THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME

After completing the team practice on Friday afternoon, Zachary washed up before heading to the player resting lounge at the far end of the training center. He intended to spend some time unwinding and conversing with his teammates before attending Coach Allegri's pre-match tactical briefing scheduled to start an hour later.

He traversed the already familiar hallways of Juventus' training center before arriving at the door of the resting lounge. He pushed it open and immediately stepped forward to enter the room occupied by four familiar players. Patrice Evra was lounging on a couch at the far end of the room while Claudio Marchisio, Giorgio Chiellini, and Simone Pepe were seated in front of the big screen, watching a football match.

"Zachary, my man!" Patrice Evra, the Frenchman, was the first to call out to him in French. "Don't just stand there. Come over and sit beside me." He patted the couch next to him.

"Okay," Zachary readily agreed. He first said hi to the other three in the room before taking a few steps and settling on a couch near Evra's.

Evra gave him a once over before saying, "You were brilliant in today's tactical training session and even dribbled past Chiellini with expert ease on several occasions! What were you on, my man? Care to share?"

Zachary chuckled. "If you wish to know what I ate for breakfast or lunch, I'll humor you. I had milk, bread, cereal, and fruits in the morning. As for lunch, you don't need to ask since we ate the same food at the canteen."

"You're such a bore," Evra said, grinning and shaking his head. A few seconds passed, and he seemed to remember something. He glanced at Zachary again and said, "By the way, did you hear the news of Pogba leaving Juventus?"

"He left?" Zachary's eyes widened. "I thought he was absent from training due to the knock he received the other day!"

"Your information is outdated," Evra said with an audible sigh. "A couple of hours earlier, he completed a deadline transfer-move to return to Manchester United for a reported approximate fee of 83 million Euros. Man! He's even more expensive than you. What the hell are the guys in Manchester thinking?"

Zachary almost couldn't believe his ears when he heard the news. Two days ago, Pogba had excused himself from Juventus' training sessions by claiming that he had received a knock on his thigh muscle. But Zachary was now hearing that he was leaving the club. It was a shocking piece of news.

But there was also something else that intrigued Zachary. During his previous life, Manchester United had only managed to re-sign Pogba in the 2016 summer transfer window. But during his second life, there was a slight change. The French midfielder had completed the move out of Juventus two years in advance, meaning that his future at Manchester might take a different trajectory from that in Zachary's previous life. The Frenchman could just escape his fate and do wonders at the club since he was going to be under the management of Louis van Gaal — a coach with a knack for shaping young and talented midfielders.

"Where's Pogba now?" Zachary asked Evra. "Is he still in Turin?"

"Nah," Evra said, shaking his head. "He is already on his way to undergo a medical in Manchester."

"He's fast!" Zachary was shocked again.

"He has to be as the transfer window closes in three days," Evra remarked and closed his eyes to rest.

Zachary smiled and adjusted his body to lay supine on the couch. In only a few minutes, he regulated his breathing and pushed the thoughts about Pogba's move to the back of his mind. Then, he closed his eyes and started contemplating his status at Juventus.

Over the past six days, he had relied on his peak match fitness to work hard and impress the coaches during training. He had followed all their instructions to the letter while also trying to stand out from his teammates. As a result, he was confident that he had done his best to at least make it to the squad for the game against Chievo Verona the following day. But whether he could make the starting line-up or remain on the bench was still a mystery to him. He could only wait for Coach Allegri's tactical meeting before knowing the final verdict.

Various thoughts continued going through Zachary's mind until he dozed off a few minutes later. He sank into a deep slumber and only managed to wake up after Patrice Evra tapped his shoulder and reminded him about the pre-match tactical meeting.

When he checked the time on his phone and realized that only a few minutes remained until four o'clock, he reacted with all the haste he could muster. He got up with a start from the couch and hurriedly made his way out of the resting lounge. He entered a washroom a few minutes later and splashed water on his face. Then, without losing a second, he dried himself with the available paper towels before rushing out into the hallways and heading to the tactics room.

He arrived a few minutes later and realized that most of his teammates had already taken their seats. A few of them were even huddled together, holding hashed conversations as they waited for the coaches to start the meeting.

Zachary tried his best to calm his racing heart and settled on a seat at the back of the room. Of course, he was a bit nervous since he was about to attend the tactical meeting to kick-start the new Serie A season with Juventus. He was also tense since he couldn't be sure that he would make Coach Allegri starting eleven.

"Posso avere la tua attenzione, per favore?" Coach Allegri said when he took center stage a minute later. He started delivering his speech and spent the next thirty minutes explaining tactics in Italian to his players. He was intense as he paced the entire room while spewing out words that sounded alien to Zachary's ears.

The coach was obviously doing his best to explain the game strategy to his players. However, Zachary couldn't understand what he was saying since he had yet to learn the Italian language. Zachary would have to wait for Coach Trombetta to translate the content for him at the end of the session.

The minutes seemed to pass slowly as the coach delivered his pre-match briefing. Zachary was almost dozing off on several occasions since he found the entire session boring. He only prevented his mind from descending into slumberland by focusing all his willpower.

More minutes that seemed like weeks to Zachary passed, and finally, the coach ended his speech and got to the exciting part of the pre-match briefing. It was finally time for the coach to announce the squad for the following day's game against Chievo Verona. As a result, a numbing silence descended upon the entire room as the players waited for the next part of the coach's presentation with bated breaths.

Coach Allegri took a few seconds to observe all the players in the tactics room. He could tell that some of his new signings, like Zachary Bemba, Patrice Evra, Álvaro Morata, and Kingsley Coman, couldn't understand what he was saying due to their zero knowledge of Italian. But even then, he wasn't about to prolong the tactical meeting by having someone else translate his words for them during the session. He would only instruct Coach Trombetta to translate for them after the meeting had ended. That way, he would remain efficient and avoid wasting the precious time of his other players.

"Let's begin with the starting eleven," he said as the big screen behind him lit up and displayed the names of the players who had made his squad. "Gianluigi Buffon will be in goal. Then, we'll use three defenders, namely: Martín Cáceres, Leonardo Bonucci, and Angelo Ogbonna, to complete our back-three defense."

"Further up the pitch, Claudio Marchisio, Andre Pirlo, and Arturo Vidal will play as our central midfielders. Then, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Kwadwo Asamoah will play on the flanks to complete our midfield of five. And finally, Carlos Tévez and Kingsley Coman will be the men to lead our attack on the striking line of our 3-5-2 formation. That's it for the starting eleven. Any questions?" The coach glanced around.

In response, all the players around the room remained silent.

"Okay, okay," Coach Allegri said after a few seconds. "Let's move on. On the bench, we have Rubinho, Marco Storari, Luca Marrone, Patrice Evra, Federico Mattiello, Rômulo, Simone Padoin, Roberto Pereyra, Zachary Bemba, Simone Pepe, Sebastian Giovinco, and Fernando Llorente. And that's all concerning our match squad. Any questions?"

Once again, the players remained silent. They obviously had no questions for the coach.

Coach Allegri smiled and nodded. "Since there are no questions, let's conclude the tactical meeting here. The match against Chievo is at 6:00 PM tomorrow, and we'll be playing at an away ground. You all need to head back to your homes and have some ample rest tonight. That way, you will be sharp and at the top of your game during the match tomorrow. Am I making myself clear?"

"Yes, coach," the players replied.