Will Xavi even make it to the end of the season with Barcelona?

If Xavi didn’t hold the legendary status at the club that he has, there is absolutely no doubt at all that he would’ve already been relieved of his coaching duties at Barcelona.

You can’t tell me that if Quique Setien or Ronald Koeman were in place now that they would still be in position.

The performances week in and week out have become lamentable under Xavi, and that’s being polite.

Shipping three goals against a team that are eight points from safety and who could’ve quite easily scored a fourth with a little more luck… it’s embarrassing, with the greatest of respect to Granada who were good value for their point.

It’s clear that the first-team aren’t being coached well enough, and that’s as much to do with Xavi’s selection of his staff as it is with his own shortcomings.

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The real shame is because you could understand that hiring Xavi in the first place might’ve been the passing of the baton – Rinus Michels to Cruyff, Cruyff to Pep and then Pep to Xavi.

He almost represented a lineage of sorts because their ideals aligned and culers could be forgiven for thinking that Barca would be playing football that harked back to those halcyon days.

Sadly for everyone, it’s been anything but this season.

In 2022/23, a solid defence was the foundation on which Barca would build a title-winning campaign, but look back over the course of the season and the incredible amount of 1-0 wins (11) told us that Barca, in reality, only squeaked through a number of games.

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There was precious little swashbuckling and exciting football to be enthused about with two wins in the Champions League group stage, an immediate loss in the Europa League after dropping out of the premier European competition and a whooping by Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey semi-final.

They were far more indicative of just how bad Barca were even in a season that appeared to be a success.

The wheels have really fallen off this season and, frankly, Xavi has looked completely out of his depth.

La Liga isn’t the Qatar Stars League, Barcelona aren’t Al Sadd, and it was quickly apparent Xavi wasn’t Guardiola MKII.

Whilst the club have been and are conditioned by FFP and the state that Josep Maria Bartomeu left everything in, that should not be used as an excuse by the technical team.

Barca have certain standards to uphold and they will not reach them this season. Not even close.

The big question now is whether it would be better to just put everyone out of their misery in the hope that the final third of the 2023/24 campaign is markedly better than the previous few months or struggle on until June.