Pouchkine
Registered User
- May 20, 2015
- 2,731
- 294
You perfectly described yourself here.Who’s Barca? Xavi,iniesta, puyol?
Mind you no one should take his posts serious just for comic relief.
You perfectly described yourself here.Who’s Barca? Xavi,iniesta, puyol?
Mind you no one should take his posts serious just for comic relief.
Messi for Barcelona= Mario LemieuxIt's really strange how Messi doesn't lose a step but all his teammates when playing for Argentina seem to play 2 levels worse. It's like a curse almost.
Incredibly for sure, he has a good streak going of no goals in knockout games and what all great players did : making others around them better he certainly can't do that.Except Messi continues to play incredibly for Argentina. He doesn't change.
It's early yet.
When Alex Ferguson took over over at Manchester United, they were not the big club they were today. He had to use the academy and make shrewd signings. Pep on the other hand already had all the staff he wanted in key areas and unlimited funds.Yeah, it took Alex Ferguson, what, 6-7 seasons to win his first league title with United and many consider him now amongst the best managers. Guardiola is still a couple of years younger than Ferguson was then, so it's indeed still early for him. As for Messi, while he and Barca still has time to win, early isn't really the right word regarding him.
Different gameWhen Alex Ferguson took over over at Manchester United, they were not the big club they were today. He had to use the academy and make shrewd signings. Pep on the other hand already had all the staff he wanted in key areas and unlimited funds.
Early? Not many chances left for Messi and Pep it's been what 6-7 years of failures in a row?
I'm no Ronaldo fan either when it comes to his play for Portugal. Still he has done better for them than Messi for Argentina. On paper both are very good teams but not great either so it's comparable.Not many chances left for Messi, but he has Copa Americas (or should that be Copas Americas? Why do foreigners bother with speaking other languages when they could all speak English?) this year and next. And one of those is to be co-hosted by Argentina. Granted that in 2011 hosting the competition on their own didn't work out for them, but if 2020 is billed as Messi's last chance of glory it's possible events will take a turn for the 1978. (Not that I'd rule out nuclear levels of national hysteria provoking a bottle job for the ages, either).
So yes, it's early yet. Consider, who prior to the start of Euro 2016 would have predicted that Portugal would lift a 31-year old Ronaldo to new heights of receiving credit for victories in which his final contribution was manifestly peripheral?
Perhaps in the 2020 final Messi will miss four penalties, enjoy a pass completion rate of 8%, but lift the trophy thanks to an own goal that deflected off four different Bolivians on the way in (Bolivia having reached the final after every other team in the tournament's squad was riddled by a freak epidemic of cholera). And by adding an international trophy to his CV Messi will therefore dethrone Ronaldo as the Greatest Footballing Footballer in the History of Football or Any Other Sport. (As long as he plays no less than 26 minutes of the game, because in 2016 Ronaldo hobbled off after 25. And claps his hands while flouncing about the touchline and gurning more than Ronaldo did, so we can give him extra Out of Body Inspirational Leadership points).
When Alex Ferguson took over over at Manchester United, they were not the big club they were today. He had to use the academy and make shrewd signings.
That's one version of history. Another is that when Alex Ferguson took over at Manchester United in November 1986 they held the record signing for a transfer between two English clubs (Bryan Robson at £1.5 million if you're playing along at home).
During Ferguson's first summer in charge he bid £2 million for Peter Beardsley (source: Alex Ferguson's autobiography), but United rejected the offer.
In 1988, after the £2 million-rated Paul Gascoigne had reneged on a verbal agreement to leave United for Old Trafford, Ferguson brought Mark Hughes back from Barcelona for a club record £1.8 million.
In 1989, Ferguson tried to buy Trevor Steven for £1.5 million, but the post-Hysel ban on English clubs worked against him, and Steven chose Glasgow. Ferguson was so distraught he spent the £1.5 million on Neil Webb instead. For good measure, he broke the English record fee for a defender by paying £2.3 million for Gary Pallister, then bought another midfielder, Paul Ince, for £1.7 million.
Indeed, at this stage the Red Devils' most highly-rated young player was Lee Sharpe, developed at Torquay but brought in for £150,000.
A different game indeed.
Who’s Barca? Xavi,iniesta, puyol?
Mind you no one should take his posts serious just for comic relief.
No doubt, in terms of their performance over the last two seasons of the EPL, City's form is astonishing (I know Liverpool fans have posted previously about historic points totals achieved by past EPL winners / runners-up, but it bears stressing that to date only Mourinho's machine-like Chelsea team of 04-06 has managed consecutive 90-point seasons - indeed 90 points is a barrier only one side breached during the three 42-game campaigns between 1992 and 95 - and City will only fail to pass that figure in the event of a slump even the most optimistic Scouser wouldn't dare dream of.)
I'll confess I've become so accustomed to the fact of City spending extravagantly that it passed me by how little business they'd done last summer (also, a rather more northerly club's parsimony was foremost in my mind). And easy as hindsight is, if they were going to spend big on a 27-year old (the age at which you expect an instant, collective-enhancing return), perhaps it should have been someone with a more imposing Champions League history than Mahrez, and someone who plays in a more central role. Granted, such players don't grow on trees.
City's core of players in the 23-28 age range means their window is a long time from closing - indeed, how Guardiola ushers a lot of those talents into their nominal peak years will make or break their hopes of winning the European Cup. I'm unsure anyone would argue your point about their need to upgrade in the centre of defence and midfield, which is another way of saying that they've thus far failed to find younger, like-for-like players convincingly to replace Kompany and Fernandinho. Meanwhile, formidable as Aguero remains, he's approaching his 31st birthday - the age at which received wisdom has it strikers often begin to fade. So more money does indeed need spending before dry rot sets in.
In short, counterintuitive as it is to call such a team so expensively-assembled, and within a shout of retaining a domestic championship a work in progress, I suppose that's the fairest description. I agree that in European terms it's unlikely they'd be better off with a different coach (rather falling short in a different style). But even if City can't win the Champions League next season, I'd repeat a point I made before the second leg - at the very least I think they need a signature win in the knockout stages rather than flat-track bullying lame ducks before tripping over the first moderately complex obstacle that comes in sight. After all, demanding anything else of Guardiola really would represent treating him as if he were on the level of Sir David Moyes.
I don't know how anyone can possibly argue that they aren't at least a bit disappointed with Pep's performance with Manchester City so far. In his 3 seasons as manager, the club has spent £547.28 million on new players with a net spend of £392.26 million, which is as much or more than any club in the world has spent over that time. In that time he has 1 league title, 2 league cups, and hasn't made it further than the CL quarter finals. He has a chance at another league cup, the FA cup, and another league title this season, which are all difficult to win of course. He definitely has had some success with Manchester City so far, but based on the money spent to build his stacked squad and the resources available to him, he's barely achieving beyond the minimum expectations at this point.
It doesn't really matter what he wins this season from what is left to win. Manchester City brought him in to bring success and legitimacy to the club in Europe and gave him the budget to do it, and he has so far not done much better than Pellegrini did with a worse team.Probably because they're smart enough to wait until the third season is over before mentioning what he's won.
It doesn't really matter what he wins this season from what is left to win. Manchester City brought him in to bring success and legitimacy to the club in Europe and gave him the budget to do it, and he has so far not done much better than Pellegrini did with a worse team.
This says it all. Looks like Allegri might have lost the dressing room.
Yeah, Man Utd clearly were the biggest spenders in English football at that time, both in transfers and in salary. Although Serie a was still beyond that (and an additional Maradona transfer to Spain also added), but during those pre-Bosman days Ferguson had resources beyond pretty much any other club and still failed to deliver for so many years.
Maybe I’m just missing it but I don’t see what the problem is.