Lowering standards saw Xavi lose Barcelona changing room
Xavi's tenure at Barcelona fizzled out towards the end, with the Spaniard admitting that he failed to uphold his early high standards.
Xavi admitted that a lowering of standards during his time at Barcelona is what led to the decline in the team's performance before his exit in 2024.
The former midfielder replaced Ronald Koeman in November 2021, immediately implementing stricter rules to turn Barcelona's fortunes around.
In his first full season in charge, Xavi led Barca to the LaLiga title, their first in four years, and also beat Real Madrid to win the Supercopa de Espana.
However, in May 2024, Xavi was dismissed as the Blaugrana's head coach despite a second-place finish in LaLiga.
"I began my coaching career at Barca with high expectations for both the players and the club," he said at a leadership conference in Madrid.
"The club was coming from a period where there weren't many demands, but my mistake was maintaining those high standards for only one year, from when I arrived until we won LaLiga and the Supercopa."
Xavi took charge of 143 matches for Barcelona in all competitions, winning 90 of those matches and leaving with a win rate of 62.9%.
However, Barcelona failed to reach the Champions League knockout round in two consecutive seasons under him and finished 10 points behind rivals Real Madrid in 2023-24 as the pressure piled on Xavi.
"Later on, I was able to be self-critical, and I said to myself: 'Damn, what happened to me?'" Xavi added.
"I had lowered those high standards, and the players no longer had the same attitude, the same respect, the same effort. The standards kept dropping until, in my last season, we didn't win anything.
"I learned a lot from this. I had to be self-critical."
