‘My mistake‘ — Xavi Hernandez analyzes what went wrong for him in his final season at Barcelona

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·15 November 2025

‘My mistake‘ — Xavi Hernandez analyzes what went wrong for him in his final season at Barcelona

FC Barcelona were a team reeling in mid-table when Xavi Hernandez took over as manager, succeeding Ronald Koeman. The Spaniard guided the team to a second-place finish in his first half-season at the club.

In his next season, Barcelona brought in players like Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Jules Kounde, Andreas Christensen, and Franck Kessie by activating financial levers, and it paid off as the Catalan club returned to winning ways, lifting the La Liga title.

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The following season, however, was very poor for Xavi’s team. Struggling to compete across all fronts, it became a campaign better known for the drama surrounding the manager.

Initially, he announced that he would leave, only for the board to convince him to stay. Weeks later, though, Laporta and co. decided to let him go in favour of Hansi Flick.

At a leadership conference at ESIC University, via Mundo Deportivo, Xavi highlighted what he thinks went wrong in his final season as Barcelona manager. He said:

“I started my coaching career at Barça with high demands for the players and the club. The club had come from a period where there weren’t many demands, but my mistake was maintaining those high standards for only one year, from when I arrived until we won LaLiga, the Supercopa…”

Xavi was self-critical, further exploring what went wrong in 2023/24. He continued:

“Later on, I was able to be self-critical and I said to myself: ‘Damn, what happened to me?’ I had lowered those high standards, and the players no longer had the same attitude, the same respect, the same effort. The standards kept dropping until, in my last season, we didn’t win anything. I learned a lot from this. I had to be self-critical.”

It is no coincidence that the man who replaced Xavi made discipline the first priority for Barcelona’s players. Hansi Flick’s strict measures, particularly regarding punctuality, are well documented.

Flick has done very well with the Barcelona project, but it was Xavi who laid the foundations for the team’s current successes. The Spaniard is a very capable tactician, and let us hope he secures another top job to prove himself sooner rather than later.