It’s as if their destinies are inexorably linked. On successive nights, they crashed to Earth: Superstars-turned-supernovas. But now there’s talk of a reunion.

Pep Guardiola and Lionel Messi were once the most celebrated and symbiotic manager-player partnership in the game but reports from Spain suggest Messi wants to leave Barcelona and City are in pole position to get him.

The two tasted very different, albeit equally devastating, humiliations at the weekend. Guardiola, the maestro of the dugout who enabled Messi’s genius to fully flower, got his tactics badly wrong against a side that came seventh in the fifth best league in Europe and were 14-1 underdogs.

The little Argentine, whose abilities seemed to defy the laws of physics to become one of the greatest players of all time, found himself helpless to prevent the type of annihilation that ends epochs. And it certainly would be the end of an epoch if he does the unthinkable.

What happened in these behind-closed-doors Champions League quarterfinals may never be forgotten by millions who weren’t there. Played in neutral Lisbon without fans, there was already a strange feel to the 90-minute, knockout occasions.

But the sudden-death emptiness was nothing to the implosions of two footballing dynasties: one was Barcelona whom Guardiola took to new heights a decade ago; the other his own which has never quite reached those levels since the umbilical cord was broken.

Having needed a year’s sabbatical to recover from the goldfish bowl intensity of the Nou Camp, he is now at his third club. But the Champions League has eluded him ever since. It has eluded Messi, too – since 2015.

In Guardiola’s three years at Bayern Munich, he dominated domestically but never got past the semi-finals in the quest for Old Big Ears.

Then, replacing Manuel Pellegrini, who had led City to the semi-finals in 2016, the Catalan was hired for the specific goal of capturing club football’s greatest prize. But in four attempts he’s failed to get as far as his predecessor.

Under him, City bowed out in the last 16 in his first year and in the last eight three seasons in a row. It is a record which, given the £500 million he’s spent on players, would have earned many a manager the sack.

In England, he has won plenty of silverware and produced some of the most scintillating football the EPL has ever seen.

But it was his uncharacteristically negative team selection against Lyon that has earned the wrath of City fans – even calls for his head amid allegations that he’s a fraud.

For a manager who once said his ideal team would have 10 midfielders, it was inexplicable. He left four of his best on the bench. Both David and Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden were kept in reserve as Guardiola opted for three central defenders.

Often accused of overthinking his selections, this was a panic attack. City, lacking their usual fluency, created few chances and although Mahrez and, finally David Silva did come on, it was too little too late.

You can blame Raheem Sterling for the miss of the millennium and Ederson for the fumble of the round, but the buck stops with the manager.

Once again, fortune didn’t favour City, but Pep did not seek refuge in that and took responsibility.

Still, even with an imperious Bayern Munich barring their way to the final, you feel it was a great opportunity missed. The other semi pits RB Leipzig against PSG and by the lofty standards of the tournament, this is not its strongest final foursome.

To try to win it again – he’s not done so since 2011 – he will have a huge budget but perhaps he needs somebody from left field. Somebody he knows. Somebody also in need of a boost. Somebody with whose destiny he is inexorably linked.

Messi cut a forlorn figure on the periphery of that 8-2 evisceration, witnessing the capitulation in disbelief. Not one to read the riot act, he saw little of the ball and couldn’t inspire his teammates either as captain or with his play.

At 33, he’s well past his scarcely credible peak but is far from a spent force. Just think of his performance against Napoli in the previous round.

Having been at Barcelona since he was 13, he may be using his ultimate weapon – his threat to leave – as a bargaining ploy for the changes he wants made.

But given the kind of player he is and the age he is, he may feel he’d be better off elsewhere: as the final piece of the jigsaw at an already-top team instead of having to wait for a major reconstruction.

The English Premier League is no longer the haven of prehistoric centre-backs who kick dainty little forwards to kingdom come. David Silva would assure him of that.

Yes, it still rains in Manchester but Guardiola and a host of Spanish-speakers from warmer climes have survived there for years. There’s his pal, Sergio Aguero, too, among a sizable Latin American colony. And of course, money would be no object.

And even after what happened, you’d say City would be more likely Champions League winners next season than Barcelona. Much more likely if Messi were to join.

A reunion with the manager who set him on the path to greatness might be what both of them need.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.