MESSI HOPE FOR BLUES

CITY KEEPING WATCH AFTER STAR’S BARCA BUST-UP

CITY believe that they will be first choice if Lionel Messi decides to leave Barcelona.

So Blues top brass Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain will have been sitting up in their seats when news of the Barcelona superstar’s row with his club’s own sporting director Eric Abidal broke.

And the recent revelation of an intriguing contract clause which Messi had inserted in his last Barca deal will only serve to heighten that interest.

Messi has taken exception to former team-mate Abidal criticising the attitude of some of the Barca squad during coach Ernesto Valverde’s ill-fated reign.

That prompted an extraordinary reply from 32-year-old Messi on Instagram, taking Abidal to task.

He said: “I think that when you talk about players, you should give names because otherwise you are tainting everyone’s name and feeding rumours that spread and are not true.”

Barca have moved to smooth over the row, but if there is a hint that Messi could be unhappy, City will be at the front of the queue to give him an escape route.

Blues chief executive Soriano and football director Begiristain are old pals of Messi, while Sergio Aguero is perhaps his closest friend in football.

And, of course, Messi and City boss Pep Guardiola achieved great things together at the Nou Camp.

If they did persuade him to go to the Etihad Stadium, the Blues would also get him on a free transfer. Messi, like other Barca stars before him, has a clause written into his contract – which expires in 2021 – allowing him to leave for nothing this summer.

Guardiola has repeatedly said he thinks Messi will end his playing career at Barca, but added: “Maybe he will want his kids to learn English, I don’t know. And if that happens, which I hope it won’t, then there will be a list of four, five or six clubs who will want to sign him.”