Deco took a ‘hot potato’ when he decided to start his career as a sporting director at the Nou Camp, no less. The Portuguese has a hot June ahead of him, as he will have to find a successor to Xavi, but also try to build a team with a limited budget capable of returning to the fight for the title, which this season, as things stand, he will have to hand over to Girona or Real. While a guest on the Esport3 channel, Deco analyzed the situation in Barcelona after Xavi’s announced departure at the end of the current season and talked about the club’s plans for the next competitive year, and the first task for the 46-year-old Portuguese will be to find a successor to the Catalan coach.🚨🎙| Deco: “Selling Frenkie and Araujo and sign Mbappe? I don’t know where Mbappe will go but I wouldn’t sell neither Frenkie nor Araujo. We want to IMPROVE the team and not make it WORSE.” pic.twitter.com/71bWDV7Jrh— KwesFCB Miami (@kweFCBMiami) February 8, 2024 And although the Spanish media is widely speculating with names, Deco claims that he has not yet contacted any coach.”I haven’t spoken with any coach yet. We are trying to get used to Xavi’s departure. We have to win points in La Liga. We gave an excellent response against Alaves. The new coach will be a joint decision of the president and me” said Deco.Barca paid only 5,000,000 euros for their sole January signing!Xavi announced his departure from the club only a day after Jurgen Klopp did the same in Liverpool, and on the same day, information appeared in the Spanish media that the German expert is a great desire of Joan Laporte. Hansi Flick has also been mentioned in recent days.”The German? We are not talking about any coach at the moment. First we want to establish what we want to do and where we want to go before we talk to any coach. I can give my opinion about the coaches I had as a player and others I follow, but to do the analysis we need more data, we need to dig deeper” said Barca’s director.‘Motta could be Barca’s coach and so could I’Deco also had a special message for those hoping for a bench at the Catalan club.”We want the same profile as today. Someone who is able to adapt to the needs of the club, to adapt and trust the young players as they develop, someone who will not be able to bring in big reinforcements, who has a balanced team. We need a coach who knows what Barça is and understands our current situation. At La Masia you always have to believe” he explained.The week of dreams in Amsterdam: How Ajax turned into one of the deadliest teams in the worldClub legend Rafa Marquez, who has also been speculated by local media as a potential successor, is not an option.”He is young and doing his job with the reserve team. We hope he will be at the club for a long time, but at the moment he is not in the plans to coach the first team” said Deco. ##EDITORS_CHOICE##As for the poor results there are the result of several factors, according to Deco. “The team clearly showed signs of being able to play spectacular games, although at times we didn’t have the opportunity to play there. There is an analysis behind it: injuries, we failed to keep the midfield at the same level, Busquets’ departure did not affect us only in terms of football… All of this led to us not being great in a lot of games. But I think we took a step forward on a lot of levels” he said. The bidding has started – who are Barcelona’s realistic options for Xavi’s replacement?The Portuguese believes that the football public was too harsh towards Xavi.”I think what he did is not appreciated enough. Since winning La Liga, the euphoria has turned into huge expectations in many situations and too harsh criticism in certain moments” said Deco.##NAJAVA_MECA_7855503##As for the new recruits, Barca’s big wish in the January transfer window was Aleish Garcia from Girona.”Xavi publicly said that he likes him. The loss of Gavi was difficult… We will try to replace him with Christensen in the midfield. Aleis Garcia is a good player, he could be very useful. We will see…” said Deco.
