With the results that he has shown up to now and the way in which the different players have spoken highly of the German tactician, it looks like Hansi Flick has already earned the respect of the Barcelona dressing room.
Furthermore, his results have also helped him get the trust of the board, as the former Bayern Munich coach has shown that he can lead this team to compete with the biggest sides in Europe.
Several factors have contributed to the German coach’s success in his new team, but as SPORT has reported, a former Barcelona midfielder, Sergi Samper, identified a rather peculiar characteristic that he believed has helped Flick succeed at the Catalan club.
Speaking about the Flick in a recent interview, the La Masia graduate claimed:
“For now, the fans are very happy with him. Moreover, he doesn’t get into trouble with the media. He’s lucky that he doesn’t speak Spanish and doesn’t fully understand the questions journalists ask him. This is a great advantage for Flick.”
“If Flick understood everything, he would go crazy. He has a translator, but the translation is always perfect. I’ve heard it, and it’s not always exactly what they ask. Thanks to this, he buys time. We’ll see what happens if there are mistakes. For example, if Barça loses to Bayern. Then we have El Clásico… Important matches are coming up.”
One cannot assess how accurate this observation from Samper is, as Flick has been rather impressive with the way he has built his relationships at Barcelona.
His usage of a translator for questions in Spanish does buy him time to think about his responses, but he has also been a manager in Germany with the national team and with a club as big as Bayern Munich, and his record from these two stints shows that he would not have too many problems even if he knew Spanish perfectly.