28 Nov 2015 01:44:15
Ed, i don't believe for a second we are targeting Messi, like it has been rumoured in places, but can you tell us his situation at the moment?
{Ed002's Note - As I have explained before, although Barcelona have not been hawking Messi around, my expectation remains that Messi will be available and Barcelona will start looking to rebuild around Neymar from January 2016 when they can start bringing players in again. And I expect that Barcelona will make Messi available from next summer - regardless of who the manager is at that time. Whether or not there would be any takers is another matter, and Barcelona are well aware of that and are looking at the sale of others to raise funds.
In the past Messi has turned down a transfer to one side who had agreed to meet Barcelona's then €250M price tag, and Barcelona and a commercial partner resisted an approach by a commercial organisation on behalf of an English side with an offer to buy, or at least part fund, the purchase of the player. I am aware that in Spain there has been speculation about an offer being made during the summer 2014 transfer window, but it is "largely" incorrect. This all started in 2012 when in mid December Anzhi made an offer to Barcelona that matched the €250M euro release clause that existed in his contract, and put up what I am told was a "very" significant personal package. However, Messi was not interested in a move to Russia and Barcelona did not want to sell - so Messi, in early February 2013, extended his contract with Barcelona. In the early summer of 2013 efforts were being made by Adidas to broker a deal that would get Messi away from Nike and to one of their three high-profile clubs that they were invoved with at the time. Very quickly Real Madrid were ruled out and with Pep Guardiola moving to Bayern Munich that pretty much saw the end of any chance of a move there (given the strained relationship) at the time. This left Chelsea, and I can confirm that discussions were held about making a firm bid - at this point we are in late 2013 and early 2014 and Messi was in a verbal spat with Barcelona about getting a further extension - which the club were against. Ultimately, the player was (at least in his eyes) available during the Spring of 2014 and at that point Chelsea and Adidas made his management representatives and Barcelona aware of what they would be willing to do to make a transfer happen. Since then he has again extended his contract with Barcelona. I understand that again they see three possible destinations for the player but I am not going to get involved in any further speculation at this time – but one of those destinations is the new money of Manchester City. If the right money were offered to the club, then Barcelona would be open to selling - and if the package were good enough, the player would consider any offers. The difficulties include his tax issues and the vast amounts of money involved.}
A number of questions were asked of representatives of UEFA in December 2014 regarding the transfer of the financially very high-end players and the impact on FFP. It is clear that exceptions would need to be put in place as the alternative could be lawsuits from players regarding restrictions on trade. As such, it would not be an FFP issue in any one year for a number of clubs but it would be an issue for any club looking to do any other business over forthcoming years. And the amounts of money involved are well beyond significant.}