Football: Ending the Season with a Title Hattrick

[baxus]

I don't think any player is worth remotely that, especially at the age of 33 and trying out in an unfamiliar setting of the new league.

As for Messi being without question the best ever, I'm not sure that's true. I do think he is the best in last decade and a half or two, but I do see a case being made that Cristiano Ronaldo is close enough to start a discussion. Comparing either of them to players who played 30 years ago is pointless for obvious reasons.

[Soylent Brown]

5 hours ago, polishgenius said:

Weird how it's the Liverpool fans going all old-school MDF here but I'm the biased one. I didn't even say anything bad about Messi - I was criticizing Guardiola - and it was straight to the you must hate Messi coz Ronaldo played for United!?!? 


 

You do hate Messi because Ronaldo played for United though! Just like you're completely on Ibrahimovic's side because he played for United too.

I think Guardiola handled the situation really poorly on the man-management side of things, but I don't think he was wrong in looking to move him on.

[Pdor]

2 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Does anyone think messi is remotely worth what he would cost anymore? 75 million a year in wages? For a 33 year old who while still amazing (top 10) is only going one way. 

On the field not that much, not without Xavi and Iniesta.

As a marketing move, on the other hand, of course the answer is yes. Whoever hires him will benefit from it.

[Consigliere]

5 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Does anyone think messi is remotely worth what he would cost anymore? 75 million a year in wages? For a 33 year old who while still amazing (top 10) is only going one way. 

If he joins on a free then yes. It's a no brainer. Yeah, his wages are massive but he's also the most marketable player in the world. I doubt he will sign a long term contract either (3 years at most) since he has mentioned before that he would like to finish his career at Newell's Old Boys. If Messi goes to City then I'd expect that move to work out a lot better than Ronaldo's move to Juve since City have a much better team whereas Juve spent all that money on Ronaldo only to put a zombie midfield behind him. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

9 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

If he joins on a free then yes. It's a no brainer. Yeah, his wages are massive but he's also the most marketable player in the world. I doubt he will sign a long term contract either (3 years at most) since he has mentioned before that he would like to finish his career at Newell's Old Boys. If Messi goes to City then I'd expect that move to work out a lot better than Ronaldo's move to Juve since City have a much better team whereas Juve spent all that money on Ronaldo only to put a zombie midfield behind him. 

Plus, if Messi really had forced a free transfer, I would put that into the, still wants to win something category. But like I said, I think Barca's position that he was too late to trigger his release clause is sound.

Going down to the less fancy transfer business about players not named Messi.

Weston McKennie on his way to Juve. Rumoredly it's a one year loan, with either an option to buy or an obligation to buy. Overall volume of the transfer is supposed to be around 25m €, which Schalke desperately needs.

Going back to the Ballon d'Or discussion, the Bayern officials seem pretty certain it will be awarded afterall this year, and they pushing for, wait for it, Robert Lewandowski to win it. Shocking I know, but definately most deserving candidate this year (no offense to Jordan Henderson).

[Heartofice]

24 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

If he joins on a free then yes. It's a no brainer. 

I think even if he managed to leave on a free there might be the possibility that somewhere down the road Barca are going to use the courts to try and extract money from they buying club and they could be on the line for a large fee. It might make some buyers think twice. 

Still I think that wherever he goes you would need to build a team around him that works harder and allows for his moments of magic, its not a matter of slotting him into any side and them automatically becoming better. 

[Consigliere]

10 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

I think even if he managed to leave on a free there might be the possibility that somewhere down the road Barca are going to use the courts to try and extract money from they buying club and they could be on the line for a large fee. It might make some buyers think twice. 

I don't think any team is signing Messi without confirmation first that they wouldn't be on the hook for a transfer fee. If Messi is adamant on leaving then I think he will reach some kind of agreement with Barca (like Ronaldo did with Perez).

 

10 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Still I think that wherever he goes you would need to build a team around him that works harder and allows for his moments of magic, its not a matter of slotting him into any side and them automatically becoming better. 

That pretty much describes City. They are among the best pressing sides in the world. Guardiola would not need to make any major adjustments to the way the team plays in order to accommodate Messi. 

 

 

Pogba has tested positive for Covid-19. 

[Heartofice]

2 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

I don't think any team is signing Messi without confirmation first that they wouldn't be on the hook for a transfer fee. If Messi is adamant on leaving then I think he will reach some kind of agreement with Barca (like Ronaldo did with Perez).

I think if that happens then he probably wouldn't be leaving for free, maybe the buying club would need to be inserting some level of compensation to basically buy off any future litigation. 

2 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

That pretty much describes City. They are among the best pressing sides in the world. Guardiola would not need to make any major adjustments to the way the team plays in order to accommodate Messi. 

They also tend to press intelligently as a team. I'm not saying Messi will be a passenger defensively that other players will need to pick up the slack for, well maybe actually in a year or so's time that might be the case.. so maybe I am. It is certainly more difficult to press intensely when you have an ageing forward. 

[Consigliere]

2 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

I think if that happens then he probably wouldn't be leaving for free, maybe the buying club would need to be inserting some level of compensation to basically buy off any future litigation. 

Yeah, I'm skeptical that Messi would leave for free. It's a bad look (and would be terrible for morale) for this to end up in an ugly court battle. If Messi is really determined to leave then I'm sure an agreement will be reached. Barca have been after Eric Garcia so perhaps player(s) + cash would be acceptable. 

 

2 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

They also tend to press intelligently as a team. I'm not saying Messi will be a passenger defensively that other players will need to pick up the slack for, well maybe actually in a year or so's time that might be the case.. so maybe I am. It is certainly more difficult to press intensely when you have an ageing forward. 

I don't think this is going to be a big deal. Mahrez is not exactly diligent at pressing or tracking back and Messi will be taking his place. I doubt Pep would even want Messi to be tracking back much. It's better if he were to concentrate his efforts in the attacking third. Some adjustments may be needed but it's hardly going to require some genius level tactical implementation to accommodate Messi in this City side. 

[baxus]

1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

Still I think that wherever he goes you would need to build a team around him that works harder and allows for his moments of magic, its not a matter of slotting him into any side and them automatically becoming better. 

What club in their right mind would build a team around a 33 year old? I mean, you can't build a team in one or two transfer windows, especially if the 33 year old in question doesn't get to leave on a free and you spend a large amount on him.

He's have to go to a club that has a team already suited to adding Messi.

[ljkeane]

In fairness building a team around Messi probably just means having people to do his running for him i.e. an energetic, hard working midfield and pacy forwards in the rest of the front 3 to run in behind. It's not like having those things would be completely useless once Messi moves on.

[polishgenius]

7 hours ago, Soylent Brown said:

Just like you're completely on Ibrahimovic's side because he played for United too.

Okay I can get the Ronaldo one but I don't even particularly like Zlatan, I think he's overrated and I never wanted him to play for us. So that's a bizarre accusation to make on the grounds of me, er, suggesting that there's no tactical reason him and Messi couldn't have worked together.


 

 

1 hour ago, ljkeane said:

In fairness building a team around Messi probably just means having people to do his running for him i.e. an energetic, hard working midfield and pacy forwards in the rest of the front 3 to run in behind. It's not like having those things would be completely useless once Messi moves on.

In other words he should move to Dortmund.

[ljkeane]

8 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

In other words he should move to Dortmund.

Obviously he won't do it but, yeah, that'd probably work pretty well. That'd be great actually, Dortmund sell Sancho to pay his wages for a couple of years, we get Messi with Haaland and Bayern might actually not win the league. As an added bonus Dortmund could become competitive without doing something as passé as trying to defend or anything like that.

[Iskaral Pust]

The Community Shield is tomorrow.  Liverpool will have a very thin bench because of injuries to Henderson, Ox, Matip, Trent, Shaq, Origi, Wilson.  VVD should be fine to play despite that head injury during the week.  Trent is expected back soon.

Klopp continues to play down any expectations of transfers because of the financial uncertainty during the pandemic.  That worked for us last year but it’s a big risk again that we have so little cover for our forwards and now we look very light at CB too.  It’s a pity that these circumstances prevent us from taking advantage of our window of ascendency.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Farewell Henk.

At least we made a profit from the transfer.

[Consigliere]

 

[polishgenius]

Our approach to transfers can aptly be summed up by the rumour (whether or not it's true) that we phoned Brescia with a bid for Sandro Tonali after they'd already agreed a deal with Inter. Like if it's true we may well still get him but talk about last second.

At least today we got linked with useful transfers that might credibly happen (him and Sergio Regulion). Although I don't know if that's better coz now I have some hope.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

At least today we got linked with useful transfers that might credibly happen (him and Sergio Regulion). Although I don't know if that's better coz now I have some hope.

If you build it, Jadon will come.

[Raja]

Chelsea looking scary with Havertz, Werner, Silva, Chillwell and Ziyech

[Consigliere]