No excuses: This year Barcelona have to compete in the Champions League

Holiday time is over. The dressing room at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper is alive again. From today the players will gradually return to the usual training routine and the extra days of leave they have accumulated with their national teams will determine the exact date.

This year there is no revolution in the team and there are not too many new faces; at last we can begin to say that the Barça squad has stabilised and the dance of names and signings is over. The market has been quiet and so far only Ilkay Gundogan and Íñigo Martínez have officially arrived. Vitor Roque and Oriol Romeu have to wait a little longer. They are players who come to cover specific departures and to give Xavi an extra width in the team, but the team is not changing its backbone.

That is why the expectations of the fans are higher: the team has already shown that in LaLiga it knows how to compete, but now it is time to explain once and for all to Europe that Barça and its way of understanding football have returned to the elite.

It's true that Xavi took over the team with the Champions League on the back burner, and in his first full year, between injuries and a damaged spirit, the team wasn't able to compete in Europe, in fact, it wasn't even able to compete in the Europa League.

It is time to wipe the slate clean and start the Champions League campaign from scratch, feeling the hype and that they are on an even keel with Manchester City, Bayern Munich or PSG.

That will be Xavi's job from day one, to be able to make the team understand that there are no more excuses and that it is not just about being consistent but also about being spot-on when it counts. The preseason will help to calibrate the team; there is a Clasico on 29 July in Dallas. Let's make a note of that date.