Xavi Hernandez’s spell as Barcelona head coach came to a premature end in the summer, as Joan Laporta opted to sack him in favour of appointing Hansi Flick, who has made a fantastic start to his tenure at the Catalan club.
AS Monaco coach Adi Hütter has been working on an 'anti-Lamine strategy' throughout the week and is expected to implement it tonight. Vanderson, usually a right-back, will be positioned on the left to closely mark Barcelona's teenage star. @tomasandreu68
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Overall, Xavi’s time in charge was mostly positive, especially the 2022-23 season which saw the return of the La Liga title to the Spotify Camp Nou.
Xavi is currently unemployed, and awaiting a new job in football. Javier Saviola recently spoke on his former Barcelona teammate, and he backed him to make a future return to the hot seat at the Catalan giants (via Sport).
“We must not forget what Xavi did. I have had the opportunity to be and chat with him, as a friend, we talked about how he did not have the best time. He has done a very good job. When you don’t win titles, it seems that you have done absolutely nothing. All these boys who have come out have been taken and trained by Xavi. Hopefully at some point he can find happiness in another team and, in the future, hopefully he can return to Barcelona and do things well. This is what he wants.”
Saviola recently spent a season with Barcelona as a youth coach, and during his time, he coincided with Lamine Yamal. He spoke glowingly on the 17-year-old sensation, although he did call for an end to the continual comparisons with Lionel Messi, another of his former teammates in Catalonia.
“We realise how talented he was when he was 15 years old. Just by seeing him, you can tell that he is special. There are very few with that ability and way of seeing football. We knew that we had an outstanding talent. He allowed himself to be advised, he listened a lot… It was an accumulation of a lot of things. In addition to a great footballer, we are dealing with a person who has absolutely everything.
“Comparing him to Messi is not good for Lamine; I hope he follows in his footsteps, but he will have to work a lot.”
