- May 7, 2004
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I don't think Messi has ever been disruptive though. He does voice his opinion but he's the captain so should be able to. I'm sure he and Valverde actually have a good relationship anyway but I exaggerate when I say he should do what he likes. Only within reason he should have high priority at the club. As long as it doesn't affect the harmony of the team.Yes Messi is arguably their greatest ever player but I don't think any player should have the absolute run of the place. Ultimately the manager has to still have the authority regardless of how talented a particular player is. Obviously it's still possible to have success even with that kind of unhealthy level of player-power, but that doesn't mean that it's a good thing.
Love him or loath him, I think most people would say SAF was the greatest manager of the modern era (if not ever) and famously one of his core principles was that no player should ever be bigger than the manager and no player should ever be bigger than the club. It was based on this principle that he was able to build not just one but a succession of 3 or 4 teams that would go on to be massively successful and I don't think that's a coincidence.
The now legendary Barca team with Messi, Xavi, Iniesta etc. all managed by Pep was a truly great team. But now that it's kind of ended up with Messi being too powerful yes they're still a very good team, but they're nowhere near that level and I don't think it's possible for them to be. Same applies to Real Madrid with Ronaldo - they were a good team and won 3 CLs in a row or whatever it was, but as silly as it probably sounds, they were never a truly great team. There was just too many on and off the field issues, a lot of which were either caused or made worse by the fact that everyone at the club was just fawning over "CR7" the whole time.