Chapter 004 Wolverhampton

Wolverhampton is a central city in England, located in the West Midlands metropolitan area, 19 kilometers northwest of Birmingham, with a population of 370,000.

It was Wang Li’s next goal. After arriving in this prosperous city, he went directly to Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club.

Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (Wolves) was founded in 1877 and is a founding member of the Football League. Its home ground is Molineux Stadium.

In May of this year, Wolverhampton won the third place in the English Championship and successfully won the Premier League through the play-offs, so the fans in this city were very happy. They had not seen Wolverhampton play in the top league for a long time. For crazy English fans, it is obviously a very face-saving thing for their favorite team to play in the top league.

Woodgate Bryan is the head coach of Wolverhampton's youth team. He has been working here for more than 20 years and he loves everything about the club from the bottom of his heart.

However, he had worked here for so many years, but he had only trained one England international, Steve Ball, which made him a little regretful. The responsibility of the youth team coach was to train young players and replenish the blood of the club's first team. Even if he felt that his coaching level was not worse than other coaches, others did not think so. After coaching for more than 20 years, he only trained one international player. This was definitely not the achievement of a high-level youth team coach.

September is the start of the Premier League, and the youth team also needs to participate in the England Youth League, FA Youth Cup and other competitions, so Woodgate has been very busy recently.

At this moment, he was observing the internal training match of the Wolverhampton youth team on the sidelines. This kind of competition would allow him to fully understand the technical level of each player so that he could select the players who would play against the Manchester United youth team in the England Youth Cup three days later, although he had no hope for this game at all.

At this time, a staff member walked towards him quickly. Woodgate turned his head in confusion and asked, "What's wrong, Paul?"

The young man called Paul took a deep breath and said slowly, "There is a young man with a letter of introduction from Tom Stephen who wants to come to Wolverhampton for a trial. I came to ask for your opinion."

"Oh?" Woodgate thought for a moment and decided that Tom Stephen was still trustworthy, so he ordered, "Go call him in!"

"Yes, sir."

......

Wang Li stood in front of the club with an expressionless face and his hands in his pockets. After a while, he saw Paul walking straight towards him.

"Come on, young man, you are so lucky. It seems that Mr. Brian is in a good mood today. He wants to see you in person." Paul patted his shoulder and said. Although he didn't know how strong the young man in front of him was, just the courage of him to come to Wolverhampton alone to request a trial made him have a better impression of the black-haired boy in front of him.

Wang Li nodded and followed Paul into the club.

As he walked, he found that the public facilities here were a bit old, and there was even some rust in some places. In this respect, they were obviously not as good as Blackburn Rovers.

Indeed, Wolverhampton cannot be compared with traditional Premier League teams. Its history is a history of ups and downs in football. Just a year ago, they were still participating in the English Championship. Although they were successfully promoted in May this year, the excess funds had to be invested in the transfer market to strengthen the team's strength, and there was no extra money to improve the training facilities and infrastructure of the youth team.

After the two arrived at the small stadium, Wang Li saw Woodgate standing on the sidelines. He was holding a notebook and writing something. He looked to be in his sixties and had a very kind look. I hope he can succeed this time.

After they met, Paul introduced: "Mr. Brian, this is the young man who wants to come for a tryout. His name is Wang Li."

After saying that, he turned around and introduced Wang Li: "This is Mr. Woodgate Bryan, the head coach of the Wolverhampton Youth Team."

Woodgate looked at the black-haired young man in front of him with scrutiny, and said with a smile, "Hello, young man."

"Hello, dear sir."

Woodgate nodded and asked directly: "Are you Stephen's student? Want to come to Wolverhampton for a trial?"

"Yes sir, I'm from Arsenal Football School and Stephen is my coach. After I graduated, he recommended me to come here for a trial."

"But why don't you join the Arsenal youth team?" Woodgate asked somewhat puzzled.

Wang Li looked at the kind old man in front of him and answered directly: "Because they look down on me. They said they no longer need forwards, and I happen to be a forward."

Woodgate nodded with satisfaction. He hated young people lying the most. If this young man said that he didn't want to join Arsenal, that was absolutely a lie. There were only a few children living in Holloway who were not Arsenal fans. They could be counted on one's fingers.

"Okay, kid, I'll give you a chance then."

After listening to this, Paul said to Woodgate: "Sir, I will take him to do the basic test. Young man, follow me." After that, he prepared to take Wang Li away.

At this time, Woodgate waved his hand and said, "No, no, we will talk about that useless test later. Look at the children on the field now, they are playing hard..."

Paul was stunned, as if he didn't understand what Coach Woodgate meant. Was he going to let them watch the game here?

Wang Li smiled knowingly. "Will you let me directly participate in the team training match?" That's not bad. At least I don't have to do those boring tests. Although my positioning and awareness are poor, with my dribbling and speed, I can at least become an excellent speed winger in the youth team.

Old Wood frowned. He had nothing to say to Paul. How could there be such a stupid person in Wolverhampton? He wondered how he got into the club.

"In other words, let him join the team training directly!" he added.

Paul smiled and scratched his head, and said flatteringly, "Really, why didn't I think of that, Mr. Bryan, you are so smart, no wonder you can become the head coach."

After hearing this, Old Wood raised his head with satisfaction. Although Paul was not very smart, he was still very good at talking.

Wang Li next to him almost burst out laughing. Is this what foreigners call "horses"? It's too explicit...

"So, young man, which position do you play?" Old Wood turned around and asked.

"Right winger." Wang Li said readily. In fact, he did not have a fixed position. He was not the Wang Li of the past, and his skills were certainly different from his former counterpart.

"Okay then." After that, he shouted to the court: "Ryan, come down and let the guy next to me go up and try.";