Despite rumours to the contrary, Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho has ruled out a move for Lionel Messi, stating that he hopes the Barcelona talisman remains at the Camp Nou until the end of his career. Speculation in recent weeks has mounted that the Argentine could reject a new deal in favour of a move elsewhere, however, the former Real Madrid coach has surprisingly intimated his desire to see the 29-year-old stay with the LaLiga champions until retirement. "With Lionel Messi every season is the same story, saying he's going to go and then he never goes," he said. "Honestly, I hope he never leaves because he belongs to Barcelona and Barcelona belongs to him. "The most natural and beautiful thing would be to stay there, to start and finish his career at Barcelona. "I think he will end up staying, but that is merely my personal opinion."
However, with a renewal far from a certainty at this point, the British press has claimed that Pep Guardiola is preparing a bid to take Messi to Manchester City. A fee of around 233 million euros and a weekly salary of 582,000 euros would reportedly be available to the four-time Ballon d'Or winner should he decide to leave the Camp Nou for pastures new.Lionel Messi's contract will be an arduous process with Barcelona keen to keep the Argentine attacker at the forefront of the Blaugrana project for years to come, at the same time aware that he'll need time to decide his future. However given that this issue will not be solved the blink of an eye, the Catalan club have moved swiftly to shore up the future of other star players by commencing negotiations with Luis Suarez, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, and Sergi Roberto, whose contracts end in 2019.
That's partly down to an understanding that the first step to renewal is by guaranteeing Messi a good environment to work in. The club probably did themselves no favours when they let Dani Alves, a player Messi admires greatly, leave in the summer, but the extensions of Javier Mascherano and Neymar have done enough to show they mean business at this stage. The Catalan side also understand that, beyond the astronomical salary worth 50 million euros, the 29-year-old continues to crave titles and the club must create the environment necessary for success. As such, MARCA understands that Barcelona staff have not been surprised at Monday's revelations and has agreed to play on Messi's terms. Indeed, the club have thus far shown their willingness to renegotiate their last contract signed in 2014 but concede that, if anyone, it's Messi who deserves the final say on the outcome of a potential eighth contract renewal.
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