[football] walk side by side

Three days later, when Cyril received the training notice from Porto's first-team coach, Mourinho, he could hardly believe his ears.

According to Cyril's vision, the rejection of Jose Vega should bring him a lot of trouble, but now, not only has he not been left out in the cold, but he has been promoted to the first team?

"...Your number is 23, come to the stadium to report at nine o'clock tomorrow morning, no problem?" Mourinho asked him on the phone.

"Yes, sir." Cyril replied somewhat cautiously. As far as he knew, Jose Mourinho was a very different coach. Out of a certain instinct for danger, Cyril felt that even if he had It is also best not to speak out about the problem-if he still wants to stay in Porto.

"Don't be so cautious," Mourinho pointed out: "I am a football coach. For players, what I value is ability, not anything else."

Then before Cyril could reply, the crazy coach hung up the phone conveniently.

These rich words made Cyril slightly frown. It is of course a good thing to be promoted to the first team. This has always been his pursuit and goal, but Mourinho's words made him feel deeply wrong.

With Cyril's current ability, what can he do in the first team?

Cyril has thought about this kind of problem more than once, and has been paying attention to the games of Porto's first team.There is no doubt that the current Porto first team has a group of quite good players. There may not be any stars, but they have extremely high team cohesion and tactical execution.

Cyril is a midfielder, and his position in Porto's first team is Deco.

For Cyril, it is basically a pipe dream to replace Deco at this stage-in the midfield position, Deco is the kind of simple but extremely important player who can attack, organize and defend, and can be called omnipotent.

Not to mention whether Cyril can surpass him in organization and offense, at least Deco can often fill in when there are loopholes in the defense, but Cyril has nothing to do.

Coupled with Cyril's physical and age disadvantages, even finding Cyril as Deco's substitute is not a wise choice.

What made the head coach change his mind?

"One piece of good news and one piece of bad news," Mendes announced on the phone. "Which one do you want to hear?"

"If you want to talk about my entry into the first team, I already know about it." Cyril said without thinking, "What is the bad news?"

"The bad news is that the reason why you were promoted to the first team has something to do with Jose Vega." Mendes said in a deep voice.

"...What do you mean?" Cyril frowned, and said strangely: "I thought he would put me in the youth team and keep me from getting ahead... What kind of revenge is this?"

"I don't know the specific reason, but as far as I know, Jose Vega did talk to Mourinho about your matter. Their relationship has been good. Mourinho went from Benfica to Porto, Everything in the middle is handled by Vega for him." Mendes explained: "Jose Vega is by no means a tolerant guy, he must have suggested something to Mourinho, but I don't know about Mourinho. What is Neo's attitude and his reasons for letting you go to the first team."

"...This is really..." Cyril rubbed his forehead with a headache: "I thought Mr. Mourinho wasn't the kind of coach who would be swayed by his agent's ideas?"

At least in today's Porto first team, he is the real king.

"You can't say that," Mendes hesitated: "He hates others meddling in his team's arrangements, but he is not a person who doesn't know how to be flexible. Will it affect his decision."

"But you don't have to worry too much." As if seeing his depression from Cyril's silence, Mendes thought for a while, and comforted him: "In any case, being promoted to the first team is a good thing. I will go to the club with you tomorrow to discuss the contract with the manager, and if there is any accident, we will think about the countermeasures further."

"So, we have only one problem left." The new agent concluded: "Mourinho, what is he thinking?"

***

The next day.

The bright sunshine poured down from the sky, and the winding Doro River made Porto look dry and cool in midsummer. The gentle breeze passed through the shaded and lush branches, and it was more comfortable when it fell on people. , making the already lazy Porto people even more lazy.

Cyril came to the first team training ground early to do simple warm-up activities.

Soon, the players of Porto's first team came to the stadium one by one. They quickly noticed this face that appeared frequently in the media recently. Several foreign players smiled and nodded at Cyril, and simply said hello Then go to warm up.

The local players who originally came from the Porto youth training camp gathered around. The commonality of the same from the Porto youth training camp made these players full of affection for Cyril, who was nearly ten years younger than them, and was transferred to the first team as a substitute first. Costa even laughed and gave Cyril a hug: "Thank God, Cyril, you are finally here!"

"Welcome, Cyril." Captain Jorge Costa patted him on the shoulder equally enthusiastically: "Don't be too restrained, if you feel uncomfortable in the future, just say it, everyone is your own."

"I read the newspaper yesterday, and I wondered if my husband would suddenly bring you to the first team one day, but I didn't expect you to come as soon as I said it." Pedro Oliveira also came over. We were good friends when we were in the team: "I also watched the game on the weekend, you are still so good!"

Cyril also relaxed a little in the chatter of everyone. No matter why Mourinho suddenly mentioned him to the first team, at least he doesn't have to worry about being excluded in the locker room.

Soon afterwards, the coaching staff also came to the stadium. Mourinho briefly introduced Cyril to everyone, then stood on the sidelines with his hands in his pockets, and directed everyone to officially start training.

Since everyone had warmed up before, they started passing training directly after a while.This is a relatively basic training method, mainly to cultivate the tacit understanding between players.

Although Cyril was a newcomer, he did not receive the slightest snub or rejection. On the contrary, several local Porto players took great care of this new kid and passed the ball to him frequently during training.

The training in the morning was mainly based on the basics, but the intensity was very high. Most of the players were exhausted after the morning. Among the large group of players who looked tired, Cyril, who still had energy, was extremely conspicuous. .

Rui Faria flipped through the physical data just calculated in his hand in surprise, and praised Mourinho: "At first I doubted that his body could not bear this kind of intensity of practice. Now it seems that Andre It is not unreasonable to let him participate in the Portuguese League."

"The foundation is also very solid," added Silvino Lulo: "Although it is unlikely to become the main force, there should be no problem with the cup as a substitute for Deco."

Mourinho nodded, with a faint expression on his face, and he couldn't see what he thought about the player he single-handedly picked up.

"But to be honest, I don't think it's a good idea to mention Cyril to the first team at this time. He is a good seed. Excessive or premature use will ruin him..." Boas frowned: "Jose , what on earth are you thinking?"

Mourinho did not answer this question. He looked at Cyril, who was asking Deco for advice, and said casually: "Yesterday, Vega told me to pay attention to the players in the youth team."

"Vega? I remember that Cyril's agent is not..." Boas replied reflexively, halfway through the words he also noticed something wrong: "Wait, you mean..." He He raised his head and looked at Mourinho in disbelief.

Mourinho said lightly: "That's right, that's what you think."

If Cyril's agent is Jose Vega, then he must mean to let Mourinho take care of him, but now Cyril's agent is Jorge Mendes, then Vega The meaning is definitely not as simple as it sounds.

Or rather, just the opposite.

The few coaches standing here are not rookies anymore, they looked at each other silently, and immediately understood the meaning.

"How could he do such a thing?!" As Cyril's youth team coach, Andre Boas immediately flew into a rage, "It is because of this kind of agent who only cares about his own interests, how many young players are ruined They've got it! Jose, you can't promise him!"

"Of course I didn't promise him."

"Then why did you promote him to the first team? With his talent and ability, it's the best choice to stay in the youth team for another year, isn't it?" Boas knew that Mourinho was never in this kind of thing. He was joking on the Internet, so his mood stabilized a little: "Or did you bring him to the first team just to let him sit on the bench?"

For young players, games during the ball-up period are very important. If Mourinho promotes Cyril to the first team just to increase the thickness of the bench, it will undoubtedly be a blow to Cyril's discovery.

Andre Boas stared closely at Mourinho, waiting for his answer.

Mourinho did not speak.

His gaze was still focused on the young man who was practicing free kicks on the court. It was the break time in the middle of the training. Cyril and Costa stood in front of the net, one on the left and one on the other. While chatting, he raised his foot suddenly from time to time and sent the ball into the net.

Then he said to Boas: "Andre, what level of player do you think Cyril Slade belongs to?"