Barcelona will use Pep Guardiola's insight to help keep Lionel Messi happy at the Nou Camp.
Ronald Koeman has been appointed as the new manager of the La Liga giants, tasked with restoring order at a club whose title challenge fell apart and Champions League tilt ended in a humiliating 8-2 defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich. Messi's future is one of a litany of issues facing Barcelona, with the suggestion that their star player could decide he wants a new test elsewhere.
Manchester City would be at the front of the queue for Messi should he become available given both their links to the Catalan club and the fact that they are one of the few with pockets deep enough to afford his wages.
However, Guardiola has regularly said that he hopes the 33-year-old ends his career at the club he has played at for all of his career.
And he has also given his friend and former teammate Koeman - the pair played together in Barcelona's first European Cup victory back in 1992 - some counsel on what it is like working with Messi that the former Netherlands boss hopes to use.
“Messi is a pure winner. I am very close with Pep Guardiola and I am still in contact with him now," Koeman told NOS.
"Pep told me that Messi wants to win, he wants to win everything. And if he doesn’t win, he can get very annoyed. I am looking so much forward to work with him.”
