Greatest Of All Legends - Chapter 768

Capítulo 768: One Word

Conceicao, the Oporto head manager, stood on the training field, talking with one of his assistants about the new tactics they would need to employ with the transfer season at its peak.

Some players were bound to leave and some players would be added to the club’s roster during this period.

The manager already had plans, but they would have to be adjusted as changes happened to the club’s roster.

As they discussed, the players who had arrived for training began gathering around them, ready to begin the team’s training session.

After another minute, Conecicao turned to the players, ready to address them when he noticed his wantaway player who had most of the Portuguese media talking about him the last few days.

Nodding at him, he welcomed the players to the training ground and gave them a basic rundown of the day’s training plan before sending them off to get to work with the trainers.

Jason was a little surprised that the manager merely brushed aside the issue of him reporting late for training, but he didn’t think much of it and just went on to train.

Mylo was a little ticked off about Jason receiving what he considered preferential treatment, but he just scoffed and went on to train as well.

The two of them moved along with the other players to where they would be training, a little distance away from each other, leaving a slightly conflicted Conceicao watching them from behind.

A head manager had many jobs, which included but was not limited to coaching the team, helping with training, setting tactics, signing players, and many others.

However, his primary duty was to win.

A manager was like a CEO of a big company whose job was to direct the staff into producing results and his power was vested by the management behind him.

A CEO couldn’t do things that the management didn’t give him the authority to do, neither could he go against the management’s wishes.

This was why there was always a lot of contractual negotiations between the head manager and the club.

Some managers weren’t good at training players, or setting up tactics, or recruiting players so they either delegate that part to their backroom team, or the management brings in someone who can take up that job.

The management might also want to have some autonomy over certain decisions in the club, so before the manager joined the club, these things would be ironed out in detail and a contract would be drawn.

If the management wanted to control the signing of players, thereby taking some of the manager’s authority over the club’s direction and performance, there would have to be an equal element of give and take in the contract.

It was the reason for all those sky-high release clauses the clubs would pay the manager when they wanted to sack them.

After all, why would a manager have to coach a team without having control over team building and then have to take the piss when his players played like sh*t?

Conceicao had one of those types of contracts.

He directed almost everything as long as the management wasn’t involved, but it was written in the contract that they could overwrite his decisions regarding transfers.

They had done it a few times prior, and everytime it left a sour taste in his mouth, but this last situation with Jason was a particularly annoying one.

As a human and as a football manager, he should have sided with Jason after what happened and he would have, but in the end, he was also a corporate dog on a leash.

He controlled the yard as long as his owners weren’t interested… even if his owners didn’t have the same type of vision he did.

Thinking over the matter, he already knew that Jason was a player who wasn’t going to stay much longer at Oporto.

Right from Jason’s first match at Oporto, he knew, everyone knew.

Mylo was also a talented kid, even a tad bit exceptional and he also had the makings of something great, but between him and Jason, it was no competition.

Perhaps the management were thinking that since Jason would be leaving much sooner than Mylo who was still not firm on his feet, then they might as well let it happen.

If it couldn’t be stopped, then between Jason and Mylo, they should only bother with trying to keep Mylo at the club.

Logically, it was the correct decision and even Conceicao couldn’t argue with that, however it was a shame how everything went down.

The management had made a mess of the situation instead of handling it well and keeping both sides satisfied if they couldn’t keep them happy.

Anyways, since the management could decide that since they couldn’t keep Jason at the club much longer since he was going to leave anyway, then he could decide not to punish Jason for what had happened… since he was leaving soon anyway.

Conceicao thought this wryly, but thinking back to his meeting with the other department heads about whether to activate Jason’s extension clause or not, he could only hope that the management didn’t interfere again.

While Jason was training, completely unaware of what the manager was thinking, many reporters were already writing their reports after news that Jason had returned to training surfaced.

*”Wantaway player returns to training. Will he stay?”*

*”Transfer talks a bust? Jason returns to training”*

*”Jason at the Portogaia. One last goodbye?”*

*”The team is complete again. Trouble for competitors in the coming season?”*

All sorts of headlines filled the news and the online sports space as many reporters tried to put their own two cents out as to Jason’s reason for the sudden return to training.

As a player seemingly at odds with his club and missing training for a week, did he suddenly get cold feet and decide to come back, or was there something else to the story that they didn’t know?

Many people wanted to know and the reporters were itching to find out the truth hidden away.

However, apart from the rumors of offers that Jason was entertaining from other clubs, there wasn’t anything concrete anywhere… at least as at then.

Jason unknowingly was about to change this because two days after he joined the team for training, Oporto had a pre-season game against Losc Lille.

Jason had been half-expecting it, but he sat on the bench throughout the game. Honestly, he was already a bit surprised that he was even on the lineup, even though he didn’t play.

Being at a stadium with a football game going on and not being allowed to play made him take the final step.

He had already made a decision since the first day at training that he would be answering one of the teams calling him, but he had not said a word to Adele yet, deciding to hold on for a bit longer, but that decision had changed.

He wanted to play.

So he called Adele and started with one word…

“… Tottenham,”