Chapter 467: Chapter 467

Tang Long stared intently at the phone screen. New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on NoveIＦire.net

He was indeed reading, but it wasn’t a novel; it was a biography.

A biography about his teammates!

He spent six hours swiftly finishing a 500-page book "The Kompany Biography" ghostwritten by a Belgian journalist.

Abroad, many players publish biographies even if they’re far from retiring.

Players don’t have the time or the writing skills to write books themselves, so the common practice is to authorize a trusted journalist to do it through interview recordings.

Rather than saying Tang Long was reading a biography, it would be more accurate to say he was quickly scanning the text to feed it into his AI brain for analysis!

Despite not having a complete squad, Pellegrini rigidly insisted on his possession-based tactics, which revealed to Tang Long the stubborn nature of the Chilean coach.

In this regard, he felt Pellegrini was not as good as his former coach Mancini.

As a player, Tang Long couldn’t influence Pellegrini’s lineup decisions; his mission was to play well on the field, no matter which teammate was by his side, winning was always Tang Long’s primary goal.

Tang Long always liked to plan ahead. Having noticed the flaws in the Manchester City coach’s character, he realized that in the upcoming series of matches, the coach’s character flaws could continue to cause problems for the team—until the return of Ranocchia, Silva, and Agüero.

He had to prepare in advance!

He must know his teammates better and make full use of those who aren’t good at possession football but still have a strong will to win, no matter what adversity they face!

Merely watching videos or scanning teammates for AI data analysis was far from enough.

Previously, whether it was Sterling or Bony, Tang Long built personal models for them;

Through model construction, the AI system also provided corresponding analysis and suggestions for Tang Long’s reference on the field.

This was a huge step forward.

It meant that Tang Long’s AI predictions reached a new level, taking his understanding of specific players to a higher level!

But the input data was always cold.

A player’s positioning and ability might be derived from video footage, height, weight, and physical characteristics, and used as parameters fed into the model.

But players are not machines!

First, they are living individuals, and then the identity of professional players is added on.

They have their thoughts, emotions, loves and hates, likes and dislikes, things to be indifferent about, and lifelong pursuits!

The Green Grass Wisdom Engine had been upgraded from intermediate to advanced, the computing power greatly enhanced, which provided Tang Long with an opportunity.

It was no longer about relying solely on cold data for analysis when building player models but including emotional factors!

To make the model come alive, with more "human touch."

Playing football, from a commercial perspective, is a professional player’s job.

In work, people inevitably bring their personal emotions into it.

Take Bony for example.

He suddenly exploded, scoring four goals in 20 minutes, shocking the entire Premier League!

Part of this was due to his latent talent not being displayed before, but Bony’s story behind it should not be ignored.

Bony grew up in the slums of Côte d’Ivoire and after becoming a professional player, shouldered the burden of feeding 200 family members.

Upon arriving in the Premier League, he also faced invisible racial discrimination and contempt.

Amidst these oppressive emotions, Bony harbored a deep-seated drive within himself!

This drive means Bony will never give up his professional career nor his ultimate goal of becoming a world-class striker—this is the distinction between Bony and many European players raised in affluent families.

The latter enjoy the well-developed social welfare systems of developed countries, ensuring a comfortable life even without playing football.

But Bony doesn’t have this mindset of comfort!

Once dropped by Manchester City, he would face the decline of his family’s reputation, a significant drop in income, struggling to support the 200 members with basic living needs!

So Bony brings his emotions into the football profession, exhibiting more resilience than the average European player!

Tang Long already had significant insights into Bony, so he seized every opportunity to read his other teammates’ biographies.

These biographies, penned by experienced European journalists, contained detailed accounts of the players’ growth and their evolving mental journeys year after year in professional football.

Through these detailed texts, often accompanied by pictures, Tang Long could learn in a short time the untold stories of some teammates that many never shared with him.

Starting with the autobiography of Manchester City’s captain, Kompany.

Pizjuan Stadium in Seville.

Nearly 50,000 fans packed the not-so-large stadium to the brim, their voices echoed everywhere as they fiercely cheered for the home team!

"Seville! Defeat these arrogant British colonizers on behalf of Spain!"

"Kick them out of our country!"

Most of the players of Seville are local Spaniards.

They have an innate animosity toward the British.

In 1704, the British fleet suddenly attacked and occupied Gibraltar.

In the subsequent Treaty of Utrecht, Spain was forced to cede Gibraltar to the United Kingdom.