novelraw Chapter 876 - 604: Flowers Bloom and Fall, Fall and Bloom—Nine Years Gone in a Flash!
Chapter 876 - 604: Flowers Bloom and Fall, Fall and Bloom—Nine Years Gone in a Flash!
Italy, Milan.
The six-thirty a.m. sunlight filtered through the curtains, casting a beam into the dim room.
The first place it touched was the edge of the bed.
Vrrr, vrrr, vrrr—
Chiwo's smartwatch began to vibrate.
He slightly opened his eyes and glanced at the screen.
[Woke up three times in the middle of the night, deep sleep for one and a half hours]
Chiwo threw off the covers and muttered something softly, causing the automatic curtains to whirr open slowly.
"Another headache of a morning, hahaha!" Chiwo chuckled, stretching lazily under Milan's bright sun.
After washing up.
Chiwo walked downstairs into the garage and opened the car door.
Before he even sat down, the central screen started its automatic report.
"Christian, get your spirits up; it's another vibrant day!"
"Detected that you have eight tasks scheduled today."
"First, hold a full coaches' meeting to discuss the Serie A's 38th round against Juventus."
"Second, discuss summer transfer targets with assistant Berni."
"Third, watch the youth team's training and finalize next season's star list with head coach Santon."
"Fourth, meet the team doctor to verify main striker Bonazzoli's injury status."
"Fifth, have a one-on-one with captain Ranocchia to understand recent dressing room needs."
"Fifth, attend court as a witness in the Ossilio embezzlement case."
"Sixth, respond to Florence's coaching offer..."
At this, Chiwo frowned and said loudly, "Remove that! I said yesterday to refuse it. Don't you understand me?"
A large circle swirled several times on the car screen.
"Received, removing the sixth item, updating to seven tasks. Here's the seventh item."
"Alright, alright, Mr. Mancini," Chiwo chuckled wryly, stepping on the accelerator, "Quiet down, you're annoying me." The electric car drove out of the garage.
Chiwo had deliberately set his car's daily report to sound like famous Italian coach Mancini, not without reason.
Years ago, in a corridor at the Etihad Stadium, Mancini chatted with him, saying becoming a head coach was far more complicated than he imagined.
Especially in a Serie A giant club, in such a complex league, you have to shield your team from the storm while finding your own support.
Back then, at only 36, Chiwo had just retired, full of youthful ambition, still very young at heart.
Acting as an assistant to Coach Guardiola, he was highly valued for his unrivaled video analysis skills, which led to an inflated ego, and Mancini's words went in one ear and out the other.
Nine years passed.
Now at 44, Chiwo had grey hair and his once muscular frame was replaced by a burgeoning belly.
In 2018, after ending his assistant coach career at Manchester City, he bade farewell to Guardiola and returned to Serie A, starting at the lower leagues, and soon brought Palermo back to Serie A within a year.
He coached Palermo for three seasons, leaving Sicily with a UEFA Europa League quarter-finals record, then joined his old club, Serie A powerhouse Rome.
Another three seasons saw Rome consistently reach the Champions League, even reaching the semi-finals, matching their best performance since the Champions League restructuring.
At the end of the 2023-2024 season, Chiwo switched clubs again.
This time, he accepted Inter Milan's olive branch!
At the signing ceremony, facing hundreds of reporters, Chiwo teared up, turning his head to reveal a scar from brain surgery.
This shocking scar caused a stir, as a young female reporter covered her mouth, unable to stifle a gasp, but Chiwo said emotionally:
"You think this scar is ugly, but to me, it's a strong bond, tying me closely to Inter Milan."
"When I became a professional coach, my dream was to coach Inter Milan, and now I've finally achieved it."
"I won the treble here, reached the peak of my career, this club gave me a second life, and I'm willing to dedicate my all to it!"
"For the 2024-2025 season, Inter will go further, just because our name is Inter Milan!"
The crowd fell silent, then erupted in applause!
Former chairman Mr. Moratti went on stage, embracing Chiwo, also teary-eyed.
But Chiwo's ambitious head coach career at Inter faced unprecedented challenges!
Out of the Champions League group stage.
The league ranked 8th before the final game of the season in Serie A.
With the current points, let alone the Champions League, even the UEFA Europa League seemed out of reach.
This was a huge blow to Chiwo's image because when he signed with the club, he set his goal:
"Last season we were fourth; this season there's only one goal, to topple Juventus' league dominance, and at the very least reach the Champions League semi-finals."
At that time, Juventus had just won the league title with over 100 points, a full 30 points more than Inter!
Since Tang Long left Inter for Manchester City in the 2014-2015 season,
The Old Lady established a long-term dominance over Serie A.
In 9 seasons, they won 6 league titles!
The remaining three: AC Milan two, Napoli one.
Inter earned nothing.
This season, Juventus struggled with unstable performances under coach Mota.
But even so, they fiercely contested with Napoli, still retaining a slight one-point lead.
In the final round, Inter hosted Juventus.
Before the match, Juventus fans taunted: "What a great opportunity, we will step on Inter's corpses to crown our Serie A victory, nothing is more thrilling hahaha!"
Of course, whether Juventus or Napoli laughs last had nothing to do with Inter.
But if Juventus won the title on Inter's home turf, the scene would be too unbearable to watch...
Thinking of this, Chiwo shuddered internally.
"We've got to play well, even if I have a three-year contract, losing to Juventus might get me sacked by the season's end."
During his year coaching Inter, he gradually understood what Mancini's words nine years ago meant.
Why was it smooth sailing at Palermo and Rome, but so hard at Inter?
He finally realized that steering a battleship and driving a speedboat were two completely different things.
So, Chiwo used AI to change his car's voice system to imitate his former mentor Mancini, reminding himself daily that being a coach for a major team was far more difficult than he imagined.
The morning traffic was light.
While waiting at a red light, Chiwo used voice command to have the car report some news.
"Alright, here's your news report."
"In 2025, AI technology achieved a historic breakthrough."
"AI has become a prevalent annual buzzword, integrating into various social fields, profoundly impacting everyone's life."
"China's DeepSeek has emerged in natural language processing, machine learning, deep learning, and big data analysis with core technology advantages."
"It performs excellently in numerous fields such as inference, natural language understanding and generation, image and video analysis, big data processing, and analysis. It has become the world's fastest-growing AI tool, reportedly..."
Chiwo opened the window, resting his hand on the car door, as the car drove into Inter's training base.
He sighed slightly.
As a technical head coach with a background in video analysis, Chiwo incorporated AI technology into his daily routine from last year.
"Ah, what's the use of my analyses if only my players' minds were equipped with DeepSeek, they could automatically anticipate and choose the best routes and positions during matches," Chiwo thought his ideas were far-fetched, laughing to himself.