Almighty Coach

Chapter 331: Aspiration for Talent

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The game was over, and the final score was 0-0. None of the two teams managed to score a goal, so they had to shake hands for this goalies’ draw.

However, the next game between the two teams would be held at the home court of Dingtian Club, which was not providing an optimistic outlook for Jeonbuk Hyundai. In a game of this level, it was almost impossible for Jeonbuk Hyundai to win in the home court of Dingtian Club, according to the strength comparison between the two teams.

For Jeonbuk Hyundai, the only good news was that Dingtian failed to score any away goals. Therefore, if Jeonbuk Hyundai managed to score one goal in the next game, they could go through to the next round of the game, even if the final result of the game was still a draw.

In the plane flying back to China, Harman and several core members of his coach team sat together, to summarize the game which had just finished.

Harman looked at the notebook in his hand and said, "We have to participate in the games of three fronts simultaneously, which resulted in serious exhaustion of the players. From this game, our disadvantage of insufficient lineup depth has been exposed. Our players are suffering from serious physical exhaustion by taking part in the games of the domestic league, the FA Cup, and the AFC Champions League at the same time. The chance of injury is also increasing. I will point this out to the club. However, we have to wait until the next season to change this situation. For this season, we still have to hold the line."

"The injuries of several players shall be evaluated, so I plan to have some of our key players take a break in the upcoming games of the domestic league. As far as to our current scores in the domestic league, if we could win the next game, it is highly possible for us to win the league championship in advance. Of course, this is dependent on whether our rivals could give us the chance. If they also win the next game, this competition for the championship has to be continued."

As Harman said this, he closed his notebook, turned to Claude, and asked, "What do you think of Dai Li?"

"What aspect are you talking about?" Claude asked immediately.

Harman smiled slightly, "Out team hasn’t had transfusion of fresh blood for a long time."

Everyone was shocked, as none of them had expected Harman was planning to recruit Dai Li.

The gap between the Asian soccer players and their European counterparts was large, while the gap between the Asian soccer coaches and their European counterparts was even larger. Actually, there were good soccer coaches in Asia, but these coaches wouldn’t create any advantage for Asia over Europe.

For example, if a competent Asian coach, who was a flagship in Asia, and could even match the European coaches, was put in Europe, this coach wouldn’t be as shiny or impressive as he was in Asia. The reason being was that there might be around 20 coaches in Europe, who were at the same level as was this Asian coach.

This was just like a giant panda in an ordinary zoo: This panda must be the star of the zoo, and get the most attention. Some people would buy a ticket to the zoo just to see the panda. However, if the same panda was placed in the breeding base of the giant panda, together with dozens of pandas, this panda would just be an ordinary panda there.

For the same reason, the famous European coaches would definitely search for their team members in Europe. Even though some Asian coaches had reached their standards, these European coaches wouldn’t go around the sun to meet the moon, for they really had a lot of candidates of the same level in Europe already.

Therefore, if an Asian coach wanted to have a place in Europe, being at the same level with the European coaches was far from being enough, as you were not good enough for the team to hire you instead of other coaches of same level with you. An Asian coach should be much better than the European coaches, in order to ensure himself a place on the European coach teams.

Another example would be the table tennis event. The reason that the table tennis coaches of China could have a place in the national teams of foreign countries, was that they were much better than their foreign counterparts. Therefore, when Harman expressed his intention to recruit Dai Li, everyone was shocked. Harman’s intention was an indirect recognition that Dai Li was better than the European coaches.

After pondering it for several seconds, Claude said first, "Dai Li is really good in the physical training, which could match the high-level physical trainers in Europe. However, he also has some shortcomings. For example, he can only speak English, and even so, his English is still not really good enough."

All the European coaches in the meeting could speak two or three other languages besides English, such as German, French, Italian and Spanish. Basically, they wouldn’t have any problem in communicating with all European players. Harman could speak four languages. Compared to them, Dai Li could only speak Chinese and English, and his English was not good enough.

Standing beside Claude, Maraloni, who was the Team Doctor, said, "Dai Li’s massage manipulation is miraculous, which he has shown to us in the last game. So I will open my arms to welcome him to join our medical group."

Claude stared at Maraloni discontentedly, and thought Maraloni was undermining his team, even if Dai Li hadn’t been recruited to the coach team.

The Assisting Coach Delassaux gave a knowing smile, and turned aside from this topic, "According to my information, Dai Li has signed a one year contract with Dingtian Club. Now, there are three months before the expiration of the contract. I’ve heard Dai Li was recommended by one of the team’s shareholders. Based on his performance, the renewal of his contract with the club will be assured. I guess Dai Li will remain in the club for the next season. We also have one year left before the expiration of the contract between us and Dingtian Club."

"I know what you are talking about," Harman nodded slightly. "You mean the club could renew Dai Li’s contract first for the next season, so that we could still have Dai Li work for us, and save a lot of money for our team at the same time."

Harman came to Dingtian Club with his team. The remuneration of each team member had been determined through strict calculation and negotiation. Now, except for Harman, the annual salary of the rest of the team members was about 10 million Euros. One more person would definitely cause additional expenditures.

Delassaux revealed an expression of "you know that", then continued to say, "Dai Li’s contract with Dingtian Club will not stop him from working for us. One year later, if we won’t renew the contract with Dingtian Club, we could send an invitation to Dai Li then. I believe he won’t refuse our invitation."

...

Dai Li suddenly felt the hospitality from the foreign coaches of Harman’s team, which was much better than before.

Especially for the team doctor Maraloni, who, when he met Dai Li before, would just greet Dai Li. But now, he would always talk with Dai Li, and even discuss the rehabilitation of the players with Dai Li, even asking for Dai Li’s opinions. Before that, these issues were just inside Harman’s team. Coaches hired by the club, like Dai Li, would have the chance to listen, at most, and wouldn’t have the right to speak, let alone be asked for their opinions.

Now the domestic league was drawing to an end. The score of Dingtian Club was obviously advantageous. In the upcoming 27th round of the domestic league, it was highly possible for Dingtian Club to win the league champion in advance. Of course, it was still dependent on whether the team, which ranked the 2nd, could give Dingtian Club the chance.

The opposing team of Dingtian in the 27th round was a team of intermediate level. Coach Harman didn’t send all of his key players to the game. Finally, Dingtian defeated this team at a score of 2-1.

At the same time, the team rank the 2nd lost in the game, so Dingtian Club managed to defend the championship of the league three rounds in advance.

For Dingtian Club, this was definitely good news. They wouldn’t worry about the domestic league anymore. The key players didn’t need to participate in the upcoming games of the domestic league, and could devote themselves in the preparation of the final game of AFC Champions League.

...

In the office, Dai Li was holding a thick operation manual in one hand, and his mobile phone in the other hand. He was using translation software on his mobile phone.

Dingtian Club had just imported several pieces of state-of-the-art training equipment from Europe. The operation interfaces of the equipment were all in English and quite complicated. The operation manual was just like a dictionary. Even the foreign coaches of Harman’s team had to spend a lot of time to figure out the operation of the equipment.

For Dai Li, he needed to work even harder to master the usage of the equipment. Although the operation manual had a lot of language options, such as English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, the option of Chinese was not included. Many technical terms and special names had made Dai Li light-headed in trying to figure them. He had to read the manual with the help of the translation software.

It got dark before Dai Li was aware, and he stood up, gave a stretch, and yawned with fatigue.

It’s really hard to understand this operation manual. Let me just go to the training room to have some field operation of those new equipment.

As Dai Li thought of it, he walked to the training room with the operation manual.

From afar, Dai Li saw that the lamps in the training room were still on.

Did they forget to turn off the lamps, or is there still somebody there? Dai Li shook his head. It is impossible for someone to stay in this room at this time.

This was a professional soccer club, not a training team in the system. Although the players were better paid than those athletes in the system, the club players’ training time was shorter than that of the athletes in the system.

The players in the club were more like employees in an enterprise. They would arrive at the training ground on time in the morning, and go home on time in the afternoon. The additional training would always happen on holidays or weekends. We could read the news that certain star players performed additional training during holidays, but we seldom heard the news that a player performed additional training in the team in the evening of a working day.

The members of Harman’s team would also have reliable attendance every day. The Europeans were people who would refuse to work overtime, even if overtime pay was guaranteed. The team doctor Maraloni was a good example of this phenomenon. As an Italian, he spent a lot of time in planning his vacations. If you asked him to work overtime, he would definitely bear a deep grudge against you, as if you had murdered his parents!

Before, when Dai Li was in the National Table Tennis Team, overtime was very normal. A guy who refused to work overtime would be considered an alien. In the National Table Tennis Team, you could find someone who worked 16 hours a day easily. A lot of athletes chose to have additional trainings. Yet after joining Dingtian Club, Dai Li had gradually adapted to this culture of saying no to overtime.

Therefore, when Dai Li saw the lamps in the training room were still on, his first response was to think that someone forgot to turn off the lamps. However, when Dai Li got close, he could heard sounds coming out of the room.

Someone is in the room. Who doesn’t leave at this time? It shouldn’t be those foreigners, they are not so diligent! As Dai Li thought of it, he entered the room and started to look around.

It’s General Manager Xiao!

On a treadmill, Dai Li saw a beautiful figure.

It was Yunan Xiao.