It’s the deal the modern Man City were built to pull off

AMONG the slightly more modest career achievements of the Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano is the publication of a rather dry book on football business. It reads a little like an A Level dissertation but on the back cover — right at the top in large letters — is an unequivocal endorsement.

‘An excellent book’ — Lionel Messi, FC Barcelona & Argentina.

It would be a surprise if the greatest footballer of all time (discuss) has ever seen Soriano’s lightweight tome, never mind read it. But what are friends for if not to give your ventures a gentle push when required?

And this is the point right now. This is the relationship — going back 16 years between Messi and all the people that matter at City — that has now opened the door to what would be the most astonishing transfer in Premier League history.

Messi to Manchester City. It has been raised before. This is not the first time the 33-year-ear-old has considered stompinging out of the Nou Camp.. For a little chap with ith an angel’s face, e, Messi can be as s petulant and narcissistic as the next superstar.

Historically, City’s stance has been consistent. Going back to pre-Pep Guardiola a days, the club — run by former er Barcelona executive utive Soriano and another nother ex-Nou Camp stafferaffer Txiki Begiristain — has always briefed that it is a switch that could never happen.

Their intelligence — coming straight from the player himself and his father Jorge — has always told them Messi would finish his career at his one and only club.

Officially, that stance remains the same. However, if Messi really does want to leave — if this latest saga is indeed more than a political game of chess aimed at knocking Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu clean off the board — then City are the one club in Europe perfectly placed to take advantage.

The relationship between City’s Spanish hierarchy and camp Messi remains as strong as it did when he was first blooded in the Barcelona first team as a 17-year-old in 2004. If it is sympathy he wants as the Catalan citadel that has been constructed around him crumbles, it will not be in short supply.

As for an actual escape route? That would be more complicated but the attractions to City on and off the field are clear.

It would be an extraordinarily expensive transfer, a once in a lifetime occurrence. The Premier League has welcomed stellar names before like Klinsmann, Bergkamp, Shevchenko, Ibrahimovic, but it has never known something like this.

There would be risks attached. City’s wage structure — currently topped by Kevin De Bruyne on a basic salary of £280,000 a week — would be obliterated and we know the way that can go. Another obstacle would also be placed in the way of the development of players like young Phil Foden.

Meanwhile, signing a player who is coming for the wrong reasons always represents a gamble. Messi would not be coming to City to fulfil some deep-seated ambition to play in the Premier League. No, he would be coming simply because hhe didn’t want to stay ata Barcelona. They are two very diffdifferent things. BBut each of the aarguments that wwould point City away from this deal are countered to varying degrees by the ssimple fact that this is Lionel Messi. Throw that namname into any of the conversations mentiomentioned above and the usual rules of football logic and strategy simply disappear out of the window.

Messi remains a good enough footballer to improve City. Off the field, meanwhile, his presence would immediately catapult City to a different level. For all they have spent, built and won since the Abu Dhabi takeover of 2008, City remain a tier two European club in terms of stature and reputation. The arrival of Messi changes that at a stroke.

This is a transfer that still sounds and feels unfeasible. Does Messi really want to leave? Can City really afford to commit such astronomical sums when what Guardiola really needs more than anything is a central defender who can head the ball?

Common sense says no to both, but this is not about that. This is an opportunity that pulls at the heart, the kind of deal the modern City was built to pull off.

If Soriano, Begiristain and Guardiola really do want to push the button on this, they have all the right phone numbers.