Xavi Hernández will continue at Barcelona. This was confirmed to EL PAÍS by sources from the club and the coach's entourage. An abrupt change of script in the future of the Barça bench, after on January 27, after Barça's defeat against Villarreal 3-5 in Montjuïc, the coach announced that he would leave the club at the end of the season. “Being Barcelona coach is cruel, you feel like they disrespect you,” Xavi explained at the time. It happened that the team was revitalized, to the point that it had accumulated 10 victories in 13 games. But PSG (1-4) and Real Madrid (3-2) appeared and eliminated Barcelona from the Champions League and the League. They did not erase, in any case, the idea that the coach had been chewing on in his head for weeks: to fulfill his contract until 2025. And almost three months later he changed his mind.
“It is not an idea that has been taken overnight. She has been maturing him little by little,” say sources from the coaching staff. After hitting rock bottom sportingly, but above all emotionally, Xavi found himself with a double surprise. The first in the locker room, the guys most critical of his management were close and some even asked him to reverse his decision. “What can we do to make you stay?” asked one of the veterans on the squad. The second came from the sports management. Although he is aware that President Joan Laporta has some advisors at his side who wanted him to leave, Xavi felt protected, or at least not questioned, by the hard core of the sports management. That is to say, according to sources close to the coach, both Deco (sports director) and Rafa Yuste (sports vice president) and, of course, Laporta were satisfied with the work of the Barça coach.
Xavi appreciated the expressions of affection. And he went from arguing that “you don't enjoy it at Barça” to ensuring that “today” nothing had changed in his decision. “Today,” he insisted. It was after losing to Madrid when Xavi opened the public door to his continuity: “This is not the time to talk about my continuity.” In sports management, they quickly picked up the gauntlet. “He is giving messages that he wants to stay. It is enough to analyze their press conferences,” explained a member of the technical secretary. However, since the sports management was still not clear that Xavi was willing to back down, the offices were still working on planning for the next season. “We are not going to accept any conditions for him to stay,” they stressed, at the same time that they understood that Rafa Márquez, coach of the subsidiary, was prepared to make the leap.
Last week those responsible for the sports area asked him for a meeting: good news for the coach. The leaders of the project were open to talking with him, regardless of the results in the Champions League and the League. That's how it happened. Yesterday, Deco met with Xavi and his brother Óscar (second coach). Once the first approach was over, the three went to Laporta's house to finish closing the continuity of the coaching staff. Rafa Yuste and Alejandro Echeverría, a trusted man of the president, joined the table.
In both meetings, planning for the next season was discussed. While in the sports area they showed their concern about the team's physical performance – several players had complained – the technical staff assured that they needed a stronger and deeper squad to be able to compete against Madrid and, above all, in Europe.
In the club, in any case, there was a greater concern. Without money there was no coach on the market that guaranteed better results than Xavi, nor of course, a better umbrella for the board of directors. In the case of the technician, his staff He welcomed prolonging the bond with the club. His wife, on the other hand, went through a process similar to Xavi's. And she went from asking him for “two years off” to advising him to do “whatever she felt.”
Xavi then breathed. He feels protected by the club and the locker room. A situation that he had not experienced since he had returned to the Camp Nou in November 2021, to replace the fired and also a legend of Barcelona fans, Koeman. Xavi's ending for now is happy. Or, at least, it's not sad.
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