It’s the deal modern City were built to accomplish
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 bit 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 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-old has considered stomping out of the Nou Camp. For a little chap with an angel’s face, Messi can be as petulantly narcissistic as the next superstar.
Historically, City’s stance has been consistent. Going back to pre-Pep Guardiola days, the club — run by ex-Barcelona executive Soriano and another former Nou Camp staffer Txiki Begiristain — has always briefed that it is a switch that could never happen.
Their intelligence, coming from the player and his father Jorge, told them Messi would end 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 off the board, then City are the one club in Europe ideally placed to take advantage.
The relationship between City’s Spanish hierarchy and Messi is as strong as when he was blooded in the Barcelona top team as a 17-year-old in 2004. If it is sympathy he wants as the Catalan citadel 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. 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 is always 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 because he didn’t want to stay at Barcelona. They are two very different things.
But the arguments that would point City away from this deal are countered by the fact this is Lionel Messi. Throw his name into any of the conversations mentioned above and the usual rules of football logic and strategy disappear.
Messi remains a good enough footballer to improve City. off the field, meanwhile, his presence would 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 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 afford to commit such astronomical sums when what Guardiola really needs 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.