Barcelona manager Hansi Flick is going into his second game of the season, seeking his first home victory as Blaugrana manager at Montjuic. Their opponent, Athletic Club, will not be an easy challenge, but most of the week has been dominated by transfer talk.
Chiefly Ilkay Gundogan, who completed a move to Manchester City just half an hour before Flick spoke in his pre-match press conference. Gundogan made it clear he was leaving the club to help out their finances. Flick had said last Saturday, that he felt Gundogan would stay after a conversation with him the previous week.
“Against Valencia I already had that question. He wanted to help us but changed his mind this week. It happens. I know him as a player and a person, and I can only say good things about him. He is a fantastic player and person.”
Meanwhile part of the reason Gundogan was invited to exit by Barcelona was to register Dani Olmo, after his €55m plus €7m in variables signing from RB Leipzig. At the time of writing, Barcelona have been unable to fix it.
“It’s not my job to talk about registrations. I really like [Olmo’s] work, he’s ready to play. I hope he’s ready for tomorrow. He’s a fantastic player. I see him in training, under pressure, in front of goal, and he’s absolutely fantastic. For the team, it’s positive, so we hope we can see him.”
Flick: "The best thing when you have a player like Raphinha on the team is that he can occupy several positions. Rapha always does what we expect from him, in the second half he ran a lot the other day, putting high pressure, and he's very intense."
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) August 23, 2024
As the finances bite hard at Barcelona, Andreas Christensen has been touted as the next surprise exit from Barcelona. Flick was asked if he would be having a similar conversation Danish international as he did with Gundogan beforehand.
“Why should I talk to him? Obviously I talk to him during the week. About what we see. He had some problem that forced him to train individually. He is a fantastic player, a fantastic defender. He played a lot of games 60 minutes last season when he was not fit. He must be 100% OK. At 80% it is not enough, it is up to us to get him back to 100%.”
Flick’s press conference was again notable for its brevity and lack of lengthy answers. It could just be his personal style, but after Xavi Hernandez’s press duties played a such an active role in his eventual departure, it seems clear there is a concerted effort to avoid controversy. Barcelona host Athletic in a crunch match on Saturday night at 19:00 CEST.
