The Catalan coach, who has just won the Emir’s Cup with Al-Sadd, will leave the adventure in Qatar to return to Barça six years after stepping aside as a footballer. He will not break his contract with the Arab country for the World Cup, but he will break away from the club he has been coaching for two seasons (with seven titles in the basket) to try to help the team from the bench. His candidacy was already on the table at the end of last season, when Laporta lost faith in Koeman due to the terrible outcome of the League, but between the lack of internal consensus and the lack of economic muscle to pay the dismissal of the Dutchman opted for continuity before the sports project experienced the biggest earthquake in years due to the unexpected departure of Leo Messi. Among those who doubted Xavi was Laporta himself. Unlike most of his executives, the president believed that the Vallès man should go through the branch before being promoted, as Guardiola and Luis Enrique did in their day.
In May, Laporta resisted pressure. “We did what we could to convince him, but it was not possible,” sources close to the Barça president told ARA, who has now had no choice but to listen to many of his collaborators to take a decision that most Barcelonans see with good eyes. Because Xavi, apart from knowing the club and being a promising coach who trusts in the position game, is an idol of the fans who will open an immense umbrella of confidence in the face of the firm possibility that the season will end without titles. In fact, although he knows that he is returning to the club in a framework of multisectoral crisis, the Vallès native is keen to revive a team in which five former teammates survive: Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets, Sergi Roberto, Jordi Alba and Marc-André ter Stegen. He also hopes to get the best youth juice from the level of Pedri González, Ansu Fati, Pablo Gavi and Riqui Puig. Another thing is that then, when it comes to the truth, he manages to translate good intentions into better results than Koeman’s.
A technical team of minimums
After the punctures with Granada and Cádiz in the League, Laporta was determined to call Xavi, according to people around him. But two well-founded alternatives — Andrea Pirlo and Bob Martinez — cooled the president’s intentions. The days, the bad results and the economic vicissitudes have ended the pre-existing doubts of the leader regarding the Catalan, who has waited in Doha for the final warning. Now they need to polish the terms of their contract and the magnitude of thestaff which could incorporate in the short term. What is certain is that he would agree to receive a salary adjusted to the salary regulations of the League (the club is exceeded) and would accept the bench without allowing the immediate disembarkation of professionals of his confidence to control medical services or grassroots football. His assistants for the first team will bring them. Cheaper than the former midfielder would have been to just get Jordi Cruyff out of the market or promote Albert Capellas. All roads, in fact, led to Xavi.
