The legendary player and coach explained why it’s so difficult to manage the Catalan giants
Hansi Flick has masterminded an unbelievable start to his tenure as Barcelona manager, with the last two wins against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid sending fans into a state of ecstasy as the Blaugrana look like a real contender to win everything this season.
Flick is beloved by all of his fans, players, coaching staff, and the people above him as well. The German seemingly can do no wrong, but other Barça managers have enjoyed similar great starts only to be ridiculed once things started to go south.
Being the Barça manager is definitely not easy, and no one knows that better than Pep Guardiola, who spoke about the challenges of the job in an interview this week that serves as a warning to Flick about what could lie ahead if results stop going Barça’s way and the combination of politics and a very demanding fanbase starts to take its toll.
“The toughest job, by a long shot. In other places you get hit by opponents, but in Barcelona the most painful hits are those that come from within the club itself.
“It has always been like this and it will always be like this. Trying to change that would be a big mistake. We have to live with this dynamic because it is part of the club’s identity that makes it unique.
“It’s a great club. We were winning the league and the cup for many years, and the club was considered a failure because we were out of the Champions League semi-finals.
“In Barcelona, there are a number of wars and you have to choose, which war will I fight? You will be wrong if you fight a useless war, a big mistake.
“There is only one war you have to get involved in: convincing the players every day that you will win Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, and so on. The rest you don’t get involved in.”
Source: Cat Radio via Yahoo! Sports
There is nothing but truth to everything Pep said, and the politics are the specific reason why he decided to leave the job in 2012. He almost became a pseudo president of the club with a poor leadership group above him, and once it became clear Barça wouldn’t win La Liga or the Champions League that season those same leaders made it almost impossible for Pep to want to be there.
Maybe Flick is immune to all of the drama and this season is destined to be the stuff of dreams regardless of what happens around him, but if there’s a three-game winless streak at any point this season things will get interesting. And not in a good way.
That’s just the way the cookie crumbles at FC Barcelona.
