Li Shiguang was unaware of everything that had happened in the locker room next door. He was still pondering how he should respond if Grant really made adjustments within fifteen minutes.
He was still mentally rehearsing various plans.
Sudden.
The locker room door was pushed open from the outside.
Looking up, Simeone, who should have been warming up with the substitutes on the field with Rivaldo, walked in with a strange, wicked smile on his face.
"Didn't I tell you to lead them in warming up on the field?! Instead of doing your job, what mischief are you up to coming back here for?!" Li Shiguang turned and asked as soon as Simone sat down.
Simone chuckled: "Boss! You've got me wrong! I overheard some absolutely explosive gossip outside just now. Want to know?"
Li Shiguang remained unmoved: "I don't want to."
Simone: "No! You want to!"
"Spit it out." Seeing Simone staring at him with his neck stiff, Li Shiguang was too lazy to tease him anymore. "I'll give you thirty seconds to gossip. I'm still thinking about how to deal with Grant's possible tactical changes in the second half!"
"Hehehe..." Simone chuckled foolishly, "Boss, I guess you don't need to think about it anymore. If nothing unexpected happens, there's probably some infighting going on next door!"
Li Shiguang looked at Simone with a puzzled expression: "What do you mean?"
“Literal meaning!” Simeone pointed outside the door and continued, “You know old Walker, the one who cleans the stadium, right?”
"Yes, I know him." Li Shiguang was a little confused. When did the cleaners at Elland Road Stadium start deciding whether or not they needed to consider the opponent's tactical intentions?
"If he wasn't lying, he might actually have done us a big favor." Simeone didn't keep us in suspense and began to explain in detail, "I came to the sidelines to get a drink of water just now, and I happened to run into old Walker coming out of the players' tunnel with a mop. He came right up to me and told me that when he was cleaning outside the away team's locker room, he heard a really loud argument inside, and it wasn't just a normal debate, but a bunch of people cursing each other's families!"
Holy crap!? Is this even possible?!
Li Shiguang's eyes widened in disbelief. He had heard news of conflicts within the team before, and for a head coach, handling locker room conflicts was a required course!
But this was the first time Li Shiguang had ever heard of such a heated argument, involving insults directed at family members, taking place in the locker room midway through a match!
Is this some kind of joke?! What was Grant doing? As the head coach, wasn't he supposed to stop it?!
Looking at Simone, Li Shiguang asked the question that had been on his mind: "Is Grant just going to watch and do nothing?"
“I don’t know about that.” Simeone spread his hands. “Old Walker said he stood outside the away team’s locker room for at least three minutes and heard two voices arguing. Occasionally other voices would chime in, but they were quickly drowned out by the two arguing voices.”
Simone said that.
Li Shiguang understood immediately.
Although we don't know who the two people arguing are, the voice that interrupted and was then suppressed must have been Grant's!
It seems I was right to underestimate this old man!
His technical skills are mediocre, and he has no authority in the locker room either.
Abramovich has been brilliant his whole life, how could he have chosen such a useless person to sit in the Chelsea manager's seat?
····
For Li Shiguang, the gossip in the Chelsea dressing room was just a minor episode.
Li Shiguang did not stop working just because his opponent had internal problems. In order to prepare for the second half, he still came up with several plans in his mind.
Fifteen minutes passed quickly.
The two sides switched sides and started the game again.
However, upon returning to the pitch, Li Shiguang, unable to contain his curiosity, immediately looked towards Chelsea's bench.
Grant's even more somber expression than when the team conceded a goal in the first half confirmed Simeone's words in the locker room. If nothing unexpected happens, it seems that Chelsea really is experiencing internal strife!
An excited Simeone ran out of the players' tunnel, rubbed his hands together next to Li Shiguang, and said, "Boss, we've solved the case! I just saw the substitution board the fourth official was holding. Carvalho was substituted off. If I'm not mistaken, he was definitely one of the people arguing!"
Following Simone's words.
Li Shiguang also looked at the Chelsea players who had just taken their positions on the field.
That's true.
Carvalho was substituted off, and he was replaced by Tal Ben Haim, Grant's compatriot.
Even if Li Shiguang didn't know about the conflict that broke out in the Chelsea dressing room at halftime, from a coaching perspective, he would definitely think that Grant's substitution was an absolutely terrible move.
Moreover, Carvalho was probably the best performer in Chelsea's defense during the entire first half.
Even in that conceded goal, Carvalho did his job well, at least preventing Torres, who was marking him, from finding any opportunities to help his teammates create space.
In this situation, Grant made a substitution using Ben Haim.
To outsiders who didn't know the situation, Grant either seemed to be practicing nepotism or was simply out of his mind!
"It's a pity, though. I wonder who was arguing with Carvalho." Simone still seemed a little unsatisfied, as if he regretted not finishing the story.
"Damn it, Grant isn't being very fair. If you're going to replace someone, just replace all the perpetrators!"
Simone didn't know.
But Li Shiguang, who had clearly seen the expressions on every Chelsea player's face, already had a good idea of what was going on.
He lowered his head and whispered in Simeone's ear, "That's easy. Look at those two guys standing in the center circle, ready to kick off. One of them is clearly still angry."
With Li Shiguang's reminder, Simone glanced at the center circle and immediately understood: "Anelka!? If it's him..... Hahahahahaha..... That's normal, after all, he's the kind of person who makes a fuss wherever he goes."
"However..." After his initial complaint, a question immediately crept into Simeone's mind. "Boss, why didn't Grant substitute Anelka as well?! Such an unfair substitution, isn't he afraid of an even bigger conflict erupting in the locker room after the game?!"
Li Shiguang rolled his eyes and looked at Simeone speechlessly: "Diego, I think you should stop thinking about becoming a head coach... With your IQ, even if you became a head coach, you wouldn't last long before you were fired."
"Why!!!???"
"You should take a look at Chelsea's bench. In the first half, Anelka was completely marked by Vincent and Thiago and couldn't hold onto the ball! Are you suggesting that Grant bring on Pizarro, who plays more like a number 9.5, to act as a target man???"
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