Manchester City seem to be putting the wheels in motion to sign Lionel Messi.
You get the impression that deep in the bowels of the Etihad Stadium, there's a bunch of maths gurus hammering away at calculators trying to work out how they can make a deal possible.
The Citizens have, after all, emerged as favourites to sign Messi after the earth-shattering news emerged on Tuesday night that he had handed a transfer request into Barcelona.
Man City lead the charge for Messi
The only hurdle potentially facing Messi's escape plan from Camp Nou is the fact his current deal actually expires in 2021 and an early release clause is reported to have expired on June 10.
A fierce legal battle between club and player could well ensue with Messi's team supposedly believing that the clause should have been postponed because the season was knocked back.
Either way, all signs point towards Messi walking out the back door in Catalonia, whether in 2020 or 2021, so every European club under the sun seems to have turned their head in interest.
How will Man City afford him?
City appear to have a head-start on everybody, though, by championing the exact brand of football that Messi thrived upon at Barcelona as well as the fact Pep Guardiola stands in their dugout.
Brazilian journalist Marcelo Bechler, who was the first to break news of Neymar leaving Barcelona in 2017, has even gone as far as claiming that Messi sees the Etihad as his preferred destination.
But how can City possibly organise their books to accommodate one of the world's best players? Well, Spanish newspaper Sport has done some digging on how they intend to make it possible.
Jesus, Silva and Garcia could go
In fact, they are reporting that City are willing to offer three first-team players in order to sweeten the deal for the Blaugrana, something that hadn't really been touted in previous propositions.
Sport note that City will be carefully tailoring their approach in order not to trigger any more Financial Fair Player investigations and are therefore unwilling to spend over £100 million on the Argentine.
Instead, the Citizens are willing to include up to three players in the swap with Gabriel Jesus, Bernardo Silva and Eric Garcia believed to be stars being considered for an exit.
It's noted that Barca have little desire to recruit Jesus, but the club's sporting department are interested in signing Silva and there's already an agreement in place to garner Garcia.
Could sweeten the deal for Barca
So, there is definitely a variety of methods through which City could seduce Barcelona into a deal without having to entertain the impossibility of activating Messi's €700 million buyout clause.
But regardless of Barca's demands, you get the feeling that City are desperate to bring Messi to the club and you can't exactly blame them.
Bleeding three first-team players out of the club would otherwise look like transfer suicide, but exceptional circumstances require exceptional actions - and this situation is, well, exceptional.
