Money, Money, Money

Been a long while since I last posted on here but something came up in the news which blew my mind. Manchester City are prepared to offer Messi £800,000 a week to come play in the Premier League for them...this for me begs multiple questions that everyone must be thinking.

First question that springs to my mind is “what the fuck?” (less of a question more of a statement admittedly.) Next question for me would be is he worth it? Short answer no, better answer is God no! If you could guarantee that Messi would win you the FA Cup, League Cup, Premier League and Champions League every season then for me it would still be questionable whether it’d be worth it. I’m not saying Messi isn’t that good, what I’m saying is no one is that good.

After doing a small amount of research apparently you get £15mil for winning the Champions League (personally I thought it’d be higher) and £25mil for winning the Prem. Those two put together would just cover Messi’s yearly wage bill of £40 million. Sadly though I don’t think Messi would bring immediate success to Man City. He’d be more than adequate cover/replacement for, the seemingly always injured David Silva and would be an instant hit in their attack. but sadly he would have little to no affect on their defensive frailties.

~ Side note: I’m not implying he would replace Silva but he’d constantly be doing the job that Silva would do if he was fit ~

Is anyone really worth that kind of money on a weekly basis? Honestly I’d have to say no, for that kind of money I’d want to sign a player who is so good he just renders the game completely pointless because he’s just too good to play against. People would say Messi is that kind of player but not every Messi shot goes in, not every Messi touch is perfect, not every Messi pass is pinpoint accurate. For £800,000 a week I would want a player so good he could win the Champions League with a local 5-a-side team, a player so good that he can play a 80 yard pass to himself and finish it on the volley, a player so good that there is no comparison to past legends such as Pele, Maradona or David Hirst, he is just the best ever.

Then there’s financial fair play to take into consideration. If my calculations are correct (which it’s probably not, I’m not a mathematician) Man city would be paying just under £3.3mil a week in wages if they signed Messi. This means they would need to sell out their stadium every week charging as a minimum £54.91 per ticket...if every game was at home. Sadly due to away games City would have to double the price of the home tickets just to make up the loss they’d get from playing away. Is £109.82 worth it for 1 football match? And Manchester City selling out their stadium week in week out would be an almost impossible task. You can 100% guarantee the stadium would be rammed for a Manchester derby or a Champions league fixture against a European powerhouse...but a Tuesday night fixture against Bournemouth isn’t exactly gonna be pulling in huge crowds (no offense to Bournemouth). What about international breaks as well? And during the summer when they’re not playing? Ticket prices could potentially become even higher.

I personally think that the Premier League is lacking so much quality compared to other leagues. I don’t want to get too much into it but in my opinion the team that finishes 1st in the Premier League this season would probably finish 4th in the Bundesliga or 5th in La Liga. The only way we can lure in true quality is by throwing silly money at them. Apparently the highest paid player in the Prem is Wayne Rooney on £260,000. If someone asked should Messi be paid over 3 times as much as Rooney I’d have to agree, but £260,000?! For that?! A actually would never had said he was worth that much a week, some may disagree but that’s my honest opinion.

My next question would be should a player ever be paid more than the manager? I remember when Fergie kicked off because Rooney was on more than him which I’m sure everyone would agree with. He was the boss, the gaffer, the fucking manager! If anyone reading this right now earns more than their manager then you can officially call yourself “The Wayne Rooney of (insert company name here)”. Football clubs are now more of a company, in any other company the managers and bosses get the big pay cheques and the staff they manage get a lower wage as they have less responsibility. It’s always been the case so why now do players get so much power?

In my opinion all it would take is one angry outburst or a manager to contradict Messi and he would most likely turn and say he wants captaincy, that he wants a say in all transfers, that he wants a stand named after him (it’ll probably happen at some point) and what will City do? Knowing how much football teams like to protect their assets they’ll probably give him everything he wants. They did the same thing when Yaya Toure wanted to leave...they forgot your birthday Yaya get over it you’re fucking 32 years old!

But anyway I’m sick of ranting about a possible scenario that in all honesty probably won’t even happen. And even if it does who cares it’s the only Britain’s favorite sport that’s being tarnished…

I would like to know what you guy’s think though. Is Messi worth £800,000 a week? Is any player worth that much? Should players be granted so much power? Is David Hirst the greatest player to ever have played in the Premier League? Feel free to Tweet me @ThePenaltyKing1 and don’t forget to like my Facebook page below.

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Cheers for reading.