Xavi: a hundred days on a roller coaster

There is an unwritten rule that protects anyone who arrives at a new job with a hundred days to finish adapting to their new functions. In the world of football, this theory is simply a fallacy, since a hundred days are an eternity, so the time to judge the work starts from the day after the contract is signed. And even more so if you are a person who knows perfectly the idiosyncrasies of the club, then the credit runs out practically from minute one.

Xavi began to be pointed out even before he signed his contract with FC Barcelona. Since it became known that a Blaugrana delegation, led by vice president Rafa Yiste and the director of football, Mateu Alemany, had traveled to Doha to try to close the incorporation of Xavi as the new coach of the first team, the authorized voices, and the non so authorized by the Blaugrana environment, they began the saber war. On the one hand, those who still had Ronald Koeman’s dismissal very much in mind, to point out Xavi’s little experience as a coach, while the loudspeakers of the media cavern put their finger on the sore spot that the Qatari League was practically a competition between singles and married men, and the rest applauded the return of Xavi as if he were the Messiah of the Blaugrana style of play.

With this noise of sabers Xavi began his adventure at FC Barcelona. With very little time left to prepare for the first game, against Espanyol at the Camp Nou, since a good part of the squad was with their national teams. The coach, accompanied by a staff of committed and loyal people, began to draw all the main lines to give a radical turn to the team.

One of his first decisions was to get his hands on the medical services, pointed out by an evident lack of professionalism in the management of some of the injuries, with the departure of a total of nine people. This first screening had as a paradigm the sudden dismissal of Juanjo Brau, head physiotherapist of the first team, who was pointed out as the main responsible for the bleeding of relapses in the club, with the canary Pedri as a great trigger.

After a massive presentation at the Camp Nou, where he shared the applause of a devoted fan with Joan Laporta, the task of rebuilding a team that was mired in a deep well of results and play began. The first decisions, agreed with Alemany, had the squad as the main objective: they had to start doing a deep cleaning in the locker room. The discards began, such as the Austrian Yusuf Demir or the Brazilian Philippe Coutinho, while they bet on the youth of Gavi and Nico from the first minute, with the fundamental support of the captains, with Sergio Busquets as the armed arm of the project.

Strict rules were installed to avoid excesses and that put the players in their place, reinstating the fines and forcing him to lead a more complete and professional life as a footballer in the Ciutat Esportiva. Piqué was the first who wanted to avoid feeling singled out from the first day and canceled some interviews that he had agreed to promote the Davis Cup in Madrid.

But very soon the first criticisms began to arrive, from a part of the environment that awaited any setback with a sharp knife: after two consecutive victories in LaLiga (Espanyol and Villarreal) and a surprising defeat at home (Betis), Bayern Munich appeared on the horizon. Xavi, hooked on a recalcitrant optimism, invited his players to a feat at the Allianz Arena. Laporta joined this crusade, tinged with unreal euphoria, haranguing the team to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League. In the field, the harsh reality of a poorly planned and thought-out squad was experienced, with an unappealable and unqualified defeat: 3-0.

After the setback in the Champions League, the atmosphere became cloudy again, with the word “failure” on the lips of some. In Madrid they rubbed their hands, making fun of the ‘Xavi effect’ and even assuring that there was no difference between Xavi’s Barça and Koeman’s.

The technician was hiding behind the fact that he needed time to order an unbalanced squad in all its lines, also claiming the need for reinforcements. The first did not take long to arrive, a veteran Dani Alves, who had been offering himself for some time, appeared barefoot in his presentation at the Camp Nou to enjoy his new adventure. However, due to contractual issues, he could not be registered until January.

Meanwhile, the team was drawing as best they could their games in LaLiga, with draws against Osasuna and Sevilla, and an agonizing victory against Elche. Results that brought the team closer to the goal of finishing in the Champions zone, although more slowly than expected.

In January the market opened and the ups and downs began to take place. Ferran Torres arrived as a personal bet from Xavi, that he had Álvaro Morata between his eyebrows. At the exits, a proper name appeared on the horizon: Ousmane Dembélé. The Frenchman, after swearing and perjuring that he wanted to stay, left the negotiations with the club in the hands of his agent, Moussa Sissoko. The problem is that the representative had other ideas with his client and began to stall, until Alemany got tired and sent him an ultimatum, endorsed by the technician: “Either you renew or you leave.”

Despite this open conflict, Adama Traoré and Pierre Emerick Aubameyang were brought in to reinforce a weakened attack after the goodbye of Kun due to heart problems and a new relapse of Ansu Fati. Xavi’s excellent relationship with Alemany and Jordi Cruyff, executive of the sports area, allowed him to manage from consensus a list of reinforcements that have ended up being very much to his liking, despite in the end not having been able to bring the most desired of all: Morata.

Xavi has also had to endure a defeat against Real Madrid in the Super Cup, despite the fact that he deserved more, with an extension included, and elimination from the Cup against Athletic, with another extension through. And, to make matters worse, Dembélé has had to manage the ‘affair’, convincing the club’s heavyweights, thanks to his vehemence, that it would be counterproductive to have a player in the squad and not be able to count on him.

His desire to unite the group and turn the locker room into a pineapple was confirmed from the first day, promoting more enjoyable sessions, with games and tests organized by his staff, which have been very well received by the footballers. In addition, individual meetings with players and tactical sessions have multiplied.

Right now, after the first hundred days at the helm of FC Barcelona, ​​the feeling is that the road to reconstruction is underway. There are still many pieces to fit together, but the results and the game are beginning to arrive little by little: the team is already in the Champions League after adding 22 points in 11 games and opens this Thursday in the Europa League against Napoli.

But of these three months, which seems to have been a year, there is an experience that he keeps with special affection: the evening with Leo Messi, coinciding with the celebration of his 42nd anniversary. A dinner of two cracks, where Barça was very present.