"Hi, Matt. Why haven't I seen you playing Godfather of Champions lately? Hammond Castle manager Tony Clark greeted Matt Dawn after seeing him.

"I've fully verified what that post says, so why keep playing? I'll die young if I stay up late every day, sir. ”

"No, you're not going to die young, Matt. Only your hair will. ”

Matt reached out and grabbed his messy hair: "It's okay......"

"You shouldn't be looking at the top of your head, you should be looking at your hairline, they're getting higher."

"It has nothing to do with me staying up late playing "The Godfather of Champions", chief, my dad's hairline is almost to the back of his head, but he didn't have "The Godfather of Champions" when he was young." Matt retorted.

Clark grinned and bared his teeth, then changed the subject: "How's your Chinese boy?" ”

"The league was suspended because of the Asian Cup. He scored two more goals before the timeout and now his league tally is nine. Matt spoke of Lai Hu in a proud tone, as if he were a promising player under his belt.

"Oh, so did his outstanding performance make him selected for the national team to play in the Asian Cup?" Tony Clark asked.

"Of course not, after all, it's only the second tier of the Chinese league. It's like a striker who scores 30 goals in the Championship can't be selected for the England team. Matt Dawn said.

"And what happened to his previous national team games?"

"I checked later, in fact, it was only the national Olympic team, but they participated in the competition in the name of the national team......"

Clark pouted, "God, you're really good enough." And you haven't even really met him, watched him play...... Can you see the second division of China in the UK? ”

Matt laughed when he heard the chief's question, "Of course I can't see it." ”

After fully understanding Lai Hu's real-life goal statistics, he became more and more interested in the young Chinese player, so he was naturally not satisfied with just getting to know him through games or "transfer windows". He wanted to really see how Lai Hu would perform in the actual game.

As a result, there is no media in the UK to broadcast China's second-tier league, let alone the second tier, and even China's top league, the Chinese Super League, is not broadcast on television.

Clarke didn't expect Matt's reaction: "You're happy not to see him play?" ”

"It's true that it's impossible to see a Chinese second division game in the UK." Matt smiled and nodded, "But I can go to the Internet to find his game video, although I still haven't found the game video of the Chinese League on the Internet, but I found the East Asian Cup." ”

As he spoke, he took out his phone and found the video he had saved in the photo album.

"One is the highlight of the match between the Chinese team and the South Korean team, and the other is the highlight of the match between the Chinese team and the Japanese team. Although they are all highlights, and the picture quality is quite average, it still allows me to see a lot of things. Do you want to see it, boss? ”

Tony Clark shook his head: "No, just tell me what you see, I trust your vision." ”

"First of all, the statistics in The Godfather of Champions are a general reflection of Lai Hu's style of football, which is that he is not the type of player with the ball, he is not good at dribbling, he is not fast, and if the ball is at his feet and he is not in the opposition box, then his role is almost negligible. But on the flip side, his off-the-ball ability is outstanding. Matt Dawn spoke eloquently.

'I watched him carefully in scoring goals and in a couple of times when he didn't score, and he was very good at finding openings around the box and using them to ......'

"So he's pretty good running without the ball?" Clark asked.

"Very good, sir." "I even have the opinion that we don't think there's one guy on our team who can run off the ball like him. ”

"That's an exaggeration, Matt. We are a team in the Championship......"

"But it's also true that the quality of our strikers is not very high, otherwise why would we have to be relegated in the league this season?"

"Let's not talk about this topic......" Tony Clarke was a little embarrassed. Team results are not determined by the performance of the strikers alone. ”

If the team's results are not good, his position will be unstable. Fortunately, Hammond Castle was relegated early near the end of the league, otherwise Tony Clarke would not have the heart to chat with his video analyst here.

"I'm sorry, boss, I didn't mean to expose your wounds......" Matt Dawn quickly apologized as well.

Clark waved his hand and motioned for him to stop talking: "Does he have any good qualities other than running without the ball?" ”

"In my opinion, although there is still room for improvement in his marksmanship, he is already very good among his peers. We all know that most players his age will be keen to dribble, break through, rely on instinct to play, and few will be able to calm down and hone their shooting skills. But I think Lai Hu should have practiced shooting. From this point of view, I don't agree with the number of shots set for him in "The Godfather of Champions", he should have shots above 13, not a mere 9......"

"Well, good running without the ball and great shooting...... Sounds like it's really a shooter's fodder. What else? Clark's inquiring tone was a little more serious.

"It's gone." Matt spread his hands.

"Gone?" Clark was a little surprised, "You can see these two points after watching it for a long time?" ”

"Because it's a highlight, it's not complete, and I can't see any other advantages, but there are a bunch of disadvantages, such as poor physical confrontation, average ball control, and mediocre speed...... Wait a minute. Oh, it feels like he's just a pure shooter, and if you want him to do some tactical tasks, I'm afraid it's not realistic. ”

"A partial student?"

'A player who has outstanding strengths and weaknesses and you need the right tactics to get the most out of him. I've also experimented in the game that if you have one or two passers in the midfield who are good at passing the ball and are good at through balls, his goals will explode. ”

Clark frowned and thought about it.

Matt laughed when he saw him, "Isn't it, sir?" Were you seriously considering bringing him in? Now he can't get a labor certification, I can't loan him out for two seasons in the game, and in the end I used a modifier to get him British citizenship to get a labor certification......"

Clark was reminded by him, and he also came back to his senses, and then smiled dumbly: "Occupational disease...... Well, anyway, that's just a person who has nothing to do with us. Why do you keep an eye on him, Matt? ”

"I met him because of the game, and then found that his performance in reality was almost the same as the game, so I naturally paid attention to it and wanted to see how far he would grow in the future." Matt explained.

"What do you expect from him? How far do you want him to grow? ”

"I think ......," Matt thought about it very seriously, "he has already been selected for the national Olympic team, and with his performance, I don't think it should be a problem to enter the real national team in the future." I hope...... I hope to see him in the World Cup one day. I heard that the Chinese team has never participated in the World Cup, and if I can see him in the World Cup, I think it will be a very, very interesting thing. ”

Tony Clark watched Matt say this and laughed: "You've become a fan of the Chinese team, Matt." Just because of a young Chinese player who has never met. ”

"It's kind of cool to hear you say that. Maybe I should go buy a jersey for the Chinese team? Matt laughed too.

Tony Clark imagined Matt standing in front of him in a Chinese team jersey and grinned: "Then I must take a picture with you, hahaha!" ”

※※※

Matt Dawn is far away in the UK, but with a well-developed network and a "transfer window" to keep up to date with the latest league data from around the world, he is still able to keep abreast of Lai Hu's latest developments.

But he can only know this part of the recent situation, and he can know that Lai Hu scored consecutive goals in the game, and that's it.

There was a lot of stuff outside the football stadium that he didn't know at all.

For example, he doesn't know what Lai Hu is doing now, and he doesn't know that Lai Hu was not selected for the Chinese national team, which caused a small storm in public opinion before the Asian Cup training camp began. It's not a matter of course, as he thinks.

In fact, Hulai's performance in the East Asian Cup is still fresh in the memory of many people, and since then, the call for Hulai to be included in the national team has been there, although not too high, but it cannot be ignored.

The Asian Cup, which is coming soon, is a great opportunity. Fans want to see if Hu Lai, who has been a big player in the East Asian Cup, can help the Chinese team make a breakthrough in the Asian Cup.

But after the league was suspended, Hu Lai's name was not included in the training list released by the Chinese team.

Even the name of Guo Junfu, who did not perform as well as Hu Lai in the East Asian Cup, is among them, but there is no name of Hu Lai.

This was a surprise and a ...... Wrath.

What does the Football Association eat? I usually say that we have no talent in Chinese football, but now talent has appeared, but we turn a blind eye!

That's how you treat our geniuses!

The desire of Chinese fans for talented players and the expectation of Chinese football teams to do well in a tournament like the Asian Cup add up to make a big deal.

In the end, Zhao Kangming came out to explain and took all the responsibility on himself.

said that he communicated with the head coach of the national team, Marcel Wilson, that Hulai would not be recruited in this Asian Cup, so let Hulai take a good rest, after all, there will be an intensive league ahead, and just after the East Asian Cup at the beginning of the season, he basically started playing the league directly without rest......

The reason for the explanation was actually what he had said to Hulay, but it was more tactful. After all, he can't directly say that the Chinese Football Association and fans are eager for quick success, which is not conducive to the growth of young players, right?

But even so, Zhao Kangming was still scolded by many fans and some media.

scolded him for his selfishness, only caring about the interests of the club, ignoring the interests of the country, and not focusing on the overall situation.

scolded him for restricting Hulai's development with his own selfishness.

There are also conspiracy theorists who believe that the Asian Cup is a bigger stage for Hulai, and if he plays well here, he may be able to leave the stars and play in a more advanced league – which is obviously not in the interests of the club or the head coach Zhao Kangming.

So in order to let Hu Lai obediently work for him, he did not hesitate to use his connections in Chinese football for many years to forcibly suppress Hu Lai......

Some people also turned over old accounts, saying that it was Zhao Kangming's red card that buried the Chinese team's road to the World Cup, and now he is going to bury the future of Chinese football.

But no matter how the outside world scolded him, Zhao Kangming stopped saying nothing after giving an explanation, did not accept interviews with reporters, and did not answer any questions about Hu Lai and the national team, but he did not explain further, anyway, he just suffered silently.

Just like Hu Lai once said to Shi Wuyun, in today's Internet information age, although all kinds of information spread quickly, the popularity also decreases quickly...... After his response of "dead pigs are not afraid of boiling water", after a week, basically everyone didn't discuss this matter much, maybe they felt that it was boring to scold a person who didn't talk back, or they felt that the matter was a foregone conclusion, and it was useless to scold.

Anyway, this wave of public opinion has passed.

During the whole process, Hulai did not come out and say a word, and the reporters could not even find Hulai.

So where did Hulay go and what was he doing?

In fact, he didn't go anywhere, and after he returned from Shanhai after a one-day delay, he joined the team's training normally.

At that time, both fans and journalists could see him.

And when public opinion fermented, he moved from the rental house to the dormitory of the team's training base.

Also with him was his roommate Wang Guangwei.

At this time, Zhao Kangming has also given the first team a holiday, a period of 20 days, so that the players of the first team can have a good rest, and then gather for training after 20 days to prepare for the second half of the season starting on July 5.

However, Hu Lai and Wang Guangwei were asked to stay and move to the dormitory building of the training base to avoid external interference and concentrate on training.

The trainee was Hu Lai, and Wang Guangwei was a sparring partner.

There is only one part of the training - to receive the ball in the penalty area and get rid of the defensive shot.

When he heard about this training plan, Zhang Qinghuan also wanted to apply to stay and help Hu Lai, he could be the one who passed the ball to Hu Lai.

But it was vetoed by Zhao Kangming.

These three people got together, and the devil knew if it was training or playing - Zhao Kangming was quite happy when he heard that Zhang Qinghuan rented opposite Hu Lai and Wang Guangwei, and felt that someone had finally helped him watch the "prodigal son". As a result, he regrets it a little now, and feels that Zhang Qinghuan seems to have a tendency to be led astray by Hu Lai......

So there were only three people on the empty first-team training ground: Hu Lai, Wang Guangwei and assistant coach Chen Mo.

At this time, they were sitting under the shade of a tree on the edge of the training ground, resting in the shade and chatting by the way.

"Those grandsons on the Internet scolded me so badly that I almost couldn't hold back ......" Hu Lai said about the turmoil that had just ended.

"What if you don't hold back?" Chen Mo stared at him.

"Uh...... Register a trumpet and run to help Director Zhao speak? Under the watchful eye of the former academy manager, Hulai shrunk his neck.

Generally speaking, people who play football have a darker complexion because they have been outdoors for a long time, and they are exposed to the wind and sun, so their complexion is darker, but the complexion on Chen Mo's face is extremely dark, so it feels like there is no good face at all times.

It is often said that one is white-faced and the other is black-faced...... Chen Mo didn't need to pretend, his face was so dark.

Wang Guangwei couldn't help but laugh out loud when he heard Hu Lai's confession for a second.

Hu Lai glanced at him: "What are you laughing at?" Aren't you angry at the injustice suffered by Director Zhao! ”

Of course, Wang Guangwei couldn't say "no", so he had to say with a straight face: "Of course I'm not happy......"

"Then why don't you stand up and speak up for Director Zhao? I'm not good at talking because of my identity, but you can! Otherwise, you register a Weibo, real-name authentication to enhance persuasion, and then I will use your Weibo to speak for our Zhao Gui? ”

In front of the assistant coach, Wang Guangwei couldn't say "MMP", so he had to silently swear in his heart that when he arrived at the training ground for a while, he must press Hulai to the ground and rub it, so that he can fully understand how difficult it is to get the ball in the penalty area to get rid of the defense!

Chen Mo saw that the more Hu Lai said, the more outrageous it became, and coughed: "Don't worry about Director Zhao, he's used to it." ”

"Can you get used to this?" Hulay was a little surprised.

"Why not?" Chen Mo said, "A red card in the top 40 of the World Cup made him scolded for a year. When he goes to the street to buy something and is recognized, he doesn't sell anything to him......"

Oh yes, there's such a thing.

Hulai remembered.

In fact, most of the time, if no one mentions it, it is difficult for Hu Lai to associate the gentle Zhao Coach with the identity of "the sinner of Chinese football".

Because Director Zhao didn't show any suppressed and painful emotions at all, he smiled all day long, worked hard, and treated the players with an overall approachable and easy to get along with. Of course, when there are problems, he will also show his serious side as a head coach.

In general, it is an ordinary head coach, and it looks no different from the thousands of football coaches in this country.

It's just that the personality seems to be a little milder, but there must be a football coach who is more gentle than him.

Because of this, Hu Lai often ignores the things that Director Zhao carries.

In fact, in Hu Lai's view, the culprit of the Chinese team's failure to participate in the World Cup was not the red card of Director Zhao in the 14th minute.

When the Chinese team needs to decide their life and death in the final battle every time...... That's the problem!

Hu Lai believes that even if Director Zhao does not have that red card and is not sent off, the Chinese team will definitely not be able to enter the World Cup. After all, even if they are lucky enough to pass the top 40 competition, there will still be the top 10 competition...... Could it be that the Chinese team can enter the World Cup finals by entering the top 10?

Coach Zhao just unfortunately took the black pot for the hard-to-return Chinese football in those dark years and became an outlet for everyone's emotions.

He can defend himself, as he did this time, because not everyone does not understand the above truths.

But he didn't.

He was scolded in silence for a whole year, and then until now he is still pulled out and whipped every three or five times.

"But it's not fair." Hu Lai said, "It is not the responsibility of Zhao to coach one person that the Chinese team cannot enter the World Cup. It wasn't even his responsibility. ”

Chen Mo looked at him and smiled: "What's fair or unfair?" All people in the circle of Chinese football have the responsibility, this pot, everyone carries the same. Haven't you been scolded on the Internet because of your identity as a Chinese player? ”

Hulai was silent, he thought about the experience of the national Olympic team.

East Asian Cup, ×

Debt repayment cup, √

To put it bluntly, someone has to pay back the old accounts accumulated by Chinese football for so many years, right?

If you don't pay it back, if I don't pay it back, football in this country will never get better.

Seeing that Hu Lai stopped talking, Chen Mo patted his ass and stood up: "Okay, you have enough rest, continue to practice!" ”

Wang Guangwei put down the water bottle and stood up.

Behind them, Hulay was the last to get up.

Forget it, I'll pay this debt......

Alas, who told me to hang?

With great power comes great responsibility.

Hulai shook his head, put his hands in his pants to tighten up, followed the two, and walked onto the training ground with a dangling body.

Great oaks from little acorns grow..