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Since you are in provocation mode. Just how many assists did fat Ronaldo provide in his career? How does he compare to Messi in that crucial regard? When did he score a goal like that of Messi in last season's CL semi? Dribbling past 5 defenders in a CL semi? I cannot recall one. Btw, I am...

I did not say that he wasn't great. Like I said, he had one epic season with Barca. Then another one with Inter, but after his injury was never the same player again. He still managed a great career though, and that is to his credit. But like Mourinho said: "He would score one amazing goal...

But didn't you know that Messi only looks because of soft La Liga defenders?

How can we compare the Fat One with Messi? Consistency? Messi wins by a landslide. Goalscoring? Ronaldo's number one quality? Again Messi wins by a landslide. Work-rate? Do I need to comment on that? Playmaking ability? :lol: Passing? :lol: Dribbling? :rofl1: It goes on and on. I am not...

Ronaldo at his best? You mean his singular season at Barca? Messi easily beats that. On every count. Zidane? I guess his best was at Juve, and he has nothing to render even a comparison with Messi possible. In any case, they are very different players. I would compare Zidane with Xaviesta, not...

Meta is 100% right on what he is saying about star players, now and 10 years ago. There are great players today, that would have potentially been Balon'd Or candidates, but the presence of Xaviesta, CR7 and above all Messi, makes them look average. As some United fans pointed out, constantly...

Surely yes. They never possessed the necessary work-rate to deal with Pep's Barca.

Those Arsenal players did become invincibles later on, but their European record (from the late 90s till their great 2006 run, when Cesc also came to the fore) cannot be described as impressive by any stretch of the imagination.

Panthinaikos was beating Arsenal and Juve regularly back then.

That Barca was made to look a lot worse than it actually was, largely due to the extreme competitiveness of La Liga at the time. Just go through European results at the time. Spanish clubs terrorized Europe back then. It was not just Barca/Madrid.

Arsenal in Europe circa 2000: 98/99: eliminated by Dynamo Kiev in the GS 99/00: eliminated by Barca and Fiorentina at the 1st GS 00/01: eliminated by Valencia in the quarters on agg. 01/02: finished 2nd in the first group stage behind Panathinaikos, and were eliminated in the 2nd by...

I did not say they were the best. But they were much better than what they have been for the past few years (only this year have they shown any potency, Inter 2010 aside) Like we all know, La Liga ruled Europe in those days, Munich were also very strong and hell, even Leverkusen. The island was...

We are not saying they were crap, we are saying they were not CL contenders. Their run to the semis was a fairy-tale. A bit like Lyon's two years back.

I tend to agree with you. The English league was not very strong at the time. Only United were a genuinely top team from England back then. Arsenal? The combo of Henry-Bergkamp was not enough to make them a genuine CL contender. Leeds, Liverpool or Newcastle or Chelsea were of a low quality...

By struggling he means to say that English teams were not nearly as good as in the period between 2005 and 2011, when we had to take on them. Circa 2000, La Liga was superb, easily the best league in the world at the time.

Difficult to say which Madrid was better. This one, or the Galactico version. Judging by results alone, the current version are better by virtue of a far superior work-rate, athleticism and consistency. Judging in terms of talent and champagne football, the old team wins the day by a massive...

Greater evil than Madrid has perished in the Russian cold...

The CL is that massive and prestigious, that no avalanche of propaganda and wishful thinking can downplay it. Win the damn thing, and watch Mourinho, CR7, and co, go deep green with envy.

You raise one valid point in that long post: Barca giving up on La Liga, will also provide Madrid with the opportunity to relax with league games and also save legs for the CL. That much is certainly true. But in the CL, there are more teams than us and Madrid, and if we have to face them...