GEM TALENT

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When the bright second morning came, William jumped out of his bed because he was highly eager to resume his daily training to improve his fitness.

However, he knew perfectly well that he would absolutely not train with the first team until his complicated future is officially decided by the strict Chelsea board.

When he finally arrived at the massive Cobham training facility and stepped out of his taxi, he was directed to walk far away from the main building, because his private session was scheduled on another, much smaller grass pitch completely hidden at the far back.

As he walked onto the quiet green grass with his sports bag, he met Hernandez, who was the specific coach officially in charge of William and a few other young players whose professional future is completely not decided yet.

These few players were exactly like William, trapped in a highly confusing transfer situation, so they gathered together in a small circle to patiently wait for the coach's instructions.

Coach Hernandez smiled warmly at the boys, clapped his hands loudly to get everyone's attention, and he happily chatted with them in the very first training circle because he wanted to properly encourage the worried boys before the physical work started.

Hernandez looked directly at William with very kind eyes and gently said,

"You are very welcome back to the club, William, because you are actually the newest player happily joining us right here today, so please do not be sad or heavily discouraged that you are training here on this small pitch instead of the main stadium."

The friendly coach continued his motivating speech to properly boost the boy's confidence, and he firmly added,

"Do not feel bad just because the club isn't putting you in the main squad for the massive upcoming season right now, because there is a high probability that the club can call you back when they clearly see your great physical efforts and watch your game more."

Even though the older coach meant well, William just stared blankly, and William quickly said deeply in his own mind that, even if the rich Chelsea directors proudly call me back, I will completely ignore them and look for another respectful club that truly wants me.

After giving his positive welcoming speech, Coach Hernandez changed his warm tone to sound very serious, and he continued speaking loudly to the small group, saying,

"This specific training today is absolutely not official, and we will definitely not do any tactical ball work, because it's just purely meant for your health, so our entire training today is completely based on fitness only."

When William heard that they would absolutely not be touching the round ball at all today, he simply nodded his head quietly, and he smiled secretly and confidently thinking in his busy mind that he might not really need it that much, because he had already been heavily doing tough fitness training at his own home in his backyard.

He deeply believed that his fast sprints and plastic cone drills had completely prepared his body for anything the smart coach could throw at him, so he felt highly ready to pass the fitness test.

However, Coach Hernandez suddenly pointed his finger toward the indoor facility and loudly said,

"We will absolutely be doing heavy gym work today, boys, so let us move right now," and then they all walked quickly together, leaving the grassy pitch and going straight to the equipped indoor gym.

When they finally entered the cool gym filled with shiny metal equipment, the real brutal challenge officially started, and Hernandez immediately instructed William to jump directly onto a fast running treadmill to properly begin the heavy gym work.

The strict coach commanded William to run at his absolute top speed for twenty long minutes without taking any short breaks, and this intense, non-stop running quickly made his young heart beat incredibly fast inside his chest.

After the long, heavily tiring run finally ended, the demanding coach quickly moved him over to the heavy weightlifting section, and William had to carefully lift heavy iron dumbbells to properly build his upper body strength, making sure his arms were strong enough to hold off big defenders on the pitch.

Following the heavy arm exercises, he also did several highly difficult sets of heavy barbell squats to quickly strengthen his tired legs, lifting the massive iron bar up and down until his leg muscles burned with a very hot fire.

Because it's been a long time since he did that specific kind of intense gym work, his heavy muscles started shaking totally uncontrollably, and William quickly became extremely tired and heavily exhausted.

He finally realized very painfully that his simple backyard training was absolutely nothing compared to a real professional gym session, and he had to lay completely flat on his back on a soft mat just to catch his breath after finishing the highly demanding routine.

After the highly difficult gym session and the light cooling-down training finally came to a welcome end, William quickly packed his wet towel into his heavy bag, politely thanked Coach Hernandez for the physical push, and he slowly left Cobham with his entire body aching wonderfully.

While he was slowly going down the long exit path toward the busy main road, he looked closely through the tall metal fence and clearly saw the main first-team players actively training much harder on the large, beautiful main pitch.

He stood there quietly for a brief second and watched them happily doing fast passing drills, perfectly executing sharp passes, and loudly laughing together as they prepared for the upcoming season under the bright sun.

For a very short, highly painful moment, the young boy thought sadly in his mind,

"I truly should have been right there on that green grass with them," but he quickly shook his head, totally ignored the sad feeling completely, and he boarded a taxi to easily take him straight back home.

While he was comfortably sitting in the back of the moving taxi and heading straight on his way home, his mobile phone suddenly rang loudly, and it was Leon, the smart young agent, quickly calling him to properly give him a highly important update on his current transfer market situation.

William answered the phone with a highly hopeful smile, fully expecting to hear a long list of rich clubs begging for his magical signature, but Leon's voice sounded incredibly serious and totally flat when he gave the bad update that absolutely no big club has actively shown any concrete interest in signing him yet.

William's happy smile instantly vanished into thin air, and he felt a massive, cold wave of deep disappointment wash completely over his tired chest, quickly asking his smart agent exactly why the professional clubs were heavily rejecting a highly talented player like him.

Leon sighed deeply through the loud phone speaker and carefully explained the harsh reality of the professional transfer market, and Leon said,

"Two major clubs strongly believed that you absolutely cannot handle heavy professional pressure, because you completely look so confused for quickly quitting the sport and suddenly coming back to football in such a very short time."

The smart agent paused for a brief second to let those painful words sink in properly, and then he firmly continued his explanation, adding,

"And other interested clubs clearly said that they totally don't want to quickly risk any expensive transfer money on you right now, heavily claiming that you have totally lost your magical form during your break, and they are absolutely not ready for building a new player up again."

Hearing these highly negative, incredibly harsh judgments from the big club directors made William feel very angry and deeply frustrated, because he knew perfectly well that he was still a very massive, highly magical talent who just needed a fair chance to beautifully prove his true worth on the green pitch.

However, just before William could totally lose all his hope and sadly hang up the phone in complete despair, Leon quickly changed his tone to sound slightly more positive and highly encouraging to properly boost his young client's falling spirit.

"But you must not worry too much, William, because currently we actually have two very good, highly respected clubs heavily weighing the strong possibilities of officially signing you right now, and they are your former club Blackpool and the famous Rayo Vallecano over in beautiful Spain," Leon revealed excitingly.

Hearing the highly familiar, deeply beloved name of Blackpool and the highly exciting prospect of proudly playing in the beautiful country of Spain instantly made William's sad heart leap with pure, absolute joy, because these were two massive, incredible opportunities to quickly revive his sleeping career and silence his harsh critics.

He vividly remembered the amazing fans at Blackpool loudly chanting his name, and he also deeply imagined the highly technical, fast-paced football matches played in Spain, deeply realizing that either of these amazing clubs would easily offer him the perfect platform to properly showcase his massive talent to the entire world once again.

He felt a massive surge of positive energy heavily replace the dark sadness in his young soul, and he was just about to loudly celebrate and quickly tell Leon to immediately accept whichever rich club made the absolute best offer, when the young agent suddenly dropped his voice to a very low, highly serious whisper that completely froze the hot blood inside William's warm veins.

Leon took a very deep, nervous breath, heavily paused for a very dramatic second, and said slowly,

"But there is a very massive problem..."