The walls are closing in on Xavi Hernandez, whose position as coach of Barcelona has been increasingly untenable in recent days. Joan Laporta is furious with the 44-year-old for the comments he made in a recent press conference, and which could lead to a dismissal, despite the fact that he announced his decision not to leave at the end of the season alone weeks ago
In the last 24-28 hours, reports have been broken players feel “mistreated” from Xavi, and MD they have now revealed the names of five players who complained about it. The first, unsurprisingly, is Vitor Roque, whose future in Barcelona seems far from certain, just four months after he arrived from Athletic Paranaense.
Robert Lewandowski is also unhappy with Xavi, especially for making him regularly substituted before games – this was the case against Almeria on Thursday, and the Pole seemed visibly irritated by the decision. Raphinha is also bothered by his lack of prominence, which includes being benched for games and being substituted early, despite his impressive recent form.
Joao Felix is also disappointed with his treatment by the manager of Barcelona, who started him only once in the last two months (vs. Cadiz, a match in which he scored the only goal). The last player is Ronald Araujo, who had disagreements with Xavi in private, although the subject of these is not known.
All signs indicate that Xavi will be relieved of his duties in the coming weeks, and it is expected that confrontation talks between him and Laporta will take place soon. This remarkable situation at Barcelona over the last 72 hours will be one to keep an eye on.
