Pep Guardiola moved for Jack Grealish because he assumed Lionel Messi was staying Barcelona, suspects Sky Sports reporter Kaveh Solhekol. Grealish and Messi have dominated the headlines this week, with Manchester City signing the former from Aston Villa for £100million and the latter seemingly set to leave Barcelona. The Catalan giants have conceded they are unable to keep Messi, with club president Joan Laporta blaming the former regime at the Nou Camp and La Liga spending rules for thwarting any hope of the Argentine great signing a new contract. Messi was the focal point of Guardiola’s success-laden spell in charge of Barca, but the Manchester City boss insists he was as surprised as anyone by the news that the club’s greatest ever player is set to leave.
Pep Guardiola said: “It was a surprise for everyone — me included. The president was clear today. I didn’t speak with the player or the president so I don’t know what has happened but as a supporter of the club I would love for him to have finished, but today the club needs to be sustainable and what happened in the last year was really not good. It looked like it finished well in terms of him continuing with Barcelona.”
Given his relationship with the player, Guardiola has naturally been linked with a move for Messi, although that has now been ruled out. At this stage, Paris Saint-Germain appear to be his most likely destination. Reporter Solhekol, speaking on Sky Sports’ Transfer Centre, believes Guardiola may have moved for Messi first if he’d known about the contractual impasse at Barca.
