[Blue Baggie]

I'm so sad to be leaving Barcelona.

I am reluctantly signing for PSG

The million quid a week will help with the heartache.

[BaggieSteve]

I'm so sad to be leaving Barcelona.

I am reluctantly signing for PSG

The million quid a week will help with the heartache.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Copied and pasted from the other thread discussing this:

"I don't doubt that he's probably got enough money to last several lifetimes, even allowing for the lifestyle that the wealthy tend to adopt. But in fairness to him, he also funds UNICEF, has his own children's charity providing access to education, healthcare and sport for the disadvantaged, has supported Medicin Sans Frontieres and Covid vaccine research, and in addition to taking a voluntary pay cut during the pandemic, paid the salaries of many of Barcelona's backroom staff out of his own pocket. If a percentage of his wages are going to causes like that, I find it hard to begrudge him a penny of them. Besides which, what obligation does he have to Barcelona beyond the twenty years of his career he's already given them and the countless trophies won?"

[Blue Baggie]

Giving any money to a charity is a worthy attribute. But the total sum is very revelant when it's compared to your actual wealth.
Let's not put Messy on a pedestal, he has fleeced his employer for years, so much so he has made a large contribution
to Barcelona's current situation. And now they can't afford to pay him he's off to the next. Maybe the blame is the owners fault, but morally within the game it's wrong IMO.
Just for us normal folk to grasp how much he has taken from the game. His tax dodging caught up with him a couple of years back.
His fine was £3 million (euro's) and his tax bill was £370 million (euro's)
Not really the act of an upstanding law abiding citizen.

[drewks]

Giving any money to a charity is a worthy attribute. But the total sum is very revelant when it's compared to your actual wealth.
Let's not put Messy on a pedestal, he has fleeced his employer for years, so much so he has made a large contribution
to Barcelona's current situation. And now they can't afford to pay him he's off to the next. Maybe  the blame is the owners fault, but morally within the game it's wrong IMO.
Just for us normal folk to grasp how much he has taken from the game. His tax dodging caught up with him a couple of years back.
His fine was £3 million (euro's) and his tax bill was £370 million (euro's)
Not really the act of an upstanding law abiding citizen.

I must say I agree with the sentiments of this post much more!
However I think it's football's fault in general, and Barcelona's fault here, that individuals are paid these obscene wages - you can't really blame the player for taking what's on offer! And it IS to his credit that he's done a lot of good with a chunk of his wages that he probably just couldn't spend!
But yes - crocodile tears then off to the next paymaster.....

[Salopbaggie]

However I think it's football's fault in general, and Barcelona's fault here, that individuals are paid these obscene wages - you can't really blame the player for taking what's on offer!

I agree Drewks but, I would take it one stage further and say it is all the fault of the fans of football.

Stating the obvious here, but the end of the day if fans (and businesses like pubs, who can earn by havening it)  around the world said "no we are not paying for Sky/BT coverage of games" then all the money put into football by those companies would stop over night, you can not sell a product if no one wants to buy it, the rest is just a natural progression.  When you add the clubs are businesses and 'need' to be successful,  in order to keep that money coming in, so have to stay competitive and there are not so many top quality players, it then becomes a sellers market for them.

We can blame the greed of footballers and football clubs all we want, but I do not see the Lai's and the Glazier's out there with guns to peoples heads saying you will buy our products and until that does happen the blame for the money in football has to rest with the fans.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Giving any money to a charity is a worthy attribute. But the total sum is very revelant when it's compared to your actual wealth.
Let's not put Messy on a pedestal, he has fleeced his employer for years, so much so he has made a large contribution
to Barcelona's current situation. And now they can't afford to pay him he's off to the next. Maybe  the blame is the owners fault, but morally within the game it's wrong IMO.
Just for us normal folk to grasp how much he has taken from the game. His tax dodging caught up with him a couple of years back.
His fine was £3 million (euro's) and his tax bill was £370 million (euro's)
Not really the act of an upstanding law abiding citizen.

I must say I agree with the sentiments of this post much more!
However I think it's football's fault in general, and Barcelona's fault here, that individuals are paid these obscene wages - you can't really blame the player for taking what's on offer! And it IS to his credit that he's done a lot of good with a chunk of his wages that he probably just couldn't spend!
But yes - crocodile tears then off to the next paymaster.....

Yep, I think this is a fair assessment from Drewks. I'm not by any means painting Messi as a total saint - I suspect like most people, he has his good and bad tendencies - and the crocodile tears did seem a bit much. But the economics of football aren't of his making, and far from "fleecing" Barcelona, he's given them the most successful fifteen-year spell in their entire history. It's easy to reach for the "greedy footballer" stereotype, but realistically, no one offered that kind of money for kicking a ball is going to say no. What matters to me is what they choose to do with it, and given the number of ex Premier League stars who've declared bankruptcy after "donating" their entire fortune to William Hill and PaddyPower, I've got a damn sight more respect for those who put some of it where it's needed.

[valpayne]

am i on the wrong thread? Are we signing Mr Messy then

[hibeejim21]

Barca put themselves into a situation where one of the best players to ever play the game literally can't play for them for free, even though he absolutely wanted to because of the stupid massive contacts they've given to others. Barca aren't allowed to register any new players because they're massively over their wage to earnings threshold.

To a large degree Barca and Real have created the oligopoly movement in football at an industrial level so hopefully this means they will have a spell of being also-rans.

[silverbaggie]

Was the guy out of contract then?
If not, and PSG have had to pay a fee; isn't it time that Barca paid us the money they got for buying one of our young academy players and then selling him to the seals.