Barcelona hopes Xavi reverses decision and remains with club

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has proclaimed that he wants current head coach Xavi to remain at the role. The manager previously announced back in January that he would be stepping down from the position at the end of the current campaign. Xavi’s comments came following the club’s 5-3 home loss to Villarreal.

The Catalan club sat a disappointing third in the LaLiga standings at the time. Xavi previously led the team to the 2022/23 league title but has seen his squad struggle throughout the current season. Nevertheless, Laporta has now publicly declared his desire for his former player to stay with the club.

“Yes, absolutely. He already knows. I’d like him to stay,” Laporta told Mundo Deportivo when asked about to possibility of Xavi being the team’s manager in 2024/25.

“He keeps saying he’ll leave in June, but we’ll see. We don’t want to put this pressure on ourselves to make a decision for ourselves because the way things are going is working for us now.”

Laporta has spoken with replacements for Xavi at Barcelona

Although Barca has struggled with consistency throughout the season, the club is undefeated since Xavi made the announcement. The Spanish side has now moved up to second, only behind rivals Real Madrid, in the domestic table. Barca also advanced to the Champions League quarterfinals by beating Napoli 4-2 on aggregate. They edged their Italian counterparts in the competition by dominating the Serie A side 3-1 in the second-leg fixture.

Despite making the comments regarding Xavi, Laporta admitted that he has also discussed the position with other coaches. Laporta recently held talks with the agents of former Bayern Munich manager Hansi Flick. The manager most recently was at the helm of the German national team. However, Flick was fired in September of 2023 after the team’s poor run of form.

Besides Flick, Laporta told the aforementioned news outlet that picking a potential Barca manager is not…

Source link : https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/barcelona-hopes-xavi-reverses-decision-and-remains-with-club

Author : Chris Moore

Publish date : 2024-03-22 16:25:09

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