i want to be king

Chapter 83 Backfire?

"In my opinion, Su Dong is one of the most promising young players in the Portuguese Super League. If possible, I am very happy to bring him to Porto at a reasonable or even higher price. He is a young player that is difficult to refuse."

Mourinho publicly expressed his favor for Sudong in an interview with a reporter from the Portuguese Morning Post.

At the same time, the Morning Post also sent out a piece of news that Porto asked Sporting Lisbon about the possibility of introducing Su Dong. The reason was that Mourinho was full of strong interest in the 17-year-old.

Sporting Lisbon also quickly gave feedback.

First, the technical director Aurelio Pereira came forward and said in an interview with the media, "We have not received any inquiries about Sudong from any team, and we have no idea of ​​​​selling Sudong."

Aurelio also explained Su Dong's position in Sporting Lisbon's strategy for the new season, believing that he will be the key training target of the club, "He will become the best young player in Portugal and even in European football here."

Subsequently, the head coach Boloni also publicly stated that Sudong played an important role in his tactics and plans for the new season. "Porto wants to get Sudong? I don't think there is any possibility."

"Even if Mourinho is willing to trade Deco, I will still choose to keep Su Dong without hesitation."

The technical director and the head coach came forward one after another, which made everyone convinced of Su Dong's status and future in Sporting Lisbon.

Even many professionals have analyzed that in Sporting Lisbon's new season strategy, Su Dong has surpassed Quaresma and Ronnie in status, and has become the veritable number one rookie in the Green Lions team.

But what no one knew was that during the intensive preparations at the Alcocheti training base, Su Dong became the player who yelled the most at Bologna. The Romanian coach even called for the suspension of training many times and called Su Dong to the sidelines to teach him a lesson.

The severity even makes people doubt, is he deliberately targeting Su Dong?
……

"Su, you could have handled the ball better a few times just now, why did you hesitate?"

Boloni once again called to stop the training, called Su Dong to the sidelines, and reprimanded him loudly.

"You need to be more courageous and confident. I'm not asking you to play well with your teammates. I'm telling you to take control of the situation. Do you know what I mean? Take control! Be confident, man!"

Boloni looked a little excited, obviously not very satisfied with Su Dong's performance in training.

Su Dong kept nodding his head. He could understand what Boloni meant, but it was difficult to execute it well on the court.

On the one hand, his own concept has not changed, and he is still not confident enough in himself, and on the other hand, it is also because the teammates around him are all people who have made him look up to him.

For example, Jardl, Joao Pinto and Barbosa, etc., no matter how bad they are, they are also geniuses such as Quaresma and Ronnie.

May I ask, as a teammate with such a person, Su Dong wants to control the overall situation?

Watching Su Dong turn around and run back to the training ground, Boloni shook his head and sighed.

"I think you are too harsh on him." Pontes walked over and said.

Boloni turned his head and glanced at the assistant. He knew the relationship between Pontes and Su Dong. Even Su Dong followed Pontes' car to and from the training base every day. The two had a close relationship.

"I know, but I don't have time." Boloni felt helpless.

If it was during the summer training period, he would have a lot of time to slowly polish his tactics and slowly build up Su Dong's confidence.

But not now, the Portuguese Cup final is imminent, he has no time to adjust slowly, he must force Su Dong to adapt to his new role faster, instead of treating himself as a fledgling rookie.

"You know, Lionel, Quaresma and Ronnie are too sticky to the ball. We all have seen the ability of the two of them on the wing. If they can play, then our frontcourt attack will be fully activated."

Pontes agrees with this statement, even in the Portuguese Super League senior team, Quaresma and Ronnie have the strength to stand out from the crowd.

But the problem is that these two guys are too sticky to the ball, they are too fancy, not to mention seriously slowing down the rhythm, and the actual combat value is not high, which causes Sporting Lisbon's offense to often stop at their feet.

In the past, Boloni did not dare to use them to start at the same time because Jaddr, Nikule and others did not have the ability to hold the ball, but now it is different. Su Dong is proficient in passing, controlling and shooting. It is undoubtedly the most ideal for him to connect these two wingers and control the frontcourt offense. It has also been confirmed in the past few games.

"I understand what you mean, but you have to understand that he is only 17 years old and has only played four games in the first team. Is it appropriate for you to throw such a heavy burden on him at once?" Pontes still has objections.

Boloni saw the resolute look on Pontes' face, and he also knew that it was really inappropriate for him to do so. In Chinese terms, it was a bit counterproductive. After all, Su Dong was really just a fledgling rookie.

"Do you know what my impression of Su Dong is?" Boloni asked without answering.

Pontes shook his head, he couldn't understand what the head coach was thinking.

"He's like an enigma, a huge, unpredictable enigma."

Boloni sighed softly: "Remember, when he joined the team last December, did you ever think that he could have the performance he has today?"

Pontes pondered for a while, then shook his head to say no.

At that time, even those who were optimistic and had high hopes for Su Dong would never have imagined that he would be able to perform like he is today.

"Have you noticed? His skills have improved a lot compared to half a year ago, his ball feel is much better, and his stop is getting better and better. This is not in line with common sense. He should have missed the age when his skills and sense of the ball improved, but you see, he has been improving rapidly."

There is a general consensus in professional football that ball feel and skills can be maintained and improved through training, but everyone will have an upper limit, which is commonly known as the upper limit of talent.

Reaching the upper limit of talent, even if this player insists on 24 hours of hard training every day, it will be difficult to make progress.

Especially when this player has missed the best age for building skills and ball feel.

Just like Ronnie, training hard enough, right?

His ball-stopping skills are not good, and he improves extremely slowly no matter how he practices.

But Su Dong seems to be a different kind.

At the age of 17, he had already missed the best age for building skills and sense of the ball. No matter how hard he practiced, his improvement was limited, but Su Dong still maintained an astonishing speed of improvement, and he still seemed so unfathomable that it was impossible to see where his upper limit was.

That's why Boloni said that Sudong is like a huge, unpredictable mystery.

"He has body, technique, and speed. At the same time, he also has a very keen sense of grasping the momentary opportunity. I have never seen such a player, and I couldn't believe it before."

Boloni spoke with surprise and admiration in his tone.

"I want to try it now. If the frontcourt offense is organized around Su Donglai, how much energy can he exert? Can he do things that other people can't do?"

Pontes was a little taken aback when he heard that, he could see that Boloni had high hopes for Su Dong, even beyond his imagination, but...

"I still think that you are too anxious."

"Maybe." Boloni sighed helplessly. "Professional football never waits for others. Sometimes being anxious is not necessarily a bad thing. I believe he can handle it."

At the end, Boloni's eyes were fixed on Su Dong on the court.

In the mind of the head coach of Romania, Sudong has continuously brought him surprises. He believes that Sudong will not disappoint him in the final against Porto.

As for why there is such confidence, he does not know.

……

"Have you noticed that the coach seems to be targeting you a little bit deliberately?"

After a day of training, everyone was exhausted.

Su Dong and Ronnie walked to the sidelines side by side, and they will continue to stay for additional training.

"He has high demands on me." Su Dong looked at Boloni standing on the sidelines in the distance.

"Yeah, I just think that he's asking too much of you, and it's more like making things difficult on purpose." Ronnie felt sorry for his good brother, because Su Dong was called out for training several times.

"Don't worry, I'm fine." Su Dong patted Ronnie on the shoulder and comforted him in turn.

Su Dong didn't know what to say, he had a faint feeling that Boloni was testing him.

Perhaps the head coach is no longer satisfied with just treating himself as a surprise soldier, or maybe the head coach hopes that he can do more and better and take on more responsibilities.

No matter what it was, it was a good thing for Su Dong.

The opportunity is presented, whether you can grasp it or not depends on Su Dong himself.

Perhaps for him, the most important game of the season is the upcoming final.

…………

…………

In the next few days, Sporting Lisbon will still be preparing for closed games in Alcochetti.

The content of the preparations is similar to usual, the biggest difference is that during the group training, Su Dong is basically in the main group, and he is fixed with Jadl as a double striker.

The four-four-two double-forward style of play is no stranger to Sporting Lisbon, because during the period when the team's performance improved by leaps and bounds in the first half, Boloni insisted on the double-forward tactics of Jardl and Nikule, and the offensive was raging.

It's just that now, Nikolai has been replaced by Sudong.

Everyone didn't have much objection to this. After all, Su Dong's performance was obvious to all. The only thing that surprised him was why Boloni was so harsh on Su Dong?

Gradually, as the final approached, the first-team players gradually felt Boloni's intentions.

Especially in the group match on the day before the final, when Boloni rarely changed the four-three-three style of play, took down Jardel, and made Sudong, Ronnie, and Quaresma form a trident, everyone was clearly aware of the head coach's thinking.

Facts have also proved that they all guessed right.

On the morning of the final, Boloni announced to the players the starting lineup for that night's game.

Su Dong is on the list!

　Begging for rewards, collections and recommendation tickets!Thank you!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)