Romantic on the Field

80.

A team is also a company. It is an enterprise.

Same with Newcastle United.

[Director, Captain Ashworth is looking for you. ]

‘Why again?’

So, head coach Johnjo Selby had no choice but to feel heavy as he headed to the general manager’s office.

It’s ambiguous to say that the leader is a boss at work, but it’s true that it’s a position where you have to follow opinions to some extent.

Fortunately, GM Dan Ashworth wasn’t a bad guy. Rather, it was closer to a good person. He was also a person with common sense in both work-related and non-work related matters.

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Nevertheless, Jonjo was very uncomfortable with Dan.

Dan is the person who made a revolutionary contribution to raising Newcastle United to where it is now.

That’s why I was receiving the full support of chairman Yasir Alumayan, and because of that, I used to carry out the mission of conveying the president’s instructions to the team leader Johnjo.

Dan had common sense, but Yasir did not. To be precise, like the head of an organization that is far from practical work, there were many times when he said absurd things or made ridiculous demands.

“Come on in.”

Jonjo opened the door and entered the captain’s room.

“it is a nice day. How are you feeling?”

Dan got up right away and greeted him warmly.

“great. Who is the captain?”

“I am always the same. hahahaha.”

After exchanging obvious words for a while, the two went to the main topic.

“Your next opponent is Stoke City, right?”

“···Yes.”

Stoke City.

It was a team that the Newcastle leadership had been eyeing since last year, so John Cho had no choice but to be nervous at the moment.

“How is it?”

“What do you mean?”

Dan pulled out a piece of paper from the desk.

“Recruit Jamie Lee. Do you still think it is possible?”

“…”

In fact, it wasn’t Stoke City that they were eyeing, it was this one player.

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Last year, to be exact, from the year before that, Jonjo put Jamie in the recruitment target and watched him. Then, after seeing him score goals while beating three or four Premier League defenders, he strongly demanded that the club sign him.

But······.

‘A team aiming to win the Premier League is asking why they are signing a championship player.’

The recruitment was canceled due to the opposition of Chairman Yasir.

“Now Stoke City are a Premier League team. They even rank second in the league.”

“Ummm…”

Jonjo thought for a moment.

If you said it during the summer transfer window, there was no need to worry. No, at least it would have been fine if it had only been last week or next week.

But now it was the point ahead of Stoke City.

“It’s difficult.”

“Is it time?”

“Yes. It’s a problem if Jamie Lee does too well against us, and it’s a problem if he doesn’t do too well.”

“hahahaha. Yes.”

Dan burst out laughing and pulled out his cell phone.

“But, I can’t help it. Media interest surged after his performance against Liverpool and Manchester City. More than anything······.”

widely. Then he turned the phone to Jonjo.

“The president also started to take an interest.”

The following message appeared on the screen:

[ Jamie Lee. How do you like this player? ]

‘no. When I speak incessantly, what about the championship…’

Of course, Jonjo didn’t say the above words out of his mouth.

It wasn’t like this once or twice, and it didn’t change anything by saying it.

Just like most office workers, I decided to postpone the decision after swallowing a sigh.

“There is still time before the winter transfer window, so we will focus on the next game for now.”

“All right. There’s nothing you can do right now anyway. Still, I thought it would be good to know in advance.”

“Thank you for caring me.”

Afterwards, Dan talked about a few more things that could have been better.

“Do you have anything more to discuss?”

The conversation soon ended, and after a brief silence, Jonjo asked cautiously.

“No, no.”

“hahahaha. Yes. Then let’s go to the training ground.”

“I see. If there is anything else to discuss, we will contact you.”

“All right.”

Jonjo got up from his seat and left the captain’s office.

‘Jamie Lee…’

Jonjo’s head toward the training ground was full of Jamie as if it were natural.

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Newcastle United is a good defensive team. This is because President Yasir believes in the maxim that ‘a team that is good at attack wins, but a team that is good at defense wins’, so he put an astronomical amount into the defense. There are even rumors that he invested 100 million pounds in the central defense alone.

‘It’s 97 million pounds to be exact.’

Arriving at the training ground, John Cho approached one of the players who had arrived early even though there was still plenty of time left.

“Yorit.”

“Yes, Director.”

Yorit Bust.

A player signed for £60 million. At the time of the transfer, the word ‘overpay’ came out, but when he performed at the league’s best level, he was evaluated as ‘underpay-Hyeja’.

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Nicknamed ‘Post Van Dyke’ or ‘Beast-Beast’.

“Remember what the power analysts said last time?”

“Yes.”

Whether it’s Damien or Robin, whoever comes out as the starter, Jamie will eventually come out if he continues to be blocked.

Then, in the end, Yorit must stop Jamie.

“Jamie Lee, it is no exaggeration to say that all of England is paying attention to him. Are you confident?”

In Jonjo’s opinion, Yorit was a near-perfect player, but he lacked one thing.

“Yourself… well, I don’t know. We will do our best to stop it.”

It was the desire to win.

The coach can fill the lack of confidence. It can also ignite the fire of the desire to win. But you can’t create a desire to win without it.

“Yes, do your best.”

So all I could say was that.

**

A few days later, Stoke City’s home stadium Bet 777 Stadium.

Right at the start of the game, Jamie recalled the tactical training of the past few days.

‘Asymmetrical when attacking, symmetrical when defending.’

Originally, Stoke City’s asymmetric formation was different when attacking and defending, like other formations.

However, in recent days I have focused on this a little more.

Originally, the right winger position was completely vacated, and the right fullback, Kaneshiro, chose a way to increase the coverage of Kay-KK. When the opposing fullback was actively overlapping, third-line midfielder Harry covered it.

But now Robin has taken over that role. To be precise, when defending, it is to mark the opponent’s left fullback exclusively, and when it is converted to attack, move to the center.

‘Simply put, asymmetric 4-4-2 when attacking, symmetrical 4-4-1-1 when defending.’

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Now when to attack. In other words, it was after Robin moved to the center.

To-wook. He stabbed a roving through pass directly toward Robin for the first time in a while.

Timing, course, even passing. everything was perfect

If the opposing defender tries to forcefully break the pass, it will lead to a decisive opportunity.

‘Well?’

However, the opposing defender responded calmly.

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No, I waited for the pass to reach Robin with an attitude that seemed to be calm to the point of being insincere. Then, when Robin caught the ball, he put his foot out.

[ Whoa-uh! ]

The home fans let out a sigh.

The opposing defender only got the ball right.

‘Yorit Beast…’

Jamie knew that tall defender.

The heart of Newcastle United’s defense.

A few years later, he was also included in the ‘FIFA World 11’, the so-called ‘Wolbe’.

Despite his height and size, he is quite agile and has a high soccer intelligence.

‘Looking at it now, it’s very similar to Mutombo.’

Come to think of it, they were both Dutch.

If there’s anything else, it’s about race.

‘You could call it a white mutombo…’

Continuing his thoughts, Jamie shook his head. I didn’t mean to think about it during the game. It also seemed like something racist.

Jamie, who quickly completed self-reflection, put pressure on the opposing midfielder who caught the ball.

In response, the opponent made a back pass to the fullback, and Robin, who moved his position before he knew it, immediately pressed him. Then the fullback passes back to the central defender.

‘Hmm, that’s a bit passive.’

Even after the 5th, 6th, and 7th minutes of the first half, Newcastle United did not attempt an attack-down attack.

‘It’s an away game, so I only need to get 1 victory point, right?’

In the 9th minute of the first half, Jamie tried a through pass again with a feeling of longing. Robin pretended to move to the front of the defense this time, but suddenly changed direction, but surprisingly, Yorit saw through and blocked him again.

‘Five.’

Earlier, I thought it was because the pass was successful, but this time the pass was blocked.

For Jamie, the desire to compete couldn’t help but spring up.

‘Let’s see if it blocks this too.’

After a while, 15 minutes in the first half. With that feeling, I tried a roving through pass to Damian, not Robin.

Damian’s opponent is not Yorit, but Scotland’s ‘Richard Madden’. He was a player of the same height as Damian.

‘Caught.’

Fortunately, Damian caught the through pass that flew high with an elegant ball touch. He then performed an upper-body painting move that unbalanced Richard and swerved.

ter- ong. However, it was blocked by Yorit, who predicted his next move.

‘Look at him.’

Jamie smiled inwardly. It seemed that a normal through pass would not be able to penetrate it.

Yes, I will go irregularly. Recalling the way he neutralized Mutombo at the training ground, Jamie started driving the ball himself after a while.

Tok, tok. When we reached the front of the penalty box, the Spanish defensive midfielder blocked the way.

Jamie checked the positions of Damien and Robin, paying 30 percent of his attention to the opponent’s posture—to be precise, the angle their bodies were facing.

Damian was openly raising his hand for a pass, while Robin was busy making off-the-ball moves.

‘Break through after painting? Or just break through?’

The odds are half and half.

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No, 6 to 4.

Two-woong.

Jamie stood up as if to pass to Damien, then suddenly lowered his body and struck in the opposite direction of the defensive midfielder’s body.

The defensive midfielder, who missed the mark in an instant, hurriedly grabbed Jamie’s uniform.

If you fall here, you can get a free kick in a good position. But it wasn’t 100 percent, so Jamie shook his hand and entered the penalty box.

[ Oh-oh! ]

The home fans who smelled the goal stood up one by one.

‘Two in. Two players on our team.’

Either way, after Jamie double-checked the information in the penalty box—without the fullbacks—he made the next move.

“…!”

He puts his foot back as if he were going to shoot.

Richard flinched and responded as if he was trying to narrow the shooting angle, but Yorit did not move and just kept his position.

In the meantime, Robin quietly stepped forward to avoid being caught on the offside line.

‘now?’

Am I going to revise my plans with a pass? I had that urge at the moment, but I decided not to. More likely to get blocked.

Also, you have to be caught off guard. After making up his mind, Jamie hit the bottom of the ball with his right foot and kicked it.

It was a surprise chip shot in a situation where there was neither a defender nor a goalkeeper in front.

Originally, it was likely to be an absurd attempt, but this time it was different.

The trajectory of the shooting and the course were very good.

It was no exaggeration to say that it was a perfect shot.

The ball shook the net after drawing a perfect parabola.

‘There’s nothing more fun than beating a shrinking opponent.’

It was different from Manchester City.

Jamie was confident of a big win.