New Barcelona boss Xavi Hernandez was officially presented as the club’s newest boss on Monday following a week of negotiations with his former club Al-Sadd.
The former Blaugrana midfielder returns to Barca after six years away playing for Al-Sadd for four years before becoming head coach of the Qatar side.
Xavi Hernandez has promised to bring more discipline to the dressing room and has also laid rules before his first training session which took off yesterday.
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Because of the club’s injury crisis, Xavi only had Inaki Pena, Neto, Oscar Mingueza, Samuel Umtiti, Riqui Puig and Luuk de Jong available from the first team.
To bolster numbers, he also called up Arnau Comas, Mika Marmol, Alvaro Sanz, Ez Abde, Ferran Jutgla, Antonio Aranda and Ilias Akhomach from Barcelona B.
With just five first-team stars present for the first training session, but though many more were present for the briefing.
Below are the rules Xavi has already put in place for his team:
Players must arrive for training at least an hour and a half early.
Staff must arrive at least two hours early.
Players must eat at Cuitat Esportiva.
Fines will be in place for lateness and will multiply per offence.
No arriving home after 12am within 48 hours of a game.
Starting spots awarded completely based on performances in training. There are no guarantees for any players.
Risky activities (such as surfing) are prohibited during the season.
Players must represent Barcelona properly whether they are around the club or away on holiday.
As for the actual football, Xavi underlined the importance of retaining possession, positional play, high pressure and bringing the ball out from the back.
Above all, what’s important to Xavi is the commitment from his players to be an absolute professional for 24 hours of the day.
Xavi’s first game in charge of Barcelona will be on Saturday week against city rivals Espanyol at Camp Nou.
Both sides have 17 points to their name, although Barcelona have a game in hand.
