Spare Some Change?

On Xavi, Jonatan Giráldez, Alexia, and Barça's latest grapple with life's lone constant.

“Nostalgia is a powerful drug… once you have gotten used to driving a Ferrari, it's hard to sit in a Toyota.” 

On his excellent Barça Futbol blog, this is how Dev Das characterizes the inability of the Barça fanbase, “after two decades of Guardiola, Messi, and the golden generation” to “come to terms with the reality of their present club.”

He’s referring here to the expectations that awaited Xavi Hernández on his return to FC Barcelona as manager of the men’s first team, as well as those that accompanied last season’s dominant Supercopa de España win over Real Madrid and subsequent league title. He argues, correctly, from where I sit, that, for all of his tactical and strategic misfires over the past 27 months, between capturing those two trophies last season and topping this season’s Champions League group, Xavi accomplished all (if not more) than anyone could reasonably have expected.

Bartomeu may thankfully be gone but FC Barcelona continues to have to hopscotch through a minefield of crises.

Of course, the brutal fallout of the financial malpractice of Barto’s regime - which ultimately cost Lionel Messi while keeping the pantry stocked with plenty of Coutinho and Lenglet - lives on. Exacerbating matters has been wave upon wave of injury that’s demanded every bit of depth the squad has had to offer - largely in the form of teenagers, 30-something free agents, dudes looking to rehab their values on a big stage, and Sergi Roberto. All this and not a word about Negreira, the mounting pressure to snap the streak of embarrassment in Europe, and a stadium renovation that MUST go off as planned to avoid yet another financial boondoggle.

It’s well-trodden ground at this point but, just over a week ago, Xavi announced that he’ll be leaving Barça after this (barring a truly astounding Champions League miracle) underwhelming season. He cited, reasonably by every indication, the viper’s nest inhabited by by a cavalcade of local politicians, businessmen, wannabe politicians and businessmen, a local media that’s not bashful about shit-stirring, and a fan base that sometimes takes a perverse pride, under the guise of incredibly high standards, in being literally impossible to placate. Cruyff called it “el entorno.” 

What’s all this got to do with Barça Femení, you ask? Well, everything, kinda.

Suffice it to say a fair bit’s happened since we last convened here… UGH, a month ago. 

Less than three weeks before that last post, Barça Femení head coach Jonatan Giráldez had confirmed the open secret that he’ll be leaving the club at the end of the current campaign. Three days after my last publication here, Giráldez shed some light on his next chapter, revealing that he’ll be heading Stateside to take over as head coach of the NWSL’s Washington Spirit.

Just a few days ago, in my latest piece for Defector, I dove headlong into the move. I naturally contemplated what this may mean for Barça, but the piece’s main focus was on Giráldez, his future, Michele Kang, and what’s in store for the Spirit. 

Blaugrana Boss Yin and Yang 

The announcements from Giráldez and Xavi in recent weeks, beyond confirming that both the men’s and women’s first teams at Barça will have new overseers for the 2024-25 season, have offered a fascinating look at the “yin and yang of the end-stage Barça manager.”

This is no great revelation of course but, as Xavi has noted, time and again (and probably not for the last time), once the Blaugrana-clad reaper that is el entorno has a manager in its sights, whether due to unmet expectations or a fall back to Earth after meeting them, there's only one way for things to play out - and it often doesn't take too long.

Xavi is just the latest in a long line of accomplished household names - Louis van Gaal, Ernesto Valverde, Bobby Robson, even Cruyff himself - to get hounded out of this job. At least, like one of his former managers and recent predecessors, Luis Enrique, Xavi saw the lay of the land and, having no interest in a three-plus-month engagement as “dead man walking,” took control of the narrative.

It's been no different on the women’s side in recent years. In fact, Giráldez’s own ascent to the top job in 2021 came on the heels of Lluis Cortés’s strongly encouraged resignation in the immediate aftermath of a treble. Even his arrival at the club came about because of a midseason firing (admittedly on the heels of a disappointing couple of seasons). Despite this, or maybe because of it (and perhaps thanks to a reported massive raise), Giráldez has opted for Pep Guardiola’s “cash in at the peak” gambit.

There is, it must be said , a third type of exit at Barça. Xavi Llorens helmed Barça Femení from 2006 until 2017, leading the side to its first four league titles (2012-15), four Copas de la Reina, and oversaw the professionalization of the side in 2015. In 2017, he stepped aside of his own volition. This option may simply no longer be available to first team managers at the club. 

As I mention in the Defector piece, Giráldez may also be reading some tea leaves here. There is, of course, the matter of money. Even absent the club’s current woes, Barça would struggle to compete financially with the Chelseas, Liverpools, and Manchester Uniteds of the world, let alone petro-powers Man City, PSG, and Newcastle. In their current mire, they’re stuck offering the most successful women’s coach in their history a reported 20% of his market rate.

Also, Giráldez will have seen how this all played out for Xavi. 

If a graduate of La Masia, club legend, and beloved talisman of a golden generation who won every trophy of any consequence while playing an idealized version of the sport, who delivered a desperately needed league title, who dutifully served as a human shield for President Joan Laporta, wound up effectively getting demoted via the inexplicable replacements in the sporting department of Mateu Alemany and Jordi Cryuff (with whom he worked well) with Deco, what chance does a mere mortal stand?

For the past half-decade, Barça Femení has stood as a beacon of hope and pride for a Catalan institution and self-satisfied (a little self-awareness never hurts), if chronically crisis-stricken superpower. This team has stood as a genuine and genuinely spectacular embodiment of everything this club purports to be.

At just about any major European club or successful U.S. franchise, chasing ghosts is seldom conducive to success. Find yourself chasing the ghosts of your own past glory, particularly at Barça, chances are you’re, well, fucked.

Gradually… Then All At Once

In an exchange in Ernest Hemingway’s classic, “The Sun Also Rises,” one character asks another “How did you go bankrupt?” The response? “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

To all the culés in attendance shuddering at yet another reference to financial ruin, fear not. That’s not what we’re doing here. What I’m talking about here are the winds of change. What started two summers ago as a pivot, with the departures of Melanie Serrano, Jenni Hermoso, Lieke Martens, and Leila Ouahabi, is now a full-blown evolution.

Jonatan Giráldez is not the only mainstay of this Barça Femení era heading for the exit. Also moving to the NWSL with expansion side Bay FC in San Francisco is the best African women’s player of all time and 2021-22 co-Pichichi, Asisat Oshoala. Also departing at season’s end - likely for England, Mexico, or the NWSL - after a glorious decade in Blaugrana is superstar goalkeeper Sandra Paños:

sanpanos

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Also out of contract at season’s end are 31-year-old England great Lucy Bronze, Mariona Caldentey, and Alexia. Though nothing has been officially announced on any of these fronts, I believe that Bronze - still an excellent player, if not a hand-in-glove fit for Barça - will be allowed to walk. My gut says that Mariona sticks around (though “right now” is never fun to read in these updates). As for Alexia…

In the absence of concrete updates (outside of reports of the club's hesitation), the prospect of an exit will loom. And there is a bloodless argument for reallocating the resources required to keep a now-30-year-old (as of this past Sunday) superstar to bolster the squad and free up her throne for the next generation. In the wake of her summer 2022 ACL injury and her excellent-but-not-incandescent form before an injury to the same knee that’s kept her off the pitch since November 14 and required arthroscopic surgery in late December (she is, thankfully, training again), this argument could be made, probably convincingly. It’s also complete bullshit.

Even if the imperious Alexia that conquered the world is gone, her pre-injury play in a redefined role offered an exciting blueprint for how her hyper-intelligence, technical mastery, and talismanic leadership will allow her game to age gracefully. Every bit as important, in that brief spell she showed both the willingness and the ability to be a different type of difference-maker, without so much as a hint of a struggle with her teammates over the spotlight. Plus, I can’t imagine Laporta relishes the idea of overseeing the departures of Messi, Xavi, and Alexia in a three-year span.

So I fully expect an Alexia deal to get done. 

The Next Episode

Please don’t think for a moment that I’m eulogizing this dynasty. Barça Femení remains the sport’s preeminent power. There is, however, a fascinating conversation to be had (and we’ll have it here) about what exactly the next chapter of this Barça Femení dynasty looks like. 

With a lineup that boasts in-their-prime superstars like Aitana Bonmatí, Caroline Graham Hansen, Mapi León, and Fridolina Rolfö, flanked by established-but-still-ascending stars like Patri Guijarro, Salma Paralleulo, Clàudia Pina, Keira Walsh, Ona Batlle, and Cata Coll, the steadying presences of Irene Pardes, Marta Torrejón, and Ingrid Engen, and a next generation led by Vicky López, Martina Fernández, Lucía Corrales, and Giulia Dragoni, fast emerging, this ride promises to remain fun for a while. 

Even so, the change that once began gradually is upon us.