Fox in the Penalty Area

"I think Bernard's injury may have a greater impact on the Stan Park Rangers than we initially thought...otherwise why would Brooks allow Bernard to have the meniscus removal surgery? Obviously he shouldn't want his own. The main midfielder is reimbursed for the season..."

"I don't understand. Even if Bernard is reimbursed for the season, the Rangers still have an eight-point advantage against us in the standings, and a 14-point difference against Manchester Athletic. What is there to worry about? "

"Who is right about football? There are still thirteen rounds in the league. Anything can happen in these thirteen rounds..."

"That's what it says. Bernard is indeed the core of the Stan Park Rangers midfield, but the Rangers are not supported by one person, and Brooks is not a coach who can't play without Bernard. I I think that as long as you are careful, Stan Park Rangers can still defend their title successfully!"

In the tea room, the coaches of Leeds City are also discussing the biggest news in English football recently, and from this they have extended their views on the league situation.

At this moment, the head coach Tony Clark and Matt Dawn walked in.

"Okay, guys, let's put other people's things aside. Next, I want to discuss with you a big thing about our final goal for this season." Once seated, Clark was right about everything in the house. The person said.

"Tony, you finally figured it out, let's just say, are we going to compete for the FA Cup or keep the Champions League qualification in the end this season?" assistant coach Sam Landier yelled.

Clark smiled slightly: "Neither. We are fighting for the league championship."

Suddenly there was a deathly silence in the tea room.

Only Matt Dawn, who had known it a long time ago, took a sip of black tea, and the only snoring noise in the tea room was his mouth squirming.

When Matt put the cup down, Randy finally came back to his senses. He exclaimed: "I heard it right, Tony? You said it was the league champion, not the FA Cup champion. ?"

"You heard it right, Sam. Of course it's the league champion."

The others in the tea room also came back to their senses, but they didn't know what to say, so they could only look at Clark with surprised eyes to show respect.

"League champion... Damn it!" Randy mumbled suddenly, raising the volume. "That's the Premier League champion! Do you think it's so easy to take?"

Clark shrugged: "If it's not easy to hold, why should I think about it for so long and hesitate?"

Randyar heard it out: "So what you have been hesitant before is not because you didn't know whether to choose the FA Cup or the Champions League qualification, but because you want to win?"

Clark grinned and looked at his assistant: "Yes, Sam. Otherwise, why do you think I have to consider such simple multiple-choice questions as the FA Cup and the Champions League for so long?"

"Then why are you suddenly determined now?" Randy asked.

"Because we defeated the Stan Park Rangers on the road. I saw our potential in China from this game..."

"Wait, Tony. With this victory, are you sure? We can beat the Stan Park Rangers on the road, but it doesn't mean we can win the championship. The battle for the league championship is not a single game. Elimination-based cup competition. Even if the Stan Park Rangers lose to us, they are still eight points ahead of us! And we will no longer have the opportunity to play against them directly, their winning or losing is beyond our control... "

"Yes, you are right. Sam. I don't know if we can definitely win the championship, but it doesn't prevent us from trying. It's better to work towards this goal than to have no goal at all."

"Who said that we have no goal? We can also aim to maintain Champions League qualification. And I personally think that this goal may be more realistic..." Landier did not just follow Clarke as the team's head coach. It's justified.

This is actually the reason why Clark retains the "tea room", that is, I hope everyone can speak freely here, even if there is a conflict of ideas, it doesn't matter if you speak out and argue, it is better to be bored in your heart, and then renounce.

What Randy said is not unreasonable, and some people in the coaching community agree with it.

After all, the current Premier League standings looks like this:

The first in the league was the Stan Park Rangers who lost the ball, with 65 points.

Leeds is second in the league with 57 points.

The third place Manchester Sports lost to the North London Rangers in this round of the league, and the points were still 51 points unchanged.

The fourth place, Tramed, drew with Waldhampton 0-0 at home this round, with 44 points.

Fifth place, the North London Rangers won Manchester Athletic at home this round, accumulating 42 points.

The sixth place in London Bridge and the seventh place in this round tied with Vijayston at 2:2. The points each rose by one point, 38 points and 37 points respectively, and the ranking remained unchanged.

Leeds leads the fifth place North London Rangers by as many as 15 points, which is even bigger than the league's first Stan Park Rangers.

Under such circumstances, it does seem to be easier for Leeds to qualify for the Champions League next season.

At the same time, it can be seen that the traditional BIG6 performance of the Premier League this season has a lot of hips...

Although Clark has different opinions, he cannot directly use his position as the head coach to pressure other coaches to accept it. In the tea room, he needs to be moved with emotion and convince his colleagues with reason.

In the process, his good friend Matt Dawn just "stands on the sidelines" and will not help Clark.

After listening to Randil and understanding why he said that, Clark smiled and said: "About your question, Sam, it just so happens that ancient Chinese wisdom has already made the most perfect answer."

When Randyl saw Clark's fascinating smile, he suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Everyone knows that I have been studying The Art of War by Sun Tzu, and there is a saying in it:'If you seek the best, you will gain the middle; if you seek the middle, you will get the bottom; if you seek the bottom, you will lose.' What does this mean? That is to say, if the goal is not set high enough, it is often impossible to get the result you want. If we want to qualify for the Champions League, the safest way is of course to take the league championship as the goal. Instead of simply setting the top four For the goal, in that case, it is easy to fail. Because it is easy for us to become lax when we think that we can reach the goal, just like now..."

Clark spread his hands and looked at Randyll: "Sam, you all think that with the current points situation, we won't have a big problem in qualifying for the Champions League next season. This mentality is reflected in the entire league, and it may be a loss. It doesn’t matter if we are in a game. Anyway, we are 15 points ahead of fifth place, and we still have 12 points if we lose one game... What about losing two games? How about losing three games? I always feel like we still have. The extra points can be squandered. When we discover that the situation is not good, it is actually too late. We are used to failure and morale is devastated...How can we turn the tide at the last moment?"

Randyll was said not to say a word, but he couldn't refute it.

"The league is very long, and a momentary slack may lead to very serious consequences. This is what we need to avoid. That's why I have to set the goal to be the league championship. In this way, when we are united and struggling to pursue the league championship, then Naturally, I dare not relax in every game. Face every game with this mentality, even if we really failed to surpass the Stan Park Rangers to win the championship, I believe we have already won the Champions League next season. qualifications."

Some people still have different opinions: "But Tony, your goal is for the team, otherwise, what's the point of talking in the tea room?"

"Yes, I will announce this decision to the team when I train tomorrow." Clark nodded.

"Then you don't worry that this goal is too big, it will scare the players? Look at our coaches, they are all scared by you..."

Clark smiled slightly: "I believe that every professional player should regard the'champion' as their goal, and they should also spontaneously look forward to the championship. If it is just because we set the goal to be the champion, it will scare them and cause them to pressure. If it’s too big and it doesn’t perform well... it proves that this team is not worthy of good results. If our team wants to have better results in the future, or to maintain this result, that’s also An excellent test and exercise. Leeds can't always be relegated every year, right? The change of goals and mentality starts from this season. I think it's good."

After Clark’s generous statement, Randyll sighed: "You are right, Tony. You convinced me. Indeed, when we set the goal as the champion and work hard with it, the end result should be It won't be too bad."

"Then this matter is settled. We will adjust our training plan with the goal of the league championship next. Increase the proportion of physical training..."

Clark began to arrange specific tasks for all coaches, and those coaches also became serious, listened carefully to those arrangements made by Clark, and wrote them down.

Matt Dawn, who was watching the show, picked up the teapot and refilled the cup that had been drunk by himself.

※※※

"Tony~www.ltnovel.com~ I didn’t expect that they really believed that you declared that you want to win only to keep your Champions League qualification..." Leaving the tea room and returning to the head coach’s office, Matt Dawn told Clarke. Thumbs up, "You have thoroughly persuaded them by quoting Sun Tzu's Art of War. You are the one!"

Unexpectedly, Clark shook his head: "That's nonsense."

"what?"

"It can't be said that it is nonsense. That statement is indeed ancient Chinese wisdom. But it is not in the "Sun Tzu Art of War". At least the original text in the "Sun Tzu Art of War" I bought does not'see the best, get the content; seek it. , Get it; if you want it, you will lose' this sentence." Clark smiled slyly. (Note 1)

"But they all know that I'm watching "The Art of War", so no one will doubt this.'Soldiers, so are the tricks. So it can be shown but not can be used. It’s close.’ They clearly wanted to win, but told them to do so to keep the Champions League qualifications, and use a more acceptable purpose to hide my true purpose... This will save us a lot of the cost of explanation and communication. , Don’t you believe them all? Oh, the sentence just now is really in the "Sun Tzu Art of War"."

Matt Dawn's eyes widened, his mouth widened, and he was stunned for a while before murmured:

"You really, Tony, I feel like I almost don't know you..."

Tony Clark laughed loudly: "I also want to thank you for bringing Hu to me!"

※※※

Note 1: I searched the Internet for this sentence and it did say that it was in "The Art of War", but I searched the original text of "The Art of War" and found that there was no paragraph in it.

As for why so many people say that this sentence comes from "The Art of War", I don't know...