While there was uncertainty before at FC Barcelona, there is complete clarity now. No longer will La Blaugrana continue with Xavi Hernandez as their coach, and it is already confirmed. In his stead, German coach Hansi Flick will be the man that Barcelona entrusts to lead the team next season.
However, many continue to wonder about the exact reasons that led to Xavi’s dismissal. Previously, Barcelona seemed adamant about retaining the Spanish coach, but it seems that as time went by, the club decided to relieve him of his duties and turn their attention elsewhere.
While there are several reasons behind the actual dismissal, one key factor was the disagreement over which players were to remain in the team or not. This has reportedly caused a lot of frustration between the Barcelona board and the team’s head coach during the season.
According to SPORT, there are essentially five main players who Xavi no longer wanted to keep in the team, but some of them were players that the board made sacrifices to acquire, and that in turn led to even more disagreements within FC Barcelona. Perhaps the two major contributors were none other than Robert Lewandowski and Vitor Roque.
As showcased by his recent substitutions where the Polish striker would regularly come off the field even if Barcelona needed goals at the end, Xavi was declaring that he did not want to count on the Barcelona ace next season, something that did not sit right with the higher-ups it seems.
Instead, Xavi believed that letting go of Lewandowski would allow them to better invest those saved funds elsewhere. Moreover, even with Vitor Roque, Xavi’s decision to not trust him this season at all showcased his lack of faith in him. However, this felt wrong to Deco and others at Barcelona, who believed it would have classified the transfer as a complete failure.
Others such as Joao Felix, Oriol Romeu, and Marcos Alonso were not in Xavi’s plans either. In Romeu’s case, Xavi reportedly already accepted his fault in bringing him in at all. The two others, however, were not major economic burdens but were still sporting liabilities and took up space in the squad as players that the Barcelona coach did not even want.
As a consequence of all these disagreements between Xavi and the Barcelona board, the sacking of the coach was a ticking explosion. Now, at last, this prolonged saga has come to an end. A new direction is where Barça are headed, and they trust Hansi Flick to be the right man for the job.
