Greatest Of All Legends

Chapter 49 First Training Session with the Porto Senior Team IV

With his leg swept away from him, Jason had no other option than to be sent tumbling onto the floor while cursing internally, 'Fucking hell,' he groaned as he rolled onto his back and sat up, doing his best to keep himself from overreacting as he did not appreciate being brought down roughly after getting this far, but he couldn't do more than have a bitter smile on his face when he saw that it was the captain of his team that had sent him flying.

*Fweeeee*

The whistle in Siramana Dembele's mouth went off loudly signifying for the training to come to a pause while the medical staff that were always on standby quickly moved onto the field as the tackle looked a bit too rough and despite the lack of a pained expression on Jason's face as he sat up, they weren't willing to take any chances.

"Don't you think you were a little too rough on the newcomer, eh? Pepe?" Siramana Dembele asked with a wry smile as he arrived before the team captain.

"I apologize for that, but I wouldn't have had to if the kid actually played like a newcomer," Pepe replied with an embarrassed smile.

'Luiz and Jesus are going to have a lot of work to do if they hope to keep their place on the team if the kid keeps playing like this,' he thought as well while giving a side glance at Jason who was being tended to by the medics.

The medics fussed over Jason, carefully checking for any signs of injury while continuously asking if he felt any discomfort, but luckily the tackle didn't seem to have had an adverse effect on Jason's physical condition other than him being a little winded from the sudden unexpected flight.

Soon he was back on his feet, intending to continue the training session, but the head manager suddenly called for all the players to gather around again.

The players didn't waste any time gathering around the head manager once again and Sergio began speaking as soon as the players were gathered.

"It seems most of you don't understand the point of this training method,"

"I had initially hoped that you guys could learn the aim of the training on the go, but it seems that of all the wingers that should be the focal point of this training session, only one of you is on the right path,"

"As a winger, you are supposed to keep the opposition defenders on their toes, and constantly scare them with your actions,"

"You run at them with or without the ball,"

"If you are not with the ball, you run at them and keep them occupied so that they don't have time to keep watch over the strikers, thus helping the strikers to create space, and if you're with the ball, you run at them with the ball as well, doing your best to make them commit and then you can get past them with your speed, skills, or even passing the ball,"

"In essence, what I need from you is a healthy amount of individual brilliance," Sergio Conceicao, laid out his mindful intentions for the team before turning to Jason,

"Jason here was on the right path, but as for whether he did too much is not for me to decide as while he could have passed the ball, he still managed to get past our team's captain and gain enough space to get the shot away,"

"Of course, we saw the repercussion of that and he didn't get the goal, but in a real match, that would have been a penalty so I'm willing to step back a bit and say he did well enough, but I'd advise against attracting such attraction from aggressive players or at least, escape from their range to avoid an injury," the manager advised, his words intended for the budding young player.

"In essence, I need more adventurous efforts from you guys on the wings," "It may not compulsorily be a goal, but I need your help in making sure that more attacking avenues are open to our team and we can have an easier time winning games, not just staying back and throwing passes," Sergio finished by saying.

"So once again, from the top," he clapped his hands to encourage the players and sent them back to the pitch to continue the training.

With the coach's intentions for them fully revealed, the players played with renewed vigor and tried to implement the coach's instructions in their playing style, but it had to be said that their playing style felt a bit awkward because they weren't used to playing this way.

Jason also didn't relent and put in double the effort during the training session. He also made a few more daring runs at the defenders, but the first team's defenders weren't as lowly guarded against him as the first time, and getting past them had become noticeably harder and they always managed to stop him before he could enter the penalty area, yet it could be just barely noticed that he seemed to be getting better at evading the defenders each time.

Unfortunately, the first team's defenders still had enough experience and ability in their tank to prevent him from getting a goal and only after being taken on and off the field three times did he finally manage to get an assist by finding Fabio Viera just outside the box with a low cross-field ball after drawing the defenders away.

Fabio had then found the bottom-right corner of the goal with a powerful right-footed shot.

Fabio's goal that was assisted by Jason was the fourth goal that had been scored during the duration of this training session, but was the first goal scored by the second team.

Without wasting much time, the training continued less than a minute later.

**On the sidelines**

Sergio Conceicao watched the second team's players run up and down the pitch while passing the ball cleverly among them and doing their best to avoid losing possession.

His eyes involuntarily landed on the newest addition to their team, Jason and he nodded internally, happy to see the kid performing at a fairly above average during his first internal scrimmage with the senior team.

The kid was ticking all the right boxes for what Sergio was looking for in a player in his position and he was improving at quite a noticeable rate.

He was making the right runs, his work rate was high, and he had good dribbling skills, good vision, and passing skills. He also had a very quick pace and a tremendously exceptional acceleration that was enough to leave players eating the dust behind him.

All in all, he looked like he could jump on a field of professionals and impress right away, but experienced managers like Sergio Conceicao himself would still argue that he couldn't be put in a match in the senior league just yet.

There was a huge difference in physical ability between players at the senior league level and youth players, and even though Jason's physical fitness results were "theoretically" enough to support him at the senior league level, Sergio still wouldn't allow him into a senior league match immediately as Jason would need to adjust to playing at such a level.

He could develop that by training with players at such a level, so there was bound to be a wait for Jason before Sergio Conceicao would even consider adding him to the lineup even as a substitute.

As for how long that period of adjustment was going to be for Jason, it would depend on how quickly he adjusted.

It could be two weeks, three weeks, a month, or even two months, but one thing was for sure, it was only after he satisfied Sergio's stringent requirements that his name could even be brought up in discussions concerning the team's line-up.

It was all for Jason's good and Sergio only hoped that Jason wasn't an overly entitled person who would become overly dissatisfied and act up due to a lack of play time during this period.