Like most people who enjoy football and in particular, enjoy watching the best exponents of the beautiful game do their job, I could only sit and shake my head at the sight of Lionel Messi who turned in a virtuoso performance to bag four goals and send Arsenal crashing out of the Champions league last night.

For me, Lionel Messi has been the best player in the World for the last three seasons. Ronaldo was given the honour a couple of years ago and it was easy to understand why, he had scored 42 goals on the way to picking up the Premier League and the Champions League but for me, Messi was still the man.

This year, we have our own Wayne Rooney being toted as the best player in the world but Messi and Rooney have only one thing in common – they have both scored a lot of goals this season. Rooney is strength, Messi is skill.

The thought of the pair of them in the same team is just about as mouth-watering as it gets. Unfortunately, with a buy-out clause of something like £200 Million in Messi’s contract, the chances of them both appearing in the Red of United seems remote. There’s probably more chance of them both appearing in the Barca strip (but we won’t go there).

As we count down to our kick-off against Bayern, the realisation is that it is likely to be Barcelona and Messi that will be our ultimate “reward” should we go all the way to the Final. Hardly a motivating force.

I don’t know what the rules say about playing three goalkeepers but on this form, it seems like that is the only way to stop him.