It Doesn’t Feel Real – A Barca fan’s reaction to the Messi Drama
By Jim James
It was dusk, around 8:00 pm yesterday, after Bob & I had got back from a trip for the day (without wi-fi), and I checked to see what had happened while we were gone. The first thing I did was check ESPN Insider Adrian Wojnarowski’s twitter page, as football wasn’t the first thing on my mind, the NBA and Free Agency were. I find out that Masai Ujiri has re-upped with the Raptors! Things could only go down from here, but that wasn’t what I was thinking. Then, I saw it.
The first place I saw it was the twitter news feed & the “What’s Happening” page; “Lionel Messi is leaving FC Barcelona, according to a statement from the club”. I was surprised at first, but I of course checked FC Barcelona’s twitter page to see if it was indeed true. Yes, it was indeed true. I was shellshocked to say the least, and now that I have had some time to reflect on this situation, let it develop into the next day, and gain a true, honest opinion from the news stories that I have read, and just thoughts from the heart that I want to share. Along with this, I also want to cover this situation thoroughly in this post. Let’s begin.
My thoughts; Is this real? Just the other day I was hoping that we could get Messi back as I was missing watching him, and how has this situation fooled not just us, but also Fabrizio Romano? Another thing; what situation does it put us in? I mean, Messi’s leaving, Pedri is battered, when Fati comes back next month, he will have been out 11 months, how fit will he be? How much will we have to rely on other wonderkids in the team, like Gavi, Ilias Chakkour, Yusuf Demir, Rey Manaj, Alejandro Balde, and others? How will we, now, spend the 250 million euros from La Liga, and the most important question, and the one that is in the back of my mind every time we make a move; how will this affect our UCL & La Liga chances, more so the Champions League, as I became a Barca fan in early 2016, and have never seen them lift the illustrious trophy, while I’ve been forced to see our bitter rivals lift it 3 times.
That is my reaction to the initial situation, but we must now move to the second question being answered in this post and probably the first question on everybody’s minds; Where to? What now? The answer, either PSG or Barcelona. Although La Liga prevented the Messi extension, they might reconsider. How, in any way, is this good for La Liga? A lot of neutrals, fans of no teams in La Liga, will stop watching Barcelona games & will probably cancel the La Liga television service, so La Liga might allow it, like the Martin Braithwaite signing, but the gambler’s favourite at the moment has to be Paris Saint-Germain. According to Santi Aouna, Jorge Messi, Leo’s father & agent, has reached an agreement with PSG. According to news sources such as L’Equipe, Dario AS, and Tancredi Palmeiri, Messi is signing a deal worth 3 years and 40 million Euros (just over 250k/week), and the deal is in talks so advanced that a swoop from Chelsea was over before it began.
This was a sorrow post, in my point of view, at least, and I hope Joan Laporta knows what he is doing. An update will come soon.