The Spanish giants showed a cope with Al Sadd, the Qatari facet he has been coaching, become achieved early Saturday. He will replace every other former Barca player, Ronald Koeman, who become sacked last month.
Xavi faces a large undertaking in restoring Barcelona to the glories they reached while he won eight La Liga titles and 4 Champions Leagues as part of a celebrated midfield.
Barca are saddled with large debts, in part from paying the wages of Lionel Messi, who the club changed into compelled to allow depart for Paris Saint-Germain this summer season because they could no longer afford him. The membership head into Saturday's away recreation at Celta Vigo lying ninth in La Liga after triumphing simplest two in their closing seven league games. We take a take a look at 5 issues to address on the Camp Nou:
Barcelona's perilous financial scenario way they clearly can't afford no longer to qualify for subsequent season's Champions League. The club are 1.35 billion euros in debt and any try to rebuild each financially and on the pitch will rely on playing in Europe's elite competition subsequent season.
The scenario is salvageable, with the gap simplest six points among Barca in 9th and Atletico Madrid who presently occupy the fourth Champions League qualification spot, but there can be no room for complacency given the shape of a number of groups difficult on the pinnacle this season.
Back-to-returned victories towards Dynamo Kiev have revived Barcelona's hopes of attaining the remaining 16 when they began the organization level with consecutive 3-0 losses to Bayern Munich and Benfica. But there's work still to do, with a domestic sport towards Benfica earlier than a journey to Bayern.
Escaping the organization after such a terrible begin below Koeman would deliver Xavi an early injection of credibility while the membership would avoid missing out on nine.6 million euros in UEFA prize money for achieving the knock-out degree.
One of the most important criticisms of Koeman centred round his gambling fashion, with too many performances lacking both creativity or a clean sense of a plan. Barcelona might not have the skills anymore of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Messi however there may be nonetheless room for development on current performances.
Combining the membership's traditions of ownership soccer with a present day, counter-urgent game could deliver the lovers again onside and deliver the gamers notion that a long-term vision became at the least in vicinity.
One of Koeman's largest achievements changed into promoting a skilled institution of youngsters and the assignment now will be to maximise their ability.
