The rain was as heavy as the Milky Way in the sky, pouring down from the sky.

Ward's suit was wet from the outside to the inside, and the clothes were cold and heavy as if they had just been fished out of the water, and they were unusually uncomfortable to wear.

The training base in Portsmouth was completed and put into use in 1998, because it is still a product of the last century, there is no underfloor heating and no roof, and even basic drainage can not be done now.

The water on the turf could be used to drive a boat on it, and Hydward had to change the outdoor training session to an indoor one.

He asked Richards to help get the towels, but it wasn't for the players to take a shower, it was over today, the shower was just to prevent them from catching a cold, and it was still early at four o'clock in the afternoon.

…………

Portsmouth's dressing room looks small, dilapidated and so short that a tall centre-back like Ben Haim can hit the ceiling with a lift.

Their room always looked like it had no sunlight all year round, it was dim and damp, the white walls had long since peeled off, the cabinets were pitted, and some of the doors were even half of them, and the rest were gone.

There were only four sprinklers in the bathhouse, and the space was too small to squeeze so many people, so the captain Haim organized it to enter in two groups.

"Margery, it's yours from now on." The captain gave the new guy a warm hug and assigned him the corner cabinet.

This cabinet is used by many people, and it looks particularly shabby.

Margery noticed that all the people had small cards on their cabinets, marked with their names; Born; There is also a position on the field, placed in a transparent slot, which is clear at a glance, but this one of his has nothing.

Margery pulled out a pen and paper from his backpack and wrote:

Margery

1995.10.1

Central defender

Then I carefully glued it to a fairly flat place.

I'm only 16 years old, but I'm still fearless.

Haim patted the young man on the shoulder and said, "Don't be burdened, I will help you." ”

Big Brother's smile warmed the young man's heart, and the discomfort of the newcomer was much lighter.

"Captain, I'm wearing your shoes!" Margery lifted his right foot and carefully wiped his boots with a towel.

The shoes are blood-red and the brand is Adidas' Berserker series, which is an old model from several years ago, and it happens to be exactly like the one on Haim's feet.

He smiled, and smiled so brightly that the boy almost said, "I'm your fan, can you sign for me?" ”

Margery's eyes reveal this message all the time.

Portsmouth's slightly more famous players are now almost gone, and Haim, the team's big brother, can't convince himself to become a deserter.

As a member of the Israeli national team, he played for Chelsea and Manchester City, all of them in the first class, but he is still some way from becoming a star, unless in his own hometown.

Haim didn't expect that in the small dressing room, this new friend actually adored him, and the boy's behavior of wearing his same combat boots greatly satisfied his self-esteem.

"My dream is to play in the team one day, and I can't imagine having a big club like the captain," Margery said. ”

Haim asked: "Didn't the national team think about it either?" ”

Margery shook his head and said, "No." ”

Haim glanced up at the locker room, his brow furrowed, and the stench of magazines, leftover bento boxes and discarded jerseys everywhere exuded a disgusting stench.

There were playing cards strewn on a bench in the middle of the room, and he even saw cigarette butts and crushed cigarette cases in the corner.

He suddenly understood the young coach named Hydward, who rushed into the locker room in the afternoon and couldn't see the extreme eyes.

A lot of people here don't have a minimum of professionalism, and if they were coaches, they would let everyone here gather and run laps.

He's a captain who doesn't talk much, and he often turns a blind eye to his teammates' bad habits, but Haim looked at the young Margery next to him and told himself that something had to be changed here.

The locker room is small; Break; It doesn't matter if you're short, but it's dirty, messy, poor, and even smoking, gambling, and you definitely can't bear the humble dreams of a young man.

He patted Margery on the back and said, "Go take a shower first, don't catch a cold." ”

The other people in the locker room, who had finished taking a shower, were lazily lying on their chairs, and the dozen or so laps just now were enough to choke them, although they didn't kill them.

Without a shower, clothes, underwear, and socks are flying wildly, and the main striker Lawrence is obviously an energetic guy, and he took the opportunity to sing a song, Italian singer Pavarotti's "Nobody Sleeps Tonight", he is an Irishman, and it is his nature to be good at singing and dancing.

"Ricardo, put away your damn cigarettes!" Haim made a shot and kicked the smoke shell at the feet of a short player.

"Jonathan, your wine, don't let me see him!"

"And you, Dave! Go and flush the cards down the drain now. ”

As he gave the order, Haim slapped Lawrence, who was singing, on the back of the head and told him to shut up.

“yes sir!” The shorter Ricardo leaned over to the captain and gave a standard military salute.

lowered his voice and said, "I'm sure I'm hiding somewhere that rookie coach can't find it." ”

"It's just a mistake today, who knows if this guy will go to the locker room with a salute."

Apparently it would be impossible to get a natural Irishman to turn off his singing voice, and Lawrence switched to a melodious hometown folk song, "Arison Fields."

With a black line on his face, Haim said, "I mean it! ”

Ricardo gave him a friendly punch in the chest, "Don't do that, brother. ”

"No coach will allow cigarettes, alcohol and cards to be present in the locker room."

"I don't know if Hydward is a rookie, but I'm the captain at least I'm not."

Ricardo spread his hands helplessly, thinking about the new brother's drenched suit, his mouth was tough, but his heart was still faintly stunned.

There was a long and short knock at the door of the dressing room, like a final whistle before the end of the game.

Hydward stood calmly in the doorway, his suit hunched in the crook of his arm, and one of his shirts unbuttoned at the top.

The muscles are as strong as iron, and the exposed part of the collar has a particularly obvious scar, showing grandeur.

His voice was like a sharp sword piercing through the darkness, cold and compelling: "You still have 5 minutes, the training amount that comes out first is halved, and the last one is doubled." ”

The chattering locker room was deadly silent, and you could hear a needle drop on the floor.

"Brothers, we've been wrong since noon!"

Ricardo rolled over and stood on the chair in the middle, shouting like a loudspeaker in a store: "That thing out there—nobody!! Why should we be afraid of him, how about smoking? What about drinking? Why is it like a mouse meeting a cat when he bumps into him! A rookie who doesn't even have any teeth! I, Ricardo, was the first to disagree! ”

A few impassioned words, Jonathan and Dave, who listened to it, were enthusiastic, and riffraff and rascals always had the most common language.

"Ah, what a glorious sunshine. How clear the sky is after the storm has passed, oh my sun! Lawrence couldn't hold back his singing voice, and a song "My Sun" was dedicated to everyone present.

He put on the new boots he had just bought, and he heard that Messi from Barcelona was also wearing this one, dancing to the sound of singing, and opened the door.

trotted all the way to Ward, and said very doggedly: "Coach, I'll cut it in half", smiling brightly like a flower in March.

Ricardo was struck by lightning, and the breeze outside the door made him tremble naked.

Haim apparently gave up on showering, grabbed a jersey and rushed out, and for a while the locker room was like a vegetable market, with clothes, pants, and shoes flying everywhere again.

Margery apparently couldn't take a shower either, so he roughly threw his backpack into the cabinet like a dynamite bag, and rushed out after the captain's pace.

…………

The locker room quickly returned to calm, more cluttered than before, but here came a new owner.