Why Lionel Messi will not move to Singapore Premier League and other lessons in building a team

So the biggest news of the footballing world is that Lionel Messi is available for the right price. Most likely now heading to PSG. My initial thought was that it might be good if one of the Singapore teams can buy him over at the right price. After all, it is money right? And if we add in a star player, we can have a star team? Maybe and maybe not. Here's why.

Messi and who else?

If Messi comes over to play in the Singapore Premier League, no doubt it will cause a lot of excitement for everyone. Except maybe for himself. He could be awfully sad. Why? Which player here is of the same standard as him? Who can offer him a challenge? Instead of giving the team a leg up by buying in Messi, you are giving Messi a leg down by giving him a subpar environment and subpar opponents. I dare say that even if you give him the same pay, he will feel it is a torture to play here. Now, this lesson applies throughout organizations. You think that that next department is doing a good job with sales? Year after year of great performance. Then you look at your resident underperforming department. An idea strikes you and you think that this is going be a match made in heaven. Why not merge both departments you say? The average performance will go up. Will it? The top performers from the other team will be feeling aggrieved. How come I have to carry a bunch of laggards? The people in the underperforming team will remain. These are the JLBs (go google), or loosely translated those slackers who are eating the rice and do not work. Why do we continue feeding these people? Why keep these people and then make everyone feel like they have to carry the whole team? Why make 10 people do the work of 15 for example?

New team will have no cohesion

Every time you have a new player, you might have some time before the person gets used to the team. Even Messi. Sometimes, it takes a person who is very in tune with the ground level to understand that the move will not work. If I am a scout, I will say Messi is not suitable for the Singapore Premier League. Maybe he might have language issues, maybe he might not understand our local tactics, maybe he might be homesick. After years of playing Championship Manager or Football Manager, there have been too many times I bought this top wunderkid from South America with wonderful stats, just to have him fall flat in a year or two due to factors other than football. Usually, the environment and the people around. Too many maybes. There is a problem when there are so many doubts. You cannot predict a person's success based on stats and stats alone.

What really are Messi's motivations?

No one is forcing him to come at gun point. But even if he decides to come over, I will ask a psychologist to check him out. Is he depressed? Why on earth will he want to come over? When he is here, what is it that will motivate him? What does he want to win? Asian Champions' League? When he has a few of the real Champions' League in his trophy cabinet? It is very important when we consider this. What will motivate the highflying player who is suddenly trust into a not-so-highflying club? Throughout history, there were a few examples, folks who were trying to rebuild their careers, folks who wanted to push their fitness to the limit after sustaining a tough injury, folks who really have no suitors and hoping to play well so that a bigger club can notice them. This is so difficult to explain and this is not an exact science to look at. The motivation factor needs to be critically examined. No motivation = no performance. Simple as that. What will motivate Messi in the new team?

Golden goose?

Large scale moves are complicated. If there is massive clean up required at the other side, let the clean up begin first. What if the receiving side never had the culture to encourage, develop or reward excellence and quality? If you forced such move, it would only backfire. So have a good look at Barcelona, how did they become so successful in the first place. If you forced Messi to come here and here is nothing like Barcelona, you waste money and you waste Messi's time. You can pass a couple of eggs but you should never kill the goose. A dead goose lays no eggs. A lose-lose situation is probably the worst thing that you can think about in such a case. Therefore, whoever was the manager who wanted to hire Messi, should also be fired for having such an audacious plan in mind without any true follow ups, thoughts and strategy.

When can we dream big then?

Only when one gets the team fundamentals right. This is where my articles on having a vision come in. A visionless manager is going to lead the team into an abyss. A team needs to be built from scratch. The best clubs have top academies, great coaches, top dieticians, great food, superb facilities and much much more. There is not a single team that made it to the top having done the short cut. There is no short cut to success. Building team spirit and building the pipeline of talent while hunting for talent is the name of the game for a top club. You need a manager who will stay long. My favourite club has Klopp staying for quite a few years already since 2015. The manager will then chart the favourable conditions necessary to win the league and many other trophies. Many clubs hire and fire their managers and these managers do not have the chance to even develop a relationship with the club. It is really tough for these guys to build instant success and they have to do it based on the available infrastructure. This is why it is so tough to survive in the premier league.

Conclusion

So no shortcuts to success. Simple hard work and mentoring the good team members. We need to be brave to make the necessary changes, face the facts of underperformance and not hide behind nice words. Remove the poor performers first. The way to up the average is to clear the subpar and below average first before bringing in the reinforcements. That way, you protect your reinforcements and you also give the new team the chance of the best possible start. Fail to do all these and you will fail not only the team but the entire organization. Funny, when you had thought that the initial aim to couple a weak team to a strong team was for the good of the organization.