As Spanish football becomes worldwide, the linguist cross -overs between Spanish and English are multiplied and conquered when it comes to talking about the game. However, specifically Barcelona context, few good translations have been found for 'Entorno', nor was it entirely introduced in the common lexicon. The environment seems to be the closest that someone has started to describe what essentially includes, the media, the whisper of the entrails of the club and the influence of those on the top.
Never before, under the last months of Xavi Hernandez's term of office, it has come as a manager on such an intense focus as last year. The legendary midfielder, worshiped as a player, stated that his time as a coach recorded some of the worst days of his life. “There are many times when it does not pay to be a Barca coach,” Xavi explained, among other things nouns such as cruel, unjust and tiring.
This year, however, it is a word that has rarely emerged, and although that is not least, the gap in the press room atmosphere of twelve months earlier is difficult not to notice. Part of the theory is that the lack of Spanish or Catalan of Hansi Flick is the most effective wall between him and the pressure applied by the Entorno. Questions about philosophical purity are no longer on the agenda.
“This year I think Flick is very protected this season, and the Entorno has been pretty good for him. It is true that the results have also been good, ”explains Albert Ferrer, part of the Barcelona dream team under Johan Cruyff in the nineties.
Ferrer himself had three stints as a manager, who promotes a historic promotion campaign in Cordoba in 2014, as well as Proverbs with Vitesse Arnhem in the Netherlands and RCD Mallorca. After having spent the majority of his career in Barcelona, few have a better insight into how it is to experience the mythical beast himself.
“It is difficult, because as a manager you are the first to suffer from everything that happens. The pressure in Barcelona is huge, and if you don't win every game, even if you draw, the press immediately asks what happens. That is the impact it has on the manager. “
“But if you coach another team, the pressure is the same,” Ferrer notes. “It is true that it does not win every match in other teams, the pressure is growing due to a series of poor results, but as a manager you feel it, it is always there. It is part of the work, as a manager, how you deal, it is difficult. “
The impact of that pressure was written about Xavi's face last year and powerful in his words, and even if some are less vocal about it, that does not mean that they too are 'suffering', as the Spanglish goes. Insight and handling are two completely different tasks.
“When I was managing, it struck me when we didn't get a good result. You don't feel like going out with the family. There are managers who are more able to deal with it, but I think it is the same everywhere. The pressure is always there. “
“Of course,” Xavi replied when he was asked if the Entorno could influence the performance of the player in December 2023, almost confused by the question. However, there is an extra degree of separation between the manager's office and the dressing room says Ferrer.
“I think that as a player you are not so vulnerable to the toxic aspect of the Entorno. You actually do what your manager tells you to do, and the moment that results are going badly, it is the manager who takes the blame. “
“So at the moment the pressure is with the player, he has already been written about the manager and that, so I think the players are in order. They just do what they are told, and they are apologized. The most important responsibility and the one who has to do with the Entorno is the manager. “
However, what fans and media have difficulty assimilating football at top level is the intensity of the game.
“I think one of the things we normalize in football is how difficult it is, how physical it is, how demanding,” says the 54-year-old, who looks up, feels his mind the strokes. “You watch TV and you see that players are kicked and beat and sprint, run, fog fit. It is very, very difficult. You can't make a mistake. This is probably the most difficult at the highest level of football. “
Perhaps if that was better communicated, the relentless dissection of the game would be slightly forgiving.
“Players normalize the situation, they can handle it, but it is one of the first things you notice when you place yourself in a high -level game. You discover how difficult it is, how intense it is. For us, as players or coaches, it is difficult to show that mistakes are part of the game, and you should not necessarily be assessed for that. “
“But that also comes with work.” The words of a player, manager and now analyst who has seen production from every perspective.
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