Fox in the Penalty Area

Matthew Miller unzips his backpack, grinning happily at the football he snatched from Holly's signing ceremony.

He was so lucky, he didn't expect that the first ball kicked by Hu Lai just landed on his side. He just opened his hand and easily caught the football.

There is Hu Lai's signature on it!

He looked at it carefully, are these Chinese characters?

It is very different from our English...

After reading it, he re-zipped his backpack, put it on his back, and opened the door of his house.

As soon as he entered the door, he saw his father David Miller standing at the door with his hands on his hips, staring at him, while his mother and sister stood beside him.

His elder brother leaned out half of his body at the corner of the stairs on the second floor, telling his younger brother with his mouth and expression: You are finished...

"Where have you been?" Dad asked in a deep voice.

Upon seeing this, Matthew simply admitted: "I went to Hu's joining ceremony."

Dad didn't seem to have expected his youngest son to be so straightforward, he was taken aback for a moment, and became even angrier: "Aren't you even willing to tell a lie?!"

Matthew said while changing his shoes, "Dad, didn't you always teach us not to lie?"

"..." David Miller was speechless, and then furious: "So many of us didn't go, don't you know why?"

"I know. But Dad, what does that have to do with me? I disagreed with your actions from the very beginning, and I never said that I would join your actions." Matthew Miller raised his immature face and faced His father, who was taller than himself, bravely greeted him.

Seeing this, the elder brother on the stairs behind Dad winked at him and made a cheering gesture.

Mother stood up worriedly and tried to persuade him: "Okay, little Matthew, please stop talking and go back to your room..."

But little Matthew didn't listen to his mother's words, and seemed to want to have a final fight with his father today - he stood where he was, and continued to look at his father.

"Just because the club agreed to 'Daddy''s resignation, you don't allow all of us to go to the team's games. You can express your attitude by not going, but you can't let us all go. You My son is still playing in the Leeds City youth team, what should I do? Should I quit the team? What if,

I mean, if one day the club chooses me to be a caddy, how do you want me to tell the club? Said that my dad forbade me to have anything to do with you because you fired coach Lauren Galley? Dad, you know how much I long to be a ball boy at the Flanders course, holding Lorenzo Esposito, Pete Williams...their hands on the Flanders turf. "

The father was completely enraged by his son's resistance. He waved his arms and roared loudly, as if he was about to come up and punch his son: "It's because of people like you that the club will turn a blind eye to our protests! They serve the team. Thirteen years of meritorious coaches are abandoned like wild dogs! Traditions of the club are trampled under their feet! And expect us fans to continue to support them? Fucking dreams! Fucking ghosts!"

His face was flushed red, like a powder keg that might explode at any moment.

※※※

"Hey, Uncle Yong. Speaking of which, the Leeds City Club really directly dismissed the hero who led the team to promotion and relegation. Isn't it a bit too extreme?"

Hu Lai and Yong Jun, who had just seen one house and were sitting in the car about to see another house, chatted again.

I went to the club for the first time today, so he is more concerned about the club's affairs.

"This matter..." Yong Jun obviously knew more than Hu Lai, and he said after some consideration, "If you want to say absolutely, it must be absolutely impossible. But it's not absolute for no reason..."

Then he told Hu Lai everything he had learned on the way to the next house.

To put it simply, in the first season of being promoted to the Super League, after Lauren Gary led Leeds City's thrilling relegation, he hoped that the team can continue to increase investment so that they can get rid of the fate of relegation.

As the head coach of a team, it is natural to have such thoughts, and it can even be said that every head coach should have them.

But the problem is that after the success of the Super League, he has asked the club to increase investment, but the result of increasing investment is not very good-the team did not escape relegation until the last round. There were two times in the middle that the news that this meritorious coach might dismiss get out of class was obviously not groundless. It can be seen that the head coach's performance on the way to lead the team to the Premier League was not satisfactory.

Increased investment in the first season of the Premier League did not result in an improvement in strength, and the club also incurred huge debts for this.

Under such circumstances, if you continue to increase investment, let alone whether the club has so much money to burn, just say that UEFA's financial fair play policy will not pass. Although the Premier League has a lot of TV broadcast costs and match day costs, the Leeds City Club has also invested a lot.

After being promoted to the Premier League, Leeds City bought a lot of players. To compete with other teams, they must give more attractive conditions. The transfer fee must be higher, and the salary must not be less.

In this way, the Leeds City Club is getting closer and closer to the debt deadline of 39 million pounds within three years stipulated by the Financial Fair Play Policy.

If the dead line is broken, then Leeds City will face penalty points in the new season. This is a fatal blow to the relegation team-after all, the whole team has to fight for every point during relegation. If they are awarded seven or eight points at the beginning of the season, Leeds City can stay where they are. downgraded.

In order to alleviate the debt situation, the club had to start a fire sale mode. Some players who were only bought last season and played for a year but did not perform well were sold at a low price. Compared with the value when they were bought, these players have dropped a lot. Selling now is actually selling at a loss. But the club still has to sell them, just to save salary expenses.

It's not enough to just sell players who are underperforming.

Therefore, before the start of the 2024-2025 season, the club sold the talented forward Sean Barnett trained by the team to the North London Wanderers in exchange for 25 million pounds.

This transfer fee, which created a record transfer fee in the history of the Leeds City club, greatly eased the club's financial crisis, but it also angered Lauren Gary, who brought Sean Barnett out.

He publicly criticized the club's management in the media and scolded football director Nevin Ball. Thinking that this 25-year-old boy is destroying the foundation of Leeds City, he also angrily denounced Yogg Hodge for not loving his club anymore, and criticized the club's commercial director Harry Bradley, an American who doesn't understand football at all. Being a commercial director is completely an outsider commanding an insider...

In short, this "father" who is loose with players but always has a bad temper with the management has scolded almost all the management of the Leeds City Club, making the Leeds City Club panic...

The preparations for the new season and signings have also been greatly disturbed.

"...I think Lauren Galli's resignation may be in the hope of blackmailing the club, thinking that with his reputation in this team and this city, he has already resigned, how could the club be forced by public opinion? The pressure bowed to him." Yong Jun analyzed to Hu Lai.

"In the end, I didn't expect that the president of the club, Yogg Hodge, who met the top iron, agreed so much... so the matter became irreversible. If we look at it from the perspective of a neutral person, you have to say that the fans have worked hard. It is only right for Len Gary to complain. But is Yogg Hodge a heinous bastard? Gary has coached the team for thirteen seasons and is a major contributor to the team's promotion to the Super League. Hodge is also for this The owner of the club has dedicated ten years of time, ten years of continuous investment and management... Is there no credit for the team's upgrade? Who supported Lauren Gary's signing targets? Hodge's money? Is it caused by the strong wind? Hodge is a local businessman, and his feelings for Leeds City must be no worse than anyone else. Is it unfair for the fans to attack him so wildly?"

After hearing Yong Jun's words, Hu Lai let out a long sigh: "It's like Gongdou, people just want to play football..."

Yong Jun smiled and said: "Actually, these things have nothing to do with you. As you said, you just need to perform well. The good news is that at least the head coach is on your side. Another good news is that the club management Because this matter is also tied to Tony Clark, they can only go to the dark one way and fully support a head coach who is optimistic about you. So I think your position in the team should still be guaranteed, as long as You can show good form in training and convince your teammates."

Come out in good shape during training...

Hu Lai thought to himself that he still had the 100,000 points rewarded for completing the Chinese Super League Golden Boot mission and ten advanced training scrolls for shooting and stopping the ball lying in his system.

The training scroll is just used at this time.

As for the 100,000 points, he intends to keep them until he has a chance to play.

The so-called all things are difficult at the beginning, 100,000 points can be exchanged for three [Consonance Cards], so that three people in this strange team can have a tacit understanding with him, which will be of great help to him at the beginning of Leeds City.

But choosing who to use [Consonance Card] is particular. It doesn't mean that you can just choose three people in the lineup to match with yourself.

For example, choosing the goalkeeper and the central defender to use the [Consonance Card] is a bit of a waste. They are so far away from me, it is difficult to connect, and it is really not very helpful to me.

So Hu Lai plans to get acquainted with his teammates in daily training, and finally choose a target.

As long as you have the opportunity to play, you can use the [Consonance Card] on the selected target, I believe it can play a key role in finalizing the decision.

※※※

In fact, both the father and the son know each other's positions, and there are many quarrels because of this matter.

The whole family is used to the quarrels that sound in the house from time to time.

After all, it's still the same.

The father stood for Lauren Galli while the son stood for the club and the team.

To say who must be wrong...not at all.

It may be difficult to tell right from wrong in this matter.

Even in the large group of Leeds City fans, there are still different groups of people with very different opinions. Someone like David Miller chose not to go to the game to express protest to the club.

Some people still go to the scene to cheer for the team every home game. They believe that if the protests of the fans end up relegating the team, then the original intention will be lost. After all, I believe that Lauren Gary does not want the team he worked so hard to bring back to the British Championship.

Even now, there is no result of the quarrel.

All that needs to be said has been said, Matthew Miller will stop talking nonsense, and he intends to go around his father.

At this moment, David Miller snorted: "Do you really expect that Chinese striker to bring anything? Don't you know Hodge's routine? He just wants to take this opportunity to attract Chinese investment. And That Chinese striker is just a tool for him to swindle money from the pockets of the Chinese people! It’s just a glamorous advertising sign!”

Matthew Miller turned his head to look at his father, smiled and shook his head: "But Dad, I have seen the highlights of his games in the Olympics, and I believe my vision and judgment. You know, your son is from the Leeds City Junior Team What about the core!"

After finishing speaking, he bypassed his father and went straight upstairs.

And David Miller stood still and didn't say anything harsh.

Because his son's last sentence made him unable to refute.

After all, his youngest son, Matthew Miller, was a Leeds teenage prodigy who made his family proud a year ago.

But now, this young genius has become a "traitor" against his father.

This made David Miller extremely complicated.