Former Barcelona player and legend Xavi Hernandez replaced Ronald Koeman as Barcelona Manager in 2021. The Spanish coach took charge of the team and it’s been quite a ride. He announced that he would be leaving Barcelona at the end of the season even though his contract runs till next summer.
“You often feel there is lack of respect, you feel that your work is not appreciated. It wears you down terribly, in terms of health, of mental health, your mood, your emotional state,” Xavi said. “I am a positive guy but the energy goes down, down, down, until the point at which you say: it makes no sense. It makes no sense to continue. That’s how I explain it. I decided it some time ago; the people closest to me know. It’s a situation that I think affects the club now. It affects me but when it affects the club I think I have to leave.”
Let’s take a look at his performance in charge of the Catalan club. Xavi was appointed head coach of the club a few months after Lionel Messi had left with the club in a financial crisis, ninth in La Liga and on the verge of elimination from the Champions League. Xavi will certainly be leaving the club in better shape than he found it. In his short tenure as manager, he won the La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup while returning Barca to regular Champions League football; something that was far from guaranteed when he took over. His time in charge has had some highs and lows but the objective, the Spanish coach has more highs than lows.
According to the Spaniard, one of his best moments in charge of Barcelona was a 3-1 win over Real Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup in January 2023.
“That was the best game, absolutely no doubt,” Xavi said last year via ESPN. “I have said it several times and I stand by it. I go for that game because of the performance, because you saw how we wanted to play and because it was our first trophy. Also, because of who it was against. After that day, the players believed in everything we wanted to do.”
A close second was a 4-2 victory against Espanyol that won them the league. “Winning the league will always be unforgettable,” Xavi said. “We finally did it. It had been our main objective since we took on the job. We showed that we could do it — and against our city rival as well. We produced one of our best performances of the season.”
Despite the domestic success and multiple triumphs over rivals Real Madrid, Xavi’s Barca struggled in Europe. They couldn’t compete at the top level with other top teams in Europe which resulted in their early exits from the competition for the past two seasons. This put their improvement into serious contention. Bayern promptly took apart Xavi’s team in the 2021/2022 Champions League leading to their failure to advance to the knockout stage and relegation to the Europa League. Even when they were relegated to the Europa League, Barca still couldn’t win it as they were knocked out by Eintracht Frankfurt who later went on to win the trophy that season. A similar thing occurred in the next season as their woeful group stage performances prevented them from advancing to the knockout stage. They were promptly relegated to the Europa League for the second season in a row.
They finally made it past the group stage this season and are currently set to face PSG in the Champions League quarter finals but that may be the only positive for Barcelona this season. They are currently second in the league, eight points behind league leaders Real Madrid with only eight La Liga matches left to play. They already lost the Super Cup to Real Madrid in a 4-1 defeat and were knocked out of the Copa del Rey in a 4-2 defeat to Athletic Club. For all intents and purposes, Barca will end this season without a domestic trophy, and winning the Champions League is highly doubtful.
So far, Xavi has managed 133 games for Barcelona of which he won 84, drew 23, and lost 26; excellent stats for a young coach.
Xavi’s time at Barca has been full of ups and downs so far. The Spanish manager showed a lot of promise and is not likely to be in the job market for long before another club hires him after leaving Barca. They’re going to miss him sorely. What do you think?