Chapter 11 Signal
“Brothers, today I will show you how the food in the restaurant of the Sofol League Youth Team is…”

In the video, Wang Lie first took a selfie of himself, then pointed at the small building behind him: “See? Over there, by the window on the second floor, is the restaurant of the Sofia Youth Team. To be honest, this is my first time here. If I hadn’t asked the brothers in the youth team during training, I wouldn’t have known that this is a restaurant. It looks like the style of the first decade of this century. By the way, many facilities in Heaton Sports City have not been updated for many years…”

Then the video was cut to the rear camera’s perspective. Wang Lie disappeared from the screen, and only the voice came from behind:
“Let’s go. Today I’m going to show you around. Come with me to explore some shops. This is a place you can never visit when you come to Heaton Sports City… Hey, let’s see who’s in front of us? Gu Biao!”

A Chinese player wearing a Sofo United training suit appeared on the screen. After hearing Wang Lie’s shout, he was running towards the camera.

Then he was pulled by a hand, and the camera switched to the front, with Wang Lie and Gu Biao appearing in the picture at the same time.

Gu Biao looked a little immature. He pointed at the screen and asked, “Brother Wang, are you broadcasting live?”

“There’s no live broadcast, I just recorded some videos for fun. Come, let me introduce him to you. Gu Biao plays for the Sofia U18 youth team. He’s the main winger of our national youth team. He’s fast and has great feet. He’s amazing.”

Wang Lie gave a thumbs up to the camera.

Gu Biao chuckled when he was praised.

Wang Lie turned around and said to him, “Take me to visit the Youth Team Restaurant later. I want to show it to my fans. Let’s shoot a video of our visit…”

Tang Xingmei looked at her husband in the video and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry:
He actually shot a “store exploration video”!
This matter might cause a stir on the Internet…

Given his fame, and the fact that he is currently at the center of controversy, it can be said that his every move will receive extraordinary attention and various interpretations, yet he still does this.

Otherwise, why do people say that he is like a child who never grows up?
Although she complained about her husband in her heart, Tang Xingmei still watched the entire video.

After watching the entire video carefully, Tang Xingmei changed her previous idea. She felt that this was not a childish behavior of her husband on a whim, but the work of the team behind him.

In this case, this may not be as simple as letting the husband vent his emotions…

Wang Lie did not mention the first team or Helden at all. Instead, he carefully introduced the meals of the youth team to everyone. He also introduced several young talents to everyone and brought them in front of his camera to greet the fans.

It looks like a normal video, and he even seems to be enjoying it, but it is destined to be no normal video if it is released at this time.

Tang Xingmei was right. After the video was released, it immediately attracted a lot of attention and interpretation, both on the domestic Chinese Internet and on the Internet abroad.

Almost no one thinks that this is just an ordinary VLOG video of Wang Lie. They all think that this is Wang Lie’s counterattack against Helden and Sofia Club – to let the whole world see how Sofia treats the legend who helped the team create the historic seven championships!

Do you think it is a humiliation for Wang Lie to be sent to the youth team for training and only be able to eat in the youth team restaurant?

wrong!

This is a slap in the face of Sofia United Football Club!

No club has ever dared to treat its top star like this, but Sofia United did it, they dared to be the first in the world!

It is not uncommon for the head coach and the top player to have conflicts in world football. But if there is a conflict, at most the head coach will put the top player on the bench, just like Heldon did before.

Not to mention sending the top star to the youth team, even sending him to the reserve team is unheard of!

Who is Wang Lie?

He is the symbol of the Sofia United team over the past nine years and a well-deserved representative.

He is the top scorer in the history of Sofia United.

During the ten years when Arthur and Ronaldo monopolized the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA World Footballer of the Year awards, he was the only top star who could snatch the Ballon d’Or from the “two prides”, and he snatched it twice!
If it weren’t for him, Ronaldinho might have been running all the way on the road to the “Ballon Ballon d’Or” and would have been far ahead, and Arthur would never have caught up with him.

It can even be said that although fans of Ronnie and Arthur feel that Wang Lie is not worthy of being compared with their idol, without Wang Lie, there would be no “two proud brothers” today. Arthur’s fans in particular should be especially grateful to Wang Lie.

The top individual honors in world football over the past decade have basically been won by Ronnie and Arthur in turn. They are the well-deserved TOP2 in football, and it is not mindless exaggeration to say that Wang Lie is the first person under the TOP2.

In which club would a person like this not be treated like a treasure?
But now he is being treated humiliated like this in Sofia.

Wang Lie had previously contradicted the head coach on the sidelines, making him the target of public criticism. This was because from a fundamental point of view, what he did was indeed wrong: as a player, refusing to leave the court in public and not listening to the head coach’s instructions, no one would support this except his crazy fans.

But now that Helden has sent Wang Lie to the youth team, he has made a mistake that is absolutely problematic from a fundamental point of view.

Especially as Wang Lie began to “serialize” his daily VLOGs in the youth team – he had already announced at the end of this video that he would shoot a video of the youth team restaurant tomorrow – the wind of public opinion showed signs of turning:
No matter how wrong Wang Lie is, you can’t humiliate him by sending him to the youth team!
Wang Lie’s fans have regained their right to breathe.

Some people started digging up Sven Helden’s “black material” online – of course, those who are doing this now are mainly Wang Lie’s die-hard fans, the most extreme fans with the strongest fighting power, but after they started, in the current atmosphere of public opinion, they can also influence some passers-by to some extent.

Replacing Wang Lie as the main center forward of Sofia United is Swedish international Richie Weidel, who transferred to Sofia United in July 2036 and was the first signing signed by Sven Heldon after he took over as coach of Sofia United.

Although Weidel and Sven Heldon are fellow Swedes, before coming to Sofia, he was not considered a direct descendant of Heldon because he had never played for a team coached by Heldon.

Weidel previously played for the Bundesliga team Unicorn, a traditional Bundesliga powerhouse in Stuttgart. Where was Helden at the time? He was coaching in the Portuguese Super League.

However, Wang Lie’s extreme fans still found an angle to attack Helden – you said Wang Lie was an important member of the team, but you were the first to finalize the transfer of Weidel. So this proves that you were lying from the beginning, just to stabilize Wang Lie.

Why did he want to stabilize Wang Lie? Judging from the result, it was obviously because Helden was going to use the team’s top star as a pretext to establish his authority… You are a hypocrite who doesn’t practice what you preach!

To be honest, there is nothing wrong with this conclusion, but the logic is not very tenable.

After all, saying that Wang Lie is very important doesn’t mean that we can’t introduce a new center. Isn’t it reasonable for people to say that they want to find a rotation substitute for Wang Lie?

But expecting extreme fans to use logic is itself a ridiculous thing.

Besides, the significance of this matter is not whether the logic makes sense, but that it is a signal. A signal that can criticize and question Helden.

Before Wang Lie was sent to the youth team, few people in the public opinion field criticized Helden, and everyone praised him. They were sure that Sofia had finally found a head coach who was truly suitable for them, and Sven Helden would definitely be able to bring this “global giant” back on track and return to the road of victory and championship.

Now someone started pointing their guns at Helden.

Regardless of whether it makes sense or not, it is at least of great significance and is likely to be imitated by future generations.

Even if the doubts this time are unreasonable, is your ass, Sven Helden, so clean that there is no problem at all?
Richie Weddle had no connection with you before he came here, so how do you explain the transfer of right-back Jose Gomes? He was a key player in the Portuguese Super League team Carthage that you coached before. When you came to the Premier League to coach Sofia United, he also followed you to Sofia United. The transfer fee of 66 million pounds is not a small amount!
Did you take kickbacks in there?
※※※

“Okay, guys, this is our second video of exploring the Youth Team Restaurant. I’ll come back tomorrow to shoot for you guys to see how many days the Youth Team Restaurant’s meals can be different…”

Sven Helden watched the video expressionlessly without saying a word.

General Manager Jonathan Hall next to him said: “It seems like he is really going to turn this into a ‘serial drama’…”

Helden then said: “He wants to put pressure on us in this way. Now there are indeed some voices criticizing us on the Internet.”

“Then what should we do? Just let him continue like this?”

Helden looked at Hall. “What else? Should we send him to the youth team and then transfer him back to the first team two days later? Then we will all become clowns, and the club’s authority will become a joke. We don’t have to do anything now. We just need to focus on the team and the game. As the game progresses, everyone will forget about it. In the era of information explosion, the popularity of any hot event will not last for three days.”

Hall also felt that if Wang Lie was transferred back to the first team, it would be like the club was admitting defeat to Wang Lie, which would be a huge damage to the club’s reputation.

And the key point is that even if the club did this, Wang Lie probably wouldn’t appreciate the club’s kindness. It can be said that it is a completely thankless task and he is a complete clown.

So he also agreed with Helden’s approach.

Ignore him for now, leave him aside, and concentrate on preparing for the next League Cup and the 20th round of the league against Clayton Athletic. In fact, the latter is the focus. In front of this Manchester derby, no one cares about the League Cup or anything like that.

The word “derby” has a special place in the world of football. There are always a few games in a year that cannot be lost no matter what.

Sofia United used to be the undisputed leader in Manchester, and a little Kalami like Clayton Athletic would not be in their eyes. But every time the Manchester derby was played, it was so “passionate”, and Sofia United would never dare to say that they could easily beat the little Kalami in the same city.

Later, as Clayton Athletic became stronger, this city derby became even more interesting.

The transformation of Clayton Athletic began in the mid-1990s, when a wealthy owner who loved the club came to help improve both hardware and software. After more than a decade of construction and development, Clayton Athletic began to take off in the late 2000s.

Clayton Athletic Club has a total of twelve Premier League titles and three Champions League trophies in its history, all of which were won in the 21st century.

So they, who were originally just a small Karami, became a rival that could compete with Manchester United and Sofia United.

The two teams are known as the “Manchester duo”, and the “Manchester Derby” over the past two decades has become a classic in football.

But in recent years, as Sofia United has fallen, Clayton Athletic has overwhelmed Sofia United and has completely gained the upper hand. There is a statistic to prove it: as of today, Sofia United has failed to beat Clayton Athletic, its mortal enemy in the same city, for seven consecutive games.

These seven games are not only league games, but also domestic cup games. It can be said that Sofia United was suppressed by Clayton Athletic in all aspects.

It is no wonder that in the past two years, Sofia United has changed four head coaches. It is no wonder that they finally chose a head coach who had no experience in coaching a top club and gave him extraordinary support, even at the cost of offending the team’s top legend.

Seeing their rivals in the same city enjoying themselves, Sofollow was anxious…

And when the team started to go downhill, wasn’t Wang Lie the team’s top player? Could it be said that Wang Lie had nothing to do with the decline of Sofollow United?
Since we can’t say it doesn’t matter, what’s wrong with letting him take responsibility when the team needs him?
The greater the fame, the greater the responsibility.

So if you, Wang Lie, don’t be the “chicken” in the story of killing the chicken to scare the monkeys, who will?

※※※

On January 13, Sofia United will challenge Premier League team Sherwood United away in the quarter-final of the English League Cup.

Head coach Sven Helden still adopted rotation and did not send out all the main players.

As for Wang Lie, he was demoted to the youth team for training, so he must have been banned from the team – he was not even on the roster for this game.

Before the game, the media interviewed Helden and asked about Wang Lie.

Heldon said that he would not allow Wang Lie to play in the game until Wang Lie apologized to the entire coaching staff. Otherwise, it would be a disservice to the players in the team who abide by the rules.

Without Wang Lie and having made major rotations in the lineup, Sofia United ended up drawing 1:1 away from home with Sherwood United, currently ranked th in the Premier League.

The English League Cup is different from the FA Cup. Except for the semi-finals, all other matches are a one-win elimination system. If the game is tied in regular time, there will be no replay on another day like the FA Cup, but a 30-minute overtime will be played directly.

If the game is still tied after extra time, a penalty shootout will be held.

That’s the case this time.

Neither Sofia United nor Sherwood United were able to score in the extra time, and the total score remained at 1:1.

In the penalty shootout, both teams missed one penalty each, and captain Tyler Murphy, who played the last game for Sofia United, missed the penalty.

In the end, Sofia United lost to Sherwood United 3:4 on penalties away from home and 4:5 on aggregate, and were eliminated, ending their League Cup journey this season in the quarter-finals.

At the sensitive moment when Wang Lie was sent to the youth team, Sofia’s elimination was really a bit “sensitive”.

After the game, Sven Helden faced reporters’ questions about whether his drastic rotation in preparation for the weekend’s derby was the reason for the loss. He denied it:

“Of course not. We always try our best in the current game. I am sorry that we didn’t win this game. We should have finished the game within 90 minutes…”

He was referring to the 77th minute when substitute Stanley Harris wasted an almost certain scoring opportunity.

That seemed to be the turning point of the whole game. From then on, Sherwood United seemed to be assisted by God. The whole team became more and more confident. Not only did they drag the game into overtime, but they also maintained a draw in overtime. Finally, they took advantage of the situation in the penalty shootout and eliminated Sofia United.

Harris, who scored the team’s first goal in the last FA Cup match, became a war criminal again in this League Cup match. After coming on as a substitute, he broke through the ball many times, but failed to create a good chance. His crosses were either ridiculously off target or his shots were weak – his shot in the 77th minute was like this, so weak that it looked like a back pass, and the ball was kicked directly into the arms of the Sherwood United goalkeeper…

During the game, some people joked online that Harris, as a loyal fan of Wang Lie, must have been affected by Wang Lie’s demotion to the youth team, so he was in a low state.

Finally, the final conclusion is drawn:
So it’s all Wang Lie’s fault!
This is of course an abstract behavior of some people who like to have fun, but the elimination from the League Cup may not be blamed on Wang Lie, but it will definitely be blamed on Harris.

“…That’s how football games are. If you waste opportunities, you will be punished.” Helden shrugged and shook his head.

Another reporter asked: “Does sacrificing the League Cup mean that your team is ready for the Manchester derby this weekend?”

Reporters repeatedly brought up the Manchester derby, which obviously angered Helden. His facial expression did not change much, but his tone became stern and his speech speed increased: “Who told you that this is a sacrifice for the weekend league? I will not sacrifice any game. I always think about winning every game. I feel sorry and painful for the failure of this game…”

“But you carried out large-scale rotations.” The reporter who asked the question was obviously not a good person. Not only did he not accept Helden’s explanation, he also refuted it on the spot.

Helden frowned. “We have played two games a week since the Christmas holiday, so it is normal to rotate. Besides, we not only have the league game on the weekend, but also the FA Cup make-up game next week – this game could have been unnecessary – all of these have affected our preparation rhythm…”

Otherwise, why are British journalists called “paparazzi”?

My nose is very sensitive.

The British reporter quickly caught the key words in Heldon’s answer and asked, “So you think Wang disrupted the team’s rhythm?”

However, Helden immediately realized that he had said the wrong thing before the other party opened his mouth, so he quickly controlled his emotions on the verge of exploding, and still replied with a dead face: “I think it is disrespectful to the other players in this game to always mention someone who is not in the game roster.”

Then the post-match press conference ended.

He can certainly stop accepting questions from reporters, but the inquiries from the media will not end. If they don’t get answers at the press conference, they can continue to ask Sven Helden for answers on their own media pages and online social platforms.

It’s not that Heldon hasn’t lost games since taking over Sofia United – he lost four games in the Premier League.

What post-match press conference was like today?
The smell of tension is already obvious.

Helden thought that sending Wang Lie to the youth team would greatly demonstrate his authority as the head coach, but he did not consider the side effects of doing so.

It seems that Wang Lie is no longer as “sensible” as he was in the first half of the season…

Before, when I asked him to play when the game was about to end, he didn’t say anything.

Now that he was substituted early, he actually refused to leave the field in front of so many people!

After I sent him to the youth team, he even made a video to be mean to me…

Originally, Helden wanted to continue to show his iron fist, but when he walked out of the noisy press conference hall of Robin Hood Stadium, he suddenly had a new idea:

Otherwise, you’d better get rid of that damn trouble as soon as possible!

※※※

PS, during the new book period, please collect, vote and read the book, thank you!
(End of this chapter)