England goalkeeper Neil Martin, who previously played for Crystal Palace, Leeds United and Everton, is sitting at the dining table of his home.
While opening a copy of today's newspaper, he picked up the hot coffee on the table with his right hand.
First he blew a breath, then placed his mouth against the rim of the cup and took a sip.
After putting down the cup, he turned to the next page of the newspaper and turned to the sports section of the Yorkshire Post.
The biggest headline caught my eye at first glance.
"New Star Shines in London"
The photo accompanying the report is divided into left and right sides by a lightning symbol. The photo on the left is Arsenal's Theo Walcott, while the photo on the right is Arnesen and Charlotte hugging each other after Leeds United scored. -Blake.
The report spent a long time talking about many young players in the two teams, of course, mainly the three players in the photo. In the end, out of preference for local players, I finally wrote a paragraph about my expectations for young players such as Arnesen, Black, and Delph.
"Are they just a few young people on your team?"
"Ah~" Martin was startled by his wife's sudden words behind him.
"I read in the newspaper that it looked like he was very powerful." Martin's wife continued, obviously she had been watching behind Martin for a while.
"It's not bad. The newspapers must have praised them so highly. Is it realistic..."
"Actually what?"
"It's actually pretty good. At least George has a good vision when it comes to player selection."
"Haha~" Martin's wife covered her mouth and laughed.
Then he handed the bag in his hand to Martin.
Martin took the bag from his wife, then stood up and hugged his wife.
"You really don't want to go to Germany with me?" Martin asked his wife again. It was obvious that he had already asked her before.
"No, I just moved back to Leeds, and I still have a lot of things to buy. I made an appointment with Mrs. Black to go shopping with us in the supermarket today."
"Which Mrs. Black?"
"That's Charlotte Blake's mother in your newspaper. I met her at a nearby fried chicken restaurant." Mrs. Martin pointed to the picture in the newspaper.
"Okay, stay safe." After saying this, Martin kissed his wife on the cheek.
"You too, honey."
Afterwards, Martin drove his car to the Thorpe Arch training ground.
Fifteen minutes later, Neil Martin parked his car in the parking lot of the training ground.
As soon as he opened the car door, he saw a figure running past him.
"Harry, good morning~" Martin greeted people passing by.
"Woooooo~" Leeds United scout Harry Madison's mouth was full of sandwiches and he couldn't speak at all. He could only wave back and keep running forward.
At this time, a car stopped next to Martin's car, and then a person got out.
When Martin saw the car coming towards him, he specifically stopped moving forward and waited where he was.
"Good morning, Nel."
"Good morning, Eddie."
The "Eddie" who greeted Martin was not the club's director of football Eddie Gray, but Eddie Howe, who, like him, had just joined the team's coaching staff.
Eddie Howe, who previously played for Bournemouth, chose to retire at the beginning of the season due to injuries.
Originally, he was going to be the reserve team coach at his original club, but Kevin Bond, the head coach of Bournemouth at the time, introduced his disciple to Brian Kidd through his friend.
Kidd recommended Hao to George Li.
At this time, George Li decided to expand his coaching staff, so he agreed to this request.
In fact, Leeds United's coaching staff already has a relatively large number of members, but because two members of the current coaching staff, Peter Schmeichel and Alf Haaland, will leave after the end of this season, George Lee is preparing to leave in advance. Replacements for both were found.
As for why Schmeichel and Haaland left, it starts with the successful acquisition of two clubs in Northern Europe by David Li sent by Michael.
After George Li proposed the MCO operating model to Michael and others, Mike Li immediately took action. From the beginning of the season, their cousin David Li has been busy acquiring clubs in Northern Europe, and finally succeeded in acquiring two clubs with a lot of pounds.
They are Stavanger in Norway and Lyngby in Denmark.
It is expected that all procedures will be completed before the end of this season, and David Li will be the general manager of the club.
It's just that the general manager took the lead in poaching George Lee before he officially took office.
He wants Schmeichel and Haaland to serve as head coaches of the two clubs respectively.
Schmeichel originally had an indifferent attitude towards this idea, but after he saw Haaland showing strong willingness, he became a little moved.
Therefore, when George Li didn't know what was going on, he discovered that his two assistants were about to run away.
In this case, Neil Martin and Eddie Howe became Lee George's new coaching staff.
The two of them came to the coffee shop at the training ground, took a cup of coffee, and then came to the office.
After turning on the computer, it didn't take long to receive a video invitation from the head coach. In the video, George Li assigned today's training tasks. Li had already left for Germany three days in advance to prepare for the next third round of the Champions League group stage, and Chris Kasper was also there.
George Lee and Kasper went to watch a league match against their next Champions League opponent Bayern, looking for ways to defeat the enemy.
The meeting is over and the coffee is finished.
Martin got up and prepared to train the players. Today, his training task was to train the goalkeeper and backcourt players to pass the ball with Schmeichel.
After returning to Leeds United, Martin gradually discovered that his former teammate Lee George was a young head coach with great ideas.
It's like he pays more attention to the goalkeeper's passing and receiving training.
In his day, goalkeepers should stay in the small penalty area, even on the goal line. Unless the opponent is alone, he will attack, otherwise he will always stay in the penalty area.
But now, Martin found that he could hardly keep up with George Li's rhythm.
A group of people were practicing grabbing the ball, but it was two players grabbing passes from four players, and one of the four players was a goalkeeper. After a certain number of passes, it is stipulated that the goalkeeper must pass the ball to the specified range of the frontcourt through a big foot.
Anyone with a discerning eye will know at a glance that this is training the goalkeeper's ability to initiate offense, but why do we have to pass so many passes before making a long pass?
Martin looked to the other side with confusion.
There, Eddie Howe was following Haaland in high-pressure running training against offensive players. It was obvious that Howe got into the role very quickly and had begun to point out the mistakes in some players' movements, and even communicated with the team. Captain Smith conducted a tactical exchange, and Smith nodded repeatedly.
Martin saw a football next to him and tried to kick it towards the target areas in the frontcourt.
However, the ball flew out of the sideline.
^^^
In the afternoon, Martin flew to Munich, Germany, with the Leeds United team to prepare for the next round of the Champions League.
