Barcelona president Joan Laporta did not want Lionel Messi to stay on at Barcelona, with the club chief infuriated by the mess he has been left with in Catalonia, a body language expert has claimed following Friday's press conference.
Laporta, 59, made his first public appearance since Barcelona sensationally announced that superstar Messi would not remain at the club next season, with Barca's financial predicament prohibiting them from keeping the Argentine.
Barcelona's president took the hot seat earlier this year, following from the dismal reign of Josep Bartomeu and promised fans that he would do all he could to keep Messi on board for the foreseeable future.
A body language expert has analysed Joan Laporta's non-verbal behaviour on Friday
The Barcelona president made his first public appearance since Lionel Messi's shock exit
Yet Messi - whose contract expired last month - walks away for free, with a forlorn Laporta telling supporters today that the plan was for the club to allow the Argentine to walk away for free in two years, but the club's financial constraints made that strategy impossible.
And body language expert Darren Stanton has analysed Laporta's non-verbal behaviour during Friday's press conference and claims that the Barcelona chief's nervous ticks reveals a whole host of problems behind the scenes at the LaLiga club.
'The first piece of behaviour that came to my attention was that he sways from side to side quite a lot,' he told Sportsmail. 'Now, this could be to one of two things: either he’s not used to addressing the media, which is unlikely, or secondly, that he is very uncomfortable in his position.
Laporta, 59, said that he wanted Messi to stay on for two years in an in-depth press briefing
However, expert Darren Stanton believes that Laporta's body language told a different story
'People tend to become slightly more animated when they’re uncomfortable so standing from side to side on either foot is what we call a red flag.'
Stanton revealed that, despite Laporta insisting that the club wanted Messi to remain for two further years, his non-verbal reaction demonstrated that he did not in fact want the club's talisman to stay on.
'When he says the intention was for two more years, I do not believe that to be true because he automatically takes a deep in breath, and takes a big swallow,' Stanton revealed. 'This is an unconscious reflex to when we are lying, so I do not
