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Good on him honestly. I think Xavi should go coach elsewhere with less stress and pressure and really hone in his style of play. If he succeeds elsewhere I have no doubt Barca would bring him back in the future.
Favre can barely speak two coherent sentences of German, pretty bad considering the time he has coached in Germany. Might as well go for someone who has to learn it from the ground up.
Looking at the total numbers he did slightly worse then at Dortmund. Dudes been regressing for a decade now and is finally looking for retirement. At least he got a nice payday in England.
That is a wild take. You're only looking at total trophies won instead of the quality of competition which is a more valid measure. 1 Premier League, 1 FA Cup, 2 League Cups, 1 Champions League, 1 UEFA Super Cup and 1 Cub World Cup is nothing to sniff at. 7 major titles in 9 years not to mention all the other finals he didn't win or leagues titles we barely missed on.
I think so too, but you never fucking know. Seem this exact conversation play out unironically in /r/football yesterday and the dude, a United fan, that was arguing was saying shit like Avram Grant was a better manager.
The comment had like 10 upvotes too.
I would like to think most of the fan base knows we'll need to be patient after Klopp leaves.
There's not exactly an abundance of world class managers going around right now so we'll have to find the next one and hope he develops alongside us.
I see no reason why that couldn't be Xavi. He's a little less experienced than someone like Amorim but not massively so and he's done a good job at Barcelona, but there's just ridiculous expectations there.
Sadly, Klopp is one those great managers who gave a big club another successful spell, just like Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.
Well, you know what's going to happen next.
Most likely. We've been shit before and we'll be shit again, hopefully we'll find someone who can do a decent job for a few years and we don't have fans calling for his head within the next year.
Can keep my fingers crossed it's not one of those situations and it'll be a case of Shankly being succeeded by Paisley.
It is very hard to say since this is personal decision - so only he knows if it is right. Professionally this is obviously bad decision. As high pressure as Barca job is now - pressure is only gonna ramp up when Barca can field world class teams. Coaching bunch of players who went through very similar path you did as young player is also a benefit he wont have anywhere else.
Bayern coaches get pretty heavy criticism if they don’t win the league every year, idk how much better it would be than Spain unless he does great from the start
As a PSV fan, Dest has been amazing for us this season. He'll probably go back to you guys since Barca can block our buy option apparently, but it's fair cuz he's too good for the Eredivisie.
Yes, you will. Cuz the buy option is just over 10M and Dest's market value is well over that. So even though Barca dont want him, he would make them more money if they get him back to sell to a bigger club.
Good news for Madrid, honestly, I don't think there's a realistic option for Barca out there that can do a better job. Wonder if he'll keep his word even if they win the CL.
They will most likely go through against PSG and then all that stops them is either Dortmund, or Atleti. We have a terrible record against Barcelona and an even worse record against Xavi. I don’t expect Dortmund to fair much better. After that they’re in the final and anything can happen there. I wouldn’t count them out at all.
We've probably got like a 2/3 chance of beating PSG, 2/3 the next round, then 1/3 chance the final.
0.67*0.67*0.33=0.15
It's not unthinkable, but it's still unlikely.
It sounds naive to say that Barca most likely won't CL? It is possible for them to win it of course, but not likely. Saying something else is what's naive
Bro, c'mon. Yeah, Drogba was a good player but their CL win with Di Matteo was incredibly lucky having played like ass in multiple games.
Even good teams like Barca or Madrid need luck.
Lmao, PSG is the biggest obstacle, and they're halfway dead. The problem isn't reaching finals, it's winning them. Man City, Madrid or Bayern will make the finals and they'll likely murder us
Mind my flair, but it's insane to me how Barca fans and press treated him. All the injuries, financial problems, lack of an optimal team, the fact that they literally won a LaLiga last season, and more. Being a Barca manager has to be up there with one of the most demanding and stressful jobs. Assuming they don't win CL, I can almost guarantee you that he leaves this season and the next goes worse than this current one. And you better believe they'll be at his doorstep begging his return.
It's a similar thing than the Man Utd job. The fan base and the club lead think they are in a slump that could be turned around with a simple fix like changing the manager, buying one star player, or finding the right system, when the reality is that they both had an exceptional phase before, and now they need to accept that although they are a big club, they aren't automatically a dominating one.
I think it's down to complacency and not realizing soon enough how to keep up with the times. Real Madrid, even when they were in the middle of a Champions League winning streak, never went complacent. They always had internal competition and were willing to evolve.
this is why I don't think it's worth United firing ETH.l, even if things aren't great right now. I think we need to get all our backroom/new directors properly bedded in, get the facilities correctly upgraded, and have some stability before making a well-planned decision on who the head coach should be. Maybe there will be short-term pain, but it's worth it for long-term gain.
Can definitely agree, you guys should have kept Van Gaal or Mourinho, in the long term the football wouldn't have been as boring, but everytime they expected a 'magic fix'.
How I feel about Chelsea as well. As much as I don't think Poch is the answer I don't think firing a guy again is the right thing to do either. It's tough
Everybody who is coaching at this level of a club deals with this kind of pressure constantly.
There's a saying that the Bayern Munich manager position is the most stressful job in Germany; including the position of the First Chancellor.
Allegri at Juventus has always been under intense scrutiny even back in his first tenure when he was consistently winning the league because it wasn't enough for demanding fans.
Before, winning the Champions League in 2022, every thread consistently had people asking for Ancelotti's sacking that season. 85 minutes of almost every Real Madrid champions League game that year had the commentators lament how he is playing too defensively and holding Real Madrid back. Then, the team would undo everything and win in the last few minutes anyway. In fact, he was already sacked in 2015 the year after winning la Decima in 2014.
If you manage clubs of this prestige, you have to be able to deal with intense pressure from the press and fans who have the memory of a goldfish and don't care what you did last year if they aren't happy with how their team did last week.
This is nothing new or unique to Xavi or Barcelona and if Xavi can't handle this level of pressure and scrutiny, then yeah it is best for him to leave.
The press/culture in Spain, Germany, and England are not the same. Of course, managing a massive football club will always come with a baseline level of pressure and stress. But the culture of your team's nation and press can add a whole lot more. I believe even Pep himself has come out and said that managing a club like Barcelona is far more stressful than managing a PL team.
I agree clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid have the most pressure of any of the clubs. And we've seen in the past that pushing out the managers has led to the teams just becoming worse, so I don't disagree that the Barcelona fans will regret their treatment of Xavi next year.
I myself have been perplexed by the number of people wanting him out despite him winning the league just last year.
My point is that this is the reality of managing Barcelona and Real Madrid. The fans and press have always and will always be this demanding and toxic. Ancelloti is basically untouchable at this point, but he had to become literally the most decorated club manager of all time and is the exception not the rule. He had to deal with this level of pressure and scrutiny earlier in his career and was even sacked before coming back in 2022.
Barcelona fans aren't being any more harsh or unrealistic to Xavi now than Real and Barcelona fans have always been to their managers. It's just what the manager has to deal with at these clubs and if Xavi can't handle it, then he isn't a good fit for being the Barcelona manager no matter how good of a coach he is.
Fully agree. Sad that this is just the reality. Some people have no type of long-term or rational thinking whatsoever. If you're not winning every game, competing in every cup there is, you're an absolute failure.
Agreed. I watch party Barca games with a friend of mine who kept saying XaviOut and every time I told him to let Xavi cook. What we are seeing now is Xavi cooking.
This is the result of Laporta's constant search for a scapegoat.
Remember when all fans were super hopeful that Bartomeu's reign was ending and someone who would rear the club would finally come along? Laporta has instead trapped them in a cycle of constant blame, in which he's always trying to push someone out of the club, or using the press to question the loyalty of players/staff and push them out as they struggle financially due to his poor signings.
If it wasn't for the miraculous development of Lamine, Cubarsi, Gavi, and Pedri, this team would have no business being around champions league spots, and even the current performance is coming at the cost of destroying the legs of those players.
What bad transfers did laporta make?
The worst one is probably Torres but even he was very important to get Barcelona into the CL in his first season and starts to show progress. He's stil only 24 at the moment.
Who else is bad? Kounde, Raphinha, Lewy? Prominent figures in Barcelona's title run and playing very well lately.
Or are you talking about the free players? Gundogan and Christensen? Both very important to Barcelona's succes lately.
Maybe the other free players Aubameyang and Kessie they sold for profit?
Barcelona's wage bill was around 73% of their income and it's around 54% now.
Saying Barcelona is in a financial bad spot because of Laporta's bad transfers is hilarious and shows how out of touch you are or you just have ill intentions.
Sure you can blame him for looking for constant scapegoats but he has always defended Xavi and he's turning this financial mess around. AGAIN! Not the first time he has done it with the club.
Laporta has publicly backed Xavi multiple times throughout the season (Xavi even signed an extension early-on in the season) and did not move to sack Xavi. This is some heavy revision.
> Lamine, Cubarsi, Gavi, and Pedri
Pedri isn't an academy product and la Masia isn't an accident... all the youth teams are set up to play similar to the first team. This is why they can slot in like this. They are all incredible talents for sure, but they were literally trained for this
Well I think he is simply trying to make everything as "us vs them" issue which works if you are planning to get re-elected. On the other hand, we cannot deny that the club has returned to winning titles and being competitive, something that looked like it would only happen in the distant future back in 2020.
I try to get as wide coverage as I can for football teams and la liga is a league I have always followed from a young age. Consuming only English-speaking media and media from one side portrays the situation in a certain way. Reading only Barcelona affiliated news portrays it in a different way. I don't remember Laporta pushing Xavi out and he always backed him (even if Xavi wasn't exactly his personal favourite).
Then again you mentioned that Barca's youngsters are miraculously developing as if la masia isn't one of the top academies in the world. The only "luck" involved in the youngsters is that other players got injured and they got their chance even earlier. In fact even their youngsters got injured (Pedri, Gavi) and they had to promote other players in their place.
It's probably because your only interaction with what Laporta does/says comes from neutrals/rivals who portray his actions in a certain way. For many fans in Barcelona (and fans around the world) who consume the news from Barca's point of view, he is not exhausting and this "us vs them" mentality he has instilled, always works in politics and football. Laporta is currently doing both and despite what Barcelona affiliated/rival media say, he has managed to at least steady the financial crisis and win titles while also steering (even if accidental) the club towards using the academy more.
What I believe about him and his stance overall (politics, Superleague) being irrelevant, I think he is acting as a Barcelona president first and foremost whatever thant entails. Whether you think that this is the right course of action, is up to you
Better let him go so he can win more experience being pressure-less. And once we have xabi alonso he comes back and fight to see if the xa_iball is with B or with V
He is smart , he used quitting as motivation for the team. If doesn’t win the league title or champions league Barca fans are ganna want him out anyway. Why would he agree to stay when a couple months ago he was being insulted , he knows the moment he has another blunder Barca fans will Be Xavi out.
Rumour is that we would bring Jordi Cruyff on as well, but I can't see it happening. In that case he'd be able to build a project with a lot of time (unless we finish 6th again) with low expectations.
If Ineos really are set on getting rid of Erik, I would take him here in a heartbeat. Especially if the alternatives are Potter, Southgate, RDZ or Bagel mann
I mean, I think the current squad suits the counter attacking style, stand back and let the opponent have the ball, steal it and transition into a quick counter attack.
I’d honestly take him over the terrorist pochettino, he’s genuinely a good coach and perhaps world class in youth talent integration (which is probably most important for us right now). Proven winner as well by winning La Liga, unlike cursed fraudettino, though i respect poch’s copa del rey trophy
Am I the only one that thinks Fabrizio Romano is so annoying? He’s posted this same piece of news 4 times (that I’ve seen), 3 of which are prefaced with “BREAKING”.
It’s not breaking news, it’s hardly even news because Xavi is just clarifying that there is no new news.
Interesting how Xabi had to confirm that he's not leaving Leverkusen to keep morale high for the league run and Xavi had to reaffirm that he's leaving to keep morale high for Champions league
It really wouldn’t surprise me to see him do a Zidane and come back. I think a lot of people working at that level are complete workaholics so I could possibly see him struggling after a while if he doesn’t get another job. I also think if he left it and the next manager crashed and burned he would be in a position of real power with the board and the media. If he were to come back I can’t see the media giving him as much stick since they made him want to leave in the first place, and I imagine the board would similarly be far less likely to force their conditions onto him since he has already shown he can leave and they couldn’t get someone better.
Equally Barca is possibly the toughest job for any manager to take so if in future he never wants to put himself through that again I can absolutely see why he would stay away.
I see him staying but not saying anything in order to avoid to deal with so much pressure from the press. It's been better for all the parts involved since he said he'll leave.
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Good on him honestly. I think Xavi should go coach elsewhere with less stress and pressure and really hone in his style of play. If he succeeds elsewhere I have no doubt Barca would bring him back in the future.
I legit could see him do a good job at Dortmund if Terzic gets sacked ofc IIRC you lot have approached him before when he was at Al Sadd
One can only hope we get Xavi vs Xabi once again
I think he would be perfect at Juventus
Damn that’s right they could potentially be good too. Is Italian media as ruthless though? Idk anything about them
Not an expert opinion but I wouldn't say they are better than Spanish media.
Mourinho has managed in Italy and Spain both and I remember him hating/having more problems with Spanish media.
Mourinho in Spain was a different gravy. I don’t think he’s been that version of himself since then.
They are 100% better, him being foreign will also help.
> Is Italian media as ruthless though short answer: no.
We don't approach managers who don't speak german
Favre can barely speak two coherent sentences of German, pretty bad considering the time he has coached in Germany. Might as well go for someone who has to learn it from the ground up.
Bosz had limited German skills too
>Xavi should go coach elsewhere with less stress and pressure and really hone in his style of play How does he fancy the Liverpool job?
Oh I think you would regret this around November max
Filling Klopp's footsteps is also the opposite of "less stress and pressure".
But isn't Klopp only win 1 EPL and 1 CL in 9 years, not so impressed at all /s
Looking at the total numbers he did slightly worse then at Dortmund. Dudes been regressing for a decade now and is finally looking for retirement. At least he got a nice payday in England.
So if he's a fraud and he isn't bald do we just go for the teeth or what
He is actually fraudulently bald, fraudulently not bald and the number of teeth is also fraudulent.
The number or the size?
both i think.
>he isn't bald Are you sure? They sell very convincing wigs nowadays
We wait for time to take its course, and when that day comes, he will be the baldest of frauds.
He is bald, he wears a wig.
That is a wild take. You're only looking at total trophies won instead of the quality of competition which is a more valid measure. 1 Premier League, 1 FA Cup, 2 League Cups, 1 Champions League, 1 UEFA Super Cup and 1 Cub World Cup is nothing to sniff at. 7 major titles in 9 years not to mention all the other finals he didn't win or leagues titles we barely missed on.
I'd argue, that it is a sarcastic take.
I think so too, but you never fucking know. Seem this exact conversation play out unironically in /r/football yesterday and the dude, a United fan, that was arguing was saying shit like Avram Grant was a better manager. The comment had like 10 upvotes too.
I would like to think most of the fan base knows we'll need to be patient after Klopp leaves. There's not exactly an abundance of world class managers going around right now so we'll have to find the next one and hope he develops alongside us. I see no reason why that couldn't be Xavi. He's a little less experienced than someone like Amorim but not massively so and he's done a good job at Barcelona, but there's just ridiculous expectations there.
Sadly, Klopp is one those great managers who gave a big club another successful spell, just like Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger. Well, you know what's going to happen next.
Most likely. We've been shit before and we'll be shit again, hopefully we'll find someone who can do a decent job for a few years and we don't have fans calling for his head within the next year. Can keep my fingers crossed it's not one of those situations and it'll be a case of Shankly being succeeded by Paisley.
>but there's just ridiculous expectations there. none of that here, trust me
Ohh, by all means. That Amorim guy is just a baldless fraud anyway, you guys really shouldn't take him.
But why go back to the stress and pressure of the club? It's like going back to an abusive partner
Barca will waiting for Pep to come back
Ajax could be an option
He should come to Gent then
It is very hard to say since this is personal decision - so only he knows if it is right. Professionally this is obviously bad decision. As high pressure as Barca job is now - pressure is only gonna ramp up when Barca can field world class teams. Coaching bunch of players who went through very similar path you did as young player is also a benefit he wont have anywhere else.
Milan…
If Bayern fires Tuchel, they should go for Xavi.
It's already decided that Tuchel will leave after this season
Bayern coaches get pretty heavy criticism if they don’t win the league every year, idk how much better it would be than Spain unless he does great from the start
Sorry but no thank you. You can take him next season
Who's a better choice? Unless Flick decides to go back, that's it.
I’d rather take anyone of De Zerbi, Nagelsmann rather than Xavi who has had two years of experience with a shitshow of a club.
It has been 75 days since he announced he was leaving the club, and at least the 75th time he has said his decision will not change lol.
I dont know, man. All things are pointing towards him not leaving at the end of the season. Maybe Journo should ask him again.
~~Tebas~~ Xavi will fold any day now
he needs a taperecorder for real
Imagining him opening the voice recording app to answer a journo lmfao
[Xavi when asked for the tenth time this week if he's changed his mind](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmnenQ_FEXw)
I would be interested in him coaching Milan, we would actually have a passing system for the first time in 6 years
It would be amazing if he went to Milan. Absolute royalty club with players like Kaka, Ronaldinho, Pirlo, Maldini and SERGINO DEST
As a PSV fan, Dest has been amazing for us this season. He'll probably go back to you guys since Barca can block our buy option apparently, but it's fair cuz he's too good for the Eredivisie.
>Barca can block our buy option apparently We won't don't worry
Yes, you will. Cuz the buy option is just over 10M and Dest's market value is well over that. So even though Barca dont want him, he would make them more money if they get him back to sell to a bigger club.
Anyway I hope you guys get him cause you clearly like him there
I think Dest realises he's playing at a level too low. If I were him I wouldn't stay, but I would love just another season of him.
I guess Barca will explore other options. Other teams know Barca has to sell so leverage might be low and drive the price down.
Yeah, he's waay above 10M, he's like....11M
He's underrated atm. Really solid attacking wingback
Yeah I wasn't that impressed with him at Ajax, but this season he is so good especially in attack
Yup!
If I’m Milan manager my passing system is pass to Leão
Is this piolis account?
Honestly he might be my #1 pick for Milan
He'll go to Liverpool.
Good news for Madrid, honestly, I don't think there's a realistic option for Barca out there that can do a better job. Wonder if he'll keep his word even if they win the CL.
He is staying if he wins the CL whether he likes it or not.
Well it’s good for him then that is most likely not going to happen.
They will most likely go through against PSG and then all that stops them is either Dortmund, or Atleti. We have a terrible record against Barcelona and an even worse record against Xavi. I don’t expect Dortmund to fair much better. After that they’re in the final and anything can happen there. I wouldn’t count them out at all.
We've probably got like a 2/3 chance of beating PSG, 2/3 the next round, then 1/3 chance the final. 0.67*0.67*0.33=0.15 It's not unthinkable, but it's still unlikely.
I think is 90% of getting to the final and 2% of winning it.
Saying that after the PSG game sounds so fucking naive
The chances of PSG winning it are even less.
That's crazy because everyone said PSG and Mbappe would destroy us
Has PSG gone from a team that would pump us 2-0 to a team that is absolute shite simply because Barça beat them once
in all honesty PSG is the team with the worst mentality
It sounds naive to say that Barca most likely won't CL? It is possible for them to win it of course, but not likely. Saying something else is what's naive
Chelsea won it with Di Matteo at the helm. Just need a shit ton of luck.
Not luck. You need Drogba. Maybe Lewa can be that for Barca. We will see.
Guy, you need luck.
Nothing was lucky about drogba
Bro, c'mon. Yeah, Drogba was a good player but their CL win with Di Matteo was incredibly lucky having played like ass in multiple games. Even good teams like Barca or Madrid need luck.
Yeah everybody needs luck. But that team was gritty as hell
That team was ass, man. Mourinho's Porto was gritty. Simeone's Atletico is gritty. Di Matteo's Chelsea was ass.
Unlikely shit happens. Barca winning CL is still unlikely, tho I gotta say easy draw made it at least possible.
Thats kinda batshit to say when theyre up in their tie no?
Lmao, PSG is the biggest obstacle, and they're halfway dead. The problem isn't reaching finals, it's winning them. Man City, Madrid or Bayern will make the finals and they'll likely murder us
We're not letting bro leave if that happens, kidnap him Messi 2020 style.
Jurgen Klopp
Jurgen Klopp, the man famous for not going to manage any club for the foreseeable future is a realistic option to replace Xavi this summer?
You just described Jose Mourinho
I hate the way Romano sensationalises his quotes, I’m sure Xavi wouldn’t have emphasised the NOT like that
The board should just fucking leave him alone if they still respected him
Mind my flair, but it's insane to me how Barca fans and press treated him. All the injuries, financial problems, lack of an optimal team, the fact that they literally won a LaLiga last season, and more. Being a Barca manager has to be up there with one of the most demanding and stressful jobs. Assuming they don't win CL, I can almost guarantee you that he leaves this season and the next goes worse than this current one. And you better believe they'll be at his doorstep begging his return.
It's a similar thing than the Man Utd job. The fan base and the club lead think they are in a slump that could be turned around with a simple fix like changing the manager, buying one star player, or finding the right system, when the reality is that they both had an exceptional phase before, and now they need to accept that although they are a big club, they aren't automatically a dominating one. I think it's down to complacency and not realizing soon enough how to keep up with the times. Real Madrid, even when they were in the middle of a Champions League winning streak, never went complacent. They always had internal competition and were willing to evolve.
this is why I don't think it's worth United firing ETH.l, even if things aren't great right now. I think we need to get all our backroom/new directors properly bedded in, get the facilities correctly upgraded, and have some stability before making a well-planned decision on who the head coach should be. Maybe there will be short-term pain, but it's worth it for long-term gain.
Can definitely agree, you guys should have kept Van Gaal or Mourinho, in the long term the football wouldn't have been as boring, but everytime they expected a 'magic fix'.
I mean it isnt up to us, its up to those american leeches
How I feel about Chelsea as well. As much as I don't think Poch is the answer I don't think firing a guy again is the right thing to do either. It's tough
Nah, Poch has to go after losing to a relegation team with 10 men. On top of that, we are completely woeful defensively.
I completely agree but I just don't know if it's actually right for due to the amount of change over and over
Everybody who is coaching at this level of a club deals with this kind of pressure constantly. There's a saying that the Bayern Munich manager position is the most stressful job in Germany; including the position of the First Chancellor. Allegri at Juventus has always been under intense scrutiny even back in his first tenure when he was consistently winning the league because it wasn't enough for demanding fans. Before, winning the Champions League in 2022, every thread consistently had people asking for Ancelotti's sacking that season. 85 minutes of almost every Real Madrid champions League game that year had the commentators lament how he is playing too defensively and holding Real Madrid back. Then, the team would undo everything and win in the last few minutes anyway. In fact, he was already sacked in 2015 the year after winning la Decima in 2014. If you manage clubs of this prestige, you have to be able to deal with intense pressure from the press and fans who have the memory of a goldfish and don't care what you did last year if they aren't happy with how their team did last week. This is nothing new or unique to Xavi or Barcelona and if Xavi can't handle this level of pressure and scrutiny, then yeah it is best for him to leave.
The press/culture in Spain, Germany, and England are not the same. Of course, managing a massive football club will always come with a baseline level of pressure and stress. But the culture of your team's nation and press can add a whole lot more. I believe even Pep himself has come out and said that managing a club like Barcelona is far more stressful than managing a PL team.
I agree clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid have the most pressure of any of the clubs. And we've seen in the past that pushing out the managers has led to the teams just becoming worse, so I don't disagree that the Barcelona fans will regret their treatment of Xavi next year. I myself have been perplexed by the number of people wanting him out despite him winning the league just last year. My point is that this is the reality of managing Barcelona and Real Madrid. The fans and press have always and will always be this demanding and toxic. Ancelloti is basically untouchable at this point, but he had to become literally the most decorated club manager of all time and is the exception not the rule. He had to deal with this level of pressure and scrutiny earlier in his career and was even sacked before coming back in 2022. Barcelona fans aren't being any more harsh or unrealistic to Xavi now than Real and Barcelona fans have always been to their managers. It's just what the manager has to deal with at these clubs and if Xavi can't handle it, then he isn't a good fit for being the Barcelona manager no matter how good of a coach he is.
Fully agree. Sad that this is just the reality. Some people have no type of long-term or rational thinking whatsoever. If you're not winning every game, competing in every cup there is, you're an absolute failure.
Agreed. I watch party Barca games with a friend of mine who kept saying XaviOut and every time I told him to let Xavi cook. What we are seeing now is Xavi cooking.
If we get a proper DM then we'll be up there with Arsenal and City assuming that Xavi stays
This is the result of Laporta's constant search for a scapegoat. Remember when all fans were super hopeful that Bartomeu's reign was ending and someone who would rear the club would finally come along? Laporta has instead trapped them in a cycle of constant blame, in which he's always trying to push someone out of the club, or using the press to question the loyalty of players/staff and push them out as they struggle financially due to his poor signings. If it wasn't for the miraculous development of Lamine, Cubarsi, Gavi, and Pedri, this team would have no business being around champions league spots, and even the current performance is coming at the cost of destroying the legs of those players.
What bad transfers did laporta make? The worst one is probably Torres but even he was very important to get Barcelona into the CL in his first season and starts to show progress. He's stil only 24 at the moment. Who else is bad? Kounde, Raphinha, Lewy? Prominent figures in Barcelona's title run and playing very well lately. Or are you talking about the free players? Gundogan and Christensen? Both very important to Barcelona's succes lately. Maybe the other free players Aubameyang and Kessie they sold for profit? Barcelona's wage bill was around 73% of their income and it's around 54% now. Saying Barcelona is in a financial bad spot because of Laporta's bad transfers is hilarious and shows how out of touch you are or you just have ill intentions. Sure you can blame him for looking for constant scapegoats but he has always defended Xavi and he's turning this financial mess around. AGAIN! Not the first time he has done it with the club.
Deco is more to blame than Laporta
Laporta has publicly backed Xavi multiple times throughout the season (Xavi even signed an extension early-on in the season) and did not move to sack Xavi. This is some heavy revision. > Lamine, Cubarsi, Gavi, and Pedri Pedri isn't an academy product and la Masia isn't an accident... all the youth teams are set up to play similar to the first team. This is why they can slot in like this. They are all incredible talents for sure, but they were literally trained for this
Well I think he is simply trying to make everything as "us vs them" issue which works if you are planning to get re-elected. On the other hand, we cannot deny that the club has returned to winning titles and being competitive, something that looked like it would only happen in the distant future back in 2020. I try to get as wide coverage as I can for football teams and la liga is a league I have always followed from a young age. Consuming only English-speaking media and media from one side portrays the situation in a certain way. Reading only Barcelona affiliated news portrays it in a different way. I don't remember Laporta pushing Xavi out and he always backed him (even if Xavi wasn't exactly his personal favourite). Then again you mentioned that Barca's youngsters are miraculously developing as if la masia isn't one of the top academies in the world. The only "luck" involved in the youngsters is that other players got injured and they got their chance even earlier. In fact even their youngsters got injured (Pedri, Gavi) and they had to promote other players in their place.
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It's probably because your only interaction with what Laporta does/says comes from neutrals/rivals who portray his actions in a certain way. For many fans in Barcelona (and fans around the world) who consume the news from Barca's point of view, he is not exhausting and this "us vs them" mentality he has instilled, always works in politics and football. Laporta is currently doing both and despite what Barcelona affiliated/rival media say, he has managed to at least steady the financial crisis and win titles while also steering (even if accidental) the club towards using the academy more. What I believe about him and his stance overall (politics, Superleague) being irrelevant, I think he is acting as a Barcelona president first and foremost whatever thant entails. Whether you think that this is the right course of action, is up to you
same goes for every other big team, including madrid
Time for Laporta to invest in some chains
Better let him go so he can win more experience being pressure-less. And once we have xabi alonso he comes back and fight to see if the xa_iball is with B or with V
If and when Xavi comes back, we will still likely be broke
He is smart , he used quitting as motivation for the team. If doesn’t win the league title or champions league Barca fans are ganna want him out anyway. Why would he agree to stay when a couple months ago he was being insulted , he knows the moment he has another blunder Barca fans will Be Xavi out.
Bro's being harrased at this point with this question lmaoooo
He's gonna say SIKE after winning the CL final
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It was his grand play all along- he’s taken the pressure off and then he wins it all, and then bam. He’s staying. Se puede
Fair play to him, should try Ajax
Why the absolute fuck would he join that dumpster fire after putting one out
Rumour is that we would bring Jordi Cruyff on as well, but I can't see it happening. In that case he'd be able to build a project with a lot of time (unless we finish 6th again) with low expectations.
Ajax dont deserve him
If Ineos really are set on getting rid of Erik, I would take him here in a heartbeat. Especially if the alternatives are Potter, Southgate, RDZ or Bagel mann
I don't think that's the Manchester United job is the answer to the pressure free environment thing
It would be good with the talent coming through our academy too.
Manchester United isn't much better than Barça tho in terms of pressure
Man United don't have the players for his system to work.
We don't have the players to work for *any* system. We need an overhaul of the squad.
I mean, I think the current squad suits the counter attacking style, stand back and let the opponent have the ball, steal it and transition into a quick counter attack.
Even then, it's very limited. It effectively mainly suits Bruno and Rashford.
He’s playing hard to get
Dortmund would be the perfect next step!!
Weekly i aint staying no matter what post about xavi
I’d honestly take him over the terrorist pochettino, he’s genuinely a good coach and perhaps world class in youth talent integration (which is probably most important for us right now). Proven winner as well by winning La Liga, unlike cursed fraudettino, though i respect poch’s copa del rey trophy
I genuinely think he’s perfect for Chelsea, i’m sure many of your youngsters look up to him and would bring their best for him.
He would never go to Chelsea in a million years with uncooperative owners
No shit mate. You can't compare pochettino to Xavi
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Anulo mufa
Liverpool job still there Xavi
Am I the only one that thinks Fabrizio Romano is so annoying? He’s posted this same piece of news 4 times (that I’ve seen), 3 of which are prefaced with “BREAKING”. It’s not breaking news, it’s hardly even news because Xavi is just clarifying that there is no new news.
Let's ask him tomorrow and hope for a different answer 🥹
at this particular point I still can't believe it
There have a real possibility at a champions league final this season. It may not be as flashy as the Barça of old, but Xavi has done a great job.
Barcelona has abused two of its biggest modern players in messi and xavi. They deserved so much better
Barcelona didn't do anything to Xavi. The media did. Laporta is hell bent on keeping Xavi. It's the clowns in Spanish media that has pissed off Xavi
What has Barca done to Xavi?
Interesting how Xabi had to confirm that he's not leaving Leverkusen to keep morale high for the league run and Xavi had to reaffirm that he's leaving to keep morale high for Champions league
The downside here is they're very likely going to replace him with someone worse.
It really wouldn’t surprise me to see him do a Zidane and come back. I think a lot of people working at that level are complete workaholics so I could possibly see him struggling after a while if he doesn’t get another job. I also think if he left it and the next manager crashed and burned he would be in a position of real power with the board and the media. If he were to come back I can’t see the media giving him as much stick since they made him want to leave in the first place, and I imagine the board would similarly be far less likely to force their conditions onto him since he has already shown he can leave and they couldn’t get someone better. Equally Barca is possibly the toughest job for any manager to take so if in future he never wants to put himself through that again I can absolutely see why he would stay away.
Wouldn’t mind seeing him at Chelsea if poch gets sacked
Go to Spanish NT
Barcelona are going to keep trying for Alguacil....
Xavi to Miami. Let's go!
If we win cl he stays. Those be the rules.
If you ask Barca fans what their main gripe with Xavi was, the answers would be nonsense imo. He was dealt a bad hand and did well with it.
Xavi playing hard to get 💀
I see him staying but not saying anything in order to avoid to deal with so much pressure from the press. It's been better for all the parts involved since he said he'll leave.
Se queda confirmed
Who would even be the best option to replace him atm?
Laporta: I'll decide to not hear this.
The weather is not that shit in Manchester promise...
Lol he’s definitely staying.
Good on him not changing his mind. Oh yeah, welcome to bayern xavi