Report: Laporta ‘not convinced’ by most-wanted Barcelona manager

According to reports from Cat Radio, Joan Laporta is not convinced to sign Xavi Hernandez as the new coach for FC Barcelona.

The club president has had a busy week since the defeat to Benfica in Portugal. That coupled with the 3-0 loss at home to Bayern Munich led to Barcelona’s worst start to a UCL campaign in the past 20 years.

Ronald Koeman had been under pressure since the beginning of the season. The performances in the league have been far from convincing. With the team struggling in both attack and defence, his job seemed to be in jeopardy.

A large number of coaches were speculated in the following weeks to take the helm at Barcelona. While Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel were Laporta’s dream choices, they would not be available till the end of the season.

Some interim choices like Antonio Conte were named as well, but seem to be discarded currently. Eric ten Hag, Roberto Martinez, and Andrea Pirlo were some of the others closely linked.

However, as always, Xavi seemed to be a natural choice. Al Sadd had a fabulous run under the Spaniard, and that success seemed to push him further in the race to take over at Catalonia.

Still, Laporta is not convinced by the former Barcelona player yet. The president believes that Xavi does not have the experience required to take over a top European side yet, and for that reason is not accelerating talks with him.

As it stands, Koeman seems to have some time under his belt to save his job. If he fails to do so, it will be interesting to see which direction Japorta leans to.