Greatest Of All Legends

Chapter 52  An Annoyed Coach

**27th January 2020**

It had been a day since the Taca da Liga's finals and the team had not had any training the day after they lost the finals which was not in line with what Sergio Conceicao really planned to do to punish the team but he had been forced to let them have a day off to rest anyway.

Their schedule was packed and they had a match almost every three days so he had to let them have a break despite his annoyance, otherwise, there would be an increased risk of injuries.

Losing the finals had annoyed him quite a bit as even though the Taca da Liga was not a historical trophy, having only started less than twenty years ago, losing a chance at any form of silverware was not something that would make him happy.

But what had actually caused him to be infuriated was how his players had played in that match.

The very thing he had mentioned in training that was likely to happen had happened despite how he had tried to address it in training and had even created a specified training drill to counter it.

The strikers had been tightly marked and were unable to receive the ball but instead of his wingers to step up and perform when needed, they had stayed at the edge of the box, sending passes that always got intercepted and made them vulnerable on the counterattack.

Words were not enough to describe how infuriated he was as he watched his players play like that. He had shouted and given instructions but that had only had the opposite effect and his players started playing like headless chickens who had never heard the words gameplan or tactics in their lives.

He had his head in his hands when the goal that caused his team to miss out on the silverware arrived even though he had been expecting it.

He had been planning on making sure that he dragged the team back to Porto that same night and began training the next day, but his assistant managers had dissuaded him from such actions.

In the end, he had listened, but that had done nothing to calm his temper and now that he was looking at the team for the first time again since that night, his annoyance welled up again as he remembered how they had given a performance that was too embarrassing to be considered professional.

Yet despite his annoyance, he kept his cool like the experienced coach he was. This was not his first time losing a game after all.

"Previously I had mentioned that you wingers have been too passive on the attack and that this could come back to hurt us," Sergio Conceicao began speaking to the players that stood before him on the field.

"Yet after I said that and even made plans and told you what I need from you… you still went onto the field and played absolute rubbish that even academy-level students wouldn't play…" he came to a pause and stared hard at the culprits who wished they could bury themselves in sand at that moment, but it wasn't happening.

"Especially you Jesus, you played like somebody with two left legs and kept causing us to lose possession with those idiotic, non-directional passes you were making into the box,"

"Do you think you are Kevin De Bruyne who can always find the right pass?"

"Well, I'm here to tell you that you're not and your passes were absolute shite in that match,"

"With that said, we are going to be doing the same training, but this time, whenever you don't score after every five-minute interval, whichever team is on the attack will be doing 30 split squats while their wingers will do 50," Sergio Conceicao gave his verdict.

Jason who was standing in the back along with Fabio Viera could not help but have a bitter smile on his face as he could already feel the pain incoming pain in his legs.

As he had expected, the anger of the manager had spread to the whole team irrespective of whether they were involved or not and it was even worse for Jason as he was a winger as well and was going to be one of the most affected by the punishment.

He was already having a hard time completing the team's training and still having to do individual training, but now the coach had directly added a fifty squats every five minutes drill to his training routine.

He felt like crying out at this injustice, but he knew it would not have an effect on changing the manager's decision and would rather cause the manager and the team to look at him in a different light that wouldn't be positive so he kept his lips sealed.

In the end, it was not something he could avoid so he could only go along with it.

Well, a little more training would only help him with his intention of getting into the team's lineup faster.

Soon the training started again and despite the show of talent that Jason had shown in the last training session, he was still on the second team's group of substitutes who would be rotated along with the squad after a round of attacking and defending.

"Sir, we would need to finalize the squad registration for the Europa League before the end of this month, but since Bruno Costa has left the club for Portimonense, we currently have a vacant spot in the previous squad registration," Vitor quickly stated why he had come, wanting to quickly leave and not take much of the manager's time.

"Oh… that," Sergio suddenly had a thoughtful look on his face as he hadn't given it much thought.

This did not faze him as he already accepted that he wasn't yet ready to be on the big stage and for now, his patience still had a long line of thread before it could be worn thin.

**After the day's training session**

Sergio Conceicao was in his office, dealing with some documents when Vitor Bruno, one of his assistant coaches came into the office after a knock.

"Sir, we would need to finalize the squad registration for the Europa League before the end of this month, but since Bruno Costa has left the club for Portimonense, we currently have a vacant spot in the previous squad registration," Vitor quickly stated why he had come, wanting to quickly leave and not take much of the manager's time.

"Oh… that," Sergio suddenly had a thoughtful look on his face as he hadn't given it much thought.

"Here's a list of players available that you could consider adding to the squad," Vitor saw the thoughtful look on his boss's face and quickly handed him a notepad of players who were not registered on the Europa squad and were on the club's payroll. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Thanks," Sergio muttered as he took the notepad and began to look through it.

The current team that was registered for the Europa League had enough strikers, midfielders, defenders, and even goalkeepers.

The only part of the squad that was a bit lacking in numbers would be the wingers and that was because there weren't that many wingers in their team in the first place, but as he thought about this, his eyes suddenly fell on the last name on the list that seemed to have just been scribbled on there.

A strange smile slowly appeared and spread across Sergio's face as he tapped on the name twice and then returned the notepad to Vitor, "Add the new kid to the squad," he said with a grin as he handed the notepad to Vitor.

"New kid…? Wait, you mean Jason?" Vitor Bruno asked in surprise.

"Yes... What's wrong with adding him to the squad?" Sergio Conceicao asked, his grin not leaving his face.

"I thought you said he wasn't ready for a place in the line-up yet?" Vitor asked, obviously bewildered by this decision of the head manager.

"I did say that, but I think you should have noticed as well that he's adjusting to the team's tempo at an alarming rate and would soon qualify for me to change my mind about him,"

"That's not to say that I will immediately add him to the team or anything of the sort, but it may not be a bad idea to add him to the squad and he may get a chance to come on from the bench in one of the later games if we manage to get that far," "Not to mention, he's one of the few pure wingers that this team has and the others that I could consider adding aren't his match, so it's only right I add him to the team," the head manager explained his reasoning to his assistant coach.

"I see… since those are your thoughts then I'll add him to the Europa League squad," Vitor nodded in acceptance and turned to leave the office, leaving a still grinning Sergio Conceicao behind him.