La Liga

[GeoTav]

PSG are not a competitor for CL yet ...

Ronaldo said yesterday that he was professionnally sad ... And some rumours emerge that he would have asked to Perez to leave the club at the end of the current season.

[Gio-mania]

PSG are not a competitor for CL yet ...

Ronaldo said yesterday that he was professionnally sad ... And some rumours emerge that he would have asked to Perez to leave the club at the end of the current season.

The reason he was unhappy for "professional reasons", that he didn't celebrate his goals, that he cried for 20 minutes in the changing room after the match, is that he was "forced" to play on the anniversary of his fathers death. Or at least that is what I make of it, rather than that he doesn't enjoy life at Madrid or that he wants more money.

[xudong]

I don't think they are satisfied; I am sure that they would want players like Thiago Silva too. But great defenders are hard to come by, and any team with ambition would not want to sell to strengthen their competitors.

So that's why we sold Silva to P$G? Because they are not competitor?

It seems that you highlighted the wrong part; it is because we (Milan, or rather, Berlusconi) don't have ambition.

[reza]

Real dropped 14 points all of last season, 8 already this season.

[xudong]

Real dropped 14 points all of last season, 8 already this season.

There is still a difference. Real Madrid still may come back, and the worst, they will end the season in a disastrous manner - finished 2nd.

Milan on the other hand, may risk missing EL (note: not CL).

[Nalx]

Needing a break from thinking about a certain Italian club I watched La Coruna - Barca last night and thought what kind of species this little man named Messi is? He slotted the ball perfectly with his weaker right foot, danced away from tackle in the middle of the field, dribbled past three defenders, went farther to the left of the box and scored from the tightest angle. He blatantly fouled his marker and when being shown YC for it, he berated the referee.

I mean, after all that he has won, what the hell did he do those things for? He can't be a homo sapiens. The law of diminishing return doesn't apply on him. At this stage Ronaldinho would have more concerned with his skills of picking up girls at late night parties than football. Will he ever become complacent?

[xudong]

All Messi needs is one World Cup trophy (particularly if it is WC'14 in Brazil), and he will be the greatest football player in the history. That guy is unbelievable.

[Siregar]

All Messi needs is one World Cup trophy (particularly if it is WC'14 in Brazil), and he will be the greatest football player in the history. That guy is unbelievable.

It is too far to think, xudong.

He needs to show that he can make Argentina a strong team like in the past. Well, before that he should be able to play WELL in Argentina team. Of course without bringing Xavi and Iniesta to that team.

[Best-Pundit]

All Messi needs is one World Cup trophy (particularly if it is WC'14 in Brazil), and he will be the greatest football player in the history. That guy is unbelievable.

Even if Messi wins the world cup, he will still be slightly behind Maradona, because:

- I am not sure he can do it in Maradona way, i.e. 1 man show 86
- People how ofter forget it wasn't just WC86 for Maradona, he also guided them to WC90 final, even though he wasn't fully fit and their coach was ultra defensive minded
- I doubt if Messi can come to a Serie-A and join Napoli or Roma or Lazio etc and win multiple Serie-A & runner up spots + Europe League.
- Despite our hate for Barcelona, lets just admit that they are the best team in the world rite now, so can Messi play for ... say Athelitco Bilbao or Sevilla etc and give the might Barca and Real they kind of challenge like the kind of thing Diego did with Napoli against the giants of Serie-A, the mighty Milan of 88-90, Juve, Inter and even the likes of Sampdoria were really strong teams those days. He can't.

Any way, Messi is my favorite player in the world (since Nesta has retired), but the best footballer of all time will always be Diego Maradona. But thats just my opinion. I am sure many will disagree.

[Nalx]

I think it's pointless bordering on foolish to compare players that are decades apart, playing under different rules and circumstances. Would Messi thrive just as well in the 80-es when the tackles were more brutal, or would Basten achieve more if he played now in the era when players like him are more protected? We'll never know.

People often romanticize Maradona's Napoli as the rags to riches story, poor Southern Italy versus rich Northern Italy, but they forgot the fact that he was bought for a world record then, just like when Milan bought Gullit in '87. And he played in an era where only three foreigners were allowed to play at the same time. Berlu only got sick with the shopping-spree flu when the Champions League was announced, an altogether different format to the European Cup. Again, different rule, different situation.

So the situation is ever-changing. But
what these great players have in common is that they manage to display performances of the highest quality over a long span of time. They're not flavor-of-the-month or one-season-wonder kind of players.

I love to climb mountain on the weekend and one thing I learn is the highest one doesn't necessarily mean the most difficult one. Everest is the tallest of all, but who's to say that it's more difficult than K2, for example? The same thing applies to football. World Cup can be considered as the biggest trophy, and it being held once every four years makes it even grander. But to constantly perform well against the European elite clubs over a season to win the Big Ear is not a lesser achievement either.