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Johan Cruyff writes a weekly column in Spanish newspaper, El Periodico. In this edition, Cruyff analyses the extension of Lionel Messi’s contract. You can find the piece after the jump.

THE CONTRACT OF LIONEL MESSI

Messi extended his contract some weeks ago with an improved salary. With his skills, accomplishments and effort, individually and collectively, there is nothing you can say against his contract. Extension of his contract till 2016 is something completely different. Personally, I prefer short contracts over long ones, and by short contracts I mean 3 or 4 years. To me that rule goes for everybody, including the best player in the world, no matter who he is.

Irrespective of who the player is, he needs motivation to be able to grow. As a club I would rather give him the possibility to improve year after year, if he has earned the improvement. Because when it comes to sporting matters you can never be too careful. I know very well that his buyout clause is an anti Florentino clause, which also equals his contract with the best in the world, without bonus. But Barcelona over-did it with the extension till 2016. I don’t say this for the clubs sake, but for the player’s. The club did it because of the age old fear of bogeymen appearing and taking him away. But so what if they came? There are plenty of such bogeymen in football and yes….they can and will appear.

The boy deserves his contract like no one else, no doubts about it. But I would have used another way. And not only for him, for the rest of them as well. Three years contract or a maximum of four, and for each year that goes, you can add another in the contract. The extra year method would be more expensive if the player does well, than if he signs till 2016. But I prefer this solution, even if it means the bogeymen show up and cause problems.

Performance

To me it’s not a question of paying him 8, 10 or 12 million Euro. The real question is to find a way to reward the actual performance, not paying him on the basis of your calculations on how he could perform, especially over such a long time. And this is the way which, I insist, is good for the club, and even better for the player. The difference between playing well and exceptionally well is not that big. The difference between performing exceptionally well individually and not that well collectively is not that big either. And football is a team sport. The difference can come from whether you are 100 % concentrated or 90 %.

Will the year be good to him? And a good year is not an exceptional year. Give him one year’s extension, and raise his salary. I would happily pay him more than I would have paid him with a longer contract, but I’d still prefer to pay him thus, since in this way he proves one thing: that you perform at a maximum level, year after year. This is not done for nothing. Look at previous examples; a lot of big names, great players, have signed long contracts, and have later performed poorer than they did on the day they signed. Long contracts fail with 9 out of 10 players. And therefore, I have serious doubts about this move helping players perform better.

Basically, it’s about changing something to motivate performance. Like Guardiola did in another instance by replacing Eto’o with Ibrahimovic in the squad. I’m glad to see that they have stopped the comparisons between them after a couple of rounds in the league.

In Guardiola’s position

For starters, and unlike three years ago after the Champions League final in Paris, they found out that something had to be done, something important, something shocking, to end the recognition, no matter how good it was. I put myself in Guardiola’s position and found the best means at my disposal: Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Eto’o….Who do I choose to shake up the squad? Who should I replace? I know what I want; that the performance doesn’t drop, and that there comes in a new challenge that they can work with. And I want this by replacing one player. A player, who by virtue of his different quality, involves the full attention of the rest. Xavi and Iniesta are indispensable cogs in the Barca machinery. Messi is different than everyone else. Therefore the decision is clear. In addition; Eto’o was the only with a contract that was about to expire. And by being number 9, the rest of the team will always depend on the movements from this key player. Only one change, but a good one nonetheless.

First major duel

Some observations about Sevilla vs Real Madrid:

The Andalucians play somewhat like Barca. They use their flanks with Navas, Perotti and Capel. They make the pitch big and allow the midfielders to come in the zone of the last 3/4 part of the pitch. When it comes to this, Barcelona, Sevilla and Real Madrid are quite similar: they like to play 15-20 yards from goal and that is synonymous with show business. Direct game and victory for the most successful. Like Sevilla yesterday (in the 4-1 away victory over Glasgow Rangers in the CL). Can they fight for the league? Yes, but they will have problems with the smaller teams. Therefore I believe they will do it better in Champions League. And Real Madrid? They proved that they are difficult to beat. And they showed their attitude. Ramos could be an influence on final play.