Emily left Wimbledon the next day, and Chu Zhongtian didn't see her at school or in a bar or even outside the arena for several days, so he was sure that Emily had left. He was a little stunned, as if something was missing from his life all of a sudden.

But Emily is gone, but life goes on, and the league goes on.

Chu Zhongtian later paid special attention to the "Wimbledon Evening News", if he saw that there was a report on it, he planned to buy it and collect it, how to say it, it was the first time that his name appeared in the media. As a result, he watched for a week, and he didn't see any articles about himself, but there was a piece of news about the team, announcing to readers that local team Wimbledon Athletic had broken into the FA Cup. It's just that Chu Zhongtian's name is not mentioned in the article.

He was originally just a whim, but now that the other party has not published it, he has lost interest. The Wimbledon Evening News was never read again.

Chu Zhongtian still doesn't participate in the midweek game, but he has begun to participate more and more frequently in the midweek training, at the cost of skipping classes just as often.

Skipping class will definitely delay his studies, so Chu Zhongtian can only try to make up for his homework in other times, when he works in a bar, if he is not too busy, he pulls the football under his feet to do habitual exercises, and his hands are looking through textbooks and notes to review his homework. Seeing him working so hard, the drinkers in the bar didn't come up to talk to him very often.

Sometimes, when Chu Zhongtian is tired of reviewing his homework, he will occasionally think of the girl who has been working hard to film in the United States. Guess what she's doing right now, there's an eight-hour time difference between the UK and Los Angeles, and Emily may have been sleeping when he was in class, and while he was working in a bar, Emily might have been busy putting on makeup on the set and getting ready to appear.

This kind of imagination is interesting and helps him recover his energy quickly.

But more often than not, he immersed himself in studying, trained hard, and gave his best in the game, helping the team win league game after game.

This season's mixed county league (CCL) has been uneventful for Chu Zhongtian and the entire Wimbledon team. They haven't lost a single game since the start of the league until now, and not only that, they have won all 13 league games!

Wimbledon are also top of the league table and if the momentum continues, promotion at the end of the season is not a problem at all, and they may even hope to be promoted early.

Wimbledon proved to be a big cut above the league and it was understandable that they were in the FA Cup. No matter how black a dark horse is, it must have enough strength. The fact that they were not promoted last season has something to do with their lack of tacit cooperation, but it has nothing to do with their strength.

The opponents for the first round of the FA Cup have been decided, and Wimbledon Athletic's opponents are Nortscounty, England's oldest football club. Now Nods County is in the second division of the English league, according to the league level, they are in the third division. From the point of view of a Premier League club, League Two is nothing and is a typical belly team. But looking up from the eyes of the ninth league, you may not be able to see the shadow of the third league - that is too far away, and the teams of the third league are too strong for them.

This is not a good signing, because a team drawn in the fifth division is better than the third division.

The whole Wimbledon team was a little disappointed, not because they were drawn to a team in the third tier, but because the game was not televised...... "There would be no famous stage without televising! ”

"Ahhhh No flowers applause! There are no pretty girls either! ”

A crowd wailed like this.

"Afraid of what?" Chu Zhongtian said to them, "We won Notts County, and if we go one step further, won't we have another chance to get live TV?" ”

When everyone heard this, this was really the truth, so they turned their worries into joy. They didn't even think about whether they could beat Notts County or move forward.

I really don't know where this confidence comes from, maybe it has something to do with their thirteen consecutive league wins? Or maybe it has something to do with their role as the heirs of the "Berserk"? The mad gang is also known as the "madhouse", and the people who play football here are crazy and neurotic, paranoid, and common sense does not exist for them. What they think is common sense, and what they believe in is the truth.

Eames is instilling the spirit of "Crazy Gang" into this team little by little. Chu Zhongtian can feel this, Eames has never said to them on any occasion or at any time, "Our goal is to reach the first round of the main competition", "The opponent is too strong, everyone should do their best", which makes people feel that although they are very realistic and smart, they are also a little discouraged. He always said, "We can do it!" "What is the first round of the main competition? We're aiming further! "You can go as far as you can, whether it's by luck or strength!" "I don't want to be just a dark horse in the qualifiers, we should be a dark horse in the main race!"

※※※ Nods County head coach Billy. Deardon (billy_dearden) is fifty-nine years old, but now he looks more like a sixty-nine-year-old. This is his third season in Nods, and he arrived at the club in January 2002 with a lot of ambition that he could go through a period of bankruptcy with his players...... His club has been in dire financial crisis since last year, with the collapse of ITV, the independent television station (ITV), which broadcasts lower leagues in England's First and Second Divisions, leaving many clubs with unpaid broadcast revenues and a modest salary budget. The Norts County club has been officially taken over by the government since June last year, and if they have raised less than £3.2 million by December 8 this year, then the oldest football club in the history of England, perhaps the world's oldest football club, will be forcibly disbanded.

Prior to this, the club's fans had already made donations, raising £150,000 for the team, which is not a small amount, but it is still a drop in the bucket to solve the club's problems.

Thankfully, they have a good draw for the Carabao Cup – they travel to Chelsea in the Carabao Cup on 29 October, a game that is included in the televised schedule. The club has been approaching Chelsea FC in the hope that Chelsea will use all ticket proceeds to help Norts County tide over the situation, citing the fact that another tycoon, Fulham owner Fayyad, had done the same when he was struggling financially with York City in the Carabao Cup a few years ago. You must know that the current owner of Chelsea, Roman Abramovich, is much richer than Fayyad. In fact, when the Nodes County League Cup draw met Chelsea, many fans were already shouting thank God, because hitting a big team meant a lot of box office money.

According to the rules of the League Cup, the ball that hosts the match will receive 45% of the ticket revenue of the match, the opponent will also receive 45%, and the remaining 10% will go to the tournament organiser. Based on the 20 pounds of adult tickets, Chelsea will earn about 200,000 pounds in this game, which is a drizzle for a deep-pocketed owner like Abramovich, but it is a lifesaver for Nodscounty.

They have yet to hear from Chelsea FC, but there is good news that Chelsea head coach Claudio Ranieri has ordered his players to sign shirts to give to the Norts County club after the game for auction for money. In addition, he promised in an interview that he would play his main team in the Carabao Cup to attract more fans to Stamford Bridge, which may give the Nords team an extra tens of thousands of pounds in the ticket split.

Therefore, he did not pay attention to the first round of the FA Cup at this time. After a glance, he noticed that the opponent's name was a little familiar, but without thinking about why it looked familiar, he put the bracket aside and began to think about the third round of the Carabao Cup against Chelsea.

For him and his team, the Carabao Cup clash with Chelsea is a real battle of life and death – not in terms of scorelines, but in ticket revenues...... On 29 October, the third round of the Carabao Cup kicked off, with Deardon leading his side to Stamford Bridge. He was informed before the game that the match had attracted more than 30,000 fans, which was encouraging news and meant they would have a larger share of the ticket and perhaps help the club ease its financial woes a bit.

That game ended with a 4-2 win over Norts County at their home stadium in a duel between the prince and the beggars, who won the game but also earned respect with two goals.

After the game, the Chelsea players took off their shirts, as their manager Claudio Ranieri had said, signed their names and gave them to the Norts players to auction for fundraising. This was an exchange of jerseys, but the Norths players could not give them back, because they had already stipulated that they should wash and keep their own shirts in exchange for them in financial distress - the club had no money to buy new ones for them.

There was also a hiccup before the game. Nods County goalkeeper Stephen Anderson. Mildenhall (stephen_mildenhall) said he would go straight up to Abramovich after the game, pat the Russian on the shoulder and ask him if he had any friends who would like to buy a second division club: "You don't need a billionaire, a millionaire is enough." If he can't remember such a friend, I'll ask him if he can find them under the sofa, where he might have missed a million pounds. ”

Of course, he didn't have a chance to really go to Abramovich after the game, and even if he did, it was still a question whether he could pass through the bodyguards safely.

But Abramovich replied in a different way – he promised to donate all ticket proceeds to the tournament to Nods County to help them emerge from the economic crisis and a seventeen-month trusteeship status, a record time limit for being hosted.

The £200,000 certainly won't help Notts out of the crisis entirely, but it does give the club a glimmer of hope. Now they are looking again to see if they can be bought by a consortium.

It wasn't until after this game that Deardon had time to pick up the FA Cup table he had tossed aside to take a closer look at who they were against in the first round – a name he had only thought familiar but not thought about it.

Now I look at it, it turns out to be Wimbledon!

He was taken aback, isn't Wimbledon in League One? Shouldn't League One teams join the competition in the third round in January next year? How can it be a team that has come up from the ninth division?

It quickly dawned on him that it must be a local low-division team at Wimbledon. It's not uncommon for such teams to use local place names to indicate where they belong.

Although in terms of strength, Deardon believes that his team can easily beat this amateur team from the ninth division, he is still envious of the financial situation of this team, who look much better than his own.

This has something to do with Wimbledon's expenses. A week's salary for all of the players in the Wimbledon first team team combined is not as good as a week's salary for a player in Nodes County. And the combined salary of all the players in Nots County for three weeks is not enough for Chelsea midfielder Veron to pay for a week.

For the FA Cup, Dilden intends to make it to the third round at the very least, so that he can play against the Premier League side again, and if he wins the away draw and gets a chance to broadcast live TV, there will be a large amount of ticket and TV revenue coming in, which will help alleviate the team's current poor financial situation - although it is not yet known whether the Norts County Club will make it to the third round of the FA Cup. You must know that December 8 is the deadline, and if the club still does not come up with enough money by then, it will close its doors and disband.

※※※The league on October 29 was played in midweek, Chu Zhongtian did not participate, and the team still beat Goddamin Guildford 4-0 at home (godalming_&_guildford). The following Saturday 1 November, Wimbledon beat Reading Town 2-0 away at Wimbledon, and Chu Zhongtian started the game and played the whole game, putting in an excellent performance. If the Ninth Division game had also been scored by the post-match media, he should have been given an eight. Although the team can win without him, the team's defense is more reassuring with him, and now Chu Zhongtian is increasing his chances of participating in the attack little by little, and sometimes he can also pass some good balls. It's a pity that there are no direct assists yet.

Although there are two weeks to go before the FA Cup on the 15th, and there is still a league game in between, manager Eames has decided that no matter what the league is, they are now a full 10% gap to the second place, and it doesn't matter if they lose a game.

He focused his team's training efforts on the FA Cup, recording the Carabao Cup match against Chelsea in the Norts County, which was a very good game for reference.

Eames showed the players a footage of the game, then analysed the performance of each player in Norths County and told them what to do if they were in a similar situation. He spoke in great detail, and even devoted an afternoon to this tactical lesson. Of course, Chu Zhongtian skipped the school class again and came to listen to this class.

Chu Zhongtian's task in this game is quite heavy, he has to be responsible for watching the core of the midfield of Nods County, Darren. Kaski (darren_caskey).

'He's a very, very good guy, he's been very systematic and well trained at Tottenham Hotspur and he's been there for three seasons and he's done well.

While Wimbledon don't have dedicated scouts and intelligence gathering staff, they are fortunate to have a sponsor with an accomplished football data collection. The company that produced the championship football manager provided them with a lot of information about Nods, down to the player's past record, technical characteristics, and injury vulnerability...... Wait a minute.

These are all game data, but most of them are still authentic. Eames compared the game and adopted it directly.

"And don't think that just because he's technically good doesn't mean he's thin. He's physically strong, and if you just fight with him, you won't win. Eames pointed to Kaski on the TV screen and said to Chu Zhongtian. Defending with his brain, he is not fast, explosive, bounced, flexible, and prone to injury. You know what to do, Chu? ”

Chu Zhongtian nodded: "Yes, boss." I know what to do. ”

In addition to being quite strong, this person's physical fitness is simply useless, as long as Chu Zhongtian doesn't let him pass the ball easily. He doesn't have to worry about the opponent forcing a breakthrough or something, because he can't run fast at all, and he has an absolute advantage in competing for high balls.

'You have to remember that Nods County is completely different from that Thurlock, they have a very good passer. Eames gestured to Kaski, who was frozen on the screen. "So in this game we can't play a pressing defense, Chu will press him closely, and at the same time we will shrink the defense. Therefore, the counter-attack is something we will focus on in the next two weeks. At the same time, I announced that in order to prepare for this game, the weekly training camp has been changed from two to three, and I hope everyone will try to come, especially the main players, because it is a very important game. We've put it out, but football doesn't win by talking, we need to work hard enough for it, otherwise everything is empty talk! ”

After the tactics class, Eames found Chu Zhongtian and wanted to ask him if he could accept the training arrangement of three times a week. He knew that Chu Zhongtian was going to school, and he couldn't force it in this regard.

Chu Zhongtian's answer was very refreshing: "No problem, boss." I'm sure I'll be able to come. ”

"What about studying?" Eames asked with a smile.

"Go back and make it up for yourself."

Eames nodded: "It's a pity that we are only a semi-professional team, otherwise I would have given you a contract that will allow you to train with peace of mind." Ha! ”

Chu Zhongtian was joking when he was only the boss, so he also laughed with him. I've been with the boss for a season, and I've figured out the boss's temper, don't look at his usual straight face, who doesn't seem to be happy with anyone, but in fact he is very protective and friendly to the players he likes, unless you don't perform well, he doesn't mind making all kinds of jokes with you.

When he finished laughing, Eames shrugged: "If only you were British...... It doesn't matter if you're English or Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish, as long as you're British. It's a pity that you are a Chinese. Have you ever considered British citizenship, Chu? ”

Chu Zhongtian shook his head: "It's a pity, boss." My home country does not allow dual citizenship. And I'm happy with my nationality now. ”

"Oh, what the hell......" Eames regretted. Well, anyway, it's nice to have you on the team, Chu. Eames patted Chu Zhongtian on the shoulder.

'I'm also very happy to play in this team, owner.'

"Play well in the FA Cup, let's go further!"

"I'll do my best, boss!" Chu Zhongtian clenched his fists to show determination. This is not a show of loyalty, what he said is from his heart, in such an important and important game, he will indeed go all out - in fact, in any game, he Chu Zhongtian has not gone all out?

(To be continued)