MADRID, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- The news that Xavi Hernandez will step down as coach of FC Barcelona at the end of June has shocked Spanish football, but the day after the 44-year-old dropped his bombshell in the wake of Barca's 5-3 defeat at home to Villarreal, maybe it is not as surprising as it first appeared.
Although Xavi led Barcelona to the La Liga title last season - his first full campaign in charge - he would be the first to admit it was not one of the great Barca teams. The coach said at the start of the current campaign that it was still a work in progress and would improve with time.
Now that work in progress will stop, and a new coach will come and press the reset button, just as Xavi did when he replaced Ronald Koeman.
Both Xavi and Koeman arrived at Barcelona with a billing as former legends who would save Barca from their problems and ultimately both have failed - although Xavi's failure also has to be qualified by the financial fair-play restrictions that have limited the club's ability to move in the transfer market, as well as a continued stream of injuries to key players, such as Inigo Martinez, Pedri, Gavi and Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
A brief look into Barca's recent history gives the background for the chaos: Ernesto Valverde was sacked in January 2020 despite winning two league titles and with the team top of the table.
His successor Quique Setien was known for playing Barca's passing game, but it went dreadfully wrong, with poor relations with key players, and Barca lost the league, as well as suffering a historic 8-2 humiliation to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Xavi was sounded out as a possible replacement for Setien, but with only his brief experience of coaching in Qatar, turned down the role, and so Ronald Koeman was feted as a returning hero, despite a mediocre record as a club coach. When it was clear the Dutchman had failed in late 2021, Xavi probably felt he had no option other than to accept the job, despite his limited experience.
It was not a good time to join a club crippled by debts and with Joan Laporta trying to right the ship after Josep Maria Bartomeu's ruinous presidency. On top of economic problems came revelations in the Negreira case, in which it was revealed that the club had for a long time made payments to the former vice-president of Spain's refereeing committee, which casts doubt on their titles won over two decades.
Lionel Messi had left the club just months before Xavi's return, leaving him to work with a post-Messi vacuum that some argue the club has never filled, and while Xavi deserves credit for spotting Gavi's talent, other youngsters such as Pedri and Ansu Fati have seen their careers interrupted by injury, while this season Gavi is out with a knee injury.
If that wasn't enough to test any coach, this season's remodeling of the Camp Nou means Barca have had to move home to the cold atmosphere of the former Olympic Stadium, where the capacity is around half of the Camp Nou and the fans are separated from the pitch by a running track.
Villarreal coach Marcelino Garcia Toral commented on the added difficulty that entails in his post-game press conference on Saturday, and maybe the move was the final straw in a mountain of problems that mounted up for Xavi, who had become noticeably more irritable in recent press conferences.
"The feeling of being a Barca coach is unpleasant, it is cruel, you feel that they disrespect you many times; that your work is not valued and it is a terrible drain on mental health and mood.
"I am a very positive guy but the energy is going down to the point that you say that it makes no sense to continue.
"It has happened to all the coaches who have passed through here," said Xavi announcing his decision.
When a man who spent 17 seasons in the first team before returning to the dugout only to ultimately fail says that, you know the problem runs deep.
And Xavi's successor will probably face exactly the same issues when they start work on July 1. ■
