Saturday will be a crucial day in the lives of Barcelona coach Charly Rexach and his Real Sociedad counterpart John Toshack.

Both men know that their jobs are on the line and losses could signal their departures from two clubs.

Rexach's Barcelona travel to Tenerife with a shadow hanging over them after successive losses to strugglers Rayo Vallecano and Osasuna while Toshack, who took over at the San Sebastian club in the middle of last season when they were bottom of the Spanish First Division and guided them to salvation, now finds himself back where he started for the visit of Villarreal.

For Barcelona's passionate fans, ninth place in the Spanish First Division is not good enough. The club has not finished the season in such a lowly position for 60 years.

Rexach appears to be going greyer by the minute this season and it is not only the 55 year-old coach who is feeling the pressure. Last Sunday the players' left the field after going down 1-0 to Osasuna, with the Nou Camp ringing with howls of derision and the white handkerchiefs - a Catalan sign of disapproval - being waved.

"This has become the most important game of the season. We don't want to lose any more and only the players can sort out this situation. I'm not going to name names but against Osasuna some players didn't play at the level expected if you are in this team," said Barcelona's Dutch international striker Patrick Kluivert earlier this week.

Kluivert will play on Saturday, after missing the Osasuna debacle through suspension. He received a one-match ban after the Rayo match two weeks ago for insulting the referee, a game that has now entered Catalan folklore after the antics of five, still unnamed, Barca players who had a "drunken orgy" with a number of women in a Madrid hotel the night before.

Much to the fans' disgust, Rexach announced this week that the matter was now closed and that nobody was going to punished, a sharp contrast to his treatment of the Brazilian duo of Geovanni and Fabio Rochemback, who were both heavily fined after they came back late following the New Year break.

According to many pundits, the two incidents demonstrate how much Rexach - a hero in his own

playing days for the club during the 1970s - has lost the respect and control of his players.

Rexach will have to replace the suspended Dutch midfielder Philip Cocu and his injured Italian nearnamesake Francesco Coco against Tenerife but Spanish international defender Abelardo Fernandez has been given the green light to play again and may return, after nearly 11 months out with a serious knee injury.

Tenerife are expected to name the same side that was unlucky to lose 2-1 at Villarreal but the relegation-threatened Canary islanders have worries of their own, with the worst goal scoring record in the Spanish First Division, and their coach Pepe Mel may precede

Rexach into unemployment if he fails to get results quickly.

Toshack was given a vote of confidence by the Real Soceidad directors on Monday but their endorsement may only last another few days if there is a repeat of last' season's result, when Villarreal won 2-0 in the Anoeta stadium.

The Welshman is expected to stake his job on the same starters -including the newly signed Dutch goalkeeper Sander Westerveld, who seems as accident prone in San Sebastian as he was at his previous club English premiership side Liverpool - that lost 3-1 at Celta Vigo.

By contrast to previous years, the Spanish First Division has so far seen very few coaching jobs change hands. Only three clubs -Rayo, Real Mallorca and Real Zaragoza - have replaced their tacticians but the rate of change is set to quicken with several other coaches, besides Rexach and Toshack, having the Sword of Damacles hanging over them.

One of them is Espanyol's Paco Flores, who has seen his team steadily slip down the table. The Barcelona-based club are now

perched just one place above the relegation zone and must play league leaders Real Madrid on Sunday, a demanding prospect even without their suspended French midfielder Claude Makelele.

Real are ahead of the chasing pack by three points, with 40 points from 22 games, and the defending champions have amassed a 10-game unbeaten streak in the league.

Behind them, Celta and Deportivo La Coruna are in second and third place respectively, both on 37 points. Celta go to Real Mallorca on Saturday while the same night Deportivo play host to fifth-placed Alaves.