5 Hit Gibbon
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 8 Jan 2020
- Messages
- 7,088
Warning this is a long post but I think it covers a lot of topic and i've tried to look at it from a few aspects
If the club are seriously looking at the funds then I think this might be a fun few weeks, its been said before that if Messi was available then the funds would be there for the contracts.
The club could pull off the most talked about transfer in history (after Scott Carson) and we could possibly get the most well known player of a generation, the club would be automatically be the most talked about club and everyone in the league / Europe / the world would be wanting to see what happens
On the pitch you could say he's had his worst goal scoring season, at only...
25 Goals in the league (more than any of our squad last season
2 Goals in Copa Del Ray (Equal to our highest scorer in the FA Cup)
3 goals in Europe (Would've been our 3rd highest scorer)
and 1 in the Spanish Super Cup
31 Goals in total in a poor season with a declining team is still equal to Sterling (our highest goal scorer) best season, so to have someone who has scored 630+ goals get on to even half of the chances we create would still be a very high scoring player, add that just the players having a chance to train with him, for Phil Foden and the other youngsters to train with him every day would be worth it.
I'd expect every single sponsorship deal the club has to be renegotiated and wouldn't be surprised if Puma revised their deal just to try get him in a kit and the Etihad deal could again go up a large chunk, When that Person joined Juve (the only deal which would be close to this) Jeep valued the exposure he gave them just by wearing a kit at $58.3 million a season and increased their deal with the club from 17 million euros to 42 million per season. Adidas renewed their contract after 6 months of him being there doubling the previous payments from 23.25 million euros to 51 million per annum ( an interesting read here about the numbers behind that deal https://www.goal.com/en/news/the-ro...ne-for-the-juventus/y2io1bd9hyv0100m35astqwxz )
We also live in a world where who knows what is going to happen with fans in the stadium, so we all don't want the club to put prices up so if Messi coming helps get an extra 10 sponsors and an extra £100m of revenue then good, Quality coupled with popularity enables a club to increase its revenue, which would be the biggest thing, that exposure, we have to admit we live in a world of influencers and social media, so clubs would look at how that is being used and what players are the biggest influence, looking at the Deloitte money league from this year our most "influential" player on social media... Gabriel Jesus 14.1m, look at Messi as of right now that is 164.3m followers, that is more individual accounts than the entire clubs social media outlets combined, in turn we're getting the kids wanting City kits with Messi on them, wanting to watch Man City, to companies wanting to be associated with the club and City that then taking City from the 5th or 6th Biggest revenue in world football to 4th / 3rd and only getting bigger.
TL:DR In the eyes of the club this could be a deal too good to miss, we've tried for him at least twice before, he doesn't want more money (he's worth £300m+) he wants a sporting project, he's told Pep he wants to work with him again, (https://theathletic.co.uk/1588411/2020/02/06/manchester-city-messi-barcelona-transfer/)
Plus this would be the biggest and best way to boil some piss and watch the press scramble over themselves
Agreed, it could be quite a window if we sign Messi after getting Scott Carson back also.