₦airaland Forum

coded01:
Make dmcdad catch you...

Wetin you mean? Na lie him talk?

Gosh! I can't wait for the new season to start!

There is absolutely nothing like club football.


JP I sight you... Longest time. How far na?

bykebyke:
You are typing it as if it's easy,Nigeria is looking for a coach o.

No be by mouth ooooo.

jstbeinhonest:
Kompany no come the tournament?, Vertogehn was also out. I agree Verminator's nemesis is his recurring injury.

I doubt if Kompany come cause I no see am for any of their match wey I watch.

bykebyke:
Didn't see it,Make en just put such beastly performances when called upon next season,that's if he is still at Barcelona.

Na so... Make we dey see wetin go happen.

SIRcumalot:
so you sef know? I think say na only me they think am.

Guy you dey see road ahswear! You suppose dey see vision ooooo.

GBR1:
No that guy was joking. In fact i would exchange Martial to get Messi who is already 29.
Stop this thing na

I knew it was a joke. Just playing along.

jstbeinhonest:
I see....Like you 'upgraded' Depay, right?.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Exactly my broda!

bykebyke:
So na Vermaelen carry Belgium enter quarter finals.

You see their game against N-Ireland? Na only Vermaelen play for defence. The guy was just beastly. Sniffing out attacks from all corners of the defence line. Him probs na injury.

GBR1:
I know for certain that Neymar and his Dad love money and we have plenty of it to offer.

We can definitely upgrade him in that and other ways Barcelona can only dream of but that's not the only reason he'll come or refuse to.

But but but... Martial is better. Why crave for Neymar when you have someone in Martial who is on par or even better?

SIRcumalot:
his not better than martial.

Gbam! True talk brodaly.

chic2pimp:
Looking like a Wales vs Portugal Semi Finals Lads

You got what you asked for.

GBR1:
We were ready to pay the 190 and could have made him the highest paid football player in the world but you guys refused and gave him a fat contract

Now i can only hope you guys regret this decision. @Sircumalot, Neymar is not coming.

In your dreams brah...

It would have been a total waste if he had gone to Man Utd. Given, Man Utd is a great club, that everyone knows, even a toddler. But come on, from Barça to Utd? Is that an upgrade?

GBR1:
Neymar's contract seems bigger than Messi's, going by what his lawyer said about it being the biggest in the history of football. http://en.as.com/en/2016/07/01/football/1467326878_961733.html

This deal must have taken a lot from Barcelona and i'm not surprised by you guys meager transfer budget this summer. IMO Suarez should be earning more than Neymar going by level of performances and again Neymar is younger, so there's still time for him to move up the wage scale unlike Suarez who doesn't have as much time as him at the top level. If you guys are giving him this kind of deal now, his demands would surely be ridiculous in the future and i doubt Barcelona would be able to match it.

His release clause is even more ridiculous though. At 250, Woodward's interest must have ended.

His release clause was almost that amount before which stood at €190m. As for what his agent said, that doesn't mean he pockets more money than Messi. There is absolutely no way he can earn more than Messi. Messi pockets around 40m before tax, which translates to around 20m after tax. Neymar's deal at most would be in the region of 30m before tax, and the half after tax.

GBR1:
I saw some news about Neymar's agent saying he signed the most expensive deal ever. Is Neymar getting paid more than Messi or Suarez and why too?

The club made a promise to make him the highest paid just after Messi. It's definitely not up to Messi's.

dopeJemi:
See better person, it is well with our souls

Amen to that brodaly.

dopeJemi:

Omo, make dem carry oh, I never reach to get gehfrend, i'm still a virgin

You sef na virgin? I ain't alone then.

raumdeuter:
Bros say it again. England NT and their league is wack

I guess at this juncture there are no objections.

raumdeuter:
9years later chic2pimp, A40, diggz, timbros, dmcdad, Pataki, airmark, chelseafan1, dopejemi dadehmola elampiro

My theory still holds true

True true true... They now understand hook, line and sinker why we told them not to get all worked up with the friendly win against Germany.

Bunch of losers.

raumdeuter:
When you were telling JJC like the one below that its just a friendly dem no listen dem dey do stronghead like Aba made fan

Them don see am now na.

iPopAlomo:
Guy... you harsh Ooo... you mean say dmcdad go deactivate...?!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Wahala dey oooo.

hinohsend:
Wish the match could take place earlier,I'd definately sleep off before 1am....and tomorrow is Monday....

Would have loved it to be earlier too because of work, but nonetheless, me go watch am wella. No dulling!

GBR1:
Good. Messi doesn't need to win anything with Argentina to be considered greater than Ronaldo. Messi has destroyed him enough on club level. I'm basically irritated by such arguments.

This is simply not true. I suspect you don't know enough of what you're talking about here so i won't address this.
Maradona Argentines teammates in 86' weren't exactly crap but Messi has had much better to work with in the Argentine team and has achieved nothing currently. Maradona also had a good stint with Napoli though not as successful as Messi on club level but Messi has had far better teammates at Barcelona also.No but you need to understand the function of ''greatest'' or what it means to be called the GOAT. For instance the Brazilian team in 1970 had so many ridiculous attacking players and should have been an unbalanced side but Pele was the major factor that kept everything ticking and made everything work so flawlessly. He was that good.
Maradona took albeit an average Argentine side and orchestrated almost every single attacking move and pulled the strings that kept the team ticking together until they reached the final and won the competition.
Those are the elite definition of greatness. Di Stefano was an extremely good footballer and had a better club career than Maradona but Maradona is still rated ahead of him and for good reason.
I think people forget the past too easily or many weren't even born then but it's no excuse to underrate great players. IMO Pele is the greatest footballer ever and i don't see that changing anytime soon. You can only beat what's in front of you and Pele was light years ahead of his time/generation. I would go to any length to prove it.

Unfortunately the Copa isn't enough. A World cup trophy would go a great length and help Messi in the Maradona comparisons but with Pele it becomes a stretch too far. Let's leave it at that.

Well, like you said, let's leave it at that. But honestly, we have had great players in the distant past. The likes of Pelé, Maradona, Eusebio, Johan Cruyf, Alfredo di Stefano et al were all great players. But in my own books, the only one I stack against Messi, the only obstacle I see is Pelé.

This is not to say the others were whack. Nah, far from it. Just that, Pelé for me did alot regardless of what or how people see it with his closest partner in crime.

But alot of other factors should also be taken into account. The tactical nature of the game today can never be overemphasised. The game has grown to be a tactical ground or rather a battle of tactics. And since I have been watching footie, I had never seen a player that was tactically marked like Messi. If you have seen, maybe you should saddle with me with it, but I have seen tactics deployed specifically against Messi and I have had nothing but pity of how he had coped thus far. Imagine when Pelé played, they played without any defensive setup like today, not to mention the goalies were ridiculously poor. Little wonder you rarely hear of any goalie of old who was great in his time. This is not to play down Pelé's achievement in any way, but to open up the fact that some other factors should also come into play. This exactly is why alot would say there is no need to compare players from different generations.

The media of today is enough to kill a player's career. Media hype and all that pressure has killed lots of players.

Anywayz, not going against your opinion, of course opinions are sparsely given when such matters come to the fore. Just looking at it from various perspective.

Personally, I pity Messi sha. His international teammates had failed him times without number. Let's just see how they respond to tonight's game.

GBR1:
I don't think Ronaldo's legacy is gonna come even close to Messi's but I think people get too ahead of themselves when they place him close to Pele or even Maradona.

It gets extremely debateable then.

I never compared Ronaldo to Messi. I just brought him in as a reference to prove my point that sometimes you can't win it all. Nevertheless, IMO Messi has done more than enough to earn national glory, but then, there comes the clogs in his wheels.

Honestly, Pelé wouldn't have done it without Garincha. Do you know many folks say Pelé is over-rated in that Garincha was better? More like the duo of Ronaldinho and Eto'o. Garincha was the catalyst behind everything, while Pelé was the goal poacher. At the end of the day, Pelé got all the glory while Garincha went unnoticed by a vast majority.

As for Maradona, IMHO too, I don't think he did more than Messi. Given, on the international stage, yes he did but Messi kills him with club football. Although it can be argued that Messi benefited from having better teammates in club level, yet such can be said of Maradona too on the international stage at the time. Meanwhile, some people misappropriately say Maradona singlehandedly won the world cup in 86. While he did a lot to win that trophy, coupled with his hand-of-god move, it ain't entirely true too.

Now, my point is this... Teammates matter a great deal. Messi had done and is still doing alot to give Argentina something tangible. While it's true that he is not the same player at Barça, it is also true that he doesn't play the same role in Argentina. Role here and not about position. In Barça, he is the reference point. Everything flows with and through him. In Argentina that ain't the case. He is just another team player, hence, the sometimes occasional passive game like an average player. If Higuain and the rest had done the needful at the time, then this never-ending argument would have been more favourable to him.

Finally, I understand your stand. And like you rightly pointed out, it gets extremely debatable. But the factor we should take cognizance of is that, while those days country football was the opium and the all-and-all in footie, nowadays it's not so much.

This is always a never-ending debate. A merry-go-round even. Even if Messi wins this Copa, I still think a lot would still downplay his impact or achievement on the international stage. I feel his only saving grace would be a world cup trophy. And that at this time would almost be impossible. So the debate lingers on...

GBR1:
You shouldn't have asked that question whatever your motive might be and you'll soon understand why.

Say your motive now; let's see how much it'll change.

I guess I already did with the post below the last one I quoted you. Seen? That spells it.

Am I right or not?

liveLongNprospa:
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Really bro... really...3 world cups...nd u r asking about the UCL... atleast if u wanna defend Messi...be creative

I asked you a simple question bruv... That question stemmed from the fact that sometimes you can't win it all, but of course you wouldn't see it in that light. De Lima not winning the UCL, does it in any way take away his legendary status as one of, if not the best striker in the last 30 years?

I know the importance of the world cup in the lives of every footballer. Infact, the importance of WC can never be overemphasised. But sometimes in a view to criticising Messi specifically, some of you bring up some funny and annoying factors against him, but when it comes to your idol Ronaldo, then we start hearing excuses.

Is it just about world cups? There are other trophies that make up the footie world revolve. Are you saying because a footballer has won the UCL then it's okay if he didn't win any league title? Of course it's paramount to win the league too, albeit one is greater than the other in terms of importance, yet, that doesn't make the other less important than it is.

I hope you catch my drift. I no get time for arguments abeg. Just wanted to let you see my POV.

BarcaBlood:
true talk. leo nt winning any trophy yet wit his country is a classical example of "the rich also crying " pele and maradona didnt win copa america, delima ronaldo didnt win d ucl etc. sh!t happens

Exactly! Shiit sure happens.

GBR1:
What is champions league to Pele?

A trophy! Or should I narrow it to his own continent? Copa Libertadores...?

You didn't know my motive for asking that question, yet you quickly came up with this question. Hmmmm. No wahala sha.

BarcaBlood:
I dnt think winning this copa will make leo any greater/lesser of a great but it will sure clear doubts about his performance for ARG, he deserves dis one after leading dem to d 3rd final in 3 years. He z bin so unlucky with d NT, hope his luck changes tomorrow

I really subscribe to this. Messi winning wouldn't in any way make his detractors see in a better light than before, they would always wanna play the world cup card. Plus, Messi winning or not winning wouldn't add or subtract an iota of greatness in his already illustrious career.

For me, he is the G.O.A.T.

liveLongNprospa:
Is dis one ok?... Hope u know Pele has 3worldcup trophies?

And how many Champions League?

coded01:
Welcome back...

Thanks boss.

Odunharry:
Lol.. You think Igbos who have businesses and properties outside the south east will abandon some of them to go start all over again ??
Most of my friends who are ibos ain't screaming the "Give us our Biafra "

Same here bruv. My friends are even wishing and praying it never comes to pass.