Manchester United and Arsenal - just about - would be able to afford the signature of Lionel Messi from Barcelona.
That's according to football finance specialist Dr Tom Markham who spoke to us on Off The Ball tonight.
He is the Head of Strategic Business Development at Sports Interactive, the makers of the Football Manager series of games.
Looking at the audited 2013 figures for European clubs and the prospective €300M fee, a few clubs could hypothetically afford to sign Messi without breaching UEFA's Financial Fair Play if the deal is broken up over the length of the contract.
"That's about 14 per cent of Bayern's turnover and it's pretty much a similar figure for Man United. Their turnover for that year was in and around €430M," he said, explaining that United spent €92M on interest alone.
"Transfers are usually broken up over the life of a contract so Messi on a five-year deal - if you divide that €300M over five years - that's €60M a year and the €92M that we talked about, it would cover his transfer fee and wages."
On Arsenal, Markham said they could afford the deal "just about given Arsenal's, revenue and the upside of things like commercial revenue and shirt sales etc, Arsenal would just about be able to cover that. Chelsea would be in a similar bracket. They've played the FFP model very, very cleverly since it started."
There has also been some curiosity about the way that Manchester City can afford to sign Wilfried Bony, seeing as they are under the scrutiny of FFP.
Markham says that it was possible because the loan of striker Alvaro Negredo to Valencia "has been changed to a permanent deal so that is like for like in terms of City losing Negredo on a permanent basis for in and around the same money that they are buying Wilfried Bony."
Markham also detailed how financial fair play rules have affected ambitious mid-table clubs and the impact it has had on all clubs' philosophies when it comes to spending.
He also explained how clubs are using Football Manager data to expand their own information streams.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
