Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez admitted he struggled before telling his retired Blaugrana defender Gerard Pique of his plans for him.

Xavi appeared in a television interview on the Catalan channel "TV3", in which he talked about the most prominent challenges and his assessment of the 3-2022 season, which Barcelona ended by winning the Spanish league title for the 2023th time in its history, and the first since the 27-2018 season.

🔴 ARA COMENÇA L'ESPECIAL @GolagolE3

Segueix l'entrevista a l'entrenador del Barça, Xavi Hernàndez #XaviTV3

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— TV3.cat (@tv3cat) May 30, 2023

Xavi revealed behind the scenes of his conversation with Piqué, saying: "It becomes difficult for a coach when he makes a decision that goes against the player's desire, I had to tell him to give up playing or play fewer minutes."

"Before that I had trouble sleeping and thought a lot about how I was going to tell him that. We had a lot of fun together as players".

Xavi talked about what happened with Jordi Alba, who will leave the team at the end of the current season.

"With Alba I felt like I had failed with him as a friend, but in the end I had to put the team first," he said.

"The same thing happened to me with Luis Enrique when I was a player years ago, at first you don't understand what's happening and you feel angry because you think you should start after years at the club, Alba was a little upset and that's something I understood, and then we spoke and he assured me that he is 100 per cent committed," the Barcelona coach said.

"In the end, they (Pique and Alba) left at the right time," he said, referring to Barcelona's LaLiga title.

Farewell to Pique after the end of the match #La Liga #بيكيه #برشلونة pic.twitter.com/wGhCXZlNgZ

— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) November 5, 2022

Pique has played for Barcelona since 2008, and retired on the fifth of November 2022, after playing his last match in the Blaugrana shirt against Almeria.

As for Alba, he will leave after the end of the current season for Barcelona, who joined him from Valencia in 2012, despite a year remaining on his contract, in agreement with the club's management.

The third and last departed of the golden generation is Sergio Busquets, who announced the end of his career with Barcelona coinciding with the end of his current contract, and who rose to the first team in the summer of 2008.

Xavi has expressed his willingness to renew his current contract with Barcelona, which expires on June 30, 2024.

Asked if the renewal negotiations were on the right track, he immediately replied: "Yes, I know that the management is doing its best in this direction and there will be no problem, I hope to continue with the team for many years."

FC Barcelona and Jordi Alba have reached an agreement to terminate the contract that had bound the two parties until the end of the 2023-2024 season. pic.twitter.com/kTFj9LiOWL

— FC Barcelona (@fcbarcelona_ara) May 24, 2023

On his comparison with his compatriot Pep Guardiola, Manchester City coach, Xavi commented: "I don't think that's fair, they did it (comparing them) when I was a player, everyone should forget that."

On the club's involvement in the Negreira case, Xavi said: "We suffered a lot from it and it damaged our institution, but I am confident that we did not buy a referee."

Regarding the turning point that changed the course of the league for Barcelona this season, Xavi explained that the team changed after the defeat of rivals Real Madrid 1-3 in the Clasico first leg.

"After the defeat at the Santiago Bernabéu, I met with the players and asked the rest of the administrative and technical staff to leave me alone with them, because in that game I saw the players lacked spirit, they lacked passion, and these are things I asked of them from day one, we talked face to face and then we became stronger and closer to each other," he said.