Morse was taken aback for a moment, but quickly recovered and replied, "Mr. Lee, Gerrard is not for sale, that's beyond question. I would never use Gerrard to exchange for Deisler with Leeds United!"
Upon hearing Morse's reply, Li Shiguang realized that his previous statement had been somewhat vague, and immediately explained, "No, no, Mr. Morse, you misunderstood. I don't want Gerrard; I want to exchange him for Xabi Alonso."
The reason Li Shiguang agreed to Deisler's offer so readily was largely because he had his sights set on Alonso.
After bringing in Modric, Li Shiguang had been trying to replicate Real Madrid's "ceremonial three midfielders," but Kroos and Casemiro are still too young. So when Deisler mentioned that Liverpool wanted to buy him this morning, Li Shiguang suddenly had a flash of inspiration and remembered Xabi Alonso, who is currently in Liverpool's squad.
After retiring, Alonso, who is known as a legend of three top clubs by fans, is exactly the kind of player Leeds United desperately needs. Although he is not good at scoring goals, he has a wide field of vision, excellent ball control, and is good at long passes from the middle and long range. Most importantly, his strong defensive sweeping ability can complement Modric perfectly.
With the further development of modern football, in a few years, the attacking midfielder position will gradually become blurred on the football field. In the future, the classic attacking midfielder position will even completely disappear from the world football stage with Riquelme's retirement. Therefore, letting Deisler go in exchange for Alonso is definitely a win-win situation, not to mention that there is a 90% chance that Deisler will underperform in six months.
Hearing that Li Shiguang wasn't asking for Gerrard, Morse breathed a slight sigh of relief, but Alonso remained a problem. Benitez had told him when he bought him that Alonso was Liverpool's hope for revival! Convincing him to use Alonso in exchange for Deisler wouldn't be an easy task.
After another tug-of-war, Li Shiguang finally couldn't take it anymore and proposed a deal of 1.5 million euros plus Deisler in exchange for Alonso, which ended the negotiations.
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In the following two days, after receiving a positive response from Li Shiguang, Deisler's mental state returned to normal, so Li Shiguang ultimately included him in the starting lineup against Tottenham.
The 14th round of the Premier League officially kicked off in the last week of November.
Leeds United will host Tottenham Hotspur at home.
Tottenham have encountered the same problem of lack of attacking firepower as Liverpool this season. After 13 rounds, they have only scored 14 goals in total and are currently ranked 8th with 21 points from 5 wins, 6 draws and 2 losses.
Of course, Leeds United are in an even worse situation now. They managed a draw against Arsenal in the last round, earning only 1 point, and are now ranked 13th.
In this match, Li Shiguang used the same starting lineup as in the previous game against Arsenal.
On the Tottenham side, the most eye-catching player should be their main striker Robbie Keane. Like Ferdinand, he was also a member of Leeds United. However, Leeds United had too many bad debts in those years, so in 2002, they sold Keane to Tottenham for a low price of 7 million.
Today marks Keane's first return to Elland Road since leaving Leeds United. When Eddie Gray introduced the players, he received a warm round of applause from the fans upon hearing Keane's name, which made him very happy.
But 90 minutes later, the score of 3-2 hanging in the sky above Elland Road caused Keane's mood to turn completely upside down.
Despite Keane's best efforts, including scoring two goals in the second half after Tottenham were down 3-0, it wasn't enough to prevent the team's defeat. Falcao was in superb form today; Nebette and Ledley couldn't withstand his onslaught, and Tottenham conceded three goals in the first half alone, both with his head and feet.
With the victory already secured and the next match against the even stronger Liverpool, Li Shiguang began making substitutions after the 65th minute.
However, after Modric and Mascherano were substituted, Leeds United's control in midfield gradually declined. In the last 10 minutes, Keane seized the opportunity to pull back two goals, which made Li Shiguang stand on the sidelines and curse for a while. Fortunately, after being cursed, Leeds United's defense withstood Tottenham's counterattack and finally won the game 3-2 at home.
After securing all 3 points, Leeds United's points total rose to 17, and they once again climbed into the top 10 in the standings.
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During the week of preparation for the match against Liverpool, after each day's training session, Li Shiguang did not immediately leave Thorpe's Arch. Instead, he stayed in his office with a thick scouting report, combining it with his memory to keep searching for transfer targets.
Currently, only Rivaldo has been fully confirmed as a signing in the winter transfer window. Morse hasn't given a definite answer regarding Alonso yet, but Li Shiguang believes there shouldn't be any major issues.
Leeds United now have plenty of depth in the defensive midfield position. With the arrival of Alonso, there are four regular defensive midfielders, not to mention Yaya Touré and Milner who can fill in.
However, Leeds United still need to strengthen their midfield.
The week-long search was not in vain. A scout report from Germany made Li Shiguang slap his head in frustration, wondering why he hadn't remembered this person: Lukas Podolski, who was still in Cologne!
At only 20 years old, Podolski has gradually shown his talent. I recall that Bayern Munich will bring him to the Allianz Arena next year, and now is the perfect time to snatch him away.
Moreover, Podolski can not only play as a left winger and left midfielder, but he can also perform very well when placed as a center forward or shadow striker.
Li Shiguang could see from the system that Podolski's current stats were higher than Bale's, except that he was on par with Bale in speed. And most importantly, his current market value wasn't high! He should be able to be acquired for under 10 million euros.
Since he didn't know anyone in Cologne, after making up his mind, Li Shiguang immediately asked Lina to arrange for someone to contact the Cologne club and tell them to follow the standard bidding process.
The final result satisfied Li Shiguang. After several days of negotiations, Cologne finally agreed to sell Podolski for 9.5 million euros.
With that, the third target of the winter transfer window is achieved!
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