The Spanish football team Barcelona went out with a zero season after failing locally and continentally, with coach Xavi Hernandez writing the ninth negative historical record for the Blaugrana in the new millennium out of a total of 23 seasons.
The Catalan club failed in the Spanish League, Cup and Super Cup competitions, and also bid farewell to the Champions League with a humiliating four-way defeat against Paris Saint-Germain.
Following the defeat (3-5) against Villarreal in the 22nd round of the Spanish League last January, Xavi announced that he would leave the team at the end of the season.
He said, "The situation needs a dynamic change," before he changed his decision and revealed that he would continue in his position in late April, explaining this by saying, "He wants to complete the project that has not yet been finished."
Does Xavi have the tools?
Xavi's decision to stay left a division in the board of directors, the locker rooms, and even the press loyal to the club, and while the fans waited for President Laporta to begin negotiations with a first-class coach and save the team from the current wavering levels, Laporta appeared with Xavi and together they announced the continuation of cooperation between them. Does Xavi have the tools?
Barcelona appears to be a field of experiments with Xavi, and it is clear that he addresses matters from the perspective of the player and not the coach, while the main dilemma lies in the coach’s philosophy itself.
In order to implement them, this will take a long time, perhaps extending to seasons, and the reason is that Xavi does not have the full tools to transform his - basically humble - ideas into a tangible reality on the field.
For example, Xavi resorted to using Danish centre-back Andreas Christensen in the midfield several times this season, emulating what Guardiola does with Akanji and Stones in Manchester City, but that did not help Xavi much, given the player’s limited abilities.
With the difficulty of applying his philosophy based on possession and counter-pressing, which the Barcelona school has been famous for for decades, Xavi adopted a counterculture, where he deliberately scored through set-pieces, based on the “purely Machiavellian” principle, which is to achieve victory by any means possible.
Barcelona has scored 16 goals from free kicks this season, most notably in 3 consecutive matches against Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Valencia.
In conclusion, it can be said that Xavi eradicated the “tiki-taka” approach, and began a new phase that relied on long balls and crosses.
In the last season before Xavi's departure, the percentage of crosses was 17% of all balls sent into the penalty area, and it rose in the following season immediately after his arrival to 41%.
These tools available to Xavi made Barcelona clearly covetous, as out of the 10 losses it suffered this season, 4 of them came via remontada from opponents, which reflects the players’ weak experience and personality, and their inability to control the results of matches.
The team took the lead and scored first against Real Madrid, Girona and Saint-Germain, but later collapsed and lost the three matches with scores of (1-4), (2-4) and (2-3) respectively.
It is clear that relying on the talents of the Barcelona school, such as Al-Amin Jamal, Gafi, Pedri and Pau Cobarci, will not bear fruit, and that the team needs 3 or 4 high-caliber stars, but the issue of recruiting new players is not that easy, given the economic situation.
What is the economic situation in Barcelona?
It is clear that financial policies will not serve sporting ambition at all, especially after the Spanish League reduced the team’s salary ceiling from 650 million euros in 2022 to 270 million euros in 2023, and then to 204 million euros in the current season.
In light of this situation, it is impossible for Barcelona to contract with first-class stars, unless stars leave in return, which consequently means torpedoing any plans by Xavi to sign important players in the next summer Mercato.
Barcelona's operating costs amount to several times its income, which makes the club constantly lose, in addition to the accumulated debts in the billions (2.7 billion euros) and their interest as well, and these financial problems cast a shadow on the Barcelona team.
Barcelona is outside the major leagues
Barcelona's exclusion from the Champions League quarter-finals against Paris Saint-Germain led to its deprivation of additional revenues of approximately 8 million euros, and its absence from the next edition of the 2025 Club World Cup with its new system, which would have been sufficient to revive the club's coffers with a large amount.
Barcelona is currently ranked third in the Spanish League, which practically means losing the opportunity to participate in the Spanish Super Cup next season, a competition that would generate significant profits, ranging between 6 and 7 million euros.
This situation will push Barcelona to sell additional shares of the club's assets, or it will be forced to sell its stars in the next mercato, a point that will certainly limit Xavi.
Did Barcelona make a mistake by keeping Xavi?
History tells us that Barcelona wakes up and returns to winning titles again after the zero season, but with a coach and new deals.
For example, when the team finished with two consecutive zero seasons in (2006-2007) and (2007-2008) with Dutch coach Frank Rijkaard, it returned to embracing titles the following season under the leadership of Pep Guardiola, and even won the treble.
This example indicates that Barcelona's situation is not stable with the same coach after the zero season, and it is important to change the team's complexion and tactical approach, in order to return to winning championships.
But in the case of Barcelona and its dire economic situation and the resulting neutralization of major contracts, keeping Xavi is a reasonable option.
What is expected from Xavi next season?
The bright spot in the current Barcelona team is that it applies high pressure well, as it is the best in the Spanish League since the arrival of Xavi. As for the defensive aspect, and with the recovery of Ter Stegen, the growth of Kuparsi and the treatment of fatal defensive errors, it is expected that the back line next season will witness a slight improvement.
The main problem remains the goal creation and the tactical approach to moving the ball between the lines, and it is expected that Barcelona will not improve much in this regard as long as it does not have an experienced midfield, and the team is likely to continue playing long balls, and rely almost completely on Lewandowski.