Lionel Messi | Joins Inter Miami (pg4111)

[OB1]

Would we rather win the league this year, or sign Messi next summer?

Hmm....

Of course whoever would win the league would be a factor to consider...

They aren't mutually exclusive so not even worth thinking about, IMO. :-)

 

[sir baconface]

Given our indifferent start to the season, following a relatively disappointing campaign last term, allied to the residual, but slowly diminishing negativity towards our club from many sections of the press, it is all too easy to forget the distance of the journey traveled for this football club in the last five years.

When the takeover was announced, the presentation of long term strategic goals of our new owners were undermined a little by the clown they got to front the deal in the days following September 1st 2008, Sulaiman Al-Fahim, and the fact that this was, well, City. If anyone could fuck up after a billion quid had been spent, it was us. The Robinho signing was a sign of their intent, but in may ways that signing was about announcing their arrival, rather than being part of any strategic plan. In many ways it was the right signing at the wrong time.

And now, we find ourselves, a little over half a decade later, a football club in many ways unrecognisible from the one that Robinho joined, or even left for that matter. The Etihad Campus forges ahead with astonishing speed, the expansion plans for the ground are a reality which will manifest themselves in a couple of years, we have four truly world class plays in our squad and City are now talked about as a genuine European footballing force.

I don't know whether Messi would want to come here, although I do believe that any great player should consider testing their abilities in more than one league in the course of their careers, but that's just me. What I do know is that the time to sign a truly stellar star is now right for this football club, unlike was the case in 2008. La Liga has lost a bit of its sheen as a result of the collective greed of the big two and despite its teams recent relatively lame showings in the UCL, the Premier League's pull should not be underestimated, especially for a player with a global profile.

Even when your ambitions know no limits, you've sometimes got to wait for the right time to make your move. I wouldn't be remotely surprised to see Messi at City next season and given the journey this club has traveled in the last five years, anyone who would be hasn't really been paying enough attention.

Cracking post mate.

It is indeed.

 

[Anonymous]

Won't need any class A's for getting high if we sign the little fella.

In my very humble opinion, and you know how humble I am Rammy, it's a matter of when not if.

Did you see Nasser's recent comments about triggering Messi's release clause.

"He is not worth the clause, we would never pay it."

Guys like him don't say things like that unless they know it's a race they're not in.

 

[sir baconface]

He's 'only' actually on £250k a week wages, the rest is image rights and commercial sponsorships which come with him. However it's still a lot of money and while it's not conclusive proof, this possibly explains why we're pruning our wage bill dramatically.

I dropped some hints the other day but here's the story as I understand it. The Messi camp weren't happy about Barca's proposed acquisition of Neymar, which was planned for next summer after the World Cup, and put out feelers. It was discussed with the owners and our major commercial partners and a deal was sanctioned. In addition, we stuck our oar in the Neymar deal, putting the word out that we were seriously interested. We weren't but it helped panic Barca and they had to do the deal a year early and for more than was planned.

They're also obviously aware of what's going on with Messi and they're not happy with us, to put it mildly. If you look back in January, Rosell was sounding off about us "poaching staff and players at all levels of the club". They were also accusing Soriano of monitoring staff emails (which he's perfectly entitled to do). They were even more pissed off when we approached Pellegrini as they were also considering him. That's how they knew we'd met him, not because the meeting was in public, as people on here were blaming the Dos Amigos for. To get revenge, they waited until the eve of the Cup Final to release the stories, in order to cause us maximum problems, which it did. So, again, accusing the City hierarchy of mismanaging the situation was wide of the mark. We knew Mancini was going and Mancini knew he was going; it just all happened a few days earlier than planned because of the leak from Spain.

The plan (from our side) was to try to do the deal this summer, having effectively engineered the Neymar move a year early but then the tax case hit and put the mockers on that. I've no proof but I'd bet a pound to a penny it was Barca who were responsible for that. If so, it would certainly indicate they were worried about losing him but having done that, it was effectively the severing of their relationship and, as people have said, he just hasn't seemed like the same player this season.

I also found it a little odd that having trailed a £20m a year deal with Nike, it was announced recently as only £12m. I did wonder on here if some of that was being withheld pending something else triggering the rest.

The only thing is, with any transfer, it's not done until the ink is dry on the contract but I'm convinced that there's enough in place for it to happen. Next summer, we'll probably clear Milner, Lescott & Barry off the wage bill, plus a couple of others and that's easily enough to pay Messi, plus Tom Glick's hand will get sore from signing commercial deals.

Is that net or gross, PB?

 

[Rammy Blue]

Won't need any class A's for getting high if we sign the little fella.

In my very humble opinion, and you know how humble I am Rammy, it's a matter of when not if.

Did you see Nasser's recent comments about triggering Messi's release clause.

"He is not worth the clause, we would never pay it."

Guys like him don't say things like that unless they know it's a race they're not in.

Didn't see the comments mate, however should Lionel move then I have no doubts whatsoever that we would be front of the queue.

I also think he will actually move, probably next summer, but I just can't get excited about him tipping up at ours as it just seems too much of a dream.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

Brokered at the highest of levels for well over 12 months.

One day he will play in America.

 

[ox-blue]

So he will join City then onto the American version

 

[mac]

Can you imagine the jealously fom the pundits.messi never heard of him.

 

[Ray78]

Bang on with your post GDM. Stick me down as cautiously optimistic on Messi signing for City

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

He's 'only' actually on £250k a week wages, the rest is image rights and commercial sponsorships which come with him. However it's still a lot of money and while it's not conclusive proof, this possibly explains why we're pruning our wage bill dramatically.

I dropped some hints the other day but here's the story as I understand it. The Messi camp weren't happy about Barca's proposed acquisition of Neymar, which was planned for next summer after the World Cup, and put out feelers. It was discussed with the owners and our major commercial partners and a deal was sanctioned. In addition, we stuck our oar in the Neymar deal, putting the word out that we were seriously interested. We weren't but it helped panic Barca and they had to do the deal a year early and for more than was planned.

They're also obviously aware of what's going on with Messi and they're not happy with us, to put it mildly. If you look back in January, Rosell was sounding off about us "poaching staff and players at all levels of the club". They were also accusing Soriano of monitoring staff emails (which he's perfectly entitled to do). They were even more pissed off when we approached Pellegrini as they were also considering him. That's how they knew we'd met him, not because the meeting was in public, as people on here were blaming the Dos Amigos for. To get revenge, they waited until the eve of the Cup Final to release the stories, in order to cause us maximum problems, which it did. So, again, accusing the City hierarchy of mismanaging the situation was wide of the mark. We knew Mancini was going and Mancini knew he was going; it just all happened a few days earlier than planned because of the leak from Spain.

The plan (from our side) was to try to do the deal this summer, having effectively engineered the Neymar move a year early but then the tax case hit and put the mockers on that. I've no proof but I'd bet a pound to a penny it was Barca who were responsible for that. If so, it would certainly indicate they were worried about losing him but having done that, it was effectively the severing of their relationship and, as people have said, he just hasn't seemed like the same player this season.

I also found it a little odd that having trailed a £20m a year deal with Nike, it was announced recently as only £12m. I did wonder on here if some of that was being withheld pending something else triggering the rest.

The only thing is, with any transfer, it's not done until the ink is dry on the contract but I'm convinced that there's enough in place for it to happen. Next summer, we'll probably clear Milner, Lescott & Barry off the wage bill, plus a couple of others and that's easily enough to pay Messi, plus Tom Glick's hand will get sore from signing commercial deals.

Is that net or gross, PB?

No idea but I'd happily settle for that gross!