FC Barcelona has specified the time period when it plans to appoint a new head coach according to SPORT, which cited anonymous sources.
Barca and the wider sporting world already knows that the Catalans won’t have a manager as of June 30, after the first team’s current leader Xavi Hernandez announced that he will step down on said date.
The legendary midfielder is approaching two-and-a-half years in the hotseat, but has struggled to maintain the Super Cup and La Liga double-winning standards of 2022/2023 this term with Barca losing the first trophy to bitter rivals Real Madrid and trailing Los Blancos in the Spanish top flight by eight points as things stand.
Xavi’s former teammate Deco, who is know the club’s sporting director, has been working hard in recent weeks to line up a successor and has reached out to the entourages of various prospective candidates, according to SPORT.
With any decision on Barca’s next boss will be made with Deco’s overlord in president Joan Laporta, the club plans to meet one of the chosen potential names over the upcoming international break. Simultaneously, there are representatives that are “pushing very hard” to nominate their clients despite the overbearing pressure and constant media scrutiny Xavi has blasted in press conferences since announcing his departure.
Laporta is a known admirer of the German school of management and Jurgen Klopp. Like Xavi, the former Champions League winner is also out of work in the summer but plans to take a sabbatical after almost nine emotionally taxing years at Anfield with Liverpool.
More likely compatriot appointments at the Montjuic Stadium include Julian Nageslmann, Hansi Flick or Thomas Tuchel.
But as SPORT says, “until there are these face-to-face meetings with the coaches, nothing is certain”.
Even so, Barca has still set a deadline to make a decision and that is at the end of this month.
If someone is put in line to replace Xavi, the chosen men will then have over three months to start planning his sporting project and prepare for an expected preseason friendly tour of the United States that should also provide his first taste of El Clasico against Real Madrid.
