Xavi Hernández

Xavi, 39, is currently manager of Al-Sadd in Qatar. His side have won all three of their league fixtures this season, scoring 13 goals in the process and are in the semi-finals of the Asian Champions League.

“I don’t know if it will be a bridge to Barca,” he told Catalan newspaper Ara.

“The only thing that worries me now is doing well here, winning titles and making mistakes in some aspects to learn for the future.

“It wouldn’t be a problem [to manage former team-mates]. I know what Leo is like, and Luis [Suarez], Busquets, Jordi [Alba], [Gerard] Pique or Sergi [Roberto].

“I know how they train, their capacity for leadership, I can tell if they are sad or angry. I hope as a coach I could have three, five, eight or 10 players that I already knew and that I already had a good relationship with.

“[Messi] is a player who, if you convince him, he can even be a brilliant defender. He has physical and mental speed. He has everything. If you convince him to run, what will the others do? They will run twice as much.”

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How do you see the midfield of Barça?

Very powerful The other day I really liked Busquets, De Jong and Arthur. I also like Rakitic, Sergi Roberto, and at times Arturo Vidal, and Aleñá ... There are many options. I like Arthur so much because he does not lose balls and gives a lot of dynamics to the game. Maybe it's like me with 22 or 23 years old, who is missing last pass, but I'll end up doing it. Then, De Jong is amazing. He dominates everything, defense and attack, and when he starts it's like Rakitic. And Busquets is Busquets.

What do you see from Jong?

I see it from interior rather than pivot. Al Busi would not touch him. Leaving aside the friendship that I have, he alone dominates the game. The criterion he has is brutal. The vigilance he does, the second balls he recovers. It's a pass. He would not touch it much further than a rotation.

What is missing from the trio Busquets - Arthur-De Jong?

The team needs to be involved. I have a rule: if everyone works, there is no defensive problem. Last year, Busquets was criticized, that he did not arrive, and Rakitic, who was out. And it is a matter of defensive sacrifice. This year, if everyone runs the meters they have to race, this trio will dominate the game. But if the attackers do not work so much for the group, we will suffer. And we would suffer with three Davids, three Casemiros or three Makeleles. It would happen like the day of Liverpool, that you did not dominate the game.

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khaled_a_d said:

This is why I don't want Xavi here currently.
May be 3-5 years from now, but currently we need someone who clean the squad from the old guard. He will still build the midfield around Busquets. And likely things would be too complicated for him to kick some of the older players out.

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serghei said:

This is the type of risk we need to take. Guardiolas, Xavis, men with vision and passion, and an ideal that they aspire and work hard to reach. Not the likes of fucking Valverde, who drain the joy out of watching football.

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