Manchester United would 'love' to be able to sign Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi if the chance genuinely does arise. And even though the Old Trafford club apparently see rivals Manchester City as potential favourites to land the Argentine, they feel they have plenty to offer in the hunt.
Speculation about Messi's Barcelona future has exploded this week followinga report from Spainthat he rejected a new contract during the summer and will run down his current deal, due to expire in June 2018, before deciding what to do next.
That could mean being able to sign the five-time Ballon d'Or winner as a free agent in just 18 months' time. As such, several of Europe's biggest clubs have been suggested as destinations, including Manchester duo United and City.
According to the Sun, officials at Old Trafford believe City would be favourites to win the race. The presence of Pep Guardiola, Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano, all formerly of Barcelona, would certainly seem tomake the Etihad Stadium attractive to Messi.
"City would be the favourites if he were to one day leave, but we would obviously love the sign a player of that level," a United source told the controversial and divisive tabloid newspaper.
What is worth mentioning here, however, is that the Sun's sensationalised headline of 'Club Accept Defeat to Rivals Manchester City in Race For Lionel Messi' doesn't really accurately reflectwhat their aforementioned source actually fully said.
United are keen on Messi and share a mutual relationship with Adidas that could be beneficial. They also definitely have the financial power to strike a deal with Messi, whose wages demands are rumoured to be upwards of £800,000-per-week.
"We can certainly compete on the cash front and Messi is an Adidas player like Paul Pogba, so we have our pluses," the source also explained. "But all the same, we would not get involved in any bidding war unless Messi's camp gave an indication that he was willing to come here."
It seems that if Messi does show interest in Old Trafford, United will go all out. It is certainly not yet theacceptance of defeat that isbeing spouted.
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