Chapter 593: Learning Curve!

The following morning, Leo was halfway through his coffee when traffic brought him to a stop.

He rested one hand on the steering wheel and took another sip, watching the line of cars ahead inch forward before stopping again.

Before anything else, Noah’s voice came through the car speakers.

"Alright, I’ve heard you. I’ll go ahead and send Loewe the proposal."

Leo hummed in response as the agent went silent over the line before abruptly coming back.

"And what are you doing over Christmas and New Year’s?"

Leo looked through the windscreen and then chuckled at the thought of him having something to do that had nothing to do with football.

"Working," he muttered after a while, and when he spoke, there was a brief silence.

Then Noah snorted.

"Alright. I’ll see you around."

The call line clicked off after that, and almost in sync, the light ahead turned green.

Leo set the cup back into its holder and pulled away with the traffic.

By the time he reached the training complex, the car park was already beginning to fill.

Wigan had a handful of players who preferred getting in early, and Max Power was one of them.

The veteran midfielder spotted Leo as he shut his boot and decided to make his presence felt that morning.

"Morning. How are you?"

"Good," Leo said as he closed the boot.

Power had been walking ahead, but he slowed enough for Leo to catch up.

"You ready for whatever Dawson’s got planned?" Power asked right as Leo fell into step beside him.

"Honestly..." Leo said, looking at Max Power before he shook his head.

"No."

That got a laugh out of Max Power, who began nodding in agreement.

"At least you’re honest."

The two went on to enter the complex, disappearing behind the glass doors as the morning gradually became busier.

More cars arrived, doors slammed, and players filtered through the building with varying levels of enthusiasm.

Some headed straight for breakfast, while others stopped to talk before getting changed.

Leo, on the other hand, was already in the gym when Thompson found him.

He looked over the room, then at Leo.

"You’re not trying to win the league in here, are you?"

Leo lowered the weight and then snorted at his former coach.

"We aren’t even winning it on the pitch," Leo said, catching Thompson a bit off guard as he approached the bench press machine.

"That’s true," he accepted with a nod, causing a few of the players around to laugh, but not without him pointing around the room.

"Keep it sensible. We’ve got a session later."

The players nodded and eased off, and Thompson went his way too.

Breakfast followed afterwards, giving everyone some time to settle before they were given another half-hour to rest.

By then, the building had fully come alive.

Kits were slowly but eventually pulled on.

Players drifted towards the changing rooms and then gathered outside as the clock approached half past nine.

Dawson and the coaching staff followed the players, but the manager kept looking around, feeling like he was missing something.

Then he frowned.

"Somebody missing?"

Before anyone could answer, the four late arrivals came into view.

"Sorry, Daws," Leo called as he jogged over with Ezra, Jake, and Carlo across the dewy Wigan pitch, while Dawson shook his head.

"Of course."

Leo joined Jake, Ezra, and Carlo, who were already trying not to laugh as Dawson brought his hands together and walked toward the group.

"Alright. Bring it in."

The talking gradually stopped as the players began to huddle around the manager.

Dawson waited until everyone was listening before deciding to begin.

"I’ve deliberately not said much about the last few games despite the results," he started, taking in the stares of his players.

"Partly because I didn’t want to turn every morning into a discussion about whether we’re suddenly a bad team. We’re not."

It was subtle, but after the manager’s words, the players’ figures eased, settling into a more neutral form.

"But we’ve had a poor run by our standards. That’s a fact."

"It happens. It happens to the best sides in the world. The important part is what you do with it."

Dawson eyes moved across the group before he continued.

"So we’re going to treat it as a learning curve."

And when he said that, Dawson’s expression hardened slightly.

"Because the next game isn’t getting any easier."

"We have Chelsea at home, and this will be the first game of the second half of the season," Dawson continued.

"We’re playing one of the best squads in this league. So we need to be switched on from the first minute."

He let that settle before continuing.

"We’ve already beaten Chelsea this season. A Four-one battering that put our game confidence through the roof."

That earned a few smiles.

"But don’t expect the same game twice."

Dawson pointed towards the pitch.

"They’ll have learned from that. They’ll have watched what we did, where we found space and how we hurt them. We surprised them the first time," he said while shaking his head.

"That’s not happening again."

Leo listened quietly as the man went on and then came back again.

"We don’t need to change everything," Dawson said.

"We just need to be better at what we’re already doing. Especially when chances come."

He looked towards the forwards.

"We’re one of the highest-scoring teams in this league."

Then he smiled faintly.

"We’re also one of the teams wasting the most chances."

The moment he said that, someone coughed, but before he could find who, the person ousted himself.

"Ahem...Ashley Fletcher."

The entire group laughed, and not because the joke itself was particularly funny, but because everyone knew exactly who had said it.

Jake stood with his head lowered, trying to hide his grin while Dawson just stared at him.

"Sure, Jake," the manager said with an unimpressed look, while Ashley Fletcher, who had only recently returned to full team training, shook his head.

"It wasn’t me."

"Of course it wasn’t," Dawson said and then turned back towards the group.

"Right. Enough talking."

He pointed towards the different areas of the pitch where the Wigan coaches now stood.

"Split up into your positional groups for sessions with your respective coaches."