2026-08-26, 02:25 PM - Word count:
For the first time in a little while, Sandro woke up feeling like his old self again. No worries. No pressure. No relegation. Just peace.
It had been a hard couple of seasons for Sandro, watching his role in the team diminish in importance to adjust to teams man marking him out of the game wherever possible, but Sandro could look at himself: Fit as a fiddle, strong as an ox, running like a gazelle, and think “this is what my physical prime feels like. I will never feel like this again one day, so I need to make the most of it”.
This season would be different for many reasons, but the big one is coming in with the expectation of challenging for a title. Normally those expectations would be a burden on players and their physical and mental health, but Sandro felt absolutely no pressure getting to him. Just the warm sunshine as he prepared himself to go to training. While he used to go to training with the intensity of someone who needed to get better every day, that was gone now. Sandro wondered if this is how all veterans feel. Like everything except the match has become just another day at work.
One one hand the pressure being gone was liberating, but on the other, Sandro feared complacency. He would need to reach out to some of his teammates and see how they handle these feelings. For now, he decided to just relax and enjoy the season. While he may not care as much as the fans would like, he thinks this change could bring out the best version of himself and take him to a level he has yet to reach in the game.
It had been a hard couple of seasons for Sandro, watching his role in the team diminish in importance to adjust to teams man marking him out of the game wherever possible, but Sandro could look at himself: Fit as a fiddle, strong as an ox, running like a gazelle, and think “this is what my physical prime feels like. I will never feel like this again one day, so I need to make the most of it”.
This season would be different for many reasons, but the big one is coming in with the expectation of challenging for a title. Normally those expectations would be a burden on players and their physical and mental health, but Sandro felt absolutely no pressure getting to him. Just the warm sunshine as he prepared himself to go to training. While he used to go to training with the intensity of someone who needed to get better every day, that was gone now. Sandro wondered if this is how all veterans feel. Like everything except the match has become just another day at work.
One one hand the pressure being gone was liberating, but on the other, Sandro feared complacency. He would need to reach out to some of his teammates and see how they handle these feelings. For now, he decided to just relax and enjoy the season. While he may not care as much as the fans would like, he thinks this change could bring out the best version of himself and take him to a level he has yet to reach in the game.
![[Image: C75197-D1-9-E74-4-DC5-836-E-981-D75-A96413.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/nc8qJ0Nf/C75197-D1-9-E74-4-DC5-836-E-981-D75-A96413.png)
