Xavi Hernandez and dream of Camp Nou return

Obviously enough, one of the dreams of almost all Barcelona fans these days is having the legendary Xavi Hernandez back in their team.

Barcelona sacked Ronald Koeman on Wednesday after the team conceded a shocking 1-0 defeat against Rayo Vallecano which came after a 2-1 defeat against archrivals Real Madrid.

The hot seat needs to be filled now and speculations have been raised about the candidates. One of the most favorite coaches here is Xavi Hernandez who made the staggering 767 appearances for Barcelona during his professional football career.

He has won eight LaLiga championships and four UEFA Champions League titles with Barcelona, and no one can deny his emotions for the club.

He left Spain for Qatar’s Al-Sadd and after playing for three seasons, hung his boots and stepped into the path of coaching in 2019.

Qatar provided a suitable ground for the young coach to do more training in the new career and he managed to win the Qatar Stars League in the 2020-2021 season with al-Sadd. He has secured a 66% win rate in the Qatari team.

Now, desperate fans of Barcelona who seem tired of weak results during the past several seasons, are eager to welcome the 41-year-old coach.

Barcelona have failed to win the LaLiga title in the past three seasons and the last time they claimed the UEFA Champions League goes back to 2015.

Experts believe Xavi's return to Catalonia will have a direct influence on the performance of the team, which can encourage individuals to turn to betting markets to give an instant result.

The latest reports indicate that Xavi has given the green light to Barcelona and talks are now underway with the Qatari side to win their consent as the coach has a contract with the Qatari team till 2023.

The name of Xavi could be heard in speculations back in 2020 before the club handed the team to Ronald Koeman.

Certainly enough, the former midfielder must be ready to tolerate increasing expectations of fans and risk his face in Catalonia as the hot seat may be evaluated “too soon” for the former midfielder some two or three years later.

On the other hand, it seems that the return of ex-players to Barcelona as a coach has become a tradition. Earlier, the club had trusted Guardiola and Luis Enrique who had already among the icons of the club, and now it seems that Xavi is following the same path.

Guardiola took charge of Barcelona while he had only coached team B for one year and the results that he later obtained with the team were exemplary.

Barcelona stand 9th in the LaLiga table with 15 points from 10 matches, six points behind Real Madrid that sit second.

In the UEFA Champions League however, Barcelona have conceded two 0-3 defeats against Bayern Munich and Benfica, claiming one narrow victory against FC Dynamo Kyiv. The team sit third in Group E with three points.

Experts also point to the departure of Lionel Messi, and the failure of the club to find a replacement, as one of the other reasons behind the poor results.