..."we're so lucky to have him so keep your mouth shut," like that Arizona twat is attempting to do.
Twats are saying absurd things like this:
“his legacy has been ruined”
“maybe he is lazy” “slacking off” “pisses me off about Messi”
“winning the CL with Kroos and Modric is easier than winning it with Xavi and Iniesta” From 2015 on when they started winning it absolutely would be easier with Kroos and Modric supporting you, you really think not?
....If Messi had chose Spain over Argentina then he probably would have had the perfect career and be the undisputed GOAT. Now people are still more likely to say Maradona because of 1986 and what he achieved at Napoli, or even Pele.
And that is fine, folks have a right to their opinion, plus there is really no way to solve the "best ever" you have players two, three or six decades apart. I am not making the case he is the best ever. I am making the case FC Barcelona is incredibly lucky to have him from his 1st year to the present year. He has been the best player this generation by a mile and the three trebles and trophies show it. Yes I would find it incredibly lame for Barca fans to complain about Messi or Iniesta or Puyol or Xavi. Perfect players, no, question their heart or commitment to the club--easy for someone at 10,000 feet and never put in a drop of blood for the club and I think incredibly lame.
No player has the perfect career, Maradona never won the European Cup and only won 3 league titles, Zidane also only won 3 league titles and 1 Champions League even though he played for Juve & Real Madrid for 10 years and was marked out of the 97 & 98 Finals. Baggio never won the Champions League and only had 1 League title his entire career, Ronaldo Luis only won 2 League titles in his career and never won the Champions League, Platini only won 3 League titles and 1 European Cup.
It is not about winning loads of trophies, it never has been, it is about how you play. And nobody has ever played football better than Messi. And at 32, he clearly is in physical decline as all players are at that age, but every other facet of his game is exceptional, better than ever.
So he has yet to win at International level, so what, Cruyff didn't either, it is the way it goes. It doesn't take away a thing from him as a player just like it doesn't take away from Maradona that apart from 1986 he was underwhelming for his country, or Ronaldo Luis never dominated the Champions League or Zidane only once had an exceptional league campaign (2000/01 in Serie A). Some people here think all other great players were perfect and Messi is the only one with flaws when the truth is that Messi is the least flawed player that there has ever been, and I would take him over any other.
Excellent post! Humans in a 20+ man squad sport, not gods and all have flaws.
Have captains ever publicly condemned their manager? Genuinely curious if it has happened, or whether it is maybe one or two times throughout the last few decades. Yet Messi is getting the blame for keeping Valverde?
Of course it is nuts, you have a board and a sporting director—that’s their jobs not a player no matter how good he is. We would never even know what his private feelings are and if he communicated mixed messages to powers that be—of course publicly you are going to do the best you can with what you can control and give a uniform message even if it really isn’t behind the scenes. As if he is obligated to give some fans what they want to hear about inferior teammates and managing. Further even if in his highly biased opinion formed from working with these guys days on out and years, he might even truly think Valverde and Busi and Coutinho and Rakitic are the right pieces (again none of us know), but even if he does think this it is others people's jobs to be good at assessing these things and to make player and manager personnel decisions.
^(Alik) add he won the UEFA Cup (today europa league) with Napoli.
"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." Michael Jordan
Messi and Maradona are considered 2 of the abosolutely best ever for the magic they did on the pitch, not for whant they won with the team. Soccer is a team sport.
Both had fantastic performances and horrible performances, they are not gods but human.
Another top one—from about the clearest GOAT in a team sport, albeit a sport of where you are one of 5 instead of one of 11 and thus can have a much greater impact as an individual.
This is what we conclude after Messi had one of the best seasons in his career?! So you morons want him to be Messi but also Ronaldo, at the same time.
Does he have to prove something after all that he did for Barcelona? Of course not, you ungrateful idiots! The guy hits the final stretch of his career and you want him to behave as a 20 year old.
He could do a Ronaldo and just not play until March, pick up the pace then and we'll see how that goes. Don't think it will ever happen, but if there are still moaning bitches that want him to run more...
Yes thank you
It certaintly has to do with managers.
Managers Messi worked with :
Ernesto Valverde
Luis Enrique
Gerardo Martino
Tito Vilanova
Jordi Roura
Pep Guardiola
Frank Rijkaard
Now let's look at the managers CR7 worked with :
Massimiliano Allegri
Zinédine Zidane
Rafael Benítez
Carlo Ancelotti
José Mourinho
Manuel Pellegrini
Sir Alex Ferguson
I dont even have to say anything at this point , just speaks for itself.
Wow very revealing indeed!
Ok, it's finally clear: Messi is THE PROBLEM of Barcelona.
We'd have sold him years ago if we'd figured it out sooner
Share the sentiment, some likely missed the sarcasm.
BTW I am not against analyses Messi strengths and weaknesses and talking through roster changes and scheme changes to improve the team. But the idea we just have to push him harder or could have done better building around another individual, last year or the last 12, or that Argentina could have, pure nuts. The ungrateful part is not adequately reflecting on the fact FC Barcelona has been the dominant club in the world since he emerged and gone through their best period by far in club history. 29 major trophies for FC Barcelona, where in most cases he was the chief single individual responsible for it. Stack that with any player in any clubs history, and then consider we have a few more and he just had a fabulous one.
