Chapter 306: Chronicles of a Fan: Tony's Bad Day I
Chapter 306: Chronicles of a Fan: Tony\'s Bad Day I
Sergio Conceicao could have easily thrown some of the players under the bus, especially the loaned players that he had used in the match, but he didn’t think it was fair to throw them under the bus while absolving himself of fault, after all, he was the manager.
He was the one who had picked their formation and added them to the line-up in the first place, but he wasn’t going to take on the blame either.
He didn’t need the drama.
If he would absolve himself of fault, he would absolve everyone else of fault… that was only fair.
Anyway, it was football, anything could happen.
“Next question,”
“Porto fell short of victory today because they couldn’t score an equalizer despite having ample time to get the equalizer. Would you say the team missed the presence of some of the game-changing performances of other members of the team you chose to rest today, for example, Viera or Jason?” the next reporter asked the Porto head manager.
“Well, it was a tough game and the players couldn’t just find that goal that would give us the equalizer no matter how much they tried. I wouldn’t say that a different set of players could have done better as I don’t know that,” Sergio Conceicao responded to the reporter.“Next question…”
After answering a few more questions, Sergio Conceicao ended the interview and headed to the allocated locker room for the Porto team.
He soon arrived at the locker room where the players were changing out of their jerseys and getting ready to leave.
“Listen up guys, we lost today, and part of the blame falls on me for choosing to try a new formation this early without you guys fully acclimating to it, but it does not change the fact that you guys performed woefully out there,”
“Our defense was porous, our midfield was lacking, and our attackers were hitting everything but the target,”
“Today’s performance is not something I want to see again, or woe shall befall whoever performs like this again,” Sergio Conceicao did not mince words with the players as he was not pleased by their performance.
After all, they were professionals earning big bucks, so if they couldn’t adjust to a new formation and put on a good performance when required, then what was the point of all their efforts on the training ground?
What were they being paid for?
Sergio Conceicao was not some pushover coach managing some low-level team and he did not take kindly to loss, so it was already good enough that this was all he had to say to his players after such a terrible showing from them.
He had more to say, but he decided to hold in his comments for now and instead mention it at the next team meeting at training.
With the head manager having said his piece, he left the locker room and the players hurried up the packing as they had to leave soon since they were heading back to Porto that same night.
***
Jason stood up from the couch, turning off the TV with the remote since the match was over. He was a bit surprised and disheartened that the team had lost the game.
He wasn’t a fool and he knew that the team’s loss was his loss whether he played or not.
Trophies were won as a team and not as an individual.
Even the individual trophies could not be won without the help of one’s teammates, so there was no way he could be happy that his team lost a game.
It held no benefits for him in any way, after all, he was now more or less one of the major names in the lineup up so he didn’t have too much in his way concerning the line-ups.
His efforts and performance had long spoken for him.
“I guess it’s back to work for me then,” he muttered as he stood up from his seat and began packing up the plates he had eaten from.
***
At a convenience store on one of the more obscure streets in Porto, a group of young men who looked to be in their mid-twenties walked through the front door discussing as they went.
“Today has to be out to get me man,” one of the men said, looking downcast.
His name was Tony, and he was not enjoying the day at all.
His day had started on a bad note when he had woken up especially late but had still managed to get to work just barely on time after driving at speeds that would make an average street racer jealous.
Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of his misery as barely one hour into his arrival at work, he was already being chewed out by his boss. It was not the first time and he could usually bear with it, but for some reason, he snapped and shouted back at his boss.
Despite not meaning to, it had felt good to get back at his annoying boss, but the consequences of doing so left him without a job before half the day had passed.
‘I’ll just find another job, it’s not the end of the world,’ he had thought to himself as he packed up his stuff and left in his car.
He had decided to go to his girlfriend’s place to get some comforting and maybe some cuddles, thinking to himself, that whatever happened would happen, but when he got to his girlfriend’s place, he met her with another guy in a very compromising position.
He didn’t need to be a genius to realize that he was being cheated on and he confronted the traitorous bit*h and her living flesh sex toy, but all he got was her gas lighting him with all sorts of meaningless statements.
She didn’t even try to deny it and placed the blame on him for being too busy with his job.