Joan Laporta on Messi, Guardiola and transfers

Joan Laporta can't imagine Lionel Messi at Manchester City. As favourite to become Barcelona's new president next month, that might be a very important detail.

'I can only imagine him in a Barça shirt,' he says preparing for the January 24 election from his campaign headquarters in heart of the city.

'And I will do everything possible to make sure he continues to wear it with the number 10 on his back. I think it suits him very well.'

Most of the other the candidates have sat on the fence regarding Messi's future or even hinted he might be worth more to the club off the wage bill.

But not Laporta. The man who first became Barcelona president in 2003 by promising David Beckham, ultimately delivering Ronaldinho instead, has maintained a relationship with Messi and his dad Jorge.

'What upsets Leo most is that they lied to him,' he says of the summer fall out that saw Messi ask Pep Guardiola to take him to City.

'I am lucky enough to be able to say that he [Messi] has told me: "you have never lied to me. Always when you have proposed something to me, you have kept your word",' Laporta says proudly.

'They [the former board] made him the one who was responsible for everything, they stayed in the background and he did not have to put up with that.'

Laporta is not one for 'staying in the background'.

On Monday a 50-meter high campaign poster was plastered onto the side of a building in Madrid just 100 meters from the Santiago Bernabeu.

His smiling face beams down from it beneath the slogan 'hoping to see you again'.

Some say the stunt is provocative – a bit like Graeme Souness planting the Galatasaray flag in the centre of Fenerbahce's pitch.

Laporta says it's just a bit of fun and aimed at the many Barcelona supporters in Madrid.

His bravado is not to everyone's taste but you can't help sensing he's a real football man.

He's not a fan of VAR: 'above all because it ruins the goal celebrations', he says. He believes a European Super League 'could destroy the essence of the game'. And he's not impressed by the notion that Messi could be wooed by a longer contract that includes an 'ambassadorial' role.

'The word ambassador is very ambiguous,' Laporta says. 'I know Leo and I think he just wants to keep playing, and focus on winning another Champions League.'

Will he seek Messi's public approval? 'People say to me: "why don't you talk to him?" But he already knows what I think.

'He knows that if I'm president the first thing I'll do is to work out how I can convince him to stay until the end of his career.'

Messi's future is not the only problem the incoming president will have to sort out – €300million (£268m) has been wiped off of Barcelona's budget this season because of the pandemic although Laporta says: 'The club has been badly governed. Covid cannot be blamed for all of it.'

He believes they need to be smarter in the transfer market. The acquisitions of Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele for fees that could end up totalling €280m (£250m) look ill-judged.

'I'm not entering into the sporting side because there are people whose opinions I want to respect but in terms of the amounts of money I think there has been a big mistake – spending the €222m (£198m) that you got for Neymar in one go.

'If you have lost Neymar it's because the club was already in a delicate situation financially. That [money] should have been used to balance the budget.'

When out-going president Josep Bartomeu quit, the departing grenade thrown over the shoulder was to announce that Barcelona had already signed up to the European Super League.

'I think that [statement] was a product of desperation, of having left the club in a very complicated situation,' Laporta says.

'He wanted to try to make it look like there were things that could still be exploited and so he threw that news out there which by the way also goes against all confidentiality clauses linked with this possible competition.

'Everything that's proposed will be studied and decisions will be made based on Barcelona's interests and also the interests of football itself.

'But things like this have been tried lots of times and it has never come off. We're of the opinion that you can destroy the essence of football.

'There's also a proposal for a world club super cup [revamped Club World Cup played at the end of every second season when there are no international tournaments] which could make more sense. We'll study everything.'

When asked if, for all the talk of rigour and seriousness regarding the financial situation, he might still have a surprise signing up his sleeve there is some laughter and the intriguing ambiguity of: 'If I have anything to say I'll say it at the right time.'

But it will not be another Beckham, or a Ronaldinho and in the absence of a huge name his selling points will have to be his own experience and know how.

He has done this before. He despairs at the classless way the club's all-time third top-scorer Luis Suarez was dumped in a one-minute phone call last summer and recounts the moment he told Ronaldinho he had to find another club in 2008: 'I went to his house and I said: "I hate to say this, but this has to end". And we hugged, and we talked.'

It's a more human approach 'treating the players like little brothers' he says at one point.

He will also play on his negotiating savvy. There is concern about repayments on a proposed loan from Goldman Sachs being overly tied to the money the club make from the commercial exploitation of the planned stadium redevelopment.

But above all Laporta is promising to do everything he can to make Messi stay.

'With a competitive team, I do,' he says, when asked if he believes the Argentine can keep playing for years to come.

'With Leo it's not a question of money. What he wants is to be in a team that can win the Champions League again.'

He knows that making the team competitive once more will not be easy. He did it in 2003 but he had Johan Cruyff as an adviser, and, when he wanted a bright young coach in 2008, Guardiola emerged.

'Johan I always have with me, because of everything I learnt from him. And with Pep I have an open line,' he says.

Does that mean he asked him to leave City and join him at Barcelona?

'No. He's a friend, I talk to him, and he's the best coach in the world. But I knew what his situation was at City. So, I never took that step.'

He won't even be drawn on whether Guardiola goes back to Barcelona one day in the future.

'The problems we'll face are so big now that I can't be thinking about what could happen in years to come, even with a friend. I'm worried about Barça. I'm not worried about things that are external to the club.

'Obviously, I wish him and Txiki [Begiristain], and all those people I love who are there, all the best.'

But they can't have Messi. Or at least he'll do everything he can to make sure they don't get him this summer.

'This is the biggest challenge of my life. I know that,' Laporta says. 'I started going to the stadium when I was five years old. My grandfather and father made me a member when I was ten.

'The club deserves to be put back on the right track. It should be economically solid. We want people to fall in love with Barcelona again.'