Many in the soccer community were taken aback and even scorned by Barcelona's massive offseason spending on players like Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Jules Kounde, and others. With almost €1.3 billion in debt, the club used a variety of financial levers to go on a spending spree, signing a bevy of A-list players before their rivals could.
To coach Xavi Hernandez's delight, president Joan Laporta complied with his requests for new players. However, in the Spanish La Liga and the UEFA Champions League, Barca have failed to do so on the field.
After drawing 3-3 with Inter in the UCL, almost ensuring that the Blaugrana would not move from the Group Stage for the second year in a row, the club is presently grappling with a new issue. This Sunday, they failed to prevail over their title arch-rivals, Real Madrid, losing 3-1 away in this season's first El Clasico at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid.
What now for Xavi Hernandez and Barcelona?
These past few days, there have been rumblings of dissatisfaction with Xavi's work for the first time throughout his managerial stay. Prior to the El Clasico derby, the Catalans lead the Whites in La Liga by a slim margin of goal differential.
Barcelona were aware of the fact that a Sunday defeat will be the last straw, opening up even more questions about their transfer window shopping spree than the Inter draw has raised. However, maintaining victory would have silenced naysayers and shown the world that they can move on.
When questioned about Xavi's future before Barcelona's away match, president Joan Laporta was asked whether the outcome would have any effect on the coach's contract: "There is total confidence in Xavi. He is a great coach and he will surely go on and give us great success in the future.
"He knows the club perfectly, he knows how we play and he is ideal for Barca. He has our support and he knows it, and it's important that he knows there is this trust so that things go well," he told Barca TV on Friday. However, the 3-1 derby loss may turn out to be a devastating setback for the former iconic midfielder at what is perhaps their weakest stretch under Laporta's second spell.