“Ryan, what’s going on with this kid?”
Giggs shook his head.
He didn’t know.
The players carrying pure Manchester United blood, the ones Sir Alex Ferguson valued, hadn’t gone to their side of the pitch.
Instead, the boy had chosen David Moyes’s group.
Tomás and Adnan Januzaj had both joined United later in their development.
They weren’t quite the same as the true homegrown players, the ones who had come up through the academy from the start.
This time, the new arrival had sided with the outsiders.
Since Moyes arrived, he had shown indifference toward the club’s old-guard DNA.
He promoted Januzaj.
He ignored Tom Thorpe.
Thorpe was United’s U21 captain and U21 Player of the Year.
He was an academy legend.
A key figure in United’s DNA.
He had led the U18s to their only FA Youth Cup title.
Then, after moving up to the U21s, he led them past Chelsea, Manchester City, and Liverpool to win the U21 Premier League.
He was named the best player in the competition.
Moyes had claimed the team needed a center-back.
He promoted Thorpe to the first team and then never used him.
He never even gave him a look.
Six months ago, when it came down to a choice between Rashford and Januzaj, Moyes picked Januzaj and abandoned Rashford.
Taking all his decisions together, it was hard not to read it as Moyes deliberately targeting United’s own blood.
Sir Alex had personally mentored him, and now Moyes was hurting Sir Alex’s kids.
Nobody said this out loud.
But the players had spontaneously split into camps.
The players Sir Alex had relied upon were now the main resistance against Moyes.
The players who had been marginalized under Sir Alex were now Moyes’s main supporters.
The old guard didn’t want to end up like Shinji Kagawa, Nani, Chicharito, Wilfried Zaha, or Tom Thorpe.
The marginalized players wanted to get back to center stage, like Rooney, and become the next Januzaj.
The once-united team was locked in a factional war.
Teammates practically wished each other dead.
The winner took everything; the loser was out the door.
The Red Devil spirit.
The professionalism.
The things that made the academy coaches proud were forgotten.
The first-team training ground fell quiet.
Under the eyes of Giggs, Paul Scholes, Rashford, and Phil Neville, Tomás walked toward Moyes.
Each step looked heavy.
But resolute.
In the distance, Carrick sat on the grass, watching the boy with admiration.
He stretched his legs out.
All that hard work was worth it.
Tomás felt lost.
Why was the first team he idolized turning out like this?
Rashford felt the same way.
Tomás, are you insane?
Didn’t you say you were staying?
Do you get that you’re digging your own grave with Moyes?
Why pick a dead end when there’s a perfectly good road right there?
Rashford shifted his weight, fighting the urge to storm over and grab Tomás in front of everyone.
Tomás isn’t the bad guy here.
I’m bringing him back.
He didn’t move.
Giggs stood next to him and placed a firm hand on his shoulder.
“Tomás is young,” Giggs said quietly.
“The situation in this first team is too complicated. It’s too much for him right now. He’ll understand eventually.”
Rashford’s stomach sank.
Moyes looked Tomás up and down.
He nodded.
The Portuguese kid hadn’t let him down.
Like Januzaj, he had passed the test.
From here, it was down to Steve Round’s data and his own eyes.
Moyes knew he had to move cautiously.
“Tomás, warm-up is over. Head right and start on crossing, alright?” Moyes said.
“No problem, Mr. Moyes.”
Manchester United manager has issued you the mission: ‘Cross!
Cross!
Cross!’ Deliver three crosses that satisfy Moyes.
Reward: Passing experience +50.
Tomás exhaled.
The tension from disagreeing with Rashford vanished at the sight of the reward.
“Wayne, go up top and help Danny deal with the crosses,” Moyes called out.
“Got it,” Rooney said.
He jogged over and flashed Tomás a smile.
“Tomás, don’t feel any pressure.”
Moyes’s crossing drill was simple.
The midfield split.
Balls were fed in from the flanks.
The full-backs and wingers crossed into the box.
The forwards fought for position centrally.
Van Persie and Chicharito were on the other side of the pitch.
Welbeck, Phil Jones, and Smalling contested the ball here.
Because Moyes was short-handed, he couldn’t run a full tactical session.
Asking Welbeck to handle two center-backs alone was too much.
Tomás’s presence mattered.
Rooney dropped in to support the strikers, making it two attackers against two defenders in the box.
It was a better training scenario.
It was Tomás’s first time running Moyes’s crossing drill with the first team.
Juan Mata fed him the ball.
Welbeck and Rooney attacked his crosses.
Real stars.
The pass to him was simple.
A good cross was not.
The daily mission needed a successful cross.
Moyes’s mission needed a cross that satisfied the manager.
Getting a cross past Smalling and Jones was difficult.
Based on what Carrick had taught him, his passes needed to be faster.
Speed cost accuracy.
But without speed, accuracy meant nothing.
A slow, accurate pass was just as easy for a defender to head clear.
Would trading precision for speed, relying on whatever boost the system could still provide, actually work at the first-team level?
Tomás waited.
Mata’s pass arrived.
Steady, clean.
It didn’t need a touch to settle.
If speed is the priority, don’t adjust it.
Trust it.
Hit it.
He looked up.
Ding.
Rooney’s pass reception success rate: 15%.
Tomás didn’t hesitate.
He drove his foot through the ball.
Ding!
Rooney’s pass reception success rate: 25%.
Ding!
Welbeck’s pass reception success rate: 0.1%.
The shift in accuracy as the ball left his foot surprised him.
Trading precision for speed worked.
The ball arced toward the box.
Fast.
It looked like it was sailing long.
But Rooney got there.
He launched himself at the ball.
His header sailed wide of the post.
He landed, turned around, and gave Tomás a thumbs up.
Tomás nod his head.
Rooney was the one doing the work.
Connecting with a 25 percent chance?
If that had gone in, the credit belonged to the striker.
He looked over at Carrick.
Tomás stood a little taller.
At this level, rhythm and speed mattered more than precision.
It was completely different from amateur football.
Accuracy still mattered, but given his current abilities, if he had to choose between precision and rhythm, rhythm won.
“Good!” Moyes clapped from the sideline.
The daily mission ticked down to 1/10.
Moyes’s mission dropped to 1/3.
The cross counted.
Tomás’s confidence spiked.
Ding!
Congratulations on completing Moyes’s mission ‘Cross!
Cross!
Cross!’ Moyes is very satisfied.
Reward: Passing experience +50, Moyes’s favorability +1.
Ding!
Manchester United manager has issued you the mission: ‘Cross!
Cross!
Cross!’ Deliver five crosses that satisfy Moyes.
Reward: Passing experience +50.
Again?
Tomás grinned.
Moyes is helping me farm experience.
Who said Moyes wasn’t a good coach?
Who said crossing drills were pointless?
The repetition and difficulty were exactly what he needed.
Ding!
Congratulations on completing Moyes’s mission ‘Cross!
Cross!
Cross!’ Moyes is very satisfied.
Reward: Passing experience +50, Moyes’s favorability +1.
Tomás felt his grip on his crossing rhythm improving with each delivery.
Ding!
Manchester United manager has issued you the mission: ‘Cross!
Cross!
Cross!’ Deliver ten crosses that satisfy Moyes.
Reward: Passing experience +50.
Ding!
Congratulations on completing the daily mission: 10 successful crosses.
Reward: Passing experience +50.
Ding!
Congratulations!
Your Passing attribute is ready to upgrade.
Upgrading automatically.
Another passing upgrade.
Tomás loved crossing.
He drove his foot through the ball again.
Moyes’s eyes tracked the flight.
“Good!” he shouted, applauding before the striker even connected.
He wasn’t clapping for the header; he was clapping for how fast the kid had adjusted.
Carrick stood up.
He’s more talented than I realized.
Tomás’s crossing was visibly sharper.
His work ethic and rapid improvement were surprising.
Inside the box, Welbeck and Chris Smalling jumped for the cross.
They both got a head on it.
Ding!
Congratulations on completing Moyes’s mission ‘Cross!
Cross!
Cross!’ Moyes is very satisfied.
Reward: Passing experience +50, Moyes’s favorability +1.
Then, a loud crack echoed across the pitch.
Welbeck and Jones hit the ground hard.
Chris Smalling grabbed his hip and grimaced in pain.
Tomás stepped forward, his heart sinking.
Moyes’s face darkened.
This was bad.
Right before the Champions League match, the squad was down another man.