Ready
Xavi Hernández’s irrevocable decision to leave the Barça bench at the end of the season, but in turn fighting for the two titles that are still alive, places us in an unprecedented scenario for Barça fans: as if he were both inside and outside the club. Detaching his future from results, Xavi has gained distance and above all freedom to say what he thinks. But I wrote “irrevocable decision” and we all know that, if he unexpectedly won the League, let alone the Champions League, there would be voices asking him to rethink his future. Reinforced, Xavi could argue that in football everything changes and he would continue on the bench, although he could also use it to dip his finger – “here you stay” –, thinking above all of the journalists who question him.
Genetics of Barcelona
As long as that doesn’t happen, from the interregnum of his current status, he talks like another Barcelona fan, without pressure. A few days ago, before the thrashing against Getafe, Xavi expressed that the coach who replaces him should have the Barça DNA, someone from the house who knows the idiosyncrasies of the club – like him, come on -. Basically it was a way of validating his own profile, but at the same time it created a paradox, because precisely in his case the magical thinking has not worked completely: a player who marked an era, more than the impossible house, but precisely therefore hypersensitive to criticism.
Review of the Barça DNA
Perhaps the concept of the Barça DNA should be reviewed when it comes to the coach. If we refer to a Cruyff style of play, it is clear that it has been evolving and not all Dutch players, such as Van Gaal for example, have the Barça DNA by interposed nation. If we refer to those who have already grown up at Barça, I think of that sentence by the essayist Karl Kraus, who said that the people who saw you grow up from childhood do not believe in natural talent, but unconsciously judge you and value as who you were as a child. Perhaps it is better not to obfuscate and understand that the wonderful chance that brought us from Cruyff to Pep Guardiola the coach was above all that: an unrepeatable chance.