Pochettino may move to Manchester United because of Messi tantrums 

Paris Saint-Germain boss Mauricio Pochettino may be forced to join Manchester United in the summer because of his fallout with Argentine forward Lionel Messi and the club's hierarchy especially sporting director Leonardo.

Pochettino is unhappy because the club did not comply with his demands in the summer transfer market.

The boss instructed the club at the end of last season to slim down his bloated playing squad but instead, PSG only facilitated one permanent exit – Mitchel Bakker – while overseeing a series of star arrivals.

The signings include Messi, Sergio Ramos and Gianluigi Donnarumma are all said to have been against Pochettino’s wishes, while Georginio Wijnaldum, Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi also arrived in a busy summer.

Pochettino is said to feel undermined by the club and the working relationship is broken, with fresh details reported by Goal – including that he is now considering leaving at the end of the campaign.

But beyond lack of respect for his transfer wish, Pochettino is reported to have fallen out with fellow Argentine Messi.

Trouble began when Messi made his long awaited home debut against Lyon and certainly didn't expect it to end with him being substituted as his team desperately chased a winner against Lyon.

Pochettino took Messi off for Achraf Hakimi in the 76th minute and the Argentine didn't hide his anger, staring at the floor as he trod off, giving his coach a deathly stare as he made for the bench and then snubbing the coach's offer of a handshake.

Pochettino's decision was vindicated as Mauro Icardi's injury-time winner clinched a 2-1 victory but Messi's dismayed reaction to the substitution was the main takeaway from the game and the overriding talking point. 

Not used to being substituted, Messi has now been taken off by Pochettino as many times as in each of his final three seasons at Barcelona.

 Pochettino justified the decision after the game by saying he did not want to risk Messi getting injured but he made a bold move in taking off the six-time Ballon d'Or winner in a clear indication that the team's needs must come ahead of the needs of star players.

Messi unpalatable antecedents

Messi has a long history of defying coaches, even ones as imposing as Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique.

Guardiola substituted the Argentine for Pedro in a 4-0 win over Valencia in his first season in charge of the club, a seemingly harmless decision given his side had already scored four goals and there were nine minutes to go.

But Messi did not see it this way and declared his intention to miss training the next day, according to Catalan radio station RAC1.

Beyond being subbed at the end of a game, Messi sensed a far bigger problem following the signing of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Ibrahimovic made a flying start to life at the Nou Camp, scoring 11 LaLiga goals in his first four months, including the winning goal in El Clasico against Real Madrid.

But Messi saw the Swede as a threat and let Guardiola know - by text message.

'I can see that I am no longer important to the team, so …' Messi wrote, according to a 2012 book titled 'The Messi Mystery'.  

Messi was mostly upset with Ibrahimovic's central role in the team.

The Argentine was quickly restored to a central role and Ibrahimovic shunted to the right, where he was less effective and less mobile.

The Swede featured little in the latter stage of the season and soon left the club for AC Milan.

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He had a furious spat with Enrique following his substitution against Real Sociedad in January 2015. 

What seemed at first like a logical coaching decision led to a near mutiny from Messi which threatened Enrique's job, caused the president to call elections and saw sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta sacked.

Barca's players convinced him to finally leave his house after a series of phone calls but once at the training facility, he refused to get changed into his kit.

He enjoyed a good relationship with Ernesto Valverde Messi did not take long to show his displeasure at the coach being sacked, penning a furious message on Instagram attacking sporting director Eric Abidal over the decision.

So it was little surprise that he did not get off to the best start with Valverde's successor Quique Setien and was questioning the new coach's decisions less than a month into his tenure.

Simon Kuper, the author of the book 'Barça: The Inside Story of the World's Greatest Football Club', has revealed that Messi was furious over Setien picking Junior Firpo at left-back in a match at Real Betis rather than his longtime teammate and close personal friend Jordi Alba.

According to Kuper, Setien asked Messi at half-time what he thought of the team's performance as they had to twice come from behind to make it 2-2 at the break. 'What do you think I think?' snapped Messi'This isn't a youth team!' Messi shouted. 'Play your best players.'  Setien soon did as he was told and brought Alba on for Firpo.  

A keen observer of the Pochettino/ Messi saga former Paris Saint-Germain winger Jerome Rothen   believes Messi will not reach the heights whilst plying his trade in the French capital.

'Messi will not leave a mark at Paris Saint-Germain. He is the boy of another club, Barcelona, which is his life, and so is the city', he said. 

'He has signed two years at 34, and is undoubtedly the best player in history, but he does not have the legs of before, he cannot repeat the efforts as he has previously done.

Rothen claims Messi falls short of the likes of Ibrahimovic and other stars who made their mark with the Parisians.

'I don't think he will make a mark like Ibrahimovic did in the past. Although the history of PSG is shorter, so you never know.'

'There have been great players like Rai [Rai Souza Vieira de Oliveira] and Luis Fernandez over the years, and right now you can't put Messi in the same bracket as those', Rothen added.