Barcelona appeared to have averted a crisis less than two weeks ago after beating Porto and Atletico Madrid, but defeats to Girona and Royal Antwerp, accompanied by poor performances, have plunged them right back under a wave of pressure. In particular, it appears relations at the summit of the club are showing some strain.
After the bizarre episode where Barcelona changed their squad for their trip to Royal Antwerp the next day, calling up Robert Lewandowski, Ilkay Gundogan and Ronald Araujo, who were due to rest, Deco would go on to contradict Xavi Hernandez’s statements about it in public.
🚨 BREAKING: The relation between Xavi and Deco was damaged yesterday. @gerardromero pic.twitter.com/dnCZ9uly8x
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) December 14, 2023
As per Gerard Romero, relations are breaking down between Deco and Xavi. Romero believes it is ‘difficult’ for the two to repair their relations, citing the fact that Deco appears to have lost faith in the manager. Meanwhile Xavi feels that Deco’s public statements, saying the opposite of what he did in his press conference, were hanging him out to dry in the press.
Xavi was highly frustrated with Deco’s comments, believing that Deco made him look ridiculous in public, something which has broken their trust. Romero would go on to describe the situation as ‘hanging by a thin thread’. He also noted that ‘in these situations, it tends to be the manager and not the sporting director on the precipice’.
In addition to this, there are the reports that Deco lambasted Frenkie de Jong for missing the Antwerp game. He did not believe the Dutch midfielder had a fever. De Jong has recently become a father for the first time, and Romero believes it likely that Xavi had agreed that he could miss the match to be with his family.
Deco and Xavi had professed that they had a strong relationship when the Brazilian arrived, but just months into their professional relationship, there are signs of frustration that did not exist with former Director of Football Mateu Alemany and Sporting Director Jordi Cruyff. President Joan Laporta has locked himself into the Deco experience, giving him full power to take decisions, and it appears that means instability for now.
