Thorpe Arch training ground.
On the small pitch on the training ground, Leeds United players and coaching staff were conducting an alternative football training match.
Peter Schmeichel rolled the ball to Colin McGee, who was playing defender in the backcourt. McGee passed it directly to John Sheridan, who was also very young on the side, and then Sheridan pushed and pushed him in yellow. Gravesen, who was guarding him in the back, was dribbling the ball, but Gravesen did not directly grab it, but followed him on the side.
Until Sheridan passed the ball to Alf Haaland, Haaland leaned on Mills behind him and passed the ball to Lee George who stepped in.
At this time, the other players no longer had the intention to defend George Li, but just watched from the side as their head coach entered with a single shot.
Then George Lee calmly used a pendulum to pass the opponent's goalkeeper Scott Carson, and then pushed the ball into the empty goal.
"Wow~" "Woohoo~"
"Scott, you are too mean."
Players wearing vests of other colors were booing off the court.
Carson also pretended to be angry, picked the ball out of the goal, and got angry at his teammates.
"You bastards, you didn't defend yourself when the leader came. You are really a bunch of sycophants."
"Scott, you can knock the head down."
Carson also laughed. He could have attacked and caught the ball just now, but seeing that it was his head coach, he thought about it and forgot about it.
"Du, dudu~"
Brian Kidd, as the referee, blew the whistle and announced the result.
"The game time is up, Player B's team is 3 to 1 coach's team, Player B's team wins. Next, Player B's team will play against Player C's team."
Then I watched the coaching team of George Lee, Casper, McGee, Sheridan, Peter Schmeichel, Alf Haaland, and Leighton Baines, who was inexplicably assigned here, start to go. Walk off the field.
Another group of players wearing red vests stood up and started to play.
Smith picked up the red vest and put it on, stood up, patted the grass on his butt, and said loudly.
"Brothers, kill Group B and avenge the lost game just now!"
"Come on!" "Hey~" other players wearing red vests responded one after another.
What is going on is a 7-man small-field game within Leeds United, which is a recovery training the next day after the game against Roma just ended.
Since the team performed very well in yesterday's game, George Li took the initiative to invite all members of the team to a dinner party after the afternoon training to eat pizza, fried chicken, French fries and other high-calorie fast food.
This activity received a response from all the players. In the second half of the season, the schedule is relatively tight. It is really good to have such an opportunity to relax and improve the team's cohesion.
So George Li simply changed the resumption of training into a small 7-a-side training match, and made a bet that the worst-performing team would bear the cost of pizza dinner.
As soon as he finished speaking, the players accused the head coach of wanting to evade the bill. He clearly agreed to treat him to a dinner party, but had to recruit someone to help him pay for the pizza.
Then Leighton Baynes suddenly proposed to let George Lee form a coaching team to participate, so basically this team was unlikely to win. This proposal was widely agreed by the players, and some of the good players even said they wanted to see the head coach's cycling performance.
George Li couldn't defeat them and really led the coaching staff to form a team of 7 people.
Originally, the coaching staff had exactly seven people, but the elderly Brian Kidd took the initiative to be the referee. He did not want to play games with active players on the court with old arms and legs. So the coaching team, which was short of one, forcibly pulled Leighton Bynes, who came up with this crooked idea, into the team.
In addition to injured Edgar Davis and Hart taking the initiative to serve as linesmen, Andy Gray, whose wife took time off to give birth to a child, is no longer there.
There were exactly 21 other players, divided into three groups, led by three captains Smith, Kelly and Van der Sar. Group B, which just won, is led by Kelly, while Group C, which just came on stage, is led by Smith.
George Li and the coaching staff panted and sat on the bench on the sidelines. At this time, Derwig, who was wearing a blue vest from Team A, handed a bottle of water to George Lee and sat next to him.
"Boss, it turns out you're not bragging. You're really good at riding a bicycle, at least better than me."
"Just average." George Li was still relatively thin-skinned.
In the game just now, it was obvious that Team B was not playing seriously, otherwise it would not have been possible for the coaching team to score 3 goals in 15 minutes, so George Li played freely on the court and really showed everyone riding a bicycle and making fried meatballs. After waiting for flowers, he finally scored a goal with a pendulum pass.
Dervish watched his boss open the water bottle and took two sips of water. He was ready to say something, but did not speak.
George Li saw his thoughts and took the initiative to speak.
"Do you want to change your playing style?"
"Yes, I feel like I'm not as fast as before. I can tell that my knees are very stiff when I run, and I don't dare to exert force."
"I heard what the team doctor said, and I also asked Coach McGee about the situation this morning."
"What did they say?"
"It's not too optimistic. After all, knees and ankles are two areas where athletes are not easy to recover from injuries, especially major injuries."
"Yes, boss."
"I know you want to prove yourself in another way, but I don't like the way you played yesterday. I don't like to stop the ball when counterattacking. This will affect the counterattack efficiency of the entire team. Or stick. The way the ball is played cannot survive in the Premier League, you know?"
"I......"
"Before I was 20 years old, I also had speed and skills, and I could do all those things with my feet. But when I played a few games for Manchester United that were not very important, I found that as soon as I showed those things, I got knocked down and I was rolling on the ground holding my knees and ankles."
Derwig looked at his head coach's legs and knew that the reason why his head coach retired was due to a car accident.
But in fact, before the car accident, George Li suffered from constant injuries to his legs and feet, and he was basically a glass man.
George Li continued.
"Do you know why I don't like to use the attacking midfielder? Because I know that position is not easy to use in the Premier League. It requires too much rhythm. One person is dawdling, and the whole team is waiting for him to attack. After I was injured, I was thinking , If I had not stepped on that bicycle, but changed direction and passed him, I would not have been injured. I might still be standing on the field playing football today, and I would still be an active player."
"I think it's better for you to be a coach."
"There are some things that others have already suffered. If I tell you again, you must listen to them."
"Coach, what do you want to say?"
"When I was a youth player, I rode my bike to training every day, until one day I got caught in the rain and fell into a mud puddle. You know the weather in England. That bike has been with me for a long time. , I rode him from Coach Ferguson’s house to the Trafford training ground every day. Then I asked my brother, our chairman, if there was anything I could do.”
"What did Mr. Chairman say?"
"He sent me an Aston Martin the next day and asked me to drive it to training. You know, I wasn't old enough to drive yet. I still remember him telling me that."
"What?"
"He changed the car after falling into a mud pit three times. He hoped that I would not try to drive after the second fall, because it hurt every time."
"Mr. Chairman seems very cool."
"Later, I discovered that cars are indeed better than bicycles. They are not afraid of wind and rain. What else do I need about bicycles... Sorry, let me answer the phone... Hey, what did you say... .You won’t be allowed to bring it in, right...Okay, I’ll come out for a moment.”
"What's the matter, boss?"
"Our pizza arrived, but the security guard at the door was too dedicated. He said he didn't know who would order so many pizzas and thought it was someone playing a prank. Come on, come with me to the door and we'll talk as we walk."
^^^
In the parking lot, Derwig held the helmet handed to him by George Li, a little dumbfounded.
"Boss, didn't you say that you won't need bicycles after you get cars?"
"Stop talking nonsense and get in the car quickly. Motorcycles won't be stuck in traffic, you know?"
After saying that, George Li started his Vespa motorcycle.
"Tu tu tu tu~"
George Li took Derwig towards the training ground gate.
