BARCELONA, 24 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The still, for a few days, coach of FC Barcelona, who has experienced endless changes and which ends with an abrupt end, with a dismissal when everything indicated that his contract could end in 2025.
Xavi arrived as a shock, as a legend of Barcelona fans in whom Joan Laporta saw the new Pep Guardiola, another heir to his longed-for and intimate Johan Cruyff. After the turbulent period of Ronald Koeman and a brief interim by Sergi Barjuán, Xavi had to return the enthusiasm, the good game and the titles to Barça. And, in part, he did.
But the relationship between Xavi and FC Barcelona, or between Xavi and Joan Laporta, was a roller coaster whose journey seemed to have no end. A textbook ‘not now, yes now, not now’. When the waters seemed to calm down, with the announcement of the coach’s continuity, a new twist in the script will see the Xavi era end now and do so with turbulence.
It was expected that next week there would be news, after saying goodbye to a League in which Real Madrid has been the clear winner but with a Barça that has gone further in terms of results, to secure a second place that will give access to the next Super Cup from Spain. Xavi met that minimum objective, but it seems that his words in the press room condemned him.
It was in the run-up to the match against Almería, on May 15, when Xavi assured that the economic situation in the entity was “complicated” to “compete with the best.” “The current situation has nothing to do with that of years ago, when the coach said who he wanted,” he lamented then.
Some statements that caused the trust placed in him by Joan Laporta, and confirmed and sealed at the so-called ‘sushi dinner’ at the president’s house on April 24, to be broken. Somehow, the president and Deco, surely a good part of the Board of Directors, understood that Xavi was continuing with the same defeatist speech.
In the absence of knowing what the trigger was, what was the real reason for the dismissal and the change of opinion, everything indicates that the option of the sports management to seek a change of direction through a new coach was imposed. And, despite the bond that sentimentally unites coach and ‘presi’ – as he often calls him -, forged by fire during Xavi’s time as captain of Barça and with Laporta in his first presidential stage, everything broke down.
The roller coaster leaves the rail and crashes face-first into the new reality; There will be a new era in Can Barça. An unexpected ending after that photo of three (Xavi, Laporta and Deco) at the Ciutat Esportiva on April 25, when they came to the media spotlight to explain the reasons for, at that time, the coach’s continuity and the reversal of his decision to go.
“We are going to give it our all. But I am clear that it will continue to be unpleasant and cruel, with critical situations. But I see myself with energy and strength to continue with this project. I gave my word to the president that I will continue no matter what happens until they Consider that no. My commitment is intact, that decision (to leave in January) will not happen again,” he said then. And they have told him ‘no’.
The announcement of his dismissal, of his departure, also comes on a very bad day. A Friday before the final of the UEFA Women’s Champions League in which Barça Femení, against its bête noire Lyon, seeks the third Women’s Champions League for the entity. And with all the media focus on Xavi and his possible successor and away from that very important final.
Xavi Hernández will leave the Blaugrana bench with a League and a Spanish Super Cup as his record in two and a half seasons. Both titles achieved in the 2022/23 season, the first complete since he arrived on that bench on November 6, 2021, in the middle of the previous campaign and after the departure of Ronald Koeman – with Sergi Barjuán acting in between –.
Just two titles that, due to the bad economic situation and the half-finished squad, were celebrated. Above all, a League won with a great defense, with good tactics and some green shoots of good play. A solidity that was not seen this last season, when many expected a clear step forward in terms of play that did not come and, furthermore, that defensive solidity was lost.
And not winning any title has taken too much of a toll. In the ‘Champions’ they improved, reaching the quarterfinals and losing to PSG in a tie that, until they were left with one less due to Araujo’s expulsion half an hour into the second leg, was on track. Those details that the coaches who came together to allow PSG to come back talk about.
In LaLiga EA Sports, the runner-up is worth little, beyond the honor of fighting for it until the end and achieving that ticket to the Super Cup, a competition that, just like in the Copa del Rey, the team did not measure up in this campaign marked by throwing balls away from Xavi, self-critical in fair measure but always with several shields carried so as not to put the focus on himself. And green shoots of good play, again, but lost in irregularity.
Xavi Hernández is leaving, one of the living legends of Barcelona fans who perhaps appeared too soon, with barely any experience as a coach in Qatar. Perhaps he will return, more trained and removed from a Barcelona environment divided regarding his figure as a coach. But he leaves behind great pearls, like Lamine Yamal, Fermín López or Pau Cubarsí, the fruit of his faith in a Masia that he left years ago. His commitment to youth and training is beyond doubt.