Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick has brought to an end something of a tradition previously made use of by predecessor Xavi.
That’s according to Diario AS, who point towards as much as coming in relation to rest days, and other forms of rewards.
Barca, of course, are fresh off kicking the club’s campaign into gear on Saturday night, in a La Liga meeting with Valencia.
When all was said and done, the Blaugrana emerged on the right side of a 2-1 result, owing to a brace on the part of Robert Lewandowski.
In the case of a similar result last season, Barcelona’s stars could have looked forward to what would likely have been two days of rest, as ‘reward’ for their successful endeavours.
This time round, however, this will not prove to be the case.
As per Javier Miguel of Diario AS, Hansi Flick has put an end to the ‘challenges’ system utilised as a motivator by predecessor Xavi:
‘The fact is that Flick is not in favour of rewarding his players systematically: he believes that they are all professionals and they should be treated as such, and not like children in a school, with prizes and gifts.’
Xavi’s challenges setup can therefore be considered for all intents and purposes as ‘abandoned’.
Conor Laird | GSFN