Xavi Reminds Luis Enrique That Barcelona Job Has a Lot of Suitors

Luis Enrique is under a lot of pressure at Barcelona.

Not pressure because he fears for his short-term future—the club wouldn't sack him during the season unless something horrific happened—but because he knows there are several future candidates for the job watching his every move.

Barcelona like appointing people who are their own. Pep Guardiola was the poster boy for this internal promotion scheme, Enrique himself is another former player.

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But the man who has embodied Barcelona more than any other is Xavi Hernandez. And he seems to have set his sights on management.

He told El Pais, (h/t The Guardian):

"

Hopefully I can [follow Guardiola] and even more so in my home here. My playing days are numbered, that is clear. I can feel it in my body as it is difficult for me to recover and I need to measure how much effort I am putting in. I don’t have the same sharpness to play every three days any more.

"

Xavi obviously has plenty of learning to do, and nobody is suggesting that he would take over from Enrique this coming summer. Especially not when there are plenty of others who would love a shot at it. 

But the current coach won’t appreciate the midfielder talking about his job in such a brazen fashion.

Modern football doesn't lend itself to dynasty building, but Enrique would at least like to keep alive the dream of creating a legacy and empire at Barcelona over several years.

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The coach is in a sticky position, where he has to be the man responsible for moving Barcelona’s game from the midfield to the attack.

For years, the key sector in the team was the Sergio Busquets, Xavi and Andres Iniesta core. Now, it’s the Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar attack.

The club and all the youth prospects coming through have been schooled in the old fashion, and while Barcelona aren’t planning on ceding possession or changing their game drastically, it’s undeniable that the emphasis is now on a different area of the pitch.

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Josep Maria Bartomeu, speaking at the club’s traditional Christmas lunch on Thursday, said, per Sport: "We maintain our enthusiasm and we are fully confident in Luis Enrique to progress with his sports project."

It implied that there have been doubts about the coach—otherwise there was no need to mention Enrique in such a fashion.

Of course, Barcelona are four points behind Real Madrid at the top of the Primera Liga table and that bodes badly, based on past results.

As Juan Manuel Diaz explains for Sport:

"

In the last decade, Barcelona were the Christmas leader on seven occasions (2004,05 - Frank Rijkaard), (2008,09,10 - Pep Guardiola), 2012 - Tito Vilanova and 2013 - Tata Martino. In all cases except the latter, it helped Barca win the title. In 2006 and 2007, under Rijkaard and 2011, under Pep, Barcelona were second and they could not reverse the situation, leading to Madrid winning the league on these occasions.

"

Enrique has a lot of work to do to keep Barcelona challenging for the title, starting with closing that gap to one point by beating Cordoba at home on Saturday.

The cogs of Barcelona are turning and they always will be. What Enrique has to do is grab hold of one of the teeth and hold on for as long as he can.

Once he's got used to the machine, then maybe he'll be able to influence how it operates fully. If he doesn't, then he'll get crushed like Tata Martino and discarded.