Football's hand covers the sky

Chapter 197 The Coming New Season

"Ricciardo is revisiting his old place." Carvalho spent the peak of his career at Chelsea. At that time, he won the Champions League under the leadership of Mourinho, and then came to Chelsea with Mourinho.

However, times have changed. Mourinho entered the palace for the second time last season and returned to Chelsea, but Carvalho has entered the twilight years of his career and may retire at any time.

As a person who has lived in London for five years, Carvalho was still able to give Li Shou some advice, which surprised Li Shou.

After bidding farewell to Raj and Carvalho, Li Shou continued to prepare for the upcoming new season. Arsenal once again ushered in a friendly opponent, the giant Celtics from Socrates.

Wenger's decision is a bit intriguing. You must know that this friendly match was added temporarily, and Arsenal will go to Scotland for this friendly match.

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland. Although Arsenal is still an enemy this time, the Scots have no hostility because this is just a pre-match warm-up match.

In this game, Wenger officially began to cultivate the tacit understanding between old and new players. Sanchez and Griezmann both made their debuts. Li Shouze replaced Szczesny in the second half.

Sanchez and Griezmann still need time to develop a tacit understanding, but Li Shou is different. As a goalkeeper, Li Shou's main task is to guard the goal. As for the cooperation with the central defender, in fact, as long as everyone can do their jobs well, that is enough.

For example, in this game, Li Shou cooperated with Koscielny and Mertesacker for the first time. It is said that because of Ozil, Li Shou and Mertesacker have a normal relationship.

Li Shou didn't try to improve this, because Li Shou believed that as long as they played together a few more times, the relationship would definitely improve.

Li Shou, who appeared in the second half, performed well. Although he conceded a goal, it was only a friendly match after all. Everyone still focused on finding state and cultivating tacit understanding.

Szczesny conceded a goal in the first half, Li Shou also conceded a goal in the second half, and Arsenal also received the ball offensively, so the game ended in a draw.

Arsenal conceded two goals, but Li Shou and Szczesny performed well. As for the Celtics, Wenger focused most of his thoughts on Van Dijk.

Van Dijk, who is over 1.9 meters tall, has pretty good skills at his feet, and his speed is also very fast. This is an alternative to a central defender. After all, with Van Dijk's height, his speed and turning will definitely be slow, but Van Dijk does not have this problem.

Moreover, Van Dijk's physical fitness is very good, he did not suffer at all against Giroud, and even faintly pressed Giroud, so that the French center performed very mediocre in the first half.

So after the game, there was an extra transfer offer on the desk of the Celtics transfer director, and Arsenal officially offered Celtics central defender Van Dijk.

Seeing this quotation, the Celtics head coach almost turned the table directly. At this moment, the head coach was full of regrets, and he should not agree to Arsenal's invitation to a friendly match.

"No, Van Dijk is not for sale," said the Celtics coach.

However, there are so-called non-sale items in this world. When Arsenal's second offer was raised to 800 million pounds, non-sale items became an important member.

1000 million pounds, the third offer soon came to the Celtics transfer director's desk, this time the Celtics made a direct counteroffer, 1200 million pounds.

Then Arsenal hesitated. Arsenal's ideal price is 1000 million pounds, and the Celtics' counteroffer has exceeded Arsenal's psychological expectations.

Don't underestimate the 200 million pounds, it is often stuck on it after a single transfer, and the psychological expectation is that this kind of thing is over even if it is a straw.

Moreover, Van Dijk only performed well in the Soviet Super League, and did not really prove himself in the top league. No one can be sure whether Van Dijk can adapt to the Premier League, and Van Dijk's performance in the Champions League last season was very average.

As a result, Van Dijk's transfer has stagnated like this, and Arsenal once again ushered in a friendly match. This time the opponent is weak and belongs to a low-level league team.

In this game, Arsenal achieved a big victory. This time Li Shou made his debut again and handed in a good answer sheet without conceding a goal.

This is also Arsenal's last friendly match before the new season. The opening and first game of the Premier League season is scheduled for August 8. The opponent is Crystal Palace, which was ranked in the middle last season.

With the approach of the new season, the players' training has finally relaxed a little. After all, no one wants to get injured before the new season starts, and the season is so long, and the Premier League does not have a winter break, so it is still necessary to relax properly.

Not to mention that Arsenal still has a Community Shield to play before the official start of the Premier League. The Community Shield is contested by the Premier League champions and the FA Cup champions.

Last season, the Premier League champion belonged to Manchester City, while Arsenal won the FA Cup. This championship also ended Arsenal's embarrassing situation of no championship for nearly nine years.

Although there is no gold content, it is a relatively regular training for the two teams before the official start of the season.

On August 8, Wembley Stadium, which should be the home of the England national team, is also the host stadium for the England domestic league finals. This is also a world-famous stadium.

Although many people look down on the Community Shield Cup, in fact, England fans support these cups held by themselves exceptionally. Even in the eyes of many England fans, domestic cups are more important than intercontinental cups.

This is a kind of deformed mentality of the English people. Anyway, in the past few years, the head coaches of the major Premier League giants have not cared much about the domestic cup competitions. They mainly focus on the Champions League and even the Europa League.

Regarding this Community Shield Cup, Wenger announced the starting roster in the team early. Li Shou appeared in the 18-man roster, but he did not start.

Li Shou didn't care much about it. As for the Community Shield, Li Shou was not from England, so naturally he didn't care too much, although this was the first time Li Shou entered Wembley Stadium.

Compared with the Community Shield Cup, Li Shou hopes to play in the league, because the league is the real foundation for the regular start of the season. However, according to Wenger's communication with Li Shou, the first two starts of the season belong to Szczesny, and then it is Li Shou's chance. It will depend on who performs well before deciding on the regular start of the season.

Therefore, Li Shou sat on the bench and watched the Community Shield Cup for 10 minutes, but Li Shou almost had a chance to appear. At the last moment of the game, Szczesny was injured because of a save, but unfortunately, Szczesny was not seriously injured this time, and returned to the court after simple treatment.

(End of this chapter)