Uncertainty over Lionel Messi’s future has persisted since the Argentine failed in his attempt to engineer a move away from Barcelona last summer.

And it doesn’t look like speculation will end anytime soon.

Especially now that Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman acknowledged there’s no guarantee that the six-time Ballon d’Or winner will stay in the Catalan capital beyond this season.

“I’m not confident about (Messi staying this summer),” Koeman told iconic English striker Alan Shearer, who interviewed the former Everton boss for The Athletic.

“I’m hopeful, yes, about this because he’s still a great player and he’s still winning matches for us, for the team. I’m enjoying being his coach; if you look at his qualities every day in the training sessions, it’s incredible. Of course, he came as a young kid to Barcelona. And I still don’t see Leo Messi in another shirt other than the Barca shirt.”

Messi sent shockwaves through the football world in August when it emerged that he wanted to leave the Camp Nou. He ultimately decided to stay in order to avoid a legal battle with the club after former president Josep Maria Bartomeu rejected his request.

The 33-year-old – who is on pace to record career-low statistics even though he has 16 goals and six assists in all competitions – admitted that the transfer saga affected his play at the beginning of the season. But Koeman was full of praise for Messi’s professionalism on and off the pitch.

“I don’t have any problems with Leo,” Koeman said. “He is the captain of the team. I speak to Leo about tactical things and we have a really good professional relationship that I have with all the players. But he is … OK, he’s the captain, so you always have more communication with him.”

Rather than speculation about his star player, Koeman said the biggest challenge he’s faced this season is the lack of a club president since Bartomeu resigned in October.

“We need a president who’s making the future of this club,” he said.

“The most difficult thing for me as a manager is that there is no president, there is not a No. 1 in the club who makes the decisions. All these kinds of decisions need to be taken by the manager and that’s more difficult.

“You don’t have, at the moment, somebody to communicate with about how we need to continue. That’s difficult. The club needs a president as soon as possible.”

Inevitably, the pandemic curbed transfer activity in January, bringing relative quiet to one of football’s busiest months of the year. Some clubs stood pat, afraid to open their checkbook, while others got creative, using different formulas to get deals done. Here, theScore nominates the biggest winners and losers of the January transfer window:

Winners: Arsenal and Mesut Ozil

His time in purgatory is over. After spending the better part of a year on the fringes, Ozil finally engineered a move away from Arsenal in January – and to his boyhood club, no less. The transfer to Fenerbahce made sense from all angles. Ozil freed himself from a toxic situation, Arsenal shed his onerous wages, and Fenerbahce trumpeted the arrival of one of its own.

When the deal became official, many Arsenal fans thanked Ozil for his service. As complicated as his legacy may be, the 32-year-old is still remembered as the signing that electrified north London in 2013.

Who’s to blame for the mess that ensued? Did Arsenal ostracize Ozil? Did he ostracize himself? The contract he signed in 2018 weighed on him like an albatross, but the club seemed all too happy to pay him £350,000 per week at the time.

It’s best they parted ways now. There was no reason to wait for Ozil’s contract to expire in June. That would’ve bred even more discontent and distracted manager Mikel Arteta at a critical point of the season. Now, the Gunners can focus on European qualification. With Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis, and Sead Kolasinac also off the books and Martin Odegaard offering more creativity, the club can feel satisfied with its business.

Losers: Barcelona

All may be well on the pitch – Barcelona are currently on a five-game winning streak in La Liga – but the state of this club is still in tatters. January’s presidential elections were postponed due to the ongoing pandemic, leaving a power vacuum at the top that’s prevented any meaningful change from happening.

Not to mention the club’s shambolic financial affairs. In the same month, Barcelona revealed liabilities totaling €1.4 billion. Somehow, they still owe Liverpool money for Philippe Coutinho, which happened three years ago.

Considering the entire situation, it’s no wonder Barcelona couldn’t afford any new signings in January. A deal for Manchester City defender Eric Garcia – who came through Barcelona’s academy before following Pep Guardiola to the Premier League – could not be completed even for a nominal fee. Personal terms have never been an issue, but Barcelona, with all of their financial difficulties, couldn’t make a single move to boost their title chances this season.

Winner: Christian Eriksen

In a split second, everything changed. Eriksen’s free-kick against AC Milan – the winner in last week’s wild Coppa Italia quarterfinal – appears to have altered his trajectory at Inter Milan. Once considered on the market, Eriksen is now staying put.

And it looks as if manager Antonio Conte, who ostracized the Dane earlier in the season, is happy to give the midfielder a second chance. Days after making that profitable cameo appearance, Eriksen lasted the full 90 minutes against Benevento. It was the first time the 28-year-old started and finished a Serie A match this season.

What if he hadn’t scored that timely winner in second-half stoppage time? Before that, Inter sporting director Giuseppe Marotta was openly flogging Eriksen in the shop window, seemingly begging for someone to take him off Inter’s hands. Conte publicly humiliated Eriksen, sending him on with minutes remaining in certain games. Leicester City and former side Tottenham Hotspur emerged as potential places of refuge, only for talks to break down over fees and wages.

But Eriksen shined on the weekend, dictating play in a deep-lying position in the 4-0 victory over Benevento. Suddenly, he has a role to play.

Losers: Agents

Facing a growing economic crisis and travel restrictions related to the ongoing pandemic, clubs couldn’t haggle the way they used to. Agents couldn’t close as many deals as they’d like. Medicals took place remotely, and low-cost loan deals became the operation of choice.

It’s in stark contrast to last year when teams in the top five leagues splashed an estimated €930 million on new signings. Over the past month, that number dropped to €262 million, marking a 72% decrease in transfer spending. Sebastien Haller’s €22.5-million transfer to Ajax will go down as one of the window’s biggest deals. That tells the whole story.

Agents were already feeling resistance on an institutional level. Before the economic downturn, FIFA began passing regulations restricting the power of super-agents, limiting the number of parties they could represent and the commission they can receive. Spending may never again reach pre-pandemic levels.

Winners: Liverpool

For the entire month, Jurgen Klopp played down Liverpool’s chances of signing a center-back.

On Monday, they ended up with two.

The Reds made the most of transfer deadline day, finalizing deals for center-backs Ben Davies and Ozan Kabak. Both transfers could be categorized as low-risk acquisitions with considerable upside. Davies cost a reported £1.6 million, while Kabak, one of Turkey’s up-and-coming stars, arrived on a simple loan with a reported £18-million option to buy.

Davies is a bit of a wild card – the 25-year-old has never competed in the top flight before – but his flexibility should be deemed an asset. He can play at both the center-back and left-back positions, and considering how grateful he is just to join the reigning champions, he’ll offer no complaints when he finds himself on the bench.

Kabak is arguably the biggest signing of the window, and for a while, it didn’t look like it would happen at all. But Klopp and Co. managed to thrash out a reasonable last-minute deal that provides immediate cover. It also gives Kabak the opportunity to earn a permanent move. It’s rare to see a deal of this magnitude come together so quickly – and even rarer to reach an agreement on such fair terms.

Loser: Dele Alli

The promise of a loan move away from Tottenham – where playing time has been at a premium – seemed like the best compromise for all parties. Jose Mourinho had no use for Alli in the first half of the season, and Alli, now 24, likely would have relished the opportunity to reunite with former mentor Mauricio Pochettino at Paris Saint-Germain.

Ultimately, Spurs blocked his exit, reportedly out of fear of being shorthanded. Giovani Lo Celso’s hamstring injury is apparently worse than previously thought and could rule out the Argentine for the next few weeks.

It’s unclear if Mourinho will even give Alli a run in the side. The club says he’s carrying a tendon injury of his own.

If the situation doesn’t improve, his career could be at a significant crossroads. His overall form has dipped dramatically since the 2018 World Cup, where he struggled to make an impact. Given he has three years remaining on his contract, Alli will have to revisit his future in the summer.

The newspaper that published the staggering details about Lionel Messi’s contract Sunday is set to face legal action.

Barcelona, who claim to have had no involvement in the leak, plan to sue Spanish publication El Mundo for releasing details about the Argentine superstar’s record-breaking four-year, €555-million deal signed in 2017.

“In view of the information published today in the newspaper El Mundo, in relation to the professional contract signed between FC Barcelona and the player Lionel Messi, the club regrets its publication given that it is a private document governed by the principle of confidentiality between the parties,” the club said in a statement.

“FC Barcelona categorically denies any responsibility for the publication of this document, and will take appropriate legal action against the newspaper El Mundo, for any damage that may be caused as a result of this publication.

“FC Barcelona expresses its absolute support for Lionel Messi, especially in the face of any attempt to discredit his image, and to damage his relationship with the entity where he has worked to become the best player in the world and in football history.”

Messi responded to Sunday’s bombshell by alerting his legal team to also take action against the outlet and to investigate whether any Barcelona officials played a role in leaking the document to the media, Sam Marsden and Moises Llorens of ESPN FC report.

It’s reported that only four copies of the contract, believed to be the most lucrative deal that an athlete has ever signed, are known to exist.

Along with releasing the full sum of Messi’s contract, El Mundo also revealed the 33-year-old earns around €72 million annually. He can earn more through add-ons, which include playing in 60% of Barcelona’s games, progressing in the Champions League, and other incentives.

But, considering Messi agreed to take a pay cut last summer in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, his earnings are expected to fall short of €555 million when his contract expires at the end of June.

Messi’s future at the club beyond this season remains very much in the air, as the six-time Ballon d’Or winner failed to engineer an exit last summer and decided to stay another year in order to avoid a legal battle with Barcelona.

Juventus president and head of the European Club Association (ECA) Andrea Agnelli seems to have changed tack on his thoughts on clubs competing in continental tournaments.

He now believes they should only enter on sporting merit.

Last March, Agnelli controversially stated that bigger clubs should be given increased chances of participating in Europe’s elite competitions over teams “without European history” that had enjoyed one good domestic season. He used Juve’s Serie A rivals and 2018-19 Champions League quarterfinalists, Atalanta, as an example.

However, while speaking Wednesday at conference event Think Sport 2021, Agnelli appeared to change his mind in the wake of last week’s leaked plans for a breakaway European Super League. A proposal document outlined a 20-team format outside of UEFA’s jurisdiction, with 15 permanent members and five annual qualifiers, The Times’ Martyn Ziegler reported.

“Increase the stability and participation, keep access from the domestic level, competitions at the European level should be open to all,” Agnelli said as he backed a Champions League revamp over a new Super League, according to Reuters.

“So we, as the managers of the industry, we must keep the dream alive, which is one of the mantras of our history,” he continued. “Everything should be based on sporting matters, of sporting merit, but that we should remember where the fans of the future are going, so there is a strong view that more European matches are welcome.

“It is not just about England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, but we must embrace also the lower competitions, guarantee an adequate European representation but at the same time offer stability of participation. Stay ahead of new competitors in the changing media environment and respect and nurture the interests of domestic championships.”

Multiple reports have linked Real Madrid president Florentino Perez with the latest Super League proposal, but the club has declined to comment on the matter. Outgoing Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu claimed in October that the Catalonian outfit had accepted a Super League invitation – a week after reports surfaced that Wall Street bank JP Morgan, Liverpool, Manchester United, and a host of other European heavyweights from UEFA’s top five domestic leagues had drawn up their own 18-team competition.

FIFA has already hit back at any notion to create a breakaway competition. The governing body last week threatened to ban any players who participate in a proposed European Super League from its tournaments, including the World Cup.

A new-look Champions League is expected to begin in time for the 2024-25 campaign. UEFA is reportedly working on a revision that would scrap the current group-stage format and adopt a new financial distribution structure.

Agnelli declared himself a fan of the early proposals – attributing them to Dutch club and ECA member Ajax – but said he wants his organization to have the final sign-off.

“What I can tell you with certainty is that … I will want any and all reforms to go through the General Assembly of the ECA with all clubs voting for whatever our collective future will be,” he said.