Lionel Messi

[BigChief]

Oh yeah

I'm going to hate PSG and City soon enough but it's great seeing Barca finally being turned over and made to sing God Save The Queen.

[dom9]

I'm going to hate PSG and City soon enough but it's great seeing Barca finally being turned over and made to sing God Save The Queen.

I don't know what this means.

[Fivex]

**** knows

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

And yet selling Messi and Neymar at the same time would not have been acceptable by definition of the word.

Would there be a queue of clubs able to pay £200m? I'm not so sure. PSG jumped through all sorts of dodgy hoops to do it with Neymar. City and United haven't indicated that they have that kind of spending power. Madrid? It would be like Figo all over, but they have been relatively frugal by their standards.

Who does that leave?

It would raise a pretty serious questions of FFP and the legal implications if it were to block Messi from moving to work elsewhere. Man City, I think, could probably get it across the line if it were their only real deal in a window, given they've spend over £200m this year anyway. (£224.37m apparently). It wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility that much could have gotten Messi last year.

[spud_gun]

Must be a slower than usual 'news' day on the Express sports desk

[labourRed]

And yet selling Messi and Neymar at the same time would not have been acceptable by definition of the word.

Would there be a queue of clubs able to pay £200m? I'm not so sure. PSG jumped through all sorts of dodgy hoops to do it with Neymar. City and United haven't indicated that they have that kind of spending power. Madrid? It would be like Figo all over, but they have been relatively frugal by their standards.

Who does that leave?

All ifs and buts. A player like Messi has rarely been on the market, certainly not on a Bosman (he'd be the best ever Bosman deal). PSG could easily have signed Messi and not Neymar and anything north of £100m is a lot better than £0.

To clarify what is staggering, no attempt was made by Barcelona to transfer Messi (for what undoubtedly would have been a world record fee), yet they were happy to let him run his contract down this far. I also don't advocate slavery.

[spud_gun]

All ifs and buts. A player like Messi has rarely been on the market, certainly not on a Bosman (he'd be the best ever Bosman deal)..

Not true.

Messi is almost the exception. The greatest player of his generation and a one club man.

[Norbs]

Meh

[Fivex]

Meh

Si.

[Fernandinho]

All ifs and buts. A player like Messi has rarely been on the market, certainly not on a Bosman (he'd be the best ever Bosman deal). PSG could easily have signed Messi and not Neymar and anything north of £100m is a lot better than £0.

To clarify what is staggering, no attempt was made by Barcelona to transfer Messi (for what undoubtedly would have been a world record fee), yet they were happy to let him run his contract down this far. I also don't advocate slavery.

That's a cool one to even think about. Biggest one I can think of in recent times is obviously Milan Jovanovic from Standard Liege to LFC

But seriously, Robert Lewandowski has to be one of the biggest ones in recent years?

[Fredo]

Messi is 30 and soon to be 31, so I don't think it would gave made great financial sense to spend £200m on a player who's not in his prime anymore, even by City's standard.

[Alex]

LOL Messi is still in his prime.

Scored 54 in 52 last season and this season is at something like 17 in 17 games. The guy will be in his prime for a couple more years.

[Alex]

He is literally the best player on the planet. £200m for a player that can instantly make you a Champions League contender is value in today's market where a similarly aged Siggurdson is worth £50m.

[Darkon]

H would be amazing at almost any price. The commercial aspect, the inevitable rush of young fans that follow players rather than clubs and generally just the trophies he would win by himself. He still have a handfull of years in him, so any club would be mad not to take him if they could.

That said he will sign with Barca, no doubt in my mind.

[Alex]

As I understood it from the summer, he wasnt signing because of the Political instability at Barca. I still think he will sign. Although part of me would love him in the Premier League.