Chapter 12: Make a Decision Early
The live atmosphere of the Red Rock Stadium can still be truly felt by the audience in front of the TV even if there are losses in signal transmission, modulation and demodulation.

You can even hear swear words clearly amid the noise.

Especially in the shots taken from above the stands, you can see many Sofia fans raising their middle fingers high.

“It’s really incomprehensible. In the first half of the season, Sofia United managed to tie 2:2 with Clayton Athletic away from home. Why were they defeated instead when they returned to their home court? If it was because their main central defender Vitali was sent off… but they were already two goals behind before Vitali was sent off.” Cesar Varo shook his head and sighed as he watched the live broadcast on TV.

In the upper left corner of the TV broadcast, the real-time score and time of the game are displayed.

It is now the 0th minute of the game, the score is 3:, and the home team Sofia United is behind.

“Why? Because Wang posts VLOGs of him eating during youth team training every day, which affects the morale of the entire team and interferes with the team’s preparations…” Sam McNeill said in a sarcastic tone.

“Isn’t this reason too far-fetched?”

McNeill spread his hands: “But there are people who really believe it. And judging from the performance on the field, the players of Sofo United are indeed not in good shape. Wang and Helden have completely torn their faces apart. The incident has caused such a big fuss and the media is paying attention to it every day. It is impossible to say that it has no impact on the players. After all, in the first half of the season, Helden’s Sofo United had good results and performances against strong teams.”

In the first half of this season, Sofia United’s performance against the “Big 6” other than themselves was indeed remarkable:
他们主场1:1平斯高斯人，主场2:0击败目前排在第一的哈克尼骑士，客场2:2逼平卫冕冠军克莱顿竞技，客场3:1击败沃尔瑟姆，客场1:0赢肯辛顿。

They all remained undefeated!

This is also the reason why the new coach Sven Heldon has received so much praise and support – if he didn’t have real ability, why would Sofia United allow him to treat the team’s top star like this?

In the broadcast, Clayton Athletic was controlling the ball. They were already three goals ahead but were not in a hurry to push forward. Instead, they passed the ball back and forth in their backcourt. This is what they are best at.

There were also players in the Sofia United team who pressed forward, but there was no system, just individual actions by a few players. This kind of impulsive pressing was meaningless in front of Clayton Athletic, which was known for its ball control.

Commentator Connor Cowley also criticized: “If I only look at this scene, I would definitely think that Sofia United is the leading side. There are still more than ten minutes left in the game. Even if it is difficult to catch up with three goals in this period, we have to attack, at least not to be shut out by the rivals in the same city, right?

“Sofo United’s players seem to have lost the will to fight, especially when they are one man short. I guess they are thinking, ‘Don’t lose four goals at home,’ because a four-goal difference is Sofo United’s biggest home loss against Clayton Athletic…”

As he was speaking, the TV broadcast turned the camera to the box of the Red Stone Stadium. Wang Lie, who was not on the roster for this game, was sitting in the box in casual clothes, watching the game.

He had a serious expression and stared at the court in silence.

Sitting next to him was his agent, Fernando Clemente, who was fiddling with his phone.

When the camera swept over them before, the two of them occasionally covered their mouths to communicate, but now no one spoke.

Seeing this scene, Cesar Varo suddenly asked: “If we lose this game, will the Sofia United Club be forced to let Wang return to the first team?”

“It doesn’t matter whether he returns or not. Wang’s management team should be negotiating with Sofolian to terminate the contract. This failure may accelerate this matter…”

“Isn’t that a good thing for us?”

“I don’t know if this is good news. We are not the only ones interested in Wang…”

Varro asked, “Any news from Foster?”

The Foster he was talking about was Will Foster, the general manager of the Tyne Club. After he became the general manager of the club two years ago, he carried out drastic reforms internally. It was he who signed the unknown Sam McNeill to coach the Tyne first team against all odds.

“We are in talks, but there has not been much progress. Will said that he thinks Wang hasn’t made up his mind to join us. He guessed that Wang’s management team should be in contact with several companies at the same time, but he doesn’t know which ones they are…”

Hearing this, Valo shook his head and sighed: “It seems that you failed to convince him at that time…Do you still want to call him to persuade him?”

“I’ve said everything I need to say.” McNeill shook his head. “The rest is up to God. I certainly hope he comes to Tyne, but if he really doesn’t come, there’s nothing I can do.”

Then he raised his hand and turned off the TV.

Varro was a little surprised: “Not watching anymore?”

McNeill turned his head and looked at him: “I also came from Sofia United. Do you really think I like to see my old club being beaten by the rivals in the same city?”

Varro grinned: “Looking at your ‘sharp comments’ on the Sofu League recently, I thought you really wanted to see them laugh…”

McNeill: “If we have to lose, we can lose to anyone except Clayton Athletic and Scouse… Of course, it would be better if we lose to us.”

Varo laughed and said, “Okay, okay, let’s try to beat Sofia United at home in the 35th round!”

Then he leaned forward to interview her: “Mr. McNeill, if we win, will you celebrate in front of your old club?”

McNeill pushed him away: “Okay, stop daydreaming. Let’s get ready for tomorrow’s game.”

※※※

When the referee blew the whistle to end the game, the boos over the Red Stone Stadium reached its climax.

The score was fixed at 1:3.

Thanks to a long shot from attacking midfielder Aaron Schouten in the 88th minute, Sofia United finally avoided being shaved bald by their city rivals at home, nor suffered a record-breaking loss to Clayton Athletic.

But this result did not make the home Sofia fans happy at all, so the boos were still loud.

Amidst the tsunami of boos, Helden went to shake hands with Clayton Athletic head coach Rayan Cochea with a gloomy face.

After the routine handshake, he turned and walked towards the passage.

A cameraman from the TV broadcast followed him with a camera until he walked into the aisle.

So from the moment the whistle blew, to the moment he shook hands with Cochea, to the moment he entered the tunnel, the TV broadcast showed close-ups of Helden’s stern face.

The winner, Cochea, became a supporting character who only flashed by in close-up shots.

Then the camera turned to the box, where Wang Lie stood up and applauded the Sofia United players who were thanking the team.

His face didn’t look any better either.

Seeing this scene, Luo Jin, the CCTV commentator who was explaining the game, said: “Before the game, there was indeed a voice that hoped that Sofia United would lose to Clayton Athletic at home. Many people said so, and some were even fans of Wang Lie.

“I can actually understand their feelings, but I think their idol definitely doesn’t want to use a defeat in a city derby to save himself. Because Wang Lie hates defeat so much, how could he trade with failure? So hoping that Sofia United loses is actually a kind of derogation to the spirit of the person you like…”

Tang Xingmei glanced at her son and said, “Did you hear that? I’m talking to you!”

Wang Ziqi pouted and snorted, “Anyway, I’m happy that Helden lost! He deserves it for ostracizing my dad! I feel sorry that I didn’t lose in a record-breaking way!”

Tang Xingmei was troubled by her son’s rebelliousness. She could only yell, “Go to bed!”

Wang Ziqi slipped down from the sofa, twisted his hips and hummed a song as he jumped towards the stairs.

Tang Xingmei listened carefully and found that her son was singing the “support song” that the Sofia fans were singing to cheer for Wang Lie, but he seemed to have changed the lyrics…

The original lyrics are: “FIGHTING! FIGHTING! CHINA WANG!”

He seemed to be singing: “FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! Sofulian!” Tang Xingmei, who understood the lyrics, was furious: “Wang Ziqi!”

My son had already run upstairs, returned to his room, and shut the door tightly…

Tang Xingmei did not rush forward, but sighed helplessly and shook her head on the sofa.

Logically speaking, she shouldn’t have watched this match since her husband wasn’t on the roster, but she still sat in front of the TV at 8:30 pm.

Why still watch it?
Maybe deep down, just like his son, he hopes to see Sofia lose?

She didn’t seem to have the position or qualifications to reprimand her son…

Huh?
wrong!

I just hope that Sofia United loses, but this bastard Wang Ziqi is swearing at such a young age!

Thinking of this, Tang Xingmei stood up from the sofa, rushed upstairs and banged on the door: “Wang Ziqi, come out!”

※※※

“…Helden believes that Pablo Vitali’s red card in the 52nd minute changed the course of the game. He believes that the referee was too harsh in showing the red card directly instead of giving a yellow card first…”

On the way home, agent Fernando Clemente, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was watching the live broadcast of the post-match press conference on his mobile phone.

Listening to the voice coming from the speaker of his mobile phone, Wang Lie, who was driving, laughed disdainfully: “See, I was right, wasn’t I? He blamed the referee for the loss again… Anyway, I have never seen him admit that it was his responsibility, not even once.”

Clement didn’t want to watch Sven Helden’s poor performance anymore. He turned off the live broadcast on his phone and said to Wang Lie, “I will go to see Hall tomorrow. Although losing is not a good thing, I think the club is under a lot of pressure and he should agree to our request to terminate the contract early. The next step is to see which club to choose…”

Clement has indeed been very busy recently, trying to contact Wang Lie’s next club. He had already communicated with Wang Lie before coming to watch this game.

So far, there are four clubs that have expressed clear interest in Wang Lie, including two in England, one in Spain and one in Türkiye.

These four clubs have the real possibility of signing Wang Lie, and are not just clubs that are merely interested.

In other words, Wang Lie’s next home will actually be chosen from these four teams.

The first one is the familiar Tyne. The situation has been explained, so there is no need to repeat it here.

The second Premier League team is Hurlingham FC, which is currently ranked ninth in the Premier League. As a newly promoted team, it ranks higher than Tyne.

The situation at Hurlingham FC is a little more complicated.

Hurlingham FC has Chinese capital background. Although the club chairman is a native of England, the Chinese owner behind the club is Chinese, so it is natural for them to be interested in Wang Lie. However, the team’s head coach Kofi Rossiter opposed it, believing that signing Wang Lie would not benefit the team in any way.

The reason why Helingham FC is considered a team with the possibility of signing Wang Lie is because the club owner really wants Wang Lie to go there. On the one hand, it is because of patriotism, and on the other hand, he also sees the commercial impact that the traffic from Wang Lie can bring. Even if the head coach disagrees, as the boss he has the power to make the final decision.

After Clement’s screening, the Premier League is the most likely to complete the deal between the two.

Other Premier League teams showed little interest in Wang Lie. Apparently, they all thought that Wang Lie’s current condition was no longer suitable for the fast-paced and highly competitive Premier League.

In fact, strictly speaking, perhaps only Tyne’s head coach McNeill in the entire Premier League still believes that Wang Lie can play in the Premier League. Even the head coach of Hurlingham FC is opposed to it.

The La Liga team that is interested in Wang Lie is the Sun City team in Valencia.

Because Wang Lie first grew into a top star in La Liga, many teams here are familiar with Wang Lie. The big clubs don’t like Wang Lie now, but Sunlight City, as a mid-level team, is interested in Wang Lie.

Moreover, La Liga is not like the Premier League where all the emphasis is on physical strength. With Wang Lie’s physical function, he might be able to cope with it.

Turkey’s Marmaraspor was the last team to express its desire to sign Wang Lie. The Turkish Super League is not a very high-level league in the whole of Europe, but it is definitely stronger than the Chinese Super League. If you must stay in Europe and don’t want to return to China to play football, then the Turkish Super League is indeed an option to consider. With Wang Lie’s level, it should be possible to play as a starter in a mid-level Turkish Super League team.

But the Turkish Super League is far away from the core position of the mainstream European league stage after all, so Marmaraspor should be a team that will not be chosen unless it is absolutely necessary.

“Wang, do you already have the answer in your mind?”

The reason why Clement asked this was because in the past few days, he had vaguely sensed Wang Lie’s personal tendencies.

Wang Lie nodded. “At first I thought McNeill was just after my competitive spirit, hoping that I could bring some impact to the locker room and spur those ‘mercenaries’. But these days I have studied Tyne’s past four league games, and I can more or less guess McNeill’s tactical considerations.”

“Oh? How do you mean?” Clement became interested after hearing what Wang Lie said.

“In the past four league games, after McNeill took over, Tyne did not lose a single game, won two games, drew two games, and did not concede goals in three games, but the games they won were all small wins by one goal – they beat Kensington 1:0 and Leeds 2:1. The media praised him for strengthening Tyne’s defense in the shortest time after he came to Tyne, which seems to be a good achievement, but I think McNeill actually knows that he did not really strengthen Tyne’s defense. He only conceded one goal in four games, which was actually good luck…”

Wang Lie analyzed the situation to Clement while driving. He didn’t seem to worry at all that this would distract him from driving. He just said out loud what he had analyzed many times in his mind, as if he was reading from a script.

“…McNeill’s way to strengthen defense at this stage is to pile up players. There is no problem with piling up players, but it is still passive. In these four games, Tyne’s average number of shots was about 17 times – I don’t remember the exact number, I just roughly counted it – but this number is not low, it is quite high. So many shots per game, it can’t be considered a good defensive performance, right? Then why is the average number of shots per game so high? Because Tyne has no ability to threaten the opponent’s goal, they don’t put enough pressure on the opponent.

“McNeill’s Tyne relied heavily on the flanks when attacking, and they did have good players on the flanks. For example, Vitini was very active on the left, really fast, and good at dribbling. But… sometimes he didn’t handle it properly, dribbling when he should have passed, and passing when he should have shot.

“I have seen this several times in the videos of these four games. The players attacked from the wing and made it into the opponent’s penalty area, but the shots didn’t go in. On the one hand, it was a problem of the players’ individual abilities. On the other hand, I think it was because there was a lack of a center forward in the middle who could suppress the opponent’s back line, which resulted in too much defensive pressure on the wing players near the penalty area…”

“Their original main center forward Peter Oliver is injured.” Clement reminded.

Wang Lie nodded: “I know. But before he got injured, he didn’t do well in scoring goals. Olivier is not a center forward who is good at scoring, and he doesn’t pose much threat to the opponent’s defense. Then I thought, what would I do if I were there at the time. Thinking about it, I suddenly understood why McNeil called me:

“First of all, he needs someone who can connect the two wingers in the frontcourt, and secondly, he needs someone who can score goals. Coupled with the internal ideological problems of the Tyne team, he may think I am the best candidate.”

Wang Lie finished his analysis, and Clement nodded repeatedly: “Ha, it seems that you have made up your mind. At the beginning you said that you didn’t really want to go to Tyne, I thought you would consider it for a long time…”

Wang Lie said, “I feel that I don’t have much time to waste. Since you think the other party’s conditions are good, don’t be pretentious and make a decision early. Tyne is indeed sincere. As long as you successfully terminate the contract with Sofolian, just sign a contract with Tyne. In fact, you have almost negotiated the conditions. It doesn’t matter if the annual salary is a little more or less…”

Clement agreed: “Okay, I’ll make an appointment with Hall tomorrow, get this shit over with as soon as possible, and then move on.”

“Well, look forward and move forward.” Wang Lie nodded.

I clearly got the new plug-in, but because of some trivial things, I was tied to the spot and couldn’t do anything.

This feeling is really unpleasant.

Fortunately, Wang Lie felt that he had seen the light, and the light was just ahead.

But first he had to run.

Only by running can you break out of the fog and darkness, and only by running can you get closer to the light.

It’s just like when he is playing football on the field. Only by running can he have a chance to score a goal. If he stands still and waits, he will never get the ball.

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(End of this chapter)