Thanks For The Memories

£189 million. €222 million. $259 million. Whichever way you put it, the most expensive transfer in football history is complete. Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior has left Futbol Club Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain, in a world record fee that completely dwarfs the last most expensive transfer set last year by Paul Pogba. I could sit here and talk about the numbers involved, but I’m not here for the finances, and neither are y’all. You guys want thoughts and reactions so that’s what you’ll get.

I am a fan of FC Barcelona first and foremost. Since 2006. While it hurts losing the second best player in the world (Yes, you read that right) just as he’s entering his prime, you can’t do anything but dust yourself off, thank Neymar for his four wonderful years in the blaugrana, and wait to see how the club spends this money. Neymar wanted to leave. He is of no obligation to the club or it’s fans. He is a man of his own free will and should be allowed the freedom to make his living wherever he chooses to do so. However, let me reiterate the fact that he wanted to leave. Barcelona didn’t push him out. He had just signed a renewed contract for five years in 2016. It made him the second highest paid player at the club behind Lionel Messi. Had he chosen to stay at the club, it would’ve meant another five year contract with wages equal to Messi’s. The current Barcelona board of directors got into legal trouble over his transfer from Santos with undisclosed money paid under the table to entities far and wide. He was their crown jewel. When he first got here there was even talk of selling Messi to keep him tied down. They would have done whatever to keep him. There were even signings going to be made for him had he waited until January (We’ll get to those later), but there was no desire to sell the man. He had a release clause (We’ll also get to that later), and the price was met.

Let us also understand that being on the same team as Lionel Messi didn’t drive him away. People that don’t watch La Liga, let alone Barça, have the loudest and most asinine opinions when it comes to the team. Any person who had watched us day in and day out in the past two years, would have seen that Neymar became our offensive protagonist. When Messi went down for two months in 2015 with an MCL injury, Neymar took the reigns. When he came back from injury, things stayed the same except now Neymar had an offensive outlet outside of Luis Suárez to pass to. This new shift in offense made Dani Alves (Who was on his way out) expendable as the hope was that with a new, younger left back to get Jordi Alba to compete; a Messi & Alves-like partnership would be formed on the opposite wing. Messi even started to drift further inside to essentially be a “no. 10” in order to be closer to combine with Neymar. Had there been a functional midfield to ease the workload for both Messi and Neymar, he wouldn’t have had to play a hybrid LM/LWB. Therefore, having more energy and focus to finish his chances and increase his goal tally. Messi was one of several senior team members to personally try and convince Neymar to stay while Barcelona were on the U.S. preseason tour. He never been one to be jealous, but it’s fun to project whatever evils because the man shows no semblance of a wild side. He has shown time, and time again that he enjoyed his relationship on the field with Neymar as much as off the field, but it’d be more fun if he didn’t because drama sells.

The environment in Barcelona wanted him to succeed (And succeed Messi), no one wanted him gone except him and his entourage. I love Neymar, even if I am a little mad at him right now, he’s still one of my favorite players in the world. If there’s one thing that irritates me about him, is how he has a propensity to say one thing and do another. As a kid he said his favorite team in Brazil was Palmeiras and his favorite team in Europe was Real Madrid, but as we know, he’s played in Brazil for rivals Santos and he’s played in Europe for rivals FC Barcelona. He says he wants to retire at Flamengo, but I won’t be surprised if his late 30s are spent with Fluminense. That’s why I don’t believe what he said in his Instagram message or his interviews at the Parc des Princes. On Instagram, he said that he went against his father’s wishes and decided to go to Paris. I know this isn’t the case because before I found out who Marcelo Bechler was, when this transfer was only a rumor, it was said essentially that PSG would be willing to meet Neymar’s €222m release clause. Why would a club, who’s advances were turned down just last year, come back the following year and state this? 1) Its already known you’d be willing to meet the release clause, you tried already. 2) Who lets their intentions known on a transfer if it isn’t guaranteed you’ll get the target? Especially after he turned you down last year? That’s why I put a little more stock in this rumor this time around (Well, when it was a rumor anyway) because something didn’t seem right. When it was revealed that Neymar Sr. & Jr. were angry that Paulinho was signed or than Lucas Lima wasn’t considered (A client of Neymar Sr. as an agent and a friend of Neymar Jr. from Santos), it made it more believable that they approached PSG first. I wouldn’t want to deal with Barcelona if they were fucking with my money too. Also, why not get paid tons, up front and all legal? To steal a line from The King of Kings, you have to do what’s best for business.

I don’t mind Neymar leaving if it means the financial future of the club gets a breather. I’m just disappointed. Disappointed because I thought that everything was pointing in the direction of him only leaving the club to retire in Brazil. Disappointed because the greatest attack trio of all time is no more. Disappointed because we lose the second best player on earth to some baguettes he literally helped us beat this same year. Disappointed because the reputation of the club takes a hit. Disappointed because he waited so long to leave and it hurts us. Most of all, I’m disappointed because he says he left to challenge himself. Every player with every team in every league is getting challenged. Every competition, every trophy and every award, they’re all challenges. “Hello? You play to win the game!” Nothing is predetermined, you still have to go out there and play. Of course Ligue 1 is challenging, but not more than La Liga, the best football is played in Spain. You want to be the man? If you as good as we think you can be, boss up and take that status from Messi. That’s a challenge. Getting everyone in the world to say “It’s Neymar’s team now”. Messi doesn’t play for Brazil. If Barcelona win the Champions League, but Brazil win the World Cup, how can the Ballon d’Or not come to you? He didn’t talk about the transfer rumors while they were swirling. He’s had all that time to come up with something and this is what he says? It’s just entirely too ridiculous for me.

Although, I’m mad now, I wish Neymar the best of luck on his new journey. As long as the club spends the influx of money right on proper transfer targets (Current links are promising but I won’t hold my breath), it’ll soothe the loss. As of right now tho, I’m going to miss the electric play between the MSN + Iniesta. It produced tons of great memories. The entire 2015 Champions League run, the 4–0 Clásico, the Villarreal game in 2015, the Arsenal CL knockout tie, the 2016 La Liga collapse that almost was, the PSG comeback. All great memories. Hell, even though he was suspended for the 2–3 Clásico, his reactions on Instagram Live and the fact that they FaceTimed him to put him in the team pic at the Bernabéu was classic. I said during the preseason tour that I didn’t want him scoring if he was just gonna leave, because we were playing some great football and it was basically a tease for what we won’t see this season. It sucks, but life goes on. I’m still hurting, but I’m excited to see not only what he can do by himself, but also what we can do without him. Good luck, Neymar.