Messi Shocks the World!

Wednesday 29th November - the football world left rocked as the transfer of Lionel Messi from Barcelona to Arsenal finally concluded. Many speculated Messi would soon be leaving the Spanish giants, with England as the destination. The English game has increasingly seen the benefits of the newly backed TFF brand replacing the old football league and Premier League. With clubs such as West Brom, Burnley, Newcastle and Sunderland being heavily financially backed, more of the worlds elite are leaving their homes and families to take up the challenge English football has to offer.

Arsenal broke their transfer record by a good country mile for the signature of Messi - the total figure of £79,982,000 million (equating into 90,000,000 million Euros) being made public. A lot of the money gained on the sale of Neymar to Paris was to thank. Messi also becomes the TFF British transfer record, Neymar's sale from Barcelona to Paris for £91,200,000 million being the all time TFF transfer record. Neymar's amazing worth is a collected £210,600,000 Million thanks to his 3 different transfers in TFF.

Season 1 and 2's transfer records

Manager Reaction:

"Messi is the worlds best player bar none, the fact his was still available was quite shocking with the money that has been invested and pumped into the English league I was shocked to discover Barcelona had no previous offers or enquires for the Argentinian wizard. We spoke to his representatives and father and it seemed a deal could be possible the rest of it was down to the board the chairman and the guys higher up the food chain

"I've had the pleasure for working with Lionel during the world cup qualifiers and the world cup proper. Thanks to my involvement with Argentina's FA, I have different plans for Messi under club level his the playmaker at International level and with the quality of forwards Argentina have we can afford for Messi to be the one who pulls the strings. At club level I've already charged Lionel with the objective of being the teams main out and out forward. I believe he has the goals in him to propel Arsenal to the league title this season a player of his quality can only help this team take that next step"

Messi due to the language barrier said a few choice words:

"I am delighted to finally be able to play my trade in England, England's footballing history is a proud and great one. Arsenal for a long time have been suggested to me as the team that would suit my style of play the most, attacking possession based football. I'm immensely proud to be able to say I am a Arsenal player the manager has tasked me with the job of scoring goals and I am sure we will be competing with the very best on all fronts this season"

Messi wasn't the only world wide super star to be joining Arsenal. Former club captain Toni Kroos re-joining the Gunners from Real Madrid. Fans and pundits alike were left in shock of the sale of Kroos back to the Spanish capital. After joining the club from, you guessed, it Real Madrid in a £6.0M deal with Granit XHAKA and Shkodran MUSTAFI.

Little did the public known Real Madrid had activated a buy back clause for Toni - said manager Ben Clifford. "We were gutted to lose Toni he was installed as the club captain last season thanks to his leadership on and off the field. Toni was himself unhappy about having to go back to the Spanish side and so forced through the move back to Arsenal."

Liverpool were interested and came to Madrid with a could of bids of their own, "Liverpool's interest in Toni was understandable" said manager Clifford, "he is world class and would grace any midfield in TFF. They did him a disservice with the bids, withdrawing them and coming back in again. Toni always wanted a return to Arsenal and thankfully chose us over Liverpool, Toni will be installed once again as the club captain and will take back up his role next to midfield partner Matic."

An extraordinary turn of events at Arsenal in the past week it seems. With the inclusion of Messi and Kroos, Arsenal look like a real powerhouse once again. Fans will soon forget the departure of Neymar and will have new hero's to sing and shout about.

Arsenal are now the top valued club in England with a total worth of 508M, Chelsea the next best at 480M, Man City 450M, Man United 440M, Liverpool 423M, and Spurs at 66M. No pressure there then, a whopping 28m ahead of closest rival Chelsea. Arsenal will be expected to win big this season. Up next for Arsenal and mouth watering clash with Man United.

(Images of Messi and Kroos at Arsenal courtesy of club photographer Nick Justice)