Chapter 117 Twenty Goals at Least?

Actually, the sudden emotional slump of Chen Yingxiong was a surprise not only to reporters and fans but also to his good friends.

During a recent gathering of the "Eat, Drink, and Be Merry Squad," Suárez asked, "Have you run into some trouble lately, Hero?"

"Yeah, is something bothering you?" Škrtel was also concerned about Chen Yingxiong.

Clearly, the fact that Chen Yingxiong had been in low spirits recently wasn't just known to one or two people; everyone knew.

Chen Yingxiong was puzzled. "No. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I've noticed you've been down ever since you came back from Slovenia…"

That's when it dawned on Chen Yingxiong.

"Oh, you mean that… I just feel like such a failure…" So Chen Yingxiong told his friends the reason for his gloominess. Of course, he didn't say, "I'm trying to complete the 'Arch-Rival' mission, and I need to surpass Messi in every aspect." No one would believe that.

Even so, his friends were still astonished, their eyes wide and their mouths agape as they stared at him.

"You want to compare goal-scoring with Messi?!"

"Yeah, so what?" Chen Yingxiong shrugged, unable to understand why they were so surprised.

"Messi is the best player right now…" Adam Johnson said.

Chen Yingxiong scoffed, his contempt obvious.

"He's already scored more than forty goals in all competitions this year, right?" Suárez didn't remember the exact number; the media had mentioned it, but he only remembered it was in the forties. But he wasn't concerned about that. He was more concerned about, "Why do you have to compete with him on who scores more goals? Not only are you in different leagues, but you're also participating in different European competitions—one in the Champions League and the other in the Europa League…"

Sánchez, who had played with Chen Yingxiong for two seasons in Napoli, understood him a bit better. After his initial surprise, he quickly figured it out.

"Hey, I think you must have been stimulated by Messi's performance in the Champions League last season, Hero," he said.

Hearing this, the others fell silent. So that's how it was…

Messi had indeed been insane last season, scoring eighteen goals in the Champions League! Such a record was unprecedented and might never be seen again.

The media was full of praise, and they almost made Messi out to be the "God of Football."

For the proud and ambitious Chen Yingxiong, being stimulated by Messi was understandable.

Chen Yingxiong snorted. "He just took advantage of the fact that I wasn't participating. But I still can't participate in the Champions League this season, so he might continue to be arrogant… So I plan to score more goals in the Europa League and surpass him with my goal count. I can't let him steal all the limelight!"

"Surpass him? How many are you planning to score?" Škrtel asked.

"Well, Messi scored eighteen goals in the Champions League last season. The Champions League is more difficult than the Europa League, so I think I should… score at least twenty, right?"

"Hiss—"

The others gasped in unison.

Twenty goals in a single Europa League season? Never mind that the newly formed Europa League was too short on history; even if you included the UEFA Cup, whether before or after the reform, no one had ever achieved such a feat.

Twenty goals! Many forwards might not score that many goals in thirty-plus league games in a season, and the Europa League only had a few matches: six group stage matches and nine knockout stage matches, totaling fifteen games, less than half of the league season. Chen Yingxiong actually wanted to score at least twenty goals?

"Are you crazy, Hero?"

Suárez even reached out to touch Chen Yingxiong's forehead to see if he had a fever.

"Damn!" Chen Yingxiong waved Suárez's hand away. "My head hasn't gone bad yet!"

"But your idea is too shocking…" Škrtel also felt that Chen Yingxiong's goal was unrealistic. If Chen Yingxiong wanted to score fifteen goals in the Europa League, he would believe Chen Yingxiong had that ability. But to score twenty goals in the Europa League… that was a bit of an exaggeration!

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Chen Yingxiong didn't furrow his brow and seriously consider whether it was really that difficult. Instead, his eyes lit up, and he turned to ask everyone, "Is it really that shocking?"

Everyone nodded. "Not just shocking, it's extremely, extremely shocking!"

Chen Yingxiong clapped his hands. "That's right!"

"What's right?"

"Shocking is right! If it's not challenging, can't grab media headlines, and can't become a hot topic of discussion, I wouldn't bother doing it!" Chen Yingxiong said happily. "You're my friends, and since you all think it's unlikely that I can accomplish it…"

"Not 'unlikely,' but 'absolutely impossible,'" Suárez said matter-of-factly.

"That's even better. Since you all think it's absolutely impossible for me to accomplish it, then no one outside will think I can do it!" Chen Yingxiong said excitedly. "As long as I do it, it will be a world-shaking event!"

"Wake up, Hero…" Suárez waved his hand in front of Chen Yingxiong's eyes. "Don't think about whether you can shake the world first; think about whether you can achieve it…"

Before Chen Yingxiong could retort to Suárez this time, Sánchez suddenly chimed in to support Chen Yingxiong.

"I think Hero can achieve it…"

He successfully attracted everyone's attention. Everyone looked at him, even Chen Yingxiong was a little surprised.

"Uh… I suddenly remembered the 2010-11 Champions League season. Hero was suspended for eight games, missing two qualifying matches and six group stage matches. As a result, he scored thirteen goals in just seven knockout stage matches and won the top scorer award. At the time, I remember some people speculated how many goals Hero could score if he played a full season? So I thought, now that he has a full season, as long as we can make it all the way to the final, Hero might really be able to score at least twenty goals, right?"

Chen Yingxiong laughed loudly and clapped his hands. "Alex still understands me!"

"But that requires us to reach the final…" Suárez said.

"Don't you want to win a Europa League title for fun, Luis?" Chen Yingxiong asked him.

This question left Suárez speechless, and he was stunned on the spot. Of course, he wanted to win a championship; it was too tempting…

Seeing his dumbfounded look, everyone laughed.

With this laugh, the atmosphere suddenly changed. Everyone began to think that Sánchez made sense; they had all witnessed Chen Yingxiong's impressive performance that season.

Maybe it was really possible.

The core of the discussion then shifted to "how to help Chen Yingxiong achieve this goal and how to help the team reach the final and ultimately win the championship," rather than questioning whether Chen Yingxiong could do it.

"I think you should talk to the boss about this first, Hero," Škrtel said.

"Yeah, it's useless for us to say more. If the boss isn't willing to invest too much energy in the Europa League and continues to rotate the squad like this, I'm afraid we won't be able to make it to the final…"

"But we can also tell everyone in advance to get them to support Hero!" Adam Johnson also suggested.

"I'll take care of that," Škrtel volunteered. He had been playing for Liverpool the longest among these people, and he had the widest network of contacts. He was indeed more suitable to persuade everyone.

"Well… we should say hello to the captain first. In terms of influence, the captain is still the greatest…"

The group began brainstorming ideas for Chen Yingxiong.

These people were all key players on the team. As long as they could get enough playing time in the knockout stage, Chen Yingxiong could get a lot of help from them.

Thus, the Eat, Drink, and Be Merry Squad reached a consensus on Chen Yingxiong's goal of scoring at least twenty goals in a single Europa League season during this gathering.

When they finally broke up, Suárez patted Chen Yingxiong's arm and said, "Although I still think it's irrational to find Messi as an opponent, if the opponent isn't strong enough, it won't be fun! So, I support you!"

Sánchez also nodded. "You've already defeated Messi once, and I believe you can defeat him again!"

Chen Yingxiong laughed. "Once is not enough! I want to make sure he can't win against me at all!"

※※※

Martin O'Neill was also quite worried about Chen Yingxiong's low mood. He was not only afraid that it would affect Chen Yingxiong's form, but also worried that this mood would spread from Chen Yingxiong to other players. After all, Chen Yingxiong was a person with a lot of influence in the locker room. If he was always in such a inexplicably low mood, others might be affected by him.

So he decided to have another good talk with Chen Yingxiong.

But when he saw Chen Yingxiong at the training base the next day, the other party greeted him very warmly and happily: "Good morning, boss! Why are you here so early again today?"

O'Neill was taken aback and didn't realize what was going on…

By the time he realized it, Chen Yingxiong had already walked away.

He didn't have time to ask Chen Yingxiong what was going on. How could he have been so depressed before, and suddenly so high-spirited now?

In fact, those media who were waiting outside the training ground were just as surprised and puzzled as Martin O'Neill.

During training, they saw Chen Yingxiong, who was full of energy, joking around and causing laughter in the training ground.

The group looked at each other in confusion.

What was going on?

Did he reconcile with Cabrera?

Or had he completely dumped that female bodyguard and found a new love?

Chen Yingxiong wouldn't tell them; let them continue to rack their brains trying to guess!

It would be even better if he could confuse one or two opponents in the process!