nobody but messi for the foreseable.....

I will be signed for United in the summer for a hefty 100m

THE NEW GOLDENBALLS.....^^^^^

Hazard will go for more in a few years.

got to think Bale, Neymar and Falcao will be the next BIG transfers cant see any going for much more than £5Om

Ten years time and 100 million will be a common transfer...yeah, it`s inflation...

It wil easily be broken.

In the current era, players like Messi and Ronaldo pay for themselves given the merchandise potential on their names alone.

So I think clubs like Real and Barca could easily pay anything up to £200mil over the next 5-10 years

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Can't see any current players going for more. The short lived time of crazy transfer money seems to have died down for now.

Only possibilities would be a 27 year old Hazard or Neymar moving to Madrid but I doubt it.

Siempre Rojo aka tenemos diecinueve (U1560)

The state of Spanish economy will not have much effect on Real or Barca.

you don't think ?

Siempre, I do agree in the main - the league on the whole is in an appalling state, the overall club debt is astonishing - not just bank debt, but perhaps more importantly, tax debt, and Europe has already demanded a crackdown. Also, with no real competition for the big 2, interest is bound to drop and it seems only a question of time before the league's revenue streams dry up. It seems inevitable that both of the big 2 will end up taking a knock to their balance sheets and will have to be a lot more careful about their spending.

That said though, I don't know why you keep making those claims about banks writing off the big 2's debt.

I've said before that I'm open to being corrected, but as we discussed to great lengths not long ago, I'm yet to hear/read any credible reports on banks condoning club debts - at least as regards the big 2 - only poorly substantiated lazy journalism and cheap gossip. Also, living in Spain as you do, I'm truly surprised that you seem to be totally oblivious to the fact that each camp's media have no qualms when it comes to misreporting anything if it serves to put the opposite club in a bad light. Each are as bad as the other.

Indcidentally, neither have I heard/read anything that leads me to believe BBVA's about to go under.

Pretty much agree with everything you say there itsonlyagame.

The big 2 will always get financial backing from the Royals, the government and worldwide sponsorship. The government can still invest, as these 2 worldwide brands sell merchandise all over the globe which is almost instantly profitable.

I agree about the misreporting by the Spanish press about the two clubs.
Whilst it is true that BBVA are one of the more robust Spanish banks, recent cases regarding the sale of preferentes (selling shares in the bank as an "investment" are going to hit Spanish banks hard (it makes PPI misselling look like a drop in the ocean) this combined by a collapsing property market underwritted by the banks makes Spain's banking sector a risky proposition.
Although Real and Barca are a national obsession, the situation here is so bad that any form of state or Royal subsidy would now be frowned on. On top of that, there is a very real risk that the King will be indicted for fraud, his daughter having already been criminally accused.
In short - what a mess.

Only mug teams will pay anything near £50 million now, Chelsea for one.

Would state or Royal subsidies be wholeheartedly frowned upon? Barca and Real can bring in vast sums of money from around the world, and must be a large part of Spanish tourism revenue. I would have thought it in national interest to keep these two in such powerful positions.

I know you are closer to the issues, maybe there are far more important factors at hand right now? I had no idea about the Princess caught up in fraud, God imagine if that happened here!

Spain gets around 57 million tourists a year from abroad so I don't think people attending Madrid or Barca games would make the slightest dent in that.
National pride has to an extent switched to La selección (the national team) although of course the two clubs are a massive part of Spanish culture.

There is zero danger of either club going bust or even losing popularity but I think that the finances may start to wane a little a the same time that the Premier League is going from (financially) strength to strength as is the Bundesliga.

As for the royal family http://www.euronews.com/2013/04/04/spanish-princess-charged-with-complicity-in-husband-s-fraud-case/
Its a very big deal over here. In theory the King has immunity from actual prosecution but he has already been implicated. Inaki is a complete crook.