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Not everyone in England welcomes the possibility of Lionel Messi reaching the Premier League, and even less that he is the great signing of Manchester City, since his best years have already passed playing for FC Barcelona.
Now that LaLiga de España has confirmed that to sign Messi you have to pay 700 million euros, there are those who think that it would be a serious mistake to hire the Argentine star, who is already 33 years old and has shown a certain decline in his last campaigns.
This is the case of a London Arsenal legend who wrote a strong column in the ‘Daily star’, making it clear that the Messi who would arrive in England is not the same as before. This is Paul Merson, historical of the ‘gunners’.
“Messi is no longer the best player in the world. Is it worth paying £ 500 million to see the finale? ”The former footballer wondered in a column. Then, he added: “Don’t get me wrong, Messi was the best player in the world, but times change and he is today a shadow of what he used to be. I don’t want to see him play like he did against Bayern Munich. That was football close to retirement ”.
And then he issued a warning to Manchester City. “It is a great risk to sign him now for so much money, when his best days are over. You can’t tell on television, but when you see him in person, he is literally standing on the court. I’ve never seen anything like it. He walks around looking around and waiting for the ball to hit him. If he goes to City and players who try hard like De Bruyne or Raheem Sterling see that he doesn’t, won’t that cause conflicts?
But the criticism went much further. Merson said that “Messi can still do great things, but he is not the one from five years ago”; and he could not avoid the eternal comparison with Cristiano Ronaldo, who “still achieves stellar numbers and has gone to challenge himself to another country.”
And finally, the former Arsenal left in the air the possibility that Messi is using all this noise, but does not want to leave Barcelona. “I wonder if in the end all this is a game to win in a power bid with Barça. Messi could end up not going anywhere, “he concluded.
