... Chelsea and Manchester City have both suffered a setback in their reported pursuit of Lionel Messi. Though the Argentine has a release clause of $825 million, ESPN says some club officials are open to the idea of selling him for less than that. Bisher sollen nur Paris Saint-Germain und Inter Mailand konkret an einer möglichen Verpflichtung von Barça-Star Lionel Messi gearbeitet habe. Account active », Thomas Tuchel muss nach der Final-Pleite schnell eine neue Mannschaft formen, denn die Liga geht wieder los. Eric Garcia informed the club at the end of the Premier League season that he will not renew his deal at the Etihad as he wanted to rejoin Barcelona and City would either be willing to include him in a deal or to offer a reduction on their asking price as a stand-alone transfer. City could feasibly fetch around £75m for the Brazilian on the open market and he would be open to a move to Spain in the search of more playing time. He won the treble in his first season in charge, with six major honours arriving in 2009 alone. Asked about the Argentine following his criticism of Barcelona sporting director Eric Abidal, Guardiola insisted that Messi will finish his career at the Camp Nou and perhaps even more intriguingly, that he wanted him to do so. Having enjoyed arguably their greatest successes together, Messi is keen to reunite with the coach following a season that saw him score a comparatively disappointing 31 times – the fewest goals he has netted in a campaign since 2007-08. Messi feels he's free to leave due to a clause in his contract which could allow him to quit the Nou Camp following the Champions League final. But it was not just the Catalans who were dumbfounded; Guardiola was just as shocked when the Argentine called him earlier this month to sound out a move to the Etihad. While City felt they had been used as pawns in a game by Messi’s representatives in the past to extract a bigger contract from Barcelona, there is for the first time a genuine belief at the Etihad that the Argentine is interested in joining the club and that his motivations are football-related. David Silva’s departure this summer frees up a significant portion of the wage bill as the Spaniard earned around £220,000-a-week at the Etihad, making him one of the highest earners at the club. There are also plenty of ways in which City could reduce or divert some of the cost of buying Messi, such as offering players in exchange, renegotiating sponsorship contracts, and even putting him to work as an ambassador for City Football Group with any associated payments made by the parent company rather than the club themselves. Napoli send message to Liverpool and Man City over Kalidou Koulibaly transfer, Jamie Vardy eclipses Lionel Messi record against Manchester City, Dimitar Berbatov's Premier League predictions including Liverpool vs Arsenal, Fans in pubs risk missing the end of Premier League games due to new curfew. Messi currently earns around £100m a year in total, a figure in a different ball park to almost any other player.

Messi has told the Barcelona hierarchy that he wants to leave this summer and has requested a meeting with the board to find a resolution. City has already fallen foul of FFP rules, and was given a two-year ban from the Champions League earlier this year for a breach of the rules. The Barcelona great, 33, is set to quit his …

Although it initially appeared the ousting of Bartomeu might placate Messi, it is look less likely by the day that Barca could do anything to change his mind. after being found guilty of financial doping. Scholes: You can't train without tackling, Martin Tyler re-lives historic Aguero goal, Project Restart: Premier League captains meet, ‘No PL, Champ restart should mean no relegation’. The Barcelona star will spend three years at the Etihad before moving to Major League Soccer side New York City FC, who City Football Group also own. What they can do is prepare to capitalise on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sign the greatest player in history and to reunite him with the manager that helped him become exactly that. „Nichts ist in Stein gemeißelt. But City are serious about signing Messi, with sources telling Metro.co.uk that a deal of this size is in ‘complete isolation’ to the club’s transfer policy.