As Xavi Hernandez has announced that he will leave Barcelona at the end of this season, Mikel Arteta is emerging as the next coach. However, English soccer experts have rejected this request.
Recently, European soccer coaches have resigned. While Jürgen Klopp, who has led Liverpool to the world's top club since 2015, has announced his resignation after this season, Barcelona legend Xavi has also announced that he will leave his team.
"I will leave Barcelona at the end of this season. It will be June 30. The decision was made after discussions with Chairman Juan Laporta and the coaching staff. Barcelona needs to change. I think this decision will ease the overall situation of the team. I feel responsible, and I made this decision a few days ago. Now I want to make this known," Xavi said at a press conference after the 3-5 come-from-behind defeat against Villarreal.
Barcelona also announced on its website, "Coach Sabi will leave the team after June 30," adding, "He thinks the current decision is the best option for the team."
Xavi is a legend of Barcelona. He has played for Barcelona since childhood. From 1999 to 2015, he played for Barcelona and won numerous trophies. He was a key player in emerging as the world's top professional team along with Lionel Messi of Inter Miami, and was evaluated as the best midfielder along with Andrés Iniesta and Sergio Busquets.
Having spent his twilight years with Al Saad in the Qatari League in 2015, he immediately became a leader as a coach after retiring from active duty in 2019. When Barcelona, which was in crisis in 2021, reached out, he ran to lead the team.
At that time, Barcelona was struggling due to the collapse of its team's finances after COVID-19. Coach Xavi was in second place in La Liga with a 15-point gap with his rival Real Madrid in his first season.
Last season, Barcelona tried to solve financial problems to regain the top of the European stage once again, changing the team's profit structure, including some TV broadcasting rights, and revitalizing economic levers to reinforce the team's future. As a result, coach Xavi won the title with the least loss and the least loss in the league, and won the trophy at the Super Cup of Spanish professional football, the Supercopa de España, winning two titles. 스포츠토토
However, the team has been sluggish this season. Girona is leading the league, and Real Madrid is closely following him. Barcelona is leading the league with 44 points along with third-place Atletico Madrid. It is not easy to catch up with, but given the recent trend.
Furthermore, Barcelona creaked towards the middle of the season. It lost its title to Real in Super CofA and lost to Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey. It has two wins and three losses in its last five games before the match against Villarreal.
In the end, in the face of continued criticism, Xavi decided to resign, which even brought the team to tears as they listened to Xavi's speech.
Barcelona needs to search for Xavi's replacement. The remaining period is about five months. In the meantime, it has to find the right person for the team's reconstruction once again.
Arteta, who has displayed impressive leadership at Arsenal, has emerged as the most promising candidate. Sporte of Spain reported that Arteta has conveyed to Arsenal the possibility of terminating his contract at the end of this season. He seems to be parting ways because he has a good relationship with Arsenal's board members. At the same time, it was reported that Barcelona's high-ranking officials highly appreciated him and watched him as their successor.
After retiring from active duty in 2016, Arteta prepared his way as a Manchester City coach under Pep Guardiola. In 2019, Arsenal, his old team, reached out to him, and Arteta headed to his old team to take his first managerial job.
Arteta, who was recognized for his leadership from the beginning, overcame major and minor crises to lead Arsenal's upward trend. Last season, he opened up the possibility of winning the league, and this season, he is also competing for the lead at the top.
Against this backdrop, Xavi has emerged as a strong candidate for Barcelona's successor. However, local journalists dismissed the proposal.
Charles Watts, a journalist familiar with Arsenal's news, said on his SNS, "You don't have to fall in love with Spain's coverage too much. This is inevitable after Xavi's resignation, but it is not true. Arteta will directly mention it in the pre-match interview, but there is no need to wait until then to see if it is true."
Besides Watts, Alex Crook, chief football reporter for TalkSport, also said, "You don't have to be nervous about talking about Arteta and Arsenal. He's under contract until 2025," while Sky Sports also refuted the claim, saying, "Arteta told me he wasn't going anywhere."
Arteta is from Barcelona Youth. He joined the club in 1997 and stayed in the club until 2002. However, he has never played in a professional team. After being loaned to Paris Saint-Germain, he played for Rangers (Scotland), Real Sociedad (Spain), Everton and Arsenal (England) before retiring.
