Xavi Hernández’s time on the Barça bench could not have been more irregular and inconsistent, far from having been consolidated with the passage of time and the achievement of titles. The feeling of a “team under construction” that the Terrassa coach himself has fostered has been a burden in a club that demands success and good play at the same time. Neither one thing nor another after 813 days in office, two years and four months of the project.
Xavi Hernández (44) joined Barça on November 5, 2021, six years after retiring as a footballer from the club (to play in Qatar). He was the most desired coach to replace Sergio Barjuan, the interim coach who replaced another myth, Ronald Koeman, ousted for mediocre results and play.
The Terrassa coach, from Al Sadd (to whom Barça had to compensate to enjoy his services before ending the contract), signed until June 2024. His expiration date has already arrived, although in September he renewed for one more year , until June 30, 2025; a season that he will not fulfill.
In his first tenure on the Blaugrana bench, Xavi made his debut on November 20 in a hot derby at the Camp Nou against Espanyol (1-0). The team was ninth in the League, 11 points behind the leader, then Real Sociedad. In the first competition with a title at stake, the Spanish Super Cup in Arabia, Barça lost 2-3 in their first classic, and in the second tournament, the Copa del Rey, they lost on January 20 against Athletic (3- 2). Like now. In the League, Xavi’s Barça improved: from 9th to 2nd. The best of that first incomplete year was the 0-4 at the Bernabeu, which gave credence to his future project.
However, the Champions League was a disaster. Barça did not go beyond the group stage (Bayern, Benfica and Dinamo Kiev) and fell to the Europa League, in which they were eliminated in the first round against Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarterfinals, in that sadly remembered match with the Camp Nou flooded with Germans.
In the second season (2022-23), Barça failed again in the Champions League, remaining in the group stage again (against Bayern and Inter Milan). They were relegated to the Europa League, in which they lost again in the first round, against Manchester United.
The first title came in January 2023, on the 15th, by beating Real Madrid in the final of the Spanish Super Cup with a 3-1 score that once again gave credit to the coach.
In the League, the team was doing like a shot, thanks to its defensive consistency (it was the team that conceded the least), but its scoring efficiency was poor. However, consistency was their strong point and with Xavi, Barça became league champions, their second title, 10 points ahead of Real Madrid, and a more acceptable game.
However, Barça could not close the season with the Copa del Rey, as they were eliminated in the semi-finals by Real Madrid by a total of 1-4.
In the third season, the current one (2023-24), Xavi faced the first year of exile in Montjuïc asking the fans for support to go up the mountain to support the team. Barça’s course has been erratic from the start, both in the League and in the Champions League, although for the first time they qualified for the round of 16 (against Naples, in February) in three years.
He has fared worse in domestic tournaments. In one week he said goodbye to the three titles: he lost to Real Madrid in an embarrassing way in the final of the Spanish Super Cup in Arabia (4-1) on January 14, and 10 days later, on the 24th, he also said goodbye of the Copa del Rey in San Mamés after losing to Athletic (4-2). The finishing touch to Xavi’s project was Villarreal with the 3-5 in Montjuïc that definitively distances them from the options of fighting for the League.
