All Football Talents Are Mine Chapter 320

320. New family member (3)

Guardiola has been watching soccer games every day during his nearly year-long break.

In particular, I watched the big matches in which Woo Ho-young participated, and while doing so, I developed a special and fun hobby.

That was to intensively observe Woo Ho-young.

To put it worst, it was a bad taste born of hatred.

But on the other hand, it was a study born of respect.

From that day on, Guardiola took Hoyoung as an object of observation and began to observe him in earnest as if he was exploring an alien.

If the day came to deal with Woo Ho-young in the future, it would definitely be effective.

And that has helped me a lot in dealing with him now.

However, not as enemies, but as the same team.

That was also the reason why Guardiola announced that he would appoint Woo Ho-young as captain.

As a result of observing Hoyoung for a year, I realized many things, the first of which was Woo Hoyoung’s excellent mentality.

When the game is going well, he promotes synergy through active play, and when the team is in trouble, he steps up and ignites the players’ will.

I could tell just by listening to the words of the players who had been with him so far.

For example, Breno and Oscar, who spent their youth together with him, said this to the media right before the Ballon d’Or ceremony last year.

-Oscar: He was different from a young age. Although he was younger than me, he was much more mature and even played a role in calming down the mentality of younger players who were a bit shaky like me. I didn’t know much about it at the time, but looking back now, he was a truly mysterious player. Should I say young or old?

-Brenou: Many people don’t know, but in fact, his best strength is humility. Even though he has tremendous talent, he is not overconfident and instead uses that skill to elevate his teammates. Thanks to him, I was able to stop young Neymar.

Just waves and waves and good stories.

It was a statement that could have been embarrassing for the person involved, but it was all fact and not fiction.

That wasn’t all.

Ho-Young Woo was fully qualified to be a leader like Gerard Puyol Del Piero and Totti Raul.

No matter what it is like on the outside, all of Woo Ho-young’s teammates respect him on the field.

Guardiola certainly thought so.

This was something you could understand just by watching a few Manchester City games.

He was a player who forced respect from his teammates with his dedicated play all over the field and various wonderful wonder plays.

Invisible leadership.

In other words, leadership, which came from a skill that no one else in the world could possess, was his unique weapon.

For this reason, Guardiola appointed Woo Ho-young as club captain.

Of course, there were no problems at all.

[Manchester City was shaky from the start. Woo Ho-young, who is about to turn 18, was appointed as club captain… There were concerns that he was still too young….]

[Manchester City Technical Director “Woo Ho-young has already shown himself as a captain many times. I hope you do something more productive while worrying about such things.”]

After the press conference, opinions were mixed.

It was pointed out that Woo Ho-young was too young to be the club’s captain, and the opposite opinion.

But Guardiola thought there was no problem at all.

The club’s board of directors also did not interfere at all because they entrusted full authority to Guardiola.

Rather, what they were worried about was Guardiola’s appointment as coach, not Hoyoung’s appointment as captain.

After all, Guardiola is an unproven manager.

His perverted tactical skills were so great that even big clubs coveted him, but his lack of experience in winning the Champions League was a huge flaw.

If it weren’t for Hoyoung’s request, I wouldn’t have even paid attention to it.

The biggest concern was the way he ran the club.

As expected, problems arose from the first day of convocation.

“Holy shit.”

“It’s only July 10th, so why are we being called up already?”

This season’s EPL was scheduled to open in the second week of August.

So there wasn’t that much time.

Moreover, the FA Community Shield (Super Cup) against Manchester United was scheduled for August 7th, and the US tour had to start from the third week of July.

In such a situation, Guardiola took the initiative of summoning players early.

The reason was that as the team was about to undergo a major reorganization, it was thought that more time than usual would be needed to prepare for the upcoming season.

It was truly a deliberate move.

However, Tevez and Robinho, who attended the Copa America tournament held from July 1 to July 24, were naturally excluded.

However, the players who returned early from vacation were in dire straits.

Of course, we excluded intensive training for them, but that alone was not enough to comfort them.

However, if he refused to respond to the summons, he would have to be prepared to fall into Guardiola’s eyes.

“If this continues, we will all die.”

“Pep has been famous for being harsh ever since he was at Barcelona.”

Some players were busy looking at Guardiola’s mistakes.

On the other hand, there was an atmosphere that it would do well since the director was recommended by Woo Ho-young.

“But why doesn’t this guy come here? From the first day, they went so far as to threaten that anyone who was late would be severely punished.”

Guardiola arrived only 10 minutes after the appointed time.

This was something that could never have happened to someone who was very strict and thorough with himself.

But his lateness was intentional.

“Is there some unity now?”

“!”

Guardiola was late by 10 minutes on purpose.

He already knew that the team atmosphere would be tense, so he tried to unite them even if he had to become the scapegoat.

And now all he had to do was drag them all into his arms.

Instead of greeting people, Guardiola started with a self-introduction.

“People describe me as a perfectionist. But I’m not looking for perfection. “It’s about wanting perfection.”

“What the hell is the difference between those two damn words?”

When Adebayor asked in a perverse tone, Guardiola took his hand out of his pocket and pointed at him.

“You can become perfect through individual effort, but it will be difficult to become perfect.”

“yes?”

“That’s an ambiguous statement. “I say that shot is ‘perfect,’ but I don’t say ‘it’s perfect.’”

Guardiola began to say something completely incomprehensible, like a philosopher lost in his own world.

“Perfection literally means the absence of defects in a limited space. On the other hand, perfection is something else. It is not something that can be achieved through individual effort alone. “This is where you need help from others.”

Ambiguous words.

Rather, it aroused the players’ interest.

I only heard things like ‘Let’s try hard’ and ‘Let’s work hard and aim to win’, but now that I was hearing something that a philosopher would say, it was worth it.

People even looked different.

It was a moment when the players’ eyes changed.

“We must realize that we can be perfect above all else.”

Guardiola continued speaking as he glanced at Hoyoung, who was standing tall in the middle of the group.

“Just because one person is perfect, the whole cannot be perfect. Therefore, starting today, you will begin training to become completely one.”

From that day on, training for player unity began in earnest.

The first of these was language.

Guardiola unified the language used by the players into English and strictly managed the players through a penalty point system if they did not comply.

If they exceeded the standard penalty points, the first measure was to expel them from the training ground, and if they still did not comply, they announced that they would be expelled.

The next thing Guardiola began to control was food.

Players were not allowed to touch pizza or potato chips, which they often enjoy, as well as greasy foods or carbonated drinks.

If they couldn’t maintain the physical condition suggested by the medical staff, they wouldn’t even let them into the training ground.

We also made it a rule to arrive early in the morning and have breakfast together at the clubhouse.

It didn’t end there.

Internet use was prohibited within the training facility, creating an environment where players could focus only on training.

There were no hardships for existing players who trained in a relatively free atmosphere.

When Guardiola was in Barcelona, there were even rumors that he sent spies to monitor the private lives of certain players, so he was not called a pervert for nothing.

Some players became exhausted and failed in less than a few days.

At the same time, the list of players who will be on the U.S. tour was shortened.

[There are many expectations and concerns as to whether Pep Guardiola’s landing in Manchester City will be successful… This is expected to be revealed in the upcoming US tour]

Etihad Campus.

Full-scale team training has begun ahead of the US tour.

From now on, it was time to figure out whether the players were necessary for the team.

However, Guardiola grew more and more disappointed as time passed.

‘This is so frustrating.’

Compared to Barcelona last year, there was literally no ragtag group.

I couldn’t believe that these players achieved a mini treble.

Of course, not all players were like that.

There were players who were better than expected, and there were also players who did not need much improvement.

‘Let’s take it easy. ‘Because it’s just the beginning.’

Guardiola decided to take his time.

It’s impossible to be perfect from the beginning.

There must be a problem to solve it, and only by solving it will things get better.

“Are the players following the rules well?” Guardiola, who was looking at the players at the training ground, asked the head coach.

Then an ambiguous answer came back.

“I think it will take some time to get used to it. “There are still more complaints.”

“Of course I will. Then what about Woo Ho-young?”

“He doesn’t have to worry.”

“why?”

“He is a player who takes great care of himself. For someone so young, he is very strict and thorough. “I even set a limit on the amount of cola I will drink per year, and on the days before an important game, I eat spaghetti without seasoning.”

An example itself.

‘He was a lot harsher than I thought.’

In that respect, the two clearly had something in common.

“haha.”

Isn’t this really funny?

The overwhelmingly best player on the team works the hardest on the team.

‘Then let’s try it now.’

Tactics I have studied while watching Woo Ho-young over the past year.

From now on, I planned to take them out one by one.

‘Maybe I can come up with the best strategy for him.’

I don’t know, but I felt like I could create the best synergy with him.

And so the preseason arrived.