FC Barcelona will have a new coach next season. The resignation of Xavi Hernández, beyond exacerbating a sporting and institutional crisis to which there is no end in sight, took Barcelonism with a changed foot. 24 hours later, details of the reason for the decision and how to communicate it begin to be made public.
For some time, Xavi had been pondering his farewell to his wife, Núria Cunillera, who was more in favor of a quiet life in Doha than one governed by stress in Barcelona. They both accepted Barça’s offer with the hope of fulfilling the Terrassa player’s dream: he was everything as a player at the club of his life and he wanted to reproduce that success as a coach.
It has not been possible. Xavi arrived at a very delicate sporting moment, he straightened the team’s course, won a League and a Super Cup, but the momentum that had to bring together results and a game that lived up to what was proclaimed was not ‘has produced The third season, which was supposed to be the one of consolidation, has meant that of an involution that has returned the team to the place it came from. Neither game nor results. The last matches (triad of thrashings against Real Madrid, Athletic and Villarreal) have precipitated a decision already taken but the communication of which was initially planned for the coming weeks.
Xavi’s reasons for abandoning the challenge that motivated him so much are roughly three. The external criticism, the internal (more painful) and a growing sense of loneliness within the club.
Let’s start with the first one. Xavi, despite knowing the club like no one else, has not been able to refrain from what was said about him in the media. Tough skin is an essential characteristic to sit on the Blaugrana bench and he has been losing layers as the team has worsened. The shell has not resisted and has affected the family core, also represented through his brother Òscar, second coach, as well as his father Joaquim, who does not miss a gathering and makes it known. He considers the coach to have been unfair with his work, that the League won last season was not valued enough, ignored to the point of disappearing from the collective memory. The impotence regarding the performance of his players, in parallel, also increased. “Sometimes I despair when we don’t do what we have to do,” he said recently in a post-match press conference. The mismatch between the orders given and the lack of correspondence on the lawn embittered him. The problem was not a lack of personal harmony with the dressing room: the players, for the most part, sided with him. This was demonstrated by many of them privately yesterday when he informed them that he was leaving.
The internal criticism ended up affecting him as well, even though it did not come from those in charge. He has maintained a relationship with Joan Laporta that is more of a friend than a work relationship. The dialogue has been open and sincere during these two years and three months. Even when Xavi paired his possible signings with Zubimendi, Kimmich and Bernardo Silva and the club told him that there were no financial possibilities to undertake them.
Conciliator and club man to the point of naivety, Xavi did notice a change last summer with the composition of the new sports commission. The departure of Jordi Cruyff and Mateu Alemany, two executives with whom he got along perfectly and worked day by day as allies, gave way to the appointment as sports director of Deco, with whom Xavi has worked very comfortably despite that the Portuguese has adopted a more equidistant position between the market and the sports city. The feeling of loneliness of the coach has increased, some signings have been concessions rather than requests (João Félix, Vitor Roque) and the lack of unanimity regarding his figure among the members of the new sports commission it has reached the ears. At Barça, the walls feel.
Apart from Laporta and Deco, the vice-president Yuste, most affected by Xavi’s farewell, as well as Enric Masip, assistant to the presidency and personal friend of Laporta, the manager Joan Soler, who presented himself as “sports vice president” in the last elections within the candidacy of Jordi Farré, an aspirant who did not pass the signature cut, and Bojan Krkic as the latest addition. Masip and Soler, understand Xavi’s environment, have not rowed in favor.
“Alejandro, I have to communicate something to the president”, said Xavi to Alejandro Echevarría, Laporta’s ex-brother-in-law and additional member of the presidential core even though he is neither a manager nor an executive. “Think about it,” asked Laporta, Yuste, Deco and Echevarría himself. It was already too late. Xavi, he told them, hopes that with his decision the players will be freed. The one from Terrassa remembers an episode in which something similar happened: Radomir Antic kicked the dressing room (2003), who knew that the Serb would not continue. Xavi was inside this house.
It is difficult to know how the team will react. As is also guessing what the line of argument of this heterogeneous sports commission is, especially now that the coach must be decided from next season.
It won’t be Xavi, overcome by wear and tear that threatened to erode his status as a Barca legend. He leaves before Barça, as a whole, leaves him with irreparable wounds.
