Xavi Hernández did not have a good time at the press conference prior to the game against Almería, the rival that will fire Gerard Piqué in what will be his last game as a Blaugrana at the Camp Nou. It was an intense press conference. With 22 of 25 questions that were about the goodbye of the central. How he handled it. That at what moment he saw it coming. And of course what will happen now in a Barça that little by little is saying goodbye to footballers who marked a stage full of successes.
Xavi knows well the path and the feeling of sadness and frustration generated by having to hang up his boots. And in the Ricard Maixenchs room, the stage where he sat now a year ago to take the reins of the Blaugrana bench, the coach acknowledged that it was not easy to communicate to him in the summer that his prominence would be diminishing. “Being a coach is ungrateful for these kinds of circumstances. It is difficult to have to make certain decisions with teammates like Piqué or Alves”, acknowledged the Barcelona coach touched.
Xavi did not reveal if Piqué will start against Osasuna. But the look on his face as he answers implies that it will. With the center back he will agree how and when he wants to go out in a Camp Nou that is expected to present one of the best tickets of the season. Barcelona's intention is for Piqué to say goodbye next week at a press conference with President Joan Laporta. It remains for the footballer, who has renounced 30 million euros corresponding to the year and a half remaining on his contract, to accept said farewell. His disappointment with President Laporta and Mateu Alemany is evident. And Xavi's management has also distanced him from the coach. “I have looked for the best for the team and for the institution. It's hard, it's been hard for me because he's been my teammate, but I have to make decisions”, said Xavi.
Piqué's goodbye began to take shape in the summer when Xavi informed him that he would be less important and that he would seek competition for him. “We had a conversation before the season started in which I explained my decision to him. It was one of the most complicated moments of my career and now also because I have great esteem for him”, acknowledged the Egarense who empathized with the central defender's decision.
Because he knows better than anyone what it means. He wanted to leave in 2014, coinciding with the summer in which Luis Enrique arrived because he no longer felt important to the team. It was the Asturian coach who convinced him. And although he was not the undisputed starter, he did enjoy good minutes leaving Barcelona with a treble under his arm.
The coach was aware of the central defender's decision, just like the captains. However, no one knew when or how he would make it official. There is a certain confusion in the club at the way in which it has been developed: with a video that Piqué's team began to develop a week ago that ended yesterday afternoon. “It has been won when and how to say it”, added Xavi who also acknowledged that at the team's conspiracy dinner that was held in Can Ferran on Wednesday night “he didn't say anything”.
Fate is capricious. Weeks ago, Barcelona had planned that this Friday the official photos of the season would be taken in which, of course, the center-back will appear. After the session, the team trained on the green of the Camp Nou. Piqué was seen liberated and smiling in the morning session. “Taking a step to the side is a sign of his greatness. He deserves the best and that tomorrow Barcelona fans will bake him for what he is, a club legend”, asked Xavi, who was spared listing the 35-year-old center-back's shortcomings. “I don't like to talk about flaws. I'm left with the fact that he is brave, a winner, without complexes, an intellectual capacity that multiplies. He has been a good teammate, a good captain. Nothing to blame him. There is simply a football issue, it is nothing personal, ”he stressed.
And now that? Xavi pointed out that after Tuesday's match against Osasuna he will meet with president Joan Laporta and Mateu Alemany to plan the winter market. “It could be that we sign a central defender. Let's see what we can do, "he said. By tomorrow he recovers two. Andreas Christensen and Eric Garcia who have been discharged. Jules Koundé will not be there, who is still in pain.
