Lionel Messi is set to leave Camp Nou this summer window.
Liverpool legend John Barnes believes Messi is not suited for the Premier League as the Argentine is 33 and won’t have much time to adapt to the Premier League.
Manchester City are leading the race in hoping to land the Argentinian forward to the Etihad and reuniting with his former boss Pep Guardiola.
According to reports, Messi has agreed on a five-year contract with the owners of Manchester City and New York City FC, in which he would spend three seasons in the Premier League and a further two in the MLS.
‘Lionel Messi is 33-years-old, he’s not the same player he was,’ the former England winger told BonusCodeBets.
‘Particularly coming into the Premier League it’s a hard, physical league where he’s not playing for Barcelona in terms of being used to playing with those same players for the same way for the last 15 years.
‘He then may take time to adjust, people take time to adjust to him, you may not have that time at 33-years-old.
‘I don’t think that Premier League football will suit him.
‘Manchester City will suit him more than any other club because they have Pep Guardiola and their playing style may be similar to Barcelona’s, it will take time to bed him into a new way of playing, a new team and a new group and the team getting used to him.
‘He will inhibit your big players, like when Antoine Griezmann went to Barcelona, he was inhibited, Philippe Coutinho was inhibited because it was all about Messi.
‘It’s fine for it to all be about Messi when’s he’s 25, 26, 27, but at 33-year-old he isn’t the powerhouse that he was, so to then write all your players off as being subservient to Messi wouldn’t be the right thing to do.’
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