Football Manager Story about Rangers

[cam69r 8]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/aug/21/football-manager-craze-lionel-messi?CMP=twt_gu

Hope this isn't old news as I just found it today and thought it was pretty funny.

This is an article from The Guardian about Football Manager and the main man from the game is talking about all the funny football manager stories he has heard of in his time.

He tells a pretty interesting thing about Eck McLeish's son telling him to buy Lionel Messi.

"SI's biggest claim to fame is that it was us who first found out about Lionel Messi," Jacobson says. "He was playing for Barcelona B at the time and Alex McLeish tells a story of when, during his time as Rangers manager, his son came up to him and said he should sign this amazing young forward called Messi who he'd come across on Football Manager. McLeish said he'd never heard of him and forgot about the whole thing. The rest is history."

Guess it turned out better for us in the end though, we got Ostenstad.

[EatDolphins 5,357]

To be perfectly honest he wouldn't have been a quarter of the player if is if he spent his youth days with us. Also, wasn't if always tipped for stardom as kid?

[geronimoo 1,488]

To be perfectly honest he wouldn't have been a quarter of the player if is if he spent his youth days with us. Also, wasn't if always tipped for stardom as kid?

I believe he was always tipped to be a star, didn't he has a growth problem when he was a young boy and Barca paid for his Doctor and medication, so they knew he was going to be something special.

[Mor3los_1 3,672]

Alex McLeish passed on quite a few players that turned into top stars if i remember right

[RFC55 109,739]

Pretty sure a deal was nearly in place for him to come in on loan? Someone will find the article I'm too lazy

[Moody Blue Legend 61,791]

Would never have done it on a wet Tuesday night at Love Street.

[JMorrison1872 320]

I believe he was always tipped to be a star, didn't he has a growth problem when he was a young boy and Barca paid for his Doctor and medication, so they knew he was going to be something special.

Messi was in the Barcelona U19 squad at 14, Barcelona always knew he was special. They brought his family over, paid for specialist treatment for his growth problems, bought him a house etc. You don't go to all that trouble for nothing.

[Jelavic191 4,474]

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11788_2341321,00.html

Rangers are hoping to sign Argentinian prodigy Leo Messi on loan from Barcelona.

Messi was the star of the recent Fifa World Youth Championship in Holland as he helped Argentina beat Nigeria in the final.

The teenager is tipped for greatness but reports suggest that, before he makes his name at Camp Nou, he will gain experience in Glasgow with Rangers.

Speculation suggests that Rangers boss Alex McLeish is aiming to strike a deal to take Messi to Ibrox on a season-long loan.

The capture of such a mercurial young talent would be a major coup for The Gers but it remains to be seen if McLeish can tempt the attacker to the SPL.

He was recently rewarded for his progress at Barcelona with a new contract which ties him to the club until 2010, while his buy-out clause stands at a mind-boggling ‚é¼150 million.

Messi has also been promoted to the Barca first team from the B team, while the club's sporting director Txiki Beguiristain has ruled out a move for the 18-year-old.

Beguiristain feels the Argentine ace will have a role to play at Camp Nou next season after making his debut last term.

Coach Frank Rijkaard is currently assessing how much involvement Messi will play in the new campaign and could sanction a switch to Rangers if it will benefit his career.

[JMorrison1872 320]

Pretty sure a deal was nearly in place for him to come in on loan? Someone will find the article I'm too lazy

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11788_2341321,00.html

There mate.

[ManchestGer 347]

Pretty sure a deal was nearly in place for him to come in on loan? Someone will find the article I'm too lazy

Here's one

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11788_2341321,00.html

[Marco Negri's Beard 1,423]

This extract from Graham Hunter's book, Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World, looks at how the two Camp Nou heroes nearly spent a season on loan at Ibrox

Back in 2004, Rangers fans came closer than anyone knows to the extraordinary prospect of Lionel Messi, or indeed Andres Iniesta, playing on loan at Ibrox

THE REVISED AND UPDATED EDITION OF 'BARCA: THE MAKING OF THE GREATEST TEAM IN THE WORLD' - PUBLISHED BY BACKPAGE PRESS - IS NOW OUT IN PAPERBACK AND ACROSS ALL DIGITAL PLATFORMS

Alex McLeish has always had an adventurous outlook on how to add quality to his squads. He has always loved European football and his early managerial success, at Hibernian in Scotland, centred around his imaginative recruitment of the former France defender Franck Sauzee and Russell Latapy, a magical midfielder from Porto – this when Hibs had been relegated from the Scottish Premier League.

As Rangers manager, he succeeded with Mikel Arteta, a La Masia graduate, Jean-Alain Boumsong and Dado Prso. However, during the 2003-04 season he came closest to the greatest coup of his career.

McLeish recalled: “Jan Wouters was my assistant at Ibrox at the time and I asked him whether or not he knew Frank Rijkaard and if he’d be willing to get in touch to check if there were some quality youngsters who might benefit us because of their talents, but who could gain experience in Scotland before returning to Barca.

“Jan told me that he was slightly friendlier with Rijkaard’s assistant, Henk ten Cate, and our scouts had already been aware of Leo Messi’s growing reputation at youth level.

“We didn’t have a big budget at the time and the previous season we’d taken some bigger-name players on free contracts or low transfer fees but higher wages. This time, we thought that the fans might be a little bit more understanding if we brought younger or less experienced players, but who were evidently of good quality.

Not all roads lead to Glasgow | The duo celebrate their European Cup win in Rome

“Ten Cate and Jan Wouters had chats about us taking Messi on loan, but the guidance from Henk was that he was probably too young and possibly too slight to get benefit from Scottish football. Our view was that Barca were probably hedging their bets at the time. Even then, they knew how good he was and they must have thought that letting him go to British football might be a risk because of the tough tackling and the physicality, but they were also obviously unsure about how quickly he might actually make the Barca first team. We caught them just in the middle of that process of working out what they wanted to do with Messi, but during the discussions Henk said to Jan that we should do ourselves a favour and take Iniesta on loan instead.

“I think his exact words were, 'This boy is going to be a world beater', which he proved against the Netherlands in South Africa. Henk told us that Iniesta 'sees the picture in front of him', earlier than anyone and that he’s got a great pass and an ability to beat people.

“Eventually we made a formal enquiry; I think it would have been towards the end of the 2004-05 season. But Messi played brilliantly in the Youth World Cup and Barcelona were sure that they wouldn't loan him. Then Iniesta scored in a big pre-season game which meant that the club couldn't really loan him out without losing face. It was a pity nothing worked out because I’d been really excited at the idea of one of them coming for a season.

“The other thing about Messi was that my kids were into that Championship Manager game and they’d told me about him when he was only 12 or 13, that he was going to be a superstar.”

"The other thing about Messi was that my kids were into that Championship Manager game and they'd told me about him when he was only 12 or 13, that he was going to be a superstar"

- Alex McLeish, former Rangers coach

Ferran Soriano was one of Barca’s two vice-presidents at the time and recalls well the fierce debate galvanized by Rangers’ determination to take either Messi or Iniesta on loan.

“At the time of the Rangers interest there were lots of discussions about Iniesta. I remember Henk defending his logic saying, 'The guy’s small, he doesn’t have the strength, maybe we send him elsewhere for a couple of years and then we’ll see'.

“He liked Mark van Bommel, for example, a symbol of which is the Champions League final in 2006, where they [Rijkaard and Ten Cate] started with Van Bommel and the game changed when Iniesta came on for him.

“In those discussions about whether to loan to Rangers, history and tradition played a role. I remember [Txiki] Begiristain and [Joan] Laporta, the old guys, the local guys, defending Iniesta very, very strongly and saying, 'No, this guy has talent, he has to stay', and they were proved right.

“It wasn’t easy to argue because the guy is small and at the time our rivalry was with Chelsea. We had several Champions League games against them. He was playing against guys like [Michael] Essien, who is three times bigger than him. So, it was a tough debate. Now it wouldn’t be an issue, but it was tough then.”

[JMorrison1872 320]

Pretty sure a deal was nearly in place for him to come in on loan? Someone will find the article I'm too lazy

Was Messi and Iniesta

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2012/10/23/3469863/how-lionel-messi-and-andres-iniesta-could-have-ended-up-in

[threshold 142]

Woulda coulda shoulda. Who needs him when we got hutton

[Raligt 2,541]

[JMorrison1872 320]

Francis Jeffers Loyal

[WilliamFyfe 1,438]

Some story indeed the Messi one

[EatDolphins 5,357]

Francis Jeffers Loyal

Franny Jeffers, the man who never was.

[JMorrison1872 320]

Franny Jeffers, the man who never was.

Couldn't play him when it was windy with those fucking wings!

[G.E.C. 18,960]

Van Persie is another one.

[falwheel 222]

and Govou