Eamon Dunphy will never live the comment down.
The RTE pundit said at half-time of Barcelona's Champions League game against Manchester City at the Nou Camp two weeks ago that Lionel Messi, the best player in the world and arguably the greatest of all-time, was "beginning to show signs of decline."
Messi went on to score a hat-trick in the second-half, Barca won 4-0 and Dunphy was slaughtered on social media for his comments.
https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/788842474802409472
In fairness to Dunphy, he also actually predicted that Messi would score a hat-trick in the game, and he admitted he got it wrong at full-time of RTE's coverage.
However, like calling Cristiano Ronaldo a "cod" back when the Portuguese superstar was developing at Manchester United, Dunphy's claim about Messi will not be forgotten in a hurry.
It even came up during Eir Sport's coverage City's game 3-1 win against Barcelona on Tuesday night, in which Messi scored again.
Presenter Connor Morris asked the panel of Robbie Fowler, Kenny Cunningham and Neil Lennon about Dunphy's "decline" comment, (we assume he was referring to Dunphy's statement because there was no-one else in the British or Irish media making such a claim).
Fowler laughed and said he hadn't heard anyone make such a suggestion about the 29-year-old. Cunningham said Messi uses his energy more sparingly, but he's now a more complete player.
Lennon said that he believes Messi is "back to his best," before bluntly stating that:
"Anyone who says he's done is an idiot."
A lot of people would agree with the Hibernian manager.
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