Chapter 554: After losing consecutive games, is Manchester City’s dynasty coming to an end?
It turned out that Manchester City Club was right to announce the news as soon as possible.
After learning that Lin Quan had renewed his contract with the club, De Bruyne readily signed the new contract and completed the contract renewal with Manchester City.
The news that the two men continued their contract made the fans of Manchester City Club breathe a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, after stabilizing the two cornerstones of the team, there is no need to worry about the team falling apart.
However, the gap caused by Kroos's departure must be filled as soon as possible.
For top clubs like Manchester City, the main midfielders they need cannot be weak and cannot be too young, because they are not buying substitutes, but main players with strong combat effectiveness who can play as soon as they arrive.
There are not many players who meet this requirement, and many of them are not for sale by major teams. It is not easy to find suitable replacements in a short time.
But Manchester City was lucky and managed to take advantage of the opportunity.
Dortmund midfielder Gundogan had already negotiated terms with Barcelona and even went to Barcelona to complete a medical examination, but Barcelona was restricted from transferring, which caused the deal to fall through.
Gundogan himself had a strong desire to seek a transfer. After learning that Manchester City was interested in signing him, he accepted Manchester City's invitation almost without hesitation.
Just kidding, Manchester City is the defending champion of the Champions League and is currently the most popular top club in the top five leagues.
Since a large number of main players and head coach left Dortmund, the team's strength has plummeted and it can no longer challenge Bayern's dominance.
What's more, Bumblebee has started to run a black shop business, and his pursuit of honor is not as active as before.
This has led to many aspiring players like Gundogan wanting to change platforms.
That way you can get a higher salary and have more opportunities to pursue honors.
The player's attitude made the deal go very smoothly.
Since Gundogan's contract was almost expired, Dortmund did not ask for an exorbitant price. After some bargaining, the two sides finally reached a deal for 26 million euros.
This transfer did not attract much attention. After all, the transfer amount was too low. Amid the constant news of huge transfers in the football world, this transfer seemed so plain and unpretentious.
Compared to Kroos who left, Gundogan is much less famous.
On the one hand, it is because the platform he is on is not as famous and popular as the team Kroos was on before.
Another point is also related to his past performance. In the past few years, Gundogan has been injured quite a lot and often missed club and national team games. His unstable performance and frequent injuries make people not optimistic about his future.
In contrast, Kroos has had a perfect resume over the past four years. He has won four Champions League trophies in four years and is also the core of the German team's midfield. Such a brilliant record and transcendent status have made him the world's best midfielder in the minds of many fans.
It is no wonder that the news of Kroos' transfer to Real Madrid caused such a sensation in the football world, because his performance in the past few years has been so good.
Compared with Kroos, Gundogan is obviously much inferior. In the eyes of many people, he is almost a level lower than Kroos.
If Manchester City really wants to use Gundogan as the main player, then the overall strength of their midfield will definitely decline.
This has led many people to start criticizing Manchester City and turning to support Real Madrid, believing that Real Madrid will end Manchester City's dominance in the Champions League.
A low price does not necessarily mean that his ability is weak. Gundogan is still very young and has great plasticity. If he meets a head coach who is good at coaching players, his potential may be fully developed.
Manchester City just happens to have such a head coach who is very good at training players! Some people come in and some people leave. After learning that the team bought Stones, substitute defender Rudiger, who did not have many opportunities to play last season, was discouraged and wanted to leave the team and go to a team that could give him a starting position.
After trying to communicate with the player to retain him, Guardiola finally chose to respect the player's choice.
Roma, which had long had ideas about him, immediately took action and made an offer to Manchester City. After some bargaining, the two sides finally reached an agreement on a price of 32 million euros.
Subsequently, Guardiola strengthened the team's full-back position and spent 30 million euros to bring in Real Madrid's backup defender Danilo.
Since Danilo was a product of the black shop Porto, Lin Quan advised Guardiola to consider the deal carefully before the transfer.
But Guardiola didn't seem to listen to his words, or perhaps he couldn't find a more suitable candidate in a short period of time.
So the deal was finally done.
Real Madrid is naturally very happy, even though they spent more money to buy the player from Porto.
But this guy can't play at all in the team and has many shortcomings. Staying in the team will only waste his place and salary.
Selling him will not only make money, but also reduce the pressure on the team's salary system and allow Real Madrid to breathe.
Although Kroos is good, he is too expensive. Forcing Real Madrid to take Kroos will cause them to suffer from indigestion.
After completing this deal, Guardiola stopped making any more transfers and instead promoted a group of young players from the youth team, intending to give these young players more opportunities in the new season.
Manchester City's youth training camp is now full of talents. Sancho, Foden, Haaland and others have shined in the youth league, letting many people know that there are three extraordinary young talents in Manchester City's youth training camp.
If Manchester City had not done a good job of protecting them, these young players would probably have been poached by major clubs.
After the transfer was completed, Manchester City's pre-match training began.
As in the past, Manchester City chose to travel to Asia this time to participate in a series of warm-up matches such as the International Champions Cup.
Many top clubs participate in this kind of competition, the quality is pretty good and it is suitable for training new players in the team.
Manchester City was lucky as they were grouped together with Bayern, Dortmund and Manchester United, and the first game was against Bayern.
Because there is no limit on the number of substitutions in this type of game, Guardiola sent out an almost entirely substitute lineup in the first half.
Haaland, Foden, Sancho and others all got the chance to play.
However, among these three, except Haaland, the performances of the other two were not good.
The German team has outstanding physical fitness and strong impact. Sancho and Foden's footwork skills were not fully utilized under the opponent's high-intensity physical confrontation.
On the contrary, Haaland, this guy's footwork skills are not very good, but his physical fitness is really good. He actually found an opportunity through physical confrontation and scored a goal.
However, in the first half, because Bayern used a half-main and half-substitute lineup, Manchester City was beaten badly. At the end of the first half, the score between the two sides was 4:1, and Manchester City conceded four goals.
This result made Foden, Haaland and others very frustrated. They deeply realized the gap in strength between themselves and the main players.
After seeing the expressions of the three little ones, Guardiola looked at Lin Quan, and both of them couldn't help but laugh.
These guys were doing really well in the youth leagues, and they became extremely arrogant, clamoring to play for the first team.
Okay, now I give you a chance, you're being abused, right? Although these guys are all geniuses, it's obviously not time for them to dominate the football world yet, so you should continue leveling up patiently!
Compared with young players born in 2000 such as Foden and Haaland, Mbappe, who was born in 1998, is already 18 years old.
His physical fitness and footwork are better than these three, so in the second half, Guardiola put him in the main lineup, replacing David Silva as left winger.
After Mbappe came on the pitch, he was very active on the wing, frequently using his speed and dribbling to create opportunities on the wing.
Seeing the opponent so active, Lin Quan cooperated well and passed the ball to him frequently, helping Mbappe complete a hat trick in the second half and equalize the score.
However, Bayern took the lead again with a set piece in the final stages of the game and eventually defeated Manchester City 5-4.
The team lost, but Mbappe was very happy.
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After the game, he excitedly sang and danced in the locker room, wishing he could become a dancing king.
In the following games, Guardiola also took good care of these young players and gave them the opportunity to play in almost every game.
In the subsequent games, Foden and others adjusted their mentality and were no longer as arrogant as they were at the beginning, treating all the heroes in the world as grass.
Although they are still at a disadvantage in physical confrontation, after adjusting their mentality, at least they will not be so lost and frustrated. They will also look for opportunities to reduce direct physical confrontation with the opponent and use tacit cooperation to open up the situation.
Although the effect was not very good, their attempt was encouraged by Guardiola.
However, Manchester City still lost the game, and in the second game they lost to Dortmund 2:1.
The last opponent they faced was their city rivals Manchester United. Although it was just a warm-up match, both teams did not want to lose.
As a result, in the last game, both sides played with all their main players and fought a real battle.
In the end, Manchester City defeated Manchester United with a score of 3:1 and ended their Asian trip with a record of 1 win and two losses.
When Manchester City was training in China, some local clubs invited them to play a friendly match with them.
However, Guardiola declined the invitation considering the schedule and the players' physical reserves.
After the team returned to Manchester, they rested for a week as the new season of the Premier League was about to begin.
Manchester City contacted Arsenal and arranged a friendly match.
Arsenal has been quite active in the transfer market this summer.
Perhaps it was because the loan for the Emirates Stadium had been repaid, or perhaps it was because the big boss finally had a change of heart and was willing to spend money.
Arsenal has completed several big deals in the transfer market.
They first bought the talented midfielder Xhaka from Borussia Mönchengladbach for 45 million euros.
They also bought Valencia's main central defender Mustafi from the opponent for 41 million euros.
Then they spent another 20 million to buy La Rugby striker Lucas from La Rugby and also bought Japanese international Takuma Asano from Sanfrecce Hiroshima of the Japanese J League.
Thanks to the Japanese Football Association's strong support for players to study abroad, the transfer only cost 4 million euros.
Including other miscellaneous transfers, Arsenal spent hundreds of millions of euros this summer, which is really a lot of money, at least much more than Manchester City. Manchester City's net transfer expenditure was less than 50 million euros, less than half of Arsenal's.
Having spent so much money, and with the opponent's main midfielder having been poached, Arsenal obviously have some ideas about this warm-up match.
They don't necessarily think they can beat Manchester City, but they want to weigh Manchester City's current weight and see how much its strength has declined.
Although Arsenal has been ranked fourth every year, they still want to win the championship. If Manchester City really fails, Arsenal may not be without a chance.
Arsenal takes this game very seriously, but Manchester City does not.
Guardiola arranged a lineup of half main players and half substitutes. As a result, Aguero was in great form in the first half. He received assists from Lin Quan and Mbappe respectively, and scored twice to help the team lead the opponent 2:0.
Arsenal was a little confused. The opponent's semi-main lineup was still so strong? Is this in the river?
Wenger frowned and thought hard, and decided to change tactics in the second half.
This adjustment soon paid off, as Arsenal equalized the score in the second half thanks to goals from Xhaka, Walcott and others.
Arsenal, with morale boosted, almost kicked around Manchester City's goal in the final stages of the game. Finally, in the 89th minute, they scored a goal in the chaos, setting the score at 3:2.
Although it was just a friendly match, when the referee blew the whistle to end the game, the Arsenal players on the field were still extremely excited. They hugged each other happily to celebrate this hard-earned victory.
It’s not easy, it’s really not easy. They haven’t tasted the taste of defeating Manchester City for a long time.
Manchester City has been so strong in the past few years that Arsenal could not gain any advantage over them and were frequently humiliated by them.
Now that they have finally turned the tables, how can they not be excited and happy? It was just a friendly match, so it shouldn't be that serious, but the problems reflected by Manchester City in this game have attracted great attention from all Premier League teams.
Everyone noticed that Manchester City's strength didn't seem to be as strong as before? They completely lost the initiative in the second half and were suppressed by Arsenal throughout the second half.
This is very strange because the Manchester City they knew before was not like this at all.
Could it be that Kroos's departure really had a huge impact on Manchester City, causing their strength to drop to this level?
If this is true, then everyone will have some ideas about the new Premier League season! (End of this chapter)