When is a threat to quit not a threat to quit? There was some dispute on Monday morning, ahead of an emergency board meeting, about whether Lionel Messi had explicitly told Barcelona that he wanted to leave this summer. But no one is disputing the sentiment.

The world’s best player is unhappy and wants change. And that may even involve the unthinkable: a change of club if his present one are unable to finally make the right changes.

The Catalan giants are in such a state of disarray and mismanagement that no one can predict where this is heading.

The perceived wisdom is that Messi will use the situation to try to engineer change at the very top of the club, where his relationship with president Josep Maria Bartomeu is fractured, and it goes far beyond hiring a new coach or yet another sporting director or spending more on transfers.

(Barcelona said on Tuesday they had sacked sporting director Eric Abidal, a day after dispensing with coach Quique Setien. Netherlands manager Ronald Koeman said he wanted to coach Barca but had not yet finalised a deal. “It is only definite when my signature is on the document. Until then I cannot say anything, even if I wanted to,” Koeman said.)

Presidential elections are scheduled to take place next year, and it may be that Messi is leveraging the threat that he might walk to bring those forward.

The 8-2 Champions League humiliation by Bayern Munich was more than a defeat: it was a requiem for an era. For this Barcelona it is over, and as Messi left the pitch in Lisbon, there was a sense that the only club he has ever played for were in danger of squandering the final years of the career of one of the greatest players the world has seen.

So what next? Messi’s contract runs until next summer, so the clock is ticking. There is a euros 700 million buy-out clause in his contract, but that is immaterial, given Barcelona can hardly try to force him to stay given his status.

Where would he go? Where could he go? Senior figures at Manchester City have always made it clear that if Messi ever decided to leave Barcelona they would be invited to be first in the conversation to sign him.

There will be offers elsewhere, but they are obviously going to come from a very shallow pool of clubs — Paris St-Germain are a possibility, while there is a link to Inter Milan, although that seems less plausible.

Whatever the outcome, it feels as if this is the closest Messi has come to leaving Barcelona and, whatever the concerns of rival fans, it would be a service to English football if he could be lured to play in the Premier League.