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Barcelona is in the process of rebuilding and bringing back Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernandez will be the best move the club could make.
Since Lionel Messi left, Barcelona has struggled to get back to its dominant form. The club managed to bring in a couple of good signings though–Memphis Depay and Sergio Aguero. Indeed, the aforementioned players are world-class, however, Barcelona dropping down to the ninth spot in the La Liga standings certainly proves that having Depay and Aguero is not enough.
Like in any other struggling team, if the blame could not be put on the players, it's definitely on the coach. In Barcelona's case, Ronald Koeman had to take the heat and the devastating loss to Rayo marked the end of his stay at Camp Nou.
While it is a bit too early to conclude, Barcelona's decision to fire Koeman generally makes sense after all. Looking at the current Barca squad, Depay seems to have been doing his part as the club's new talisman, having notched five goals in 14 matches across all competitions so far. Even Aguero, who missed a couple of games early in the season due to injury, also managed to register one goal after five matches for the Catalans.
Simply put, Barcelona thought the squad just needs a better coach. As expected, renowned managers are now being linked to Barca. Among them were Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola and Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta. However, the favorite thus far is Barcelona all-time great Xavi Hernandez.
Despite the hype, nothing is deemed concrete yet at this point aside from Xavi's stance on the subject.
“My idea is to coach Barcelona,” Xavi previously said via Barca Blaugranes. “I have never hidden it, it is my goal and my dream.”
With Xavi already keen on the idea, the pressure now mounts on Barcelona president Joan Laporta.
To be fair, Laporta has always been very vocal about his intensions to revamp Barcelona. Atop that, he is also not shying away from addressing the club's most sensitive issues, including Xavi's.
According to Laporta, he and Xavi has been constantly communicating but he insisted that those are “private conversations.” However, the Barca chief admitted that Xavi is “a possibility” given he has the potential to lead the current Barcelona squad.
“I have really good references from close people who know him better than me in that way,” Laporta said of Xavi at a press conference on Friday via Sky Sports. “I have a great relationship with Xavi, I have been speaking with him in the last month, I know his opinion about this squad, what he thinks has to happen. We talk as two friends and in this case, my opinion is a really good one.”
“He is a possibility because we will see how everything will continue evolving,” he added.
Now that it is becoming more and more apparent that Xavi is closing in on securing a coaching job at Barcelona, the next question is, can he really help the club get back to its winning ways?
Obviously, there is no acceptable answer to that question at this point and it is hard to argue as Xavi has not proven himself yet as a manager. However, the narrative could be changed if something unexpected happens, such as, a Xavi-Messi team-up.
Of course, Messi is still with PSG and there have been no indications or whatnots that the former Barcelona star is considering parting ways with the French club. All told, it is very unlikely that Messi will join Xavi at Barca, at least for now.
To everybody's surprise, Messi shockingly expressed his desire to return to Barcelona, however, the Argentine is not talking about playing. Instead, he is implying that he could “help” his beloved Barca by becoming a “technical secretary,” or in simpler terms, a technical coach.
“Yes. I always said that I would love to be able to help the club in what could be useful and can add and help the club to be well,” Messi said of Barcelona via Spanish outlet Diario Sport. “I would love to be a technical secretary at some point.”
“I don’t know if it will be at Barcelona or not,” he continued. “Or if it will be otherwise. If there is a possibility, I would like to contribute again in what I can because it is the club that I love and I would love for it to continue to be good, to continue growing and to continue being one of the best in the world.”
If Xavi and Messi really reunite as Barcelona coaches, it will be fascinating but it's still hard to believe that they can lead the team to title contention. However, it could be a great start as the pair's stature alone could already be their bargaining chip to lure some of the greatest players of the new generation to join Barcelona.
