The calls for Ernesto Valverde’s sack reached an all-time high on Thursday after fans witnessed their club suffer another disappointing semi-final loss. This time, it was Atletico Madrid who handed the Blaugrana the defeat.
The two Spanish giants locked horns in Jeddah for the penultimate stage of the Spanish Super Cup. After going 1-0 down shortly after half-time ended, the Catalan giants fought back to take a 2-1 lead thanks to goals from Messi and Griezmann. However, questionable defending once again resulted in their demise as the conceded two goals in the final 10 minutes to lose 3-2.
Valverde had little credit in the bank preceding this result after the embarrassment at Roma and Liverpool, but the Super Cup loss only made things worse. Soon after the defeat, a report from RAC1 emerged claiming that Barcelona met with Xavi, a man linked with the managerial seat at Camp Nou, during their time in the Middle-East.
According to the report, sporting director Eric Abidal and CEO Oscar Grau visited the iconic midfielder in Doha, where he works as the coach of Al Sadd. Many have already suggested that a return to Camp Nou for the Spaniard is a matter of when and not if, and with Valverde’s future being under heavy doubt, fans calling for Xavi to replace Ernesto might soon get their wish.
However, Edu Polo of Mundo Deportivo has poured water over these claims. While he does admit a meeting had occurred between the Barcelona officials and the 2010 World Cup winner, Polo claims that this was not due to Thursday’s result. The Blaugrana chiefs were scheduled to fly out to Doha to check up on Dembele, who is recovering from his latest injury in the Qatari capital. An encounter with Xavi had been pre-arranged due to logistics in order to discuss his plans for the near future.
“A meeting with Xavi can’t be improvised in just a day. The main purpose of the trip to Qatar was to visit Dembelé, and only if there’s time, hold a get together with Xavi to have an idea on what he wants to do in the near future”
Una reunión con Xavi en Doha no se improvisa tan rápido después de una derrota. Visitar a Dembélé, el motivo inicial del viaje a Qatar. Y ya de paso una charla con Xavi para tantear sus ideas de futuro https://t.co/gOYFLyN1pg
— Edu Polo (@EduPolo) January 10, 2020
RAC1 have also reported that a meeting will be held on Monday to discuss Valverde’s future. The coach admitted that speculation regarding the security of his position is inevitable but Mundo Deportivo state that officials at the club admitted that the president has no intentions of firing the boss.
