How would we get Messi?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/6264142/WE-CAN-GET-MESSI.html

MP says we can get him, i'd just like to know how we'd get around the FFP obstacle.

Well, that link tells us nothing.

Let's say Messi costs us £200M and we pay in instalments at £50M a season. That's our transfer budget each season gone right there. I'm not sure if the new tv deal was included in our last accounts (extra £30M) so I'm not including it here. The new CL tv deal will bag us about £30M extra each season and with new sponsorship (talk of Nike increasing their deal by £7M a season) and higher gate receipts from the larger capacity (£7M-£10M), we'd comfortably get that covered. I'm not worried about the wages (even though they'd be astronomical as I'm sure we'd sell a few players to accommodate him and we'd save on their salaries too.

Paying £200M up front is an entirely different matter.
Let's say our annual transfer pot was £50M, we'd need to find another £150M.

Increased tv deal, other sponsorships and higher capacity should bring in £50M.

Sell some players this summer say, Jovetic (£20M) and Kolarov (£15M) and maybe someone else to top that up to £50M.  

We are still £50M short. I'm sure we could fins a way if we had to. Sell more players? Not a good idea as then we'd be making the squad too thin unless we have youngsters coming through (doubt it they'd be shoe ins for next season). The extra 6,000 capacity if we continue with re-development up to 61,000 would add maybe £5M. We'd have to continue to substantially increase our marketing activities (I'm sure clubs would be willing to cough up to £5M to play against us when we tour, especially if we had Messi). We'd sell a bundle of Messi shirts in the first season, I reckon that'd  get us an extra £20M. Put all that together, and we have the money to buy him. Maybe a bit tight, but it can be done.

I thought Nike would foot £200m to get him in on their books and off addidas

If Nike stumped up that sort of money, then no problem. That's a heck of a lot of money for a sponsor to pay.

It is normal that clubs with the capacity to buy are linked with the best players on the market. Often these rumours come from personal interests, and not from the club. There is nothing in that way concrete in this case.


If that's what the boss said, there's nowt in it anyway!

or.....we just don't bother, stay safe under FFP, get to the point where we actually start to make money and forget about Messi.

It's an absolute no-goer IMO.

1 - we could afford to purchase Messi if we sell 4 or 5 players and possibly our better ones...and losing 4/5 for 1 doesn't work.

2 - We couldn't afford £450-500k pw for his wages....yes, we could get rid of 4/5 players off the books and use their salaries to cover it...but that then puts us into the world of "I want salary increasing now as I'm not on anything near that"...suddenly, we have 6 or 7 unhappy players that want an increase....even if it's from £100k up to £150k, or £200k up to £250k....all of a sudden, the players we sold to fund Messi, wasn't worth it as we have to now use their salaries to pay for the other players wage increases.

It's pathetic money...and one player wouldn't make us suddenly win the PL every season and the CL.....no matter how good he is.

I think we'll be making a very comfortable profit within two seasons when the higher capacity, new sponsorships and tv deals all kick in. I can see us getting near to £100M profit before player transfer kick in. If he was available in two years time, we could more easily afford him, but he'd be 29 then and how many good years would he have left?