Born to be a coach [soccer]

Chapter 107

The day before the Community Shield match, Anton led the team to London and stayed in a hotel near Wembley Stadium.

Sunderland's entire coaching staff came to London with the first team, along with part of Sunderland's staff.

Many reporters guarded the door of the hotel where Sunderland stayed early, setting up photographic and video equipment like long guns and short cannons, ready to shoot Messi.

Unexpectedly, the Sunderland bus had just arrived at the entrance of the hotel, and when the players got off the bus one by one, the flash lights flickered crazily and the shutter sounded.The reporters at the scene thought that Messi got out of the car, so they frantically took pictures.Unexpectedly, when this stormy photo frenzy passed, the reporters saw a young man wearing a Sunderland training suit, carrying a backpack and wearing headphones, who looked less than 20 years old, standing blankly in front of the bus , looking at the inexplicably excited reporters in a daze.

At this time, someone greeted him: "Master Flanagan, the photo has been taken. Please do it yourself, do it yourself..."

—Master Flanagan? !

The reporters who originally wanted to shoot Messi were dumbfounded.

Flanagan is the surname of the richest man in Merseyside and even the entire Northwest. There were indeed rumors that the eldest son and heir of the Flanagan family was addicted to playing football, unable to extricate himself, and finally joined the Sunderland Football Club .But none of the reporters expected that this rich second generation had already been promoted to the first team by Anton, and was taken directly to Wembley to play games.

The reporters "blindly filmed" for a while, but they didn't expect to spend a lot of camera resources on Flanagan-fortunately, he did have some news value.The reporters didn't feel too regretful at this point, and quickly continued to maintain their positions and postures, preparing to welcome Messi's arrival...

Bringing Flanagan to Wembley is the decision of the entire coaching staff.

Since this "rich second generation" joined Sunderland, Anton and the coaching staff have inspected him in many ways, and believe that this kid does not have some bad habits of ordinary "rich second generations".On the contrary, Flanagan's life is still relatively simple. His daily expenses in Sunderland are limited, and Flanagan needs to plan and calculate carefully.

So the kid basically lives in a regular apartment, drives a local rental car, and wears a practice uniform like the rest of the team.He seems particularly unwilling to be labeled as a "rich second generation". In Guangming Academy, Flanagan seems to be extremely eager for his coaches and teammates to treat him as an "ordinary person".

He also gets along very well with his teammates, except for non-British players who need to slowly adapt to his strong English accent.

Only some of his "equipment" will reveal Flanagan's true identity, such as the earphones on his head, the custom-made sneakers on his feet, and the "personal" coach who has joined the Sunderland coaching staff and still comes here from time to time... …

Anton remembered his "jobs as a child", and felt that this Flanagan was actually quite to his liking, a little bit like himself.In addition, the team really lacked a player like Flanagan at the full-back position, so Anton made the final decision to bring Flanagan to Wembley.

As a result, before the team left, Anton received a call, saying that the family of the rich second generation bought nearly [-] tickets for the Wembley Stadium at once, just to let relatives, friends and the related personnel of the group have a better understanding. The moment when they had the opportunity to witness their heir, the "Dragon Prince" appear on the court①.

Thirty thousand tickets...

Wembley Stadium has a total of [-] seats...

There are only [-] in the Stadium of Light...

Anton quickly replied to the Flanagan Group at that time, saying that he was not sure whether Flanagan would be able to play in the game, or even that Flanagan would be included in the squad, although he would arrange for him to go to London with the team.

As a result, the family members of the rich second generation refunded half of the tickets in a very "sensible" way, but they still kept [-] tickets.

My own child, even if he only sits on the bench until the end, his family will be proud of him.

In addition to the rich second-generation Flanagan, another player came with the team. As early as half a year ago, Anton did not expect that this player would be able to join the team.

The team's old goalkeeper, Craig Gordon.

As a goalkeeper, Gordon once suffered a serious injury with a broken finger. He failed to heal and played with the injury, which made it impossible to maintain a stable competitive state.

It was Anton who later arranged for him to undergo surgery again, followed by rehabilitation.Originally, even Professor Friedrich didn't expect Gordon to recover smoothly. As a result, the goalkeeper insisted on going through arduous rehabilitation and gradually recovered to his original level, and passed the Sunderland goalkeeper coach. Nick Abraham's test.

But when he came back, the position of Sunderland's main goalkeeper had already fallen into the pocket of Pickford, a young man with a baby face and freckled nose who was produced by his own youth training.Gordon has completely lost his main position.

Sounds a bit contrived.

Anton also asked Gordon about his own wishes, wondering if he was willing to sit on the bench in the team, or leave through a transfer or loan to play for other clubs.According to Gordon's resume, as long as he wants to, it is no problem to go to a Championship club to play the main force.

But Gordon said he would like to stay no matter what.

After all, the team needs a second goalkeeper anyway.

Sunderland shaped him and saved him.

So he wants to stay, it's that simple.

After discussing with the goalkeeper coach, Anton agreed to Gordon's request.So Gordon came to Wembley with the team as a substitute goalkeeper-when he was promoted to the finals before, Gordon also came to Wembley with the team and insisted on sitting on the bench.And this time, he will serve as a substitute goalkeeper, following Pickford, and become the second line of defense for Sunderland's goal.

The Community Shield match is just around the corner.On the night before the game, Anton met his old friend Ancelotti.

At that time, Chelsea had just finished the pre-match press conference. Ancelotti came out surrounded by a group of reporters and hurriedly met Anton. The two didn't even have time to say hello.

But Anton felt that Ancelotti's mood was not too high, and he could even be said to be a little sad.

This summer window, Chelsea's personnel changes are not small. Although the core of the team, Lampard and Terry are still there, Drogba, Anelka, Malouda and others on the front line have not changed much.However, some older players were purged. The German Ballack returned to the Bundesliga, and the Brazilian Belletti chose to retire.Another important midfielder in the team, the Portuguese Carvalho went to Real Madrid as soon as he turned around, and went to his hometown, Chelsea's former "madman" coach, Mourinho.

In terms of signings, Chelsea signed Benfica striker Ramirez at the buzzer before the summer window closed. Other than that, they are all young players, and there seems to be no major signings.

But Ancelotti should understand in his heart that this summer window, Chelsea lost some "experience", but did not get much supplement. Although the core is there, once troubled by physical fitness and injuries, the state of this team will drop sharply.

But this has nothing to do with the "Community Shield" at the beginning of the season. After a period of rest, most of Chelsea's players have returned to their competitive state.Although there are not many signings in Xia Chuang, the core is there, so there is no need to re-run.In contrast, almost half of Sunderland's new lineup is different from last season's FA Cup final.

Therefore, most of the sports pages of various newspapers believe that if Messi's playing time is not guaranteed on Sunderland's side, then Chelsea should be the dominant side on the scene.

Although the Community Shield is a warm-up charity event, the winner will also receive a "trophy" and receive a silver shield from the FA.

So Ancelotti said at the pre-match press conference: At the end of last season, Sunderland grabbed a "championship", and this time he must find the field anyway.

Coincidentally, Anton also stated at the press conference: Sunderland's team history showroom has the league champion and the FA Cup champion, but it lacks a silver shield.Sunderland can't come to London easily. Since he came to London after a long journey, he will not return empty-handed. This "Community Shield", he will decide.

But although professionals are more optimistic about Chelsea, the melon-eating people in England are more looking forward to the performance of the newly promoted Sunderland-because they have Messi!

The two head coaches, one and a half Italians, let go of the harsh words that should have been said before the game.Everything is ready, just waiting for the players to play on the day of the game.

As the game approaches, the players have finished warming up and are waiting in the player tunnel.Anton has already entered the court——

The huge Wembley still has a very high attendance rate today, and the stadium that can accommodate 8 people is full of people.This is London, so there are many fans wearing Chelsea jerseys. In contrast, the fans who came from Sunderland cannot match it in number.

But because of Flanagan, Sunderland's "supporters" suddenly increased by [-], and it will be overwhelmed.

This made the Sunderland fans very happy: for this reason, the fans have now compiled a "Song of Welcome Flanagan" and sang it in the stadium. A few simple words were sung repeatedly in the stadium. There are also styles.

A young Flanagan was in the tunnel, flushed with excitement, pressing the palm of his right hand to his chest.Even as a "prince", young people have never received such treatment.

Anton stood by the side of the court, chatted with the coaching staff for a while, and occasionally turned his gaze to the VIP box.

Without it, the Sorbonne has not yet started.So at the moment there was a beautiful figure sitting there, and Chloe finally seized the opportunity to come to London to witness the match of her eldest brother's team in Wembley Stadium.Anton felt that the little girl would be very happy to win a shiny silver shield in front of Chloe.

At this moment, a loud greeting sounded from the auditorium behind the coaching staff: "Brother Lin! Hi, Brother Lin!"

——It’s Chinese.

Anton knew immediately who it was.He raised his head, his eyes slightly squinted behind the lenses, trying to avoid the strong light of the stadium in the afternoon.

There is only one person who calls him this way—Jiang Yueming, a reporter from China, who used to call him Xiaolin. After seeing Anton's barb in Lagos, Jiang Yueming immediately changed his name to Brother Lin.

Coming to Wembley Stadium this time, it is obvious that the reporting team from China has finally completed the preparatory work and is ready to focus the camera on Anton.

The author has something to say: ① Flanagan's story is basically true (except for joining Sunderland).

The young master is the heir to the largest business group in Merseyside and is from Liverpool.In real history, he was put into the first team when Dalglish took over Liverpool at the end of the 10-11 season.In Flanagan's debut in the Premier League, Dalglish didn't notify the player that he was going to play until about an hour before the game. It is said that he was worried that the player's wealthy family would directly take over the Anfield stadium.