Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez is already under pressure following a series of questionable results, leaving them seen points off top spot in La Liga, but President Joan Laporta has made it clear to the world that internally, they believe he is under the microscope too.
Xavi had planned to leave Robert Lewandowski, Ilkay Gundogan, Frenkie de Jong and Ronald Araujo out of their squad to face Royal Antwerp on Wednesday, with Barcelona all but guaranteed top spot in their group. However a last-minute change to the squad saw three of those four enter the squad to travel to Belgium; de Jong is the only exception, as he recovers from a fever.
The official explanation was that Barcelona will be spending an extra night in Antwerp before heading back to Barcelona, and thus they did not want to leave the veterans training individually for three days.
Yet RAC1, as carried by Sport, report that it was in fact a change instigated by Laporta. Following such a damaging defeat, he was keen for the team to get back on track, and felt that leaving the stars at home was a dangerous message to send inoff the back of their loss to Girona, and nudged Xavi to include them.
Clearly, any Barcelona coach would be under pressure after conceding four goals and a loss at home. However Laporta’s recent actions have exacerbated the situation for Xavi, regardless of what he may say publicly. After drawing with Rayo Vallecano, he went to see one of Xavi’s potential successors in Rafael Marquez at Barca Atletic, and after this setback, he has now weakened his authority.