"Has there ever been a wedding more casual than Barnett's?"
"With that many players there, Barnett was still dancing while walking down the aisle. He danced from the beginning of the wedding until the very end. I honestly don't understand why he even bothered holding a wedding. There was no reason for it."
Gullit couldn't understand why Barnett had held the wedding, but Scholes immediately saw what was really bothering him.
"Gullit, it's not that you don't understand why Barnett held the wedding. You just don't understand why he didn't invite you. Maybe you should have done what I did and simply gone after seeing his announcement."
"Didn't Lin call you? He told me yesterday that he'd arranged everything for you. All you had to do was head over and attend Barnett's wedding, but you chose not to go."
Only then did Gullit realize that, apart from Leo, every player at the wedding had simply seen Barnett's announcement and shown up on their own.
Meanwhile, Gullit had been sitting at home alone. Even after finishing two bottles of vodka, he still couldn't figure out why Barnett hadn't invited him.
"Scholes, so even though you went to Barnett's wedding, you never actually received an invitation either? You just saw the announcement and went?"
Scholes laughed. He loved seeing Gullit completely out of the loop.
"Exactly. That's how all of us went. Nothing wrong with that."
Gullit knew it.
After all these years of getting along so well with Barnett, not to mention all the times he had helped Leo, there was no way Barnett would deliberately leave him out.
Now that he understood what had happened, Gullit wanted to call Barnett and ask him to hold the wedding all over again, even if it was only for him.
Scholes had no choice but to drag the conversation back to football.
Rivaldo hadn't spoken for quite a while.
He couldn't understand why these two always managed to turn a football discussion show into a conversation about their personal lives.
Even stranger, the fans loved listening to it.
Sometimes it felt as though the match itself was secondary. Hearing Gullit talk about whatever was going on in his life was the real attraction.
"The EFL Cup final will be Chelsea against Liverpool. These two sides have met quite a few times in this competition over the years."
"Looking at the last five seasons, Liverpool have faced Chelsea three times in the EFL Cup. Liverpool won twice and were eliminated once."
"This will be their fourth meeting in the competition over the past several seasons, and this time it's the final."
"If Liverpool win the trophy, it will prove that they've already achieved more this season than they did last season. It would also show that bringing in so many new players has paid off."
"But that's also the problem. Liverpool have so many new players that it's hard to know whether Gakpo and the others can really help Lin win the EFL Cup."
"So for this final, I'm giving both teams a fifty percent chance."
Scholes always liked giving answers like that.
That way, he didn't offend either set of supporters.
Rivaldo believed Liverpool would win.
Gullit thought the same.
During training, Leo had been helping Gakpo and the others get used to the atmosphere surrounding a final.
A final was always different from an ordinary match.
"I've won the EFL Cup plenty of times. When I first started playing in finals, I used to get nervous because I didn't know what I was supposed to do to win one."
"Later, I realized the answer was simple. Just play normally."
"If you approach it like any other match, the result might not be perfect, but it probably won't be disastrous either. Usually, the more nervous you become, the more likely you are to lose a final."
In previous seasons, if you had drawn Liverpool in a final, you probably wouldn't have felt particularly confident about winning.
This time, however, Chelsea's manager sounded extremely confident about his team's chances.
"Liverpool have found some form recently, but that doesn't mean they can beat us in a final. I believe Chelsea are in the kind of form needed to compete for trophies."
"We have a better chance of becoming champions than Liverpool."
The reporters were curious because no matter how many times they asked who would win the trophy, Chelsea's manager always gave them the same answer.
Chelsea.
"We'd like to ask you something we've been wondering about for a while. Are you so confident Chelsea will win because you've prepared some particularly effective tactical plan for the EFL Cup final?"
Tuchel shook his head.
"Of course not. But I'm Chelsea's manager, not Liverpool's."
"You keep asking me who's going to win the trophy. Do you seriously expect Chelsea's manager to stand here and tell you Liverpool are going to win?"
"Think about it for a moment. I'm Chelsea's manager. Even if I thought we couldn't beat them, and of course I absolutely believe we can, what exactly would you expect me to say?"
"My point is that no matter what I think, no matter how you ask the question, and no matter what the fans think, I'm obviously going to say Chelsea can win."
"What's wrong with that?"
Ever since becoming a head coach, Tuchel had answered questions like this countless times.
Plenty of supporters trusted him.
Tuchel had always been good at leading teams to trophies, and Chelsea had hired him for a reason.
On January 26, the EFL Cup final returned to its familiar venue.
"Chelsea have a very strong squad right now, and Édouard Mendy starts in goal today."
"Kepa has rarely started since that previous incident. Mendy wasn't highly rated by the supporters when he first arrived, but he's been excellent."
"The back three are Rüdiger, Thiago Silva, and Chalobah."
"In midfield, they have Alonso, Kovačić, Kanté, and Azpilicueta."
"Mount and Pulisic will play behind Havertz, who starts through the middle. Tuchel wants Havertz to play as a striker, but I don't think that position really suits him. He's struggled there for Germany as well."
Klopp had focused heavily on Havertz and Chalobah when preparing for the match.
Liverpool, meanwhile, left Núñez out of the starting lineup and used Szoboszlai through the middle instead.
Leo stood in the tunnel before the EFL Cup final as comfortably as if he were standing in his own home.
He had been here too many times.
Both the FA Cup final and the EFL Cup final were held here, and somehow Leo always seemed to find his way back.
Several of the younger players came over to greet him and exchange hugs.
That was when Leo realized something.
Players like Havertz had already faced him when they were very young, even though Leo himself had been young at the time.
Most of those meetings had come in international competitions.
At the previous European Championship, for example, Spain had beaten both England and Germany. Havertz had started for Germany, while Mount had been a substitute for England.
Leo had also beaten Pulisic several times back when Pulisic was at Dortmund.
As for Kanté, there was even less to say.
France had possessed Kanté for years without winning a major title, largely because Spain had Leo.
Leo was ready.
This would be the first step toward winning all seven titles.
...
If you'd like to support my work and unlock advanced chapters, you can follow me on p-@-treon.
p-@-treon/GhostParser (60 Chapters Ahead)
You can also follow as a free member to read a few advanced chapters.