After 11 rounds of Premier League matches, the standings have seen significant changes.
Chelsea, with nine consecutive wins, and Charlton, who have also recently achieved a winning streak, occupy the top two spots in the standings with 28 and 22 points respectively, while Manchester United are one point behind Charlton, ranking third.
Leeds United, who were previously ranked 4th, have fallen to 11th place with 13 points, only ahead of Liverpool with the same 13 points on goal difference. Ahead of them is Arsenal, who are in 9th place with 16 points.
The Times, in its first November issue, used the headline "Leeds United's magic is gone; Leeds United return to mediocrity" to describe Leeds United's performance throughout October.
The article states: "Throughout October, numerous injuries hampered Leeds United's progress in the league, allowing them to manage only 5 points. The FA's congested schedule took a heavy toll on this young team with its extremely thin squad. Manager Lee Shih, the heart and soul of Leeds United, seemed powerless to turn the tide in the face of such widespread injuries… And with the Premier League season not even halfway through, if Leeds United doesn't make significant reinforcements after the winter transfer window opens, the probability of their complete collapse in the second half of the season will greatly increase, and Lee Shih's initial goal of finishing in the top four this season will become a joke!"
Li Shiguang also saw this report, a lengthy analysis of Leeds United, and only the point about Leeds United strengthening their squad in the winter transfer window resonated with him. As for the rest, he considered it all nonsense!
Although there has been a lot of criticism of Leeds United during this period, the system has consistently shown that the team is in normal condition, which tells Li Shiguang that his players have not actually been greatly affected.
Moreover, with their key players gradually recovering from injuries, even though they will face three strong teams—Liverpool, Arsenal, and Tottenham—in November, Li Shiguang believes that Leeds United are a force to be reckoned with.
If Leeds United's decline in the standings is due to a large number of injuries within the team...
Liverpool and Arsenal have achieved their current rankings purely because of their enigmatic form.
In the Champions League, neither team has yet suffered a defeat, with Arsenal leading their group with three wins out of three. However, in the league, Arsenal has only managed five wins, two draws, and four losses in their first 11 matches.
Liverpool's performance was even more outrageous. At the very beginning of October, they were thrashed 4-0 by Chelsea at Anfield, and their current record is 4 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses.
With the winter transfer window approaching, not only Li Shiguang, but other teams that need to strengthen their rosters are also gradually making moves.
Early Tuesday morning, Lina brought Li Shiguang the offer from Liverpool.
The newly crowned European champions brought in stars like Reina and Crouch during the summer to bolster their squad, but since the start of the league, they have struggled on both ends of the pitch, scoring only 8 goals in 11 rounds while conceding two more.
So after losing to Fulham, Benitez proposed the idea of signing players to the management, and among the players he was interested in were Chiellini and Deisler from Leeds United.
Since joining Leeds United, Chiellini has consistently performed well. The young center-back pairing of him and Kompany has conceded only 6 goals in the first 11 league matches. Furthermore, Chiellini's strong aerial ability, physical strength, and excellent defensive awareness and positioning are exactly what Liverpool needs right now.
As for Deisler, people describe his performance at Leeds United as "a rebirth." It's clear to everyone that whenever Deisler is on the pitch, he's involved in almost 80% of Leeds United's goals. In just over two months, Deisler has already scored one goal and provided six assists.
Liverpool offered €5 million for Chiellini and €9 million for Deisler.
Both offers were far below Li Shiguang's target price, so he didn't think much of it and directly had Lina reject Liverpool's offer.
But Liverpool reacted quickly. In the afternoon, Li Shiguang received a call from Liverpool's owner, David Moores. Li Shiguang was quite surprised. He didn't expect the old man to be so impatient. He had just rejected Liverpool's offer in the morning, and the old man called him in the afternoon.
Before the start of the season, Li Shiguang met with David Moores at a meeting of the Premier League Committee. They exchanged a few words and business cards.
After the call connected, Morse simply caught up with Li Shiguang briefly before getting straight to the point.
"Mr. Li, I'm sure you know why I'm calling, so I won't beat around the bush. I'd like to get Leeds United's true thoughts on the sale of Deisler and Chiellini!"
Actually, Li Shiguang isn't in a hurry to sell players right now, unless you offer too much!
Leeds United now has a net profit of 3-4 million euros per month. After Kappa announced the renewal of its contract with Leeds United last week, several other companies have also offered to become sponsors of Leeds United. Allen has been busy with this matter recently.
So Li Shiguang didn't think too much and replied directly: "Mr. Morse, to be honest, we have no plans to sell any players at the moment, let alone Deisler and Chiellini, two absolute key players. To be honest, before I answered your call, I was planning to strengthen the team in the winter."
Morse didn't believe a word Li Shiguang said. He had specifically looked into Li Shiguang's rise to power. Since he took over Leeds United, there had never been a transfer window without him selling players. Moreover, he sold almost all the key players who helped the team win the championship at high prices as soon as last season ended. Now you're telling me you don't want to sell players? Impossible!
So he went straight to the point: "Mr. Lee, let me put it another way, how much would Leeds United want to sell these two players? Give me a price range, and if we think it's acceptable, we can continue this discussion."
Upon hearing Morse's question, Li Shiguang thought to himself, "Wow, no wonder he's a capitalist who's been working in the Premier League for over a decade. He guessed exactly what I was thinking."
Li Shiguang also understood that Liverpool's recent poor league performance had indeed put a lot of pressure on the club's management. Otherwise, given Morse's rich experience in football, he would never have asked such a direct question. But after all, it was a business negotiation, and Li Shiguang would not hand over the initiative to the other party.
So he countered with the question, "Then, Mr. Morse, how much do you think it would cost to get them to Anfield?"
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