Barcelona intend to make Hansi Flick their new head coach and hope to confirm his arrival next week, with the president, Joan Laporta, heading to the training ground to meet with the manager, Xavi Hernández, on Friday afternoon.
Barcelona have been talking to Flick for months and although the German’s camp denied there had been a meeting in London this week with the coach, his agent Pini Zahavi and the club’s sporting director Deco, an agreement has been put in place for the former Bayern Munich and Germany manager to take over. The B team coach, Rafa Márquez, has been suggested as an alternative.
The final decision had been scheduled for a meeting to be held after the final game of the season, at Sevilla on Sunday night, followed by ratification by the board. Barcelona had not informed Xavi of their intentions before Laporta visited the San Joan Despi HQ.
Xavi has been due to remain in charge for the Sevilla match, with the coach publicly saying he has every intention of continuing, resigned on 27 January and performed a U-turn on 24 April after being convinced to stay.
Despite reports last week that Laporta had decided to sack him, and the president’s refusal to meet with him, Xavi insisted “nothing had changed”.
During a week of intense speculation and repeated leaks, some of them strategic, there has been silence from Laporta and Deco, both publicly and privately. Xavi has not been told that they plan to replace him.
Although Xavi has always said that money would not be a problem and that he would walk away when his time at the club comes to an end, the terms of his contract mean his sacking could cost Barcelona about €20m (£17m).
Xavi described the Barcelona manager’s job as “cruel and unpleasant” when he resigned in January, at a time when results were poor and the prospect of being sacked was increasingly real. He said he would continue to the end of the season, a formula that Laporta said he accepted “because it’s Xavi proposing it and he’s a Barcelona legend”, but that the decision was irreversible, even if they won the Champions League.
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But as Barcelona’s results improved and as they struggled to secure a replacement, the president, vice-president and sporting director publicly said they would try to convince Xavi to stay. The coach’s message, although evasive, became increasingly receptive to doing so. On 24 April, they announced that he was continuing at least until 2025 after a meeting at the club’s training ground and then at Laporta’s home, with the media camped outside, the whole thing played out in public.
At an emotional, celebratory press conference the following morning, Laporta said that all that had been needed was for the two men to look each other in the eye and that it had taken only three minutes. “I was always clear that I wanted Xavi to continue,” he said. “Stability is very important for success.”