Chapter 1 Chen Hero's Request

Chen Hero was stunned by O'Neal's words.

But he quickly reacted: "Huh? But this hasn't affected my condition, boss."

"I'm doing this to protect you, Hero. I hope you don't misunderstand..." Martin O'Neal explained. "You're too high-profile, and it's easy to get ganged up on. This isn't good for you; it will distract you too much from these things..."

"Ganged up on? Have I been ganged up on few times? Has there ever been a problem? Don't worry, boss. This kind of small thing can't affect me at all," Chen Hero said nonchalantly, and then a flash of inspiration suddenly appeared in his mind.

"But I suddenly thought of a question, boss... Look, I don't think you're the kind of person who particularly likes and is good at arguing, right?"

Perhaps it was his achievements, perhaps it was his close relationship with the club's senior management, or perhaps it was due to his own personality, but Chen Hero didn't talk to Martin O'Neal like a player under O'Neal's command at all. He was more like a club administrator on an equal footing with O'Neal.

However, O'Neal himself didn't care, because he had long been accustomed to Chen Hero's way of speaking. And he really couldn't argue with him about this, because his own achievements still depended on Chen Hero's outstanding performance...

If he and Chen Hero really had a conflict, anyone could guess whose side the club would be on. You should know that Chen Xing and Niang, the two powerful figures in the club, often visited Chen Hero's home as guests and called him brothers!

What Chen Hero said was also the truth. Martin O'Neal was indeed not good at or liked arguing. Among the English coaches, he was the more low-key type, not like Ferguson, who went around looking for trouble, nor like Wenger, who liked to comment on others, nor like Mourinho in the beginning, who liked to show off in front of the media and the public.

He was more low-key, and he rarely suddenly lost his temper when facing things.

Therefore, Chen Hero felt that Martin O'Neal was not good at arguing, or that he didn't like to do so.

But arguing was already a very important part of modern football. Because football was not only about tactics, but also about psychology. Many times, the two sides in a game were evenly matched, which required psychological warfare. Whoever had the psychological advantage might be more likely to gain momentum in the game, and vice versa, it was easy to lose a game that was originally within reach.

O'Neal didn't like to do this, but he felt he had to.

This was a good method, so why not make good use of it?

Of course, this idea had just suddenly occurred to Chen Hero. He didn't have such a high level of awareness before; he wasn't arguing with his opponents to win the game. He was just satisfying his own perverted pleasure of slapping people in the face, and purely because he couldn't stand certain people's remarks that he took the initiative to start arguments.

He rarely had the thought of "wanting to provoke the other party's anger through arguments and make them lose their composure."

It's not to say that he never had it, but it was rare, very rare.

But now that he thought about it, he felt that this matter could be done.

Martin O'Neal nodded: "Yes, I don't like it. A head coach's energy should be focused on leading the team in training, arranging tactics, and commanding on the spot. Trading insults with opponents is a very childish practice, and it doesn't necessarily have any effect..."

Chen Hero shook his head: "That's not right, boss. In the past, when our results were poor, not many people came to cause us trouble, so you didn't have to argue with others. But in the future, as our results get better and better, you will eventually find that there are more and more flies. Look at Ferguson, the history of Manchester United's rise is almost the history of him arguing with people everywhere... First with us, then with Arsenal, then with Chelsea... He took the initiative to provoke incidents everywhere, and what was the result? His team is the most successful team in the Premier League, boss!"

"But he also made countless enemies."

Chen Hero really wanted to say, "What do countless enemies matter? Which successful person didn't rise to the top by stepping on the corpses of a bunch of enemies?" but he felt it was too abrupt and not very respectful to O'Neal. So he changed his wording: "Okay, boss. Even if you're not interested in taking the initiative to provoke disputes, what if others bully us? Like that Preston coach... What's his name again? Right, Phil Brown, he insulted us and you so much, if you're always so... Tolerant, everyone will think that we Liverpool are easy to bully. When those messy, foul words are thrown at us, won't we be affected?"

What Chen Hero said made a lot of sense, and he also combined it with recent hot topics, which was very convincing.

Martin O'Neal lowered his head and considered it for a while, and also felt that what Chen Hero said was right... He didn't like psychological warfare, but that didn't mean he would ignore it. However, to ask him to go shirtless and be sprayed like a shrew scolding the streets, he still couldn't accept it.

Seeing that the head coach didn't say anything, Chen Hero knew that he had persuaded the other party. He struck while the iron was hot and revealed his thoughts.

"So, I suddenly had this idea... boss. You're not good at arguing, but arguing is necessary... So, why not just let me do it, huh? How about letting me do it?"

Martin O'Neal was very surprised—this request was too bizarre. He had coached so many teams, and no player had ever made this request to him, to go and trade insults with others, to engage in arguments?

"Are you crazy, Hero?" he blurted out.

Chen Hero knew that the head coach would have this reaction. He shrugged: "I've thought about it carefully, boss. Look, I'm a skilled worker in this job, and I like it. Anyway, you don't do it, so why not let me do it? Otherwise, what will happen if we encounter someone looking for trouble in the future? Are we all going to huddle up and be shrinking turtles?"

Martin O'Neal didn't care about Chen Hero's reasoning now, he just kept shaking his head, disagreeing.

"You and that Preston coach arguing has already affected your condition and delayed your preparations... If this becomes the norm, that would be terrible?"

Chen Hero spread his hands: "How can you think that my condition has been affected? My condition really isn't a problem at all..."

The topic returned to the starting point.

Martin O'Neal felt that Chen Hero doing this would affect his condition, but Chen Hero didn't think so.

The two of them just kept arguing.

In the end, Chen Hero made the decision. "Forget it, we won't get any results if we keep talking like this until tomorrow. Why don't I just prove it to you with practical actions, boss—no matter how I argue with others, no matter what kind of argument it is, my condition will not be affected."

"How will you prove it, Hero?"

"Scoring goals," Chen Hero waved his hand and said, "It's okay for me to use goals to explain, right? I'll score... score three goals in the game against Sunderland, a hat-trick, to prove that my condition has not been affected, would that be okay?"

Martin O'Neal was stunned for a moment. Chen Hero actually proposed such a method of proof. Honestly, this method wasn't new, but it was quite convincing. It wasn't easy for an average player to score one goal in a game, let alone score a hat-trick. If Chen Hero could score a hat-trick after arguing with that Preston coach for nearly a week, would that indicate that he really wasn't being disturbed by off-field factors?

In fact, the answer to this question was very simple. Martin O'Neal only needed to combine it with Chen Hero's previous deeds to know. Arguing really couldn't affect Chen Hero's condition.

But he just felt that a player should put all his thoughts on football. As for arguing with others, that wasn't something a player should do. Looking at the world of football, even Ibrahimović and Cristiano Ronaldo didn't frequently argue with the media or others. Therefore, he felt that Chen Hero doing this was somewhat not doing his job properly. The current players were already not doing their jobs properly enough, but at least they weren't constantly arguing with others. O'Neal didn't want his core player to create history in this regard...

But the other party had already made such a gesture, should he bet or not?

Martin O'Neal suddenly smiled: "Aren't you afraid that I'll agree and then put you on the bench, not letting you play for ninety minutes, Hero?"

"Ah, boss. You're a good person, I believe you wouldn't do that, right?"

Chen Hero quickly put on a "flattering" look.

He was really afraid that O'Neal would keep him on the bench... He wanted to score consecutive goals!

O'Neal shook his head and smiled: "I hope you can both score goals and not be distracted by off-field matters."

"Sometimes I really can't help it... When I see those people, they look down on me, they look down on our team, they point fingers at us, I can't help it... boss. I really want to slap their faces."

"Isn't it better to slap them with goals?"

"Wouldn't the attack power be doubled by adding language to the goals?"

Martin O'Neal was speechless.

After a long while, he said: "I will not accept your bet, Hero. No matter how many goals you score in the game, I will not allow you to represent the team to engage in any arguments with others."

Without reaching an agreement, Chen Hero was a little frustrated and disappointed...

But at this moment, a "ding" suddenly sounded in his mind, followed by a female voice: "You have a new mission."

Then an exclamation point appeared in the upper right corner of his vision.

Chen Hero was very surprised, how could there be a mission?

But it wasn't the time to look at the mission in front of O'Neal. If he stood there blankly, O'Neal would probably think he was crazy.

So he chose to say goodbye.

O'Neal was relieved to see that he didn't show any dissatisfaction after he rejected his request.

After sending Chen Hero away, he was still a little happy—he wasn't always at a disadvantage in the "confrontation" with Chen Hero, and he could unreservedly reject his Liverpool requests!

But... was it really outrageous?

In the next second, such a thought popped into his mind, and he hesitated.