Chapter 40: Striving for a Starting Spot with a Training Attitude

Tang Ye sat on the sofa, watching Charles and Boer beside him engage in a battle of words.

Before entering the room, Tang Ye had already told Boer his request.

That was that he needed holidays, more holidays!

This was the most important thing!

Half an hour later.

"How did it go? Will I get two days off on weekends from now on?"

"Tang..."

Boer lowered his head: "I'm very sorry, I couldn't secure more holidays for you. There's no way around it; Utrecht currently regards you as one of their core players."

It wasn't that Boer lacked ability, but rather that Ten Hag had issued an absolute order on this matter.

From the start of the negotiations, Boer felt the possibility of writing extra holidays into the contract was slim, and the final result indeed proved so.

"Damn it, this must be Erik's doing!"

Tang Ye waved his fist.

Now Ten Hag was only giving him one day of rest on weekends; originally, Tang Ye had planned to fight for a two-day weekend to train his FIFA gaming skills, hoping to defeat Zaka in the upcoming PK.

It seemed that defeating Zaka would have to be postponed for now!

"Don't be sad just yet."

Boer chuckled: "I managed to secure a weekly wage of 2,600 euros for you."

"..."

Tang Ye looked speechless.

Unsurprisingly, Boer had likely focused all his efforts on Tang Ye's salary.

Tang Ye's holidays had nothing to do with Boer.

But a salary increase directly concerned Boer!

"Besides the generous weekly wage, I also applied for a release clause for you. If any club wants to terminate your contract with Utrecht, they will need to pay..."

Boer held up the index and middle fingers of his right hand: "200,000 euros!"

He patted Tang Ye's back: "With a release clause, you won't be completely restricted by the club anymore."

Tang Ye nodded, half-understanding.

Not being completely restricted by the club sounded great!

"So does that mean if I don't want to work anymore, I can just pay the club 200,000 euros to terminate the contract?"

Tang Ye asked. Boer suddenly stopped walking: "Uh, who told you the release clause is used like that?"

"Then how is it used?"

"If a club wants to sign you but Utrecht refuses to let you go, they can directly pay 200,000 euros to take you away. Do you understand now?"

"Who ever heard of a player paying their own release fee!"

Boer also felt a headache coming on.

Youth academy players like Tang Ye didn't understand many things; sometimes being their agent was quite difficult.

Which youth academy player could suddenly produce 200,000 euros? Just thinking about it seemed wrong, damn it!

"Oh, I get it, I've done this in games before!"

Tang Ye's eyes lit up as he recalled using release clauses to buy players in his FIFA games.

This release clause thing basically meant that even if someone didn't want to sell, you could force the purchase by paying money!

Freedom was indeed freedom.

However...

Tang Ye shook his head and looked at Boer beside him: "This thing is useless to me, right? Apart from Utrecht, are there really other teams that want me?"

"You must never underestimate yourself!"

Boer instructed: "Play well, settle in the Eredivisie for four or five years, and I will find a way to bring you to one of the Big Five Leagues. Do you know the Big Five Leagues? Many players in those leagues have market values worth tens of millions of euros!"

Tens of millions of euros!

Tang Ye blinked; so far, the players with the highest market values he knew were the two attackers within his own team.

Sébastien Haller and Sitting Like; both of them had market values of 2.5 million euros!

Ten million euros!

Tang Ye took a deep breath.

Why did others possess such heaven-defying talent, while he could only rely on hard work to make up for his lack of talent?

Damn it!

However, Tang Ye knew that one could not rush things.

He set a small goal for himself.

That was to reach a market value of 2.5 million euros before becoming an adult, tying with the two seniors in his team!

This was very difficult, but Tang Ye would put in the effort!

On the afternoon of October 26th, two days remained until Utrecht's next KNVB Cup match.

Tang Ye was very excited now because his Portuguese Chest would hatch after the next match ended.

It was already a High-Level Chest; if Tang Ye continued to score in the next match...

Then he could obtain a Superstar Chest!

A Portuguese Superstar Chest!

The importance of the Chest needed no elaboration; this was also why Tang Ye had recently been hinting around for a spot in the starting lineup for the next match.

The more playing time one gets, the greater the chance of scoring—a truth even a fool knows.

However, Tang Ye had landed under Ten Hag, and this guy was truly damn cunning.

He never explicitly told Tang Ye whether he would start the next match, but kept dangling carrots instead.

After finishing the 10x30-meter shuttle runs, Tang Ye panted heavily as he walked toward Ten Hag: "Erik, I'm done!"

"OK, good job."

Ten Hag clapped his hands in praise: "I feel you've taken another step closer to starting the next match; let me calculate, you now have a 90% probability of starting!"

A 90% probability!

Tang Ye rinsed his mouth with bottled water.

This guy Ten Hag was truly damn disgusting; he had set up a tiered training plan.

If Tang Ye wanted to increase his probability of starting the next match, he had to complete the training items Ten Hag demanded.

Yesterday Tang Ye's probability of starting was still 30%, increasing by 10% after each training session ended.

Although it was a bit disgusting, it indeed conformed to the principle that Heaven rewards diligence.

Tang Ye had endured much hardship, and now he had finally grinded his starting probability up to 90%!

This meant that as long as Tang Ye completed one more training item.

Complete one more item, and he could lock in a starting spot for the next match.

"So tired, Mr., what is the next extra training item?"

Tang Ye sat on the grass, with teammates playing a practice match beside him.

Roughly estimated, Tang Ye's current training load was at least 1.5 times, even 2 times, that of other first-team teammates!

"You look very tired."

Ten Hag glanced at the iPad in his hand, where the software displayed Tang Ye's real-time heart rate.

A heart rate of 127 beats per minute indicated that Tang Ye was currently in a rather painful state!

"Take a rest first."

Ten Hag handed Tang Ye a bottle of Gatorade; Tang Ye took the Gatorade but raised an objection to Ten Hag's suggestion: "Erik, actually I only look tired; if I really run, I can still move."

Today's training time was almost up, and tomorrow being a pre-match preparation day, no physical training would be arranged.

Tang Ye knew what this cunning Ten Hag was thinking: he just wanted Tang Ye to rest now and end training directly, then lock in that 90% probability only to prevent Tang Ye from starting the day after tomorrow!

Tang Ye would not let Ten Hag succeed!

"Wow, Tang, I didn't expect you to have such perseverance."

Ten Hag raised his eyebrows: "Alright then, I'll give you 10 minutes of rest, and then you must begin today's final training content: a 3km variable-speed run!"

The 3km variable-speed run was extremely arduous, but in order to secure a starting spot, Tang Ye directly took a swig of Grealish Draft.

Just do it and be done with it!

Half an hour later.

"Huff, huff huff, huff huff huff... Erik, huff, what is my probability of starting now?"

"Well done!"

Ten Hag glanced at Fan Fan Dejiahe's watch.

The result was average, but considering Tang Ye's original level, he had truly given his all on this final 3km variable-speed run!

"A perfect performance; your level of effort deserves a starting spot in the next match. Now your probability of starting is..."

"99%!"

(End of Chapter)