Revealed: The five Barcelona players “mistreated” by Xavi Hernandez | OneFootball

The walls are closing in on Xavi Hernandez, whose position as Barcelona head coach has been increasingly untenable in the last few days. Joan Laporta is furious with the 44-year-old for comments he made at a recent press conference, and that could lead to a sacking, despite him announcing his decision to not leave at the end of the season only weeks ago.

In the last 24-28 hours, reports have broken of players feeling “mistreated” by Xavi, and MD have now revealed the names of five players that have complained of this. The first, unsurprisingly, is Vitor Roque, whose future at Barcelona looks far from certain, just four months after he arrived from Athletico Paranaense.

Robert Lewandowski is also unhappy with Xavi, specifically to do with him regularly being substituted early in matches – this was the case against Almeria on Thursday, and the Pole looked visibly irritated by the decision. Raphinha is also annoyed by his lack of prominence, which includes being benched for matches and being substituted early, despite his impressive recent form.

Joao Felix is also displeased about his treatment from the Barcelona manager, who has started him just one in the last two months (vs Cadiz, a match in which he scored the only goal). The final player is Ronald Araujo, who has had disagreements with Xavi in private, although the subject of these is not known.

All signs point to Xavi being relieved of his duties in the coming weeks, and showdown talks between himself and Laporta are expected to take place soon. This remarkable situation at Barcelona over the last 72 hours will be one to keep an eye on.