Johan Cruyff, who still sees Messi and Neymar together as being risky, answers MARCA's questions.

Q) What will Neymar bring to the party?
A) We'll have to wait and see. He is talented but we'll have to see how he gets on with everyone. That's a problem.

Q) Everyone says he won't get on with Messi. You yourself have said the same.
A) That's what started all this about me being against Rosell. It's absurd: if I have an opinion, I express it. If I think he's made a mistake, I don't say it as the enemy; I say it because that's what I think.

Q) Could the fact that Neymar's father has walked away with €40 million create jealousy in the dressing room?
A) It could. It's like the free kicks. Neymar is very good at taking them. And Messi has already shown he is. Who's going to take them? Or the fact that Neymar and Barcelona are with Nike while Leo is with Adidas. These are situations that could cause problems.

Q) Neymar should have been brought in and Messi sold to avoid conflicts? Do you agree with that?
A) With Neymar on board, I would have planned for the possibility of selling Messi, and some would agree with that, others not. You are talking about a team, its players, the things around it... There are too may things at stake. That's why it's so difficult to manage such a top class squad.

Q) It's true that, if the pairing works, its will be formidable...
A) Undoubtedly. We'll have to wait and see - it could turn out well or badly. It's a risk.

Q) Would you have taken the risk?
A) No, I wouldn't have signed Neymar.

Q) This conflict is in everyone's mind after what happened with Ibrahimovic, Villa, Bojan and Eto'o with arising problems and they had to leave. Can it happen so?
A) As you put it, it seems that Messi is a dictator. When you have the possibility of being the best in every game you have to be a little dictator because he plays not only for the team but also for number one and prestige.

That is logical because you are above the rest and if things do not work out the first thing that is going to hit you. It's the problem of being number one, so you have to be very picky with all your gear. On and off the field.

(what do you guys think about CRUYFF statements, did he go too far with messi and neymar situation?)

Cruyff talks too much.

....but when he does, he's usually right.

@SoccerBoss

I think that you should pay more attention to what Cruyff says. He does not speak illogically.

He is right when he says that he doesn't know if N and M will fit together well, but there is a big chance that they won't. He even said that they'll be a force to reckon with if they DO fit together, but he finds is an unnecessary risk to buy Neymar. Why would you? Especially when you have Cuenca, Tello, Deulofeu, Pedro, Rafinha, and Alexis in your ranks? Can't you use those players?

Remember, Cruyff is the sole man responsible for where Barcelona are today. He was the one who brought football this far with his total football policy, and he brought Barcelona this far with his tiki-taka system and La Masia policy. It was HE who taught Guardiola and it was HE who decided to use youth players more rather then buying the best in the world. Xavi, Puyol, Messi, Iniesta, and Guardiola all have Cruyff to thank for their success. You should give more respect to the man who devoted his career to your club.

^^ Don't forget that Laporta was a Cruyff disciple too. That club has his DNA running right through it.

i agree with Cruyff

I want whatever some of whatever Cruyff was smoking

@THeTruth

So you disregard Cruyff's comments? Just goes to show how much of an honest Barcelona "fan" you really are.

Lately Cruyff has started talking so much crap just like Pele... Cruyff reasoning is that having 2 stars like Messi and Neymar in the same team would be harmful for the club because they would conflict? Why should they? Real Madrid had Los Galacticos, a team full of stars, and they worked
together well. I think Messi and Neymar will form one of the greatest
partnerships in Europe and score many many goals together. ALSO someone needs to remind Cruyff that he had the likes of Koeman, Romario, Stoichov, Laudrup in the same team... It was ok for him to have many star players but now it's not... ok...

@TheTruth

Oh, so 2 trophies in the Galacticos era was a good one huh? Don't talk shit if you don't know it. Real Madrid's Galacticos never worked out. That one CL trophy doesn't do justice for all the money spent. Zidane may have been fabulous individually, but Figo, Beckham, and Ronaldo never worked out.

Koeman, Stoichkov, Romario, and Laudrup all worked out brilliantly because.

1. Barcelona had a brilliant manager at the time (Cruyff himself)

2. They all have different roles in the game. Koeman is a defender, Stoichkov a winger, Laudrup a play-maker, and Romario a striker.

What about Messi and Neymar. They both play the same position, and have the same goals in the game. It's like asking Ibrahimovic to play with Messi. You saw how well that turned out. Messi HAS to be the star, and the ONLY star. Your team won't work if Neymar is trying to bag as many goals as Messi it. It just won't. That's why Iniesta and Xavi fit in so well with Messi. Because they all have DIFFERENT ROLES.

@Dynastyan98 We are not talking about trophies here. I was referring to the fact that the Galacticos got along well enough taking into account how many stars they had in that team. Well of course it's obvious not ALL are going to work well but some like Raul, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Zidane like you say, did work and we are talking of only 2 big stars in Barcelona. In Barcelona, Neymar and Messi play in DIFFERENT POSITIONS, sure, Neymar can play in Messi's position and viceversa but they're not competing for the same position. And Barcelona having 2 pillars... Why not? that's what we need. Messi can't take care of anything alone. Neymar will help Messi and Messi will help Neymar. Messi will be more free and there will be less players to mark him because they'll worry about Neymar too.

One more thing. We, Barcelona fans consider Messi our "God" of football. We love him for everything he's done and we want him to STAY and RETIRE AT BARCELONA. Selling Messi is not an option. Rosell is not the greatest president but he isn't stupid enough to even consider selling Messi.

I think you're reading too much into what Cruyff said, TheTruth.

All he said was: a) he wouldn't have bought Neymar, b) he'd have planned for the possibility of selling Messi, just in case, if Neymar was going to be the new star of the team, and c) that Messi bosses the team, which he does, and that could cause a lot of conflict.

You might remember a certain Ronaldinho and Deco being offloaded for similar reasons.

Cruyff is probably the most intelligent footballing mind in the world. When Barcelona listen to him, they do extremely well. When they stop listening to him... well, it doesn't tend to go so well for them.

Rossell is going to find this out the hard way, and so too might the Barcelona faithful.

@Lodatz: Don't forget that the mighty Zlatan had to be off loaded because of Messi as well.

If Henry-Eto'o-Messi played together and managed a devastating attack, why can't Neymar-Messi play together? Neymar already understands Messi is the worlds best player, he stated he us there to play along side him learn and help him to win another ballon d'ore.

Lodatz, like I said, I only disagree with Cruyff in that he thinks a Barcelona wouldn't work together. They don't even play the in same position.

a) I more or less agree with Cruyff saying he wouldn't have bought Neymar. Neymar certainly is a good player but his price tag was very high and I thought he needed to prove himself in Europe but having seen the Confederations Cup so far I have to say that he can succeed at Barcelona.

b) yes, i might've overreacted with this point, but still... selling Messi? That's like Napoli selling Maradona, Wenger selling Henry when he was at his best. Just because it's Johan it doesn't mean it has to be right. He knows about football but it doesn't mean that everything he says is right. Mourinho is a helluva coach and he still couldn't win the Champions League with a team that could be considered "better" than the teams he had at Inter, Chelsea or Porto had.

c) Messi is the boss but it's because of Barcelona's Tiki-taka and because of Messi's abilities. Messi and most of his teammates grew up playing in the same way so it's easy for them to understand each other. Messi's incredible talent come into play too. Fabregas can play false 9 but he isn't able to make the team move or score as many goals as Messi does. Messi can make others play for him but he also plays for them. When he makes runs he makes 2, 3, 4 players from the other team follow him and then he assists he can his teammates who are free of mark.

@Vendetta Zlatan is an amazing player but he was wasted at Barcelona. Zlatan didn't fit the tiki-taka style in the first place and also Messi already played in the same position.

@tiki-taka

Zlatan fit the style perfectly, because you NEED a CF who doesn't play tiki-taka to create natural space for Messi. Notice when Villa and Messi play together, Barca usually dominate? It's because Villa drags players aside for Messi to run into empty space. Milan suffered 4-0 because of that. And Zlatan actually scored 20+ goals in his first season there and was Barcelona's second-highest scorer that season, so I don't see anything that went wrong with him besides Pep and his relationship breaking down.

And Johan was saying that if you want to buy a new young player like Neymar, you have to replace your current star with him for Neymar to shine. That's why he said that if Barcelona aren't prepared to sell Messi (which they won't), they never ought to have bought Neymar in the first place.

@Dynastian: And from the the quotes I read about Zlatan's time with Messi, it didn't seem like a pleasant experience.

@dynast ???

@Ven

No, not at all. It was the failure of Pep to handle two egos at once. Something a manager like Ancelotti or Sir Alex are good at. Making sure that the players don't think that they are above the team. It's why Mou had so many problems at Madrid, because most of the players thought they were above the team as a whole. :(

The only respectful one of them was Xabi Alonso. He didn't like Mourinho, but by no means did he make it public or drag attention to himself or Mourinho. He kept it quiet, because he knew that the most important thing is the team's success. He played on, and did pretty well. THAT's the kind of player-manager relationships you want, and the kind of palyer-player relationships as well. Messi and Zlatan didn't get along because both wanted to be the main man. Messi didn't want to confront Zlatan, so he sent Pep a text from the back of the team bus near the end of the season saying,

"It's either Zlatan or me"

, which pretty much shows that Pep ought to have controlled both these players better. If he did, he would've had the best attacking partnership in the world. :/

...which brings us back to what Cruyff said about needing to be a bit selfish, when you're the best/star of the team. I suppose someone could poke at Messi's attitude, but ultimately, he was right. It WAS him or Zlatan, and both he and Pep knew who was better. The 2009 and 2011 Barcelona teams have both been built around Messi, and what Messi wants.

Will Messi be able to bend, to accommodate Neymar? Maybe. Maybe Neynar isn't even worth doing so. All these questions/problems are the ones that Cruyff answered by saying that he would not have bought Neymar, but since they did, they should be 'prepared' for a Messi sale/exit.

Cruyff is just making the best case out of a situation that Rossell shouldn't have created.

@Dynastian:

"It was a childhood dream [to join Barcelona] and I was walking on air. It started well but then Messi started to talk. He wanted to play in the middle, not on the wing, so the system changed from 4-3-3 to 4-5-1. I was sacrificed and no longer had the freedom on the pitch I need to succeed."

“Lionel Messi is awesome. He’s unbelievable, but I don’t really know him. We are totally different. He came to Barça as a 13-year old. He’s raised in that culture and has no problems with that ‘school’ sh*t. In the team, the play is all around him, pretty naturally actually. He’s brilliant, but now I had arrived [at Barca] and scored more goals than him.”

"I told him [Guardiola] what a friend had said to me - 'you bought a Ferrari but drive it like a Fiat'. The chat seemed to go well but then Guardiola started to freeze me out."

"I felt like crap when I was sitting in the locker room with Guardiola staring at me like I was an annoying distraction, an outsider. It was nuts. He was a wall, a stone wall. I didn’t get any sign of life from him and I was wishing myself away every moment with the team. Then Guardiola started his philosopher thing. I was barely listening. Why would I? It was advanced bullsh*t about blood, sweat and tears, that kind of stuff."

"Guardiola wants to be perfect in public. Tiger Woods wanted to be perfect too, but nobody is."

"I had done a lot to adapt - the Barca players were like schoolboys, following the coach blindly, whereas I was used to asking 'why?' I like guys who run red lights, not pedantic and strict rules. So I tried to be overly nice, didn't dare lose my temper."

"If you don’t play a footballer after spending €65 million, then you should be sent to a mental hospital."
~Ibra's agent