A pair of noteworthy updates surrounding the potential appointment of club legend Xavi Hernandez at FC Barcelona have been forthcoming on Sunday night.
Suarez amongst the goals
The subject of the bench at the Camp Nou has of course continued to dominate the headlines over the last 24 hours.
This comes with the Blaugrana having slipped to yet another altogether concerning defeat on Saturday evening.
Just days on from a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Benfica in the Champions League, Ronald Koeman and co. made the trip to the Wanda Metropolitano, for a La Liga showdown with champions Atletico Madrid.
And, upon the final whistle sounding in the Spanish capital, Barca were only plunged further into despair.
The latest in a string of abject, lifeless performances ultimately saw the visitors put to the sword by two goals to nil, to slip to a lowly 9th in the La Liga table.
Thomas Lemar opened the game’s scoring early on, before a familiar face condemned Barca to a 2nd deserved loss in the space of three days:
Luis Suarez has his goal against his former team! 🔥
With that strike against Barcelona, Suarez has now scored against all 31 LaLiga teams he’s faced in his career 🙌 pic.twitter.com/RHsBkqOCyT
— Premier Sports (@PremierSportsTV) October 2, 2021
Xavi latest
In turn, with Barcelona’s hopes of mounting a genuine La Liga title challenge looking less and less realistic by the week, and the Catalan giants’ European endeavours having culminated in back-to-back 3-0 defeats, it should come as little surprise to hear that calls have begun to mount for Ronald Koeman to be dismissed with immediate effect.
The Blaugrana faithful have made no secret of their desire for the Dutchman to be moved on, with club legend Xavi Hernandez the favourite to replace him on the bench at the Camp Nou.
And, as outlined above, on Sunday night, major developments regarding Xavi’s potential return have been forthcoming.
First, Spanish journalist Gerard Romero, out of the blue, reported that, during a meeting on Wednesday, Barcelona reached an agreement with their former midfield conductor to take up the reins at the club.
It was subsequently added that Xavi could arrive at any time, either in January, next summer, or with immediate effect, depending on how Koeman fares over the coming weeks:
🚨 El Barça pactó el miércoles con Xavi Hernandez las bases de su llegada al Barça para ser el nuevo entrenador. #jijantesfc Lo estamos contando en https://t.co/vrsj4XOUJL #barça #koeman #laporta #xavi
— Gerard Romero (@gerardromero) October 3, 2021
Romero’s assurances, however, have since been firmly shot down elsewhere.
Taking to his own social media platforms, Javi Miguel of Diario AS pulled no punches in simply stating that the news regarding Xavi is ‘fake’:
— Javi Miguel Club (@fansjavimiguel) October 3, 2021
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