Joan Laporta does not find the time or the money to fire Xavi Hernández. Affected by pneumonia and looking forward to the final of the Women’s Champions League on Saturday in San Mamés, the president does not stop delaying a coach who is constantly being asked on the street and in the press room about a dismissal that has been publicized since the Barça offices. There has been so much information and misinformation, as well as unfulfilled promises, that right now it is not known what will become of a technician who is the victim of a diabolical situation of which he is precisely not a stranger but a protagonist since on January 27 he announced that on June 30 He would leave the club despite having a contract until 2025. Now it turns out that Xavi wants to stay and Laporta intends to fire him after the League ends on Sunday. The disagreement favors growing institutional wear and tear and devalues the corporate message of FC Barcelona.
The departure or dismissal of the coach is a common solution in most teams and, therefore, it should not be a matter of extreme seriousness, not even for a club as particular as Barça. History assures that the club has supported the team many times, especially in closed seasons like the current one, favored by its social strength and the Barça brand. It has also happened that when the team has performed very well, the management of the club has not always been exemplary, without the fans having anything to say, dedicated as they were to the spectacle of the Camp Nou. The problem is when the entity has no pillar to stand on because the club’s governance is as bad as that of the team and social demobilization is justified due to the move to Montjuïc. The collective nonsense is personalized precisely in the coach: Xavi.
The trigger was a statement by the coach prior to the match on the 15th in Almería in which, somehow, and especially due to the club’s lack of resources, he doubted the competitiveness of his team against rivals such as Madrid and other candidates. to win the Champions League. A shared forecast that is counterproductive to Laporta’s self-conscious speech. The president found in the words of statements by his predecessor Ronald Koeman — “it is what it is” — before having to leave the Camp Nou in October 2021. Laporta had the Dutchman on tenterhooks for two weeks — the time he asked to see if he could find a better coach — and Now it keeps Xavi in suspense.
The president understands that if the board goes out of its way to keep the pulse of the club with the levers that allow them to register rather than sign players, it is up to the coach to compete for titles with the squad he has, as was already demonstrated last season when the team won the League. Laporta has come to the conclusion, after some consultations, that Barcelona has players of sufficient quality to play better than what he is doing with Xavi. The coach has constantly referred to “the details” to explain why he has not fulfilled his challenge of building a Barça that would mobilize the fans in Montjuïc. The team has stagnated, the possibility of signing is remote if there are no sales and Laporta considers that the next season cannot be started with the bad feelings of the one who is about to finish blank at the Sánchez Pizjuán.
He is also not very clear about who could be the best replacement for Xavi. The list of candidates increases daily after the already known candidacies of Rafa Márquez, coach of the reserve team, and Hansi Flick. It happens that, at the moment, there is no liquidity or credit for Xavi’s settlement, which can reach 20 million – the coach claims that he wants to be as generous with the club as with his collaborators – nor for the hiring of a replacement who is also pending the opinion of sports director Deco. Nobody plays in Xavi’s favor since he was left without Jordi Cruyff and Mateu Alemany and he approached Laporta. Personal relationships prevail over professional opinions and the Laporta-Xavi bond went from being publicly fantastic – illustrated in the appearance on April 25 – to breaking down privately since the elimination from the Champions League with PSG and the defeat in Girona: 4- 2.
The team did not come back, but went back to its old ways, and the trust between the president and the coach was broken to the stupor of a Barça fan who, in a minority, has begun to show signs of division in Montjuïc. The last match at the Olympic stadium ended with some chants in favor of Xavi and division of opinions about Laporta. An issue that concerned exclusively the coach has become an issue that can turn against a president who has become accustomed to living in conflict, to pressure and improvisation, to resolving at the last minute problems generated precisely by his way of govern, such that he was the Pop Magician in the Barça labyrinth. Laporta’s stamina contrasts precisely with Xavi’s manifest instability. The problem is that the coach has stopped being the president’s umbrella in the storm of Montjuïc.
The figure of Xavi as a person finds more understanding in Barcelona fans than that of Xavi as coach due to Laporta’s treatment. The coach made the wrong strategy when he announced his delayed resignation, willing to “show his face and open his mouth”, to sacrifice himself for Barcelona fans, as if he were more concerned about being the Barcelona meeting point than about coaching the team after change the candidacy of Víctor Font for that of Laporta. Self-conscious about the criticism from what he considers to be the Guardiolista press, the same one that once was Cruyffista and questioned Robson and Van Gaal, wrapped in the flag of La Masia. Laporta also made a mistake when accepting Xavi’s resignation for being a Barcelona legend when there was a discussion about his ability to coach Barça.
Both failed separately and together on April 25, the day they presented a “stability” agreement that expired because necessity had prevailed over conviction, a previous step to distrust, a classic in Barça families. The majority of decisions are made at the wrong time in a club that has lost the timing of the game and of government, as well as the support of a fan who stared at the Bernabéu banner that read: “Want to see you again”, in anticipation of Laporta’s return to the Camp Nou. Now it is Barcelona fans that do not recognize the president who triumphed in 2003, nor do they see the play of the footballer Xavi reflected in the current coach’s team. The contradictions of the two have diminished their credibility and authority, so that the disappointment is capital while the decapitalization of a Barça without direction and also waiting to return to the Camp Nou grows.
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