The Gap Between Platforms

This was a sad story that had played out repeatedly among professional teams around the world over the past few decades.

John Rep and Henk de Koning were both Ajax youth players. They played the same position, but their styles were completely different. In the end, John Rep, who was faster and more dangerous when dribbling past opponents, was selected for the First Team. From then on, he soared to fame and became a renowned star in the Netherlands and across European football.

As for Henk de Koning, after suffering a major blow, he left Ajax and moved between several Dutch professional teams. Yet he never managed to display the potential he should have had. Eventually, frustrated and dispirited, he retired early and became a youth coach. After several years of experience, he became the Youth Training Director of Dutch Second Division side Hamler.

By contrast, after his glorious career, John Rep unexpectedly took charge of Almere, an amateur team that had only just been formed. Although he had led the team through promotion after promotion and nearly guided it into the Dutch Second Division last season, it still remained a step below Hamler.

More importantly, there was the youth system. As one of Ajax's most important youth-development partners, Hamler maintained close cooperation and personnel exchanges with Ajax every year. Almere, on the other hand, might have held the title of satellite club, but to this day, not a single player had entered the Ajax Youth Training Camp.

This made Hank de Koning, who had spent his entire career suffering indignities and frustration, feel immensely vindicated. Whenever he encountered John Rep, he always wanted to overwhelm him in terms of Momentum.

Naturally, this attitude also affected the players under his command.

After Yang Yang and the others heard Dick Van Pool's explanation, they suddenly understood. They all felt that the middle-aged fat man was truly petty—he had been inferior to someone decades ago, yet he still wanted to take revenge now.

But Yang Yang could not help thinking of Van Gaal.

He still clearly remembered that whenever Van Gaal mentioned John Rep, his expression was never particularly pleasant. He was even more undisguised in his disdain for Ajax's legendary veteran Cruyff, believing that Cruyff merely knew how to talk.

"He was always criticizing my tactics and discipline, but he always forgot one thing: his success was built precisely on a group of geniuses. Yet genius cannot be replicated. My philosophy, on the other hand, was to use rigorous tactical discipline to develop a group of talented ordinary people, turning them into a strong, unified team."

It was difficult to say which of these two legends' philosophies was superior, and it was equally difficult to judge who was right or wrong.

But Yang Yang had heard that the reason Van Gaal had been unable to enter the First Team back then was that Ajax's First Team already had a world-famous legendary superstar: Cruyff.

Perhaps Van Gaal, like Henk de Koning, had always carried an old grudge against Cruyff. He was simply proud by nature and, unlike Henk de Koning, did not let it show on the surface. Deep down, however, he must have been extremely unwilling to accept it.

A professional footballer's career was filled with all kinds of unpredictability. Who could say what Van Gaal's ultimate achievements would have been if he had been able to remain at Ajax back then?

"Keep an eye on that Vincent Weijl. Anyone who can stay in the Ajax Youth Training Camp for five years definitely shouldn't be underestimated. When you play the Group Match this afternoon, you must be careful." John Rep warned them.

Yang Yang had a good idea of what was going on. That fellow had also looked thoroughly unconvinced whenever he mentioned Emanuelson. Clearly, the two of them were probably rivals.

Perhaps many years later, this would become another sad new story.

If he did not want to become Henk de Koning, he had to work hard to become John Rep.

Yang Yang's resolve grew firmer.

The Eredivisie schedule for the new season had been released.

The opening match was on August 16, with Ajax visiting Vitesse.

The team was not very strong. It had narrowly avoided relegation the previous season and was one of the favorites for relegation this season. But since this was the opening round of the new season, everyone at Ajax took it very seriously.

Ajax had performed fairly well in its warm-up matches. In the prestigious Amsterdam Tournament, Ajax first drew 0–0 with Liverpool before defeating Inter Milan 3–0 to win the title. However, the team's performance had not been particularly good, especially in attack.

After Van der Meide left, Ajax's attack had been affected to some extent. In several warm-up matches, the forwards had all performed poorly. The Swedish Striker Ibrahimovic had agitated for a transfer during the summer and had been linked with Premier League side Southampton, which seemed to have affected his form.

Wesley Sonck, the Belgian First Division's Top Scorer, had also just transferred from Genk and still needed time to settle into the team. The player had cost Ajax six million euros. He could play through the middle or on the wings and was a goalscorer everyone at the club had high hopes for.

After the Amsterdam Tournament ended, Ajax's First Team stayed at De Toekomst to focus on preparing for the new season. After letting captain Chivu and starting winger Van der Meide leave, the club had also made it clear that it would not allow Ibrahimovic to transfer.

Since he had failed to convince a major club to spend the money, Ibrahimovic could only remain with the team.

As was customary for Talent Day, the First Team stars and coaches would take part in the event that afternoon. By then, De Toekomst would surely be even more overcrowded.

But in the morning, the focus was mainly on basic ability tests for the players who had reached the final selection.

Ajax's tests were basically the same as Almere's. But Ajax was, after all, a wealthy Dutch powerhouse, and many of its machines and facilities were simply beyond Almere's comparison.

Take the shuttle sprints, for example. De Toekomst had a dedicated track, and everything from the starting whistle to the monitoring was handled by machines. The resulting data was far more accurate than anything coaches could assess manually.

This was Yang Yang's first time experiencing such high-end training equipment. Finding it novel, he could not help sprinting even faster.

Apart from its more advanced equipment, Ajax's training was also clearly more meticulous.

Even during the warm-up, Ajax's coaches repeatedly reminded the players about the details. From arranging the marker cones to the players' movements, even down to the way they raised their legs, everything was explained repeatedly and in exhaustive detail. The goal was to loosen every joint and prevent injuries during the training that followed.

The passing and receiving drill took place inside a one-hundred-square-meter square. Five players stood at one corner, while the other three stood at the remaining corners. They performed various passing, receiving, and running drills clockwise or counterclockwise.

It looked simple enough, much like Almere's regular training. In reality, however, the tempo of the drills and the speed of the passing, receiving, and running were all clearly faster. The demands on the players were also higher: everything was one-touch, pass and run.

The subsequent pattern drills involved passing, crossing, and shooting. The content was similar to Almere's, but the intensity and tempo were clearly faster, and the coaches on the sidelines had higher expectations as well.

Throughout the training, the youth coaches and scouts, including Patrick Radru and Fred Arroyo, watched from beside the various training areas. They recorded the players' performances according to what happened on the field so they could assign final assessment scores.

The final training session of the morning was a four-against-four Group Match, intended to train the players' coordination in collective pressing and defense.

That was also Ajax's philosophy: offense was the best defense. But the prerequisite was winning the ball first. Therefore, when defending, the entire team pressed forward as a unit. Once they won the ball, they immediately launched a counterattack.

Inside a rectangular area measuring twenty-five by thirty-five meters, eight players competed four against four. Not only was the tempo extremely fast, but the technical demands were also high, and physical challenges occurred frequently.

To some extent, the better a player's physical attributes, the more of an advantage he had in these tight spaces.

This also reminded Yang Yang of what Vincent Weijl had said earlier: in recent years, Ajax's selection criteria, especially for the Second Team and First Team, had gradually placed greater emphasis on strength, physical battles, and athleticism.

It was difficult to say whether this trend was good or bad. Yang Yang did not know, but this was Ajax's selection standard.

The four-against-four matches lasted five minutes per round and were extremely intense. After just one round, everyone was already panting heavily.

Yang Yang was no exception. He had gained a deep understanding of the intensity of Ajax's training.

But supposedly, this still fell far short of the First Team's training requirements.

He could easily imagine how much his ability would improve if he trained at this intensity every day and competed against a group of outstanding teammates.

A young player with roughly the same talent and ability would have completely different progress and future prospects at the Ajax Youth Training Camp and the Almere Youth Training Camp. That was the gap between platforms.

After realizing this, Yang Yang became even more determined to establish himself at Ajax.

"How did it feel?"

As soon as Yang Yang walked off the field, Dick Van Pool hurried over and asked with concern.

Although he knew that Yang Yang would join Ajax regardless of his results, he still hoped Yang Yang would do well.

At the very least, he could not let Henk de Koning look down on him.

"I gave it everything I had." Yang Yang replied with a panting chuckle.

As the saying went, money gave a man courage. But on a football field, ability gave a player courage.

Yang Yang had always known his own limits. After several months of grueling basic training, his fundamentals were still far from perfect, but he felt that he should be able to reach Almere's upper-middle level. If he was in good form on the day, he might even perform better.

Judging from the morning's training, he was highly excited and had performed very well.

"That's right. It's good that you gave it your all." Dick Van Pool also understood that Yang Yang's strengths did not lie in these basic tests.

Before long, Nick also finished his final training session. When he returned, he said that he had performed fairly well, though he was not entirely confident in his showing.

Henk Dimer was the last to return. His face was clearly dark, and he was seething with anger.

When John Rep and Dick Van Pool asked with concern about his performance, Almere's rising star immediately began cursing Vincent Weijl. He said Vincent Weijl had deliberately sabotaged him during the final four-against-four Group Match, causing him to make several mistakes he should never have made.

Unfortunately, Vincent Weijl, who had returned behind him, heard every word.

"You don't say your fundamentals are just too poor and blame someone else?" Weijl sneered. "Who else can you blame?"