Xavi: I’d love to manage Barcelona one day

Barcelona midfielder, Xavi Hernandez is nearing the last several years of his playing career, and while he admits that he’d love to manage the Catalan giants in the future, he still believes he and Barcelona are still capable of winning many more titles before he hangs up the boots for good.

In an interview with Jamie Carragher for the Daily Mail, Xavi began by discussing their recent 0-2 Champions League win over Manchester City and believes that City have the talent and the players with the right technical abilities to mirror Barcelona’s trademark tiki taka style.

“We were expecting they would want to have more of the ball. The way they set up  surprised us a little too. They weren’t defensive but they were sitting back.

“Pellegrini’s teams normally want the ball and to take the game to the opposition. He normally likes to play football, open up the game down the wings and press high up the pitch. In a way, this time they did neither. They have players for a style more like Barcelona so it was a bit of a surprise.

“They have players like Yaya Toure, Nasri and now Navas and Negredo who are top-quality footballers who play the game  the right way. And Pellegrini is a fantastic coach, with the way in which he wants to play football right from the back. For example, he has brought in Demichelis. He has been criticised but he can bring the ball out well from the back in order to get the team playing football. He has  plenty of good footballers to play a passing game. But it’s another thing when they come up against Barca as we have seven or eight players of our own who hardly ever give the ball away.”

Xavi went on to insist that he doesn’t feel like Barcelona’s cycle of success is coming to an end, as many of the club’s current stars are just now reaching their prime.

“No, absolutely no. I don’t think so. We have an excellent generation of  players. Since Cruyff changed the history and philosophy of Barcelona, over the last five years, that philosophy has gone ‘boom’! It’s really exploded and we have made history, but Barcelona can carry on winning trophies. We won’t suddenly be down here (points to floor). This is a spectacular crop of players. Look at the ages of the players: Fabregas, Messi, Iniesta, Alves, now Neymar, Jordi Alba and Pique — they are all around 26, 27, 28 29 years old. That’s a great generation of footballers.

“The period with (Pep) Guardiola was unique. Under him we were ‘ding, ding, ding!’  Ringing the bell all the time, the football was so good. The key point is if you try to compare what we are doing now to that fantastic time under Guardiola, you are going to lose comparisons.”

On the topic of Pep Guardiola, the talk moved to his current side, Bayern Munich , who gave Barcelona their worst defeat in recent memory in last season’s Champions League semi-finals, something Xavi is eager to put behind him.

“There is no question we were not at our best. We arrived at that point of the season tired. The big difference was that Bayern had a massive physical advantage on us and the result was huge.

“The difference between the squads isn’t huge. The big thing for me was the physical gap. We didn’t reach our standards but we were pushed aside. Now the gap (between the two squads) isn’t so big but the problem is when we face another team like that, they are physically superior. Why? (points to himself). Look at me! (he is 5ft 7in) Look at Iniesta, Alba, Fabregas. It means we always have to play so much better to win these big games.”

Xavi went on to discuss the Spanish national team, why it took so long for him to make his debut and the moment everything changed for La Roja.

“The trainers before preferred other players. That happens. The change for me came when Luis Aragones became national coach (in 2004). Aragones took me to one side and he said, ‘You are better than him, and him. You are better than the ones who have gone to play in Germany and England. You are playing for me.’

“From that point my confidence and self-belief rose. Without Aragones, this grand leap ahead would not have been possible.

“The penalty shoot-out against Italy (in their Euro 2008 quarter-final) could have changed history. Spain’s history had usually been pretty negative. But then, boom! Spain go through. Wow! (He gets animated as he explains.) It’s like lifting a millstone from around your neck. That’s when our winning mentality began.

“We were no longer happy with getting through the quarter-finals. From then on, we were obliged to win. Everyone — the press, supporters — now really believe in the team.

“Before that, they didn’t! You’d go to the airport and people would say: ‘Look! there is the team who won’t get past the quarter-finals!’ Now it’s, ‘We’ve got three titles, why not four?’ It’s all positive.
If you look beyond football, Spanish history is all about sport. Football makes up 80 per cent of that. Radio stations, TV channels, fans — they all want to see Spain win.

“There had been so many years of football culture where Spain had won nothing that there was a huge demand for success from the media and the fans.  This made the players feel a bit like, well, we’ve won in motorcycling, basketball, in every sport apart from football up until 2008. It was like the country needed it so much we said to ourselves, ‘Hey, come on! We need to win!  Everyone else has except us!’ And the sheer demand of the whole country also makes people become winners.”

After years of struggle, Spain are now at the top and advised fans of England that they must accept that the current generation players are who they are or adapt.

“Hey, listen, with all the humility in the world, I don’t want to tell England how to do things, but England has to see its current generation of players exactly how it is.

“For example, you have wide players with real pace. You need to play a passing game, keeping possession, but then concentrating on  getting the ball into wide areas. You have  footballers who are extremely quick.  I think they ought to play in a more direct style but without losing the energy they’ve always had. What’s good about them is that they are competitive and aggressive. You mustn’t lose that English football culture has always been exemplary for us, the way in which you compete, so clean and with a sense of fair play. It has always been an example to us. Always. Never lose that intensity.”

Xavi concluded by stating that although he respects English football, and the teams who have been interested in him throughout his career, he has dedicated his life to Barca and even hopes to manage the club in the future.

“I’m Barcelona through and through and have always wanted to stay here. But I do love the English game.  The  stadiums are always full.  You have that  feeling you are really in football, everything is pure.

“Manchester, Liverpool, the supporters, you can’t hear yourself in the stadiums. It’s fantastic. When I go to England, I get the feeling that you are part of football history.

“It’s quite sensational. They are a real example, how they behave, the desire to win, the fans, it’s a big event, everything is like you’re in a film. In England there is a lot of respect for professional footballers, in the Latin Hispanic world, less so. People respect players a lot more over there than they do here and that’s why I think so highly of it.

“I’d love to one day manage Barcelona, yes. I’d like to remain in football forever. It would always have to be with  Barcelona. That’s where my heart and feelings are, just like you with Liverpool. But that (management) is for the future. Right now, I love to  play football  siempre,  siempre (always, always). When you’re a kid playing, you enjoy having the ball, don’t you? All I ever want to  do is have the ball at my feet, bossing the game.

“I’ve been brought up with that style, it’s my football education. I can’t see any other way  to play.”