Barcelona suffered a heavy defeat against Villarreal 5-3 in La Liga, at home and among its fans, days after bidding farewell to the Spanish King’s Cup at the hands of Athletic Bilbao. A few weeks ago, he lost the Spanish Super Cup by four to Real Madrid in Saudi Arabia.
It seems that this defeat, against Villarreal, was like the straw that broke the camel’s back, and gave a new impetus to liberate the team from the grip of Xavi, who was now under fire, and demands for his dismissal rose among everyone in the club’s management and its fans.
At the beginning of the current season, specifically in mid-September, FC Barcelona announced the renewal of Xavi’s contract until June 2025, after the management saw that winning the Super Cup and La Liga championships last season was an indication of the success of the project under the leadership of the Catalan coach.
After the defeat against Villarreal, Joan Laporta met with Xavi and the sports administration to discuss the team’s clear deterioration in performance and results. Despite the dissatisfaction, they preferred not to discuss the dismissal at the present time, according to what was reported by Mundo Deportivo newspaper.
The perfect solution inspired by Jurgen Klopp
Yesterday, Friday, Jurgen Klopp announced in a shocking decision that he had decided to leave Liverpool at the end of the season despite the fact that he is at the top of the Premier League standings and is also making steady progress in the Cup competitions in England and the European League, explaining that that he wants to take a break from training for a year because he is starting to lose weight. His energy, as he put it.
It seems that this step taken by a coach the size of Jurgen Klopp in the middle of the season gave Joan Laporta the perfect solution to get out of Xavi’s predicament and the results crisis.
The financial crisis that Barcelona is suffering from prevents its president from making an immediate dismissal decision and bearing the money for the release clause, not to mention finding a new coach at such a time. At the same time, the president wants to contain the anger sweeping through members of his administration as well as the fans who are demanding the immediate dismissal of Xavi due to the disappointing results. .
The agreement between Laporta and Xavi on the decision to leave at the end of the season, similar to what Klopp did, was the ideal solution to that dilemma: he would absorb everyone’s anger and escape the penalty clause.
Perhaps the coach and his players’ release from pressure will change their course, improve results, and things will change at the end of the season.