Match thread

Edit: sorry dont know how to make it automatically sort new

Post match thread

He repeatedly uses the word leader when describing a couple of these signings. Apart from the obvious dearth of prem quality players, I think it’s pretty clear what else we were lacking over the last few seasons.

“This season taught me a lot, especially when things were not going well,” Xavi Simons says. “I never experienced this situation. For everyone, it was a wake-up call that things have to go better. More beautiful stuff is waiting for us in the future.”

Xavi ruptured his right ACL in a duel with Wolves defender Hugo Bueno. He tried to continue before being stretchered off the pitch. He says he broke down in tears when the diagnosis was confirmed, knowing he could not help Tottenham Hotspur in their fight against relegation — and would miss the World Cup.

“I called my mum and said, ‘Maybe it is like (Cristian Romero’s) injury where it was only four or five weeks’, but the next day when I did the test I couldn’t walk,” he says. “I received the call from the club and that was the moment everything was sinking.”

Xavi has a date in mind for his return but is trying to stay busy during his rehab.

Before every game, Xavi calls his mum and listens to the theme song from Christopher Nolan’s 2014 Oscar-winning film Interstellar, which was composed by Hans Zimmer.

“She just tells me to smile. Inside of me, I still have that little kid who loves football and that fire keeps me going. (That theme tune) relaxes me before going onto the pitch. With my style of play, if you put some of my highlights over that song, it will go along well.”