According to metro.co.uk, contact has been made with Lionel Messi regarding a possible move to Manchester United. What are your thoughts?

My thoughts on this news are that Metro is full of sh*t like always .

u better see his release clause value and salary though..

As much as I want it, it is utter bullsh!t news

Stop smoking metro.

In all seriousness, how are papers like Metro still in business when all they report is speculative at best?

How would Lionel Messi get on at Man United, Chelsea and Man City? We find out using Football Manager

Messi at Manchester United

Messi is played up front alongside Anthony Martial by Louis van Gaal.

He earns himself 19 Man of the Match awards during his season, fast becoming their key player. His average rating of 8.15 is far ahead of anyone else in the team.

With Messi firing on all cylinders, United win the league by the slimmest of margins... a point separates them from City and Chelsea.

In Europe, things don't go so well. After a disappointing group stage where they finish second in their group, United are drawn against Barcelona in the first knockout round and beaten 3-2 on aggregate.

There is disappointment in the cups, too: United are beaten by Everton in the fourth round of both the FA Cup AND the League Cup.

Messi at Chelsea

Messi is played as a central attacking midfielder with Eden Hazard on the left, Willian on the right and Diego Costa as the lone striker.

He scores more than for Manchester United but sets up fewer, and his average rating is 8.04.

But there are a staggering 17 Man of the Match awards and he is the key man as Chelsea win the league by five points , with City second and Arsenal third.

The Blues are knocked out of the Champions League at the semi-final stage on penalties by Bayern Munich, after a 1-1 aggregate draw.

Jose Mourinho’s side also reach the FA Cup final but it proves to be a miserable afternoon for them after they’re on the wrong end of a 3-1 defeat to Arsenal.

Messi turns in an uncharacteristically poor performance at Wembley in that one, but he makes amends as Chelsea win the League Cup final, notching in a a 3-1 win over Swansea.

Messi at Manchester City

The Argentine is played in a central attacking midfield by Manuel Pellegrini, with Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne either side. His international colleague Sergio Aguero leads the line.

Messi earns 13 Man of the Match awards – 3 more than Aguero – and marginally outshines him with an average rating of 8.14.

City win the league by four points ahead of Chelsea and Arsenal, but there is not so much joy in the cup competitions.

Pellegrini’s men are beaten by Messi’s former club Barcelona in the Champions League semi-finals and suffer defeat at the hands of Spurs in the FA Cup fifth round.

A weakened City team is also knocked out by Southampton on penalties in the fourth round of the League Cup.

Source: Mirror

If you heard the rumor from ANY of these sources first, it usually isn't worth making a post for it:

• Daily Mail
• The Sun
• The Express
• Metro
• The Mirror/Daily Mirror
• Marca
• Football.co.uk
• Tancredi Palmeri
• Goal.com
• CaughtOffside
• Bleacher Report
• GiveMeSport
• Daily Star
• Tribal Football
• Random twitter accounts that have no source or no reputable source
• Obviously poor quality websites similar to those listed above (this
  now includes "<player> followed other <player> on Instagram/<social
  media site>"****

@KTBFF: that's like dont believe any of the media AT ALL.

Which I agree though

Media has become a joke ! Credibility is lost and they are loosing trust of public. They have been playing with fire quiet a lot and soon I hope my fellow humans start distinguish that sh8t more . It is becoming cancer of society and they don't carry no responsibility for what they publish . Free press , but so much free pass to bs . How do they sleep at night knowing that they are scum ?

According to the metro

@tuan Pretty much so. We all know often "certain" rumors turn out to be false. BBC, guardian, times, telegraph and other proper newspapers are better though, but those listed are pretty much always wrong if that's the first source for the rumor..

So with other words, if Messi to United rumor first came out at metro then it's FALSE!

Cant see Messi leaving Barça for another club except Rosario in Argentina, for his stats i think you should put what Suarez scored in his best season and add 10 goals, he is just that good, really Newcastle, Sunderland, stoke and co would suffer because they arent used to close space wich any Spanish team is used to do.
Without Messi teams attack Barça more and leave more spaces lately, but when Messi is playing, no one could blink.
It would have been amazing to see how much goals he could have scored in PL, considering CL level is far better than PL's i cant see him having a 0.5 goal per game thats just overrating a league as usual.

Messi would easily score 40+ in any league. Same goes for Ronaldo in his prime. Those two are just simply unstoppable. I think Manchester City would benefit those two the most because of their attack-heavy philosophy.

He's the world best player ever so he'd score plenty but less than in la Liga for sure. Better defense and general opposition in BPL;)

...

I wouldn't be too sure of the "better defenses" part of your statement, @KTB. EPL teams have conceded 1.25 goals per game in the Champions League so far, and La Liga teams have conceded 0.75. Statistically, the top 5 La Liga teams have better defenses than top 4 EPL teams.

I'm not certain about "better defence" either, but the PL defenders who couldn't stand up to Messi on a skill level would just kick the crap out of him. He'd get protected by the refs, sure, but I'm sure that would take some kind of toll. Aside from players like Pepe in his animal stage, that type of defending doesn't really happen in Spain.

In the end though, I don't think that Messi would do half as well in England as he does in Spain, but it has nothing to do with the league change itself. Barcelona is built around Messi, and while I do think the system helps him greatly, I would be nothing but a denier if I didn't recognize what he brought to the system. However, one needs to only look as far as Messi's scoring record for his country (which is still good, but players like Rooney have a better GPG) to see the drop-off that occurs when Messi plays outside of Barca. Let's not pretend Argentina is a bad squad either, they are chalk-full of world-class players.

Just my opinion.

@sunflash speaks sense here +1

I think the most prolific scorer of EPL was Luis Suarez . Hands down without penalties and lots of individual goals with very few tap ins . He did it back to back and should have been EPLs best player back to back .

I think best strikers that fit EPL are usually ones that come from Dutch league , France and nordic countries . I think Ibrahimovic would have been fantastic in EPL .

Last season we saw Aguero first ( if i am not mistaken ) la liga striker who became top scorer ( with 5 penalties ) and it took him good 4 years in City with little luck staying fit . Whatever , you say . EPL is tough league to score more than 30 goals a season .

Suarez went to Barcelona and playing wide until late into season made almost goal every game making 25 appearances . Give him central role more often and watch his goal ratio increase .

Shame that Suarez left EPL , he could have become icon here .

Lionel Messi has never been closer to leaving Barcelona, according to Sky Sports' Spanish expert Guillem Balague. However, Balague said on Revista Bitesize:

It is the closest he’s ever been to leaving Barcelona. It doesn’t
mean he will but it is the closest he has ever been to leaving the
club.

@Dyn Well, you're right about that. The BPL top teams haven't performing defensivly to their standards this year but generally speaking defence is still better in BPL. Lots of mis table teams that donät concede much at all and as @sun said:

"but the PL defenders who couldn't stand up to Messi on a skill level
would just kick the crap out of him."

@KTBFFH That's true. Messi would prolly try to dribble as much as Hazard if not even more and what happened? Hazard was the most fouled player in the PL because defenders try to bring him down before he gets in those dangerous positions. Imagine if Hazard would not get fouled at all, we would have seen another Maradona last year. The thing with the EPL is that clubs play more physical football which leaves not much for skilled players to show off much of their abilities. I've always known the EPL as a long shots, passes & crosses playing style.