novelraw Chapter 474 - 176: The Long-Awaited Return of Kunigami Rensuke
Chapter 474 - 176: The Long-Awaited Return of Kunigami Rensuke
Of course, Prince had his own selfish reasons for inviting Tendou to train with him.
Like Foden, he was also a product of the Manchester City youth academy.
Players like them who rise from the academy to the first team have a strong sense of belonging to their club; they believe the club made them who they are.
What's more, Prince himself was a Manchester local.
To him, Manchester City was his second home, and Manchester United was his mortal enemy.
When he was young, Prince's dream was to crush those idiots at Man United and climb over them to the Premier League throne.
What a pity.
By the time he put on the Man City jersey, his mortal enemy, Man United, had already begun its long decline following the retirement of the Old Sir, and they still haven't recovered.
To this day, Manchester United has not found a replacement for the Old Sir.
So now, defeating Manchester United no longer brings him any satisfaction.
Prince has no idea when Manchester United will rise again.
Right now, he is very interested in Tendou.
Prince and Noel Noa are of a similar age; both are at the peak of their professional careers.
However.
Even the two once-in-a-generation talents, Messi and Ronaldo, could not defeat Father Time. He and Noel Noa will also grow old one day.
If he had never met him, it would be one thing, but now that he had, Prince couldn't help but have the idea of having Tendou succeed him.
The kid is only 17 now. By the time his own form starts to decline, Tendou will just be entering his peak, perfectly able to take over the banner of the Blue Moon army.
In this way, Manchester City could rest easy for at least another ten years.
This is the power of the youth academy.
When a good opportunity arises, Prince always thinks of his own club first.
Tendou could see what Prince was thinking. He had encountered similar situations many times before.
Whether in the world of Blue Lock or Kuroko's Basketball, geniuses were always madly sought after.
He accepted Prince's coaching and training with a clear conscience.
...
And so.
Ten days passed.
During this time, Prince would bring Tendou along to pump iron every day.
The more they trained, the more Prince felt that this kid had a limitless future.
To have such height and still maintain such a freakish stride frequency and speed, Tendou's existence was like one of those unreasonable, powerful nobles.
He has money and power, why would he talk to you about fairness!
Prince became even more determined to trick Tendou into returning to Manchester City to be his successor.
"Seriously, Tendou, you should come to Man City."
"Josep is a head coach who is very good at discovering a player's talent. Plus, he has championship DNA. With him, with Mansour, and most importantly, with me, Man City will definitely conquer the football pitches of Europe."
Prince made no effort to hide his ambition.
There was no lie in what he said.
After Guardiola joined, under Mansour's inhuman investment, he brought a total of 6 Premier League titles and 1 Champions League trophy to Manchester City.
He even completed the insane achievement of a sextuple in the 22-23 season.
Compared to Spurs, Manchester City's future was clearly much brighter.
The standard for being a giant club is 10 top-league titles and 2 Champions League titles.
For Manchester City, these were only a matter of time. The Blue Moon army would sooner or later catch up to the eight giants of Europe and become the ninth.
The problem was.
"Guardiola doesn't like to use new players."
"He has a very good impression of Foden and has promised him more playing time in the new season. And Foden will only be 18 next year."
"He has an English passport. I don't."
With one sentence, Tendou successfully silenced Prince.
Why did Guardiola heavily feature Foden?
On one hand, Foden was indeed talented, but most importantly, it was a requirement from the club and the Football Association.
The FA's reason for requiring Premier League teams to use homegrown players was simple.
They needed to cultivate talent for the national team to compete for the World Cup.
The club's requirement to use homegrown players was for the market; local players could attract more fans to the stadium.
It wasn't just Manchester City; other Premier League clubs had similar requirements to use homegrown players.
Prince's silence was brief.
"That's not an excuse. As long as you are strong enough, you don't need to worry about these problems," he said firmly. "What's more, you have me at Man City now."
Simply put: I've got your back. Just play your heart out. I'll make sure you're not treated unfairly.
You can save it, Tendou thought. In Guardiola's heart, there's only his Messi.
However, Manchester City was indeed a good destination, and he wasn't worried about competing with anyone.
I even took down the 'Son of France,' do you think I'm afraid of a little 'Crown Prince of Man City'?
Hmm... I'll add it to my notebook of options for now.
Tendou was feeling very confident.
Even a club like Manchester City was just an option for him.
Of course, this wasn't because he had a "childhood Real Madrid dream" or anything like that.
He simply didn't have a particularly favorite team.
For someone like him without "roots," maximizing his own benefit was king.
As long as the "money" was right, he might even end up at the Red Devils, Manchester United, and team up with the "Magic Bird" one day.
...No, that's not right, the Magic Bird is probably about to leave too.
In any case.
Something Pochettino said had reminded him: he really did lack a career plan.
Getting sidetracked.
Back at Blue Lock.
After ten days, the Neo Egoist League welcomed its first match.
The two sides were Bayern vs. Barça.
A clash between two giants naturally attracted a lot of attention, even if it was a youth-level match.
It couldn't be helped.
As two of the most famous giant clubs in Europe, Barça and Bayern both had an immense number of die-hard fans.
And since both were giants who had been around in Europe for so long, it was impossible for them not to have some bad blood.
In addition, the match between Juventus and PSG was kicking off at the same time.
Manchester City?
They didn't have a match today, as there were only five teams in total.
They would have to wait until the next round to play.
Chigiri and the others stopped what they were doing and gathered around the screen, wanting to see with their own eyes how their "comrades" had changed.
But before the match even started, they saw the solemn expressions in each other's eyes.
In Bayern's lineup, Isagi Yoichi and the others could only sit on the bench, waiting for an opportunity.
It was obvious.
They had temporarily lost the competition against Bayern's youth academy players.
But Kunigami Rensuke, whom they hadn't seen in a long time, had unexpectedly appeared in Bayern's lineup, and as a starting player no less.
This made Chigiri and the others' eyes widen.
"Kunigami, why is that guy..."
He had thought Kunigami had been eliminated, but here he was again.
But why did his demeanor seem so... off?
"Is that kid also from your Blue Lock?"
"How come he seems so different from you guys?"
Prince was watching the live broadcast while lifting a dumbbell.
Tendou asked him, "How is he different?"
"His expression. His expression is very similar to Noa's and those guys from the 'chariot country.' The same ruthlessness," Prince said, looking eager for a fight.
He had been the world's number two for a long time. No one wanted to take down Noa and complete the upset more than him.
It's because of Ego Jinpachi's experiment, Tendou knew in his heart.
He remembered it being mentioned in the manga that the eliminated players had one last chance.
That was to participate in Ego Jinpachi's experiment to replicate Noel Noa.
Now, Kunigami Rensuke had successfully emerged from the "loser's bracket," but his personality had completely changed.
The path he was walking now was that of Noel Noa.
...
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