Is Xavi going to stay at Barcelona next season?

Xavi has changed his mind and wants to stay at Barça. This bombshell was reported on Tuesday by the connected journalist Xavi Torres of TV3, confirming all the hints that the coach had been admitting to those around him in recent days.

The decision now passes into the hands of Barça president Joan Laporta, who has publicly shown his unconditional support for the coach to remain in charge. However, he would have to confirm any decision made after reviewing a year without trophies and the confirmation that Xavi’s deferred resignation has had no effect on the numbers. The coach announced that he was ten points off Real Madrid; he is now eleven behind.

Does Joan Laporta want Xavi to stay at Barcelona?

Xavi (who has a contract until 2025) announced that he would take a sabbatical year and would give up the remaining year to loosen the pressure on the club’s financial woes. Given this recent development, it seems that things will be decided at an imminent meeting in which everyone will have to put their cards on the table.

First, there is the coach himself, who blamed a toxic environment for his decision. Xavi will have to explain what has changed in recent months to make him want to go back on his decision and how he can restore competitiveness to a squad that has run out of trophies to fight for this year with just a month to go before the end of the season.

Meanwhile, chairman Joan Laporta, who took on Xavi given his status as a club legend, has some doubts in private. Of the almost three full seasons in which Xavi has led Barça, he has not managed to win anything in two of them. Some members of the board have also privately expressed their reservations regarding keeping Xavi on at the club, complicating matters further.

They consider that his cycle, at least this first one, is over. In addition, they believe that the coach’s credibility in the dressing room has suffered after announcing his departure and doing so in an emotional talk to the dressing room; how does he look now things are different?

Of course, if Xavi does go through with this u-turn and stays another year, Laporta will make it clear that he will have to adapt to the current economic and sporting scenario. The manager, ‘a club man’, will not put too many obstacles in the way in terms of demands.

Last summer, he accepted that Deco turned down requests for players such as Zubimendi, Kimmich and Bernardo Silva, or a much more modest one, Lo Celso, in favour of signing João Félix. Xavi’s continuity is close, unless it’s Laporta who decides to do a late turnaround.