Becoming a football god from Arsenal

Chapter 87: Is he still in the Championship? The panic of the Championship teams! [45]

On February 2, the new January schedule began, and Sheffield United's opponent in this round of the league is Leicester City.

"Oh!"

The game started at noon that day. They played at home and kicked the ball from the center circle amid the enthusiastic cheers of more than 30,000 fans at Bramall Lane.

Gary Speed ​​stood at the side of the court with his head held high and his hands behind his back, looking relatively relaxed. Every once in a while he would walk around a few laps and stamp his feet with his head down, as if he was not worried about what was happening on the court.

During this period, the team's excellent performance gave him confidence and a high-spirited temperament.

No one can stay calm in this situation. Look at last month, they won four out of five games and got twelve Championship points!

Is that really points?
Do not!
That was his bargaining chip for promotion and salary increase, it was the pride he felt for regaining success in his coaching career after ending his playing career, it was his spiritual support, and it was the 12 doses of good medicine injected into his body!
"Oh!"

In the 31st minute of the game, Andy King, the young midfielder of the Foxes who had scored a goal against them in the first half, broke their goal from a corner kick.

"Sheffield United killer."

Gary Speed ​​sighed through gritted teeth and glanced at his watch, but he wasn't too worried because it was still early.

As he expected, just 9 minutes later, Maher got a chance on the wing and made a breakthrough. He then made a precise cross to Evans, who jumped up and knocked the ball into the net with his knee!
One to one!

Equalize the score!

"Yeah!!"

The roar came not only from the fans at the scene, but also from Gary Speed, who clenched his fists and bared his teeth and roared.

How could we miss this moment of celebration?
At this moment he felt that Bill Shankly's words 'football is nothing without the fans' were not absolute, and he, Gary Speed, also had something to say.

Without the celebrations and roars after scoring a goal, football would not stir anyone's emotions, nor would it become the spiritual pillar of many people.

As he was thinking about it, he turned his attention back to the field, because he saw that Leicester City was intercepted just after the kick-off. Maher received the ball from the wing, cut into the middle, and prepared to shoot.

"Here it comes again?!" He saw Maher's shooting posture, the height and quality of the football after he kicked it, and subconsciously raised his hands, thinking that he would be hit by a second wave of surprises.

"嘡啷!"

As a result, the sound of iron hitting the target brought him back to reality, and Maher's shot hit the goal post.

"Ah!" Gary Speed ​​held his head with his hands raised high, his body sank down, and his knees almost gave way to his knees, but fortunately he pulled himself back.

That sentence needs to be added with another half sentence - the feeling of regret also exists!
The first half ended like this, and both sides entered the halftime break with a score of one to one.

Coming back in the second half, Gary Speed ​​was a little more nervous than in the first half. Being afraid that the opponent would score a goal was only a small part of his worry. The bigger part was that he was afraid that his team would not be able to win.

This is the pressure from the winning streak, which is given to the team by the team's own obsessive-compulsive disorder and the expectations of the outside world.

In the 73rd minute of the game, seeing that the team had not yet scored a goal, Gary Speed ​​became a little anxious. He called on Mark Yaters and prepared to give it a try.

"Oh" At this time, he saw the fans seemed to suddenly notice something, and stood up from their seats one after another, their eyes expectant.

He looked back and saw a very handsome scene. Ward flew up from the front position and volleyed the ball sideways with elegance and grace.

The football hit the net without any suspense, and Ward ran towards Kyle Walker who had just assisted him. The arrival of this full-back gave him more opportunities to go out to the wing and into the middle.

"Yeah!"

Gary Speed ​​jumped up from his place and cheered with the fans again. He waved at Mark Artes who was taking off his substitute vest, meaning you sit down first.

Two to one!

They took the lead!

This is not the end. After only 3 minutes, Maher once again dribbled the ball towards the middle. He has made this move many times today, as if he was obsessed with something.

For the round shot?
Gary Speed ​​guessed something, and he also saw that the quality of Mahel's two cut-in shots today were both good, which seemed to indicate that his feet were in relatively good condition.

In this case, there is nothing wrong with wanting to try more.

"Bang!" Maher suddenly kicked the ball while cutting inside. The football flew towards the goal like an arrow from a bow. After hitting the net, it spun along the side net: "Shua!"

"Wow!!" The fans at the scene once again burst into deafening shouts, not just cheers, this time with obvious exclamation in it.

No matter what, this kind of long-distance goal from outside the penalty area is extremely entertaining!

"Look at him, look at him!"

Gary Speed ​​laughed and turned around. He faced the bench and pointed at Maher on the court with his backhand. He was so proud that he even smiled bitterly. "Luckily I'm retired. Otherwise, wouldn't I be able to be compared with him?"

What he didn't expect was that in this game, Maher had not let go of Leicester City goalkeeper Charles.

"Bang!!"

Three minutes before the end of the game, he used an inward shot that shook open the goal guarded by Charles.

"Wow!! Wow!!!" The exclamations rang out again, even more intense than last time. No one could stand their own players making two shooting waves in a game.

Charles lay on the ground, looking at the sky which was partially covered by the roof of the stadium. He covered his face with his hands, feeling extremely depressed and not knowing what sin he had committed.

In the first minute of injury time, defender Steven scored Sheffield United's fifth goal of the game in the melee of a corner kick in front of the goal.

"Ha ha!"

Gary Speed ​​laughed out loud and clapped his hands repeatedly without feeling numb. It was definitely a last 20 minutes full of surprises that will never be forgotten.

This moment of his was also captured by the on-site camera and used as the cover picture of the game report.

"Gary Speed's smile! Sheffield United beat Leicester City 20-! Maher scored twice, breaking goals in a single season. Is the next hat trick far away?" - The Guardian match report

The next day, the transfer window officially ended. Sheffield United invested 1600 million pounds in this winter window, which is one of the largest investments in the past two years.

If someone is an Arsenal fan and also pays attention to the performance of the team's youth player Maher at Sheffield United.

He may find that Arsenal's investment in this winter window is not more than that of the Championship teams, not just Sheffield United.
That afternoon, at the Reading FC training base, after daily training, the players sat on the grass to stretch and rest. "Help me look at something."

An assistant coach stood next to Reading star Sean Long. Seeing that the other player was playing with his mobile phone, he asked anxiously: "Look at that Maher from Sheffield United. Has he left the Championship?"

"it is good."

The assistant coach opened the Sheffield United winter transfer window changes column, scanned it three or four times, and did not see the column of 'Mael - Return from loan - Arsenal'.

He squatted down, shook his head, and then comforted her: "It doesn't matter, there are still many rounds of leagues to go. Stay competitive and don't give up until the last moment. You still have a chance to get the best."

Sean Lang nodded absentmindedly without saying anything, and it was obvious that he was a little melancholy.

As a young player, let Zaha and Andy King, who are of the same age, sigh about this, not to mention sighing in front of the 17-year-old Maher.

"Hey."

He sighed and still wanted to find someone to talk to: "I don't understand, I really don't understand why some players would suddenly appear like this. Have you ever seen such a player?"

"No."

The assistant coach shook his head, squatted and looked at the sky, and also sighed: “Even Leo Messi, after entering the first team from the youth team, also went through a period of adaptation and substitute career.

"There is no such growth rate. No matter how you look at the growth experience of any genius, you will not find anything similar."

He remembered something and added: “Of course, there is also one, that is the alien Ronaldo, he is a player with high statistics since his debut.

“But he’s an alien.”

Sean Long became even more depressed, sighing one after another, which actually didn't fit his tough guy image. "Are you saying that he will reach the level of Messi or Ronaldo in the future?"

"No."

The assistant coach shook his head, not daring to say anything out loud about this. "I'm just saying, he's weird. I just feel sorry for you. You've been in such a good season, but you've encountered such a player."

Sean Long sat with his head bowed, his knees drawn up to his shoulder blades, his head buried in his legs.

"That guy didn't leave!"

At the same time, a similar scene took place at the Queens Park Rangers base, which was almost the time when all clubs finished their afternoon training.

Someone called Tarabut and said regretfully: "What he said before was true. He did not leave the team and Wenger did not call him."'

Tarabut is actually a bit similar to Maher. He is considered a rising star in the Championship. At the beginning of the season, he could only be said to be a regular starter, but his statistics were not obvious.

Unexpectedly, after slowly adapting to this place, he exploded with amazing strength, with both his goals and assists exceeding 10, playing the role of a 'best player'.

Talented player!
This is the evaluation given to him by the outside world. Everyone believes that sooner or later he will return to his home team Tottenham and achieve some success there.

"If you didn't leave, you didn't leave."

Tarabut didn't say anything, but his face darkened and he said stubbornly, "He will surpass me sooner or later. He won't be so proud for long."

"fine."

A player nearby patted him on the shoulder and comforted him in advance: "It's okay even if he is like this in the second half of the season. He can't help Sheffield United win the championship, but you can help Queen's Park win the championship."

Tarabut snorted lightly, seemingly not caring about it. He was a proud but slightly rough Moroccan man.

But his style of play is different. He can often use delicate techniques and sharp breakthroughs to pass the opponent's players cleanly, and then score goals or provide assists.

“Everyone envied his talent.”

The player seemed to be a good friend of Tarabut, and he continued to comfort him by flattering him: “But you know, no one in the Queens Park team envies him, we all know who is the real genius, the artist on the field.

"You were born in 89, and he was born in 93. Ah, there's not much difference actually."

As soon as he said his age, he regretted it, but just to show that he really thought so, he pretended to be calm and continued speaking.

Not surprisingly, this flattery hit the horse's leg.

Tarabut suddenly went berserk, rushed forward and kicked a water bottle on the ground, which flew into a window of the administrative building.

There was a loud bang inside, and an old man poked his head out from above and shouted angrily: "Who kicked it?!"

Unexpectedly, Tarabut had an even more violent temper. Not only did he admit it with a provocative look, he also raised his "middle finger" towards that place, continuing to add fuel to the fire.

After seeing Tarabut, the man silently closed the window and stepped back.

At Watford's training base, striker Graham held up his phone, nervously clicked on Maher's search bar, and then clicked on the secondary page.

He refreshed the page for a long time but still didn't see any news about the 'return on loan', but there was a new report below.

He doesn't care about anything else, what he cares about is that sentence - Maher scored twice and scored more than 20 goals in a single season!

"Oh!"

Graham sighed and cried out, feeling sweaty all over his back. He wanted to slap himself twice and questioned himself why he clicked on such a page.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that he was under too much pressure and his nerves were a little overwhelmed.

Suddenly, he started to go crazy, rushed towards a teammate, and punched him hard on the arm, "Oh!"

The Watford player who was hit had never had his eyes so wide open in his life. He felt like he was looking at a lunatic, and was also shocked that he never expected to experience such a thing in his life.

This kind of shock reached an extreme point, and gradually made him laugh tremblingly at this moment when he should have been angry, and even said something he didn't expect: "Okay, okay!"

----

ps: Sorry to disappoint everyone, there are only 5 updates today, 19k. I'll see if I can make up for it tomorrow, I have something urgent to do.

(End of this chapter)