And now what, Barça? The operation to try to save the furniture for the season began yesterday at the facilities of the Ciutat Esportiva de Sant Joan Despí. The morning after Xavi Hernández announced that he will no longer be the team’s coach at the end of the season, a mixture of release, regret and guilt spread through the Barça dressing room, which was the scene of meetings, conversations, speeches and visits with the aim of trying to raise their heads to finish the season in the top four and get as far as possible in the Champions League. As always, the most eloquent voice was that of the president, Joan Laporta, who proclaimed that the League is still possible and that “you have to fight with everything to try to win the Champions League”.
The manager said this in statements to the club’s media 15 hours after Xavi took a big hit by revealing his decision to leave on June 30. The footballers didn’t know it and yesterday the coach gave them the relevant explanations.
The coach repeated, in general terms, and with a composed pose, the same speech he made at his press conference. He told them that he is leaving because he is tired, because he does not want to be a problem and because he is no longer having fun, and he asked them for maximum commitment between now and the end of the season. He promised them for this stretch that he would give the best of himself to try to make the team panic. The one from Terrassa and his entire coaching staff are released, but at the same time very touched. After Xavi took the floor it was the turn of the captain, Sergi Robero. The one from Reus regretted the coach’s decision, apologized on behalf of the footballers for not having been up to the task in several matches and even urged him to reconsider his decision. He was not the only player who addressed the coach in these terms, but Xavi already assured that he would not back down even by “winning the Champions League”.
After training, Laporta, who spent two and a half hours in the Ciutat Esportiva, entered the dressing room accompanied by vice-president Rafa Yuste, the sporting director, Deco, and his advisor, Enric Masip. The president, as on other occasions, tried to send encouragement and verbalize an optimistic message.
Then it was when he used the club’s official microphones to give his opinion on the situation. “Xavi told me that he was leaving at the end of the season and that he wanted to finish it. I accept it because it is Xavi who proposes it to me. He is a legend of Barcelona, ??he is honest, acts with dignity and loves Barça. That’s why I can accept it, because the commitment will be the maximum”, said the president.
He accepts it, but we will have to see how events unfold. If the team lifts the flight, even if it is minimal, Xavi’s hand will be taken for granted. The coach thinks that the results are not quite doing justice to the game of the last few weeks and regrets, however, the deluge of goals conceded. In this sense, the return of Ter Stegen should be a reinforcement, while the sports management continues to dream of incorporating an emergency midfielder.
But what would happen if Barça does not stop the bleeding and continues to accumulate defeats? It should be seen. The coach of the subsidiary, Rafa Márquez, did not hide, from hot to hot, that he would gladly accept the opportunity.
But at the moment no one wants to put themselves in this hypothesis. Starting with a president who is characterized by making the same statements as when Barça was a world reference. “The League is difficult, but it is not lost. We do not rule out winning it, although we have to finish as best as possible. We have to give everything we have to try to win the Champions League. Naples first, let’s go step by step, with optimism more character and with the coach giving everything”.
Considering the unreliability of the team and that right now Girona is eleven points behind and Madrid, ten, talking about the League title seems more like delusion. What really bothers Barça is not to stay out of the top four places and to continue playing in the Champions League next season.
According to Laporta, what is failing is the sporting aspect, because “the club is under the control of the institutional, economic and social section”. According to the president, “expectations are not being met” in the first team, despite having “an improved squad”. A template that has worked well.
