Golden days☀️

Chapter eighteen

I won't be talking about Covid in this story. It's something i'm still dealing with (like everybody) and i don't think that i'm good enough to write about something so complicated and hard. I want this story to be light, with some up and downs but something people can read without too much trouble. I will keep the dates and the times of the matches played from june to august, but i won't mention the virus or any precaution.
Hope you can understand and enjoy anyway

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It's the day after Chris' birthday, and the team is in the conference room to talk about the next game.
Inter will play against Lazio tomorrow, on the 16th. It won't be an easy game. Lazio has been doing good in this part of the year, and between the new players and the games every three days, Inter isn't really at his best.
But the win against Milan certainly lifted the mood and gave the players more confidence.

Chris enters the room and immediately sees D'Ambrosio, Barella and Bastoni waving in his direction. He reaches them and greets everybody.
He woke up optimist this morning, the party and spending time with the others really helped him with his usually anxious state.
D'Ambrosio is happy to see his friend relaxed and happy
"Chris how are you?" says the defender
"All good mate. You?" answers the blond, smiling brightly
"Fine fine. Come here" the italian gestures towards the ground; he is sat on the floor, and Chris joins, sitting right in front of him. Barella and Bastoni at his right.
He's still shivering from how cold it was outside before he came in and Barella notices.
"Chris you're shaking! You okay?"
"Yeah yeah...just a lot more cold than how i thought Italy would be" says the dane, kind of ashamed by his own miscalculations.
D'Ambrosio hears all that and gets up, Chris and Barella watching him go.
He comes back with a sweatshirt, probably one of the ones they keep in the center.
"Here Chris, we can't let you become a popsicle because you aren't really good with Geography" says the defender laughing and putting the sweatshirt on Chris' shoulders.
"Thank you" says the dane smirking and sticking his tongue out, knowing his friend was just teasing him.
The little banter is interrupted by Conte and his staff, who comes in and starts talking about how they'll train and how they'll face the match.

After the meeting, it's time for training.
The first half is uneventful, being mostly indivudual exercises.
In the second half, they are divided in two teams, and Eriksen ends up with Brozo, Biraghi and others.

"Look, we're with the princess" says Biraghi to Brozo, probably wanting Chris to hear him
The dane decides to not think about it and goes to Lukaku, who's also in his team.
D'Ambrosio and the others are in the other team, but since things were better now, they weren't really worried about Chris.

They have to play a little match in a small piece of field, needing to improve their passing skills.
Chris feels kind of confident, that's one of his best assets after all.
He notices something right after they start...Brozo is the leader of this team, or at least of the midfield. Even if maybe he isn't too well wanted by the others, they still look up to him and play by his passes.
That's why, consciously or not, the ball almost never ends up to Chris. The team works, the passes are nice, but the dane finds himself almost ignored, even by Lukaku and Sanchez.

He didn't think this could happen, because in the games they usually counted on him more...but this movements were studied, memorized and done like a machine.

Biraghi and Brozo would effortlessly avoid passing the ball to him, and the team played like them.
At the end of the training, Chris has more questions and doubts in his head than ever.
He wonders if he will ever find his place in a team that works like this and already so well. He asks himself if he will ever be needed, if someday Brozo won't hate him.
He can't even know if people will see how the croatian's hatred towards him makes the whole team avoid passing the ball.

He exits the changing room with too many thoughts in his head, bouncing and moving and giving him a headache.
He hears a voice
"Chris Chirs...wait!" it's D'Ambrosio, who now is beside him, with a smile on his face
It disappears as soon as he sees Chris' expression
"What's the matter? Did something happen?" says the defender with a worried tone
"Nothing, just some thoughts. Worries about the team and my place..." he lets the words hang, not caring to finish the sentence.
"I guess it's normal you know...wondering if you're what we need, if you'll fit here" admits D'Ambrosio, his arm now resting on Chris' shoulders.
"I know...but i think i won't fit in your schemes. Your leader is Brozo, he owns the midfield. He's great at it...and he can't stand me. He avoids me, and the team does it with him" the dane says, lowering his head and walking slowly
"Do you know why Inter brought you here? Why we were so excited about you?" asks D'Ambrosio
Chris shakes his head
"Because you are the one that breaks the schemes. You come in and do what you want, so that the opponent doesn't know what to do. Brozo is great at pacing us and guiding. You just have to know that if you play like you know how to, these schemes won't even apply to you"
The dane lets the words sink in...he never thought about it this way.
What if D'Ambro is right? What if maybe he won't need to adapt completely? Maybe that will be his strenght...
"You're thinking too much. I can practically hear it" D'Ambrosio mocks him "i'm gonna take you home now, and make sure you are taken care of.
And tomorrow we're gonna spend some time together. We're gonna sit together on the train to Rome...does that sound good?" suggests the italian, guiding Chris to his car
"Sounds great"

D'Ambrosio prepares a cup of hot tea for Chris and stays with him until he falls asleep, talking about whatever they have in mind.
It takes about half an hour, and the defender is heading home, hoping Chris will have a good night's sleep.
He also hopes to be right about Chris' worries, because he would lie if he said that he wasn't worried too.

Only time will tell. They can only help him fit in and support him, and see what's gonna happen.