Xavi Hernández finally smiled. After months trapped in a labyrinth of doubts, without solutions to the first team’s problems or support in the offices, the coach put an expiration date on his time in the first team. A strategy to free himself from the internal and external pressure of Barcelona and the Barcelona fans that weighed him down. He needed to vent. Approximately a month ago, the coach had already made the decision: “No matter what happens, at the end of the season we will leave Barça,” he communicated to those around him. After the defeat in the Super Cup once morest Real Madrid, his agent Fernando Solanas stopped by the Ciudad Deportiva and headed to Xavi’s house to define the strategy. “There was talk regarding when we would communicate the decision to leave the club,” explains one of those present at the meeting. The appointed day was not last Saturday; However, the defeat once morest Villarreal acted as an accelerator. A bad night for Barça. Xavi, at least, was able to rest.
When the match once morest Villarreal ended, the Barça board observed strange movements in the staff. They were right: Xavi had decided that the time had come to announce that he would leave the club on June 30. Before, in any case, he wanted to communicate it to Joan Laporta. That’s why, when he attended to the television stations with rights, no one noticed. “They ask questions regarding football,” they justify from the coach’s entourage. On the other hand, he did have to bite his tongue when he spoke to TV3. Finished the flash interviewsXavi called Alejandro Echeverría, Laporta’s trusted man. “Are you with the president?” he asked her; “Come down, I have something to tell you.” Then, the inevitable: “he is going to resign,” thought the president and his closest entourage, still in the Montjuïc box. On the way to the meeting with Xavi, one of the members of the sports commission wrote to the coach: “Decisions are not made in the heat.”
It was late.
In the office, Xavi was waiting with his brother. There, in the presence of Laporta, Echeverría, Deco [director de fútbol] and Rafa Yuste [vicepresidente deportivo]the coach argued his departure. His speech, very thoughtful. Laporta, who during the match had done nothing but chew anger in the box — “he was very fired up,” says a manager — tried to dissuade the coach. “He pushed him to stay,” they say from those around the Barça coach. There was no way to convince him. “Xavi did not move from his script,” concludes one of those present. Before leaving for the press room, Xavi told Laporta that he forgave the last year of his contract. “It was another example of his Barcelona fandom. We must not forget that he paid the Qatar termination clause out of his pocket,” they remember from the staff of the Catalan coach.
The locker room found out regarding the news from the press. Some at home, others still in the car, all the same when faced with Xavi’s announcement: “We already imagined it,” one of the captains tells this newspaper. On Sunday morning, Xavi confronted his players. Then something unexpected did happen. Usually divided into two groups, those who supported the coach (including Araujo, Gavi, Pedri and Ferran Torres) and those who looked askance at his decisions (De Jong, Lewandowski, Gündogan and Christensen), closed ranks with the coach. Sergi Roberto had the leading voice in the talk. “We are also responsible,” the captain said honestly. “Sergi’s speech was top. Very honest and constructive,” explains one of the players. Even Lewandowski, one of the most critical, was affectionate with Xavi. “One of the veterans told the coach what the players might do to make him stay,” explains a member of the coaching staff.
Again, it was late.
The coach understands that the decision is correct. “Many times I can’t find an explanation,” he reflected. “If the team didn’t perform before, why is it going to perform now?” one of the Barcelona players asked himself on Saturday night. Xavi’s response: “I relax everything with this announcement.” In Laporta’s hard core they coincide with the Barça player. The announcement takes the pressure off Xavi, but not on the team and much less on Laporta. “There is no fair-play to sign up another coach. It is true that Luis Enrique had announced that he would leave Barça before the end of his contract (he did so in March and left in June), but the context is not the same. There was consensus, it was a powerful dressing room and they had just won many important titles,” recalls a club executive.
The lack of recognition is precisely one of the reasons for Xavi’s goodbye. “Everyone praises us and here they kill us. They don’t value us. Last year was a miracle and now they put more pressure on us,” the coaching staff explains. “We had just won a great League and the Super Cup and with an improved squad we had better expectations that are not being met,” Laporta justified. There is a situation that baffles the president and those around him: “How can a boy who has spent his entire life in the club be surprised by the pressure that exists here?” “Being Barcelona coach is cruel,” Xavi had complained.
And Jordi Cruyff had already warned him before leaving last summer: “Be careful, you will be alone.” And he was right. Without support from the board or the sports management, Xavi also lost the team’s compass. He understood, then, that catharsis involved announcing his goodbye ahead of time. Laporta had no choice but to accept it: “He asked me to continue until the end of the season and I accepted it because he is Xavi.” The pressure, now, is in the offices. And Xavi, finally, smiles.
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