Barcelona were wrong to appoint Vilanova, claims Laporta

The former Blaugrana supremo believes the former assistant coach was not ready to take Pep Guardiola's place at the start of the season

Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta believes that the Camp Nou side made the wrong decision to appoint Tito Vilanova as their head coach at the start of the 2012-13 campaign.

The 44-year-old was named as Pep Guardiola's successor following the latter's decision to take a one-year sabbatical but the former Blaugrana chief feels Vilanova was not ready for the job yet at the time.

"They named Tito as a solution because they were nervous about who would replace Pep, but it was too soon," Laporta told DPA.

"Tito is a good coach with great knowledge and he's a good student of Pep. But he needed a period of adaptation in order to do what he is doing now."

Laporta then went on to voice his opinion that Barca should have hired a replacement for Vilanova during his absence due to cancer treatment.

"It's a difficult decision to take, but it needed to be taken. A more convincing decision needed to be taken at that key moment in the season.

"A new coach should have been brought in until at least the end of the season, allowing Vilanova to recover from his illness with no stress."

Vilanova guided Barcelona to their best-ever Liga start and is expected to scoop up the league title either this week or next weekend.