Will he stay or go at the end of season?
That's the big question.
Wouldn't surprise me if he stays or goes. If he stays, it'll be that he can't be bothered to move and that he's very settled here. It won't be because we're a class team who will be competitive next season. He'll no doubt have a much better offer from Man City. They have a better team overall, more money, a better manager (a manager he already knows and likes), a brighter future, he'll win many trophies, and they have an owner that backs the manager with funds to compete at the highest level.
He has to make the right decision because we've seen what Messi is like when we're playing shit and when things are not going his way. He tends to give up. We need a committed Messi next season if he decides to stay. If he doesn't have the right support around him, we could struggle and be worse next season.
If Messi still has the hunger and still wants to win trophies on a consistent basis, he should choose City. If he stays with us, he's pretty much retiring here and accepting that he won't win any more Champions League trophies.
What I do know is.... he won't get anywhere the amount of money he got last season. We still owe him a 33m loyalty bonus in the summer. He'll also get a big signing-on fee resigning with the club. He's still going to be the highest-paid player at the club if he stays, which is stupid because Grizemann is on 500k a week. I'm curious how Laporta or Font will justify paying him that type of money when he's 34 and when the club is in terrible debt. We also have to pay the banks 266m euros by the 30th of June. We then have to pay another 160m euros after that by the end of the year.
I think Messi will announce something in the middle of April. If he's leaving, he'll have to let the fans know so he can get a proper sendoff.