Chapter 1 Everton's Subtlety

Everton's low profile was mainly because their coach, Moyes, didn't want his team dragged into endless verbal warfare by that bastard, Chen Hero.

After all, this was the Merseyside Derby in the FA Cup final... Although the Merseyside Derby had become a mere formality in recent years, it still had a reputation to uphold.

A city derby always needs some trash talk. Not to mention the controversial scene in the last derby match—the referee James's controversial decisions led to Liverpool being held to a draw by Everton at home, which caused quite a stir.

The aftermath of that game continued to this day.

Actually, Moyes knew in his heart that Everton had been favored by the referee in that game. There was no denying that. But he was unwilling to admit it.

After that game, he remained silent, not commenting on the referee or Liverpool's angry reaction. No matter how the media provoked him, he kept his mouth shut, making the media think he was boring.

This low-key style continued until the FA Cup final.

The reason for his low profile was the last derby match. He didn't want to give anyone a chance to bring up that game, so he took the initiative to avoid talking about it and kept silent. Everton would definitely lose a war of words against Liverpool.

First of all, in the process of exchanging insults, no one on Everton's side could match Chen Hero's sharp tongue. The result of a war of words with Chen Hero was most likely to be completely knocked out by Chen Hero, becoming a laughing stock and losing morale.

Secondly, exchanging insults would also affect Everton's preparations. They didn't have two squads like Liverpool, with the reserves preparing for the FA Cup final and the first team playing in the Champions League final. Moreover, they had won the league title four rounds in advance, with four warm-up games and a month of preparation time. In the last round of their league, they were still competing with Tottenham Hotspur for seventh place. After a long season, the whole team was already exhausted. If they didn't take this opportunity to rest and recuperate, but instead put their energy into arguing with Chen Hero, it would be unwise.

Finally, the purpose of being low-key was to avoid attracting Liverpool's attention, so that Liverpool would underestimate them and not take them seriously. In this way, Everton might still have some hope. Liverpool's reserve team was very strong. In the past, it was because they had Chen Hero. Now Chen Hero was still powerful, even more so, and Carlton Cole had emerged. From his performance in these few games for Liverpool's first team, even a fool could see that a genius new star was rising. Such a Liverpool team had almost no weaknesses, so they could only hope that after a glorious season, Liverpool's reserve team would develop some arrogance and be prone to underestimating the enemy—Liverpool already had a huge psychological advantage when playing against Everton, because they had won nine and drawn one of their last ten games, remaining unbeaten—this was Everton's only chance.

In short, for Everton, fighting a war of words with Liverpool was meaningless. Even if they won the verbal battle and defeated Chen Hero, so what? Would they be able to win the championship? Football is, in the end, a sport played with the feet. No matter how eloquent you are, it doesn't change the fact that the final victory or defeat depends on your feet.

Verbal warfare was useless for Everton, so naturally, they wouldn't engage in it.

Although he didn't plan to provoke Chen Hero, Moyes was still worried.

He was worried that Chen Hero would come looking for him.

Everyone knew that Chen Hero was a bastard. If you ignored him, he would bother you. What could you do? He had caused plenty of trouble like that.

Some media outlets had calculated that 50% of verbal wars were caused by the other side actively attacking Chen Hero and Liverpool. But that meant that 50% of them were caused by Chen Hero!

What's more, there was that controversial Merseyside Derby, which was the perfect excuse. Liverpool had always been brooding over that game.

Moyes was afraid that Chen Hero would bring up old wounds and insist on raking over the old scores before this game.

Logically speaking, with Liverpool's strength, without playing any tricks, and competing fairly with Everton, Everton wouldn't have much chance of winning. But Chen Hero was really a bastard. He particularly enjoyed the feeling of defeating his opponents and humiliating them.

Therefore, Moyes was afraid that Chen Hero would start a verbal war before this game, and after defeating Everton on the field, he would also humiliate them verbally.

He knew that Chen Hero was definitely capable of doing such a tasteless thing.

He kept a low profile and worried.

When those reporters came to him and asked foolish questions such as, "With the FA Cup final against Liverpool's reserve team approaching, do you have anything to say about that derby in the league?" Moyes wanted to give the reporter a shoulder throw, followed by a cross-neck lock.

Were they afraid that Chen Hero, that bastard, wouldn't have an excuse to start spouting nonsense?!

He refused to answer any questions about the FA Cup final.

He refused to answer any questions, even normal ones.

He used "no comment" to get by.

He thought he was being low-key by doing this.

But he didn't know that this abnormal behavior was just another kind of high profile.

Just like how Ferguson had praised Chen Hero against his normal behavior, the result was that Chen Hero and Liverpool saw through it at a glance, and he suffered a great loss.

Everton was Liverpool's city rival. How could they remain silent before such an important game? According to many people's ideas, even if Everton couldn't beat Liverpool, they should at least win against Liverpool verbally...

But facing the very unusual Moyes, Liverpool had no reaction this time.

Chen Hero also had no reaction.

Reporters still ran to Chen Hero, and their words were full of provocation. They wanted him to talk about the grievances between him and Everton, such as that 1-1 Merseyside Derby. Or they wanted him to talk about the referee of this FA Cup final, who was also the referee of that 1-1 game, James, and what Chen Hero thought of him...

But Chen Hero turned a deaf ear. His answers were very conventional and concise.

"Everton? They are our opponents in the final, it's that simple."

"Referee James? I never comment on referees, that's your media's business."

Everyone felt strange—this wasn't the Chen Hero they knew... Could it be that he was dumped by Cabrera?

The reporters fully utilized their tradition of getting to the bottom of things, breaking the casserole and asking to the end, insisting on asking Chen Hero why he was so low-key.

Chen Hero was tormented by them and had no choice but to spread his hands: "Who says we have to exchange insults and fight a verbal war before the game? Isn't it good to play the game honestly? Isn't it better for everyone to focus on the game itself, rather than those boring verbal wars?"

Hearing his answer, the reporters present looked at each other, and they all saw shock in each other's eyes!

It's over, something big must be happening!

This wasn't Chen Hero's style at all! There must be something strange about abnormality!

There must be something wrong!

But what's the problem?

Don't know!

Although we don't know yet, this doesn't prevent us from drawing such a conclusion—Liverpool must be brewing some big move for the FA Cup final!

※※※

Those who thought so were not only the reporters who loved conspiracy theories the most, but also Everton coach Moyes.

Chen Hero was actually low-key! He was actually being kind!

This was simply unbelievable!

Too abnormal!

There must be a problem!

But what's the problem?

We must think about it carefully, it may be related to Everton's performance in the final...

Maybe I missed something? Forgot something?

What is it?

Damn it! What is it!

So Moyes fell into a dead end, only knowing to rush forward with his head down, even if he hit a wall, he wouldn't turn back and stop.

Humans are truly contradictory creatures.

When Chen Hero was high-profile and provocative, Moyes was worried to death, hoping that Chen Hero could be merciful this time and not start any verbal war.

But when Chen Hero was really merciful and didn't start a verbal war, he couldn't sit still again, always feeling that there was a strong conspiracy flavor in it.

Ye Gong's love for dragons is nothing more than that. (a Chinese idiom referring to professed love that is not genuine)

Moyes had been worried that he had some flaws that Liverpool had caught, so he had been thinking about this problem for the past few days, and he didn't care about anything else.

In this way, Everton's preparation was still affected—if the coach was absent-minded, how could you expect the players' beliefs to be firm?

Moyes didn't realize this at all.

He had been worried that Chen Hero would use verbal warfare to affect his team and play a psychological war with him.

But he didn't know that he had already fallen into this psychological war. But this wasn't initiated by Chen Hero, but by himself.

He was too suspicious and scared himself.

Those involved are often the most confused.

Moyes, who was trapped in the quagmire, was still unaware and continued to walk slowly towards the depths of the quagmire.

It has to be said that Chen Hero's reputation was too great. So much so that he didn't have to say anything, and his opponents would automatically imagine a terrible follow-up based on his reaction, and then scare themselves enough.

This was the real master of psychological warfare... Winning without any moves!

But if Chen Hero knew about Moyes's reaction, he would definitely cry and laugh at the same time.

He just wanted to play a pure final with Everton... After getting to know Dougal, the Everton fan, his hostility towards Everton had diminished a lot. And in that 1-1 game, he didn't have much opinion about Everton, his anger was directed at referee James.

Being concise was just to avoid being used by those media bastards.

He could only use others, and he must never let others use him in reverse. This was a matter of principle!

※※※

In the office buildings of major media outlets in England, countless editors and reporters were scratching their heads in pain and throwing tantrums.

"Damn it! Moyes and Chen Hero are both sissies without balls! How can they say nothing about such an important FA Cup final?! How can they! They should challenge each other like two real men, bite each other like two mad dogs! Until death! That's right!"

"If this goes on, what the hell do we have to write... There are fewer and fewer gimmicks, are we going to do that kind of flat and straightforward reporting without any level? Damn it! Who wants to write this kind of report, and who wants to read it!"

"Gimmick! Gimmick! Gimmick! What's the most important thing about news? Not timeliness! Not truthfulness! It's sensationalism! There must be a gimmick! Now that they're doing this, what do we do? Are we going to use the whole page we reserved just to write 'no comment'!"