Do you think Chelsea can afford him if he somehow becomes available? My Understanding is Chelsea are in the position to meet Financial Fair Play regulation due to reducing spending on wages and transfers unlike Manchester City who are simply inflating their revenues artificially.....
I'm pretty sure your understanding is correct, from what I've heard we're doing our utmost to abide by these rules and are reducing costs for ourselves so I don't think we're in any danger regarding the FFP right now.
Honestly, I really couldn't say, it really depends on the price and so on. Plus, adidas might also pull some strings if any deal between us is involved, if allowed at all(I'm not well versed when it comes to the details of transfers). But yeah, it's difficult to say, and it's a gamble, as I feel we'd have to sell a few players first, and we'd pretty much only be able to buy him due to how much he'd likely cost. With our current squad, I couldn't see us getting more than £40m on players unless we sold a big name on top of it, but if he costs so much then we'd possibly struggle to reinforce other parts of the squad unless we're doing extremely well with FFP. I guess it'd also come down to our success this season, if we won the PL and/or the CL, that'd help a lot. The more successful we are the more likely we'd be able to afford, and actually try to push through a transfer for him. Plus we're also getting a new sponsor so that's helpful too.
After that, the ball would be in his court, if we went for him it'd have to be at the end of the season since he'd be 28, I wouldn't want to sign him any later, and it'd come down to whether or not he'd be willing to abandon Barcelona at a time where they can't replace him with other quality players. Would he feel guilty if he did it? And would that guilt affect his performances? I wouldn't want a player who's affected by such things for a massive price.
