Messi to Manchester City would be cash benefit to entire Premier League

Suddenly and unexpectedly there is the very real prospect Lionel Messi, perhaps the greatest player in the world now or ever, will be playing in the Premier League. There are a lot of hurdles still to overcome if it is to happen, including a legal battle between two sides who believe he should be allowed to leave Barcelona either for nothing or for €700m but it seems clear he wants a move and that in Pep Guardiola Manchester City have the manager best placed to sign him.

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A week ago I wrote a column wondering what City could expect Guardiola to deliver for them, given his repeated failures in the Champions League. Messi would be the most emphatic answer to that question: a goal, assist and marketing machine who even at 33 could make a massive impact on the Premier League.

Just as I’m sure that over the years Barcelona’s sponsors have paid more for the opportunity to associate themselves with Messi, the move would revolutionise City’s marketing operation. But beyond that, interest in an already massively popular league would rocket. Once fans are allowed back into stadiums, tickets for all 20 clubs would become harder to get hold of.

Even if it wouldn’t exactly help their chances of winning trophies, every team could benefit commercially from the Messi transfer. When you consider not just the trophies he has helped Barcelona to win over the years but the number of replica kits he must shift and the number of tourists who are attracted to Camp Nou by the prospect of seeing him in action, you can understand Barcelona’s desperation to keep him. But I don’t think it is ever a good idea to force a player to stay when they are determined to go, even one of Messi’s stature.

I remember going to see him play at Camp Nou in 2015 and it is only when you see him in action that you appreciate how little he sometimes moves. He comes alive in the key moments and in key areas but he is not a player who does a lot of running around.

In the year I saw him Barcelona won the league and the Champions League, so I can’t imagine how he’d play if he’s actually not bothered and downs tools in protest against Barcelona forcing him to stay.

Messi is human like everybody else and sometimes in their working lives people feel they need a change. It is not as if he just woke up one morning and decided to go.

In my experience with contracts and in my current job as a sporting director, players and agents push for clauses that indicate their concerns. For example, international players do not always want to commit long term to a club that is not yet established, because they don’t know how competitive the team will be.

Related: Barcelona president Bartomeu would resign to keep Lionel Messi

Good contracts prepare for future eventualities, protecting the players’ careers and doing everything possible to guarantee their happiness. Messi is no different. He wants to enjoy playing and he wants to win major trophies and at Barcelona neither thing is happening.

I can understand the appeal of a move to Manchester City. Of course he would be reunited with Guardiola and a handful of other staff members who worked with him at Barcelona. As a player I understand the drive to test yourself in another league and if he can come into a side who have had domestic success but struggled in Europe and guide them to victory in the Champions League, he would officially be the difference. It would add another layer to his legend, just like Cristiano Ronaldo has added to his at Juventus.

If reports that Barcelona pay him £95m a year in salary and bonuses are true, clearly Messi has not stayed at the club for 20 years out of loyalty alone.

But I hope Barcelona choose to respect his service, and negotiate a mutually acceptable deal to let him move on, rather than forcing him through a legal battle and removing his right to choose a new direction at this stage of his career.

There is not a lot of room for sentiment in the law but the problem goes beyond money, it’s about respect for who he is and what he has given them.

The fact he wants to go is an indictment of the way the club has been run in recent seasons – Messi, who in the three seasons since 2017 has scored 95 league goals and created another 47, really isn’t the person to blame for this situation.

Related: Messi at Manchester City would bring fantasy football to England | Jamie Jackson

Barcelona’s fear will be that losing Messi will be a sporting and financial calamity but they could see this moment as an opportunity to refresh and renew a team who already needed major surgery. The £95m a year that would no longer be going to the Argentinian, as well as any transfer fee they end up getting for him, can help to fund that process.

They already have some good young players and if it was me I would focus on the next generation and give the club’s fans something new to get excited about. Replacing Messi is an impossible job but you can build a team of talented young players who value every second of playing for Barcelona.

They should be putting all their efforts into making that happen, instead of using the law to tie one of the club’s and the game’s all-time greats to a contract he has no desire to see out.