Pep capable of building a new Barcelona in Manchester, says Xavi
IF anyone can build a Barcelona in England’s green and pleasant land then it is Pep Guardiola. That is the opinion of Xavi Hernandez just three days before Manchester City arrive at the Camp Nou to test how far their long-term aim of European domination has come.
‘I will not be easy for Pep because that Barcelona was built over many years. People believed in an idea and stuck with it. They stayed faithful to a way of working and a style of football even when sometimes that flew in the face of results,’ Xavi told The Mail on Sunday.
‘But that said, if anyone can build something that resembles what Barca is and has been, outside of Barcelona, then it’s Guardiola. In just three months it’s already really apparent that something has changed at City and you can clearly see the hand of Pep and how he wants to the team to play.’
Guardiola has always been seen as the last piece in City’s jigsaw. Ever since Sheik Mansour’s right-hand man, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the City chairman, hired former Barcelona director Ferran Soriano as chief executive in 2012 the road map was clear.
Soriano took former Barca sporting director Txiki Begiristain to the club as director of football and his mission from day one was to persuade Guardiola to move to Manchester. He was frustrated in 2013 when Bayern became the former Barcelona coach’s next destination. But City kept working towards that end.
The £200million Etihad Campus opened in 2014 with facilities that left visitors from Barcelona in awe — it more than competes with the Catalan club’s Joan Gamper Sports City on the outskirts of the city by Barcelona’s airport.
And Begiristain replaced Roberto Mancini with Manuel Pellegrini, precisely because the Chilean coach was admired by Guardiola and, albeit with none of the intensity, would play a similar style of football. He would also take it graciously when three years down the line he had to step aside.
‘Every single person who has brought something to the club should be welcomed when they return,’ said Xavi when asked about the reception Guariola will receive on Wednesday. ‘In Pep’s case that is even more so because of all he achieved as a player and a manager.’
City might have got Pep in 2013 had the fought harder but some Barcelona fans took his departure badly and they might have reacted even more strongly had he joined the emerging Barca clan at City.
A minority of Barcelona fans have never recovered from the most successful manager in the club’s history leaving but Xavi sums up the overriding sentiment that it is difficult to feel anything other than gratitude to a man who, having played in the team that won the club’s first European Cup, then won it twice more as well as 12 other trophies.
‘I’ve said many times that Guardiola has been one of the most influential people in Barca’s history. He ended up perfecting a model that was introduced by Johan Cruyff, that other coaches such as Louis van Gaal or Frank Rijkaard continued.
‘He is also a professional and now he will come defending other colours, but I for one will, as a Barca fan, welcome him.’
Xavi left Barcelona in 2015 after a record 767 appearances. He is back in Qatar playing for Al Sadd but his heart will be at the Camp Nou on Wednesday.
‘If my professional commitments, allow I still don’t miss a Barca game,’ he said.