Xavi has announced that he will step down as Barcelona head coach at the end of the season after seeing his side thrashed 5-3 by Villarreal in La Liga. Pressure has been mounting on the club icon to improve results despite him guiding the club to a shock league title last term.

The Spaniard, who played 767 times for Barca as a player, used his post-match press conference to deliver the news. He said that his decision was in the best interests of the club.

“I have decided I will not continue beyond June 30 (the end date of his contract),” Xavi said. “It is a common sense decision for the good of the club.”

The former midfielder added: “I took this decision days ago. I already knew it. But it’s time to make it public.

“I think the players could not free themselves up. I don’t want to be a problem for the club, but the opposite.”

Xavi then hit out at the media, claiming that the criticism makes it impossible to be the Barca head coach. In scathing assessment of the Spanish press, he continued: “You asked me many times if I’d be the Alex Ferguson of Barca… the truth is that it will never happen here.

“You guys won’t allow it — being Barca coach is so difficult. You see how they kill you, they criticise you, it affects you.”

Xavi insists that his decision is irreversible and will not depend on an improvement in the club’s La Liga or Champions League performance. Intriguingly, he had not told the club’s squad before announcing his intention to step down to the media.

Barca have suffered a horror title defence and their defeat against Villarreal was their third of the campaign. Xavi’s side are third in the table and sit 10 points behind Real Madrid and eight behind surprise title challengers Girona.

Xavi guided the club to the top of La Liga last season despite working with a limited budget caused by strict financial restrictions being imposed on the Spanish giants. However, they were dumped out of the Champions League in the group stages before exiting the Europa League at the first hurdle, defeated by Manchester United.

Barca capitulated against Villarreal on Saturday night. They led 3-2 until the 84th minute, when Goncalo Guedes equalised. Some extremely poor defending then allowed former Crystal Palace forward Alexander Sorloth to score a 99th-minute winner, before Jose Luis Morales added gloss to the scoreline three minutes later.

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