Earthquake at the Palau. If the first and glorious stage of Xavi Pascual (Gavà, 1972) at Barça lasted eight years, the second will barely reach eight months. The coach made the decision this Sunday to leave the club at the end of the current season, fed up with the low demands he detects in the entity and the numerous unfulfilled promises by the section leaders and the board. His destination will be the Middle East, specifically an exciting project like Dubai Basketball, already established as one of the teams in the EuroLeague, which guarantees him the financial muscle necessary to tackle more ambitious goals than those currently managed by the team of his heart.
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As bad as things look at the Palau, the decision finally made by the Catalan coach was not an easy one. Pascual was very excited and motivated to start from scratch this summer, to put his stamp on the project, but over these months he has realized that everything he had in mind, and that had been promised to him, was not going to be carried out.
Dubai offers Pascual guarantees that Barça does not
When he accepted the proposal to return to Barça in November and replace Joan Peñarroya on the bench, Pascual had some reservations. He was not completely sure, aware that the club’s financial situation did not anticipate many moves in a short and very veteran squad. But a call from Joan Laporta, the coach’s personal friend, ended up convincing him. Now, several months later, he feels he has been used as an electoral pawn. That all the resources put on the table ended up being worthless. And he is fed up.
The coach was already quite upset at the end of February, when the EuroLeague transfer market closed and Barça was one of the few teams that made no moves despite having one of the squads most affected by injuries. The coach had requested reinforcement for the interior game and the club promised to try to make an effort that never came.
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To avoid a similar situation from happening again, Pascual asked the club to have a “contingency” fund for the next season in case injuries appeared again at the Palau. Barça’s response was that this was not possible, that the budget will be increased a little this summer and that a deep remodeling of the squad will be undertaken, with almost half of the players’ contracts ending, but that resources will again be limited.
All this considered, one of the factors that weighed most in Pascual’s decision was the complete lack of self-demand he detected in the club. An absolute lack of commitment that does not fit at all with his way of working and thinking. In a season with many more defeats than usual, Barça has not moved a muscle, not even to complain or to demand a change of dynamics. What there is, is a kind of indifference that he does not understand and has decided not to continue enduring. He does not recognize his club.
“I cannot control the rumors, we will talk at the end of the season. I am focused on this one and then we will see,” he limited himself to answering in Tenerife about his departure, after signing an important victory in the Liga Endesa (97-102).
But the decision is made. Goodbye Barça
