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Surprising coach can succeed after Xavi’s departure
The bookies have already opened the market for the next trainer of Blaugrana, let’s see who the serious favorites are.
“I would like to announce that as of June 30, I will no longer continue as coach of Barca. I believe that the club needs a change and as a Barcelona fan, I cannot stand in the way of that.”
– these two sentences, in which Xavi signaled his departure, spread around the world press like wildfire at the end of January.
Based on what the 44-year-old legend said, this thought had already been formulated in him before, since he could not turn the team’s fate in the direction he wanted. Even so, when he was appointed in 2021, many expected him to be the new Pep Guardiola, but in the end he did not get three full years on the Catalan bench. The fact that club legends do not necessarily become star coaches (immediately) has been proven again, although this story gave rise to serious hopes.
In his first full season, Xavi won the league title and the Spanish Super Cup with Barcelona, but his season this year did not go so well. The team holds third place in the league, but was eliminated from the cup against Athletic Bilbao, and previously suffered a demoralizing 4-1 defeat by Real Madrid in the Super Cup final. According to some information, the trainer who won everything as a player with the club is also starting to lose the dressing room, although from the point of view of the case, it doesn’t matter.
Well, who can be your successor at the Nou Camp?
The bookmakers currently have two favorites, among them the appointment of Rafa Marquez would certainly be less surprising, since Barcelona likes to solve the coaching issue at home.
Marquez currently works for the club’s B team, where he does a great job and took his boys to the playoffs last year, but also spent seven years as a player at the Nou Camp. However, this would be the first serious job for the 44-year-old Mexican trainer, so he would carry a lot of risk if he were to be chosen, it is no coincidence that we would receive 5 times the money, if fate would end up like this.
In a tie for the lead, we find the name of Hans-Dieter Flick, who burst into the public consciousness in 2019. The German professional who came up through the coaching ranks was not afraid of the deep water, he won everything with Bayern in his first year, then he said yes to the German association to manage the Nationalelf, where he took a nasty bath. Although it is difficult to question his qualities, his appointment would also be bit of a surprise, although we can say this about almost everyone on the list, it is no coincidence that there are no huge favorites among the names.
Without a doubt, Jürgen Klopp has put the most on the table so far (@9.00), but according to him, he wants to rest after he gets up from Liverpool’s bench in the summer. It is also worth mentioning Míchel, who did a miracle with Girona in a couple of years and is fighting for the championship gold this year with a team with a significantly smaller budget than the rivals, the bookies are paying a 15x return for him.
At this point, we can filter out that everyone would be surprised by the options of the bookmakers, but no one would be…
Who will be Barcelona’s next coach?
