Chapter 220: Barcelona’s shocking changes, Rosell goes to jail, Manchester City’s devilish schedule!

Lin Quan hadn't paid attention to what was happening at Barcelona for a long time, but he was still shocked when he learned that Rosell had used his position to embezzle up to 40 million euros.

“Does the club president have such great power?”

Barcelona is a membership-based team, and the club president's authority should not be that great.

"Who knows? Most likely, the money was misappropriated under the pretext of a transfer. As for who the money went to, no one knows!"

David Silva shook his head. He was not a player from the La Masia youth training camp and didn't know much about Barcelona's situation.

He heard the news from his friends in Spain. It is reported that when Rosell faced the jury's charges, he denied the charges and refused to disclose the whereabouts of the funds on the grounds of commercial confidentiality.

But outsiders are speculating that the money is likely related to Neymar's transfer this summer.

"Barcelona fans are very angry. They went outside the club to protest and demanded Rosell to step down. It is said that Rosell doesn't even dare to go home now, for fear of being caught by angry fans!"

Lin Quan nodded. This was what he deserved! He came to power by improper means, and then stepped down in disgrace for the same reason. This was a cycle.

The news that Rosell was suspected of committing a duty-related crime obviously had some impact on Barcelona's record. Barcelona, ​​which had remained unbeaten for 14 rounds, was defeated by Athletic Bilbao away from home, and its unbeaten record came to an end.

Since then, there is no unbeaten team in La Liga.

The competition in La Liga is very fierce. After Barcelona lost this game, their points were overtaken by Atletico Madrid.

Their old rival Real Madrid was only 3 points behind them, and the originally advantageous championship situation suddenly became a little confusing.

If Barcelona cannot recover from this negative impact as soon as possible, they are likely to be left behind by the two Madrid giants.

Perhaps knowing this, the local court in Catalonia stepped up its investigation and trial efforts in the Rosell case.

Based on reports from informants, they found evidence that Rosell was suspected of tax evasion, operating competitions by forging certificates, and bribing the president of the Brazilian Football Association and the executive committee of the National Football Federation.

As soon as the news came out, it immediately caused an earthquake in the football world.

The president of the Brazilian Football Association and the executive committee of FIFA resigned one after another and accepted investigations by their own courts.

Rosell himself was forced to resign as Barcelona president and faces a court trial, where he is said to face a minimum of three years in prison.

When this news came out, many people sighed.

The position of Barcelona president, like the president of a certain country, is really a high-level job.

From Nunez to Laporta, and then to Rosell, these Barcelona presidents all had a bad ending.

It is not known whether Bartomeu, who temporarily took over as chairman and executive committee member of Rosell, can escape this curse.

…

Barcelona's unbeaten streak came to an end, which benefited Manchester City instead.

"Haha, if Barcelona loses, we and Bayern will be the only two unbeaten teams left in the top five leagues!"

Navas said with a bit of gloating.

"Hey, in the next game we face West Bromwich Albion. Our opponent is not very strong. We will definitely win this game!"

Negredo seemed very confident and did not take his opponent seriously at all.

"Now it depends on who makes the first mistake between us and Bayern!"

The players are still very concerned about the team's unbeaten record. They really want to defeat Bayern and become the only unbeaten team in the top five leagues.

However, Lin Quan was not very optimistic about this. He vaguely remembered that Guardiola's first season in charge of Bayern seemed to have created the longest unbeaten record in Bayern's history.

He couldn't remember exactly how many games the unbeaten streak was, but it was obviously not short, after all, that was Bayern's historical record.

"The winter break for other leagues is coming soon, but there is no winter break in the Premier League. We must be prepared for a decline in performance!"

During the team training before the game, Pellegrini had a discussion with several assistant coaches.

This is Pellegrini's first time coaching a Premier League team, so he has to be more cautious.

“Is the Premier League winter break so terrible?”

An assistant coach asked curiously.

"Yes, it's scary, players in other leagues get almost a month's rest after more than three months of competition.

Because there is no winter break in the Premier League, the number of matches that players have to participate in in December will increase significantly compared to the previous months due to the increasingly dense schedules of various cup competitions and leagues.

Take us for example, we only have 3 league games in November, but we have 7 league games in December, including 3 games in 6 days around Christmas, and the 17th and 18th rounds are even next to each other, so we have league games for two consecutive days!"

"Hiss, this schedule is too inhumane, right? Why does the Premier League arrange the schedule like this?"

"Commercialization, in order to pursue the greatest commercial interests, they deliberately chose to increase the number of games on Christmas when other leagues were on break, using people's Christmas vacation time to attract fans to watch the games!"

"Haha, by then, whether fans are Premier League fans or not, they can only watch Premier League games if they want to watch the games. What a good plan!"

"But this is not a good thing for the players. The continuous intensive schedule will greatly increase the players' physical consumption and even cause a large number of players to suffer injuries.

Moreover, they cannot go home to spend time with their families during Christmas, but have to play games on the court. This will make the players feel resistant and their performance will decline.”

Pellegrini had obviously done his homework in advance. Although he had not played in the Premier League's devilish winter break schedule, he had some understanding of the difficulties of the Premier League during the Christmas period.

"So what should we do now?"

Seeing that the Premier League winter break is so terrible, the assistant coach asked with some concern.

"We have to make rotations. We have to plan ahead from now on and try to reduce the physical consumption of the main players. In this way, when the Christmas season starts, the main players' condition will not decline too much."

Pellegrini is very thoughtful and he even plans to give the team's players rotating holidays before Christmas.

Give them time to rest early and spend time with their families.

In this way, when the league gets underway during the Christmas period, they will have less resistance.

However, after taking a look at Manchester City's schedule in December, he felt a bit of a headache.

After the game with Swansea, Manchester City still has 8 games to play in December.

Among them, there are 6 league games, one Champions League and one League Cup game.

The Champions League group match against Bayern on December 11 is an away game and involves a battle for the top spot in the group.

On December 14, they will face the challenge of Arsenal, the second place in the league.

Arsenal is Manchester City's direct competitor on the road to the championship. This game is worth six points and Manchester City cannot afford to lose.

Both games are very important for Manchester City and are directly related to their performance in the Champions League and league this season.

Pellegrini didn't dare to give up any of the games easily, so he had to play them anyway.

On December 5, Manchester City will challenge West Bromwich Albion, which is ranked 12th in the league, away.

Because Lin Quan had just returned from Italy, considering his physical condition, Pellegrini did not put him in the starting lineup, but let him sit on the bench.

The busy Christmas schedule is coming soon. Lin Quan is the most important player in Manchester City. His condition must be maintained, otherwise the team is likely to collapse.

In this game, Manchester City arranged Aguero and Negredo to partner up in the frontcourt, playing a 442 diamond formation.

Although Lin Quan did not play, Manchester City's offensive firepower was still terrifying.

At the Hawthorns, Manchester City players were full of fighting spirit and took the lead right from the start, launching a fierce attack on West Bromwich Albion.

Just 9 minutes into the game, Aguero scored the first goal to help Manchester City take the lead.

The Argentine's goal efficiency has greatly improved this season. This goal was his 14th goal in the league, ranking second in the Premier League Golden Boot list, second only to Lin Quan who scored 21 goals.

In the 22nd minute, Yaya Toure scored with a high-quality direct free kick, helping Manchester City expand their lead.

When Lin Quan was not on the field, Yaya Toure was Manchester City's first penalty taker, taking both free kicks and penalties.

Just over 20 minutes into the game, Manchester City took a two-goal lead.

This made the Manchester City fans who traveled with the team sing happily!

The game has entered a familiar rhythm for Manchester City. Who can resist the attack of such a crazy Manchester City? Seeing this result, Pellegrini was relieved. He stood up and applauded the players, asking them to pay attention to controlling the rhythm of the game and reducing physical consumption.

After Manchester City's attack was restrained, neither team had many good opportunities and the score of 2:0 remained until halftime.

In the second half, West Bromwich Albion's performance was still poor.

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They seemed to be stunned by Manchester City's terrifying attack in the opening stage, and their minds were full of the tragic massacres of Tottenham and Norwich by Manchester City.

It is not shameful to lose to Manchester City, but it is shameful to be slaughtered by the opponent at home.

Seeing that the opponent seemed to have lost his fighting spirit, Pellegrini started making substitutions early.

In the 65th minute of the game, Manchester City made a personnel adjustment, Milner came on to replace Aguero, the goal scorer.

However, what he didn't expect was that just after he made this substitution, the situation on the field suddenly changed.

In the 72nd minute, West Bromwich Albion striker Sean's long-range shot caused chaos in Manchester City's penalty area.

In the melee, Manchester City goalkeeper Pantilimon made a low-level mistake. He blocked his teammate's clearance into his own goal, giving the opponent an own goal.

Kolarov was speechless. He had already cleared the ball successfully, but Pantilimon had no idea what he was thinking. He had to stretch his foot to block it! Pantilimon quickly apologized to his teammates, saying that the ball was his responsibility.

However, after scoring an unexpected goal, West Bromwich Albion, which had thought the game was over, suddenly seemed to see hope.

They rekindled their fighting spirit, changed their previous passive situation, and took the initiative to attack Manchester City.

In the 85th minute, Anichebe, who came on as a substitute in the second half, dribbled the ball in from the wing. Manchester City's defender made a mistake in coordination and failed to close the door, allowing the opponent to kill away.

Goalkeeper Pantilimon immediately chose to attack, but was knocked down by the opponent's spike.

In a panic, he subconsciously grabbed the opponent's ankle and knocked him down in the penalty area.

Beep! The referee blew the whistle quickly and trotted over with a serious look on his face.

Pantilimon had realized that he had made a mistake. He quickly got up and tried to explain to the referee, and also tried to pull up Anichebe who was rolling on the ground.

However, the referee simply ignored his explanation, mercilessly took out a red card from his chest pocket, and sent him off the field directly!

"This idiot!"

Seeing Pantilimon being shown a red card, the usually good-tempered Pellegrini couldn't help but swear.

So what if we let the opponent break through and shoot at an empty goal?

The worst that can happen is that we’ll be tied!

Now that the goalkeeper has been sent off, Manchester City not only has to make a passive substitution, but also has one man less, and the situation has suddenly become very disadvantageous.

The referee not only sent off the Manchester City goalkeeper, but also awarded a penalty.

The fans at the Hawthorns Stadium were going crazy. If this penalty had been scored, the score would have been tied!

The team actually came back after falling behind by two goals! ?

Moreover, one of the opponents was sent off. Does this mean that Manchester City’s unbeaten streak will end in their hands?

The situation of the game took a sharp turn for the worse, and Pellegrini could no longer sit still.

He first brought Joe Hart on, then asked Lin Quan to warm up, preparing to bring him on later.

Joe Hart has been sitting on the bench for several games. Seeing that Pantilimon's performance in the team was getting better and better and he was deeply trusted by the head coach, he felt disappointed and thought that his future in Manchester City was completely over.

Unexpectedly, the result was a complete reversal. Pantilimon's two low-level mistakes will definitely greatly affect his impression in the head coach's mind.

Maybe he could use this opportunity to regain his starting position! Thinking of this, Joe Hart was so excited that he went on the court happily!

Compared to Joe Hart, Lin Quan was not so excited.

The team fell behind inexplicably, which gave him a bad feeling.

Although Pantilimon's performance was indeed poor, Manchester City's defense also performed poorly today.

Especially captain Kompany, his performance was completely different from before, as if he suddenly became incapable of defending.

As Manchester City's lucky star, Lin Quan has scored many winning goals this season.

As long as he is on the field, Manchester City can always overcome danger.

So with only two names left to replace, Pellegrini chose Lin Quan without hesitation.

By substituting him, even if the team is one man short, Manchester City still has hope of winning.

Moreover, what if Joe Hart explodes and saves the opponent's penalty?

…

No miracle happened and Joe Hart failed to save the opponent's penalty.

When Lin Quan came on the court, the score was already 2:2.

In fact, the situation is not that bad. Manchester City was just tied, not behind.

However, when Lin Quan came on the court, he clearly felt that something was wrong with his teammates' emotions and state.

Lin Quan didn't think much at first. He took the initiative to reach out for the ball. After receiving the ball, he immediately cooperated with Milner, David Silva and others, trying to reorganize an effective attack.

He had observed on the sidelines just now that after Aguero left the field, Manchester City's attack in the frontcourt became a little chaotic and the threat to West Bromwich Albion was greatly reduced.

This is why the other side dares to come out and fight against them!

Therefore, as long as the team's offense is reorganized and a threat is posed to the opponent's goal in the frontcourt, they will not dare to be so unscrupulous.

However, Lin Quan soon discovered a problem: when he was attacking, his teammates were reluctant to assist him.

They seemed to be afraid of something. Except for Navas and David Silva, no one else dared to participate in the attack.

This situation made Lin Quan frown involuntarily. He could confirm that there was something wrong with his teammates' mentality.

But, what exactly is the problem?

Suddenly, he remembered something. Could it be because of that reason? (End of this chapter)