Football giants

Chapter 992 Messi is here!

Although the Stamford Bridge Stadium is located in the West End of London where the wealthy gather, it is surrounded by old traditional houses.

Everyone knows that Abramovich actually suffered a big dark loss when he bought Chelsea.

Why do you say that?
The home ownership of most Premier League teams is controlled by the club. However, the ownership of Chelsea's Stamford Bridge Stadium is controlled by a company called the Chelsea Owners Committee.

This requires a piece of history.

The Stamford Bridge Stadium was first built to be leased to Fulham, but Fulham did not use it, so the owner of the stadium established the Chelsea Club to use this stadium.

In the 70s, Chelsea was on the verge of bankruptcy and had to transfer the ownership of the Stamford Bridge Stadium to the famous London real estate developer Mahler Properties, and later to Cabra Properties.

In the hands of real estate companies, the Stamford Bridge Stadium even almost became a shopping center and department store.

It was not until Ken Bates bought Chelsea for a symbolic one pound that he cooperated with the bank and redeemed the Stamford Bridge Stadium in [-]. In [-], through the establishment of the Chelsea Owners Committee to raise funds from fans, he bought out the ownership of the Stamford Bridge Stadium.

In other words, after Abramovich bought Chelsea, he was depressed to find that the stadium was not included!

It's worse than a man marrying a woman only to find out that buy one get one free.

At that time, Chelsea's training ground was just north of Heathrow Airport, a dilapidated place almost like an amateur team.

This matter has always been taken as a warning throughout the Premier League.

That is, the water for investing in football is too deep!

It has been 11 years since the acquisition of Chelsea, and Abramovich has been dealing with this owner committee all the time.

He wants to buy back the ownership of the Stamford Bridge Stadium, but the owners' committee will not sell it.

Well, it's not for sale, is it?Is it okay for me to move?
I can't afford to offend, can't I still hide?

So, Abramovich wanted to leave Stamford Bridge. He found the land of the original power plant on the south bank of the Thames and wanted to buy it to build a new stadium. However, the owner committee said that they had signed an agreement with the club. If Abramovich moved out of Stamford Bridge, he would no longer be able to use the Chelsea name.

This is not only cheating the father, but even cheating the ancestors!
Okay, it’s okay if you don’t sell it, if you don’t move it, it’s okay, sir, I can expand it, right?

Sorry, no!

Why?

First of all, the Stamford Bridge Stadium is surrounded by residential buildings, and there is no room for expansion unless the residential buildings are relocated. However, in the West End of London, where land is very expensive, how much does it cost to acquire such a large piece of land?

Besides, although the Chelsea Stadium is here, the surrounding area is not a gathering place for Chelsea fans. Who cares about you?

If any fans of the sworn enemy showed up, it would be really...

Well, think about the scene where Manchester City demolished the Manchester United fans for the training base.

Also, the most important point is that the surrounding areas are residential areas, and the expansion is too noisy and not environmentally friendly, so it will definitely not be approved.

Therefore, the expansion and relocation of Chelsea's Stamford Bridge Stadium are proposed almost every year, but they are stranded every year.

Coupled with the surrounding area, the traffic is not very convenient, not even as good as Fulham's Craven Farm Stadium.

There is no need to think about the subway station. Even the bus station is far away. It is really inconvenient for fans to come to watch the game.

Coupled with the recent period, Chelsea's performance is not ideal, and now it is ranked in the middle and lower reaches, and Mourinho's coaching style is not pleasing, and the Blues' home attendance is also declining.

So far this season, the Premier League has played seven rounds. Chelsea has two wins, two draws and three losses, ranking No.14 in the Premier League.

If such a record is compared with the glory period of the Blues, it is indeed quite bad, but if it is compared with the past two seasons, it is still normal. After all, in the past two seasons, Chelsea ranked in the middle and lower reaches.

The only gratifying game this season was the [-]-[-] victory over Arsene Wenger's Arsenal at home.

But if you go back further, it will be a [-]-[-] home upset by Crystal Palace, and a [-]-[-] home draw with Swansea.

As for the away game, the [-]-[-] loss to Manchester City and the [-]-[-] loss to Everton were all blatant defeats.

After a bad season, Mourinho once again ushered in a sad start. Almost at the beginning of the league, Stamford Bridge greeted him with boos from fans.

It is reported that Abramovich can't take it anymore, and Mourinho may dismiss get out of class at any time.

But, who knows?

With Chelsea's remnants and defeats now, facing the wolf-like saints, the fans are well aware of the chances of winning.

Therefore, even if it is a home game, in fact, on the day of the game, the Stamford Bridge Stadium looked very deserted.

It's not that there are no people, it just doesn't look like the ball market is hot.

Even, if someone counts them specially, they may find that there are not necessarily fewer Saints fans wearing red and white arrow shirts than Chelsea fans wearing blue jerseys.

Everything that happened in front of the Stamford Bridge Stadium was the same as the usual home games. The fans were happily discussing the arrival of the Saints. They might not be Blues fans, but just came for the star-studded Saints.

Or they walked into the court mechanically, who were concerned about the lack of interest. They are the saints' iron clubs. Watching the game is a habit, and losing the game has become numb.

"According to the data we got from the Stamford Bridge Stadium, stimulated by the [-]-[-] victory over Arsenal in the last home game and the star-studded Saints, the home game of this game may reach a new high in the last two seasons, and more than [-] fans will enter the stadium."

The Sky TV crew was filming the pre-match warm-up theme, and the reporter appeared at the entrance of the Stamford Bridge Stadium.

"Now, Chelsea has arrived at the stadium ahead of schedule and started warming up. Mourinho said that the team will continue their unbeaten record in the past two rounds and will attack the Saints at home."

"But judging from the feedback from fans before the game and the odds offered by bookmakers, it is obvious that most people are not optimistic about Chelsea, because the Saints have performed so well this season."

"However, two or three days ago, there were media reports that Messi, who just joined the Saints this summer, wanted to return to Barcelona before the winter break because of the delay in getting the chance to play, and the Barcelona media also said that they are ready to take Messi back."

"Although the Saints have repeatedly refuted the rumors, for the Saints who are now in a hurry, there is really not much difference whether there is Messi or not. Even many Saints fans feel that the introduction of Messi is purely out of commercial considerations."

At this moment, the camera focused on the narrow road at Stamford Bridge.

"We saw the Saints bus coming."

"Southampton is about an hour's drive from London, so this time, the Saints did not arrive in London in advance, but set off from Southampton at the time of the game."

"Let's follow the past now!"

As the most important broadcaster of the Premier League, Sky TV has the privilege that other media do not have, that is, to enter the player channel and even follow outside the dressing room.

As the bus with red and white arrow stripes slowly parked at the entrance of the Stamford Bridge stadium, the door was slowly opened, and coach Ancelotti got out of the car.

"This is the head coach of the Saints, the famous Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti. He wears a pair of glasses around his neck. It's really worrying. When he directs the game, can he see clearly what's going on on the pitch?"

As Ancelotti got out of the car, the players walked out of the car one after another.

Many Saints fans at the scene had already formed a circle, shouting the names of each player under the obstruction of the security guards at the Stamford Bridge Stadium, and the players also paid tribute to the fans after hearing the movement.

The players got out of the car one by one, and all went straight into the player tunnel.

But just when everyone thought they were done walking, suddenly a figure flashed in front of the car door, and a small figure stepped out of the car. Everyone at the scene was stunned when they saw it.

I was stunned for two or three seconds, and then there was a burst of thunderous cheers from the audience.

"Messi! Messi!!! Messi!!!"

The location hosts of Sky TV were also dumbfounded, "My God, Messi, we saw Messi!"

"Dear audience, did you see it? We saw Messi stepping out of the car!"

"This means that Messi has entered the 18-man list for this game. This will be the first time this season!"

"Messi, the world's number one superstar, has been refrigerated by the Saints since he moved to Southampton. The outside world has always been rumors, and there are even rumors that Messi wants to return to Barcelona because he can't get a chance to play."

"But now, we see that Messi has finally entered the squad for the game!"

"The Saints fans at the scene were chanting Messi's name crazily. My God, this is surprising. There was no news at all before, and Messi has actually entered the squad!"

"The fans are crazy. Messi is still as shy as ever. After greeting the fans, he got into the player tunnel, but we can all clearly see that the fans are very excited."

"Yes, Messi is finally going to play for the Saints. After three months of anticipation by fans all over the world, the long-lost Messi is finally going to play for the Saints. This will be his first game in the Premier League."

"My God, Messi has already entered the player tunnel, but the fans at the entrance of the tunnel still refuse to leave for a long time. Many fans who came after hearing the news crowded at the entrance. They want to see Messi. Will the Argentine superstar really appear?"

"If Messi plays on behalf of the Saints in this game, will he make the already unstoppable Saints even more powerful? Or will he disrupt the rhythm and pace of the Saints' winning streak?"

"No one knows the answer!"

"It seems that countless people are doubting that Messi will follow the footsteps of superstars such as Veron and Shevchenko and become another brilliant superstar who has sunk in the Premier League. But for this issue, the Saints are confident. Coach Ancelotti once said that Messi will succeed in Southampton."

"Now, Messi is about to play on behalf of the Saints. Perhaps, the questions we and the fans care about will soon have answers."

With the Southampton players arriving at the Stamford Bridge, the game is about to kick off.

More and more fans gathered at the scene. When they heard that Southampton had arrived at the scene and Messi would play on behalf of the Saints, they all rushed into Stamford Bridge one by one.

Even the media reporters who didn't care much at first came to the Stamford Bridge Stadium and bought tickets to enter.

Messi's Premier League debut, which is rare, will definitely be tomorrow's headlines. Who wants to miss it?
For a while, no one expected that it would actually boost the attendance of Stamford Bridge Stadium.

(End of this chapter)