Football: The Journey of a Coach

17. The N'golo Kante experiment

Three days later, Daniel Ward brought N'golo Kante to the club. During these three days Kante stayed at his place, Kante initially refused and wanted to find a hotel. But Daniel did not allow it, and it happened that in his house there was an empty room, he also lived alone. So instead of spending money on a hotel, it is better at his home.

When he arrives at Daniel and Kante's training ground, he happens to run into Neil Warnock in the parking lot.

Daniel Ward greeted him, Warnock just nodded and saw the person next to him. 18-year-old N'golo Kante, less than 1.7 meters tall, skinny and weak, could not see anything special at all.

Such a player let him play in the English Championship, and he is still a defensive midfielder, according to Warnock this is unbelievable. But seeing the others was good, he expected this one not to disappoint him.

Neil Warnock begins to wonder about Daniel's vision. The other three players' recommendations were not bad, after scouting Crsytal Palace gave their evaluations as well as videos of them playing. He and his team think they are fit for Palace this season. He's already told the transfer people to work on their arrival.

Jamie Vardy has already started participating in team training. In addition to his fast pace and positive attitude, and instinct in front of goal, it still needs a lot more polish. But Warnock thinks he could be useful for Palace. And most importantly Vardy is cheap, if the price is high. He's already gonna throw it out of the Palace.

"Daniel, you asked the staff to take him to the first-team dressing room!. What you did with him. You're an assistant coach, you have your own job, and you're not his agent!". After saying this sentence, scolding Daniel, he left.

After being scolded by the boss, Daniel ward explains to Kante that he was assigned by Warnock to work, and then finds the club staff to take Kanter to the first-team dressing room.

Kante was very calm, accepted this arrangement and thanked Daniel.

Speaking of which Daniel, the assistant coach, has been doing his job for three days now. After returning from France to handle the transfers of Vardy and Kante, he was busy preparing tactics and strategy materials, Daniel has never even seen all the players in the first team.

But personally, all first-team players know that Mr. coaching staff. Warnock has added an assistant coach, a local, namely Daniel Ward who leads the amateur team Croydon FC to beat them.

Team members are somewhat curious about this assistant coach, Daniel Ward has been the focus of heated discussions among first-team players of late.

At ten in the morning, at Beckenham's training base, the first-team players gathered, waiting for the start of morning practice.

Kante stood alone on one side wearing a training outfit, and no one paid attention to him, of course the reason could not be entirely blamed on the Crystal Palace players.

It's also a new help, but unlike Jamie Vardy, he doesn't say much, but he still stands alongside the Crystal Palace crowd on the other side, listen to them talk about Daniel and Kante.

Mick Jones first came to the training ground and directed everyone to warm up.

After a while, Warnock and the rest of the coaching staff came to the training ground one after another.

After the warm-up was over, Warnock started talking, and for the first time introduced Daniel Ward to everyone.

"My name is Daniel Ward. Original Croydon, 30 years. Please take care of me in the future!". Daniel introduced himself, Very simple.

" If there's time, I'll take you all out to drink at the bar". The fastest way to get along is to share drinks with each other.

Hearing Daniel intend to buy them a drink, the Crsytal Palace players cheered happily and laughed.

"Okay, I don't mind if Daniel takes you out for a drink!. But first we have to finish the training session!". After laughing, Warnock clapped his hands reminding everyone to pay attention.

Assistant coach Ronnie Simpson announced the training plan today, and the official training commenced Warnock did not mention Kante at all.

Daniel had no choice but to just stare at Kante and nod his head, a sign that he was still here. Kante nodded, said nothing, and joined the training team.

Because the day before, Daniel told Kante not to be surprised if many doubted him at Crsytal Palace. He just needs to prove himself, and make the others acknowledge his abilities.

Warnock asked Daniel Ward to train with the team for a few days before taking over the job as planned, so Daniel will be following the training ground today.

Preseason training is mainly physical training and tactical training. Crystal Palace are relatively bad now, and there is no such thing as going abroad for training. Simon Jordan was too lazy to set up a commercial match, and Warnock didn't really care. Quite a lot, but endless training day after day is boring, the condition of the players in the training ground is different, some are careless and some are serious.

Old man Warnock watched like a foreman, and he would definitely shout at anyone who slackened.

focus on Kante and Vardy.

In particular, he had watched many matches between Kante and Vardy in his original world, and he was very impressed with them. Warnock did not reveal Jamie Vardy's results, and this is just Kante's experiment. Daniel doesn't know how the training works.

At the end of the morning training, Vardy performed very well, meticulously, and completed all the training tasks very seriously, without any embarrassment and discomfort from just joining the professional team.

As for Kante, he was amazing, he did his best practice in silence, which made all his team-mates look at him in awe.

After training, Daniel went to Warnock to speak. "How's?. Let me tell you that this little guy can do it!".

"It's just a training session!. His body is still too thin". Warnock. He did not deny that Kante impressed him, but his small stature did need to be improved again.

 " The body can be improved with a lot of exercise". Said Daniel.

Warnock nodded a few times and left.

After all, Daniel Ward's mind was that of the future. Who have seen the kejayan of both of them, but these people do not know the future . To agree to this alone is good.

Because Vardy and Kante are the players he brings in, and he feels responsible for them.

***

The afternoon training session starts at four. Judging from the training setup in the first morning, Warnock emphasizes physical fitness and strength training. It was completely different when Daniel coached the Croydon FC team.

Daniel trained a lot with the ball when training amateur teams, because he mainly practiced tactics, found problems in training and then filled gaps.

Half an hour after the training session, Neil Warnock arranged an intra-team match, and Kante was assigned with Vardy.

Vardy runs very hard and always tries hard to put pressure on the opponent, but he looks very crazy Run. Daniel finally understands the weakness of this one player.

Vardy. At Storrs Bridge Steel, he is a striker who can score goals. The team is centered on him. How could he run. It's okay, on the amateur team, but it's obviously different here.

Warnock may not like his crazy run, he also feels that Vardy still needs a lot more polish.

And Vardy also has a weakness . His passing ability is average, his speed is fast but the ability to carry the ball a little worse.

Perhaps because there is so much to learn by Vardy, coach Warnock scolded him more on the pitch.

" Middle way!. Don't go sideways!".

" Bastard!, you striker why run around is unclear. Look for gaps in the defense area".

Listening to Warnock's angry screams, Daniel feels that Vardy's life will start to get uncomfortable.

Another player Daniel brought in, N'golo. Warnock did not even say a word, but he could see the approval on Warnock's face.

The skinny and weak looking Kante looked quite strong now. He almost covered the entire back court and had a strong stealing ability. Although it was short, its strength was not necessarily bad, and he had a very good advantage , Maybe he realized after all there was a gap in his body, after all, so he barely sticks to the ball and passes it directly to his team-mates, gradually the players by his side love to interact with him.

A training game allows Warnock to see much of N'golo Kante's power. How could he not like a player like this on the back court, his ability to run, and his high thinking intelligence.

Daniel Ward also saw that Kante's strength at the age of 18 surprised him. He didn't expect Kante to be so strong now. Of course, he also did not know why the scouting other clubs had no one to glance at him.