Within the quarter century that FC Barcelona has held my coronary heart, it’s tough to consider a extra grossly mishandled, heartless, incomprehensibly unprofessional scenario than the dismissal of Xavi as supervisor of the lads’s first group.
It sits on the pinnacle of a mountain of unpreparedness, ego, stupidity and bare ambition, amid a world by which no person was or is ready for the position they inhabit or used to inhabit. And at each final accessible alternative on and off the pitch, each important protagonists have displayed that amateurishness.
Joan Laporta isn’t a idiot. However he’s a proud man guided by hubris, ego and outsized self-opinion. That makes him an actual hazard to the membership that he pledged to do proper by, operating for president on the platform that he knew higher as a result of he had been there earlier than. Underlying that notion was a promise that these days would return.
Which days is the related query.
Laporta 1.0 was fast-paced and ugly, a reign outlined by the whims of a pacesetter. It featured resignations galore together with a batch of board members reminiscent of Sandro Rosell, kicking off an enmity that discovered its eventual realization in one more egocentric egoist assuming the president’s chair. It additionally led to the Bartomeu period, one which Laporta purported, promised to steer the membership out of even when that in the end meant promoting every part of worth that wasn’t nailed down, mortgaging the longer term for extra cava-soaked parades.
Laporta obtained fortunate the primary time, narrowly surviving a censure movement then hiring Pep Guardiola, who made all questions anybody may need had in regards to the males operating the membership moot. It was successful, stunning soccer and pleasure. What else was there?
The largest mistake an individual could make is to mistake luck for ability, to suppose that they’d one thing to do with issues they’d nothing in any respect to do with. Opening the door for somebody who arms over a examine for one million Euros doesn’t make you a monetary wizard. You’re only a doorman. Laporta forgot every part about that first tenure besides, “I’m the boss.” He by no means discovered what he didn’t know, believing that he had one thing to do with that success.
Now as then, professionals left to get replaced by sure males. Mateu Alemany, Jordi Cruijff, changed by Deco, a person Guardiola needed to see the again of for good purpose. FC Barcelona was not in situation to be handed over to somebody like Laporta, however as a result of everyone likes nostalgia, he was given the keys.
Laporta was unprepared, and employed a supervisor much more unprepared. That supervisor additionally obtained fortunate as Actual Madrid underperformed and opponents proceeded to make at instances stupefying selections within the remaining third, lacking passes and pictures time after time that may have led the observant to surprise what would occur once they began making these passes, hitting the goal on these pictures. This season, Barça completed on virtually the identical variety of factors ample to win the Liga crown final season, however Actual Madrid didn’t cooperate. Neither did opponents. And Barça was wanting up at a gone champion, conceding many, many extra targets as they battled Girona for second within the desk.
Like at a funeral, Xavi, who needed to step over the severed head of his predecessor to get to his new workplace, can be remembered fondly. Whoever will get up at a eulogy and says, “Whooof! Glad that man is gone, amirite?” Individuals will declare that he developed younger gamers, however he didn’t. He rolled out Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi not solely as a result of they have been prepared however as a result of they have been wanted, then he rode them like rented mules as a result of he wanted leads to a misguided effort to save lots of his personal pores and skin. He rolled out Fermin Lopez then ignored him even in matches the place his ability set, as we have now seen in latest weeks, would have been fairly helpful.
The membership spent 50m on a ahead in Vitor Roque and Xavi ignored him, not saying a phrase about why he wasn’t enjoying in any respect till ample media buildup occurred. Then got here the, “Xavi doesn’t like him,” no matter which means. Gavi stagnated, Balde regressed, Lamine Yamal and Cubarsi stayed the place they’re.
Xavi trusted Joao Cancelo over Hector Fort, demonstrating a lot about simply how pure his dedication to youth actually was. Cancelo took heart circle in killing the group towards PSG and undaunted, Xavi rolled him out once more towards Actual Madrid, with the identical total impact.
His groups made the identical errors match after match, performed so tactically silly within the second leg towards PSG that if it have been a child enjoying on-line PlayStation, his buddies could be like, “Dude. You okay? No, I’m simply asking since you’re appearing loopy proper now.”
The soccer and boardroom have been having a battle over who was essentially the most messy, till the boardroom determined to get critical about being silly and unprofessional. Xavi’s group obtained some good outcomes due to particular person brilliance and luck, the latter an underestimated consider a group’s success. The rumbles started in regards to the board wanting Xavi, who pledged to depart the group on the finish of the season, to stay. They talked him into it, had a gladhanding presser that was all grins and pleasure.
Then outcomes turned. And Laporta, king of flying by the seat of his pants, needed Xavi gone, selecting to fireside the person only a month after he obtained him to rethink and keep. The rumors, the excitement, the data flooding social and different media, left the particular person at its heart principally in a sea of ignorance. Discovering out that you simply’re about to be fired through some journalist’s feed speaks to a level of dimwitted callousness that no person — a lot much less a membership legend — deserves.
That Xavi was the flawed man for the job is immaterial to the truth of how his departure was dealt with. The flawed man for a job was outdone by an much more flawed man. Xavi shouldn’t have been employed, Laporta shouldn’t have been elected. Two wrongs by no means make a proper.
Xavi comported himself with calmness and dignity all through the complete course of. He didn’t have to, didn’t need to. He has at all times mentioned that he liked the membership, and his conduct made that abundantly clear, even within the wake of the tersely worded press assertion that introduced he could be leaving, and never by mutual consent.
The basic downside with each males is that they have been, are and can be in over their heads. It’s one factor to run a membership that has a couple of monetary difficulties however you may make a few strikes, rent the precise coach and out of the blue all is nicely, to inheriting a debt-soaked wreck that has additionally tithed itself to a billion Euro-plus new stadium, and one other seat of the pants choice to rent a agency that promised to get it completed shortly, however will find yourself being late.
Xavi inherited a group that was constrained by a scarcity of cash, bringing his personal group of assistants and physios, then being beset by a collection of accidents, reinjuries and essential gamers in Balde and Gavi misplaced to season-ending knocks. He wasn’t able to adapt, wasn’t prepared to determine a system for his group, a way of enjoying that ready it to be something apart from as chaotic and messy as the person in whose arms his destiny in the end rested.
Sadly, we supporters have been additionally unprepared, however we had no management over when the factor we love is being managed and steered by individuals who don’t know higher, to allow them to’t do higher. Laporta is out of luck and Xavi is out of rope. Each conditions led to us watching an absolute shitshow.
And it is a membership that had a president resign due to a shady switch and a socio submitting a lawsuit. One other president left when throughout a worldwide pandemic, members have been so sick and uninterested in his presence that they garnered sufficient signatures to pressure him out. Presidents have been arrested, have employed corporations to spy on gamers, have completed all types of issues. Regardless of all of that, as supporters we discovered new ranges of disgust with the folks operating the membership, OUR membership.
As Xavi mentioned throughout his remarks, supervisor of FC Barcelona is a crappy job when you aren’t successful. However nowadays, it’s a crappy job anyhow as a result of your future is within the arms of a capricious, artificially tanned man as stuffed with hubris as he’s self-belief. When an individual who’s flawed doesn’t wish to admit they’re flawed then doubles down, you might have an actual mess. FC Barcelona aspires to be a large number.
The brand new neck on the block, Hansi Flick, has mentioned that managing FC Barcelona has been his dream. It was Xavi’s dream as nicely till he obtained so sick of it that he needed to depart, then selected to remain, then was fired. The adage “Watch out what you want for” has by no means been extra clearly illustrated. It’s a rueful legacy in addition to cautionary story.