Messi's Next Club

[Kafkaesque]

Yep. if he requests the transfer. The £600 mill clause should only apply if another club puts in an official bid to trigger it...

As I understand it (ie. read it when the story started), the clause stated that he could leave for free, if he requested to leave by the end of May. He's now claiming that date's null and void. That it instead should be end of August, because the season ended in August, not May. Sounds dodgy at best. More than anything has the ring of him trying to force Barca's hand to make them let him leave for free or a small-ish fee, rather than have him on the books and going through the legal system.

It already looks bad for Barca but they will destroy their reputation and his legacy if they force it to court which I don't think they want.

Oh I agree, however Messi doesn't come out of it smelling of roses and innocence either. I don't quite agree with Kai, in that his legacy will be destroyed by going to a sportswashing club, and I don't fully agree with Pat either, in that he doesn't owe Barca anything. They "made" him and have generally moved heaven and earth to cater to him, and he does owe them imho. His legacy will be tarnished to some extent.

He was part of one of the greatest teams, if not the greatest, in modern football, has won everything there is to win several times over bar with Argentina. What's he hoping to achieve by going to City? It makes zero sense to me. If he's fed up and wants a new challenge, fine. The emphasis should be on challenge though. Go to an also-ran team to show that he's as brilliant as he's percieved, even with no Xavi and Iniesta. Roma, Napoli, Dortmund, Leicester, Spurs. Along those lines. Never going to happen, but that sort of pivot is all that makes any sense to me outside of staying put.

[Kai]

But Kaf, if you played FM2020 you'll notice that Messi has the leadership stat at 14 instead of 20

And I can't argue with that, he doesn't seem to want a challenge because he's a whiny quitter that prefers to easily win stuff instead of carrying and leading his team to glory, like a proper captain should and would.

God tier player but garbage tier leader, has the mental strength of Titus Bramble. If your team repeatedly capitulates on the pitch itself (vs Roma, Liverpool and Bayern etc) I'd be looking at leadership instead of the boardroom. He's be a great fit at City, when things get tough they can't win either, but they'll happily stomp every easy game 5-0.

Regarding the market itself, it's been fun for the first day or two but it's quickly becoming annoying managing positions. Just been following the 2 trends and playing around with outsiders, shit market overall. For a news based market it trades like a prerace market or any other speculative market, nothing special about it, and the ladder is always empty.

[Kai]

A bit annoying how they randomly keep adding more clubs to the market, that should be done at the start. Adding Liverpool now makes no sense, Klopp ruled it out already days ago and literally said "no chance", the numbers are too high for them and they're not interested.

Despite all the speculation around the two subtle trends are just doing its thing from day one and the trading range seems clearly defined, even after that one big overreaction after La Liga broke the news about the release clause at Sunday afternoon.

[Derek27]

A bit annoying how they randomly keep adding more clubs to the market, that should be done at the start. Adding Liverpool now makes no sense, Klopp ruled it out already days ago and literally said "no chance", the numbers are too high for them and they're not interested.

Despite all the speculation around the two subtle trends are just doing its thing from day one and the trading range seems clearly defined, even after that one big overreaction after La Liga broke the news about the release clause at Sunday afternoon.

That's what I used to love about horse racing antepost markets, especially the 5-day acceptors. People would back them as though they were the only runners and I'd lay the field for over 100%, with the added bonus of more entries/supplements. Sad that that market has dried up now but your green book reminded me of those days.

[Kai]

That's what I used to love about horse racing antepost markets, especially the 5-day acceptors. People would back them as though they were the only runners and I'd lay the field for over 100%, with the added bonus of more entries/supplements. Sad that that market has dried up now but your green book reminded me of those days.

Interesting, don't think I ever touched any antepost markets, but did play around with placed markets on bigger meetings years ago which was a lot of fun, but hardly worth it on regular racing

Actually not done any laying on the Messi market, only layed "No Transfers" a few times around 2.0s since it had an active uptrend from the first day, in trading terms I was catching higher lows and I guess in gamblers terms I was taking up a value position.

But on City and everything else I stuck to the back side exclusively, so about half the green came from swinging the 2 favs and the other half from outsiders, position is currently sitting at 220 hedged green on the favs but I left everything else open to maybe get a bit excited if something interesting happens.

Don't really see any other obvious opportunities, was lowkey hoping someone else did, not really interested in speculating too much and was only going along with the markets and trading what I was seeing. After the first couple trades you can't really lose if you just play around with the profits and never overstake.

If Messi brings a ton of liquidity with him to the Premier League then I'd be up for that for sure, no matter where he goes. Judging by the liquidity of his market here he maybe won't!

[wearthefoxhat]

If true, could be a done deal....

messi1.jpg

[LeTiss]

£88.8 million for a 33 year-old?

No thanks

[Euler]

Can't have many years left in him as a striker you would have thought. Though I did say a similar thing about Roger Federer!

[Dallas]

£88.8 million for a 33 year-old?

No thanks

You'd pay it for a certain 39yr old TV presenter if you had it spare

[LeTiss]

£88.8 million for a 33 year-old?

No thanks

You'd pay it for a certain 39yr old TV presenter if you had it spare

You absolute rascal, Dallas

[JTEDL]

'No transfer' just steamed into 1.20...

[LeTiss]

Large spike, yes. Back out to 1.48 again. It suggests we might hear something concrete in the next day or 2

[Kai]

Looks like somebody knows something.

Wasn't following the news too much but it started steadily steaming after that first meeting between Jorge Messi and the president Bartomeu. Reports last night breaking out that Messi is 90% certain to stay. But the conclusion of the meeting seems to be that Barca will listen but won't negotiate a potential exit, so a stalemate for now?

On the market front layed No Transfer around 2.0s last night but got a bit spooked by that "90%" news and the force of that move, so closed right away 15 ticks lower at a loss on that one, glad I didn't leave it overnight as it touched 1.14 soon as I woke up. Layed some more though near the bottom here and will let it ride for now, and backed City a bit too. Finding it difficult not to overstake.

Lol @ Dallas btw

[aines88]

Statement from the Messi camp on the way....

'LIVE BLOG

12:16. Lionel Messi will soon issue a statement about his future....'

https://www.marca.com/en/football/barce ... b45b1.html

[LeTiss]

His price for staying at Barca is now dropping steadily