Done deal between Barcelona and Al Sadd for Xavi: No payment of buyout clause

Xavi Hernandez is the new coach of Barcelona, taking charge of the club he led as captain during his playing career, although there has yet to be official communication, but it's understood that an agreement between Los Cules and Al-Sadd has been reached in full as of Friday.

Initial speculation suggested that the Blaugrana had agreed to paid the five million euro buyout clause in Xavi's contract to free him from his former club, but that has now been confirmed not to be the case.

Barcelona's perilous financial predicament is still ongoing and the club is living under a salary limit at the present time, and this impacts all employees and not just players.

The coaching staff aren't exempt and Barcelona simply couldn't afford to have a five million euro payment on their outgoing balance sheets immediately in one lump sum.

As such, negotiations went long into Thursday evening and extended into Friday morning before a compromise was reached, even though Al Sadd released a statement saying the clause had been paid.

The final agreement doesn't include the payment of that clause, but that isn't to say Al Sadd will lose out on any money, because there is a gentleman's agreement between the two clubs that the Qatari side will receive the fee in some way at a later date.

This was the complicated sticking point that had prevented the deal being closed earlier in the week, but now it is clear, Xavi will return to Barcelona after six years and be on the bench for the first match after the international break.

Xavi will land in Barcelona on Saturday and be presented as the club's new coach on Monday, replacing Ronald Koeman and becoming Joan Laporta's first coaching appointment since Pep Guardiola back in 2008.

He is now seen as the great hope for a club that has fallen on relatively hard times, although he doesn't have anywhere near the quality of squad to work with than the one he walked away from as a player six years ago.

The Blaugrana currently sit ninth in LaLiga Santander with 16 points, whilst they also face a battle with Benfica to progress in the Champions League, with a failure on the continent an unimaginable failure for the modern Barcelona Xavi helped build in the first place.

He has the unanimous support of Barcelona fans and must now find a way to harness that goodwill and time into competent work on the training ground and results on the pitch, despite having very few stars to lean on.

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