Will Messi be at Barca next season?

yes

Actually I think players seem to be playing at a higher level for longer these days - which I assume is down to fitness levels and cracking down on career threatening tackling. Or am I imagining that?

cant ever see him leaving unless its like iniesta to china tbf

I keep reading about guys like Cavani and Giroud and Mertens, to name but three, all of whom are 32-33, being mentioned as transfer targets, 10 years ago they'd have been winding down their careers.

He'll still be at Barca. He doesn't have any intention to leave, bad managers (and board members) come and go, Messi has attained god-like status there and probably wants to run the show there himself one day. He's wielding his +7 Excalibur, is all.

I don’t see him leaving until he decides he wants to go back to Newell’s Old Boys tbh.

does the average player spend longer during his career out injured these days, on the other hand?

I assume they're just taken better care off these days and not just injected with painkillers and sent out to play, thus prolonging their careers and reducing the likelihood of them being crippled with arthritis by the time they're 50.

i think the change in acceptable tackling has led to a change in the physiology that works best now, meaty lads dont get to the top level

and youve to factor in that probably many fewer careers are ended by injury given strides in treatments (and money in same, tbf)

but i think that the high end player is a finely-tuned specimen much more likely to tweak or otherwise injure himself these days and as a consequence they have patchier availability records

but as a kind of associated effect they play longer at higher levels

obviously he's still gonna be at Barca. according to Wilson he doesn't do any pressing work - does that mean he just isn't suited to a top PL side? Kloop/Mou wouldn't have it, city/utd would still concede silly goals if he were in the team. Messi at Arsenal would be hilarious. In conclusion, he should join the blades.

fair point

the idea that the best player in the world has to follow a strict system seems totalitarian to me

even spurs managed to do their stuff behind jermain defoe under avb (right?) while acknowledging that he simply wasnt part of the formation or tactic off-the-ball

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messi assisted three and scored five