The problem is that Greece has been negotiating for 5 years already. And losing. They have never taken to the press.

Whereas the press has received thousands of leaks about the negotiations from the Eurogroup.

Also, the person who was most in charge in those years, Yanis Stournaras (though he belongs to another party) is actually close friends with people like Varoufakis. They are academic colleagues in the same department. Even better, Stournaras actually gave Varoufakis his first job out of his advanced degree.

In other words, Varoufakis had inside information about the actual fault lines.

Greece had played things under the vest for 5 years. Going public with your arguments was the exact thing that put fear into the Eurogroup, it was something out of their control.

I don't actually believe Schauble revels in his image, and his uncharacteristic schaudenfreude of the last week (which was weird, since the Greek public really approves of Syriza) was a sign that the public battles were evidently making a difference.