Chapter Forty-Three: Bob's Travels
Bob, who had just gotten off the plane, couldn't help but shiver to himself, at this time it was drizzling on the airport, looking at the completely unfamiliar city in front of him, Bob's mood was like this weather, gloomy to the extreme.
The 53-year-old Bob recalls that two days ago, the team's head coach Michu approached him and asked him to do an on-site inspection of a list of personnel he had provided!
I couldn't help but shake my head when I looked at the list, the awkward names on this list, that strange country, although my job is to find suitable reinforcements for the team, but it is only limited to the UK.
Bob always believed that if he was lucky enough, he could even find another Bobby Charlton or George Best for the team, although it was difficult to find that kind of talented child among the young players in England over the years.
But Delph, who has now established himself in the first team, comes from his own handiwork. But take a look at what you're going to do next!
Oh, my God! Romania, Poland, France? These are all areas that are difficult to reach with the team's scouting network.
God knows where Michu got the information about these players. Although he has asked himself, the coach has always refused to say it. And Bob has also heard about Michu's contact with some SI game company, and Bob even thinks it's an insult to his work, if those games really come in handy, what's the use of us old guys?! Despite his dissatisfaction, Bob still completed his work diligently.
Even if there are some objections to Michu's way of working, Bob and his party are very impressed by the two German children brought in this winter transfer window!
Reus's talent and Muller's brilliant movement made Bob and others still admire Michu for being able to find these two people, after all, Leeds United's scouting network is permissive, and Bob knows it! And the performance of the two people obviously confirms Mi Chu's unique vision!
So even though he was a hundred reluctant, Bob decided to go and have a look.
According to the itinerary, their first stop was Poznan, Poland, and the target was a striker from Lech Poznan Football Club named Robert Lewandowski!
Looking at this awkward name, Bob frowned again, because he didn't know Polish, so some of the player's local reports naturally couldn't be collected, and with the urgency of time, the group could only choose to watch the player's performance, after all, there were still a lot of people on Michu's list!
But thanks to the development of the Internet, Bob still has some vague understanding of this player, as a player born in 1988 who won the Golden Boot award in the Polish Second Division at the age of 18, he can be regarded as a star of hope in Poland.
Even though this is only the player's first season with the team, the lad has already scored 12 goals with three rounds to go in the Polish First Division!
Considering the level of the Polish league and the quality of the defense, such a player would not have performed well in Bob's opinion if you look at the stats alone, and it could be another time-wasting journey.
But the day after arriving in Poznan City, Bob and the others caught up with a league match for the Poznan Lech team.
And in the subsequent official game, Lewandowski's performance made Bob once again seem to see the smug smile of Michu thousands of miles away!
Lewandowski showed his all-round ability and great potential throughout the game, and these performances completely dispelled Bob's doubts!
It's a crushing performance against his opponents, and his explosiveness, physical strength, agility, speed, and ability to organise and respond with such excellent individual strength are all amazing to Bob! His presence will take Leeds United's forward line to a higher level in no time! This made Bob feel like a huge mistake if the team couldn't sign him after just watching one game!
Lewandowski's performance once again illustrates the limitations of data in terms of reflecting a player's ability.
After leaving one person to continue the investigation of Lewandowski, Bob immediately flew to Romania without stopping, and there was another person on the list waiting for him!
Although Bob thinks he is well-informed, when he sees Pantilimon on the field at the Dan Partinisan Stadium in Timisoara, Bob is still quite shocked, the big man of 203cm does not look like a football player at all, his height makes him always stand on the pitch and be superior! Of course, in the goalkeeper position, the size of 203 makes people have to doubt his handicap skills and goal-line skills, after all, such a large body mobility is a huge problem!
However, there are pros and cons, with a huge height advantage combined with an extra-long reach that makes this player rarely threatened by high-altitude balls. As long as there is no major problem with the judgment of his landing point, then the team really has picked up the treasure, and as for the actual performance in the game, Bob decided that people should observe it! But I really don't know how Mi Chu, the head coach, knows about the existence of these people! You must know that the development of Internet media is far from reaching today's level! Bob, who thought of this, also had to admire Michu.
After arranging his observation of Pantilimon, Bob immediately set off for the Le Maustova Stadium in Lorient, Brittany, France to find the last player, the previous two had already surprised Bob enough, and now he just wanted to know what was so special about the Frenchman who had made him run nearly a thousand miles!
Since it was the last stop, Bob also began to take it easy, he first watched the open training session of the Lorient team, and then watched the Duas team play at home, and the most Bob wanted to say at the moment for Michu, who had made him travel thousands of miles, was, "Please take my knees!" Exceptional"
And Bob finally understood why the coach let himself go to France to observe such a slightly thin young man, as a central defender, his anticipation, ability to help defend and fill in positions, his speed of recovery, bold tackles, gummy close defense, and excellent high-altitude ball control will allow him to not fear any opponent.
Bob understands what a well-rounded player of this kind means to the current Leeds United backline, whether paired with Marquis or Huntington, he can provide the pace that the other two can't provide, a player who is completely different from English defenders, and he is still growing, far from the best! So once the form is sharpened, Bob believes that the team's defense will be more solid.
If you have to find a little weakness in Koscielny, it is that his body still looks a little thin, although the muscles of his body after taking off the jersey are also very strong, but once the reinforcement is confirmed, Bob feels that strength may be the only shortcoming that restricts his performance.
If it weren't for the fact that Michu was still in Leeds, Bob might have thought that Michu was a supernatural scout, after all, these players gave him too many surprises and questions? How the hell did the boss know became Bob's biggest question at the moment.