Lionel Messi | Joins Inter Miami (pg4111)

[Gordyola]

I'd take pretty much anyone over Dzeko. I'm not a fan at all.

Your inclusion of Jovetic is pretty pointless because he's hardly ever been available.

I'd take Flanagan over Richards every day of the week. I'd take Cissoko (from a defensive point of view) over Kolarov.

I'd take Kolo over MDM. I've never seen Coates play.


Squad wise, I'd say we shade the GK category, the defender category is to close to call, we shade the midfield category, the attacking category is to close to call.

Not much in it.

The fact the squads are very close is obvious. Liverpool's 14 games less than us has helped their squad stay fitter, sharper and more 'on it' than ours.

Hence my thinking that quality in numbers across weaker areas is better than 200m on one player, as amazing as he is.

Are you fucking serious, their squad is miles behind ours. Dzeko has scored over 20 goals so how can you possibly say you'll take aspas over him? Cissokho over kolarov?fuck right off. Toure over demichelis must be a joke aswell considering toure couldn't get ahead of lescott whilst demichelis could easily. Flanagan looks decent from what I've seen so I'll accept him over Richards because of Richards' injuries. But seriously,they have a good team but not a great squad and they wouldn't be top if they were in Europe.

You're taking my Dzeko comment far to literally.

We've played 8 games in Europe. 4 of which were against Plzen and CSKA and 1 of which was a bit of a dead rubber v Bayern.

You genuinely saying Liverpool couldn't have handled that? They seem to have handled their last 14 league games pretty well.

With only one match a week, no midweek travelling just rest and preparation

 

[DalbeyINUK]

What if it didn't 'happen' for him here?

We would be well and truly screwed. But what a ride eh?

No way can we be so flippant about £200m with FFPR.

Got to take into account that if he did flop it'd be hard to sell him on as FFPR would also make it difficult for other clubs to afford him.

Imo the £200m should be spent on 4-6 top end players instead.

It's not a matter of being flippant at all. It's the certain recognition that the board doesn't give two sticks for what you think or what I do for that matter. At some point you just need to sit back, let it happen, hope for the best and enjoy the ride.

 

[thesilvalining]

I'd take pretty much anyone over Dzeko. I'm not a fan at all.

Your inclusion of Jovetic is pretty pointless because he's hardly ever been available.

I'd take Flanagan over Richards every day of the week. I'd take Cissoko (from a defensive point of view) over Kolarov.

I'd take Kolo over MDM. I've never seen Coates play.


Squad wise, I'd say we shade the GK category, the defender category is to close to call, we shade the midfield category, the attacking category is to close to call.

Not much in it.

The fact the squads are very close is obvious. Liverpool's 14 games less than us has helped their squad stay fitter, sharper and more 'on it' than ours.

Hence my thinking that quality in numbers across weaker areas is better than 200m on one player, as amazing as he is.

Are you fucking serious, their squad is miles behind ours. Dzeko has scored over 20 goals so how can you possibly say you'll take aspas over him? Cissokho over kolarov?fuck right off. Toure over demichelis must be a joke aswell considering toure couldn't get ahead of lescott whilst demichelis could easily. Flanagan looks decent from what I've seen so I'll accept him over Richards because of Richards' injuries. But seriously,they have a good team but not a great squad and they wouldn't be top if they were in Europe.

You're taking my Dzeko comment far to literally.

We've played 8 games in Europe. 4 of which were against Plzen and CSKA and 1 of which was a bit of a dead rubber v Bayern.

You genuinely saying Liverpool couldn't have handled that? They seem to have handled their last 14 league games pretty well.

No they couldn't have handled it, even playing Plzen it was our full strength team as pellegrini treated that competition as the main priority and rested players for it a few times in league games. Also your forgetting that even if we play Plzen or cska we still have to travel there, heavy travelling and changing climates quickly can sometimes be more tiring than the actual playing. How can you say there squad is anywhere near as good as ours? They have built a great team but not a great squad yet.

 

[Don Karleone]

Video on the youtube channel with the title Messi to city?

Didn't mention it once though which is a bit strange.

 

[Stoned Rose]

Are you fucking serious, their squad is miles behind ours. Dzeko has scored over 20 goals so how can you possibly say you'll take aspas over him? Cissokho over kolarov?fuck right off. Toure over demichelis must be a joke aswell considering toure couldn't get ahead of lescott whilst demichelis could easily. Flanagan looks decent from what I've seen so I'll accept him over Richards because of Richards' injuries. But seriously,they have a good team but not a great squad and they wouldn't be top if they were in Europe.

You're taking my Dzeko comment far to literally.

We've played 8 games in Europe. 4 of which were against Plzen and CSKA and 1 of which was a bit of a dead rubber v Bayern.

You genuinely saying Liverpool couldn't have handled that? They seem to have handled their last 14 league games pretty well.

With only one match a week, no midweek travelling just rest and preparation

Over our last 14 league games we've had the following extra games:

Blackburn (h) FA Cup - 5-0 win
Watford (h) FA Cup - 4-2 win
Chelsea (h) FA Cup 2-0 win
Barcelona (h) VL - 0-2 loss
Sunderland (n) COC - 3-1 win
Wigan (h) FA Cup - 1-2 loss
Barcelona (a) CL Cup - 2-1 loss

5 at home. Only 2 away (including Wembley). Even the away in Barcelona is hardly 'travelling'. It takes a couple of hours to get to Spain.

In every single case we won the league game directly before and after each of these games which indicates these extra games didn't have a great deal of negative effect on us.

Yes we've played more games than Liverpool over their 14 game run, but as you can see, hardly hugely taxing games.

Liverpool would probably have handled it.<br /><br />-- Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:00 am --<br /><br />

All of those players are first team though.

Would Alberto and Aspas get in our squad ahead of Dzeko and Jovetic? No.
Would Moses get in our squad ahead of Milner or Navas? No.
Would you take Aly Cissokho and Jon Flanagan over Richards and Kolarov? No.
Coates and Kolo ahead of Demichelis and Nastasic? Don't think so...

I'd take pretty much anyone over Dzeko. I'm not a fan at all.

Your inclusion of Jovetic is pretty pointless because he's hardly ever been available.

I'd take Flanagan over Richards every day of the week. I'd take Cissoko (from a defensive point of view) over Kolarov.

I'd take Kolo over MDM. I've never seen Coates play.


Squad wise, I'd say we shade the GK category, the defender category is to close to call, we shade the midfield category, the attacking category is to close to call.

Not much in it.

The fact the squads are very close is obvious. Liverpool's 14 games less than us has helped their squad stay fitter, sharper and more 'on it' than ours.

Hence my thinking that quality in numbers across weaker areas is better than 200m on one player, as amazing as he is.

Are you fucking serious, their squad is miles behind ours. Dzeko has scored over 20 goals so how can you possibly say you'll take aspas over him? Cissokho over kolarov?fuck right off. Toure over demichelis must be a joke aswell considering toure couldn't get ahead of lescott whilst demichelis could easily. Flanagan looks decent from what I've seen so I'll accept him over Richards because of Richards' injuries. But seriously,they have a good team but not a great squad and they wouldn't be top if they were in Europe.

But seriously,they have a good team but not a great squad

Well we're fucked if they ever do get a great squad then aren't we?

 

[Hart of the Matter]

We would be well and truly screwed. But what a ride eh?

No way can we be so flippant about £200m with FFPR.

Got to take into account that if he did flop it'd be hard to sell him on as FFPR would also make it difficult for other clubs to afford him.

Imo the £200m should be spent on 4-6 top end players instead.

It's not a matter of being flippant at all. It's the certain recognition that the board doesn't give two sticks for what you think or what I do for that matter. At some point you just need to sit back, let it happen, hope for the best and enjoy the ride.

In FFP terms we are freeing up some significant funds from Lescott and Barry departures. The Amortisation of their original transfers as well as their big wages drop off our books. Wages from the pair must be in the region of 10 - 12 million and the cost us 36m + over 4 years which gives us 9m a year (if we signed Messi over 5 years then this would cover 45m of the fee). If say Dzeko leaves this frees up a further 6-8m in wages and a further 7m a year amortised transfer fee (5x7 = 35m) . In total we then have nearly 20m in wages and 80m in transfer fees available for a 5 year deal before we dent our accounts.

Other players then get replaced like for like. We have payed big transfer fees and wages in the past. This now helps us in FFP terms as long as we get the proportion of original transfer fee back on a player i.e. Garcia signed for 16m over 4 years = 4m a year transfer fee. Has played for 2 years - 8m cleared. As long as we get 8m back for him we have balanced the transfer fee. Anything more is a profit anything less is a loss in FFP terms ( not counting wages)

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

Transfers of the very top players in the world rarely happen and when they do they usually involve Real Madrid. I suppose the exception was Maradonna leaving Barcelona for Naples. They don't happen simply because of the massive influence and ability of the player on the pitch. They sometimes do happen because of his potential commercial benefits of it as well. Madrid didn't buy Beckham because of his ability on the pitch but for his influence off it.

Such deals are invariably complex, but the guiding principle is that you buy Messi with someone else's money rather than your own. The days are long gone when a club got its "spends" every close season when the season ticket money came in and then blew it all on a player. Ferran Soriano doesn't have a money box in the corner so that he and Pellers can count up in May to see if we've saved up enough for Messi! City want Messi because he raises the club's profile (as well as its chances of on-the-field success!), more people will want to come to the games, watch us on TV, buy replica shirts etc etc. Nike may want him to leave Barca to come to City because such a massive transfer would raise the profile of both club and player (and Messi isn't as high profile at Barca as he once was) and sponsors. , Similarly for Etihad and all the other involved parties.

As PB has explained "finance is not an issue" and it would have no impact on FFP at all! Half the cost would be paid by Nike and Etihad immediately and the rest by a number of smaller sponsors. "Our" money could go on Mangala, Fernando and other players. Messi would actually cost the club less than any of them!

We are no longer run by Peter Swales. The questions are; will Barca sell? Will Messi come to City?

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

In FFP terms we are freeing up some significant funds from Lescott and Barry departures. The Amortisation of their original transfers as well as their big wages drop off our books. Wages from the pair must be in the region of 10 - 12 million and the cost us 36m + over 4 years which gives us 9m a year (if we signed Messi over 5 years then this would cover 45m of the fee). If say Dzeko leaves this frees up a further 6-8m in wages and a further 7m a year amortised transfer fee (5x7 = 35m) . In total we then have nearly 20m in wages and 80m in transfer fees available for a 5 year deal before we dent our accounts.

Other players then get replaced like for like. We have payed big transfer fees and wages in the past. This now helps us in FFP terms as long as we get the proportion of original transfer fee back on a player i.e. Garcia signed for 16m over 4 years = 4m a year transfer fee. Has played for 2 years - 8m cleared. As long as we get 8m back for him we have balanced the transfer fee. Anything more is a profit anything less is a loss in FFP terms ( not counting wages)

Good post and it's what Stoned Rose and some others don't seem to understand. It's not a question of just having £200m to spend and having to choose how to spend it. If it was then he'd have a reasonable point.

But the cash is not an issue for us, just how it plays for FFP. And if, as the club seem to believe, the Messi deal will self-fund the £45-50m a year that would go through the accounts, then there's no impact on FFP from that deal.

If we then spend another £150m on five new players, that goes on the books at a similar amount (£45-50m a year). But some comes off for players going out. If Dzeko, Barry & Lescott all go, that frees up over £15m in wages and £12m in amortisation, giving a saving of £27m a year. Also amortisation would reduce on Milner if he signs a new contract giving a saving of over £30m just on those players alone. Add on a few fringe players (Sinclair, Richards etc.) and we save £35m or more a year while adding £45m to bottom line. So the net cost of adding Messi and 5 other top class players is £10m a year tops. That would be the same regardless of Messi so it's not an either/or as long as the Messi deal is self-funding.

As revenue is increasing significantly through the BT Sport deal and commmercial income and the wage figure this year probably included up to £30m in payoffs to Mancini and his staff then this should not be a problem for FFP.

 

[blueplan]

Its a truism that a player's performance improves when he is surrounded by talented players.

Likewise Having the best player in the world i.e. Messi's presence will further enhance the performance of our WC players.

The knock on effect.

That's a contribution you can't quantify in money but qualitatively I daresay (20-100)% extra from each & every player on the team.

Not just PL title but how about CL?

Think about this, Cup/Trophy (WC, League etc.) Winners always have Top WC (Top 3) players.
Having Messi, will increase the likelihood of us winning top titles & CL cup. That will easily make up for his acquisition.

It's once in a lifetime opportunity!

These players are already surrounded by quality. If they can't raise their games by the extra 10-20% already they aren't worth keeping.

We have quality players viz David Silva et al.
Just imagine Barca's Iniesta, Xavi or Busquets would Barca win most of the silverware (CL titles) without Messi?

Obviously you are deliberately missing the thrust of my argument. ;)

IMO Barca would never sell Messi.

 

[EalingBlue2]

Even if 5 players were signed on same wages and amortisation they would bring in no more money. Messi is the biggest thing in football and could bring in an extra 50m a year easily