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Today's exclusive column, featuring Barcelona, Man Utd, Chelsea and much more!

How Barcelona convinced Xavi to stay

Big news last night as Xavi is set to stay as Barcelona manager next season. It’s confirmed, after just months ago Xavi announced he was going to leave at the end of this campaign. There were rumours about him possibly changing his mind, which he denied, but now he is staying after a crazy day at Barcelona.

So, what really happened in the last 24 hours to change the story? As I’ve previously been reporting, Joan Laporta was always keen for Xavi to stay, and has been pushing to keep him. Laporta also never wanted to enter into concrete negotiations with other managers, because his focus was on keeping Xavi. Rafael Marquez is appreciated, but they never started proper conversations about appointing him because they were waiting for Xavi.

Barca ended up holding two separate meetings yesterday, the first between Deco and Xavi, and from what I’m hearing that was a crucial one. That then led to the second meeting with Deco, Laporta and other key figures on the board. But the first meeting was crucial for Deco to allow Xavi to explain his reasons and point of view, and then for Deco to present Barcelona’s ideas one more time to convince him to stay at the club.