We couldn’t resist this one, of course we couldn’t. As of yesterday, the player many argue to be the greatest ever (he isn’t, not even close) is now a free agent as Lionel Messi weighs up his options, the 34-year old pondering a new deal at Barca alongside his mate Sergio Aguero.

Are Rangers signing him?

We take you back to 20 years ago when we nearly did – then-manager Alex McLeish made a move for ‘Barca wonderkid’ Messi back in the day, with an ambitious loan attempt to bring the Argentinian prodigy to Ibrox.

Back in those days, Barca were the brilliant Frank Rijkaard model, spearheaded by Ronaldinho, with Henry, Guily, and up-and-coming stars Xavi and Iniesta. Not to mention the lad Messi.

That team was a truly brilliant team, wonderful to watch, and there was no one better than the magical Ronaldinho for Messi to learn from.

And Eck tried his luck with the wee guy, and why not. It failed, completely. Messi was just too good to go out on loan anywhere, and became a legend at Barca, which, true, has soured in the last two years.

Could Steven Gerrard even contemplate such a move? Of course not. Lionel Messi has no interest in playing anywhere other than Barca. The Man City and PSG stuff is a veiled threat to get him terms he wants at Barca, and while he may carry it through, Barca is always going to be his number one love.

But yeah, let’s not pretend Rangers could sign him now.

Yes, we nearly did, and yes, we came close to getting the real Ronaldo 20+ years ago as well, but times have changed and the SPL deteriorated while the money in the game went crazy.

So financially it’s not happening. Of course it’s not.

So what is this article? General interest – Messi is a legend of the game and he’s a free agent – but we do wonder how his move to Rangers would have panned out.