Toni Freixa reveals his plans for Xavi: B team coach before first team

Toni Freixa, one of the three candidates to take over as Barcelona president this weekend, says Xavi Hernandez must first coach the B team if he wants the first team job.

Xavi's been a prominent name during the electoral campaign and while he hasn't sided with anyone explicitly, Victor Font has made it clear he's a big part of his campaign.

Font's initial plan had been to install Xavi as coach immediately, but he's since changed his stance, saying Ronald Koeman would be given time now and Xavi would return in a general manager role.

Freixa, though, speaking to Catalunya Radio on Wednesday, doesn't share Font's vision for Xavi, who left Barça for Qatar in 2015 and is currently the coach of Al-Sadd.

"The same as (Pep) Guardiola was the B team coach and later was brilliant with the first team, Barça B is a good path for Xavi to start on at Barça," Freixa said.

Freixa added that wouldn't mean the club would not continue to have faith in current B team coach Garcia Pimienta, who he says he also has interesting plans for.

In that sense, he justified his position on Xavi by saying that Ronald Koeman is doing a great job in difficult times and deserves to continue as the club's first team coach.

With respect to Lionel Messi's future, Freixa feels that Joan Laporta's comments -- that Messi would only continue with him -- come from a "lack of knowledge."

He said: "[Laporta's] pleased with what he has and explains to us what he did 11 years ago. I never reveal my private conversations. I said about Xavi because it was important that the socios knew he doesn't see himself in the general manager role.

"I don't want to retain Messi, I want him to decide that only as Barça will he be 100 percent happy. We will explain to him how we will handle the first team for him to be happy at Barça. If he's not said anything yet, it's because he wants to stay."

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