The situation with Lionel Messi is especially confusing because it almost feels inevitable that he’s going to end up at Man City, but the finances involved just make any deal sound impossible.
It really would be fascinating to see how he fared in the Premier League and reuniting with Pep Guardiola would give him the best chance of success, while the Daily Record have reported that he’s actually agreed terms.
It’s an astonishing deal worth €700m with the City Football Group that will see him spend three years in Manchester before moving to their MLS franchise, while it sounds like they’ll get round financial fair play rules by offering him an equity stake in the company too.
That could be an issue as the Argentine would rather be paid in cash rather than shares, but you fancy them to sort that out if it means getting the deal over the line.
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As always the real challenge will be getting Barcelona to agree to let him go, but it also sounds like relations with Barcelona aren’t good and might even be beyond repair.
The report claims that goes back to last year where Barca decided to sign Antoine Griezmann rather than Neymar – partly for sporting reasons but Messi’s father would also have gained a large payment for his role in the Neymar transfer.
They go on to say that Barca’s position is the same as always and they want someone to trigger his €700m release clause to let him go, so it’s still hard to see this actually happening.