Football: The Journey of a Coach

13. Farewell And Crystal Palace

    When Daniel Ward arrived at the bar where the Croydon players had gathered, already full of people, Daniel would often come to this bar during this period, there are no big events on weekdays.

    "Danny!. Danny!".

Traore saw Daniel first, and immediately shouted. He screamed with rhythm, and then...

"Danny!. Danny!". Everyone shouted, gradually becoming uniform, there was enough momentum.

Daniel Ward was a little proud and moved, as if he hadn't done much, but just led everyone to victory in a trivial friendly.

With a sign of gratitude, Daniel Ward comes to the bar led by Traore and Joey.

"Paul, a glass of beer!. It's mine tonight!"

The people in the bar cheered in excitement.

The team players surrounded Daniel Ward, laughing and joking.

"Why are there so many people tonight?!. Looks like I'm going broke tonight!". Daniel Ward's Candidates.

We are all neighbors, and basically know the basics, who would believe that Daniel was broke!.

"Didn't expect you to be stingy!".

"Do you want to go back on your words ?!".

Everyone counterattacks naturally.

"I repented!. Paul!" Shouted Daniel Ward.

"There's no point in calling me, you're ready for tonight!". Bearded boss Paul added insult to injury, everyone laughed out loud, and the wine game officially began.

"Danny, you have to enjoy it tonight, there are a lot of girls!". Joey smiled poorly, with an expression that any man could understand.

“Hahahaha..”. Daniel Ward just laughed, he was certainly no stranger to women, the real Daniel seemed to have been in a relationship before, but it ended not too long ago. While he was never serious in relationships, often changing women.

After Daniel looked closely around, I felt that something was wrong. Nine out of ten women in the bar tonight were people who were close to team players. It would be a shame to just have fun.

"Excuse me!. Give way!". A voice came from a distance, the voice of a woman.

Joey whistled, of course, Daniel was a little curious as to who could make him whistle.

"Haha, you're here!". A woman squeezed from the crowd, "Joe, why didn't you tell me about such an important party?!".

"And you, Danny!. Don't tell me, you don't know my phone number". The woman stared hard at Danny.

It turns out the woman who now looks at him is Daniel's former girlfriend, a woman named Elizabeth Olsen, 27 years old. The woman Eli used to call his friends, a famous night bar worker. The two break up because the real Daniel Ward who has a stiff character, he does not want his girlfriend to work at the Bar night, and asks him out of his job. Elizabeth refuses, and the two of them separate. But even though there is no romance, strangely they still make friends.

After a bit of small talk, the two of them sat down and drank at the bar. Elizabeth talked a lot and Daniel who did not understand the situation too much just listened, while chiming in a little talk.

Until finally Elizabeth talked about the job application she sent to Crsytal Palace which was rejected.

"Heh, who said I was rejected?!". Daniel Ward smiled casually, "I'll report to the Crystal Palace club tomorrow!. Miss, the person talking to you right now is Daniel, the coaching staff member of the Crystal Palace first team!". Before Elizabeth could respond to Daniel, some of the Croydon players around reacted first.

“Danny, what are you saying is true?!”.

“Are you going to Crystal Palace?!”.

“What should we do?!”.

Everyone was a little surprised, many were not yet aware of Daniel's business with Crsytal Palace.

"Sorry, guys!". Daniel Ward was a bit of a shock when he spoke to Elizabeth. If this topic did not come up, he originally planned on going to the club to tell everyone about it tomorrow.

 Everyone was silent for a while.    

Captain Hawking broke the silence, " Anyway, Crystal Palace are better than us, and you can exercise and play better!. I congratulate you, Danny!. Good luck!."

And everyone raised their cups one after another.    

“Thank you everyone!."

The atmosphere immediately became cheerful again, after thinking about it carefully, everyone understood that sooner or later Daniel Ward was going to leave, but now it was just a sudden thing. The celebration at the bar lasted until late at night. We didn't drink much, and the conversation was more lively. Daniel Ward could feel that after such a night, his relationship with the players seemed to get better. It was a pity that he had to leave, otherwise he would have the full confidence of leading everyone to do something big.

***

The next day Daniel Ward wakes up with Elizabeth's body wrapped around him, after a lot of drinking the two of them somehow get back together and eventually this incident is inevitable.

Daniel put Elizabeth's feet away and got up to the bathroom. After finishing some cleaning, Daniel saw Elizabeth was still sleeping soundly, probably exhausted after a night of playing. Daniel does not wake him, he decides to go straight to Croydon's clergy to say goodbye.

Robert Smith didn't come to the bar last night. He was an old man who probably didn't want to interrupt a young boy's party.

News spread very quickly in a small place, and there was no secrecy at all.When Daniel Ward showed up at the club, even the doorman knew that their temporary head coach would go to Crystal Palace "next-door". 

***

“Oh, looks like I should speed up the process of finding a head coach!”. Robert Smith frowned.

"By the way, going to Crystal Palace is a good thing for you!

Daniel, you're gonna make it!". Robert Smith sent words of blessing.

"Thank you, Mr. Smith!. Thank you to the players and the club for taking care of me. I'm very happy!. I have learned a lot!. I will always thank and support the team!". Daniel Ward also expressed his gratitude.

Daniel Ward didn't go to the training ground, he just stood in the office building and looked at the training ground from a distance, then left, not because he didn't want to see it, but because he didn't want to say goodbye.

***

On July 27, 2009, David Ward went alone to Beckenham training base. It's just the first-team training base of Crystal Palace Football Club, the youth teams moved here in 2007, and Crystal Palace's management is also working here.

Warnock was very reliable in his work, and set things up at night after chatting with Daniel, and told Daniel to make sure that he would come to the club today.

The reason why Warnock was able to work at Crystal Palace for so long is mainly because of Simon Jordan. In addition to being stingy on investment, Simon Jordan was very generous to Warnock in other aspects. Warnock has a lot of power at the club and signing the coach is not a problem at all.

After all, his coaching team wasn't that big at first. He's just five, assistant coach Mick Jones, goalkeeping coach Jamie Stannard, first-team coaches Ronnie Jepsen and Keith Kerr. That's it, now with Daniel Ward there's only six people.

Under Warnock's personal leadership, Daniel Ward signed a two-year contract with Crystal Palace for a weekly salary of 1,000 pounds. This is the result of Warnock's proposal. Daniel Ward's experience wasn't enough to earn such a contract salary. Although in the coach Crsytal Palace team he is still the lowest salary, but for new people without experience. This still counts well.

Daniel Ward knows that this is the result of Warnock's hard work, and he thanked Warnock after signing the contract.

"Don't thank me!. You are worth the price! ". Warnock shook his head and smiled.

The next step is to meet with other members of the coaching staff. Everyone knows each other. They met at the game yesterday. Everyone was relatively friendly with the arrival of the newcomers.

"That's it!. The winner is here!. He'll give us luck!". Mick Jones joked with a play on words.

Everybody laugh.

“Well, Mr Jones, I hope so!”. Daniel Ward smiled as well.

"Ahem, gentlemen!". Warnock said after laughing, "Daniel's arrival will further increase our team's strength, but he has just arrived and is unfamiliar with the situation. Hope you can help him more!. To be honest, he had no experience working in a professional team!. I hope you can help him get used to it as soon as possible!".

"Don't worry, boss, you just have to hand everything over to us!". Jones, Simpson and others immediately declared that at Crystal Palace, the thing Neil Warnock knows best is absolute authority, and they are all the people who follow Warnock all the time, it would naturally not violate the meaning of Warnock.