Not that this takes away from the debate, because I would drive Messi to Manchester myself and swap him with DDG, Martial, and Shaw at once...
The one where his theatrics got Del Horno sent off ?
He's never scored against Chelsea and they've usually been able to keep him quiet. Iniesta on the other hand
Stick a fork in him, cause he is cooked.
It's a tricky swap since Messi could easily go downhill from 29-34 considering how long he's been performing at the highest level. Different story if Messi was couple years younger, a similar talent to Martial isn't hard to come by every 5 years. But a talent like Messi may take decades to show up again.
I just spent 20 minutes on google reading up on the difference between "could" and "couldn't" in that phrase. It confused me way more than it should have and i'm still not convinced which way it should/shouldn't be. I need sleep.
You feel it makes more sense to keep Martial because of things that matter on the pitch but you'd still swap him for Messi because of the off field marketing reasons?
I think the question is whether you'd like to see a definite future 8/10 player who could possibly hit 9/10 developed by the club and watch his development with us over the next decade or whether you'd like to have a 10/10 player in the latter stages of his peak for a shorter period of time.
Ace thread.
Well, when you put it in those terms it's debatable. In fact, I might even go with the former. But, you brought Messi into the conversation. Hands down, the best player in the world (possibly the best ever) and still in his prime. Guess it really depends on if we're talking a year or two of Messi or say, like 5 years. If it's 5 years of Messi vs 10 years of Martial, it's a non-starter for me. Cantona was only with us for 5 years and look at the influence he's had. Players would come to United just for the opportunity to play with Messi, we'd be guaranteed to win silverware, and us fans could say we saw one of the best ever to lace up his boots, play on a weekly basis for Manchester United.
Can you find a post where I suggest we sign a player at a sacrifice of a young star? A large part of the reason I want Zlatan is to mentor Rashford for a season or two.
The same way Schweinsteiger was supposed to be our leader and mentor? How did that work out?
And in 5 years when Martial is hitting peak and Messi is fading, how do you think you'll feel about that?
Great. If we are assuming that Martial will fulfill his potential and become a great player, then I am within my right to assume that one of the best players ever will give us 5 quality years. It's a chance of witnessing this magician, Messi, in a United shirt for the next 5 years and seeing us win plenty of things in that period. I would be delighted.
You're asking if we would turn down arguably the greatest player to have ever played football in favour of a young player who may or may not fulfill the promise he showed in his first season for us. I'd be amazed if previous generations of United fans didn't question the merit of that proposition too.
I think condensing the off-field reasons down to just the marketing benefit would be over-simplifying it. As a supporter, I generally take a longer-term view and I think having Martial at his age will be more beneficial in the long-run than having Messi at his. That being said, I'm pretty ignorant of the off-the-pitch stuff but I think the massive benefit of having someone like Messi would be obvious even to someone like me.
