Scotland is the only place I’ve ever known where a player can right hook another player infront of all the officials while aggressively shouting obscenities in the referees face and still not walk.
No wonder frimpong wanted away, the young kid got assaulted every week
lol Messi tonight… 
Bye, Barca… 
Stfu Sugar Nazi lover
What?
Imagine rooting against the greatest footballer to ever live
I’m not tbh, I’m rooting against Barcelona because the Spanish & Italian giants are the biggest crooks in football and are generally behind the rules of why the Scottish clubs don’t get a CL spot or for that matter the 1st in every division getting into the CL.
Plus 
my Uncles a fanatic of Messi and I can see why as he is 1 of the best and was loyal to Barca, not many around alough he did get paid well.
After seeing the old footage of Maradona I’ve got to say he was the best by a country mile.
I think if Maradona was Scottish we’d have won the world Cup by now… 
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Try getting gud
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Heart removed from post after this edit.
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Explains most European countries problems… Money counts
Fair, he’d have been more trashed with alcohol etc than when he was in Naples
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I think Maradona had a greater gap between himself and his average competition than Messi, but Messi is clearly better in absolute terms if we had access to time machines and such.
I disagree tbh… The pitches in Diegos day were terrible and the fitness regime etc were all basic, so of course Messi will have better longevity.
If you’ve never seen Diegos time in Spain before the Barcelona days it’s worth searching for.
Yeah, I’m relying on that for my assessment. If Maradona was stuck in the modern Barca academy at an early age, would he have turned out better than Messi? Maybe. But he wasn’t.
He already did… And would have lasted longer in the game… A few things to weight up wrt the style of play and the tackles in Diegos day imo makes him the better player even if the standard of skills was lower which in itself is in doubt but what is not in doubt is that Diego got kicked off the park every game he played, every game.
Comparisons between sports stars from different eras are always pointless because the game has evolved and so have fitness levels.
But if Maradona was born the same time as Messi he’d be clearly the better player.
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I wouldn’t say the art of defending has been lost exactly, but I know what you mean.
Emphasis is now put on defenders being able to play out from the back and form combinations with the MF or wingers. A lot of FBs start out as wingers, because unlike attacking much of defending can be learnt. That’s not to say all of it, though, but the ability to start an attack from the back is seen as more important than the nth degrees of defending ability.
It all goes back to the total football of Cruyff and Barcelona and does make football more watchable for most people. But yea, the Italian footballers we all started watching in the 80s and 90s were so skilful, especially the defenders.