I'm reading that Man City are prepared to pay £450m for Messi which, given their previous issues with their finances, it makes me wonder how any club could afford it.

When players are bought, is their value then seen as an asset? I must admit to not knowing how these things work, but is there anything that could stop this happening - player cost is an outgoing on one side of the balance sheet, countered by player value as an asset?

Given Derby's massaging of their stadium valuation, there is surely huge scope for clubs to be creative with their books to find ways around FFP. That means, to quote another MB poster, it's not worth a vat of pig's piss.