Do we have the budget to sign Messi?

[Abraxas]

I think the answer quite clearly is no.

We could offer what Barcelona did, but I think he only accepted that because it was a long term deal where he could earn in the long run with a view to some other well paid position within the club. He probably also does have some connection with Barcelona despite what people say about him and his greed, it would be hard not to have.

Without these factors in play he would require wages at a level that would probably tip us over the edge of what is an acceptable wages to turnover ratio unless we shifted a number of high to middling earners. We have a massively bloated squad and therefore wage bill. Even if we had the desire to do this I doubt we could move quickly enough to secure him even in the unlikely event that we were in his thinking.

Not a move that makes sense for us currently, we are a business that needs to remain highly profitable and keeping wages in check is a key part of that.

 

[nimic]

Even if we offered him a deal, we have such a bad rep amongst Argentinians.
Romero - fecking hates us
Rojo - doesn’t care at all
ADM - absolutely hates us
Heinze - tried to move to Pool ffs
Tevez - we actually messed up there but still ended up at a local rival.

Eh? Romero hates us?

 

[Sky1981]

He's 50M per year player. His wage is 1m per week but comes with no transfer fee.

He's affordable because he's out of contract. But is it wise to break the structure of our pay for him that's the question

DvB cost more than messi assuming transfer fee + wages.

Pass for me.

 

[Carolina Red]

Pretty talented lad.

This is not the last you hear of him, no doubt.

Can he attack the space?

 

[RedRonaldo]

He's 50M per year player. His wage is 1m per week but comes with no transfer fee.

He's affordable because he's out of contract. But is it wise to break the structure of our pay for him that's the question

DvB cost more than messi assuming transfer fee + wages.

Pass for me.

I don’t think so.

His previous contract is 550m for 4 years. He has supposedly sign new contract worth 340m for 5 years at age 34. He is not affordable even without transfer fee. We need to raise at least 300-340m funds to invest in Messi for his finals few years before his retirement.

For comparison, our investment on Sancho for next 5 years would be around 73m (transfer fee) + 75m (5 years wage), less than half of cost for Messi.

 

[Zlatan Ibrahomovic]

1. Don't think he wants to live in England
2. Don't think he wants to play with McFred and the likes
3. Do think we should try to sign him no matter what though, every 0 on the paycheck is cheap for this guy.

 

[Sky1981]

I don’t think so.

His previous contract is 550m for 4 years. He has supposedly sign new contract worth 340m for 5 years at age 34. He is not affordable even without transfer fee. We need to raise at least 300-340m funds to invest in Messi for his finals few years before his retirement.

For comparison, our investment on Sancho for next 5 years would be around 73m (transfer fee) + 75m (5 years wage), less than half of cost for Messi.

We can try offering him 1+1 year basis.

Not like he would accept, but who knows, it's not like PSG will offer him a good 5 years contract too

 

[Sparky_Hughes]

I'd laugh from now till the day I die if he went to real madrid

 

[Bestietom]

Noooooo. Couldn't afford him.

 

[Polar]

Fecking hell my eyes. I know this must have looked all prim and proper on your screen, but I assure you, it's fecking painful to look at.
Not the team though, that's just pure sex. But yeah, no don't do that.

Have to admit it looks beautiful. Lovely Lovely..

What happened with the focus on signing young British talents

 

[Pickle85]

No thanks. Suspect he'd much prefer to go somewhere a bit easier than the PL in his dotage so psg here he comes. Or la Liga caves and he stays at Barca. Either way, for the wages and where our actual team needs are, pass.

 

[bludsucker]

Don’t want messi here as he will hamper greenwood’s development. Also he doesn’t track back as much and will need to bulk up for the premier league. white text

 

[esmufc07]

Imagine passing up the chance to sign the worlds greatest player on a free. Shows a huge lack of ambition on our side.

 

[Bestietom]

Imagine passing up the chance to sign the worlds greatest player on a free. Shows a huge lack of ambition on our side.

NO, it shows how much we have learned. Sanchez was enough.

 

[Catt]

Imagine passing up the chance to sign the worlds greatest player on a free. Shows a huge lack of ambition on our side.

Have we passed on him?

For what it's worth, I don't think it would be a wise move to sign him up at 34.

 

[hungrywing]

NO, it shows how much we have learned. Sanchez was enough.

As bemusing as the Sanchez signing was, Messi is a whole different beast.

 

[RedRonaldo]

We can try offering him 1+1 year basis.

Not like he would accept, but who knows, it's not like PSG will offer him a good 5 years contract too

No way he would accept this, unless we are playing something like 1m to 1.5m per week. The only reason he is willing to take 50% pay cut from his recent agreement with Barca, is for Barca giving him long term contract, so that the total value of contract would be similar as previous.

 

[oz insomniac]

Reading some of the comments etc, is there a suggestion that the club extends players to retain value on the balance sheet.Not sure about that, but could be a reason why they are reluctant to shift the so called dead wood. Could it be a typical Woodward financial reason which usurps the football side of any equation.

 

[Pickle85]

Imagine passing up the chance to sign the worlds greatest player on a free. Shows a huge lack of ambition on our side.

I'll bite! With the wages he'd be demanding and could commend elsewhere, free definitely does not mean free. You're talking 52 million a year at the very last.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Imagine passing up the chance to sign the worlds greatest player on a free. Shows a huge lack of ambition on our side.

Don't need to imagine, City already passed him up.

 

[Oldyella]

Hard pass.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Don’t really want to be handing out massive contracts to over 30’s but then it’s Messi. I suppose for us it would come down to does it financially make sense. I’ve no doubt the money would be there to do it but given we are working so hard to keep the net spend below 150 mil it would be interesting to see if we would stretch that for Messi.

Would United be able to cover the cost of his signing fee with marketing opportunities, or at least eat away a massive chunk of it. Would Messi accept say a 2yr contract at something like 400-500K.

As cool as it would be to have Messi, I just can’t see it happening.

 

[Red00012]

NO, it shows how much we have learned. Sanchez was enough.

Comparing Sanchez to Messi it only took 5 pages

 

[WPMUFC]

I'd find it hard to believe that we never even thought about it, maybe even a phone call to understand the situation. However I really don't think we need him. The whole club becomes the Messi show and that is the anthesis of what we are building.

A legendary player, but is wrong for us in so many ways.

 

[yamo123x]

Some loophole will emerge and he will be a Barca player....i simply can't see him.playimg anywhere else

 

[Adam-Utd]

Knowing our luck we'd sign him on £1m a week and he'd turn up and play like Bebe.

 

[Bestietom]

Comparing Sanchez to Messi it only took 5 pages

Not comparing him as a player. The money we paid him and still cost us to get rid of him, is what I'm talking about.

 

[UpWithRivers]

If the reports are true that he earns Barca 30 percent of their revenue then couldn't everyone afford him? He's bringing in more money than he costs. But lets say thats bull and he brings in half his wages. Even if you pay him 1 mill a week thats 52 mill a year. 2 year contract thats 104 mill. We make 50 mill from sponsorship. That's only 50 mill for having Messi for 2 years which apart from his footballing abilities will bring other intangibles such increasing our brand, attracting players and maybe even winning something. With 99 percent of other players huge wages make no sense. But with Messi its a whole different story.

 

[Vault Dweller]

@Judas @Acquire Me the muppet in me can't help myself guys

 

[RedStarUnited]

I don’t think so.

His previous contract is 550m for 4 years. He has supposedly sign new contract worth 340m for 5 years at age 34. He is not affordable even without transfer fee. We need to raise at least 300-340m funds to invest in Messi for his finals few years before his retirement.

For comparison, our investment on Sancho for next 5 years would be around 73m (transfer fee) + 75m (5 years wage), less than half of cost for Messi.

340m over 5 years works out at 68m a year. A 2 year contract w

If the reports are true that he earns Barca 30 percent of their revenue then couldn't everyone afford him? He's bringing in more money than he costs. But lets say thats bull and he brings in half his wages. Even if you pay him 1 mill a week thats 52 mill a year. 2 year contract thats 104 mill. We make 50 mill from sponsorship. That's only 50 mill for having Messi for 2 years which apart from his footballing abilities will bring other intangibles such increasing our brand, attracting players and maybe even winning something. With 99 percent of other players huge wages make no sense. But with Messi its a whole different story.

No matter what, we should look into the possibility.

 

[TsuWave]

Hopefully we steer clear

 

[Gopher Brown]

Messi's wages would be subsidized by his shirt sales. It's not a question of whether or not we could afford him. It's a question of whether or not he would want to play here

Again with this misconception. The vast majority of money from shirt sales goes to the retailer and Adidas, not us. Adidas pay to make our kits because they can make a profit from selling them.

Once all accounting has been done we’re probably getting max 10% of the price of a shirt. So, let’s say Messi wants £1m per week for 2 years, we would need to sell 540m shirts to subsidise even half of his wages. In 18/19 we sold 3.25m shirts.

 

[oggy boy]

The idea of not considering him for signing is just crazy.
Best footballer in the world, can play several positions, can improve any squad, will bring money to club in many different aspects, can help United actually win some trophies.

Of course, his wages are big, but potential and actual revenue will easily surpass it.
This could happen only with big IF, cause it depends whether United chairman aspire for a club to be one of the best and win trophies. Not just some good enough club that plays CL group stage.
And I know many will not like this, but do not think that Messi would want to play for Ole as a manager.
That said, personally, I would want that he plays for some Italian club now, except Juve.

 

[Judas]

@Judas @Acquire Me the muppet in me can't help myself guys

The most muppety train of all time.

 

[kerryman]

Hopefully we steer clear

Agreed, as good as he still may be, he's not worth the wages we'd have to pay him.
I'd rather invest the money elsewhere and strengthen other positions.

 

[RedRonaldo]

340m over 5 years works out at 68m a year. A 2 year contract w


No matter what, we should look into the possibility.

It doesn’t works that way, if we only offer him 2 year instead of 5, it would be much higher than just 68m per year.

 

[Woodzy]

Agreed, as good as he still may be, he's not worth the wages we'd have to pay him.
I'd rather invest the money elsewhere and strengthen other positions.

It's a year, maybe two, for the best player in the world. Of course he's worth the wages.

Our issue in the past has been paying silly money to players and also locking them down on longer contracts.

I'd be more concerned that it would upset the balance of the team - but again, it's the best player in the world.

 

[Volumiza]

Let his expensive decline happen somewhere else. I'd hate to see us sign him even if we could afford him. That money could do a lot more for the squad holistically, this would simply be the Messi freak show. Feck that, let's build a proper team please.

 

[FootyGirl88]

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[DON’T PANIC ™]

I can’t see him getting anything close to his reported Barca Contract anywhere in the western world.
I also can’t see him going to China or Qatar. (Although Xavi did).
He’ll have to reduce his demands to stay in Europe.