‘Lost the best player ever’ – Xavi gets dreaded vote of confidence after guiding Barcelona to La Liga title glory in the post-Lionel Messi era at Camp Nou

The legendary La Masia academy graduate, who captained the Catalan giants to domestic and continental honours during his playing days, returned to Camp Nou in a coaching capacity back in November 2021. He took over with the Blaugrana sat ninth in the table, and guided them to La Liga title glory in 2022-23.

That success was achieved despite “best player ever” Lionel Messi leaving a few months prior to his arrival, while other established stars headed for the exits over the summer – making it difficult for certain standards to be maintained. With that in mind, Deco has told RAC1: “We won the league after a period in which people said it would take years for Barca to win La Liga again. Do not forget, we also lost the best player ever. Leo is not here anymore and we thought it would be a big drama until we returned to winning [trophies]. A generation of players have left Barca, players like [Sergio Busquets]. I'd like to have another Busi. We had Jordi Alba, [Gerard] Pique, emblematic players...This whole process, for a coach, is difficult to manage. Xavi has achieved it. We have renewed his contract. The confidence in him is 100%, 200%.

“Now, do we want to improve? Do we want to play better? Of course. We can't hide that, we can't say that's not the case, that we don't want a more attractive team. It's another thing to know why we are not hitting that level. We know we've not had all the players [available]; little by little we have been getting them back. We speak every day. Xavi, more than anyone, wants to play better. We know the areas we have to improve, but we can't forget the good things, either, or who we are. That is important.”

Defending champions Barca have already dropped points this season against Getafe, Mallorca and Granada, while defeats against Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk in the club’s last four games have piled pressure on Xavi. Deco added to SPORT on having the right man for the job in place: “I have no doubt that Xavi is the best manager for Barca. He accepted the challenge of taking over at a difficult moment and he's the perfect coach to carry out the reconstruction we are undergoing.”

Xavi is working on a contract through to the summer of 2025, but he has Barca sat third in the Liga table at present – four points adrift of surprise leaders Girona – while there is still work to be done in order to secure progress into the last-16 of the Champions League.