I think Xavi would be set to fail if he'd come to this team with a lot of his former teammates still here. Unless a new board would do their job and get rid off most of them to make his job easier do people really expect Xavi could go over the friendships he has build with the likes of Busi, Pique and Alba over the years and do the right thing to replace them with younger and more hungrier players in the lineup? I sadly don't so we would waste a first year or two of Xavi to still try to get something out of the old guard. And based on our history it's unlikely any coach stays here for more than 3-4 seasons regardless of his success so if we really believe Xavi can succeed do we really want to waste half of his tenure or wouldn't it be better to make a rebuild of the team (mostly clearing out the old core and bring some younger more motivated players) before he comes back?
Another reason I wouldn't want him back before 2023/24 it's because I think he also needs to learn to see a football from a different perspective. Remember Pep went to Italy after he left Barca working temporarily under Fabio Capello where he learned the Italian football (Serie A was arguably the best ligue in Europe at that time though teams like Lazio and Parma did start to have financial problems and needed to sell their key players) after playing most of his career here under the influence of the "Ajax school" (Cruyff and LVG). He later also went to Mexico to learn from Juanma Lillo who in Pep's own words had a big influence on his development as a coach though Lillo never was a successfull coach himself.
Now in Xavi's case he only knows what he has learned at Barca. Or do people expect he has further improved/widden his football knowledge playing and now coaching in Qatar? So personally I think he should go to work in another "football country" and even better under an influence of a good coach who sees football a bit different way (I'm not saying he should go to a coach like Simeone whose football philosophy is almost exactly opposite though Xavi could clearly learn a lot from him as well) than he does, possibly as an assistant for a season or two. But with him already making a solo coaching career in Qatar he would probably consider an assistant manager job in a bigger club as a step back in his career so don't see much chances for this to happen. So while I think he should make his coaching learning curve in another top league team before he's ready to return at the same time I also think it's very likely he'll be our coach from 2021 on so let's hope for the best. I'll give him a chance like I did to every single coach since I'm watching Barca but I just hope fans will be realistic enough to not expect him to have the same immediate impact Pep had in 2008.
This is the full quote:
https://www.sport.es/es/noticias/barca/setien-creo-que-los-cinco-cambios-perjudicaran-barca-7980589
Setien se?alo: "No s? si nos va a perjudicar o a beneficiar. Creo que a perjudicar, por nuestra manera de jugar". Y lo razon? en que "sabemos que muchos partidos los vamos a resolver en los minutos finales. Si a un rival le das la opci?n que salgan jugadores frescos en ese tiempo, esa debilidad que se genera con jugadores cansados no se va a producir". Eso s?, tambi?n vio aspectos positivos: "Te puede dar recursos en un momento determinado. Es una inc?gnita y veremos c?mo va".
In english:
Doesn't really seem right for a Barca coach to look for excuses like this though I do think he's right that 5 subs won't really help us. It's more based on the fact our bench is just so short even some midtable teams have more impact subs (obviously of a lesser quality but still) they can bring on than we have. As a coach he can't really say this or it would send the wrong message to the team but we all know outside of Suarez (presummably he'll start some games on the bench after coming back from injury), Fati (who is still very much unproven and we can't expect from him to make a difference in every game) and Braithwaite (he had some positive impact in games he has played but can he do the same regularly for the rest of the season?) we don't really have any impact sub in midfield or defense. And not much depth there either when suspensions and injuries will happen (and I expect a lot of injuries after such a long break).
So more subs could be useful to keep players fresh and possibly prevent injuries in a very tough schedule ahead playing every 3 days but we just don't have much players who we can bring on when we'll need to score in second half. And in this case it's probably more likely keeping the best XI on the field would give us better odds to win than whatever a 4th or 5th sub player could change. But surely if we'll manage to score early and have a 2 or 3 goals lead with 20 minutes left then having additional subs could be helpful as well.
Some serious witch-hunting around here.
