Xavi not ready to accept the two changes Barcelona have requested from him – report

The meeting between Deco and Xavi has finally concluded at the club’s offices, with the next few hours termed as decisive. The Spaniard must now decide if he actually wants to continue as the coach of Barcelona, pending the approval of Joan Laporta.

On the back of the same, Javi Miguel has reported that Deco, during the meeting, imposed two conditions on Xavi in the form of changes in his coaching staff.

However, Xavi has not accepted either of them.

Reports from earlier today have claimed that Xavi is presumably hurt by the conditions that the club are imposing on him now after publicly asking him to continue at the club for several weeks.

He was initially close to continuing at the club, but now it seems like he has one foot out the door already.

What are Barcelona’s options?

If rumours are to be believed, it seems as if Barcelona are not prioritising an ‘internal’ hiring in case Xavi leaves the club, which pretty much closes the door for Rafael Marquez’s promotion.

The Mexican was best-placed to replace Xavi for the longest time, with the club harbouring doubts over some of the other candidates such as Hansi Flick and Thomas Tuchel.

As for the former, the club believes that his experience – or the lack thereof -, is a huge obstacle in his hiring, and the latter’s behavioural issues with his previous teams leave a lot to be desired.

Despite that, now it has been reported that the search operation for a replacement is back on, with the German duo at the very top of the list for Barcelona.

Operation Tuchel back on? (Photo by MICHAELA STACHE/AFP via Getty Images)

Other names such as Roberto De Zerbi — financial issues and lack of experience at top clubs — and Julian Nagelsmann — likely continuing with the German National Team — seem to be closed off right now.

This saga seems to have taken multiple interesting twists already, and it seems improbable that Barcelona will be able to reach a definitive conclusion today.