The Mail Sport are reporting that former Barcelona manager and player Xavi is a possible candidate to take over from Erik ten Hag should INEOS decide to sack him.
The article says that United made contact with Xavi twice over the past couple of months through various intermediaries. Chris Wheeler - the author of the article - reports that "A four-man delegation led by chief executive Omar Berrada flew out to Barcelona last Thursday, although United sources say that a number of high-level meetings have taken place in the Catalan capital recently because co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been there to support Ineos Britannia sailing team in their battle with New Zealand for the America's Cup."
This article also says that Xavi has made it clear that he would not like to manage in Spain again after he was sacked as Barca manager earlier this year.
Final Thoughts
I actually like Xavi as a coach, I think there is something there with him. I don't believe he got the credit he may have deserved at Barca and while he may not be the next Don Carlo or anything, his time at his former club was during a period of great difficulty. It would not have been easy for him to do wonders at his former club given the tough circumstances they were going through in that three-year period.
His time in Spain is similar to that of ten Hag's at United. Two up-and-coming coaches, managing two of the biggest clubs in football history, in two of the hardest leagues in the world, during arguably some of those clubs' harder days.
Perhaps Xavi's time at Barca and how it ended could be a vision of what could happen to ten Hag when looking at all the similarities they had with their jobs?
It's not as if Xavi was completely useless as manager as he managed to win La Liga in 22/23. That's not an easy thing to do when you have rivals like Real Madrid playing like they have been in recent years (winning two of the last three Champions League's) and the situation that Barca have been in during the Spaniard's time as manager.
The two matches we played against them in that 22/23 Europa League campaign were two of the best matches I believe we've had under ten Hag.
The pair of them also seemed to have a good relationship which is nice as well, I guess.
Would I take Xavi as a replacement for ten Hag though?
Honestly, no, at least not yet.
I feel that he needs to do a little bit more to prove that he is or can be a top coach. I find that there are too many similarities between him and ten Hag and having gone through the roller-coaster that has been the past 2-and-a-half years with the Dutchman, I'd rather avoid potentially doing that again with Xavi.
United are still not in the most comfortable of positions off the field as we still have a hell of a lot of sorting out to do. We've also just got new co-owners and while Omar Berrada - who probably knows Xavi pretty well as our CEO was the Manager of Marketing and Sponsoring at Barca between 2004 and 2011 - may have led these talks with Xavi and/or his intermediaries, I still feel that it is too early for both INEOS to take such a risk and for Xavi himself to take on another massive job that has many things that could go against him.
I'm sure that he would want the role and believe that he could put things right (as all managers do) but after his pretty unsuccessful time at Barcelona, would he want to possibly damage his managerial reputation even more by coming to United?
What would you do? Would you like to see Xavi as a potential replacement for Erik ten Hag?
Background Image: Erik ten Hag and Xavi embrace ahead of Man Utd v Barcelona at the Camp Nou (22/23) | Creator: NurPhoto | Credit: NurPhoto via Getty Images Copyright: Urbanandsport/NurPhoto - SuperSport