Is Pep Guardiola the key to unlocking Lionel Messi treasure chest?

With one, brief announcement, the face of English football changed yesterday and the prospect of the world’s greatest footballer Lionel Messi plying his trade in a former industrial wasteland in east Manchester suddenly became wholly more plausible.

Messi signing for Manchester City, the back page fodder of many an English tabloid in recent months, had not carried much plausibility until early yesterday afternoon when Manuel Pellegrini, typically not a man to stray far from the mundane in his press briefings, suddenly announced he was to leave his post as manager this summer.

Within minutes, his employers dropped into step and confirmed the worst-kept secret in football — that Pep Guardiola, the architect of tiki-taka success in Barcelona and stereotypically efficient football in Bayern Munich, will take over at the Etihad Stadium this summer on a three-year contract when he leaves the Bundesliga.