Barcelona, battling to retain their La Liga crown as pressure mounts on Quique Setien, have club legend Xavi touted as a Camp Nou boss “sooner or later”.
Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu, under even greater pressure than the club manager, concedes that Xavi will take charge at the Camp Nou “sooner or later”.
The legendary midfielder, having spent almost his entire career at the club and played in Pep Guardiola’s historic side with full understanding of the club’s philosophy, has seen him earmarked as a future Barca manager.
Xavi is still currently managing in Qatar with rumors continuing to circle that he will succeed the under-fire incumbent manager, Quique Setien.
Bartomeu insists though that the club will back their current boss despite the persistent whispers of discontent among the fans.
“Xavi will be Barca’s coach, sooner or later. But right now we are not looking for a coach, we are with Quique,” he told TV3 .
“Quique Setien will coach the team in the Champions League and these last two Liga games that are left.
“We have had a very atypical season, we will play in August and he will be the coach. If we overcome Napoli, we will be in Lisbon.
“Our will is to fulfil contracts and Setien has one. We went to Setien’s house to speak about the future, the plans for next season. He will probably be there and I am very interested to hear what he thinks.
“He has a lot of time for Riqui Puig and Ansu [Fati]. We have seen Pedri and [Francisco] Trincao in form, there is hope.”
Barcelona saw off Real Valladolid at the weekend but will need Los Colchoneros to slip up if they are to win a third straight La Liga title.
Lionel Messi’s future has been hogging the headlines more than ever before and his relationship with Setien is rumored to be strained.
Credit: Football Tribe Malaysia
