Hansi Flick has been confirmed as the new head coach of Barcelona – but HITC understands things could have been very different for the German had talks over a move to the Premier League gone differently.
HITC revealed last week that Flick was the man who had been identified to succeed Xavi – who was axed by Joan Laporta.
Laporta moved for Flick after sacking Xavi, despite just weeks earlier persuading him to stay on as head coach.
Flick was understandably delighted to have been confirmed as the new Barca boss.
“It’s a big honour, a dream for me to sign my contract here,” said Flick on Wednesday to the club’s website.
“We won some titles with Bayern Munich and my hunger is really big for titles.
“I would like to stay on this path with Barcelona and I think we can achieve a lot together and this is an important thing.
“The philosophy they have is similar to mine, lots of possession and really attacking football and these other things I love.”
David Sullivan turned down chance to land Hansi Flick
However, HITC can exclusively confirm that some weeks ago that Flick was under consideration by West Ham.
HITC revealed at the time that Flick’s representatives were making it known to the likes of West Ham, Chelsea and Manchester United that the former Bayern Munich head coach had an interest in moving to England.
Now we can confirm that Sullivan spoke at length with an intermediary about Flick and what he could offer West Ham.
HITC can reveal, though, that Sullivan was not convinced by Flick and his CV and instead opted to move for former Nottingham Forest boss Julen Lopetegui after being impressed with him following talks.
As it turns out, no doubt Flick might be somewhat relieved that Sullivan opted to look elsewhere as just weeks later – his dream job at Barca came back on the radar and he is now in the hot-seat in Catalunya.
Only time will tell whether Sullivan picked the right man…
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