- Laporta took out his anger on a tray of spring rolls during shock Granada draw
- It means Xavi could be on his way before his agreed end-of-season departure
- IAN LADYMAN: If I needed a new heart, I’d want Harry Maguire’s! Listen to the It’s All Kicking Off podcast
When Barcelona were embarrassed last weekend, drawing 3-3 at home to second-from-bottom Granada, club president Joan Laporta took it out on the canapés, angrily turning over a tray of spring rolls in a hospitality box.
The next time it happens it will be Xavi and not the buffet that gets it — one more humiliation and he’s out.
The good news for Barca’s beleaguered coach is that Wednesday’s Champions League last-16 game is against Napoli and they are in almost as bad a state as Barcelona.
Xavi would have been fired after losing 5-3 at home to Villarreal last month but he asked to stay until the end of the season and Laporta agreed. ‘We let him because of who he is,’ he said in a recent interview.
Barcelona have the worst defensive record of any team in the top-five European Leagues in 2024, conceding 23 goals in 11 games since the start of the year.
Xavi has moved former Chelsea defender Andreas Christensen into midfield to try and plug the gaps but the 3-3 draw last weekend suggests it’s not working.
Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri also has no defence. His team have conceded 27 goals in 23 games — that’s only one fewer than in the whole of last season — and they are 25 points behind leaders Inter.
Barca’s problems are worse because they extend beyond the pitch. Candidates sounded out about taking over from Xavi — Hansi Flick remains a contender, having signed with Robert Lewandowski’s agent Pini Zahavi — are being told several of the best players will need to be sold this summer.
There have been various attempts to push Frenkie de Jong out in recent years and, after only winning one league and one cup in four seasons, he is warming to the idea of moving on.
Ronald Araujo is another saleable asset being pushed towards the exit door. The club can only afford to keep the pair if they sign contract extensions that include pay-cuts — and neither are keen to do that.
These players have no reason to make sacrifices just to help Barcelona. The same applies to kit makers Nike, who president Laporta laughably criticised recently for not upping payments on a deal that was signed in 2016 and runs until 2028.
‘When we told them other brands would pay us more, they made a effort which we appreciate, but it was not enough,’ Laporta said.
A fall in projected revenue because of a temporary stadium displacement, a still-excessive wage bill, a potential £19.5million tax bill for disguising payments to players as payments to agents (subject to a High Court appeal), plus the failing of a plan to sell off chunks of the club because investors have reneged on payments, all create a desperate short-termism that heaps pressure on the coach and players.
The financial consequences if Barcelona don’t qualify for the Champions League next season are unthinkable.
That’s why Xavi is for the chop if Saturday’s visit to Rafa Benitez’s Celta Vigo and Wednesday’s Champions League last-16 first leg against Napoli don’t go to plan.
‘Xavi, we need a solution now,’ is what Laporta reportedly said to his coach after last week’s scene in hospitality.
No amount of canapé trays at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium next week will save him if there is another almighty humbling.
EVERGREEN KROOS REMAINS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR
Everything currently points to Toni Kroos not retiring when his current contract expires at the end of this season. And to him returning to the German national side for the Euros.
‘I’m considering it,’ said Kroos, 34, this week — adding that he was surprised at how mentally fresh he still feels.
That might owe something to never having taken himself too seriously.
Spanish journalist Manolo Lama recalled this week how, while Kroos waited for his signing for Real Madrid to be confirmed back in 2014, he was holed up in a villa in Mallorca, besieged by TV crews.
Kroos agreed to let the media in for 15 minutes of filming on the proviso they then cleared off and left him in peace for the rest of his stay.
Before Real’s win over RB Leipzig this week, he was filmed crossing paths with Carlo Ancelotti after his press conference.
The manager asked: ‘Did you say anything (of note)?’ ‘Yes,’ joked Kroos, ‘I told them I’m renewing until 2028.’
After the game he was asked about a goal Leipzig had dubiously ruled out for offside. ‘It should have stood, you can’t really argue against it,’ he said.
Kroos is proof that the world doesn’t stop if a player steps out of his bubble, behaves without pretension, and even admits, once in a while, that his team got lucky with a decision.
JUST NO PLEASING SOME COACHES
Let’s call it ‘successful coach syndrome’. It doesn’t affect all managers — Carlo Ancelotti seems immune — but at Bayern Munich, Thomas Tuchel has a bad case of it.
The most common symptom is chronic dissatisfaction with the available playing resources — publicly calling for new signings to the point where players already at the club feel devalued.
From day one in Munich, Tuchel has bemoaned Bayern’s lack of quality in holding midfield and the centre of defence.
That will not have gone down well with established stars like Matthijs de Ligt, Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich, and the more Tuchel talks up the need for their replacements, and the fewer minutes he gives them, the worse they perform when selected.
This condition is rarely seen in coaches starting out in their careers, but it often develops after success has given rise to the attitude: ‘I’ve won things elsewhere, it’s not happening here because you are not giving me the tools to work with.’
It’s one of the perils of going for a serial winner such as Tuchel. And one of the reasons why struggling Bayern are pulling out all the stops to beat Liverpool to Xabi Alonso.
