Manchester City: You may not get him but he’s exactly what you need

Manchester City will probably win the league this season but they could easily have thrown it away after some really unconvincing periods during the campaign.

For our money the new Manchester City recruits generally illustrated the fact that buying squad members is not really what Manchester City need to do at this point.

Negredo had a brilliant two thirds of the season and Fernandinho has been a solid worker in the centre of the midfield. Navas too has been a decent if not spectacular buy and Jovetic has struggled.

But Manchester City are the strongest squad in the league and they now need to spend each summer looking for one stellar talent. Spend the budget on someone who can unlock defences in the tightest of games.

The story about Lionel Messi to Manchester City over the last couple of days seems ridiculous to many. With Fifa breathing down City’s necks on their spending it seems outlandish right now.

So it’s not a question of a lack of finances on Manchester City’s part. More a question of whether such a purchase would fall within the bounds of financial fair play.

But whatever football team you support, having Messi in The Premier League would be scintillating.

He obviously wouldn’t address the sporadic naïveté that city have at the back but he would give the team even more edge and speed going forward which would keep Manchester City on the front foot more the time.

Messi seems to be a Barcelona lad through and through, despite his Argentinian roots.

But there have been rumours of disharmony between him and the board over the last year and he has spoken publicly about distaste for some of the comments made by the top brass at Barcelona.

At 27 years of age we wouldn’t be at all surprised if he did want another challenge and that challenge would surely have to come in The Premier league.

Perhaps the idea of Messi to Manchester City isn’t so outlandish after all. If he was available you imagine Chelsea might also be interested but Manchester City can out bid anybody for his services. Providing they can get round the FairPlay rules with big sponsorship deals it could become a reality.