PSG pay their top earner (Messi) four times what City pay their top earner (KdB).
Real Madrid's top earner (Bale) also is paid more than twice what KdB.
If it comes down to which club pays the biggest wages City will not be in the mix unless they are willing to trash the existing wage structure.
These seems like facts rather than cliches.
Our offer for Messi in the previous summer was higher than what PSG is paying him now. Bale’s contract ends at the end of this season and he won’t be renewing it. I have multiple times talked about how the numbers in his contract aren’t how Madrid does business for players of his stature anymore, but even then, he got that number in a contract renewal. The comparison is with Hazard who makes the same as KdB. So let’s get it straight, Madrid’s and our highest wages are the same. We don’t pay a higher wage not because we don’t want or can’t but because we don’t have a player for that. If we had Messi, Neymar, Haaland or Mbappe for instance, they would get payed accordingly. KdB’s wages is the ultimate proof.
Then you want to talk about stuff like Maguire. That isn’t an apt comparison. Maguire is a CB who would have changed nothing about the status of the team or the club and whose fee was truly exorbitant. You can find a CB elsewhere, and we did. With Haaland, you are talking about bringing a player that not only is at the top bracket but will also become the face of the team and the brand. I know this talk annoys many here, but it is a business after all.
Let’s be clear, with the Kane situation we had a “valuation” for him and made two offers that went significantly above that number. That is something I kept hearing we wouldn’t have done. Sure we didn’t end hitting the number Levy set with the intention of never selling, a different situation. We also spent a number on Grealish that I was told would never happen — and let’s be clear: for GREALISH. The Haaland fee is significantly under what the Grealish fee was. I am not saying there isn’t a limit we will pay, but that is true of every club, they all operate with limits. However, to be like “we don’t fight for players” and then list players like Maguire and Sanchez who are in an entirely different level and would mean significantly less and with same-level alternatives available is a mistake in judgment. And btw, the clubs you mentioned, PSG and Madrid, aren’t potential destinations for him at this point
