Silly question, but what is the player for at a press conference? I opened the “rituals” tab of my notebook for Como’s, on Tuesday evening around seven, before the Champions League match against Feyenoord.
There are two chairs. On one, Cesc Fàbregas, the manager. On the other, Martin Baturina, the Croatian player, sitting right next to him. A new question comes in. It goes to Fàbregas. He answered, laughing: “I’d just like to point out that I’m not playing tomorrow night, you know,” according to NOS.
I noted it down. So you bring the player, you sit him down, and you question the one who isn’t playing. I’m told it’s always been like this, fine, but what does that mean? I looked for a rule saying who gets the questions. I checked, and actually nobody knows.
To be fair, Fàbregas had things to say. Como went up from Serie C to Serie A, he finished fourth, and the club beat RB Leipzig on their Champions League debut. He said: “For Como, playing in the Champions League is a dream. But now that we’re here, we do want to put a result on the board.” He enjoyed watching Feyenoord’s matches a lot. He has watched the Netherlands side coached by Xavi, his old team-mate at Barcelona: “Xavi is a good friend of mine. I watched the latest Nations League games with great interest. We Catalans obviously owe a lot to the Netherlands.”
What stays with me is Martin Baturina, sitting next to the manager, available. Like the substitutes warming up in bibs, but somewhere warm.
In my day, they questioned the players. They said nothing. It was more honest.
I’ve prepared a question for Martin Baturina, in case someone hands me a microphone one day. It’s in the “questions for players” tab. It’s empty apart from that one. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
It’s true, we checked: NOS.
