"I understand."

"I am the captain of the team."

When those standing in front of you have all left, you become the one to shield those behind from the storm.

Since Raul and Guti's farewell ceremony, Chen Zhong has been extremely cautious in exercising his "rights." He does not interfere with the coach's decisions, maintains the coach's authority in various situations, and also comforts the players in the locker room.

As the team captain, your responsibility is not to suppress others, but to unite everyone around you and help the team move towards the set goals together.

These are Chen Zhong's understandings of the captain's responsibilities.

This is also an important reason why Florentino wanted to "strip" Casillas and Ramos, "drive away" Raul and Guti, and dismantle the "Dutchmen."

An ordinary person becoming a captain at 17 might quickly become obsessed with power, ruling the club with an iron fist, being arrogant, and ignoring the bigger picture.

But Chen Zhong, from his youth team days, has always been a responsible man.

Being a captain only makes him more "restrained," rather than "indulgent," because he remembers his responsibilities, which is the rarest thing.

After all, anyone can be "indulgent," but not everyone can be "restrained."

This is what makes a true man and a hero.

"Alright, thank you for your hard work." Chen Zhong hung up the phone, fully accepting Valdano's proposal. He would attend the press conference tomorrow evening to explain the recent rumors.

This is also something a captain needs to consider, clarifying those "untrue" messages as soon as possible.

After all, every Chinese person knows the story of "three men make a tiger," and under the bombardment of such untrue information, some players are bound to do bad things, intensifying the conflicts between the coach and the players.

Pellegrini is a good coach.

Yes, although he made many "stupid mistakes," he is still a good coach in Chen Zhong's eyes.

His personality is introverted, aside from being more "straightforward" in his speech when first managing a big club, he is generally quite affable to most players due to his "gentle and elegant" demeanor.

Moreover, he has another advantage, which is being firm, or you could say meticulous, or perhaps, stubborn.

When managing the club, he is determined to build according to his own ideas and will not be swayed by external factors, which is also the source of his conflict with Florentino.

According to a Chinese saying, he doesn't understand the ways of the world, doesn't know how to maintain good relationships with colleagues, is rigid, not clever.

This can be seen from his "one man, one club" behavior in his player days, sticking with the University of Chile Team during their low period and retiring sadly at 31. A slightly cleverer person might have chosen to go to another team earlier for better development.

A good bird chooses a tree to rest in, this kind of principle, Pellegrini seems not to understand.

In the end, he is also a very rational person.

Perhaps due to his high education, he likes to reason with people during his coaching, for example, after Chen Zhong was substituted in the last game, he sat next to Chen Zhong and kept talking.

However, to some, this might be labeled as "weak and easily bullied."

And upon realizing he couldn't gain authority in transfer issues, Pellegrini would directly consider "resigning," which also shows he knows that with this job, he might not be up to it, that he can't win against Florentino, and when he can't find satisfaction, he directly thinks of "flipping the table."

This can't be said to be "weakness," it's just being overly rational.

As a "faculty-trained" coach, Pellegrini indeed has his own set of football philosophy and theories.

The only problem is, he doesn't seem to understand that if an orange is planted in the south of Huai River, it will be sweet, but if planted in the north, it will be bitter.

He doesn't seem like a Chilean, but more like a meticulous German.

Of course, it's funny to say.

Chen Zhong is willing to believe one thing about Pellegrini, that is, he performed quite well in his past coaching career, even facing the unprecedented Triple Crown-winning Barcelona.

Among the current coaches, especially those Real Madrid can get, Pellegrini is considered top-tier.

On this point, Chen Zhong still trusts Florentino and his "team's" capability.

After all, even though Florentino doesn't like Pellegrini, he still chose him, which might genuinely mean there's no better choice available.

...

On the training ground, players occasionally glanced at Chen Zhong. Some close players, like Negredo, Granero, Pirlo, Marcelo, Kaka, and others, came over to express their support for Chen Zhong.

Pellegrini stood on the training ground, his facial expression "stiff," giving the impression of being difficult to deal with, but in fact, he just didn't know how to handle the current situation.

He also realized that big clubs are different from other teams.

"I'm fine."

"Complete the training properly." Chen Zhong gave Negredo a hard slap on the butt, Negredo looked "shyly" at Chen Zhong, smiled at Kaka, then ran off. Chen Zhong looked at Kaka and said, "Don't worry, I know how things are, you and Andrea are in your first season with the team, can't let you leave empty-handed, can we!"

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