Hansi Flick sent a message to promising La Masia players hoping to break into the first team amid reports of Dro Fernández’s stunning decision to leave Barcelona, as the teenager is set to join Paris Saint-Germain in the coming hours.
Dro reportedly informed Flick of his decision on Friday and his €6 million release clause will be activated soon by PSG to complete the transfer, and while the coach declined to talk specifically about Dro until his exit is made official, he did speak generally about young
academy stars such as Dro who need to earn their place in the first team and be patient with the daily process of improvement in training.
“My message is about daily training. When players arrive with potential, we have a plan to monitor their training, performance, and attitude, to see if they’re professional… We’re a big team, and it’s not easy to get playing time. That’s clear. But every training session makes these players better. This is the normal process, and when they deserve to play, then of course they play.
“My idea is for everyone to stay. Dro’s situation isn’t finalized yet, but it’s football. There are players who are 17 or 18 years old, but there are people around them who make decisions. But I don’t want to say anything more.”
While Flick didn’t want to address Dro’s situation directly, it seems pretty obvious from his quotes that Hansi was giving Dro opportunities to improve in training and was going to give him chances to play in games based on his improvement, thinking that a teenager would understand the natural growth process and be patient while working to earn more minutes.
But it also seems obvious by Flick’s quotes that someone else got in Dro’s ear, very likely his agent, and convinced him he had no future at Barça and needs to go to PSG instead, where there’s absolutely zero competition for minutes.
