Barça fans expected two events to occur this season, the dismissal of Ronald Koeman and the signing of Xavi Hernández. The first one has already happened and now it only remains for Xavi to land at the Camp Nou to restore the illusion to the team, the fans and the club. However, his signing is taking longer than necessary. The logical thing would be to think that if Joan Laporta dispensed with Koeman’s services after the draw in Vallecas it was because he already had his replacement tied up but it was not like that.
His hiring is being more complicated than it seemed. Barcelona and Xavi would already have everything tied and agreed, he would sign the remainder of the season and another two according to various media in the city. But the obstacle is Al Sadd, which has not yet given the OK. The coach has a two-year contract with the Qatari team but they were willing to negotiate his departure in exchange for three conditions: playing a friendly against Barcelona, that Xavi could one day return to the club and negotiate face-to-face with Barcelona.
In the first two cases there is no problem whatsoever and the third is on the way to occur since from RAC1 They point out that a delegation from Barcelona that includes sports vice president Rafa Yuste and football director Mateu Alemany traveled to Qatar this morning. The one who has not traveled is President Joan Laporta.
From the newspaper Sport They point out that if the negotiations in Doha go well, the official announcement of Xavi’s hiring could be made on Thursday or Friday, but if things go wrong then we would have to wait until next week. What is not contemplated in any case is that Xavi does not come.
In addition, Mohammed Al Thani, president of the club, would have asked Xavi to stay on the bench until the Clásico against Al Duhail that is played today at 17:55 CET (19:55 in Qatar). Xavi did not want to leave the team stranded and accepted for what in principle should be his last game in front of Al Sadd.
In Barcelona they have already ruled out that Xavi could lead the team in the next game for the Catalans on Saturday against Celta in Balaídos. The Spanish coach’s debut on the Barça bench would be after the national team break on November 20 in the derby against Espanyol at the Camp Nou.
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