A lot to unpack with the Messi news:
-Full respect to him for making a decision he feels comfortable with. He clearly didn’t make the move for money alone or he’d have gone elsewhere. That said, I’m sure he’s going to be very handsomely compensated, but I think this really came down to slowing down and enjoying time with his family.
-Totally understand slowing things down a bit, but I think the travel with MLS might feel notably different and maybe things won’t be quite as relaxed as he anticipates.
-From a footballing standpoint I think it’s a mistake. I think he had another season or two at a high enough level and that a return Barca (all things considered) would have been a better idea. He’s still going to live there in the future, the kids can settle/re-settle and you still get a high level for another year or two. Take Barca out of it and he says he wouldn’t want to play elsewhere in Europe, but I think there might have been some other interesting options elsewhere as well. Would love to know every club that fielded an offer either formally or informally.
-Kind of odd his talking about the salaries of other players since they‘ve been affected by his salary for some time. Also odd that he talks about money and feasibility when he said he’d have played for free, no?
-Still clearly some tension there between Messi and Barca. Not sure I get it at this point from either side. Messi should move on and at some stage understand that his enormous salary when he was at Barca contributed to his leaving in the end. The club should move on and their tweets post interview would have been better left unsaid. I understand they’re wanting to get the ”facts” straight, but other ways to do that.
-Very clear that this move was the reason behind the Messi camp wanting things done so quickly. That certainly didn’t help with any move back to Barca in the end and depending on when he’d join up with Inter Miami in terms of actually training and such, I don’t think it was necessary. Surely they would have waited for him.
-It sounds like Inter Miami would have fired Neville regardless, but the timing in relation to this decision seems somewhat telling.
Barcelona statement on Messi joining Miami is so small time
I was essentially posting as much at the exact same time. Still, Messi said some things I can understand the club wanting to “respond” to. I’d have done it differently myself, but I understand wanting to reply based on some things he said.
