Team Spirit

Chapter 23: Son of Merseyside, Manchester City's Baggio

Other media outlets also followed suit and forwarded relevant reports on the game.

Sky News: "A surprise Beckham appears in the ninth division! Arsenal's former youth academy player lobs a shot from the center circle, recreating the goal that made Beckham famous!"

BBC: "The best goal of this round of English football was scored by Arsenal! His combined power and skill led the team to a 10-point surge!"

The Times: "The chairman is crazy! Since Lu Kai acquired Dartford Royal VCD, he has led the team from last place in the league to sixth place in the league!"

"Football News": "Manchester City's Baggio comes to help, ten goals and ten assists, super six! Green Gun can actually upgrade, don't be dissatisfied when the points are counted!"

Sports Weekly: "Dartford's surge in results shows just how valuable England's youth football training is! This ninth-tier team is as strong as any Chinese Jia-A team!"

blow!
Both Chinese and foreign media outlets have been praising it fiercely.

If you don’t know Dartford, just watch Lu Kai’s lob from the center circle.

If you know Dartford, you can take a closer look at the team's recent performance and prospects.

Chinese fans who are optimistic about Dartford even use their mathematical intuition to keenly discover that this team is not far from the promotion zone!

The Green Guns are now sixth, while the fifth-placed team in the Kent Premier League will qualify for the promotion play-offs.

It took less than two months from downgrade to upgrade.

This is all too magical.

With ten goals and ten assists, Lu Kai is undoubtedly the main contributor to the team's success.

But unfortunately, only Lu Kai benefited from this round of traffic.

Because the team's top striker Ashley Young is injured, he is expected to be out for two weeks and may miss the next three to four games.

The team's fastest player, Tomas Madeira, was unremarkable and failed to impress the famous coaches in the comment section.

The "Green Gun Baggio", who scored twice in his debut and was versatile in offense and defense, received a lot of attention.

Not to mention the second level, even Premier League scouts have shown interest in him.

But with the follow-up report by The Sun, everyone's interest quickly faded.

The Sun: "Son of Merseyside! Rather than saying Joey Barton is the Green Gun Baggio, it's better to say he is the Tyson of Manchester City!"

The report highly praised Joey Barton's performance in the clash of the game.

It also describes the subsequent conflict between Joey Patton and his opponent after the game.

The opponent couldn't accept defeat and kept cursing. Lu Kai and Patton went over to argue with him, pointing out that it was a violation for him to use sixth-level players to participate in the ninth-level competition.

As the argument intensified, Patton almost got into another fight with the other party.

In the end, the opponent left the pond court in disgrace.

The two teams became mortal enemies!

This is also the prototype of many long-standing feuds between England's rival teams.

But apart from Dartford fans, any team's scouts who saw this report would give up on Barton.

Especially after Manchester City's youth training director personally spoke out and made public the reason why Barton was expelled from the team.

Beat up the coach and teammates!
Barton broke the rules of football.

The Manchester City youth team coach who was beaten by Barton said angrily in an interview with Sky Sports: "I thought he would be more restrained after going to the amateur league. After all, he paid such a heavy price for it."

"But now it seems that his sister has changed a little bit."

"I don't understand why Dartford would use such a player, but I can assert that Barton will ruin the atmosphere of Dartford! The Green Gun will pay a heavy price for this!"

The Son of Merseyside instantly became the “Bad Boy of Merseyside”.

Barton faced a moment of online violence. …

Pond Ballpark convenience store.

Lu Kai invited Barton here and apologized: "It's my fault. I didn't expect the outside world to evaluate you like this. That was your heroic moment... I'll ask Emily to find a way to remove the news about you."

Jiang Mengyun interrupted, "No, Lu Kai, this has nothing to do with you. Emily wrote down exactly what Barton did."

"He did good things, he defended the club and that should be praised and commended!"

"But prejudiced people can only see the Patton they imagine."

"That's not the real Patton."

Alfred also nodded: "Dartford fans will always support you, Joey!"

Patton was deeply moved.

From this moment on, he truly felt a sense of belonging here.

Even if the whole world stigmatizes him, the people here will never ignore his contributions.

"Come on, have a cup of strawberry and taro Bobo milk tea. It's our newest product." Lu Kai handed Barton the milk tea and a contract. "Now may not be the best time, but I hope you can feel the club's support."

"It's a professional contract and it might not be what you'd expect, but it's a sign of good faith from Dartford."

"This season's weekly salary is only 80 pounds, which is far less than your youth training contract. But if we can be promoted, your weekly salary will increase to 300 pounds next season."

"And you will always automatically match the team's maximum salary, and the contract is for five years."

"Of course, you can't sign him now."

Lu Kai pointed to a special clause.

When Barton saw it, his eyes immediately turned red.

"This contract can only be signed after the start of the 2000-2001 season, and prior salary will be paid after signing," Lu Kai explained. "I don't want you to make a decision now, because it affects your entire career."

"There's a famous saying that goes, 'Don't make decisions when you're emotional, because those decisions are often wrong.'"

"So during this period, I hope you can play well. After the season is over, go to various major clubs and try to join the youth team of a Premier League team, or a team in League One, League Two, or League Three."

"Dartford shouldn't be your first choice, it should be your safety net."

"If they don't know what we're talking about, you're welcome to come back here and continue fighting alongside us!"

Patton grabbed the contract and rushed out of the convenience store.

He resisted the urge to burst into tears, not wanting to shed tears in front of the lady.

But the tear stains on the ground near the door revealed his vulnerability.

There is absolutely no such contract in the world.

We will give you a few months to perform well and think calmly, and you will still be paid during this period.

When you perform well, I hope you can go to a better club and try your best. If it doesn’t work out, come back.

It not only expressed support for the players, but also did not take advantage of the situation to restrict the players.

Barton vowed to play hard for Dartford this season and help Dartford achieve good results.

As for the summer... he really won't give up his football dream, he will go for a trial with a Premier League team.

But he vowed to only go to Premier League teams.

(End of this chapter)