Chapter 740: The Team’s Current State

The first training session in the lockdown era ended quickly, as it was just the players doing their medical checkup. However, they couldn’t just go home after that, as Frohling had something to say here.

The coach’s face was so dark as he just stood silently, letting everyone know that he was furious. Not a single one of the players dared to raise their head, not just from fear, but because some were still panting heavily. It seemed that some players failed to maintain their discipline, having their physical condition drop further to the level that no professional player should touch.

"I know that this lockdown era is special, and stress can make you hungry quicker. Still... You are getting paid to maintain your body and to play football, so I can at least expect some sort of discipline, right?"

His voice was soft, but the contradiction only frightened them all more.

"Out of 25 players here, 18 gained weight more than the medical team’s recommendation, 14 struggle to finish a normal physical checkup, and 8 even puke in the middle of it! A normal physical checkup that we have always done after having a break! Are you fucking kidding me?! What are you, a bunch of dumbasses?!"

At the end, his voice rose several decibels higher, enough to make everyone flinch. Well... Not that they could blame the coach here, as the result itself was indeed bad. Amine Harit, especially, was the worst here. The second-best scorer on the team gained 3 kg alone in that short period, and he couldn’t even finish half of the training there. It seemed that he enjoyed the lockdown period, treating it like a holiday.

It was no wonder that the coach was furious right now.

Still, everyone’s expression was also full of grievance, as they also didn’t want to be blamed for this matter. This lockdown period was so hard and full of uncertainty, and stress was one of the biggest factors in how people could gain weight astronomically during the process.

Of course, no one dared to say it out loud. They just looked at the coach with a stinging glare, hoping that some good old-fashioned karma would hit the man hard in the future.

As for Higo... Well, he was on the backline with the other goalkeepers, and the boy was one of the few whose condition was still the same as before the lockdown, and he couldn’t be more grateful to the two women who always supervised his daily activity so that his performance wouldn’t decline once he was back in competition again.

’Yeah, even though the process is painful, I cannot deny that the effect is good. I didn’t even get scolded at all today.’ He grinned secretly.

Frohling himself just ignored the hostility toward him right now. Still, the man’s gaze softened after that as he added, "I know that this has been a difficult period for us all, and that’s why I am not punishing you guys with fines, just adding a little bit more training to get you back to your best state. Still, you have to remember that we are back in 16th place in the table right now, right in the relegation zone! Do you want to face the angry supporters for letting their beloved team get relegated or what?!"

The guys flinched instantly when they heard that, finding the image quite scary. When it came to fanaticism, no one could deny the love that the Gelsenkirchen people had for the team, and getting the team relegated to the 2. Bundesliga would be one of the biggest sins that they could commit in this city.

Of course, while they all had genuine fear toward the team’s fans, some still didn’t take this seriously. After all, even though the training session was back, no one really knew when the competition would be restarted again.

Hell, some news outlets stated that the Bundesliga side and the government side got into a deadlock and couldn’t agree on some terms that would get the league running again. Things got complicated, and some people even started to predict that it would take another month before the federation got permission here.

Not only that, but some nasty rumors also spread at the same time, about the possibility of the league being stopped straight away. What made it believable was that people also followed the rumor with what would happen if the competition ended right now, like who won everything, who were relegated, who would be representing the country in the Champions League next year, and so on.

Just based on this rumor, of course, Schalke fans would prefer it to be true. After all, it was said that if the league was stopped, no one would get relegated this season, and the next season could be the expansion that the Bundesliga waited for after so many years, adding the league to 20 teams just like any other competition in Europe.

If that truly happened, Schalke, SC Paderborn, and Werder Bremen would be the happiest teams in the country right now, with them not having to fight for a spot in the next season again.

That was why, even though the training session had finally begun, some people were still praying that the competition would be ended prematurely like this.

This poisonous thought also affected Higo, as at some points, the boy started to show a decline in his training performance. The change wasn’t that visible. The boy still performed well, but he would just let a difficult ball that he would usually fight for, and conceding a goal didn’t really bother him that much, as if he had just lost his passion as a goalkeeper.

Fortunately, Kumiko saw through this state immediately and reminded him about this.

"Those players you are listening to right now, even though the competition this year will really end, they will have no chance to go back to the team again next year. No, your coach would’ve noticed their toxic presence straight away and wouldn’t want them to get close to the team at all. You don’t want to be seen as that kind of a player as well, right?"