Lionel Messi has left Barcelona

[Lineker]

5 hours ago, damshow said:

What an utterly massive story. Might deserve its own thread.

Your wish is my command!

 

Anyway. Messi to City plz. Save your Kane money, lads!

[Moses Julep]

Who needs Kane when you can have Messi?

[Arjen Robben]

I'd love him to go to City. Feel like I should hate City the way I dislike PSG cause of the oil money, and how dodgy, and outright gross that whole thing is. But something about the club itself on the playing side makes it hard for me to hate them. I like Guardiola and think he's an amazing manager, and they just seem to annoyingly keep having really likeable player like De Bruyne, Silva, Aguero, Bernardo Silva, Kompany, Fernandinho etc. The idea of Messi and De Bruyne in the same team is ridiculous.

Although I still haven't ruled out the idea of him staying at Barcelona. Could try and be some bluff to try and force La Liga's hand in to allowing them to keep him, cause the announcement seemed very carefully worded to say that Barca and Messi had agreed terms but the league regulations made it impossible. And Messi is a huge asset marketing wise not just to Barcelona but to La Liga as a whole which I'd imagine they'd hope would act as some leverage . Like right now the TV rights for Ligue 1 are absolutely fucked, but if Messi went to PSG I feel like he could single-handedly change that.

I don't get how PSG can afford all this tbh. Like I know it's oil money, but surely even that there's only so much you can do even with relaxed FFP. They basically single-handedly fucked the transfer market spending about £200m each on Neymar and Mbappe. But I don't see how they could afford Messi on top of everything. They have the wages of those which must be astronomical as it is, then the rest of the squad from last season where the only people that have left are two players who were on loan anyway, Mitchell Bakker who can't have been on that much, and Areola on loan where it's totally possible they're still paying some of his wages, and in addition to that they've signed Ramos, Donnarumma, Hakimi, Wijnaldum and a few weeks ago there were talks of them having to sell players to try and offer Mbappe a new contract that match Neymar's wages.

Also, RE: Messi's Barca contract. I'm fairly sure Messi generated more money for Barcelona than they paid him. He's huge when it comes to their sponsorship and brand deals. 

Quote

 

Marc Ciria, a Barca socio, and CEO of Diagonal Investments has found out just exactly how much money the club legend brings in for Barcelona. He did this with the help of Josep Fabra, a financier, and Ivan Cabeza, an economist. Together they have managed to find Messi’s value to the club and to no one’s surprise, the player brings in much more than he is paid. The player made 383,655,000 euros over the 3 years but he has generated 619,265,000 euros in the same time period. This means that the player has made the club a profit of 235,610,000 euros.

Lionel Messi single-handedly makes the club 30 percent of their total revenue so it was no wonder that Josep Bartomeu did not want to let him go. According to Ciria, Messi’s goal scoring abilities have made it very profitable to sponsor the club. It is instant recognition for the brand. However, there are two options for sponsors, one without the player and one including him. The Messi clause can bump the sponsorship total by 50 percent. Apart from that, the player also makes the club a ton of money through ticketing, VIP passes, and shirt sales. Ciria suggests that eight out of 10 Barcelona shirts carry his name.

 

Barca's problem is just financial mismanagement across the board and losing a ton of revenue due to the pandemic. £105m on Coutinho, £107m on Griezmann, £97m on Dembele don't help, nor does their enormous wage bill as a whole because they just say yes to everyone who wants more money. Like Griezmann is apparently on €880,000 a week, de Jong €400,00, Busquets €287,000, Pique €245,000, Dembele €230,000, Sergi Roberto €191,000, Coutinho €165,000, Pjanic €180,000, Dest €126,000. Now they have Depay and Aguero on €270,000 a week.

You can make allowances for paying the greatest player ever a ludicrous wage, when he alone brings in a ton of your revenue and leaves you in profit. But some of those wages are absurd. Bartomeu's just been handing out money.

[FLiam]

It’s another reason why football badly needs a salary cap. To save clubs from their own downfalls if not for fair play reasons.

[Krabby]

Give me an NFL equivalent so this uncultured swine of an American understands how big this is

[gunnar hendershow]

9 minutes ago, Krabby said:

Give me an NFL equivalent so this uncultured swine of an American understands how big this is

Tom Brady leaving New England

[Lowerdeck]

7 hours ago, Szumi - A Polack said:

Messi watched Inter Miami play this season, and I think he's permanently swore off ever going to play there.

 

Inter Miami already has a full allotment of designated players.

There's a handful of teams who have room.  Red Bulls being one of them, I think.  The question is, would any MLS team be willing to fork over that kind of money?  I imagine much of the league couldn't.

Charlotte, while I can't see them doing this, it'd be one hell of a statement to start your team by bringing a player of Messi's caliber on.

[Baddar]

I can't shake the feeling that this will all be sorted out in the coming weeks/months, and he ends up re-signing with Barca.

[OctoberRaven]

4 hours ago, Lowerdeck said:

 

Inter Miami already has a full allotment of designated players.

Not like that would stop them.

[JasonM]

5 hours ago, Krabby said:

Give me an NFL equivalent so this uncultured swine of an American understands how big this is

As Damshow said, best equivalent is Tom Brady.

Messi for the past 15-16 years has arguably been the best football player in the world with only Cristiano Ronaldo as a rival for that crown. He's been a six time World and European Player of the year, which for both awards is the most in history. He's also won the Spanish league 10 times and the Champions League (Europe's highest continental competition) four times.

He's spent his entire career at Barcelona, has the most games played, most goals scored total, and all in all he's probably been the biggest deal in football next to Ronaldo for one and a half decade.

And now, after all those years, he seems to have decided to depart the team and find a different team that will pay him insane amounts of money. Or, as Baddar mentions, is waiting on Barcelona to bend over backwards to pay him the insane amounts of money he wants to have (even if that means Barcelona financially nukes itself)

[The Kraig]

5 minutes ago, JasonM said:

As Damshow said, best equivalent is Tom Brady.

Messi for the past 15-16 years has arguably been the best football player in the world with only Cristiano Ronaldo as a rival for that crown. He's been a six time World and European Player of the year, which for both awards is the most in history. He's also won the Spanish league 10 times and the Champions League (Europe's highest continental competition) four times.

He's spent his entire career at Barcelona, has the most games played, most goals scored total, and all in all he's probably been the biggest deal in football next to Ronaldo for one and a half decade.

And now, after all those years, he seems to have decided to depart the team and find a different team that will pay him insane amounts of money. Or, as Baddar mentions, is waiting on Barcelona to bend over backwards to pay him the insane amounts of money he wants to have (even if that means Barcelona financially nukes itself)

He's also just a joy to watch as a football fan. Even now he can surprise me and leave me saying "tek a boo, son".

3 hours ago, Baddar said:

I can't shake the feeling that this will all be sorted out in the coming weeks/months, and he ends up re-signing with Barca.

This is my feeling on it. This feels like a sort of protest - a me or them situation. Sometimes players need to stand up for their club. If it's about money, I'll be very disappointed and surprised.

[Baddar]

10 minutes ago, JasonM said:

Or, as Baddar mentions, is waiting on Barcelona to bend over backwards to pay him the insane amounts of money he wants to have (even if that means Barcelona financially nukes itself)

He's agreed a 50% pay cut and to stay til 2025/6.

But it's not enough for La Liga as Barca are still over the cap. I'm expecting it to be eventually ironed out though.

[DFF]

I wouldn't be surprised if part of the problem is the sheer number of players barca need to shift to afford him might make them less attractive to him. 

 

[Baddar]

They've brought it on themselves. It's been a known issue for a few months, hence why he's technically been a free agent since June. Yet they still went ahead with deals for Aguero and Memphis.

[DanishmadePunk]

He's gonna end up at PSG and meanwhile FFP is being brought behind the tool shed and getting you know what

[DavidMarrio]

2 hours ago, Baddar said:

They've brought it on themselves. It's been a known issue for a few months, hence why he's technically been a free agent since June. Yet they still went ahead with deals for Aguero and Memphis.

Barca's transfers were always going to bite them on the arse. They've brought players for really high prices and put them on high wages so when it comes to trying to get rid of them they're stuck. It also doesn't help they have quite a few players hitting the wrong side of 30 all around the same time and then need to replace them 

I still find it amazing how we got the amount we did for Coutinho and they still owe us money! Best piece of business the club has done in terms of transfers for a long time. 

[Szumi]

8 hours ago, Lowerdeck said:

 

Inter Miami already has a full allotment of designated players.

There's a handful of teams who have room.  Red Bulls being one of them, I think.  The question is, would any MLS team be willing to fork over that kind of money?  I imagine much of the league couldn't.

Charlotte, while I can't see them doing this, it'd be one hell of a statement to start your team by bringing a player of Messi's caliber on.

Oh you sweet, sweet summer child you...

 

Meanwhile, in a good blend of wrestling and soccer content!

 

 

[Lowerdeck]

I don't think Messi will come to MLS (now).  It's just conversation.

[Szumi]

23 minutes ago, Lowerdeck said:

I don't think Messi will come to MLS (now).  It's just conversation.

I know. I'm just saying that if Messi wanted to come to MLS/Miami now, MLS would either create a rule to allow a 4th DP or Miami would just break the rules again anyways. 

 

Looks like he's going to PSG anyways

 

 

[Lineker]

Unless he wants to go back to Newell's then, it will indeed be PSG.