Sport<\/a>“, Flick is the perfect model of the level-headed coach. He has the calm and experience to keep himself out of unnecessary trouble, particularly during press conferences.<\/p>\nClarity defines Flick’s public messages, and his priority lies in focusing on the next match and on the opponent the Blaugrana are preparing to face. Even so, there is no harm in alerting him to situations he may not have faced directly before, situations that demand an exceptional degree of vigilance and attention.<\/p>\n
In the episode that launched the fourth season of the programme “La Posesion”, belonging to the newspaper “Sport”, David Bernabeu revealed the advice Barcelona gave Flick regarding Jose Mourinho. It came during the summer, as the Portuguese coach’s return to Real Madrid’s technical staff was confirmed.<\/p>\n
The club made the German coach aware of what happened during Mourinho’s first spell with Los Blancos and the controversy that came with it. That was a far more confrontational version of “Mou” than the one we see today, and Flick should stay cautious rather than lax, since many believe the Portuguese behaves like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, according to the Catalan newspaper.<\/p>\n
Barcelona reminded Flick of the previous clashes between Mourinho and the late Tito Vilanova, specifically the disgraceful eye-poke incident. They also pointed to the enormous pressure Pep Guardiola endured during the years of Barcelona’s dominance on the pitch, despite facing overwhelming pressure.<\/p>\n
Having laid out the full context to Flick, who naturally already had a preconceived idea of the matter from following events from afar, they gave him firm advice: “Do not utter a single word about Mourinho or Real Madrid.”<\/p>\n
The newspaper continued: “It is advice that Flick adheres to to the letter and will continue to do so, because it aligns with his personality and his stance of refusing to be drawn into provocations in such situations.”<\/p>\n
He proved the point at the press conference ahead of the league opener against Elche. Asked about Real Madrid and the arrival of Jose Mourinho, his reply was decisive: “Are we facing Real Madrid tomorrow? Then ask me about Elche.”<\/p>\n
With the “Clasico” matches approaching, Flick will of course be asked about Real Madrid and Mourinho, and he will have to respond. He will no doubt do so with the utmost caution, because the aim is to avoid saying anything Mourinho could exploit to stir up conflict, especially after his scathing attack on the referees this Monday.<\/p>\n
You can discuss the topics and news in greater depth in the Kooora forums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona’s management have advised German coach Hansi Flick, the Blaugrana boss, to avoid mentioning the name of Real…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,186,1414,83],"class_list":["post-82298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-h-flick","tag-j-mourinho","tag-real-madrid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}