If City fans were hoping for their club to secure the high-profile signing of Iniesta, they may have to think again. 

City are seemingly uninterested in bringing in top-drawer marquees at the present time, with general insecurity and lack of commercial revenue in the A-League the biggest threats.

Tim Cahill and David Villa failed to significantly enhance City's crowds, so they believe marquees aren't necessarily money well spent.

"Clearly we want to win here so you should never lose sight of that," City Football Group Executive Brian Marwood told reporters last month.

"But I also think that this is a really good development opportunity in terms of young players.

"The league is a good league – we see it with the number of young players here and at other clubs – so there's no reason why this couldn't be a platform in terms of a place to get good first team experience and development.

"Can we develop young players? Aaron showed that there is a pathway there and clearly he generated good revenues."

"I think right now, where we are for the next three years, is a mixture of the two," he continued.

"We don't want to lose sight of being successful but at the same time, we have to develop and grow the business.

"So to pay for all of the academy programs and everything else we have to do, we have to generate revenue."

Iniesta, speaking of the possible next moves for the 33-year-old, said that he had "heard Australia as well". FFA CEO David Gallop said that some A-League clubs were interested.

“I won't name who but I do understand that A-League clubs have expressed interest, and that's a start," Gallop said.

"He'll have offers from around the globe but the A-League offers a great competition to play in and the Australian lifestyle, and we saw with (Alessandro) Del Piero and others that that is an attraction.

"It would require a significant investment, primarily from one of our clubs, but we've got some funds available as well and if we can contribute - it would be a contribution, not the bulk of what he could earn - then we think it's money well spent."