Barcelona President Joan Laporta has reportedly instructed the club's Sporting Director Deco to restart the hunt for a new head coach.

Laporta has decided that the Spanish giants will be giving Xavi Hernandez the elbow at the end of the season after all.

This comes barely two weeks after Barcelona performed a U-turn and indicated that Xavi would be retained in his role.

Barcelona has placed itself in a compromised position with Europe's heavy hitters mostly settled on their plans for the new campaign and player recruitment well underway.

Deco ordered to restart search for new coach The Catalans' sporting director Deco is currently in Porto attending to personal matters but that trip may prove serendipitous as Barcelona are believed to be interested in Porto boss Sergio Conceicao.

According to reports from Spain, the top candidates to succeed Xavi are Hansi Flick and Barca Atletico manager Rafael Marquez, who could also receive a call from Deco in the coming days.

Thomas Tuchel is also on their radar and Barcelona could step up their pursuit of him after he confirmed on Friday he would be leaving Bayern Munich at the end of this season.

Manchester United are also seriously considering a move for Tuchel as they plan for the departure of Erik ten Hag, who is on incredibly thin ice at the moment.

Barcelona have performed well below expectations this season in failing to mount a significant challenge to Real Madrid in La Liga, spending much of the campaign behind Girona in third place before overhauling the Michel-coached outfit in recent weeks.

It's another surprising twist in the Barcelona coach drama, and while many fans were hoping to see Xavi go at the conclusion of the season, the manner in which he does so paints none of the primary actors in a positive light and could give potential managers pause.

Barcelona's capacity to spend on a new manager will also be influenced by Xavi's willingness to waive the final year of his contract, while potential managers will undoubtedly want guarantees about the club's stability following the events of the previous three weeks.

Xavi seals his own demise It seems that Xavi set off the spark that would terminate his tenure in the Barcelona dugout with his press conference following their 2-0 victory over Almeria.

"We are going to try to compete against Madrid. I think that the club must understand that the situation is very difficult.

"Above all, on an economic level. We have an economic situation that has nothing to do with 25 years ago, we can no longer go out and pick and say 'I want this one, this one, and that one.'

"We are not in the same conditions than other clubs with very advantageous economic situations," Xavi said.

"The Barcelona fans have to understand it. That does not mean that we do not want to compete, but that is Barca's situation at the moment. We need stability and time, but we will try to compete."

Laporta reportedly took exception to these comments which sparked his decision to axe Xavi and restart the search for a new coach.