All of Napoli's pyers found themselves utterly drained, having severely uimated the iy of the summer training camp.

  Whether it was Callejon and Parejo, the former Real Madrid pyers, or those who had pyed for the team st season, everyone was aware that the level of training under Gao Shen was always demanding. Each session sted 90 minutes, packed with exercises desigo squeeze out every st drop of their energy.

  They had beed from such rigorous training before, but this time, it was different.

  The iy was even higher.

  More importantly, what had once been two training sessions per day had now increased to three. This new schedule felt like a life-draining rhythm.

  Bueura, ag like a merciless taskmaster, even told the pyers that the team's running distahis season would be signifitly greater than before. Even a target man like Pelle would have to cover more than ten kilometers per game.

  And as for the full-backs and midfielders? They were expected to run eleven or twelve kilometers, if not more.

  To meet these goals, the team o build suffit physical reserves during the preseason training camp. That's why the pyers were enduring this "devil's training camp," leaving many of them feeling utterly defeated and, in some cases, even hopeless.

  "How fortable your vacation was will determine how painful this is now!" Bueura ughed with a wicked grin.

  With three training sessions each day, the focus wasn't just on building endurahere was also extensive ball work.

  For instance, before each session, the pyers would engage in a round of circle drills only known as "monkey in the middle." This is a familiar exercise in many top clubs, particurly at Bara and the Dutational team.

  Gao Shen had ofte at Real Madrid, not just for training purposes but also to lighten the mood.

  Callejon and Parejo thought they were familiar with the drill, but when they joined Napoli's version, they quickly realized it was at a different level pared to what they had experie Real Madrid.

  Napoli's version of the circle drill featured two pyers in the middle attempting to intercept passes betwee others oside. This drill was desigo improve ball trol in tight spaces and teach pyers how to maintain effective triangur positioning at all times.

  The pyers in the middle would practice pressing, blog passing nes, and predig their oppos' moves all replig real in-game sarios.

  Though the drill seemed simple, its effects were profound. It was especially useful for teams that relied on pressing and short-passing games. The Dutational team, Ajax, Bara, and any team coached by Louis van Gaal all relied heavily on simir drills.

  Moreover, the difficulty and purpose of the drill could be adjusted by ging the number of partits, such as redug the outer circle to five or six pyers or increasing the number of defenders in the middle. This flexibility made the drill invaluable.

  However, Gao Shen had raised the difficulty even further, turning what was once a fun game into a serious training exercise.

  He enforced a rule that pyers could only use ooud could only use a specific foot for either passing or receiving.

  This made the drill signifitly harder.

  Additionally, there unishment meism in pce, so while the drill was still fun, it came with high-iy training and valuable skill-building.

  ---

  As Spanish pyers, Callejon and Parejo were ners to the circle drill, but they were shocked to see how well Napoli's pyers executed it. Led by Rakitic, Biglia, and others, the team moved the ball quickly, zipping it bad forth as if it were a bullet.

  Vidal and David Luiz, the two pyers in the middle, were giving their all to intercept the ball. They nearly succeeded several times, shouting and ughing as they chased it down.

  Seeing this, Callejon and Parejo quickly put away their arrogance.

  The level of skill on dispy, especially in this particur drill, was something even Real Madrid had not achieved.

  Of course, the Naples pyers were well-versed in this training, but it also demonstrated that their mastery of passing and movement on the field wasn't a ce it roduct of hard work and dedication.

  ---

  In addition to the circle drill, there was shadow training desigo practice pressing as a team, as well as targeted training exercises like the seven-on-froup frontation drill.

  Although it was called seven-on-four, it was effectively a four-on-four drill with three ral pyers who would join whichever team had possession. The primary goal was to improve pyers' off-the-ball movement.

  These drills were all brought to Napoli by Gao Shen st season and had been refined over time to suit the team's needs. After seeing the positive results, the coag staff tio fiune and increase the difficulty to maximize the pyers' training bes.

  At the end of each training day, pyers would receive detailed reports analyzing their performahese reports included individual assessments as well as team evaluations, highlighting both positive as and mistakes.

  For example, a forward's report might analyze why they missed a shot in training, breaking down what went wrong and how it could be improved.

  This level of analysis was made possible by Napoli's iment in modernizing their facilities.

  Fort Volturno's trainier, though limited in size, underwent renovations and upgrades over the summer. Cameras were installed all around the training pitches, with every session being recorded a iime to Lucas's analysis department. There, the data romptly processed and summarized.

  Ohe pyers received their reports, they were enced to refle their mistakes, think about why they had occurred, and sider how they could be corrected and avoided iure.

  Before the following day's training session, the coaches would meet with individual pyers to discuss their reports, suggestions and solutions to help them improve.

  If a pyer had a recurring issue, or if there was a on problem among the squad, the coag staff would anize additional, targeted training sessions to address it.

  This level of attention to detail was not only unique in Serie A but also advanced pared to most European football clubs.

  The financial iment wasn't particurly rge. What was key was the introdu of advaeology and the club's emphasis on hiring skilled analysts.

  Lucas's two assistants had been carefully selected by Gao Shen, Lucas, and the club. Though they were o the role, they showed great potential.

  And this was something the outside world didn't know about.

  However, the pyers at Castel Volturno were experieng it firsthand. They found the detailed analysis reports both novel and incredibly beneficial. It gave them clearer insights into their own performand the team's weaknesses.

  This process helped every pyer grow.

  ---

  Si season, Gao Shen had bee increasingly aware of the importananaging pyers' psychological states.

  After all, football is a human game.

  Benítez once said that if he had eleven robots, he could win every match.

  The reason was simple robots don't experieions, they don't have mood swings, and they remain 100% focused at all times.

  While training address many aspects of a pyer's game, there are some things it 't trol, like mood swings.

  This is especially true for younger pyers.

  A simple, universally aowledged example is that after a team scores a goal, there's a higher probability that anoal will be scored within the en minutes.

  This is because pyers' emotions fluctuate dramatically after a goal.

  Last season, Gao Shen had noticed a fasating trend: pyers' emotions would rise and fall depending on the flow of the game. When things were going well, they'd bee overly excited sometimes to the point of losing focus. But when things took a turn for the worse, they'd get disced, pin about their teammates, or even feel defeated.

  This was natural.

  It's not just young pyers who experiehis adults do too. It's almost impossible to avoid such emotional highs and lows.

  However, in high-level football, those emotional fluctuations could lead to mistakes, whi turn could lead to goals being ceded.

  Too much excitement could cause errors. Too muegativity could do the same.

  So, Gao Shen had been thinking: was there a way tute pyers' emotions, to keep them within a reasonable range so that they wouldn't get too carried away or too dowed?

  To address this, Napoli hired a realian sports psychologist. He believed that trolliions required ongoing psychological development and training, helping pyers build mental resilience.

  However, it was still unclear how effective this approach would be. It was a new area for exploration.

  At the very least, no other team in European football was experimenting with this yet.

  ---

  Whether it was the grueling physical training, high-level ball work, tactical analysis, or psychological development, all of it served one purpose: to push the team to an even higher level of performan the field.

  But before the season could begin, every pyer had to ehis hellish preseason training.

  With three sessions a day, eainutes long, and additional drills throughout, the pyers' schedules were packed. By the end of each day, they were pletely drained, both physically aally.

  As avaro joked in the locker room, "By the time I get home, I don't even have the energy to appud my wife!"

  It wasn't surprising.

  By the time they left the training ground each day, most pyers were practically colpsing.

  But it was in these harsh ditions that they tio fiuheir fitness, recover, and grow stronger.

  After two weeks of brutal training at Fort Volturno, the team was finally ready to begin their intensive summer warm-up matches.

  *******

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