"Did you get the tickets?"
In Aix, southern France, as Clermont pushed open the door and entered the house, his wife Betty immediately greeted him, looking slightly nervous, "Will there be a lot of people during Christmas?"
It was the weekend, and the three children were also at home, casting expectant glances at their father as he returned.
Especially Ava, who jumped off the sofa and rushed into Clermont's arms, "I don't want to spend the holiday at home, I want to watch my brother play football!"
Clermont felt the concerned gazes of everyone, and although he wanted to keep them in suspense, the joy on his face betrayed him.
"I got them, we leave on the 23rd and arrive in Sheffield that evening."
He couldn't help but share the good news with his family, "We can watch Maël play football live."
The holidays had finally arrived, and they finally had time to put their shelved plans back on the agenda and take a trip to England!
This was no small matter for this ordinary family. Moreover, as Maël's relatives, watching their nephew, whom they hadn't seen in a year, enjoying the treatment of a football star on TV every week, they still felt a sense of surreal separation.
They couldn't feel at ease until they saw it with their own eyes and experienced it firsthand.
It was a strange feeling, and perhaps they hadn't fully accepted the huge change in their nephew's identity even to this day.
"Yeah!"
Ava raised her hands and jumped up and down happily. At her age, she didn't have any concept of being reserved and expressed everything directly.
Joy also appeared on the face of Clermont's wife, Betty, who had lived in southern France almost her entire life. The farthest she had been was Lille, and she had never even been abroad.
Not to mention the eldest sister and second brother in the family, who hadn't even been to Paris.
"We didn't tell Maël."
Betty was a delicate woman, and her experience of raising four children had honed this personality. Even when happy, she would harbor worries, "Will it cause him trouble? Should we tell him?"
"No."
Clermont rejected the suggestion, smiling expectantly, "We want to give him a surprise, suddenly appearing in front of him after the game!"
Betty thought for a moment, imagining the lonely expression on her nephew's face when he spent Christmas alone, and the surprise when he saw his family.
She smiled knowingly and agreed with the suggestion, "That's good too."
"But, there should be a lot of people watching the football game during Christmas."
The eldest sister in the family voiced her concerns from the side. Her mood was actually the same as Ava's, but she didn't express it too obviously, "If we don't tell him, what if we can't even get tickets?"
During this period, online ticket purchase programs hadn't come out yet, and tickets were mostly purchased by queuing at designated locations.
Her worries were not unreasonable. The Boxing Day battle during Christmas must be the craziest game in the first half of the season, and such games were generally hard to come by.
"Leave it to me."
Clermont was actually quite unsure after thinking about it, but he still didn't want to discourage everyone, "I'll go queue up early, I'll definitely be able to buy them."
Everyone stopped chatting, as if they were overwhelmed by excitement. They rushed back to their rooms to pack their things, some bringing toys, some bringing clothes.
But, what day is it? "Alright."
Finally, Clermont interrupted them and took out a bank card, "This is the ten thousand or so euros that Maël has been sending back, all in this card. I've always treated it as emergency money and rarely use it."
"Today, I'll take out 2000 and buy everyone a few sets of brand-new clothes, so we can see him in the best possible appearance."
The family was stunned, and then showed different reactions.
"Brother is the best!"
Ava raised an arm, and after seeing her father's earnest gaze, added, "Dad is the best too!"
"Haha..."
Clermont smiled and stroked her head, looking at Betty next to him, who had a happy expression but was acting coy, "I know you want to say it's not necessary again, but there's no discussion this time, let's go now."
"I'm putting on my shoes!" The eldest sister turned and rushed to her room. Obviously, buying new clothes was a great temptation for her.
The second brother didn't make any movements, but the anticipation on his face was already overwhelming.
December 15th, Maël boarded the bus from the hotel entrance in Norwich City, heading to Norwich's home stadium, Carrow Road Stadium.
The EFL Championship's 21st round of matches was about to kick off, and their opponents were Norwich, the strong team currently ranked second in the league!
Maël faced it with a normal attitude, even opening his Facebook on the car to browse fans' messages.
For some reason, he seemed to have been suddenly hit by a wave of traffic from the BBC recently. Many people who said they had watched the BBC program followed him and left crazy messages under his posts.
His fan base was also growing at a rate of ten to twenty thousand a day, and was already approaching 150,000.
This feeling was not bad. Now, the remuneration for his backstage event invitations was already between £20,000 and £30,000.
"When will I be able to earn 500,000 pounds for posting a single post?"
He still remembered the news he had seen in his previous life and had expectations for this matter. In his current view, it was no different from picking up money.
With the idea of maintaining the fan community, he took a few photos of himself in his training uniform, revealing the team logo and the team-issued water bottle.
Of course, the most important thing was his handsome face, which occupied almost 80% of the screen.
——"Heading to Norwich!"
He added the text, clicked publish, and kept refreshing, waiting for comments praising him.
Because it was the time before the match, many fans noticed his post immediately, and the number of comments quickly exceeded dozens.
"Post fewer selfies, players should post more match photos and posters, and more videos of playing football."
"Why is it all face?"
"Are there any videos of training? I want to see how Sheffield United trains, and what the atmosphere is like in the team?"
"Cut together a compilation of goals to see."
"Maël, look at other players, none of them post selfies like you do. Change your bad habits."
"..."
Maël opened the comments section and was bombarded. He depressedly clicked out and put down his phone.
"A football player with a lot of male fans, this is what the comments section is like."
He sighed and slowly focused his mind on the upcoming game, not thinking about anything else.
"Ward! He just finished his suspension and is back on the field. Facing Russell's defense, he chooses to go to the end line!! A cross in front of the goal! Evans shoots! It hits goalkeeper Ruddy, and there's a follow-up shot!! Beautiful!! Maël scores on the follow-up! He seems to have an amazing sense of smell in front of the goal, rushing to the front of the goal the moment Evans shot, ready for the follow-up! Sheffield United leads one to zero!"
"..."
"Lotton, pulls Jackson down in the penalty area! Giving Norwich a penalty, an excellent scoring opportunity! Sheffield United's defensive actions are a bit too much, they have had this situation more than once, they must avoid this as much as possible."
"Hoolahan stands at the penalty spot! A right-footed push, an amazing penalty! He chose to shoot towards the upper right corner of the goal, a risky shooting angle, but he did it!
"No goalkeeper can save this kind of penalty, unless he anticipates the line in advance!"
"..."
"A corner kick opportunity! Jackson sends the football in, to the middle! A volley!! Dowie!! The ball is in again! Norwich's control is too strong, they have besieged Sheffield United for five or six minutes! After three consecutive corner kicks, they have scored another goal! Two to one! The first half of the match is about to end, and Norwich returns to the locker room with a lead!"
"..."
"Hoolahan falls in the penalty area, Quinn is not calm! Lotton already gave the opponent a penalty in the first half, and he still rashly stretched out his foot and tripped Hoolahan! Is the referee going to call it? He did call it, not giving Sheffield United any face! Norwich gets their second penalty of the match!
"Hoolahan stands in front of the penalty spot again, unlike last time, this penalty was created by his own shot!!
"No suspense, Hoolahan completes his Brace, Norwich leads three to one!!"
"..."
"The fourth! Still Hoolahan, a small-angle blast after breaking through Karl Way, the football passes through Robert's crotch and rolls into the net!!
"Hat-trick, Hoolahan completes his first Hat-trick of the season! Four to one! Sheffield United has no hope of a comeback!"
"..."
"Bologanovic! A powerful header!! The ball is in! Sheffield United pulls the score back to two to four! An assist from Ward! He is in very good condition after the end of his suspension, it seems he has been holding back for a long time! But, this can only be considered a goal to save face, there is no time!"
At Carrow Road Stadium, after the stoppage time was over, the referee blew the whistle to end the match.
Norwich, with their stronger overall strength, achieved a crucial victory at their home stadium.
"Oh!"
"Haha!"
Their players embraced and high-fived in small groups, celebrating the 3 points they had earned against a team in the top six of the league, which was crucial for them to secure their promotion zone.
Sheffield United suffered their first defeat in December, a thorough loss with no regrets, no controversy, only inferior skills.
After shaking hands with the opposing coach, Gareth Speed stood with his hands on his hips, looking at the gloomy sky with a grim expression.
It wasn't that he couldn't accept defeat; he had experienced such feelings at least a hundred times in his playing career.
However, at such a crucial stage, he feared that such a loss would undermine the confidence of the team's core players.
Especially Maël, that was his concern. He feared that Maël would lose hope of Promotion to the Super League and leave the team.
After encouraging the players in the locker room, he called Maël to the post-match press conference venue, actually wanting to say something in private on the way.
"Norwich is very strong."
Gareth Speed started, he smiled wryly, "They should be at the level of a Premier League survival team, even if there is a gap, it is very small."
"I understand."
Maël nodded calmly, victory and defeat are common occurrences in war, besides disappointment, he had no other thoughts.
He scored 1 goal today, which was definitely a qualified performance.
On the other hand, after feeling the pressure that the Norwich players brought him through their overall strength, the feeling of elation in his heart disappeared.
In the past, he inevitably felt a bit arrogant towards the EFL Championship heroes, there was no way around it, the dazzling data was there.
He always felt that all honors were within reach, as long as he made a slight move, he could easily pick them off.
This idea disappeared today.
There are also difficult teams to deal with in the EFL Championship. Even Norwich is so strong, one can imagine how difficult Queens Park Rangers, who are at the top of the standings, are to chew on.
There are also other strong teams, teams whose tactical styles restrain them.
If you want to achieve significant team honors and maintain personal performance, there is a long way to go.
However, it's not a bad thing either.
People need challenges, they need motivation. In a comfortable situation, a person's growth will definitely not be fast.
Maël is always good at seeing the good side of things, he must be an optimistic person.
"Strengthen the defense in the winter window, we still have a good chance."
Gareth Speed observed Maël's expression, feeling somewhat cautious, "They are the second-best defensive team in the league, conceding very few goals, but we still scored 2 goals.
"This means that our attack line is still okay, with top four level."
Maël nodded in agreement, he vaguely guessed what Gareth Speed wanted to say, and took the initiative to say: "Mr. Speed may be a little sensitive, I don't care about the gains and losses of a game.
"Of course, this doesn't mean that I won't do my best in the game, as long as I stand on the field, I will fight desperately to win.
He smiled, "I also figured it out just now, my career is still long, I can't regard one game after another as a separate sequence, but should pay more attention to the entire season.
"Players rely on the team as a whole, and the team's victory is far more than a single victory, and the same is true for failure.
"This is just a small twist in the season, we may encounter it many times, what I hope is that we can achieve final success."
Gareth Speed's body trembled suddenly as he walked, he turned his head and glanced at Maël, and a sense of indescribable excitement rose in his heart.
ps: There will be another update today (update after watching the game), and there will be an extra update for 500 monthly tickets soon! I hope everyone will work hard to support!
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