Romantic on the Field

33.

[I just finished the agreement. ]

[The weekly wage is £50,000. It’s an increase of 10,000 more than when I transferred. ]

That evening, Jamie received some unbelievable news from Agent John.

Even that wasn’t the end.

[The problem is the bonus. Scores and assist bonuses, plus winnings bonus and travel allowance, it’s practically £70,000. ]

70,000 pounds.

Over 100 million won in Korean currency.

It was the amount of money that Premier League key players received.

“Does this make sense?”

“hahahaha. What doesn’t make sense.”

As Jamie was puzzled, Hannah, who was next to her, burst into laughter.

“I know that? The only recruit in the summer transfer window is honey.”

“Oh, did you?”

“It was. Mutombo, who was recruited in the winter transfer market, was also brought without a transfer fee. In short, Stoke have not spent nearly a pound on transfers this season. It means you have enough money. And above all…”

“More than anything?”

“My dad, he has a lot of money.”

I got it.

“But I am worried.”

However, there was a part that I was worried about apart from understanding.

“Uh huh. Why is our cool Jamie Lee worried so much today?”

Hanna stroked Jamie’s hair as if she was cute.

“I thought the other players would be disappointed if they found out. There is such a thing as a weekly system. Isn’t this enough to have nothing to say even with a group protest?”

“ha ha ha.”

Then she burst into laughter again.

“Honey, you don’t know the Stoke players very well yet.”

“yes?”

“It would be the opposite. Go to the training ground tomorrow and check it out.”

training ground? Jamie tilted his head.

**

[ Advance to the League Cup final for the first time in 66 years, Stoke City challenging the impossible ]

[Unexpected League Cup. Stoke City final. Fighting for the title with Manchester City

[Stoke City, a member of League One, England’s third division, defeated Arsenal, a strong player in the Premier League tradition. As a result, Manchester City, who won against Chelsea, will compete for the title. ]

The next day, articles about the League Cup final poured in.

This is because Stoke City’s opponent team has been decided.

The opponent is last year’s Premier League champion Manchester City.

The final between the 3rd division teams and the defending champions. It was natural for many people to pay attention to this David and Goliath fight.

[‘Remaining in Stoke’ Jamie Lee, 4-year contract renewal with Stoke City]

[ (Official) Jamie Lee confirmed to stay at Stoke City. contract renewal. ]

[Stoke City announced on the club website that they had signed a four-year contract renewal with Jamie Lee, who joined in the summer. The contract renewal was signed less than six months after signing Jamie Lee in the summer transfer market, so much attention is being paid to the football world. ]

[ (omitted) ]

[Stoke City did not disclose the details of the contract, but according to the British BDC, etc., it is similar to the average weekly wage of Premier League clubs… (cut out) ]

In addition, articles about Jamie’s contract renewal were also poured out.

It is said that the details of the contract were not revealed, but it was not too difficult to predict this since the article mentions ‘Premier League average weekly wage’.

[To create discord in the workplace, you can disclose your salary. Among them, if there is someone who gets a lot of annual salary, the discord doubles. Later, it can lead to results that go beyond discord and lower the morale of the entire organization.]

It was a word that was floating around in some internet community.

Jamie had never had a job, but he thought it made a lot of sense. Of course, it would be less in the professional football world where money is everything, but I thought it could actually happen in the lower leagues, where the boundaries are somewhat ambiguous.

However, that was Jamie’s misunderstanding.

“Pass!”

“Pass! are you going to do it all by yourself? What kind of you could be Jamie?”

“Don’t give me space! stick!”

The atmosphere at the training ground was as usual, no, more lively than usual.

“If you score a goal, it’s all your fault, Eric!”

“You idiot, why is this my fault!”

ha ha ha. Jamie burst into laughter at the team members’ enthusiasm.

‘You don’t know the Stoke players yet. Go to the training ground tomorrow and check it out.’

He now realized the meaning of Hannah’s words yesterday.

‘Anyone, whether it’s a freshman who just transferred, can be rewarded appropriately if he shows outstanding performance.’

Jamie’s contract renewal came to the players with the same meaning as above.

“Stop Jamie! what are you doing?”

“Damn it, that bastard is running again!”

Today is the day of 11 vs 11 team practice game training. Jamie crossed the half line wearing a blue vest.

“Harry!”

Troy in a red vest shouted at Harry.

The cry seemed to say, ‘Don’t get pierced for today’, so Jamie burst into laughter again.

Of course, funny is funny and training is training. Jamie pierced Harry without difficulty.

ugh

Immediately, Harry groaned and chased, but couldn’t catch up with Jamie.

Spinning around, Jamie avoided Jack’s sliding tackle with a turn.

‘A sliding tackle in a practice game?’

I wanted to ask if anyone had anything to do with it, but I thought that this would also be the aftermath of the huge amount of re-contract, so I decided to just skip it. I can do it because I am full of motivation.

All that remains now is central defense. Jamie went straight into the penalty box.

“Mutombo!”

“Keep your seat!”

The red vest team and Coach Nick shouted at the same time.

“Over the head, it doesn’t work.”

Then Mutombo muttered with a sad face.

so? Jamie stifled another laugh and kicked the bottom of the ball.

Seeing this, Mutombo made a great leap. His determined expression seemed to say that the same method doesn’t work twice.

Unfortunately, Mutombo’s head did not reach the ball.

‘Is it too high?’

Such a question appeared on Mutombo’s face.

of course. I have to pass it to the goalkeeper.

Jamie answered inwardly and smiled.

squash.

And indeed, the ball went over Mutombo and the keeper and into the net, just as Jamie intended.

“Ah-oh!”

“Mutombo! If you blocked the Arsenal attacking team, why can’t you stop the 3rd division leaguer Jamie!”

“…”

Despite the criticism from the Red Vest teammates, Mutombo did not respond, as if he was shocked.

Gee, our key defender shouldn’t be downhearted. Concerned about Mutombo, Jamie approached him to comfort him.

“Don’t be too scared. It’s not that you’re bad, it’s that I’m very good at it.”

“…Mutombo hates you.”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t particularly consoling.

“Okay, today’s training ends here. It was nice to see everyone so enthusiastic.”

An hour later, Coach Charlie announced the end of today’s training.

“Instead, don’t spread the word that you only have tactical training tomorrow, and let each of you adjust your condition well. more.”

uh-uh As the players began to leave one by one after the greeting, Brian collapsed in place and groaned.

“Shall we take a day off from personal training today? Why, even the fitness coach told me to take a break on the day of the team practice game.”

“You rest. I will.”

Harry looked at him and burst into laughter.

“Jamie, are you going to do it too?”

“I have to.”

“Ugh. Poisonous bastards.”

Since two-thirds of the members of the ‘Stoke City Personal Training Group’ are participating, Brian doesn’t seem to mind. After letting out a moan of a different nuance than before, I got up.

“What are you going to do today?”

“yes. He said let’s prepare something else the other day.”

After a while, after the stretch, Brian and Harry turned to Jamie and asked.

“No, today you guys do it separately.”

“Ugh? Why?”

Jamie didn’t answer Brian’s question.

what. Are you going to stop caring about us now? Brian looked at Jamie anxiously, then followed his gaze when he realized he was staring at something.

“ah.”

Following Jamie’s gaze, Brian had no choice but to moan this time.

Mutombo with a scary face was walking this way.

**

The League Cup final against Manchester City was roughly a month away.

In other words, it was a story that Stoke City only had to focus on the league for a month.

“No, honey. You have Papa John’s Pizza Cups.”

As Hannah listened to Jamie’s story, she pointed out an important fact.

“ah.”

oh Jamie couldn’t help but say that. I had the championship in mind, but I had forgotten about it because it was such a small event.

“hahahaha. I’m glad it turned into a single tournament. If it wasn’t for that, honey, I wouldn’t have any stamina left.”

Originally, the Papa John’s Pizza Cup was held as a single tournament after 32 teams played in the group stage and then before the round of 16.

However, due to the excessive number of matches, concerns about the risk of injury to players continued to emerge – and the 3rd and 4th divisions, unlike the Premier League, are conducted in 46 rounds. Eventually, from 2030, only a single tournament from the 1st round to the final is played. changed to

“When is the next Pizza Cup? Was it next week?”

“yes. It’s a midweek game. Four days after this week’s league game.”

it’s weekday Then the league game will be missed. Jamie expected so.

But······.

“It’s a selection, Lee.”

On the day of the league match, Coach Charlie delivered an unexpected message.

what. Are you throwing away Papa John’s pizza cups? Jamie was puzzled.

‘I wanted to present a championship cup to my father-in-law.’

I thought so.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been working with Mikel. Mikel, um…, make sure you’re good at heading,”

“···Yes.”

It was saying that Mikel and Jamie should take care of themselves as usual.

“Below Harry and Jack, and Mutombo today as central defenders. with Eric.”

The rest was the same as usual, the only difference being that today Mutombo plays as a central defender. In the last game he was paired with Harry as a defensive midfielder.

“ruler. If we win today, we can move up to 4th in the league. Let’s break the barrels of the Barnsley countrymen and come back.”

Today’s opponent is Barnsley FC.

At the beginning of the season, it was a team that managed to draw a draw in away matches. At this time, Jamie scored the face equalizer.

‘I can’t be satisfied with a draw today.’

Anyway, Papa John’s Pizza Cups are an afterthought. I decided to focus on more important things right now.

“lee.”

On the way to the stadium after shouting slogans with the players, Mutombo talked to me in the hallway.

“Barnsley striker, second in goals.”

“Ivan? Yeah, he said he did it.”

Jamie immediately understood what he was saying.

Barnsley FC’s ace, striker Ivan, was currently ranked second in League One scoring.

Of course, the number one was Jamie.

“At that time, is that advice valid?”

And at Mutombo’s question that followed, Jamie smiled.

“Sure.”

After a while, the game starts…

“Damn it, it’s a counterattack.”

“Stop! No, push it to the side!”

Stoke’s right wing, Troy, attempted an excessive dribble and lost the ball to Barnsley full-back.

Mikel, as well as Brian, Jamie, and the 3rd midfielders were participating in the attack.

“Don’t run! Pull as far as possible!”

“Back off!”

shouted urgently from the stoke bench.

However, overshadowing the coaches’ desperate cries, Barnsley’s Ivan quickly passed the players and reached the inside of the penalty box.

Enough distance to aim for a direct shot.

Ivan made a big move as if he was going to shoot, and central defender Eric reacted.

ugh However, the move was fake and Ivan passed Eric right away.

There is only one defender left now, Mutombo.

‘Even the main strikers in the Premier League won’t be able to break through you easily. Trust yourself, Mutombo.”

At this moment, Mutombo remembered what Jamie had said at the training ground.

Two-woong.

At the same time, he took the ball away from Ivan, who was in a shooting fake motion again.

“Mutombo! Give it to Oliver!”

Seeing the scene, Jamie shouted loudly.

Mutombo attempted a long pass for a counterattack, but flinched and played a back pass to goalkeeper Oliver.

phew. Jamie let out a sigh of relief.

The short pass is good, but the long pass was because he knew the weakness of the clumsy Mutombo.

“Oliver!”

Then he shouted again, and Oliver, without hesitation, fired a long pass at Jamie.

As he got older, his reflexes declined a lot, but his build-up was Oliver, who would go beyond League One and win the championship. His long pass fell precisely in front of Jamie.

After catching the ball, Jamie raised his head to check the opposing side. Right after the counterattack, the defense is not yet in order.

‘It’s a counterattack of a counterattack.’

Jamie sped up.

Dung- Dung-

Just then, the drumbeat of supporters was heard from the stands.

At the same time, Jamie’s heart began to beat.

‘Even if I can’t, I score two goals.’

Jamie promised.

Now that Harry and Brian have awakened and even recruited Mutombo.

As long as he plays as a starter, it is no exaggeration to say that Stoke City are invincible in the third division.

Today he was confident of a big win over Barnsley.