Why the Barcelona legend would hate playing against Arsenal if he joins Manchester United or Man City

Find someone like Sokratis Papastathopoulos – who will never leave your side no matter what.

Rumor has it that Arsenal defender is still following Lionel Messi for his morning coffee.

Everywhere Messi goes, Sokratis is there. There is no escape.

This was certainly the case during the 2010 World Cup, when the Greek defender remained loyal to the Argentine superstar throughout the game.

After the news that Messi asked to leave Barcelona this summer, everyone wants to know what’s next.

Will we see the man who many believe is the greatest of all time in the Premier League?

There’s a chance: Manchester United and Man City were both linked in a sensational move for the 33-year-old this summer.

But they may want to hide the fact that Sokratis is playing for Arsenal. Here’s why.

Greece 0-2 Argentina (World Cup 2010)

Ander Herrera told Jose Mourinho he would go to the bathroom with Eden Hazard if the Chelsea man stopped touching the ball against Man United in 2017.

But as with most things in the world, the Greeks did it first.

Man-marking is a tactic as old as the drachma. If the best players don’t get the ball, they’re ineffective, right?

Messi is a little different. Try anything you want, he will find a way. But my word, Sokratis tried.

At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, a 22-year-old Messi was already at the peak of his strength.

He was the captain of Argentina when they faced an uncompromising Greek side on the final day of Group B.

Greek coach Otto Rehhagel needed a win to make progress and delivered your classic Jose Mourinho master plan: Defend like hell and maybe we’ll steal one on the counter.

For this to work, Messi had to keep calm, and a 22-year-old Sokratis was hired to ensure just that.

If Messi went right, Sokratis went with him. If Messi fell deep, Sokratis followed. He was just always there.

Sometimes it seemed like they were bandaged at the waist as they moved across the field together for 90 minutes.

See for yourself, Sokratis is No. 19 …

It also worked for about 77 minutes until Martin Demichelis (do you remember him?) Opened the scoring and ruined the Greek game board.

Messi was still named Man of the Game and it was his brilliance that led to Argentina’s second goal.

On the other hand, if this were a player who could easily be banned from games, he probably wouldn’t have more than 700 career goals to his name.

Unless, of course, La Liga managers read it like this: “Why didn’t we think of it?”

Still, Messi’s potential arrival in the Premier League could tempt Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta to keep Sokratis on board this summer.

The 32-year-old is overwhelmed in the Emirates and William Saliba is returning from his loan spell at St. Etienne and Gabriel Magalhaes as he is due to arrive soon.

It is likely that Sokratis will be sold to raise money for Arsenal’s summer operations but the club could just wait to see if Messi moves to Manchester.

After all, Sokratis knows him better than anyone.