Thomas Tuchel says he has trained himself to ignore anything said or written about him as a defence mechanism against the abuse circling around football.
The Chelsea manager conceded he has no social media profile as much due to technical limitations as a determination to avoid the dark side of online interaction.
Chelsea will host Newcastle on Monday night, with Toon boss Steve Bruce earlier this week revealing he had received death threats through his son Alex’s social media accounts.
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Blues manager Tuchel admitted he has not had similar experiences, though mainly due to avoiding those platforms entirely.
“I would say I did not experience anything on social media, maybe also because I’m not a social media guy,” said Tuchel.
“I have enough to do to control my smartphone and this is by far enough for me.
“I can go days without my smartphone and don’t miss a thing.
“But in general I trained myself not to read about me, I trained myself, I had to learn and train myself not to read about me, not in good times and not in bad times.
“Because what is out there has an effect on you and you cannot stop it, you cannot not let it have an effect on you.
“If it’s out there and everybody’s talking highly about you, it triggers something in you and if they speak of course badly about you then that sticks with you as well.
“And it should not. Because the target is to be self-confident in the best way and to be self-aware and not in need for the admiration of external people.
“And this is also a kind of a mechanism for me to protect myself.
“Like I said, I’m not a social media guy. So I’m more or less the guy who notices it last if something is going on on social media.
“The abuse is totally unacceptable, that’s 100 per cent clear, there’s no other opinion in the club and of course not from me.
“And maybe less words from me are more. This is unacceptable and we have to stand up against this.”
Chelsea ground past Barnsley 1-0 in Thursday night’s FA Cup clash, to book a home quarter-final against Sheffield United.
Tammy Abraham bagged the winner in a patchy showing from the Blues, with German boss Tuchel making 10 changes to his line-up.
Andreas Christensen should be fine to feature in Monday’s Newcastle clash, having been withdrawn at half-time at Barnsley solely due to a headache.
Tuchel expects striker Timo Werner to be fit after his dead leg, but Kai Havertz remains a big doubt – and Thiago Silva will not be ready due to his thigh problem.
“For Andreas, it was not concussion-related at all,” said Tuchel. “It was, like I said, a headache so it was better we took him off.
“It should be absolutely okay for Timo Werner to come back. It’s maybe too close for Kai, still, and for sure for Thiago.
“For Thiago we are aiming for Southampton, we are trying, trying hard. Let’s see if he can make it but we cannot promise.
“And for Kai let’s see if he’s out. It will be a very short time for Kai so maybe he’ll be missing this match as well.”
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