Football Season 2022/23

[Julius]

Ronaldo's move to Al Nassr has been made official:

The way he's managed to drag his name through the mud the last few months or so, to Messi winning the WC two weeks ago, to this? If you told me this was on the cards when he returned to Manchester I would have laughed you off a cliff. It's a level of self-imposed humiliation for one of the two best players on the planet for the last 15 years that just shows the damage that a toxic ego can do. 

Crazy the difference just 16 months can make. Will be interested to see how his career's looked back on in 5, 10, or 25 years. At the moment I feel like the last few months could really leave a bitter aftertaste (not to mention how he went about leaving Juve in the first place, and then his reasoning for leaving Madrid, too). 

[darksnowman]

Unless he has already, it's time for Moshiri to give Frank a vote of confidence. 

 

[darksnowman]

Masterstroke from Klopp and the boys. Let's see how they cope if they don't need a second-leg comeback.

Right?

[Blade]

Not a bad game this evening 

[Julius]

Been quiet in here, but with the European season coming to an end on Saturday with the UCL final this Saturday, it seems like people have started doing their shopping early this summer. 

Such as Bellingham signing for Madrid for a reported €100m + €30m in add-ons, a good deal for both them and Dortmund:

Then there's also Saudi Arabia, who have set up a committee to oversee their league and pump funds in, which is seeing some more silly signing following Ronaldo's signing earlier this year. I'm getting early-to-mid-2010s China vibes, except, well, there's no end to SA's funding.

Kanté is reportedly being targeted with a salary of €100m/year, and Benzema has already made the move to Al Ittihad for a reported €200m/year, instead of retiring at Madrid which he seemed destined for. They seem to be going for Muslim players first and foremost, but there had been rumours about a club also looking at Wilfred Zaha, who reportedly wants to move to a UCL team. 

Anyways, back on this continent, Zlatan got the send-off he deserved, taking his chance to say farewell to Milan and transforming it into an off-the-cuff retirement announcement:

And, lastly, also concerning Milan, they have sacked Paolo Maldini as technical director for...reasons?...certainly beyond my comprehension. They seemed destined to return to the summit of Europe after winning Serie A with a relatively young squad last season, made the UCL semis this season, but their new American (because of course they're American) owners seemingly don't want to invest as much as Maldini wanted to make the team increasingly competitive.

For those wondering why Maldini leaving is important for them, besides him being perhaps the Milan legend and his whole family history at the club, he was reportedly a huge asset in signing many of their key players (because, well, how do you say 'no' to Maldini?), including extending Rafael Leao's contract just a few days ago. And to spell out his importance further, Leao weighed in on Twitter after the announcement:

So, back to the banter era for Milan it is, then. 

[bob]

There are rumours that Messi might be going to....Inter Miami?!

What the fuck? Apparently it's some sort of deal like the one Beckham had where he gets the opportunity to buy a franchise afterwards or something, but the whole thing is just too bizarre imo.

One of the best players currently playing (a contender for another Balon D'or) going and playing in the MLS? It's such a wet fart ending to his career, it's so strange.

[Julius]

50 minutes ago, bob said:

There are rumours that Messi might be going to....Inter Miami?!

What the fuck? Apparently it's some sort of deal like the one Beckham had where he gets the opportunity to buy a franchise afterwards or something, but the whole thing is just too bizarre imo.

One of the best players currently playing (a contender for another Balon D'or) going and playing in the MLS? It's such a wet fart ending to his career, it's so strange.

While strange, I do think a little sense can be made of it (well, at least more than Ronaldo's move to Saudi Arabia).

Miami has a massive Hispanic community, and last I heard, I think the majority (like 60%+?) of Miami speaks Spanish, and the sense I always got from Messi is that while he can speak a little of some other languages, his preference has been - and always will be - to speak Spanish. There's also the fact that it's much closer to Argentina than, well, Europe is, and having now won the World Cup, Argentina is obviously now nowhere near as hostile a place for Messi as it was, say, 5 or 6 years ago, because he's a hero and nothing but. 

I think Messi is likely to see what's happening with Barcelona first - remember, when he left, he wanted to stay, just thanks to their finances and Javier Tebas (the La Liga president) having a raging hard-on for Barça, it was actually impossible. They couldn't even afford him on a €1/year contract, he had to go (thank former president Bartomeu for that, I'm still convinced his choices as president were some type of inside job). Now Tebas still has a hard-on for Barça (and Real, and people of colour, apparently, after his terrible handling of the Vinicius situation; the guy's a freaking spoon), but they actually could afford Messi to sign Messi for a more typical wage and potentially defer a % of pay after major sponsorship deals (Spotify) and the continued trimming of the club's wage bill.

I think his preference would be to go to Barça, but if he's already learned that that's not an option, then yeah, I can see him leaving Europe, and if that's the case, I can see it being to somewhere like America rather than Saudi Arabia. PSG fans treated Messi pretty terribly (alongside Neymar) during his time there, especially since winning the World Cup in December, so why risk - in the latter stages of his career - going anywhere else in Europe? While I'd argue he's still one of the greatest in the world, his reach of play is only going to become increasingly limited as age (eventually...right?) catches up to him, and I don't really want to see another club treat him the way PSG did these past few months. It's a shame, though, because I would've loved to see Messi in Italy (though a return to Barça is the obvious first choice). 

The real sad part of all of this is we just missed out on Phil Neville potentially managing Lionel Messi after his recent sacking as manager of Inter Miami. What a timeline that would have been! 

[Julius]

And it's official: Messi to Inter Miami confirmed.

Bunch of tweets by Fabrizio Romano pulling from the interview, some interesting stuff:

From a rumour building steam this afternoon to reality this evening, football news is always wild. 

EDIT: completely missed it in the early stages of the rumours earlier today, but seems like they've taken a page out of the Juve-Ronaldo book and sponsors and the like are sweetening the pot. Adidas and Apple (for MLS streaming) reportedly offering profits in addition to the previously reported option to purchase a % of an MLS team. Kind of nuts. 

Edited June 7, 2023 by Julius

[bob]

If it wasn't about money - why wouldn't he go to Barcelona for free?

If he had had enough of playing at a high level, why not retire completely?

Why bother signing with a team who are basically at a League 2 level, who according to their GK, only have a temporary stadium with no security. 

The whole thing is very weird. It's like something out of a game of Football Manager.

[Julius]

1 hour ago, bob said:

If it wasn't about money - why wouldn't he go to Barcelona for free?

If he had had enough of playing at a high level, why not retire completely?

I mean, he didn't exactly leave under the best of circumstances last time, did he?

Joan Laporta, who was vying for the position of Barcelona president, publicly made the re-signing of Messi the reason to make him president. It was the start and end of his entire campaign. But he would have known ahead of time looking into the job that it was a practical impossibility – unfortunately, for both of them, I don't think anyone realised just how much Barto had absolutely screwed the pooch with Barça's finances until Laporta came in, and then recognising that the financial situation of the club was much, much worse than they feared.

Remember, they had four signings that summer they'd already made - including Aguero, who left City to play with one of his closest friends in Messi! - that they couldn't sign until players were off-loaded. It was a mess. 

And so Messi ended up having to uproot his entire family from a place he'd lived for, what, some 20 years? Because of the club's absolute incompetence and broken promises. It was clear he never wanted to leave in the first place, and he never got a chance to say goodbye. 

But what does he gain from going back now? Don't get me wrong, I wanted him back at Barça for that romantic ending everyone else wanted, but look at just how dependent Barcelona became on him in his last few years there, or how dependent Argentina were on him at the World Cup last year. Other than getting a chance to say hello again, and then getting to say a proper goodbye, I don't think Barcelona are seriously going to be competing for the UCL for a few more years (now I've said that they'll probably come close in three!), and other than Xavi as manager, everyone he played with from the glory day has left the club. I don't think it would be a Ronaldo at United situation - I don't think Messi has the same ego to begin with - but I could see it being a frustrating time. 

Ultimately, I think it's a family decision. He never planned to leave, but people adapt, and after he'd left Barça, do his family want to move back? Why not go somewhere a shorter flight from Argentina, with an overwhelmingly Hispanic and Spanish-speaking population? If I were Messi I'd take that over taking my wife and kids to Saudi, that much is certain. 

As for retirement, I mean, he's clearly not done. He probably just wants to try something new. He once again finds himself perfectly placed as the poster boy for an upcoming World Cup (US 2026). He's won all the major stuff in Europe, he realistically wasn't going to tie Ronaldo for UCLs won (could've surpassed him in goals scored, but again, don't think that sort of thing was ever a real priority for him), and I would be a bit surprised if Miami is his final stop to be honest.

I say we bring this thing full circle and he goes back to Newell's. 

1 hour ago, bob said:

Why bother signing with a team who are basically at a League 2 level, who according to their GK, only have a temporary stadium with no security. 

The whole thing is very weird. It's like something out of a game of Football Manager.

Haha yeah I saw that, and I mean, he's right to point that out because I'd be concerned too. I don't know if it's accurate but I just read in passing that all of their games have been sold out for the rest of the season too, but because of the way sport works over in the US, I think strings will be pulled to have them play at another home stadium (the reason for the temporary stadium is because theirs won't be finished being built until 2025) because it's money left on the table, and have other teams play at bigger stadiums when Messi is in town. 

Totally agree that it's weird, but if not directly after the World Cup win, would've been weird to have Messi retire on a whimper with PSG. I think he's prioritised the day-to-day and his family life with this move, it seems like there's potentially more to him not going to Barça than meets the eye (like him saying not everyone wanted him back?), but all of that is hearsay. 

Hopefully we hear more at some point in the future, but for now  I'm just gutted we won't get to see him in the UCL again. Seeing Messi on a midweek night of European football is gone and it's come so out of the blue!