Daring To Dream

Michael heaved a sigh. Some players were still walking inside the locker room, all of them either having a confused expression on their face or a gloomy expression.

There was one person however that was in contrast to the building pattern. Omari had an expressionless look on his face as his eyes searched the room from time to time. Ocassionally, he lazily brought out his phone and played around with it for a few moments before dropping it back into his pocket.

That's interesting. Michael thought to himself. He stroked the patch of hair on his jawline.

"Alright lads, most of you know why I've called you here" Michael started talking once ge felt that there were enough people inside the locker room.

A few grumbles and muttered escaped the lips of the players but none of them said anything audible. They simply looked at Michael, eager to hear whatever he had to say.

"I just wanted to tell you all something... Dare to dream! Fuck injuries, fuck absentees and Fuck London Blue. We're going to match all the way to Stratford and we're doing to pummel their arses!" Michael screamed at the players that surrounded him.

"Have some fucking backbone. Wee injuries and all of you are looking like you just caught your gym teacher shagging the hell out of your mother's arse" Michael said.

His last statement left a few Middlesbrough players furrowing their eyebrows. They didn't understand what made Michael think of that in the first place.

Michael, having realized what he said chuckled awkwardly and scratched his hair. "Well, don't be imagining your gym teacher shagging your mum" Michael stopped scratching his head. "The point that I'm trying to pass across to each of you is that you all should stop acting like a bunch of dickless arses and actually dare to dream!" Michael looked at Ayanfe all of a sudden. "Oi! Kid, get up!"

Ayanfe nervously looked around him. After confirming that he was the one Michael was talking to, he stood up.

Michael walked over to him and nodded his head. "This right here is the person that's going to be in goal for us this weekend against London Blue. And I know that a lot of you are skeptical about having a teenager make step in between the post, especially when it's against a big team like London Blue… I understand" Michael walked forward a bit and exhaled a bit. "But trust him, just like I am trusting him, support him, just like I am supporting him, and believe in him, just like I believe in him… and all of you"

"Now I couldn't really care less what happens in the match against London Blue… if we win, yay, if we lose, then oh well… what I really want to know is that my players… my players dared to dream, my players walked into the match thinking, fuck no, knowing that they have the ability to beat them, that they can win!"

"Now I want you lads to go on… and dare to dream!"

Days had passed after the inspiring speech from Michael. Much to his pleasure, his speech had a positive effect on the players. They trained harder, they were confident, and they believed that they could actually win the match.

Another positive was the fact that they had all started to believe in the abilities of Ayanfe. At first, they assumed that he wouldn't be good enough for the first team. After all, he was barely seventeen, had never played first team football and hadn't even played in the under eighteens for up to three months.

After a few training sessions however, they realized that they couldn't have been more wrong after evaluating his abilities. He was strong, he had a commanding presence in the box, his reflex were very tight, and he wasn't clumsy nor did he make any form of 'rookie mistakes', it was as if he was born for his position.

Omari on the other hand, took his training very seriously. He knew that this was going to be the biggest match of his career. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he was expected to start against London Blue. Once had to understand that they weren't some Non League or second tier opponents, they were playing in The English League, furthermore, they were quite high up the table.

According to what he had heard from Alex, multiple big clubs had contacted him with the hopes of negotiating a contract. They were sure to be watching this match against London Blue. He had to play well, he had to give them a reason for wanting to sign him.

Slowly but surely, the week passed and it was the day for them to travel to London. Much to the surprise of Michael and the coaching staff, everyone arrived early. Someone even arrived… before Omari!

After a mildly long journey from Teesside, they all arrived at the hotel they were staying. Michael called everybody together to discuss tactics one last time before sending them to sleep.

In the afternoon of the next day, they were all dressed in their away kits, staring at the door of the locker room. After discussing the tactics with them one final time, Michael didn't bother giving them a pep talk, instead he left them with the same thing he had been telling them since the beginning of the week.

"Dare to dream!"

"Alright lads, let's kill 'em!" The captain said to them as they went to the tunnel.