The international break always makes the media and bloggers more creative when it comes to Arsenal transfer rumours, but you can’t get more inventive than this one. It concerns the World’s very best player, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi. The Argentinian superstar and his father are being dragged through the courts in pain for tax evasion, and the story goes that he is fed up with the Spanish and now desires to play in the Premier League.
Yesterday there were many reports about the betting on Messi’s next club with Chelsea being favourites to sign him and Arsenal second favourites, but it would appear that, according to reports, he would prefer to move to the Emirates. Not only does he want to move here, but the papers have discovered that he wants wages of 18 million GBP a year (after tax, naturally, as he doesn’t want to deal with those nasty tax men any more) which in working man’s language works out at 600,000 every single week.
Now I am sure we would all love to see Messi at Arsenal, but as he is now 28 I can imagine Arsene Wenger having a heart attack if someone told him that he would have to pay a player that amount of money, and that’s not even thinking about if an astronomical transfer fee would be involved!
One other point to mention, that may also put Wenger off, is the fact that Messi has been out with a knee injury since September. Although he usually seems indestructible in La Liga, he may find himself at the end of more crunching tackles in the Premiership which may be less forgiving.
Okay can anyone honestly see Wenger and Arsenal stumping up enormous amounts of cash for Messi, even if he could possibly win us the League title?