Arsène Wenger says that the Premier League title would be even more difficult to win if Barcelona wanted to leave La Liga for the English top flight.

Sky Sports report that Barcelona club president Josep Maria Bartomeu said that the club could leave La Liga if Catalonia gained independence from Spain. That’s led to slightly unrealistic rumours that they could come and join the Premier League instead.

Wenger doesn’t believe that’s yet a possibility, and suggested Scottish clubs would be in line to join the Premier League first over that of the Catalan outfit.

“I don’t think they have gotten as far as that. It is interesting and there will be incidents on the sporting side as Barcelona are a highly political club. I think it will be interesting to see how they respond in the championship,” he said, reports The Scotsman.

“We have enough clubs here with 20 but if you want to go up to 24, we have to invite the Scottish clubs before we go for the Spanish.” If Barcelona did end up in the Premier League, Wenger says it wouldn’t make things any easier for the English clubs: “If Barcelona wants to join in the Premier League it makes the title even more difficult for everybody.”

At least we’d finally get an answer for how the likes of Lionel Messi would do on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke. He wouldn’t even have to change club to find out. But overall, I can see little benefit to allowing Barcelona in the Premier League, apart from the obvious commercial benefits.

They’d hog the sponsorship deals, the TV time and likely the titles as well, while forcing massive round trips for a different English club every week. I think it’s unlikely to even be proposed anyway, but if it is I’ll expect widespread opposition on almost every side.

Barcelona fans won’t want the trips, Barcelona players won’t want them either, and the Premier League clubs wouldn’t be much better off with them in the same division.