Spanish Football Expert Reveals Manchester City’s Interest In Messi Has Died Down: Semra Hunter dwells upon the financial burdens of the move which are said to have given City cold feet
Ever since Lionel Messi’s messy falling out with the powers at Barcelona especially Bartomeu, reports of Manchester City swooping in for his services have been rife. And Bartomeu’s departure has failed to quell the lingering news of City still holding an avid interested in roping in the diminutive Messi.
With Messi still touted to be unhappy at Barcelona with lacklustre performances in the 2020-21 edition of the La Liga being a massive cause of his displeasure, news of him set to depart the club once his deal curtails have been fuelled incessantly.
Finical powers have not only seen City spearhead the reports of the club being outright favourites to snare Messi next season but also due to Pep’s affinity of the player. However, If Spanish football expert Semra Hunter is to be believed, any interest City had previously has been obliterated.
Semra Cites Age And Money As Two Crucial Factors In Dwindling City’s Interest
Semra Hunter said: “I have it on good authority from someone close to the situation that Manchester City are not going to bid for Lionel Messi. Based on the information I have, as of today, that door is closed.
“They have two reasons for this: age and finances. Talking about age, he is heading into the twilight years of his career and you’ll be bringing on board a Messi that is different to what we’ve seen for the last 17 years with Barcelona. Even he himself has said that he is getting closer to the dreaded r-word of retirement more so than anyone cares to admit.”
“That goes hand-in-hand with finances because even though he would be able to join for free, his wages are astronomically high – he is earning about €100m (£89.2m) a year.”
“That would be a huge financial burden for any club to take on, especially given the fact that we are in the middle of a global pandemic. Either you have to offload some of the highest earners or you have to sell off players or make other tweaks in other parts of the club depending on whatever formula a club would want to use to bring Messi on board.”
“Perhaps, clubs would rather invest that money into bringing younger players in or bringing in reinforcements in positions where they actually need those reinforcements,” he went onto add.
Earlier this week, Pep had said that whilst he respects Messi as a player, he wants to see the Barcelona man hang up his boots at Barcelona.
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