After the match, Tyler was once again asked to wait for an interview. Unlike the first time though, the reporter was respectful and didn't try to pit him against the coach. He was only asked what he thought about his performance and when he hoped to make his debut and other mentality questions.

Tyler was sure that he gave the right answers in the interviews and after that, he reported to the team's locker room, coming just ahead of Jeremi who was going to give a post-match talk.

"Alright boys, you did well, but just like last time, you didn't do well enough. If not for the presence of our mercenaries, I'm very sure that we wouldn't have gotten the win in this match. George was with us just a year ago and he played well enough to get his chance in the first team. Tyler and Tiago right now are playing well enough to get into the first team. No offence meant, but you can see that they're playing at a level that's above the rest of you and it's simply unacceptable! No recovery day tomorrow, we're going to do some extra training," Jeremi said, stunning half of the locker room in the process. "You may all be youngsters but there is a certain level of performance that I expect from all of you and we're going to work until you get to that level or you and I will be kicked out."

Tyler, Tiago and George watched Jeremi lash out at the rest of the team with silence. They also pretended not to notice some of the hostile glares that were being shot their way.

"I think it's best if we don't come back to play with them again," George whispered to Tyler who just smiled and continued taking off his jersey.

A good mentality was a very good thing to have as an aspiring footballer. Jeremi didn't really say anything out of line. His players didn't play up to the required level. Anyone who watched the match didn't need a soothsayer to figure out that they were carried by Tyler, Tiago and George. Jeremi was simply being honest with his players and demanding more from them, like any good coach who wants them to develop would.

If they started to brew hatred for him and his friends just because of a little shouting then Tyler didn't think that they would make it very far.

"Alright, that's all for today," Jeremi said. "You're all dismissed."

After they were dismissed, Tyler walked back to his apartment, beginning his journey with Tiago and George. As usual, the trio split up at a specific point as they were usually headed to different locations.

When Tyler opened the door of his apartment, he was greeted with the shock of his life.

When he did the interview earlier, he was sure that he said everything right. He made sure to think extensively about his responses so that the media wouldn't have any fancy headlines that involved him.

As soon as he pushed open the door, Tony and Enzo stared at him, then they stared at their phones, then they stared at him again and they burst into laughter.

"W-what's going on?" Tyler asked with a small smile on his face as he entered the room. It would've been one of those "laughter is contagious" cases for Tyler if he wasn't very sure that he was the one being laughed at.

"Haven't you seen the latest news?" Tony asked before walking towards Tyler with his phone. Tyler stared at the headline for a couple of seconds before blinking rapidly.

"What the fuck?" Tyler asked, snatching Tony's phone from his hand. "Monaco youth prospect blames coach over lack of game time. Says he's good enough to play."

Tyler read the rest of the article and then he hissed in annoyance. It was one of those cases where his words were twisted in order to make a fancy headline. He recalled saying that he felt he was good to go and everything was up to the coach, and at the time, he thought it was a good answer. He didn't realize that his words could be interpreted as such.

"All of a sudden, I realize why footballers hate doing interviews," Tyler muttered.

If it was just one news outlet that reported the news, then Tyler wouldn't have been too bothered. The problem was the fact that several other journalists were aggregating the news, allowing it more coverage than it would've initially had.

It seemed that young, black foreigners who happened to be quite talented weren't really welcome in Monaco.

Tyler handed Tony back his phone and went into the shower almost immediately. He was starting to get very angry at the journalists that were trying to villainize a seventeen-year-old boy all in the name of getting clicks and interactions.

He took a long shower and after getting out, he did a little bit of exercise because of the fact that he couldn't get distracted from the news. Going on social media wouldn't really work because somehow, it had gone very viral. All he was seeing now were troll accounts abusing him for wanting too much since he just came from a grassroots academy.

"Fuck," Tyler said to himself as he got up from his last set of pushups. He sat against the wall and stared into space for a few minutes and then he got up and made his way back into his shower.

He had seen footballers get abused, and he had been abused for bad performances and misinterpreted statements, and he had abused quite a few footballers for the same reasons. He always thought that since they made millions, they wouldn't care about the opinions of a few strangers online. Now that it was happening to him, he realized that it wasn't the reality of things at all.

After he finished showering again, he was about to go to bed early when he received a phone call from Adi Hutter.

"Hey gaffer," Tyler said into the phone as he walked towards his bed and collapsed on it. He was physically tired from the match and his extra exercise while he was mentally tired from having to deal with the trolls and everything. He didn't reply to any comment, but it was hard to stop himself from reading a few every once in a while.

"By now, I'm sure you've seen the headlines," Adi Hutter said. "I've just spoken to the club, and we're going into a legal battle with the journalist firm that released the news for using that type of a misleading statement. That should calm things down but it won't completely fix everything. How are you holding up?"

"I think I'm relatively good. For a person who's been trolled and racially abused because of a twisted statement, I think I'm quite alright," Tyler replied.

"I'm really sorry that you had to go through that. After everything is sorted out, I'm sure that they'll be blacklisted by clubs. I don't think any team would want their youngsters to go through what you've had to endure today. I hope the money they made from selling this news was worth sacrificing their reputation for," Adi Hutter said. "Anyways, with all that happening, I think that there's only one way for you to redeem yourself and that's to play."

"So what you're saying is, I'm in the next matchday squad?" Tyler almost couldn't believe his ears. He had been giving his all in training with the aim of making the matchday squad. Who knew all it took was for him to be abused online.

"Not the next one," Adi Hutter said. "But we have a cup game in our next couple of fixtures. You won't start of course, but I think I can give you about thirty minutes to show what you can do. Those thirty minutes will be your lifeline. If you can put up a very decent performance then all the noise would automatically be shut out and all you'll get will be praise from the media. If you don't, then you can guess what's going to happen."

"So it's all in my hands," Tyler muttered.

"Yes indeed. It's all in your hands. That's quite a lot of pressure to have on your shoulders before making your debut and I'm very sorry that it had to get to this point but that's what I can do for you. Good night, Tyler."

"Goodnight coach."

Tyler thought about what Adi Hutter said and about the pressure and smiled. He wasn't one to feel pressure at all. If all that was on his shoulders was a little bit of pressure, then he didn't mind.

Pressure. What pressure? As the now popular saying went, pressure was for tyres

A/N:

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