Chapter 420: Preparations of the major giants, Arsenal sets new record

Compared with Kante and Navas, Milner, who is about to leave the team, did not visit Lin Quan.

Before the end of the season, he was ready to leave the team.

Like Navas, Milner left the team because he could not get a starting position. He wanted to go to a team where he could start.

Milner is a versatile player in Manchester City. He can play in multiple positions such as winger, midfielder, and full-back. He can be called a versatile player.

Such players are actually very popular with Guardiola, so last season, Milner played a total of 49 games in all competitions, scored 9 goals and provided 8 assists. Not only did he have good statistics, but his attendance rate was also very high.

However, most of the time he played as a substitute, and only one-third of the games were as a starter.

When Guardiola learned that Milner had rejected the contract extension offered by Manchester City and planned to leave the team, he had a sincere and detailed talk with him in an attempt to retain him.

However, after the two chatted for a while, Guardiola's expression became gloomy.

He knew that Milner was determined to leave and he couldn't keep him.

Milner is a very calm and very intelligent player.

He has analyzed Manchester City's lineup and is well aware of the strength of players in each position of the team.

Manchester City currently has fixed starters in various positions, and it is difficult for him to shake these people's positions. Therefore, he can only stay in the team and serve as the best substitute by virtue of his versatile identity.

But this is not what he wants, he wants to be a starter, he wants to play in midfield.

And these are things Manchester City can't give.

So, facing the big contract of 160,000 pounds a week offered by Manchester City, Milner chose to refuse and instead accepted the olive branch from Liverpool! He definitely didn't go to Liverpool for the money.

Because Liverpool is financially stingy, they offered him a weekly salary of only 125,000 pounds, which is almost a quarter less than Manchester City's salary.

For a player like this who has a clear plan for the future, Guardiola can't fool him and can only wish him a good future at Liverpool!

Milner has very comprehensive personal abilities. He runs actively on the court and defends desperately. He is a player with strong work ethic and mental attributes.

More importantly, he is a native of England, which is a huge plus for Premier League teams.

And for Liverpool, it is definitely a big profit for such a player to join their own team at zero transfer fee.

Klopp was very satisfied with the transfer. His first signing since coming to Liverpool went smoothly, which made him full of confidence in his future at Liverpool.

However, Liverpool is still very weak now, and all three lines of the team need to be strengthened.

After signing Milner to strengthen the midfield, Liverpool immediately began looking for suitable forwards and defenders.

Soon, they spent 41 million euros to sign Hoffenheim striker Firmino.

It’s not that Klopp doesn’t want to buy better, it’s just that good strikers are hard to find. He wanted to poach Lewandowski from Bayern, but Bayern Munich asked for a huge transfer fee of 80 million.

This amount of money is not something Liverpool can afford right now, so they can only turn to buying players from small clubs like Hoffenheim.

After buying the striker, Liverpool still needs to strengthen its defense.

In this regard, Klopp has set his sights on Manchester City's young defender Van Dijk.

This guy performed very well in the Premier League and the Champions League last year. Although he is young, he played very steadily and already showed the style of a great general.

Klopp then offered Manchester City 35 million euros in an attempt to lure Van Dijk over.

However, such a price is simply a humiliation to Manchester City. Guardiola rejected Liverpool's offer and labeled Van Dijk as not for sale.

Guardiola has a veto over Manchester City's transfers. If he doesn't plan to sell someone, the other party will not be able to leave.

Even if the players themselves come to cause trouble, it will be useless, and Van Dijk is staying well in Manchester City and has no plans to leave Manchester City.

Even if he wanted to leave, he would definitely go to a higher place. How could he go to Liverpool, which is in decline? Liverpool has not won the Premier League title for 25 years. Such a team has no hope at all. How can it compare with Manchester City, which is in its heyday?

Besides, with Demichelis gradually retreating behind the scenes, Van Dijk has now secured a starting position in Manchester City.

The club is also interested in signing a new contract with him, increasing his weekly salary to 150,000 pounds.

For a 24-year-old young player, this salary is already very high.

So Van Dijk only had gratitude in his heart and had no intention of leaving the team at all.

Klopp couldn't help feeling a little regretful as Liverpool failed to poach players.

So he bought Southampton's right-back Klein from Southampton for 17 million euros.

Klein has good offensive ability and can better implement Klopp's offensive tactics.

He didn't come to Liverpool to play defensive counterattacks. He planned to bring his offensive football tactics at Dortmund to Anfield.

Another 5 million euros were spent to bring in an 18-year-old young defender, Joe Gomez, from Charlton.

This person has good potential. Although he is of no use now, he can be bought as a reserve force and regarded as an investment.

In line with his good habit of thrift and frugality, Klopp spent another 8.3 million euros to buy a young striker from Burnley.

Seeing their team's new coach buying players so carefully, Liverpool's top management couldn't stand it anymore.

So they gave Klopp another sum of money and helped him sign Aston Villa striker Benteke.

This transfer cost Liverpool 46.5 million euros! Klopp is furious!

What does this mean?

With so much money, why didn't he take it out before? If he had 87.5 million euros in his pocket before, he would definitely have offered Lewandowski to Bayern!

As a result, the money has now been divided into two parts and two forwards have been bought!

One of them is not what he wants! In Klopp's view, even if Benteke and Firmino are added together, they are definitely not as good as real strikers like Suarez and Lewandowski.

Even if it has to be split into two, Klopp is not interested in Benteke, but another Southampton player - Mane! However, Liverpool's expenses this summer are not small. All the players added up, a total of 120 million euros were spent.

…

Compared to Liverpool, the other team in the Red Devils derby has bought players more frequently in the transfer market this summer.

Manchester United not only bought Pogba this summer, but also spent 60 million to buy Martial from Monaco and 35 million to buy Depay from Eindhoven.

In addition, Schneiderlin for 35 million euros and Damian for 18 million euros also joined the Red Devils this summer.

All in all, Manchester United's total spending on buying players this summer is as high as 260 million euros. Even if the money received from the sold players is deducted, the net investment is as high as 150 million euros.

Since Ferguson retired, Manchester United has been waving checks and shopping in the transfer market almost every year during the transfer period.

Fortunately, this is Manchester United, with a strong financial foundation. If it were any other team, they would have probably squandered all their wealth due to such extravagance.

After years of spending huge amounts of money on signings in the transfer market, if the team's performance doesn't improve, it would be a shame to the fans and the club.

Therefore, even after leaving Chelsea, the pressure on Mourinho's shoulders did not decrease at all, but felt even greater.

"Manchester United's mess is not easy to clean up!"

Looking at the list of players in his hand, Mourinho couldn't help rubbing his forehead.

Although a lot of money was spent, it is quite difficult to beat Manchester City next door with such a lineup.

Moreover, Manchester United is different from Chelsea. There is no big grudge between Chelsea and Manchester City.

However, Manchester United and Manchester City are sworn rivals in the same city, and the derby between the two teams is a must-win for both teams and cannot be lost.

Read the error-free version on 6Ⅹ9Ⅹ bookⅩ bar! 6Ⅹ9 book bar first publishes a novel.

Mourinho is worried that if he leads Manchester United to lose to Manchester City in the Manchester derby, the saliva of the Red Devils fans all over the world might drown him.

Manchester United at this time was not the dilapidated Manchester United that it would be ten years later. During the Ferguson era, Manchester United had accumulated countless fans all over the world.

The Red Devils' global influence at this time was far beyond what the Manchester United that later experienced a decade of chaos could achieve.

Although Manchester United's performance has declined in recent years and it has lost some championship fans, the popularity it accumulated before has not been lost. Manchester United fans all over the world have not completely given up and still have expectations for the team.

If he fails to meet the fans' expectations, he will inevitably be criticized.

But how can we meet the fans' expectations?

Beat Manchester City directly?

Win the league?

Or, do you want him to lead Manchester United to win the Champions League again?

These three goals are more difficult than each other, especially with Manchester City around, even the first one is difficult to achieve.

Mourinho summed up the experience of Chelsea's collapse last season and knew that if he wanted to win the league title, the two direct confrontations with Manchester City would be crucial.

Even if we can't beat Manchester City, we can't lose to them.

Last season, Chelsea was defeated twice by Manchester City, which led to them being tied by the opponent at the end of the season, which caused the team to collapse and fall at the last moment.

If Chelsea had lost one less game to Manchester City last year, the final result would have been completely different.

Manchester City's home ground is difficult to play. The Etihad Stadium is a notoriously devilish home ground. Mourinho has no expectations of defeating Manchester City here.

If Manchester United go to the Etihad Stadium as a guest, he will choose a conservative tactic and try not to lose.

As for the home court, we must strengthen our defense and never let Manchester City win.

I just don’t know if I would be booed by my own fans if I parked the bus at Old Trafford?

…

While other Premier League giants have started their shopping spree and are making big purchases in the transfer market, Arsenal fans can only drool in envy.

This summer, Wenger was very patient. He did not buy anyone and seemed to be planning to save the money and put it in the bank to earn interest.

When asked by reporters why he didn't buy any players, Wenger said that the best players were already in his squad.

Wenger actually has his eyes on Cavani from Paris Saint-Germain, Benzema from Real Madrid, and Lin Quan from Manchester City.

Arsenal lacks a striker, a good striker who can lead the team to capture the city.

Everyone knows this! Since the failed attempt to sign Suarez last year, Wenger has looked for many strikers for Arsenal, but these people, for one reason or another, ultimately failed to join the team.

Seeing Suarez's performance after he went to Barcelona last season, it was like he had turned on a cheat.

Wenger regretted it so much! If he had known earlier, he would not have been so obsessed with the figure of 40 million pounds. If he had compromised and given Liverpool an extra 5 million pounds instead of one pound, the result might have been completely different.

With Suarez's strength, if he joins the Gunners, the Gunners' forward line will be completely transformed and greatly strengthened.

The Gunners' midfield is not weak now, but their forward line is indeed not good enough.

That's why Wenger is so eager to buy an excellent striker, preferably a famous striker who has proven himself in a top team.

There are actually quite a few such people, including Cavani, Suarez, Lewandowski, Benzema, Higuain and so on.

However, these people are all very valuable, with a starting price of 70 to 80 million euros, which is too expensive for Arsenal, who are very careful with their spending and want to spend every penny wisely.

It was precisely because Arsenal did not want to spend a lot of money on signings that they missed out on Higuain and Suarez, and could only watch them join other teams.

The professor was actually very conflicted in his heart. He was used to being thrifty and not used to spending money lavishly.

But on the other hand, he also knows that at his current age, he may not be able to stay at Arsenal for too long.

Therefore, he hopes to lead the team to win another championship before retiring, and not a championship like the FA Cup and League Cup, but a Premier League championship or even the Champions League!

However, if Arsenal did not have a strong lineup, there would be no chance for them to win these two titles.

Therefore, Wenger was in a dilemma: should he spend money prudently as he had done before? Or should he go crazy and spend all his savings to buy a super striker? He found out that Paris Saint-Germain offered Cavani 75 million euros.

Real Madrid offered Benzema 90 million, while Bayern offered Lewandowski 85 million.

These three forwards are all very strong, and any one of them can lead Arsenal.

But their prices are too expensive. Arsenal's transfer record in history is only 50 million euros. If these players are bought, it will greatly refresh the Gunners' transfer record.

If these players have trouble acclimatizing in the Premier League, just like Di Maria did at Manchester United, Arsenal will probably lose all their money!

Wenger's cautious nature made him hesitant and he never made a decision.

The transfer period passed little by little, until the end, Arsenal still hadn't signed anyone.

(End of this chapter)