Lionel Messi wanted to leave Barcelona this summer.
The six-time Ballon d’Or winner had accepted the club was going nowhere and he had outgrown the ambitions of Barcelona.
The club pulled out all stops to keep him but was it the right decision?
In an interview given by ex-Barcelona boss Quique Setien, the man who handed the club an 8-2 thrashing by Bayern Munich, the 63-year-old coach intangibly expressed that Messi is unmanageable.
There is no denying that Messi is a football legend and still the best in the world but sometimes egocentric stars can damage a football team much more than mediocre football tactics.
Setien told El Pais: “There are players that aren’t easy to manage, and Leo is one of them.
“You also have to remember that he’s the best player in history and who am I to try and change him as a player? I can’t do anything if those at the club have accepted him for how he is and haven’t changed him for years.
“It’s not just the player that you have to manage, there another side and that is much more complicated. It’s something which is built into many sportspeople like we saw in the Michael Jordan documentary [The Last Dance]. You see things that you don’t expect to see.
“He’s very reserved but he makes you see the things that he wants. He doesn’t talk much, but he looks.
“I’ve experienced it. I’ve had enough experiences to know exactly what this guy and all the others are like.
“Since leaving I know myself that at certain moments other decisions had to be made, but there’s something which is more powerful than you: the club. What’s more powerful than the president, the player and the coach are the club and the fans.
“Those are the ones you owe the most respect to and you have to do what’s best for them. There are millions of people who think that Messi, or any other player, is more important than the club and the coach. This player, and those around him, have been winning everything for 14 years.
“Messi is the best of all time. There are been over great players who have been really good, but no one has had the consistency that he has over the years.”
So do you really think that the relationship has damaged itself from either end and they should just part ways now?
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