breaks the 'sign flavour of the month for crazy money and pay them insane wages' cycle.The best innovations are driven by necessity
Makes zero sense, bloke is 34. Much better to release that ridiculous sum of money from the books and use this as the reset for the future.
Barça were fine before Messi, European Champions in fact, right now they are “meh” even with him, they will be fine after Messi.
A real shame, a monster club turning themselves into a laughing stock over one player.
Barça were fine before Messi, European Champions in fact, right now they are “meh” even with him, they will be fine after Messi.
A real shame, a monster club turning themselves into a laughing stock over one player.
not really
Because they know that without him their team is nothing.
the money he earns there is financially illogical, they are putting one player above absolutely everything. No player should be bigger than the club.
its 2 different issues.
Then what is it, really?
No doubt there are 3-4 clubs which would pay Messi £60m+ sign-on bonus and then £500-700k p/w for next two, three seasons so he's never gonna take a pay-cut at Barca. It's only about how to deal with La Liga's FFP plus good PR / propaganda.
Clever accounting, they are just spreading his fee over a longer period to comply with regulations.
If he leaves next summer they still have to him a salary for 5 years?
They didn't half his wages. He's getting 170mil for 2 years effectively with bonuses.
Its 1.6million a week average
There's a contact termination bonus after 2 years.
Those are the claims, yes. Prior to his renewal being made public, there were plenty of claims they were going to give him a contract where he'd go on to be an ambassador for the club with the same wages. It seems like this is a slightly different setup, but the concept is pretty much the same
I'm not sure I understand the contract. Here's my best understanding of it...
It's a 5-year contract that includes a salary (which is 50% less than the last one) and a sign on bonus (unknown amount) which is presumably amortised over the 5 years. However there's a clause saying he can break away at two years. At that point he stops receiving salary but is still receiving the amortisation of the sign on bonus from Barca. He could potentially sign a new contract then with a new sign-on bonus.
Have I got this right?
It's a 5-year contract that includes a salary (which is 50% less than the last one) and a sign on bonus (unknown amount) which is presumably amortised over the 5 years. However there's a clause saying he can break away at two years. At that point he stops receiving salary but is still receiving the amortisation of the sign on bonus from Barca. He could potentially sign a new contract then with a new sign-on bonus.
Have I got this right?
That's the way I understood it as well. The ESPN press pass crew claim that there is a break clause int he contract that Barcelona themselves can exercise in 2 years but that, if they were to do that, they would have to pay him a significant lump-sum.
The club has a 80M debt with Messi for unpaid wages.
You guys come here without sources, just some journalist spewing some banter on a tweet, and then jump to the conclusion that he's not really taking a 50% paycut, but that he's even going to raise what he would earn with the old contract over the next 2 seasons, and you expect everyone to believe it?
No one knows how much is the signing fee, how the club is going to pay him the 80M debt, how much of his wages will be base or objectives, not even him knows if he's going to retire in 2 years, go to MLS or keep playing, but yet random people already "know" he's going to cost the team 170M the next two years, ok then.
Are you saying there ISN'T a break clause after two years, where Barca would have to pay him the rest regardless?
What I'm saying is that I haven't read a source talking about the amount of that clause, I can't find anywhere the numbers said in the tweet two pages ago, and in Spanish only AS give any insight about that clause.
https://as.com/futbol/2021/07/14/primera/1626267346_544435.html
20M net this season.
Bigger wages next season.
Messi could break his contract after the second season, but it doesn't state any sum, why would he get money for being let go free? That's an upgrade from his previous contract situation, it's nonsense.
If he continues 3 more seasons, his wages would reduce on a yearly basis.
Under no circumstance,the contract could go beyond 200M (that's a limitation by La Liga to prevent the new board for making up the books like Bartomeu did).
So, what we get is.
1) Messi still has to earn 80M from his old contract on delayed wages.
2) Messi will earn 20M net this year
3) We don't know how much he's going to earn next season
4) We do know that the whole amount of the 5 year contract can't go above 200M
With those numbers, to achieve the 170M per 2 years being thrown around here, knowing he will earn around 40M gross this season, he would need to either earn 130M next season (absurd). If you go by the 200M/4year number, it's 40M per year, 2nd year he earns more than 3rd,4th and 5th, so you can realistically assume that he would cost what, ¿60M gross?, that still means a 70M payoff for breaking his contract unilaterally, the board won't accept that and surely La Liga won't play ball to that, Then there's this notion that he would get to play in MLS AND get the rest of his salary when it doesn't work that way, even in the worst case scenario if he had to earn 120M for the next 3 seasons, the amount he earns in the MLS would be deducted from those 120M.
What I believe will happen.
40+60M secured for the next two years, plus the 80M we owe him and he obviously has to get, that's 180M right there, which makes sense, yes he's going to "cost us" 180M in the next two years, but because we still owe him from his last contract, that money can't be renegotiated. If you read the last 2 pages in this thread people are saying that he's not really getting a 50% wage cut and that, with their calculations, he was effectively earning even more than under Bartomeu, 0 logic behind that.
We don't even know if the signing bonus will be basically paying him the money owed, or if it's a new sum, how much is it, and if it's a new sum, it would make sense for the club and Leo to halt how much it's going to be until the transfer is complete and they know which margin they will operate with in the next 2 year's balance.
People come here to post like Messi is just trying to milk us dry and screw the club, we're talking about a player who's owed millions by the club and didn't even mention it, who was slandered by the old board and only lashed out at the end of the drama, who could leave for free and earn more money and chose to stay because he didn't want to go to war against the club, and even didn't protest when another team came to buy him with 100M and the board still said nay. Messi will get paid as the best because he's the best, but at the same time, and specially with a competent board and respect between them, he's not going to screw the club for a big payday in 2022 because someone said so in Twitter or RedCafe.
TL.DR .... there IS a break clause.
Kidding. Thanks for detailed post. Personally, I've got no idea what's true but it does seem a lot of money in the position Barca are in.
I've seen posts justifying it because (a) the player he is (acceptable) and (b) the money he brings in (maybe, not convinced sponsors walk away from Barca/reduction yes and some of the calcs compare Barca with Messi Vs Barca without Messi (I..e ignoring what another player may bring in instead).
If he wins them trophies, maybe it's worth it. If he doesn't (and it's just about income)....
take a ******* bow