The Reign in Spain.

If Lionel Messi were to sign for Manchester City from Barcelona then the Premier League season 2021 will be over before it begins.

Sheikh Mansour the Manchester owner has only to find £625m and LM will be in Manchester in the AM. Messi Mesmerises defenders and spectators but with no spectators and the other Manchester defender Captain awaiting Gaol there will be none to mesmerise. Messi’s salary will be zillions on top of the transfer fee and as he is renowned not to be too big a tax payer poor Richie Sunak will be the first in line to be mesmerised.

Messi is a midfield player that turns up everywhere on the pitch, a man literally for all seasons. His gift of soccer from upon high and the rest is obvious. I can remember watching Stanley Matthews the Blackpool and England winger mesmerise defenders in the 1950s when the best players earned £150 a week or Jimmy Greaves who was transferred into Italy for £99,999. The latter I cleaned his boots at Chelsea as a Junior there and Stanley I recall passing me by like a flying fruit in his trademark Blackpool tangerine coloured shirt at Stamford Bridge.

Soccer salaries were repriced when Television started going to the matches and nowadays even the presenters of the programme are amongst the highest paid BBC employees. A fact of course that mesmerises everyone considering the old folk plus 75 are still required to pay for their TV licence. The World went mad and today we are seeing the results. Most families struggle to buy young Johnny the latest soccer shirt and at around £100 these are on the rise to help pay for the mesmerisers.

One day soon the bubble will burst but not before the next World Cup 2022 scheduled to be played in air conditioned stadiums in the desert of Doha and beyond. Alas will there be Queues in Qatar or will Covid 19/22 still keep the stadiums empty.

This weekend the season starts with the Charity Shield opener though I’m not sure if any fiscal finds any Charity. The truth is it starts all over again and if Messi does don that sky blue shirt up in Manchester the place where the sky is seldom blue and often wet. The Reign in Spain is about to end.