Chapter 67: The Price of Getting to The Top
The way Adi Hutter set up the training match wasn't how the players were used to. This time, he gave the reserve team an automatic two goal advantage and told the first team to set up how they were supposed to play against Paris Saint Germain, using the tactics, positioning and movements that he told them to make.
This gave the reserve team a lot more freedom to play as they wished and it showed in the setup as they had a lot more attempts and attack than the first team. The first team, even though Adi Hutter had made sure to stack the odds against them also managed to get some attacks in through quick breaks and very organized passing sequences.
In the end, even though the training match spanned for two twenty minute halves, it ended how it started with the reserve team "winning" the first team with a score line of two goals to nothing.
"Are you sure you weren't the one that cursed us". Tiago wrapped his hand around Tyler's neck as soon as the training session was over and he was walking back to the locker room.`
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you left the reserve team for one training session and we won". Tiago said. "We never won when you played with us".
"You only won because the Gaffer wanted you to win. We'd have skinned you lot otherwise". Tyler scoffed as the pair entered the locker room.
"Winners celebrate. Losers explain". Tiago said as they started changing.
After he finished changing, Tyler checked his phone and immediately groaned. He got a message from his tutor and he realized that he had a class scheduled with her. Since they hadn't met for quite a long time, Tyler could only imagine the amount of work that he'd be forced to so so that they could catch up.
He replied to her, telling her that he'd meet her in the club's learning facilities, for the players in the academy and immediately packed his bags and left the Monaco Performance Center.
He went to his apartment first to change into better clothes, and then he made his way to their chosen destination for the meeting.
Ten minutes later, Tyler walked through the door of the classroom that they chose and saw his tutor sitting by the window, peacefully reading a novel. She coughed lightly and then turned to the other page, stirring slightly in her seat as she did so.
Tyler sighed slightly as he watched her. If only she was as peaceful as she looked. The first time he had a class with her, he thought that she was going to be nice since she was a woman and even tried to make jokes and be on friendly terms with her. She smashed his hopes very early on and warned him that their relationship was strictly going to be that of a teacher and student and nothing else. Not that Tyler wanted anything else, she looked like she was in her late fifties and that was Tyler being kind in his assessment. He just thought that he could make it fun for the both of them but she didn't seem to be into that idea.
"Ahem". Tyler lightly coughed to alert his tutor to his presence inside the room and walked to seat opposite her.
Immediately she saw Tyler enter the room, Solene (Tyler's tutor) put away her novel and turned her attention to him.
"Oh, you're here". Solene said dryly. "I thought you weren't going to show. You've already missed so many days, what's one more".
"I've been busy lately". Tyler said calmly. He wasn't at all angry at her comment. He bummed out that he didn't get a cooler tutor but that didn't mean that he was going to fall for her rage-baiting attempt.
"Ohh, too busy even for your education?" Sloene raised an eyebrow.
"Yes". Tyler answered plainly.
Sloene looked at him for a few seconds, before turning her attention to the small pile of books in front of her. "Well, because you were... busy, we'll have to spend a lot of time catching up on what you missed, so you're going to be here for quite a while. Do you know that?"
"I figured". Tyler shrugged.
"We're going to start with Math". Sloene said.
Tyler groaned internally when he heard the subject that he would be working on, but his expression didn't waver. Sloene continued talking while Tyler bravely went into several hours of boring schoolwork.
Sloene didn't lie when she said that they were going to spend hours together catching up. It was a few minutes past eight in the evening when she decided to end the lecture and that was because it became apparent that Tyler could not learn anything anymore.
When Sloene called it a day, Tyler felt like his head was going to explode. He had slept off several times already during the tutor session, but Sloene smacked him awake. The increasing frequency of his impromptu naps was another thing that made Sloene call it a day.
Tyler stumbled out of the classroom and dragged himself back to his apartment after Sloene gave him permission to leave. On the way to his apartment, he bought himself some food so he wouldn't get disappointed on reaching his apartment and continued with what felt like a hellish journey.
When he got back to the apartment, he was to weak to even talk with his roommates. He just dragged himself to his room, finished with his meal and then went to soak himself in some cold water in his bath tub. He stayed there, relaxed for a very long time, briefly even falling asleep in it.
He eventually willed himself to get up from the bathtub and dragged himself back to his bed. By the time he opened his phone, he saw that he had gotten a lot of texts from Jasmine, checking up on him. He replied to all of them and explained what happened.
Jasmine laughed at him for a bit, before comforting him and telling him that this was one of the many things that he would have to endure if he wanted to make it to the top. Tyler called her and they talked for a bit before Tyler fell asleep while they were still on the call.
The next morning, Tyler woke up early again, but this time he didn't do the gym routine that he did the day before. He did the system's mandatory morning exercise and then stepped out of his apartment, going to the Monaco Performance Center a lot earlier than training was supposed to start.
When he arrived, he met Adrian setting things up for their personal training session. The two of them chatted for a bit, until Adrian finished setting things up. After that the two of them got right into it.
They had finished up on the training drills and decided to start working on his physicality. Even though his lack in that aspect wasn't visible in the match against Paris FC, Adrian and Adi Hutter thought that it would be best to work on it and improve it before it became obvious.
Their aim wasn't to make him buff at all, but they still felt that he should at least reach a level where he would be able to hold his own against grown professional footballers.
They did some work for about thirty minutes before Adrian decided to call it a day. They weren't merely working on striking the ball after all, this was a physically intensive exercise and he was still going to train with the rest of the team a little later on. It would be a shame if Adrian overexerted him and he ended up getting an injury because of it.
After they finished with the training, Tyler and Adrian talked for a little while. Because of the early training session that they did, the two of them bonded quite a bit. At that point, Tyler knew the name of every one of Adrian's kids, his wife and how they all looked. Adrian was quite the talkative when it came to his family, especially his wife.
They kept talking, until eventually the rest if the team arrived for training. Tyler reported back to the locker room and changed into his training outfit.
Adi Hutter arrived and dragged everyone inside a theater like room so that they could watch and analyze Paris Saint Germain's match. They watched their attacks and deducted various attacking patterns and also several habits that they could counter against.
They also looked out for bad defensive habits that they could take advantage of. After a couple of hours, they finished with the tactical analysis session and then Adi Hutter called them out to do some work on the pitch.
A/N:
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