“Bravo,” jeered Luis Enrique, voice dripping with sarcasm like chocolate running off a dunked churro. The Spain coach had been asked if he would make changes to his team for the last 16 clash with Croatia.
“Maybe I will,” said Luis Enrique, before pausing. “And…?” asked the coach. “Maybe you won’t,” said the reporter, reluctantly. “Bravo.”
Luis Enrique does not have much respect for the media and has made that known throughout his career as a coach. From laughing in the face of an Italian television journalist while at Roma when asked if his team had a psychological problem, to various run-ins during his spell on the Barcelona bench, there has long been tension in the relationship.
When you see the standard of reporting and debate on disturbingly popular late-night football chat show El Chiringuito, it’s no surprise Luis Enrique has a bee in his bonnet.
The programme, on the channel Mega, is an attention vacuum which has even drawn interest and mockery from overseas. Although El Chiringuito sometimes fancies itself as a football debate show, it’s closer to fan TV - reality television but for football - with over-the-top hot takes and reactions from “journalists” and pundits.
It thrives on controversy, often inventing some where none can be found, and is a clear-cut example of ‘telebasura’ - trash TV. It’s a show where you know less after watching than before you turned it on.
The show drew inspiration from ‘Salvame’, a gossip show concerned with the private lives of celebrities. The word, Chiringuito, means beach bar, and the discussion rarely ventures beyond the insight of inebriated middle-aged men shouting their opinions at one another.
A former guest on the show told Goal: “[Josep] Pedrerol told me before going on: ‘It’s very easy, just imagine you’re in the pub’.”
Getty Images
However, because its reporters are permitted access to games and press conferences, it does have an element of legitimacy.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez chose El Chiringuito as the platform to speak about the European Super League after its launch. It was a strange decision in a global context, highlighted by the abject failure of the project, but one made from his perspective because he knew he would not face criticism from Chiringuito host Pedrerol nor his cronies.
Although Pedrerol, a Catalan, claims to be a Barcelona supporter, his words and actions usually tend to be aligned with Real Madrid. The show itself is keen to attack Barcelona whenever given the opportunity - and there have been plenty, under disgraced former president Josep Maria Bartomeu - or any player thought to be disloyal to Madrid.
Gareth Bale was often lambasted on the show, for his injuries, for his love of golf, for his body language, Pedrerol and co snorting at the Welshman's percieved failings.
The show’s dramatic and viral reaction to Eden Hazard’s chat to former Chelsea team-mates after the Champions League semi-final second leg (“another Bale”), is a prime example of the cartoonish content, bordering on self-parody.
Sinister, tense music behind a stony-faced Pedrerol, rolling his hands from side to side in anger. An image of Hazard laughing after the game, and the host launches into a monologue.
“What Hazard did is very serious,” growls Pedrerol. “Hazard… Hazard… Hazard cannot stay not one second longer at Real Madrid."
The show has attacked Luis Enrique relentlessly during the build up and start of Euro 2020, but was left eating humble pie as Spain reached the semi-finals, where they will face Italy on Tuesday.
“Luis Enrique is showing he doesn’t know anything about football,” complained guest Hugo Gatti (nickname 'The Madman'), after the coach named the Spain squad without bringing any Real Madrid players.
He ignored the fact Ramos had played three matches all year, and the injuries to Dani Carvajal and Lucas Vazquez, leaving Nacho as the only real option to call up.
“Are you ashamed of this national team?” asked Pedrerol, in a Chiringuito poll after the 1-1 draw with Poland in the group stage.
Getty Images
Goal journalist Ruben Uria penned a brutally accurate article pinpointing the many failings of Pedrerol, to which the presenter responded on Twitter, jokingly asking if he should resign. He is bulletproof and unflinching, ready to continue being the "human weather vane who changes colours according to the occasion", as depicted by Uria.
In the meantime, Luis Enrique continues driving his young Spain team towards their end goal, another European Championship to go with their 2008 and 2012 wins.
Luis Enrique shows his anger and frustration with the discourse around his team in press conferences, but the players are blocking out the noise on the pitch.
The coach has stuck with striker Alvaro Morata despite complaints about his missed chances, and the Juventus striker paid him back with the goal against Croatia in extra-time that decided the game.
“If Morata missed those chances you’d impale him,” Lucho hit back after Spain squeezed past Switzerland on penalties, with Gerard Moreno fluffing his lines in front of goal.
Luis Enrique has fostered a strong team spirit, where players stand up and take blame when they do things wrong, never hiding. Morata was chosen to spoke to the media after the first matches where he struggled to find form, and goalkeeper Unai Simon was chosen after he blundered against Croatia, allowing Pedri’s 50-yard back pass to go in.
The goalkeeper produced special saves in extra-time to bounce back and was the penalty shoot-out hero against Switzerland, competing his redemption arc in double quick time.
By taking as many arrows as he can from the media, the coach has protected the team’s mentality and internal determination, with several players noting the togetherness of the squad through the tournament.
Spain’s clash with Italy on Wembley is a mouth-watering one, but even if La Roja fall short, Luis Enrique has done enough to leave El Chiringuito looking like the butt of the joke it so often is.