Out of Europe, Pedri done for the season – So what do we make of Xavi’s Barcelona as the season comes to a close?

Is Barcelona’s season over? Well logistically of course it isn’t, they have eight La Liga matches remaining. But in the sense of what there is left in terms of competing, it’s pretty much done. Ad/> After the catastrophic home defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt at home on Thursday they are now out of both the Europa League as well as the Copa del Rey.

In the league they are 12 points behind leaders Real Madrid, although with a game in hand. LigaCasemiro on Bale boos: When you whistle him, you whistle Real Madrid’s history11/04/2022 AT 20:36 Barring a sensational collapse it seems as if Barcelona will end the season in second or third in the league, with no trophies. For Barcelona that is not a good season.

But this wasn’t a normal season. The defeat to Frankfurt is extremely disappointing but ultimately this has to be a positive season for Barcelona. When you consider where they were under Ronald Koeman, to be where they are now under Xavi Hernandez is a big positive.

We may revisit this in a few weeks once those remaining games have been played but this feels like a really good time to take stock of Barcelona, where they’re at, and where they can and need to go moving forward. Let’s start with the positives, and that begins with the manager. Let’s not forget how many people were dooming Xavi as an appointment.

So many people predicted it was the wrong time for the prodigal son to return, while even more piled on after a fairly tricky start. Now though, those naysayers are nowhere to be seen. Xavi is cemented as the manager of the future and whilst Joan Laporta and his team probably shouldn’t have given Koeman this season at all, they deserve credit for the move they made to bring Xavi in, that is a big win.