Barcelona head coach Xavi has asked for “stability and time” as the club attempts to navigate ongoing financial issues.
The La Liga club have been hampered by money problems for several seasons and have been forced to activate “financial levers” —including selling club assets — in order to stay afloat. The Athletic previously reported that Barcelona are in more than €1billion in debt.
Xavi, who will remain as Barcelona head coach next season after reversing his decision to leave, told the club’s fans that, although they no longer have the financial power they once, they still have plans to compete during this transitional period.
Ahead of Barcelona’s penultimate game of the season against Almeria on Thursday, the 44-year-old said: “The Culé must understand that the situation is very complicated to compete economically. It has nothing to do with what we had 25 years ago when the coach would come and say ‘I want this one, this one, and this one’. It doesn’t work like that anymore.
“I understand that and that’s how we’re going to adjust to it. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to compete. We need stability and time. There are good things to compete for.
“The situation we are in is the situation we are in in terms of results. Last year we were solvent without playing the football we would like to play and this year, we have played better, but with worse results.
“We are living the situation that the club has at an economic level to compete. We need to compete better. The season has slipped away from us because of details.”
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Xavi announced in January that he would step down at the end of the campaign and subsequently denied suggestions he could be persuaded to stay on.
His announcement preceded a 13-game unbeaten run across all competitions, which helped Barcelona to qualify for the Champions League quarter-final stage and take them to second position in La Liga, behind champions Real Madrid. In April he announced he would remain as head coach through to 2025, citing “an unfinished project”.
When asked about his ambitions for next season, Xavi said: “We will explain it when we have the picture of the squad. First, we will have to plan and strengthen.
“It’s not our objective now to think about that, it’s to play tomorrow and meet the minimum requirements: to finish second.
“The objective is to change, incorporate people and improve. The things we haven’t done well, we have to improve them.”
Barcelona end their season at home to Rayo Vallecano on Sunday.
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(Fran Santiago/Getty Images)
