SHOULD BLUES MAKE MESSI CAPTAIN?
PLAYER, AGENT AND CLUB PREPARE FOR SHOWDOWN TALKS OVER FUTURE
FOR a week, there hasn’t been a lot City have been able to say or do about Lionel Messi.
His transfer request last Tuesday kickstarted a global circus with all roads pointing towards the Etihad, but their position hasn’t significantly changed from all the other times they have been linked with him: of course they will sign him if it is possible, but they are still not certain that it is.
Even if the encouragement from the events of the last week has been enough to privately plan for the scenarios of being able to sign him on a free or having to pay a transfer fee, there is no point in even thinking about breathing any figures out loud until they know for definite that Messi will be allowed to leave this summer.
The last few days have seen increasingly hardline stances in the stand-off between player and club; the Argentine didn’t turn up for pre-season training and then hours later La Liga came out to bat for Barcelona insisting that his minimum fee release clause still stood.
Finally though, after a week that has felt like a month, the picture should soon become clearer for the Blues as Messi with his father/agent and Barcelona prepare for showdown talks over the next few days to discuss the nature of an exit.
It may not bring the results City want if the La Liga giants refuse to negotiate a price or the dispute over the player’s break clause has to be settled in a courtroom but even those outcomes would at least give Txiki Begiristain and Pep Guardiola a better idea of what they need to do next with a month of the transfer window remaining and just over a fortnight until they are back in action starting their Premier League campaign.
Whatever the resolution or lack of one found, knowing it will at least move the situation on for the Blues and put them in a position where they can decide whether it is still worth pursuing what would be one of the most incredible deals in British football or whether it is time to once again park the plans that start to be pencilled in any time there is the hint that Messi could leave Barcelona.
While the pursuit of a centre-back remains separate, with Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly still very much of interest, much of City’s other business for the window will be affected by how the talks between Messi and Barcelona go in the next few days.
They should know soon if the complications that have made the chances of a deal both possible and in jeopardy can be ironed out.