Barcelona urge calm over Lionel Messi contract delay and insist they did pursue Marco Verratti

Barcelona have once again looked to reassure concerned supporters that there are no issues regarding Lionel Messi's contract extension.

The La Liga giants announced back in July that an agreement had been reached with Messi over a four-year renewal, although two months have now passed without the Argentine superstar officially putting pen to paper.

Such a curious and unexplained delay has caused no shortage of consternation among fans amid a difficult summer for Barcelona in which they lost Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain in a world-record deal and also fared badly in the transfer market.

However, appearing alongside technical secretary Robert Fernandez at a press conference held following the Spanish transfer deadline, director Albert Soler reiterated that it was just a matter of time before Messi - who scored 54 goals across all competitions last term - signed on the dotted line.

"When the club says there's an agreement, it means that it's been validated by both parties," he told reporters, as relayed by Sport. "The only thing missing is the official signing to confirm this validation. When the club announces something, it's not jumping in at the deep end, it is validated by both parties. The signing is just an act of protocol.

"There is no problem, I repeat. It will happen soon, it all depends on the diary. I want to send a message of calm to Barcelona socios. You can be calm."

Soler further admitted that Neymar's €222m (£203.3m, $263.3m) departure did have an effect on Barcelona's subsequent transfer dealings, with rival clubs obviously aware of such a huge windfall and setting their own lucrative valuations accordingly.

However, he firmly disputed any suggestion that Barcelona had been aware of the Brazilian's desire to join PSG for some time and insisted that he and president Josep Maria Bartomeu did not learn of such a wish until a WhatsApp message received on 19 July.

In addition to stating that Liverpool demanded €200m for Philippe Coutinho on deadline day, a claim that the Reds refute, Barcelona, who say they did work to bring in more new recruits on Friday night but were unable to get any deals over the line with PSG apparently demanding €80m for former Real Madrid winger Angel Di Maria, also dismissed claims that they never seriously pursued former priority target Marco Verratti.

Fernandez added that the Blaugrana did consider both Real Sociedad centre-back Inigo Martinez and OGC Nice midfielder Jean Michael Seri, but eventually opted against doing deals for either player.

"It's not true that we didn't go for Verratti," he said, per The Mail. "I personally spoke with [PSG manager] Unai Emery and he knows that he's a player we wanted.

"Inigo and Seri are two players that we considered, like many others, but we decided that it was best not to sign them."