Connor

Heighway forcibly suppressed his excitement, revealing nothing on his face. He was something of an old-school youth academy coach, adhering to the simplest educational principles—principles that even seemed outdated by today's standards. He believed countless gifted teenagers in football were never defeated by a lack of talent, but ruined by premature praise, which made them restless. Talent was a gift, and also a shackle. So he chose not to mention Du An's having no weaker foot. He had no intention of shackling Du An with any burden of talent, nor letting him fall too early into the constraints of a genius's halo. He only planned to have him train the fundamentals day after day first. Football was all about the fundamentals. Heighway had seen some players who, with decent speed, relied on their physical pace in the youth academy and neglected fundamentals training—after all, if you could get past someone with a burst of speed, why bother practicing technique? He had been the same way himself. So he hoped Du An would grow steadily and solidly. "Don't slack off." "This basic wall passing is the foundation of all technique. The wall is your teammate. This week you must practice this every day, one thousand times a day, not missing a single one, until you develop that instinctive feel for the ball." "Now let's move on to the next drill." He flicked the football at his feet up with one foot and balanced it on one hand. "I'll toss the ball to you by hand, and you'll pass it back to me with the instep. The principle is the same as the wall passing you just did; the only difference is that this is dynamic training." "The ball can bounce off the ground before you handle it, or you can play it straight out of the air—whatever feels comfortable. The core is just one thing: standard foot shape, precise passing." Du An nodded. "I'm ready, boss." Heighway said nothing more and tossed the ball over. The football traveled toward Du An. Heighway's full attention was on Du An. He observed every detail—his plant foot, the instep pushing motion, the point of contact, his overall posture—missing not a single thing. In his youth coaching experience, complete beginners shared an extremely uniform common problem: stiff bodies, all movement relying on instinctive force, basically no coordination at all. After all, football is using your feet as hands; many uncoordinated people could fall flat the first time they kick a ball. But Du An completely overturned his preconceptions. It seemed that from the wall passing, Du An had already found the feel for playing football. Right from the start of this session, Du An's body was very relaxed. Whether it was a bouncing ball or a half-high ball, his body could quickly react based on the ball's trajectory. "A natural athletic talent!" Heighway understood: this must be the foundation from Du An's years of exercise. He had heard Dalglish say that Du An had started running on his own very early, even did Sanda training, and often got into fights at school. Years of accumulated exercise had given Du An excellent physical coordination and flexibility, which of course also showed that Du An himself had great natural talent. Without any professional training, he could achieve this effect. As training continued, the blue bead energy in Du An's vision kept increasing. Dynamic training yielded faster gains than static wall passing. Du An practiced with utter seriousness. A simple thought filled his mind: Liverpool was paying money to train him; he couldn't slack off. So every time he was extremely focused. This made Heighway nod repeatedly, extremely satisfied with Du An. He quietly settled on an arrangement for Du An. Accommodation at Kirkby Training Ground had clear grade divisions. Ordinary youth team players uniformly lived in four-person rooms—anything that met basic housing needs was fine. Outstanding players with exceptional potential could apply for better double rooms with more personal space. By the rules, this kind of complete beginner, regardless of talent, had to start in a four-person room and progress step by step—after all, how much talent could a complete beginner really have? But Heighway directly broke with convention. He wanted to arrange a double room for Du An. Such treatment was rare throughout the entire youth academy. As time passed, the originally empty and quiet Kirkby Training Ground gradually became lively. The various training fields were successively filled with youth team players; noise, coaches' shouts—it all broke the tranquility. The entire youth academy was fully awakened. Heighway temporarily suspended the one-on-one specialized coaching. As Kirkby's youth academy director, he had a mountain of affairs to handle, and the most important goal this season was to lead Liverpool's U18 to defend the FA Youth Cup title. Last season, the U18 he personally led won the English FA Youth Cup title, which was also his greatest confidence within the club. He personally cultivated batch after batch of capable youth prospects and continued to lead the team to championships, using results to prove the value of the Kirkby youth academy system. But these dazzling results carried no weight before today's Liverpool first team. After Benitez took over Anfield, he completely abandoned Liverpool's old ways, trusting externally purchased ready-made players and refusing to use a single champion product from Kirkby. Heighway had confidence, but Benitez had even more. The Spanish manager held heavyweight honors like the Champions League and FA Cup; his position in the club's upper management was unshakeable, and everyone unconditionally supported his team-building approach. Beyond this, some not-top-secret rumors quietly circulated within the club that the team was about to change owners. During the turbulent transition period, upper management had no mind to care about youth academy construction, valuing only the first team's short-term results. This also placed Kirkby Training Ground in a very awkward position, as if it were an unwanted orphan—neither father nor mother loved it. That was why Heighway had already begun thinking about leaving Kirkby. He could hardly bear to stay anymore. The rift between Melwood and Kirkby was growing larger and larger. The core of the conflict was Benitez. Even if Kirkby players could win youth championships, they couldn't get any favor from the first team or upper management. After suppressing these thoughts, Heighway instructed Du An. "Continue practicing wall passing here on your own. Keep the rhythm, don't rush for results. In between training, remember to rest properly and don't overextend yourself." "I'll go handle the youth team training arrangements and daily work first." Du An nodded seriously and obediently agreed, "Okay." Heighway turned and left, heading to the various training fields to coordinate work. Du An was left alone at the remote training field, continuing to repeat the tedious wall passing drill. Countless repetitions had long made his movements increasingly skilled. The blue bead's color slowly deepened, giving him more motivation to continue training. Training where you can see improvement is not tedious at all; what is tedious is repetitive work where you cannot see improvement. After completing several sets of high-intensity training consecutively, he entered his break time and walked toward the base's restrooms. As he passed through the training area, he happened to run into youth coach Ian Barigan talking with a young immigrant couple; a very small child was beside them, and the group was touring the base. When Ian Barigan wanted to speak, he suddenly stumbled, for a moment unable to recall the child's name. The child's mother beside him immediately smiled and said, "His name is Curtis Jones; he just turned five in January." Hearing this, Ian nodded in understanding, smiling at the child in front of him. "Curtis is very young; we can start increasing his training a bit to foster an interest in football. By next year, he can officially join Kirkby and begin systematic youth academy training." After saying that, Ian also pointed to the U10 youth team's training field ahead, introducing the team's training system. Du An didn't listen much more. After returning from the restroom, the four were still here, chatting heatedly, and the U10 training had already become lively. Ian raised his hand, pointing to a nimble little boy on the field, and introduced to the family: "Look at that child, Trent." "He joined Kirkby last year through selection at a football summer camp organized by the club in cooperation with local primary schools. He hasn't been exposed to formal training for long, but his rate of improvement is astonishing. He's only eight this year, and his technique, vision, and passing awareness far exceed children his age. The club has already decided to promote him directly to U12 training next season... Curtis coming to Kirkby won't be buried..." Du An watched the group of children on the field—still young, but already beginning youth academy system training. He felt some emotion: had they started playing football at five or six? Was he starting too late now? Du An didn't know. But he knew he had to train hard to deserve Liverpool's £110 weekly wage! Thinking this, he hurried toward his small training field to continue the wall passing drill. When he returned to the training field, a young player of similar age was already there. Seeing Du An return, this person smiled and extended his hand. "Hey, Du An, I'm Connor Cody." Saying this, Connor added, "Your future roommate!"}