Chapter 10: Wimbledon's Past and Present (I)

This is the end of the trial AFC Wimbledon, and Chu Zhongtian became a member of the newly formed team after some twists and turns. The chubby boss John decided to raise Chu's salary from the current £4.5 to £5 an hour in recognition of Chu's "outstanding contributions" to AFC Wimbledon, and he also told Chu that he would have an additional reward if Chu scored a goal in the Wimbledon game.

As a fan of Wimbledon football, he is not stingy on this. Chu Zhongtian now feels that he has decided to participate in the trial, how correct is it...... If he knew that he would be able to please the boss and give himself a raise, he would have promised Emily a long time ago, and he didn't have to be so entangled.

The drinkers who often come to the bar also know that Chu Zhongtian has become a member of AFC Wimbledon, and they will praise him and encourage him when they come to drink, and pat their chests to promise that they will definitely cheer him on when Chu Zhongtian has a game.

Chu Zhongtian suddenly had such a feeling. Although he had been here for almost a year and was very familiar with these people, everyone just regarded him as a good Chinese guy. When they became a member of AFC Wimbledon, their relationship changed. The Englishmen seem to have begun to think of him as their own. He really fit into the British.

Boss John looked at his watch, it was almost three o'clock in the afternoon. So he moved behind the door and rattled the bell. This means that it is about to close.

The drinkers drank their glasses one after another, got up and walked out. Chu Zhongtian was a little strange, usually as soon as this group of drunkards heard this bell, they would rush to the bar to buy the last glass of wine, and then keep drinking for another half an hour before reluctantly leaving. Why are you so self-conscious today?

"At four o'clock in the afternoon, the guys all went to the King's Ranch for the inauguration of our club. The bar will open late this afternoon. Boss John stood at the door and said to the old customers who left, and also solved the doubts in Chu Zhongtian's heart.

He remembered that at four o'clock this afternoon, AFC Wimbledon was going to hold an inauguration ceremony on the pitch where he went to try out that day. According to Emily, there will be media reports, because AFC Wimbledon is the first club in English football that is becoming more and more commercialized, and it is very historic.

When the time comes, as a member of the team, he will also go.

※※※

Kings Ranch Stadium is a very simple stadium, which can only accommodate a small number of people in the early 4,000s, the official statistics are 4,200, and the seats are only a pitiful 690, all in the main stands.

Despite the fact that this stadium is small and simple, it is still a stadium shared by two teams in such a large place. And the Meazza San Siro in the city of Milan (in no particular order) has the same meaning. The new AFC Wimbledon was a latecomer, originally belonging to another local club, the Kingstonians, and AFC Wimbledon needed a stadium where they could practice their games. There is only one stadium in Wimbledon, the former home stadium of Wimbledon Football Club, the Plain Lane Stadium (plough_lane), but the newly formed AFC Wimbledon will not be able to return to that stadium, where it is said that new planning is underway, and the Plain Lane stadium may be bulldozed for residential construction, which is being studied by the local council.

So the heirs of the Crazy Gang had to leave Wimbledon and move to Kingston, a few miles away from Wimbledon, to rent the course from the Kingston Club.

Emily didn't come to Chu Zhongtian two days ago, and Chu Zhongtian thought Emily was angry. In fact, at that time, Emily didn't care about what happened during the trial, she was busy running for the team's fundraising.

The team rents the stadium for £20,000 a year. But where does a club made up entirely of ordinary fans get so much money? The so-called ordinary fans refer to the fact that there are no rich people in this group of people, they are ordinary people who make hard-earned money. In order to settle this large sum of money, the club has issued an announcement asking Wimbledon fans to donate money to support the newly formed club.

Emily is just going to do that. She doesn't hold any role at the club, but she's very helpful and she's well-known among the Wimbledon fans and has a good relationship with many people at the club, so she helps with a lot of things at the club.

As she herself said. "It's our own team", doing things for our own team, it's a matter of course.

It's 4:25 p.m., and the summer sun hasn't diminished at this time, and the temperature is still very high.

Chu Zhongtian stood in the crowd with his eyes squinted, the sun was still a little dazzling, and the grass under his feet made the sun a little white. He was surrounded by his teammates, many of whom he didn't know yet. Before they even introduced themselves, they were rushed onto the pitch to present to the news media and the fans. He made a slight observation, he was not the only one with black hair, but he was the only one with yellow skin, there were whites and blacks around him, and he was quite conspicuous among a bunch of people.

Chris Stewart (kris_stewart), the club's chairman of the board of directors, stood in the middle of the pitch with a microphone in his hand, addressing all the fans and the news media who came to the stadium. Chu Zhongtian had always thought that the chairman of the club should be a gray-haired old man, but Mr. Chris Stewart standing in front of them was a middle-aged man in his thirties, which surprised him a lot.

He is thanking the people and institutions who have helped them in the formation of the club.

“…… Thank you to all the fans who donated to help us set up the Dons Trust, you are the foundation of Wimbledon Football Club. Thank you to the Wimbledon Independent Supporters Association for helping us in the process of setting it up, and I know you'll always be on the side of the fans! Also thanks to our sponsor, Sports Interactive (sports_interactive, SI) for short, you guys are great champions football manager and I play a lot. ”

There was a burst of laughter from the stands.

The delegates he thanked were all in the stands, and they were in the middle of the only 690 seats. They may seem noble, but they are all fans, and for them, standing behind the goal is the highest honor - it is the stands where the most die-hard fans gather.

Mr. Chairman thanked all those who helped in the establishment of the club, all the fans who loved Wimbledon football and of course the players. He pointed to a group of players beside him, and Chu Zhongtian was among them.

"I would also like to thank you, you will be the hope of football at Wimbledon. We will cheer you on in future competitions! ”

The stands erupted in loud applause and cheers. The King's Ranch Stadium, which can accommodate more than 4,200 people, was packed today, and there were many people standing around the stadium below the stands, and they still applauded and cheered together.

Chu Zhongtian stood in the crowd and enjoyed such cheers. Half a month ago, he didn't expect that he, an ordinary Chinese student who had no football to play in China, would become a member of a local team. It's a bit of a bizarre story......

Mr. Stelter, the thirty-five-year-old chairman of the company, was making his final speech, raised his arms, pointed to the stands around him, and exclaimed in a passionate voice: "That rich team has moved, but we don't care!" Nobody keeps them because that's not our club anymore! They will eventually know that they are nothing without the fans! Now I'm so happy that we have a club that is entirely ours and we are the club! We, the fans and Wimbledon belong to us, not to the rich! We should support this team and help her get back to where she belongs! ”

The fans in the stands followed him and shouted: "Go where you need to go!!" ”

Fat boss John and old Bent were also shouting hard in the crowd. Whether it was the president of the club, or the fans in different costumes and identities in the stands, they all shouted together: "Go back to where you belong, go to the top flight!" Back to where to go, South West London!! ”

The stadium of more than 4,000 people erupted with a reputation no less than that of a Premier League stadium.

Chu Zhongtian found that many people around him also shouted with the fans, they clenched their fists, and they were very emotional. He also found Alley Russell and Gavin Borger with a band-aid on the corner of their mouth.

He thought of the scene he had seen at the Dons pub, the frustration and anger of the longtime fans when the news on television announced that Wimbledon might be moved to Milton Keynes. He still remembers the way Boss John sat on a stool in a daze, he remembers Emily smiling at him and saying "we're relegated", he remembers the faces of the fans, and he remembers the crowded Dons pub when Wimbledon, which has not yet moved, plays every weekend...... He couldn't help but clench his fists at the roar.

"Back to where you need to go! Go to the top league!! ”

※※※

ps, today's first shift, there is another shift at six o'clock in the afternoon~

Ask for recommendations, collections~~

;