The odds of Chelsea being given an opportunity to sign Lionel Messi are slim to none, but even if the Blues had a chance, they shouldn’t.
This is sure to be the article every Chelsea fan will hate to see, but deep down you know it to be true. Chelsea signing Lionel Messi just does not make sense. The Blues are amongst only a handful of teams in the world who can count themselves lucky enough to even be in contention for signing the greatest player to ever grace the planet, but being able to doesn’t always mean you should.
The following is a heart-breaking explanation as to why that rhetoric applies to Chelsea.
Let’s get the obvious reason out of the way, Messi is just too expensive. It says a lot that financially only around five or six teams in the world are capable of paying the megastar’s massive wages. After all, he earns over a million euros a week.
On top of this are numerous additional costs such as image rights, royalties and bonuses making Messi’s annual contract worth almost €100 million every single year. If rumours are to be believed then Chelsea’s impending star Kai Havertz is set to earn a record wage at the club which is still only a third of what the Barcelona star would command.
It isn’t only the Argentinian’s personal demands that would make this financially unviable though. It is highly unlikely that Barcelona would really let its captain leave for nothing, despite what he may believe his contract allows. If a potential suitor has to pay for this transfer, they can expect to pay €200 million at least. It would be churlish to suggest that Messi is not worth these sums. His wages would probably be covered by shirt sales alone. Ultimately, however, football is already broken enough and the Premier League doesn’t need a new megastar to shatter the wage structure.
Moving on to what is arguably the principal reason this transfer won’t take place: for the first time in what feels like forever there is a clear, long-term, plan at Stamford Bridge. Last season, Frank Lampard put his trust in youth and this summer he has invested in it. Having dismissed the aging Pedro and Willian from the attack this summer, it doesn’t make sense to break the over-30 policy to add a 33-year-old Messi.
There is already a healthy amount of competition amongst the Chelsea strike force—with Olivier Giroud and Danny Drinkwater the only players over the age of 30 outside of the defence—youth is the clear aim moving forward. Furthermore, additions such as Timo Werner (age 24) and Ben Chilwell (age 23) mean Chelsea look set for the next half a decade at least.
These young players have more than enough time to adapt to the league and develop under Lampard for years to come, but with Messi entering the twilight of his career, it may be a case of you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Okay, in all likeliness, Messi would take to the Premier League like a duck to water, but his arrival would better suit a team in need of a quick fix and Chelsea simply isn’t that team. The Blues are a team with direction and a team with a bright future.
No matter what you make of Chilwell, his arrival was an essential piece of business in improving an area that desperately needed it. Chelsea doesn’t really need any more new arrivals, but if there is one area that could do with an upgrade, it is not at Messi’s end of the pitch. Kepa Arrizabalaga and Willy Caballero are frankly not up to the standard required for the Blues’ aims next season. If there is any money left after the summer spending spree, it should be used where it is most needed, not on icing the cake.
Finally, there is the high possibility that Messi won’t actually leave Barcelona. The great one has been with the Blaugrana for almost two decades—he is Mr Barcelona. If reports are to be believed, Messi’s demands to leave do not come from a desire to play elsewhere, but a desire to remove those above him. Messi is so adored by the fans, and so crucial to the identity of the club that even the remote possibility of his departure has led to calls for the board’s resignation. Whoever said no man is bigger than his club?
Furthermore, if the unthinkable did happen and Messi did come to grace the Premier League, Chelsea wouldn’t even be the favourite to get him. That title belongs to Manchester City. Pep Guardiola is perhaps the only manager who could convince him to leave the Nou Camp and right now, City is in a more obvious position than Chelsea to compete for title on both a domestic and intercontinental level. Sorry, Chelsea fans, but it’s just not going to happen.