Lazy Genius Striker [EN]: Chapter 124

< The Golden Ball >

“Did we win for nothing?”

“Yeah. Seems like we won for nothing.”

“Damn it. We should have just lost on purpose.”

After returning from the away game in Paris.

The West Ham training ground is, as always, filled with players working up a sweat.

The players were exhausted.

They thought that, thanks to them, many flattering articles were written about the manager.

So they expected the manager, in a good mood, to reduce the physical training a bit.

What a load of crap.

They ran drills and more drills again today until they felt like throwing up.

– “Schmidt is the Best” West Ham Preparing to Renew Contract with Schmidt After Yohan’s Remark?

– “Tore it Apart” Debussy’s [referring to Claude Debussy, a famous French composer] Notebook Rendered Useless… Leadership of Trust Won

– Re-examining Schmidt’s Know-how in Handling ‘Lazy Genius’ Yohan… Absurd, but Could There Be Anything More Effective?

– “Trust and Follow” Schmidt’s Leadership Unites West Ham.

After the game against Paris, many articles poured out.

The media, which had been saying that West Ham’s instability was the manager and that the excellent tactician Debussy would control the game, changed their tune as if nothing had happened.

Well, it’s not like the media changing its tune is anything new.

Seeing them praising us now makes me want to curse.

Still, it was rewarding.

Seeing the boss being recognized by people is bound to be rewarding for the players who follow that boss.

If there was one thing that was a bit disappointing, it was that the players were feeling proud, but the manager didn’t seem to care at all.

“We made you a master manager, isn’t there anything for us? Like taking a day off from physical training…”

“We worked so hard to avoid getting the manager criticized.”

“Don’t talk nonsense, and kick the ball one more time instead of worrying about that.”

“You’re happy too, aren’t you, manager? Honestly.”

“I don’t care at all. What do I care what those guys say? People’s opinions don’t matter. What matters is that we believe in ourselves. That’s all that matters.”

“Ooh. That was a cool thing to say.”

Indeed, nothing changes no matter what people say outside.

The only important thing is to win every game.

External views don’t determine our success or failure.

Evaluation just follows.

“That’s what you call experience.”

“I want to grow old like the manager.”

The players looked at Schmidt with admiration at his detached appearance, and Schmidt snorted.

He wondered if this was what experience was.

*

“Mi… ha… el… Schu… mit…”

In the manager’s office with the door tightly closed.

Schmidt is wearing magnifying glasses and searching for something on his laptop.

It’s his name.

“Hmm.”

Schmidt reads the search results one by one, wearing a satisfied smile.

After crushing Paris, led by Debussy or whatever, a pretty boy who isn’t even a former player, the evaluations have changed drastically.

You scoundrels.

Well, it’s good if everyone knows now.

“…”

Schmidt looked around to see if anyone was coming in, then closed his laptop.

Jamie, that coach, sometimes sneaks in to play pranks.

Schmidt chuckled.

‘I’m not just happy.’

Schmidt leaned back in his chair and thought.

He smiled contentedly as he read the articles praising him, but.

He wasn’t just feeling elated.

What he felt even more strongly was a sense of burden.

Honestly, Schmidt thought that his capabilities were insignificant compared to the managers who were making a name for themselves worldwide.

If he was a master manager recognized by everyone from the start, Manchester United or Manchester City would have called him, not West Ham.

Or at least, he wouldn’t have been stuck in the mid-to-lower ranks leading West Ham.

Schmidt thought that the team’s current smooth sailing was entirely thanks to the players.

This was not humility at all.

Speaking as a rational and objective German, everything was thanks to the players.

Especially Yohan.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the team has come this far thanks to that one kid.

That’s why it’s a burden.

The team’s size has grown to an extent that can’t be compared to the past, and very important moments will come in the future.

Moments of choice.

He, as a manager, must navigate those important moments wisely.

He didn’t want to see the players disappointed because of his mistakes, since they had brought him this far.

‘Being a manager is difficult for this reason.’

He had been a manager for decades, but the position of manager is still a burden.

Dozens of players can be harmed by one manager.

Because of a manager’s light decision, some players’ careers, their lives, can change.

Sitting in such a position with great power also means shouldering a heavy responsibility.

However, the reason he has been able to do that difficult job for decades is, of course, because it’s enjoyable.

Watching the players grow under his guidance.

Watching his disciples crush the disciples of other teachers.

Everyone becoming one and tasting the joy of victory.

Those joys are great enough to put aside hundreds of other difficulties.

All he has to do in the future is one thing.

To create an environment where players can perform at 100 percent or more in their positions.

That’s all.

In the end, football is played by the players.

He is the person who works for those players.

Therefore, he was not at all affected by being called a player-dependent manager.

Because it’s true.

Schmidt just hoped that people would give the players generous applause, rather than recognizing his contributions.

He was content with seeing his disciples receive praise from people.

ㆍㆍㆍ

After the game against Paris, West Ham’s next schedule was the Round 5 league match, an away game against Brighton.

Last season, they had a superior record against Brighton with 2 wins and 0 losses.

However, he remembers that both games were not easy victories.

In particular, this game is an away game after playing in the Champions League during the week.

The game was held only 4 days after the Paris match.

Even if you subtract the time it took to travel to and from France, they only had two days to rest before playing the game.

West Ham was in a disadvantageous position in many ways compared to their opponent, Brighton.

However, they couldn’t complain.

Until last season, they were the ones who benefited from it.

It was a process they had to overcome to become a big club.

Anyway, the starting lineup for the Brighton game was quite different from the Paris game.

Jonathan Neeson, who ran about 14km in the Paris game, was absent, and Capello was also named on the substitute list.

In defense, Bellamy, who still had the effects of the Euros [European Championship], took a rest.

Fortunately, Yohan was named in the starting lineup.

Yohan wasn’t in top physical condition either, but Schmidt allowed him to play because he wanted to play in the game himself.

Instead, he set one condition.

He would only play for 45 minutes in the first half and then be substituted.

The reason Yohan wanted to play in the game was simple.

The two goals in the Paris game weren’t enough for training exemption.

If he wanted to rest more, he had to play in the game.

So Yohan started in the Brighton game.

And he saved the team in a difficult situation.

Brighton couldn’t stop Yohan.

Perhaps it would have been easier to stop him if Yohan had played the full time.

However, Yohan, who was given a time limit of 45 minutes, was even harder to stop.

Yohan scored one goal in the 12th minute of the first half and another in the 33rd minute, taking two attack points and happily sitting on the bench.

West Ham, thanks to those two goals, defeated Brighton 3-1 and continued their 5-game winning streak after the opening.

It was a valuable victory in many difficult situations.

West Ham was steadily taking the process of becoming a big club.

*

-[PL 6R Pre-view] Tottenham vs West Ham

The next schedule after the Brighton game was a game against Tottenham Hotspur.

A derby match between the two teams, rivals in London.

Ahead of this game, Tottenham fans were complaining fiercely to the secretariat.

Saying that the game schedule was terrible.

└Who is the guy who makes the game schedule? I want to meet his face once

└Why now of all times? You targeted this, right?

└I watched all the games last season, but I’ll have to pass on this game

└Ha… I’ll have to take sleeping pills this weekend and sleep for two days and wake up

└It’s really dog-like [unpleasant or unfair]

└Arsenal is dog-like. This is really terrible

West Ham happened to be meeting in the 6th round.

In fact, this derby game hasn’t been very welcome since last season.

The reason Spurs are showing such a fierce reaction ahead of this game is because there was a reason.

It wasn’t just because they were worried that it would be a difficult game.

Tottenham’s current atmosphere was not bad.

They were off to a good start, winning 3 games up to the 5th round.

Furthermore, although this is not a good thing, Tottenham is not going to the Champions League, and West Ham is playing in the Champions League.

They were superior in terms of physical strength, so the game was worth playing.

But what they were frustrated about was an awards ceremony that was held before the game.

A awards ceremony hosted by a French magazine, with some tradition and history.

It was the Ballon d’Or [prestigious annual football award] awards ceremony.

At that awards ceremony, a West Ham player was likely to win.

Also, this 6th round is played at West Ham’s home.

What does this mean?

It was the story that they had to watch a really pride-hurting scene right in front of their eyes.

*

The voting for which player was the best player of the entire 2027/28 season ended last September.

The Ballon d’Or vote is conducted by a jury of journalists from around the world.

Journalists with voting rights carefully cast their precious votes every year around this time.

However, this year it was not so difficult to decide who to vote for.

There was one player who had an overwhelming season.

This vote was so easy that even if people who didn’t know anything about soccer were asked to vote, the results of the jury vote would not have been different.

Just looking at the records, it was easy to see who was the most overwhelming.

He recorded 59 goals and 17 assists in the league, sweeping the top scorer award and various individual awards.

He won the FA Cup [Football Association Challenge Cup], giving his team a trophy for the first time in decades.

Including a hat-trick in the final, he scored in every game of the tournament, winning the Euros [European Championship].

The 2027/28 season was clearly this player’s year, and thanks to that, the jury was at ease.

There was no season as controversial as this season in terms of award winners.

It was a vote that didn’t hurt my head more than ever.

However, unlike the smooth voting process.

The officials who were preparing for the awards ceremony were expressing their difficulties due to unexpected news.

Something that has never happened before.

That was that the winner had expressed his difficulty in attending the awards ceremony.

Not the award nominee, but the winner himself.

“Could it be… that reason?”

“Wouldn’t it be?”

Marcos Jean-Paul, editor of France Football, the host of the Ballon d’Or, couldn’t help but suspect when he heard the news.

The reason the player gave for refusing the invitation to the awards ceremony was that he had to prepare for the weekend league game.

But it was hard to believe that.

If it was that winner, who was widely known as a lazy eccentric, wouldn’t the truth be a different reason?

That the reason was that it was ‘annoying’ to fly to France to attend the awards ceremony.

“What should we do?”

“Hmm…”

Anyway, it was a difficult situation.

It was like having an awards ceremony without the main character.

“If this happens, the authority of the Ballon d’Or…”

If the awards ceremony was held as it was without the winner himself, it was obvious that the authority of the Ballon d’Or would be diminished.

Isn’t it obvious?

An awards ceremony that even the winner doesn’t come to receive the award.

So what should we do?

Jean-Paul sighed.

“We have to go, what else can we do.”

There was no other way.

There’s no other way but to go over here to give the award.