Barcelona remain without a permanent manager, having shown Ronald Koeman the door after a series of poor performances from the club.
Even before the Dutchman was sacked, it was clear the main candidate to replace him would be Xavi Hernandez, yet getting him away from his current club seems to have been a more difficult task than Barcelona bargained for.
The Catalan media have explained that Al-Sadd wanted Barcelona to treat them as equals, and with respect, rather than feeling they could just snatch Xavi away. That saw officials from the Blaugrana travel to Doha for talks.
Sport say the situation is now close to being resolved, and Barcelona will ‘formalise’ Xavi’s arrival either today or Thursday. It’s stated that no compensation will be payable to Al-Sadd, but there’s still final talks going on regarding some details.
That could be related to a possible friendly between the two clubs, which has been mentioned previously.
Once the final fringes are sorted, Barcelona will be able to announce Xavi’s arrival.
