Unrequited Love: Lionel Messi and Manchester City

Manchester City have long fluttered their eyelashes and looked longingly at Lionel Messi but is there a realistic chance of one final dance before it is too late?

It has been public for some time that Manchester City have dallied with Lionel Messi in the past, making their advances known and having been gently rebuffed. As Pep Guardiola has said many times in press conferences – Messi will finish his career in Barcelona.

However, the ongoing chaos at the Catalan club as characterised by their humiliating loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, has left Messi with a decision to make.

In the words of ‘The Clash’ – “should he stay or should he go?”.

Messi is 33 years old and will turn 34 in the next football season. He has the possibility of a final glorious 3 year contract – and everyone knows that.

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Spanish football lost one superstar when Cristiano Ronaldo left and the loss of another in Messi may prove too much to bear. Again, everyone knows that.

However, there is a political battle in the boardroom of Barcelona with the current club president- Josep Bartomeu- increasingly embattled and clinging to power.

It is Bartomeu who has angered Messi with many of the decisions off the field of play, and he has never been far from a scandal. Incidents such as the alleged use of social media influencers to denigrate the reputations of critics have contributed to the perception of a club in crisis.

Recent transfer activity has seen big spending but it has brought a relatively poor return to date. Big wages have created  a long term business risk to the Catalan club.

Even prior to the decimation caused to cash flow by Covid, Barcelona were in trouble. FFP constraints in the Spanish League restricted their ability to balance the books –  a number of players must be moved on and all kinds of strange swap deals were being talked of, just to reduce the wage bill.

So losing Messi may be unthinkable but could save Barcelona from immediate financial pressures. If his exit were dressed up as saving Barcelona or that he was downing tools then Bartomeu could even emerge emboldened.

Still the biggest likelihood is that the whispers from the Messi camp are little more than an attempt to apply pressure to the president and secure that all important new contract.

Now, if somebody told me he was on holiday in the United Arab Emirates then I may have a different view, but right now, Messi is little more than a pipe dream.

However, in the unlikely event it did happen – how funny would that be? Just imagine our critics lining up! In fact, I may even start  a GoFundMe!