2023-07-22 07:00:43
They won the League with defensive solvency and tactical readjustments in the middle of the route that led them to domestic success, but they were not enough outside of Spain.
He won the League breaking years of drought and gave credibility to his idea and method, but Xavi, Better than anyone, he is aware that he is now approaching the key moment of his project.
It is his second full course – the seven months after Koeman’s dismissal allowed him to meet the minimum goal that was then maximum, to qualify for the Champions League – but the demand is increasing in level. And repeating the conquest of the League is essential, as well as being competitive in Europe, the ceiling that must be broken as President Joan Laporta reminds him almost daily. Nor is it necessary.
Xavi is aware that his Barça, which starts at dawn from Saturday to Sunday against Juventus (04:30, TV-3 and Movistar), will be measured by its strength in the Champions League, a cursed tournament since 2015 that has meant the grave of coaches like Valverde, solid and reliable in Spain, but who later collapsed in Rome or Anfield. Or that he took the brief and fleeting Quique Setién ahead with that cruel 2-8 of Bayern in Lisbon.
Ferran and Raphinha, the most expensive investments
In the United States, and waiting for the club to find accommodation for players who don’t fit into their plans, Xavi is weaving the pattern of the new Barça. The one who should get closer to the idea of him after going through various phases. He arrived in November 2021 and verified that the “this is what it is” verbalized by Koeman It was a truth as emphatic as it was unappealable.
In January, the entity stirred up the winter market like never before, taking money from under the rocks to sign, for example, to Ferran Torres for 55 million eurosthe second investment of the current stage of Laporta only surpassed by Raphinha (58 + 7 in variables).
Aubameyang, Adama y Alves they also came that January 2022. But none followed. In the summer, and with levers activated to the maximum, 153 million more were disbursed to give the coach the structure with which he has won the League and Super Cup, titles that should be starting points for the reconstruction.
more pressure than before
Now, on the other hand, there is not a single euro, no matter how much the president Joan Laporta proudly proclaims that “Barça has a better team than Madrid”. Barça has spent 3.4 million euros on Oriol Romeu. The 30 plus 31 in variables by Vitor Roque will not be seen these coming months on the pitch; Madrid, 100 in Bellingham, 20 in Arda Güler, a young Turkish talent that the Barça coaches wanted, and five in executing the return clause of Fran Garcia. That is, 125 against 3.4.
But Laporta has no doubts about who is the better team, thus increasing the pressure on Xavi, who is still pining for two more signings. Ancelotti, for his part, is waiting for Mbappé, no matter how much he says that Benzema’s hole is already covered with Joselu, Brahim plus the goals provided by Vinicius and Rodrygo. The white coach is missing, however, the 31 goals that Karim signed in the 43 games he played last season.
Pending renewal
Xavi also lacks a goal because if Lewandowski goes out (he will turn 35 on August 21) problems arise, as was detected last year. The coach also appears at a fundamental moment in his project because he ends his contract in June 2024. In other words, like Ancelotti, linked to the Brazilian team, he starts this season with an expiration date.
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And the renovation, which seemed on track a few months ago, coinciding with the league win, is not going as quickly, among other reasons because Laporta has made it clear that the first thing is to complete the current squad, both in transfers and sales, before addressing the continuity of the coach. He himself has made it clear that “it will never be a problem” for the club.
In addition, the mechanisms of the new sports structure that the president has designed after the voluntary and silent departure of Jordi Cruyff, who acted as liaison with Xavi and as technical secretary, have to be adjusted and greased. has come into place Deco, who is much “more interventionist” than Jordi, as defined by Laporta, which forces to draw a new framework of understanding in the second full course of Xavi. The second and the most delicate because Barça will rent and exile him on Montjuïc, a mountain that his partners do not want to climb.
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