The club legend looked back on his time at the Camp Nou with great lucidity, recognizing that the attitude and respect of the team had diminished after the Spanish title and explaining the reasons for his break before returning to action.
From triumph to chaos: how Xavi’s Barcelona dream collapsed.
When Xavi took the reins of FC Barcelona at the end of 2021, optimism reigned at the Camp Nou. The club icon arrived as a savior and symbol of identity, responsible for turning around a team plagued by financial difficulties and irregularity on the field. Its impact was immediate. Under his leadership, the Catalans regained the title of Spanish champion and won the Spanish Super Cup in his second season, restoring pride and competitiveness to the club. Yet what began as a renaissance quickly deteriorated.
The 2023-2024 season was marked by the difficulties encountered by Barça in all competitions. Confidence has eroded, against a backdrop of tactical confusion and a drop in intensity. Tensions between players and management became increasingly visible and, at the end of the season, Xavi was sacked.
Now, several months after his departure, the Spaniard has publicly addressed his mistakes, acknowledging that his second full season had exposed flaws in his leadership and accountability.
Xavi admits to losing control of the locker room.
Speaking at a leadership conference at ESIC University, Xavi delivered a frank analysis of his time in charge of Barca, highlighting both the pride in his successes and the regrets of what came next.
“I started my coaching career at Barça with great ambitions, both for the players and for the club,” he said. “The club was coming out of a period of relative tranquility, but my mistake was to maintain this high level of demand for just one year, from my arrival until our victories in La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup. »
Reflecting on his fall, the 45-year-old coach admitted that discipline and concentration within the team had slackened and that he had not done enough to remedy it.
“ Later, I was able to do my self-criticism and I said to myself: “Damn, what happened to me? » I had lowered my demands and the players no longer had the same attitude, the same respect, the same commitment. The level kept dropping until, in my last season, we won nothing. I learned valuable lessons from it. I had to be self-critical. »
The admission marks the first time Xavi has publicly acknowledged his responsibility for losing control of the dressing room, a confession that resonates deeply with the club’s supporters, many of whom considered him the perfect embodiment of Barca’s philosophy.
