Despite being heavily linked with a return to Barcelona this month, Xavi says he actually turned down the offer to manage his former club last week as he felt that the opportunity came a bit too early in his career.<\/p>\n
That explain the reason why Barcelona decided to appoint former Real Betis manager, Quique Setien.<\/p>\n
As expected, Barcelona chief executive Oscar Grau and sporting director Eric Abidal offered Xavi the manager’s job before Ernesto Valverde was sacked on Monday.<\/p>\n
But Xavi only recently became the manager of Al-Sadd since hanging up his boots few months ago.<\/p>\n
“I did not agree to this offer, especially as it is too early for me to coach Barcelona,” Xavi said.<\/p>\n
“But it will still be my dream to coach the team in the future.”<\/p>\n
However, Xavi quickly lauded the appointment of Setien as new Barca manager.<\/p>\n
“I love the way he works and I expect him to succeed with the team.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"