Barcelona legend Xavi Hernandez is the man saddled with the responsibility of getting the club back to being one of the best teams in European football. He was unveiled as the new Barcelona manager on Monday afternoon after a long drawn saga with Qatari club AlSadd.Barcelona had to pay a compensation fee to secure the release of the ex-Spanish midfielder from his contract at Al Sadd.

During his unveiling as the new Barcelona manager, Xavi Hernandez talked about the need to start taking training sessions. He also touched on his playing style and plan of action.

Xavi conducted his first training session as Barcelona manager on Tuesday morning. The players arrived at the Barcelona training ground before 9am local time, which is more than two hours before their usual 11am training time. The new era at Barcelona kicked off with some first team players as the others were either injured or on national team duty with their respective countries.

There were 14 players in the first training session under the new managerial era of Xavi Hernandez at Barcelona. The players in training include the Spanish national team trio of Eric Garcia, AnsuFati and Pedri. The others are RiquiPuig, SerginoDest, Gerard Pique, Sergi Roberto, Samuel Umtiti, Inaki Pena, Neto, Oscar Mingueza, Martin Braithwaite, Nico and Luuk De Jong.

Eight of the players in training are still not at full fitness and they areFati,Dest, Pedri,Braithwaite, Pique, Roberto, Garcia and Nico.

The numbers of those in Barcelona training under the watchful eyes of Xavi is expected to rise when injured players are fully recovered and when those on national team duty returns next week.

Xavi has a lot of work to do as he tries to close the gap between Barcelona and the top teams on the La Liga table. He also has to ensure that Barcelona are one of the 16 teams in the Champions League knockout stage.