Swansea quietly repainted the players' tunnel.
When the weekend league match arrived and everyone ca to the Liberty Stadium to warm up, the players stopped in front of the corridor leading from the tunnel to the pitch, each of them looking surprised.
"What the hell! What's going on? Did we walk into the wrong place?"
Ibrahimović stood at the entrance of the corridor, staring at the scene before him as he muttered in astonishnt.
The corridor in front of them was filled entirely with black and white. Down the center of the path beneath their feet, various logos had been printed at equal intervals.
Cromwell was the second to arrive. He practically jumped, then said in shock, "Did so graffiti lovers prank us? What is all this?"
"Huh? So of these designs look familiar."
Villa carefully studied the logos on the floor. Jas Cook introduced them from beside him. "These are the competitions we're playing in. Look, that's the Football League Trophy logo. This one is the Division Three logo. Huh? There's Division Two too, Division One, the League Cup, the FA Cup, the Premier League… the Champions League!"
As Jas Cook spoke, he walked all the way to the tunnel exit. Then he turned and looked back at the symbols he had just stepped over, and a strange emotion rose in his heart.
Especially now, looking back, with the Champions League right in front of him, followed by the Premier League, and then one logo after another stretching backward, there was a dreamlike, unreal sensation — as though he had already conquered England and Europe!
But he soon ca back to his senses, and endless fighting spirit burned in his heart.
Recognize reality!
He and his teammates were currently near the starting point: the Football League Trophy and Division Three!
There was still a very long road between them and the summit!
For the club to move forward, they still needed to defeat many enemies and cross several divisions!
The Champions League logo was right there before their eyes, so alluring and intoxicating.
In the past, he had never dared imagine that he could one day stand on the Champions League stage. But now, looking at that logo, Jas Cook suddenly felt that everything might beco sothing visible and tangible!
Because the club dared to do this.
By printing these logos here and making Swansea's players walk this path again and again, it was both a suggestion and an inspiration.
This was the club's pursuit!
To stand at the summit!
Jas Cook was very smart. In an instant, he understood the purpose behind the tunnel's redesign.
At the sa ti, this was also a unique design belonging to Swansea.
It carried Swansea's style!
Friedrich stood in the middle of the players' tunnel, looking at the design on the black wall. Through the contrast between light and dark, Swansea's crest erged — a black swan!
The black swan in the design seed slightly ethereal, often creating an optical illusion. It made people feel as if the swan was drifting and the image was spreading outward, as though the entire wall was being filled by the black swan. It instinctively filled the heart with awe!
Everyone gathered together and began discussing the changes to the club's tunnel, each offering their own opinions.
Just then, Lynn entered the players' tunnel.
He said solemnly to everyone, "From now on, when you line up as starters, you must stand on the black side. This is also part of the team rules!"
The players turned to look at Lynn. No one asked anything else. After nodding one after another, they turned and entered the pitch for warm-ups.
Once all the players had walked onto the field, Lynn walked alone through the tunnel. The sound of his leather shoes striking the floor echoed crisply. His expression was dignified as he stepped over every logo.
When he reached the end of the tunnel, he turned back and murmured to himself, "Here. This is where I should be. I will reach this place as quickly as possible, and once I do, I will never go back. Never!"
Lynn sat down on the ho bench very early. He did not even return to the dressing room to give a pre-match talk.
He knew the players were unwilling to accept their midweek defeat to Liverpool. That was a common emotion among young n. Regardless of whether they had lost because of inferior strength, losing still left them unconvinced.
Naturally, they would give everything in the weekend match to regain face and vent their frustration.
Besides, today's visitors, York City, were only an average side. Lynn was not underestimating the opponent, but there was no need to treat every match as if facing a mortal enemy and stir the players up every single ti.
If his players were the kind of n who needed him to wave a whip in order to awaken their fighting spirit, then this team would have no future at all.
The supporters had already begun entering the stadium. Twenty minutes before kick-off, the twenty-thousand-capacity ground was already close to eighty-five percent full. There were hardly any large patches of empty seats visible.
In the South Stand, where the ho team's die-hard supporters gathered, the five representatives of the supporters' group were already seated in their usual spots. Looking down at the pitch, they saw Lynn sitting alone on the ho bench. From a distance, his figure looked rather lonely.
Perhaps it was the effect of the midweek defeat to Liverpool, along with Fleet Street's humiliation and mockery of Lynn, that gave them this illusion.
The pot-bellied Richard Cork tilted his head toward the refined Fred Davis and said, "Look, Lynn is sitting there by himself. Why isn't he in the dressing room? He looks a little down."
Fred Davis thought for a long while before saying, "Actually, if you imagine it from his position, the pressure he bears is truly enormous. You have to rember, he was originally a wealthy young master who could have lived freely and comfortably. Yet now, in a foreign country, he has endured blow after blow from public opinion.
"The Sun directly called him a 'Chinaman.' That word is essentially the sa as using a racial slur against Black people. It is hard to imagine what Lynn, who has lived in Britain for so long, is feeling right now. What I'm curious about is why he has remained silent."
As a teacher at Swansea University, Davis was highly knowledgeable. He could interpret many things that most British people would glance at and ignore.
In reality, the British impression of Chinese people was not good. Before Polish immigrants entered Britain in large numbers four years later, Chinese people were Britain's second-largest ethnic minority!
But in the eyes of many British people, these people were all the sa kind of person: "Chinan."
As for the impression of "Chinan," many British people did not rate them highly. The BBC had conducted a survey before, and Chinese people's popularity in Britain was only slightly higher than Russians, far behind French and Aricans.
The impression of Chinese people was that they were impolite, unhygienic, hardworking, showy with money, wasteful, and so on.
Of course, in Chinese eyes, diligence was a virtue. But in many Western countries, being excessively hardworking was seen as foolish. That was why in many Western countries, people could shout about democracy while going on strike.
Precisely because of these complicated social background factors, once The Sun chose to mock Lynn, it would do so rcilessly, even cruelly, striking directly at his dignity!
They wanted to nail him to the pillar of sha!
"Chinaman" — a term that would humiliate any Chinese person with even the slightest sense of national pride.
The aning hidden behind it was weakness and incompetence.
The "sick man of East Asia."
The reason Lynn had not protested against The Sun was because the ti had not yet co. Besides, if he clung to The Sun and refused to let go, it would distract his energy. It would also make him actively step into the role of the "Chinaman."
He did not need to win public sympathy.
He was doing what he needed to do, step by step.
When the ti was ripe, he would be even more ruthless and cruel than The Sun!
In the stands, Matthew Bode, Jess Smith, Kevin Reeves, Richard Cork, and the others fell silent after hearing Davis's words.
They were all adults and would not beco overly sentintal. But after personally witnessing everything Lynn had done for the club, they felt so sympathy for him.
More importantly, after the team lost to Liverpool midweek, their first reaction had been that they must cheer for Lynn during today's ho match!
They wanted Lynn to truly feel their support!
Kevin Reeves, a tall and powerfully built man who had spent years doing hard labor, stood up, turned toward the crowd on the higher steps, and shouted, "Robert, hurry up and raise the banner!"
Soon, a large banner was unfurled high above.
Written on it was one line:
Lynn, you are the best!
Then, along the edge of the second tier, so supporters hung another banner over the railing.
On the left side of the banner was a portrait: a sketch of Lynn standing by the touchline, pointing toward the pitch while directing the team.
Beside the image were the words:
God Can't Save You Either!
This was the bold declaration Lynn had made when leading the team to victory over Brighton!
Now, the supporters had turned it into a banner and hung it from the edge of the second tier, using it to intimidate every opponent who visited the Liberty Stadium!
The mont the banner appeared, the supporters in the South Stand burst into loud cheers!
Lynn's attention was drawn by the movent in the South Stand. He looked up and saw the banners the supporters had hung and raised, as well as many placards held above their heads. Many of them were ssages supporting Lynn!
Fleet Street had not deliberately mocked Swansea, because in everyone's eyes, Swansea losing to Liverpool was perfectly natural. But they had deliberately magnified Lynn's flaws, trying to destroy Lynn as an individual!
Lynn had silently endured all of it. His silence did not an there was no reaction in his heart.
When he saw what the supporters were doing, he smiled. His heart was filled with emotion, and at the sa ti, he beca even more motivated and full of fighting spirit!
He silently looked east.
That was the direction of London.
With tens of thousands of Swans supporters standing behind , what do I, Lynn, have to fear?
When York City's players and Swansea's starters stood together in the players' tunnel, the York City players all felt sothing strange.
Whenever they looked toward the Swansea players, they experienced a shocking illusion.
The dark image on the background wall filled them with endless pressure!
Every color had two sides, and black was the color most strongly associated with negativity.
Just as people feared darkness, black made people feel mystery, terror, emptiness, despair, and spiritual oppression.
And the Swansea crest on the wall, through that optical illusion, seed almost like a living relief carved into the surface, lifting an endless darkness!
Swansea's players, by contrast, were completely different. Against the black background wall, their white shirts looked as pure as snow, as if they carried a sacred and solemn aura that could not be violated!
The York City players standing on the sowhat empty white background side looked as though they were awaiting the judgnt of fate!
Swansea's players were filled with fighting spirit today.
The ntal stimulation brought by defeat at Anfield, along with the club's newly transford players' tunnel, might have been small changes, but they were enough to affect the players' will to fight.
While the York City players were still in complicated moods, the referee at the front of the line signaled for the players to walk out together.
The nearly twenty thousand ho supporters in the Liberty Stadium imdiately unleashed deafening cheers to support the ho team, while also placing huge pressure on the visitors!
Under that pressure, York City's players beca even more conflicted!
Swansea's players, however, were full of energy, rubbing their hands together as they prepared to go all out.
They stood on the pitch with high morale and fierce battle intent.
At this mont, Lynn also rose from the bench. As usual, he walked to the touchline, straightened his back, crossed his arms, and watched the pitch with a dignified expression.
The supporters in the stands beca even more excited.
They had misunderstood Lynn. They thought he had suffered a ntal blow and now had fully revived!
In truth, Lynn was no longer soone who could be easily defeated. But there was no denying that the supporters' actions had given him a powerful stimulus and inspired him to move forward!
On Swansea's road of growth and progress, the club was united from top to bottom. At the sa ti, they and the supporters were also united, facing difficulties and welcoming challenges together!
Swansea's matches at the Liberty Stadium had already beco a feast for the local supporters. In the stands, they roared and cheered freely, urging the team forward.
On the pitch, the Swans' youth storm made the supporters' blood boil!
On the touchline, the young Swansea manager Lynn was becoming increasingly mature, commanding with calm authority while radiating passion!
On this day, York City, ranked in the lower half of Division Three, collapsed completely!
Charisteas scored twice.
Villa scored twice.
Grosso produced a hat-trick of assists.
At ho, the Swans swept York City aside 6-0, overtook Brighton on points, and climbed to the top of the Division Three table!
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