Some of the biggest news to hit the football world recently had been the possible transfer of Lionel Messi from Barcelona – the biggest link had been to Premier League side Manchester City, but it seems now that the dream of Messi in the Premier League is over. Often the transfer period can be just as exciting as regular play as it garners just as much attention from fans and punters alike, a bet calculator is even available for odds on which players may be up for moving and where they may go, so it’s no surprise that one of the biggest names in the sport would gain such attention.
The news came as it quickly became clear that no club could really afford to pay the release clause in his contract which would total £624m. The initial hope is that there had been a clause in his contract that would allow him to leave for free with immediate effect, but both La Liga and Barcelona would quickly state that this clause was no longer valid – La Liga president had stated that he was “never seriously worried” that Messi would leave as he is such a crucial part of Spanish football – for many City fans however it does feel like a bit of a kick in the teeth as at one point it had started to look like an almost certainty that the move would happen, at least for a few days before the news around the clause in the contract broke.
The 20/21 season could be interesting for Barcelona however, with this attempted move and the previous result for the 19/20 season not going in Barcelona’s favor, Messi is clearly unhappy and this may have a longer-lasting impact on his performance – whilst widely credited as being the best player in the history of the game, playing somewhere you may not want to doesn’t often yield the best results. Although on his first training session back, Messi did chat with new boss Koeman stating that he is still as committed as ever and would like to make Barcelona one of the most feared teams in Europe once again.
There will be some dynamic changes however, Ronald Koeman has already stated that he would like to break away from the current dynamic held where team captains have held a certain power in the squad, and whilst he stated that Messi will certainly be treated as a special player, he won’t receive much of the special treatment he did under different management.
Barcelona will start their 20/21 La Liga campaign against Villarreal on the 27th with a few smaller friendly games against both Gimnastic and Girona on the 12th and 16th respectively to have a little time to bounce back from their 8-2 quarter-final Champion’s League exit against Bayern – these two games could be vital in helping the club get a bit of a reset and start getting back into the swing of things come the 20/21 La Liga campaign.
