Super Wingstorm

It was a sad story that had played out time and again at professional clubs around the world for the past several decades.

John Reep and Hank De Kuning had both been players in the Ajax Youth Academy. They played the same position but had completely different styles. Ultimately, it was John Reep—faster and with more incisive dribbling—who was chosen for the first team. From there, his career took off, and he became a famous top-tier star in the Netherlands and throughout European football.

As for Hank De Kuning, he was devastated. He left Ajax and bounced between several professional Dutch clubs, but he never managed to live up to his potential. Depressed, he retired early and transitioned into a youth coach. After accumulating a few years of experience, he became the youth director for the Eerste Divisie club, Hamler.

Ironically, John Reep, despite his brilliant playing career, ended up coaching the newly formed amateur team Almere after retiring. Although he led the team through promotions and came just shy of reaching the Eerste Divisie last season, they were still a notch below Hamler.

Even more important was youth development. As one of Ajax’s key youth development partners, Hamler maintained a close cooperative relationship and frequent personnel exchanges with Ajax every year. Almere, on the other hand, despite holding the title of a satellite club, had yet to send a single player to the Ajax Youth Academy.

This gave Hank De Kuning, who had felt stifled and aggrieved throughout his career, a huge sense of vindication. Every time he ran into John Reep, he was determined to outdo him and come out on top.

This attitude naturally influenced the players under his charge.

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After listening to Dick Van Puer’s explanation, it dawned on Yang Yang and the others. They all thought the stout middle-aged man was incredibly petty, still trying to get revenge for being the less skilled player decades ago.

But Yang Yang couldn’t help but think of Van Gaal.

He still remembered clearly that Van Gaal’s expression soured whenever he mentioned John Reep. He was even more open about his disdain for the legendary Ajax icon, Cruyff, whom he felt was all talk.

’He’s always criticizing my tactics and discipline, but he always forgets one thing: his success was built on a foundation of geniuses. Geniuses can’t be replicated. My philosophy, on the other hand, is to use rigorous tactical discipline to develop talented but ordinary players and forge them into a powerful, unified team.’

It was hard to say which of the two legends’ philosophies was better, and it was just as difficult to judge the rights and wrongs of their conflict.

But Yang Yang had heard that the reason Van Gaal couldn’t break into the first team back in the day was that a world-famous, legendary superstar already occupied his spot: Cruyff.

’Perhaps Van Gaal, just like Hank De Kuning, still harbored a grudge against Cruyff from their playing days. The only difference was his pride; he didn’t let it show on the surface like Hank De Kuning did. But deep down, he must have been incredibly resentful.’

A professional player’s career was full of unpredictability. Who could say what Van Gaal might have achieved if he had managed to stay at Ajax back then?

"Keep an eye on that Vincent Wegier. Anyone who can last five years in the Ajax Youth Academy is not to be underestimated. You all need to be careful during the scrimmages this afternoon," John Reep warned.

Yang Yang understood. ’This guy, Wegier, had the same resentful look when he mentioned Emmanuelson. They must be rivals.’

’Maybe many years from now, this will become another sad story.’

’If I don’t want to end up a Hank De Kuning, I have to work hard to become a John Reep.’

Yang Yang’s resolve hardened.

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The schedule for the new Eredivisie season was out.

The first match was on August sixteenth; Ajax would be playing away against Vitesse.

Vitesse wasn’t a strong team. They had narrowly avoided relegation last season and were one of the favorites to go down this season. But it was still the first match of the new season, and everyone at Ajax was taking it very seriously.

The team’s preseason results had been decent. In the prestigious Amsterdam Tournament, Ajax had first drawn 0-0 with Liverpool before defeating Inter Milan 3-0 to win the cup. However, the team’s overall performance hadn’t been great, especially on offense.

With Van der Meede’s departure, Ajax’s attack had suffered. The forwards had performed poorly in several preseason matches. The Swedish striker, Ibrahimovic, had agitated for a transfer over the summer, with rumors linking him to Premier League club Southampton, and it seemed to have affected his form.

Wesley Sonck, the top scorer from the Belgian First Division A who had just transferred from Genk in Belgium, also needed time to settle into the team. The player had cost Ajax 6 million euros. He could play down the middle or on the wings and was a goalscorer the entire club had high expectations for.

After the Amsterdam Tournament, the Ajax first team stayed at De Toekomst to focus on preparations for the new season. Having already let captain Qi Wu and starting winger Van der Meede leave, the club made it clear they would not allow Ibrahimovic to transfer.

Having failed to convince a big club to splash the cash, Ibrahimovic had no choice but to stay.

As was customary for Talent Day, the first-team stars and coaches would participate in the afternoon’s activities. The whole of De Toekomst was expected to be even more packed with people.

The morning, however, was dedicated to assessing the fundamental skills of the players in the final selection.

Ajax’s assessments were fundamentally the same as Almere’s, but as a giant of Dutch football, they were wealthy and well-equipped. Much of their gear and equipment was on a level Almere simply couldn’t match.

For shuttle sprints, for example, De Toekomst had a dedicated track. The entire process, from the starting whistle to the final monitoring, was automated by machines, yielding data far more precise than what coaches could record manually.

It was Yang Yang’s first time experiencing such advanced training equipment. The novelty of it all spurred him on, and he found himself sprinting even faster.

In addition to the more advanced equipment, Ajax’s training was also noticeably more meticulous.

As early as the warm-up, the Ajax coaches were constantly reminding players about the finer details—from the placement of the cones to the specifics of their movements, even down to the precise way they lifted their legs. They repeated these instructions exhaustively, the goal being to loosen up every joint and prevent injuries during the subsequent drills.

The passing and receiving drill took place inside a ten-by-ten meter square. Five players stood at one corner, with one player at each of the other three. They then performed various passing, receiving, and movement drills, rotating either clockwise or counter-clockwise.

It looked simple, much like a routine drill at Almere. But in reality, the tempo of the drill and the speed of the passing and movement were significantly faster. The demands on the players were much higher—everything was one-touch. Pass and move.

The subsequent drills focused on set plays involving passing, crossing, and shooting. The content was similar to what they did at Almere, but the intensity and pace were noticeably higher, as were the demands from the coaches on the sidelines.

Throughout the session, youth coaches and scouts, including Patrick Radru and Fred Arroyo, watched from the sidelines of the various training areas. They constantly took notes on the players’ performances to use for their final evaluation scores.

The final session of the morning was a four-on-four scrimmage designed to train coordinated team pressing on defense.

This was central to the Ajax philosophy: the best defense is a good offense. But that hinged on first winning the ball back. Therefore, the entire team was expected to press high up the pitch to defend, launching an immediate counter-attack the moment they recovered possession.

In a rectangular area measuring twenty-five by thirty-five meters, eight players competed in a four-on-four match. The pace was incredibly fast, placing high demands on the players’ technical skills and involving frequent physical contact.

In fact, to some extent, players with superior physical attributes held a distinct advantage in these tight-space encounters.

This reminded Yang Yang of what Vincent Wegier had said earlier—that in recent years, Ajax’s selection criteria, especially for the second team and first team, had increasingly prioritized physical strength and athletic attributes.

It was hard to say whether this trend was good or bad. Yang Yang didn’t know enough to judge, but it was Ajax’s standard for evaluation.

The four-on-four bouts were played in five-minute intervals, and the intensity was immense. After just one session, everyone was already gasping for breath.

Yang Yang was no exception. He was getting a firsthand taste of the intensity of Ajax’s training regimen.

And yet, rumor had it this was nowhere near the level required for first-team training.

He could only imagine how much his own abilities would improve if he were to train at this intensity every day, competing against such an exceptional group of teammates.

For young players of similar talent and ability, the progress they could make and the future they could have at the Ajax Youth Academy versus the Almere Youth Academy were worlds apart. That was the difference a platform made.

Realizing this only strengthened Yang Yang’s determination to secure his place at Ajax.

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"How did it go?"

The moment Yang Yang stepped off the pitch, Dick Van Puer hurried over and asked with concern.

Even though he knew Yang Yang was set to join Ajax regardless of his performance, he still hoped the boy would do them proud.

At the very least, he didn’t want Hank De Kuning to have any reason to look down on them.

"I gave it my all," Yang Yang answered, panting and forcing a chuckle.

There’s a saying: money gives a man guts. But on a football pitch, ability is what gives a player guts.

Yang Yang had always been self-aware. After several months of grueling foundational training, his fundamentals were still not quite where he wanted them to be, but he figured he could perform at an upper-mid level for an Almere player. And if he was in good form on the day, he could do even better.

Judging by his performance in the morning’s training, he was fired up and had done quite well.

"Right. As long as you gave it your all, that’s what matters." Dick Van Puer also knew that Yang Yang’s strengths didn’t lie in these fundamental exercises.

A little while later, Nick also finished his last drill. When he returned, he said he thought he had done alright, but he wasn’t very confident about his performance.

But Henk Demyer, the last to return, had a dark expression on his face and was clearly fuming.

When John Reep and Dick Van Puer asked with concern about his performance, Almere’s rising star erupted, cursing out Vincent Wegier. He claimed Wegier had deliberately set him up to fail during the final four-on-four scrimmage, causing him to make several mistakes he shouldn’t have.

Unfortunately for him, Vincent Wegier, walking up right behind them, overheard every word.

"Instead of admitting your own fundamentals are terrible, you’re blaming someone else?" Wegier sneered.