@NUFCLC People must start to realise without European competition, the manager plays a big part as well when it comes to attracting players. Unfortunately, EH doesn’t have the calibre in doing that.
@DoylemMedia If I were a world class player and the first few people I see when I go back to the club for pre season is Pope, Murphy, Willock. I would get on the phone with my agent to get me out of the club asap.
@caseysean51 He don’t owe anything to the club. He has given everything and done his best. It’s the club who owe him for giving him a deadweight manager and teammates (Pope, Murphy, Willock).
Your problem was never with the numbers. Your real problem has always been your own standards, Cristiano. You were the one who always painted yourself as the 'one true hero.' You were the one who set the benchmarks by which greatness should be measured. Your fans followed you and embraced every standard you created.
At first, you said the Golden Boot was the fairest measure because it didn't depend on voting. Then Messi surpassed you in that very metric. After that, you claimed that winning the Ballon d'Or six or seven times would make you the greatest player of all time. Messi surpassed you there as well.
Then you changed the standard once again. You said that anyone who wanted to be remembered in the history books had to bring glory to their country. Leo came back and lifted the FIFA World Cup, the greatest trophy any footballer could dream of.
That was the moment your own standards started defeating you. You began to crumble—not because reality had changed, but because the standards you had created no longer supported your narrative. Suddenly, the Ballon d'Or became 'just a popularity vote,' and the UEFA European Championship somehow became equal to the World Cup you had always dreamed of winning.
Every benchmark you proudly defended yesterday became meaningless today simply because it no longer served your story. Nobody defeated you using their own criteria—you were defeated by the very standards you created yourself.
You found yourself standing before the standards you had built alone, unable to reach the summit by the very measures you insisted everyone should follow.
You could have let history speak for you and judge you fairly. You could have allowed people to respect your legacy and shown a little humility instead of declaring in every interview that you are the greatest without any consistent standard to support that claim.
Your misfortune is that you didn't play in an ordinary era. You played in Messi's era—an era where every standard you introduced simply became another step for Leo to climb toward greatness. Every benchmark you set to prove your superiority ultimately ended with the Argentine's name.
The competition wasn't impossible because you were an ordinary player. It only seemed impossible because you found yourself competing against a player who turned every standard you believed favored you into an obsession that exposed your own contradictions.
You wrote the criteria for greatness according to your own desires, with your own pen...
But history read them under the name of Lionel Messi. 🐐♥️🇦🇷
I’m going to take my time with this one. If you’re busy, save this post and read it later. If you’re a night owl like me, this is a good late-night read.
Do you know the worst thing about Cristiano Ronaldo?
It’s that he set the standards for what defines a legend… and in the end, he couldn’t even live up to the standards he created himself.
After winning Euro 2016, Ronaldo said:
“You can’t become a legend until you win a trophy with your national team.”
It was an obvious dig at Messi.
Argentina had just lost the 2014 World Cup final to Germany, and Messi was going through the toughest period of his international career. Those words only added fuel to the fire.
Where was the respect for a rival, Ronaldo?
The surprising part was that social media completely embraced that narrative. Messi was labeled a bottler, while Ronaldo was declared the winner of the rivalry—at least in the media, not on the pitch.
Then Messi retired from international football, came back, won the Copa América, and suddenly they were level in major international trophies.
What happened next?
Ronaldo fans started saying that one Euro is worth more than a hundred Copa Américas, claiming there was no competition in South America. Not true—but that became the excuse.
Then Messi went on to win the World Cup.
This time, the excuses changed again.
They claimed FIFA had fixed the tournament for Messi. That the World Cup was scripted in his favor. They simply didn’t know what else to say.
Then Ronaldo himself came out with one of the strangest quotes imaginable:
“A legend’s career can’t be defined by just seven games.”
At first glance, it sounds reasonable.
But beneath it was another attempt to diminish what Messi had achieved.
Before the World Cup, they insisted it would be Ronaldo’s tournament. On paper, Portugal had a fantastic squad. If the manager couldn’t get the best out of them, that’s Portugal’s problem—not Ronaldo’s.
Yet that same Portugal squad wasn’t any weaker than the Argentina team Messi led to the 2014 World Cup final—the same team people mocked Messi for not carrying to the title.
Just a couple of days ago, Ronaldo said:
“The World Cup doesn’t define my career, whether I win it or not.”
A statement that directly contradicts what he had said years earlier, when he admitted that winning the World Cup would make him feel completely fulfilled.
Now you’re 41 years old, Cristiano.
By your own standards:
* You have 5 Ballon d’Ors, not 8.
* You have one European Championship, not two Copa América titles.
* You never won the World Cup.
* You have four European Golden Shoes, while Messi has six—even though you’re an out-and-out striker.
So what now?
Will you keep playing until the next World Cup and become the first player to appear in one at 45, hoping to finally win it?
If we judged you by the standards you created, you wouldn’t qualify as a legend.
Of course, nobody actually judges you that way. Everyone still recognizes you as one of football’s greatest legends.
The real mistake was comparing Ronaldo to Messi in the first place.
That rivalry was exaggerated from the beginning by the media and figures like José Mourinho.
Messi conquered every major trophy available to him, shattered records that once seemed untouchable, and at 39 years old he’s still competing with Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland—the stars of the next generation—for the Golden Boot. And honestly, he could still win it.
What made Messi beloved by so many fans is that he never tried to diminish Ronaldo’s achievements.
Ronaldo, on the other hand, repeatedly made comments that many interpreted as attempts to downplay his greatest rival’s accomplishments—and that’s never an admirable trait.
Cristiano helped create a generation that thinks belittling other people’s achievements while constantly glorifying your own is a way to establish dominance.
Good bye. Ronaldo.
CR7 fans need to realise that Messi and neutral fans have always respected him for what he has done and achieved in football. He is definitely one of the greatest players ever to play the game. But he himself tarnished his own reputation and respect from others when he came out
downplaying others achievements to inflate his own ego and insecurity. If he could be humble and be respectful of what others have done and achieved, he would not had received so much backlash. Remember this, respect is earned and not demanded. Respect other and people will
@CristianoXtra_ I sense sour grapes all over. Maybe try telling your idol to respect other people’s achievements first and not just keep inflating his own ego and insecurity.
@JosipFCB93 CR7 lost the respect when he came out doing interviews downplaying others achievements to inflate his own ego and insecurity. He has only himself to blame.
@SimplyUtd@indykaila Nobody disrespected him until he came out doing unnecessary interviews with Piers Morgan downplaying others achievements to inflate his ego and insecurity. Respect is earned not demanded.
@ThaEuropeanLad I have always been neutral and respected CR7 for all his achievements. But that respect was lost when he started doing unnecessary interviews with Piers Morgan downplaying others to inflate his own ego and insecurity.