New Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde is looking forward to the "unique experience" of working with Lionel Messi after being officially presented as Luis Enrique's successor on Thursday.
Valverde, 53, was confirmed as the Catalan club's new manager on Monday but did not arrive in the city until Wednesday and has not yet met any of his players.
It will be a while until he meets Messi, who is currently in China on a promotional tour and will then join up with Argentina in Australia, but he's already relishing the prospect of coaching the five-time World Player of the Year.
�� Ernesto Valverde: "When a team like FC Barcelona calls you, you don't have to think about it too much" #FCBlive #HolaValverde pic.twitter.com/jFGJuhWwB3
- FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) June 1, 2017
"I feel very lucky," the former Athletic Bilbao coach told a packed news conference when asked about working with the player Javier Mascherano once described as being bigger than the club.
"It's a unique experience to coach the best player I have ever seen on a football pitch. It sometimes seems as if he has certain limits, but then he keeps on surprising people each day. I hope to help him keep surprising people."
Messi's position has been constantly evolving since he first broke into the Barcelona team over a decade ago and Valverde suggested he may look to stop him spending too much time in a wide right position as that evolution continues.
He added: "He's a decisive player wherever he plays. It's one thing to see him from the other side, but it will be another thing to see him in training and witness what he can do -- I have never coached a player of his calibre
"Sometimes it can be true that he's on the wing a little too much, perhaps, but that is something I will have to study and see if I can improve."
Messi, who will turn 30 later this month, is out of contract next summer but Valverde said everyone he has spoken with at the club this week is optimistic the player will sign an extension and commit his future to Barcelona beyond 2018.
As well as Messi, Valverde will be working with a number of the world's best footballers at Camp Nou and he was asked how he will manage all the egos which come with having such an elevated status in the game.
"That's just a tag that all [successful] players get," he responded. "To achieve things you have to have a certain personality, these attitudes are necessary at the top level.
"People talk about multimillionaire players, but I haven't met many who were born that way -- they have had to earn it."
In total Valverde took 32 questions but he gave very little away over his summer plans, with the club expected to be active in the transfer market once again.
As anticipated, though, he did confirm that maintaining Barcelona's style and philosophy is of utmost importance to him, but when asked if he would use 4-3-3 -- a formation he hasn't often used in his career -- he suggested that systems are not that significant.
On a similar note he said he's open to using players who come through La Masia and Barca B in the first team
Valverde, who signs an initial two-year deal with an option for an additional year, says his biggest challenge now is to focus on winning everything at a club where the demands have become so high after a sustained period of success.
But despite describing that as a "really difficult challenge," it didn't take him long to accept when Barca offered him the job.
"Barcelona needed a coach, they thought about me, and here I am. I didn't have to think too much [about taking the role]," he said.