Manchester City should pounce for Lionel Messi
Following Barcelona’s latest Champions League embarrassment, this time an 8-2 demolition at the hands of Bayern Munich, Lionel Messi will surely be contemplating his future, and Manchester City should be waiting with open arms.
In my view, Lionel Messi remains the best player in the world and arguably the best of all time. Nevertheless, the latter stages of his illustrious career have been absolutely wasted by incompetent management, an aging squad, and a club that has been the prime example of the wrong way to run what was once a beacon in the football world.
Yet another example of this bore itself out today, when Barcelona’s on-loan Philippe Coutinho came onto the pitch to grab two goals and an assist. Nearly the first condition of any loan move is a clause that the player cannot play against their parent club, yet Barcelona’s incompetence from board level down allowed them to be torched by a player who they paid £105 million for. If young City defender Eric García does not at least consider the possibility of remaining at the Etihad now, he’s not quite right in the head.
Linking Messi to City has been a popular trend since Pep Guardiola arrived at the club, although nothing has ever come of it. Guardiola has repeatedly denied the rumor, and it is out of character for City’s usual transfer policy. Nevertheless, when the potential opportunity to sign a player like Messi arises, it would be foolish for City to not do everything possible to bring him to Manchester.
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Although City trace many of their roots to the golden era of Barcelona ten years ago, from Txiki Begiristain, Ferran Soriano, and of course, Guardiola, City now represent everything Barcelona are not. They are arguably the best-run club in the world, putting out consistent excellence nearly every season in the world’s toughest league, playing the modern evolution of Pep’s famous tiki-taka, and would be a perfect place for Messi to continue his career.
With 31 goals and 26 assists, Messi clearly still has fuel in the tank despite being 33 years of age, and putting up those numbers in an aging squad that has played so poorly all season is truly a feat. If he were to come back to Guardiola, where he enjoyed his best-ever seasons, in a young, dynamic, and explosive attack like City, there’s no telling the damage he could wreck upon the Premier League.
Messi would be wise to consider all of his options. While he clearly loves Barcelona, Neymar was able to get out in front of what was an inevitable collapse with his move to PSG, and now Messi should do the same. He cannot save them any longer, and the club is quickly crumbling around him much like AC Milan once did. If Messi desires to continue at the top level and winning the Champions League, a move to City would be a natural and seamless fit that could usher in a new era of dominance for the world’s best player.