The Young Lion

As the sun set, Aldridge kept whistling in his mouth under the afterglow, and kept shouting to the players who came to the training ground to cooperate with the team with short passes.

Robert, don't wait for the ball! Get out of the way! The court is big, do you want to dance in place?

Lucas, press up, have you seen Claude's position? If you take another step forward, you will block Michael's way out of the ball!

Pawel, there is no good way to get the ball in front of you. When you are double-teamed, don't blindly break through. Divide the ball to both sides or pass it back! As the core of the midfielder, your first task is not to lose the ball. If you miss the pass, it will be fatal!

 …

The players on the training field were sweating profusely and worked diligently under the supervision of Aldridge to ensure that every point he required was perfect.

When the training was over, Aldridge disbanded the team without much nonsense, and he and his colleagues on the coaching staff picked up the balls from the training ground one by one and put them away.

After everything was cleaned up, the sky gradually darkened. Aldrich went to the shade of a tree to light a cigarette. Jenson leaned over and curiously found that Aldrich was frowning, as if there was an unresolved melancholy hidden in it. heart.

What's the matter? Are you unhappy? We won the game the day before yesterday. In the first eight rounds, we had five wins, two draws and one loss. We are the top team in the standings.

Aldridge scratched his head and sighed: I'm thinking about whether it's time to release the team's offensive ability. But I'm a little worried that the newly established defensive system will collapse.

Two days ago, before the FIFA match day, Millwall defeated Burnley 2-0 at home. But all grasped.

When facing a passive defensive team, or a solid defensive team, Millwall's chances of succeeding with counterattacks and sneak attacks are getting slimmer, and the offense of positional warfare is slightly conservative, so the team's recent atmosphere A little dull.

Aldridge knew without asking, that like Pires, Schneider definitely wanted to go deeper into the enemy's hinterland to show his talents, and Nedved, an iron man who can't run to death, also has a wide range of activities from restricted area to restricted area.

But Aldridge hesitated.

The main lineup has played seven games in the league without conceding a goal. Such a defensive effect is surprising. Aldrich believes that even with this conservative style of play, they will not be stable at the end of the season. To steadily win the championship and advance to the Premier League, it is no problem to at least qualify for a play-off.

But the players are obviously not satisfied, and the young and dreamy players hope to show more talents.

Aldridge is not satisfied either. Offensive football is the trend in football, but defense is a necessary condition to bring championships. He is just worried that this step forward will destroy the solid foundation of the past.

The league has only passed eight rounds, not even one-fifth. Aldrich planned to make the next adjustment when the league was halfway through, but the oppressive atmosphere of the team made him face a decision at this moment.

I think we can give it a try. The training reports in the past two months show that at least the main lineup's improvement in teamwork and fighting and passing and receiving is obvious.

Jason said so.

Aldridge nodded after thinking for a while. He knew that he did not have absolute authority in the team. Winning the game is the winning game. But as long as there is something that makes the players feel conflicted, maybe he is only eighteen years old. The head coach will have an irreparable rift with the players.

Mr. Hall, I have your call!

The training staff shouted in the distance, and Aldridge said goodbye to Jenson briefly. After walking back to his office, he picked up the phone and heard a familiar voice, which surprised him and then suddenly realized.

The professor is going to Japan!

Just outside the main entrance of the club, stood a slender middle-aged man, who was Arsene Wenger who was fired for the first time in his coaching career.

He gazed thoughtfully at the old club building at Millwall, as if looking for something to pique his interest.

Arsena!

Aldridge waved at Wenger from across the road and shouted, and Wenger turned around with a smile on his face.

Already arrived at dinner time, Aldridge invited Wenger to his home as a guest.

Barnett already lived in West London, and Andrew only came home every three to five times. In the huge villa, there were only Arthur and Amelia. Seeing that Aldrich had brought back a guest, they were very upset. Happy.

At the dinner table, Arthur solemnly expressed his gratitude to Wenger. Aldrich was considered to have received some care from Wenger during the time he spent studying in France.

After dinner, Aldridge invited Wenger to his study.

Monaco has had a poor record since the beginning of this season, so I dismissed get out of class, but my luck is not bad, a club has already invited me to coach, Aldridge, you are so smart, can you guess where I will coach?

Although Wenger's tone was relaxed, Aldrich could hear the bitterness inside and outside the words.

After all, he left a club he had coached for five years.

Where is his next stop?

Of course Aldridge knows that the Nagoya Grampus of Japan's J-League.

But he smiled and shook his head pretending not to know.

He knew very well that he didn't need to appear unpredictable everywhere, and that would not do any good except for him to show off.

Besides, he doesn't want to discuss this topic in depth. There are many reasons for Monaco's poor record, among which Aldrich's high price and high salary poached the defense general Thuram is also a factor.

Wenger leaned back on the chair and said lightly: I will go to Japan at the end of the month.

After finishing speaking, Aldridge didn't answer. Wenger looked at him suspiciously and asked, Why? Are you not surprised at all?

Aldridge shrugged, curled his lips and said, Well, I was very surprised, so I couldn't speak.

Hypocrisy! Forget it, let's talk about your team. I came to London this time to see your team.

Wenger held hot tea in his hand and stared at Aldrich with a smile in his eyes.

Before he came here, he never thought that Aldridge's team could actually rank first in League One, even though there was almost no gap with the teams behind them, and they even ranked first on the basis of goal difference.

But it was enough to surprise Wenger. After all, this is a newly formed team, and it is mainly composed of young players. It can only lose one game after eight rounds. This is absolutely inseparable from the head coach's strategizing.

Aldridge knew everything, and Wenger talked eloquently about whatever Wenger wanted to talk about, including his team building philosophy, tactical system, and even club management prospects beyond the scope of the head coach.

However, Millwall has always been the second-tier team in the league, and the topic of the two finally returned to the top of the Premier League.

Yesterday I watched an England national team match at Wembley. Before the match, there was a phenomenon that made me feel incredible. Aldrich, why do people in this country seem to hate Manchester United so much? What I knew about Manchester United in France before , should be the most popular team in England.

Wenger frowned, puzzled by this question.

He recalled yesterday's national team match in his mind. He sat in the stands and waited quietly for the game to start, but half an hour before the game, repeated singing sounded from the stands of Wembley Stadium.

If you hate Manchester United, stand up!

As a result, in less than ten minutes, all the fans stood up in the repeated waves of singing!

Aldridge laughed helplessly when he heard the words.

This question is very complicated, but Manchester United is indeed the most popular team in the UK. Let's put it this way, there are 22 teams in the Premier League, and each team must have a lot of diehard fans, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, etc. , but the fan base in the UK is larger. Those ordinary fans, fans who watch TV at home, and fans who do not belong to community football clubs, will naturally like Manchester United. When TV broadcasts entered thousands of households, it was Ba The glorious moment when the Sipee boys rebuilt the dynasty, and the generation of England's top World Cup players were Manchester United players at the core, so Manchester United has the largest number of fans in England.

And the fans at Wembley hate Manchester United?

Where's Wembley?

London.

London fans almost hate Manchester United. There are more factors, including political factors. Manchester is absolutely loyal to the Queen. Economically, Manchester, the former world factory, is gradually declining, but London is open to exaggeration and diversity. Traditional and cultural. , Manchester is old-fashioned, London, huh, this is the confrontation between cities, Arsene, you will understand all this in the future, just like Manchester and Liverpool are only half an hour away, but they are two very different cities, The hostility in it is more indescribable than mortal enemies.

Wenger murmured: Is this the birthplace of modern football?

British football has a century-old history. If football is just an ordinary sport or game, it is impossible to develop and grow, and it is not enough to make football the most popular sport in the UK.

Football is war in peacetime.

Behind it is mixed with the sparks of passion from the collision of politics, culture, tradition, economy, history, people's hearts and so on.

Turn over the map of the UK, and you can almost find the grievances and hatreds caused by football there.

English football is never lonely, because it is full of wolf smoke!

Aldridge and Wenger chatted about the few teams in the Premier League that are now in the limelight.

There is no need to talk about Manchester United for two consecutive championships. The Red Army Liverpool has long been famous in Europe. Leeds United and Newcastle United are in the ascendant. There is one team that Wenger and Aldridge have discussed for a long time.

That is last year only 4 points behind Manchester United, the league runner-up Blackburn.

This is a team with no background, and the population of the small town is only 100,000.

But the speed of its rise in a short period of time is jaw-dropping.

The reason why Aldridge is willing to talk about this team in depth is the development of future football trends.

Gold dollar football!

Who is the originator of English gold dollar football?

Definitely not the Chelsea of ​​ten years from now.

But Blackburn!

The steel magnate Jack Walker returned to his hometown to take over Blackburn Rovers, and injected 30 million pounds into the club. This transformed the team, which could not even afford the train fare to play away games at that time, and has the power to attack the championship. Strength.

Thirty million pounds may be just a transfer fee for a top star ten years later, but in the early 1990s, thirty million pounds was enough to turn a team around!

Blackburn invited Liverpool King Dalglish to coach, and the team recruited many first-class players, almost all of them at the European national team level.

Blackburn, who has shown his strength, almost won the league championship last season. The team's Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton's devil striker is unstoppable. Last season, the UEFA Cup staged the elimination of Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich. Good show.

This is the impact of the gold dollar on football, and the Bosman rule is about to open a new era of football, and the traditional football rules will undergo earth-shaking changes.

Although Aldridge has also brought Millwall a capital injection of 30 million pounds, it may be difficult for him to continue the large-scale investment. If he wants to have success in this period of change in football, Aldridge still needs to plan a lot, a lot .

PS: Thanks to Take off your slippers for the reward!

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