OPINION: How the Barcelona job ended in Xavi devouring himself
The same thing happened with his speech. When Laporta went looking for him in November 2021 and begged him to take charge of Barca, replacing Ronald Koeman, the objective was none other than to recover the essence of the club, which was lost under the Dutch coach. Xavi spoke in those exciting days stating that the most important thing was not to win, but how they play.
"I don't sign up to winning without playing well. That's not the objective."
The discourse, and his belief, changed as the demand to win LaLiga grew and grew after the double failure in the Champions League. The important thing now was to win in any way, even focussing more on not conceding rather than scoring; a betrayal of the Barca philosophy that he had to implement.
With this more defensive tactic, Xavi's Barca gradually mutated. His attacking DNA changed in many games. The tactical design of the 4-3-3 or 3-4-3, something untouchable at Camp Nou, was also modified.
The team did not hesitate to sit deep in their own area and shamelessly look for the counter-attack in some specific games, such as against Real Madrid. Because what they really needed were titles. It no longer mattered how.
He won two trophies - a LaLiga and the Spanish Super Cup. And the criticism stopped. But everything that seemed to be going well on a public level, failed on an internal level.
The departure of Mateu Alemany and Jordi Cruyff, his greatest backers, hurt him. The arrival of Deco, a former team-mate, as head of the sporting department, encouraged him.
However, the president's support of Rafa Marquez - the coach of the reserve team - in front of the cameras when Barca began to have bad results, made him fear the worst.
A renewal for the benefit of the gallery
All doubts seemed to be dispelled in September 2023, just four months ago, when Xavi renewed his contract until 2025. But he didn't just want the support on paper.
Xavi gives the impression of having felt neglected and even undervalued. He has insisted dozens of times that what he and his coaching staff have achieved since he arrived should be valued, and that the league and the Super Cup should be appreciated.
He said it himself in the run-up to that game. "You have to value things now, not when you leave".
The bad results in January, namely the humiliating defeat to Real Madrid in the Super Cup final and the elimination in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey against Bilbao, left a bitter taste in everyone's mouths. Losing 5-3 against Villarreal after initially coming from 2-0 down was the breaking point.
However, I don't know if I believe, after his many footballing contradictions and his changes of discourse, whether it was he who took the step to leave or whether he was forced out.
The only thing that is certain is that Xavi came back to take on the world with his Barca... and instead, Xavi has devoured himself with his high demands in a club that, right now, has neither the resources nor the management capacity required to give stability to a project.
