Chapter 91: Beautiful Tackle Part 2
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
On Nottingham Forest's youth team, there were two people Tang En paid the most attention to. The first person was Gareth Bale, who had been personally poached by Tang En from Southampton. He would occasionally take the time to observe Bale's training progress and see if he was improving.
Bale was very obedient. Although Tang En forgot to tell him the reason for switching him over to the position of left back, he still continued to practice his techniques as a left back. Although there were no notable results currently, he still continued to practice. Another thing that Tang En paid much attention to was Bale's free kick practice.
What made Tang En extremely excited was that, after going through proper guidance and practice, this kid's talent in the aspect of free kicks was finally showing. According to Bale's father, Bale loved free kicks. Now, he only did one thing during his physical education classes in school and in his backyard after he returned home—practiced his left foot free kick.
Standing by the side of the field and seeing this kid kicking the ball over the moving human walls time and again, Tang En felt as if he was witnessing the birth of another Beckham. The feeling of achievement from witnessing a player's average abilities gradually become outstanding, was one that could not be expressed with mere words. It was just like, like…. like giving birth to a child and raising him up with one's own hands.
These young players were his children, and Tang En was their father.
As for the other person whom he paid much attention to, it was naturally George Wood. His attention toward Wood was already publicly known, and the entire youth team knew that this silly kid was highly regarded by the manager. However, there were few who could tell the reason why this was so. Wes Morgan was one of those who understood the reason.
After leading the team for four matches, Tang En did had not sent Wood onto the field even once. Every time, Wood would be on the substitution name list, but he would merely watch from the side. Tang En did not give him a chance to go onto the field for even a single minute. Kerslake thought that Tang En was worried that this kid would go up and injure another person from the opposing team again. However, Tang En, himself, knew very clearly, his reason for doing so.
Did George Wood know? Tang En had no idea. This lad did not speak much usually, and if one did not take the initiative to ask, Wood would not reveal anything. If Wood had something on his mind, it would just sit there and ferment, buried in his heart. Therefore, Tang En decided to have a talk with Wood one day after training.
After a full day of training, the players of the youth team started leaving the training grounds, discussing where they would go and what they would do that night. This was a good chance for them to rest and relax. Tang En and Kerslake never interfered with the players' personal lives, as long as they did not go overboard with it.
After bidding farewell to Kerslake and the rest of the coaches in the office, Tang En hurried toward the changing room. There were still a few players who had just finished showering and were sitting and chatting half-naked while waiting for their bodies to dry. Among them was the youth team's captain, Wes Morgan.
Tang En's entrance interrupted the young men's discussion. He looked around, but did not find George Wood. He asked, "Anyone seen Wood around?"
Morgan stood up and said, "No, Manager. We haven't seen him come back."
"Hmm?" Tang En thought that it was strange. "Haven't seen him come back?"
Morgan nodded his head before pointing to the north. "I saw him walk directly in that direction right after training ended." After thinking for a short while, he added, "And he was hugging a football ball."
Upon seeing Morgan point in to the north, Tang En had already guessed—George Wood must have run off to the second field to do some extra training on his own. This kid!
"Thanks a lot. Hope you have a great time tonight!" Tang En bade farewell to the players and walked toward the second field.
Upon reaching the second field, it was just as Tang En had expected. Under the evening sun, George Wood was continuously doing the same fundamental practices that he had been doing for the past year: headers, passing, dribbling…
Seeing this, Tang En did not feel touched at all. In fact, he was slightly angry. He quickly rushed forward and stepped on the football ball that Wood kicked.
George Wood's eye shifted upwards from Tang En's foot and saw an angry Tony Twain.
Tang En raised four fingers and displayed them in front of Wood's eyes. With a slight tinge of anger in his voice, Tang En said, "Four hours. The maximum training duration that the UEFA has set for youth players." After that, the four fingers turned into two fingers, and it seemed as though the number had been reduced.
"Twenty hours. The maximum training duration for youth teams in a week. Do you know why they had to specifically make such a rule, George?"
Wood shook his head. He did not care much about this. To him, training and practicing was all that mattered to him.
"It is to prevent people like you from doing stupid things like this!" Tang En reprimanded sternly. "Do you know why I stopped your fundamentals trainings here after moving you to the team? If you continue to train for two more hours after receiving three to four hours of highly intensive training daily, your body will crumble before you become successful and famous!"
Tang En said it in an intimidating tone and had originally thought that George Wood would be frightened by it. Instead, he shook his head and replied in a nonchalant manner, "I don't find the daily training of the team too tiring."
Shit! Tang En scolded in his heart.
"Are you King Kong or Hulk? Alright, I don't care how much your current body can take. In any case, you have to stop training at once and go home!" Tang En stepped and rolled the ball back and forth, as he thought about how he could successfully flick the ball from the ground to his hand in one try. He was unwilling to lose face in front of his own player.
Tang En, who was focused on thinking about how to flick the ball, did not notice that George Wood had already fixated his eyes on the ball, and was following Tang En's movements closely.
After pulling the ball back and forth around ten times, Tang En estimated that he should only need one try to succeed. He pulled back his right leg forcibly, and rolled the ball back slightly. After that, he kicked the ball forward quickly, and flicked the tip of his foot. He was met with the ball that was rolling back, and it looked just like he had used a shovel to "shove" the ball up!
Haha! I did it! Tang En, whose football skills were extremely terrible, wanted to laugh out loud, but he suddenly felt a gust of wind beside him! Sensing danger, he instinctively arched his body backwards. After that, he saw clearly...
He was not sure for how long, Wood was almost lying on the ground, his body nearly parallel to it. His right hand supported his body, and at the same time his left leg quickly swung toward the ball in the air. The gust of wind that he had felt previously was actually from this leg!
The ball was less than five centimeters away from Tang En's foot, and looking at Wood's extremely aggressive stance, if he had just kicked the ball slightly off, Tang En's right leg would be in a cast the next day, and Tang En would have to come to training with crutches.
Bang! With a loud sound, a few pieces of grass clippings flew in front of Tang En's face, causing him to squint his eyes uncontrollably.
After which, Tang En landed on the ground on his butt and stared dumbfounded at the row of trees in the north. Wood had actually kicked the ball directly toward the back of the forest. There was a slope there and beneath the dam at the bottom of the slope was the Trent River!
This kid! To have actually kicked the ball so far...That's not the point! The point is, he was actually able to perform such a clean tackle! If this had happened during a match… it was a defensive move that would rouse the cheers of the commentators and fans. Swift! Accurate! Powerful! It was too perfect! Wood, you are indeed suited to become the support of a team!
George wood did not know what Tang En was thinking about at that moment, as he stood up and was about to get the ball. After running for a few steps, he was stopped by Tang En, who had recovered from his initial shock. "Don't go, George. Do you know where you kicked the ball to?"
"There." Wood pointed at the dark forest under the evening sky.
"Wrong. It's even further than that. Tang En pointed upwards and said, "You kicked the ball to the Trent River. Don't bother with picking it up."
"But that's the club's ball." Wood was afraid that the club would make him pay for it.
"Every year, the club loses a countless number of football balls. Losing one more doesn't affect it much. If your luck is good, I think that perhaps you will be able to see many more football balls in the river during spring."
"Why is that so?" Wood was confused.
"Because that ball you just kicked would have swam back from the Atlantic Ocean with its offspring! Haha!" Tang En burst into laughter while seated on the ground. However, he suddenly coughed in the midst of his laughter, and frowned. "Ah, dang it! You kicked me!"
He lightly touched the tip of his foot. It was extremely painful there and was probably due to being hit by Wood's studs.
"Come over, help me up." Tang En, who was seated on the ground, extended his left hands toward Wood. However, he quickly changed his mind—and extended both of his hands. "Just carry me directly!"
"Why?" Wood appeared to be slightly unwilling.
"Why? You injured me and caused me to be unable to walk. If you don't carry me, do you expect me to hop back with one leg? In addition, don't you have a lot of excess energy that you have not used up? Carry me home, this is also a form of physical training. Quick, it's almost dark."
Left without a choice, Wood walked over to Tang En and bent over to let Tang En climb up his back. After that, he used his strength and picked him up. A 17-year-old lad carrying a 34-year-old man. The scene was quite comical.
Tang En slightly adjusted his position, so as to make himself feel more comfortable. Aside from the sweat beads on Wood's body, the benefits of being carried were quite good.
"Hey, George." Tang En, who was on Wood's back, patted this kid's broad shoulders.
"What?"
"Tell me, why do you insist on giving yourself extra training?"
"Because I..." Wood snorted. "I feel that my fundamentals are too weak."
Tang En smiled. "George, do you know the reason why I didn't let you onto the field for the past few matches?"
"Because my fundamentals are weak."
"That is only one of the reasons. Actually, I hoped that you would observe closely from the substitution bench how those teammates of yours, who have received seven to eight years of football training, do it on the field. There is no use in letting you watch those high-level football videos now. You have to start learning from the people around you, learn how they deal with the ball, how to react to the various situations during the match, and remember them by heart. This will become your experience. Remember these experiences by heart, and the next time you encounter a situation where the enemy striker is running in front of you, and you are chasing from behind diagonally, you will then know what the best thing to do is."
"Mmm." Wood nodded his head.
"And if you still insist on training after the daily trainings... you may do so; I give you permission for it. However, you have to do it under my supervision, and you can't spend more than 40 minutes on additional training in a day. In addition, George..."
"Hmm?"
"Although you hit my foot just now, I still have to say that, that tackle of yours was very, very.... beautiful!"
Tang En did not catch Wood's reply to this, and Wood did not thank him or say anything. However, Tang En could feel that this kid's walking speed had increased, and his strides had become more energetic.