——Last night, the little queen Taylor coiled around Gu Ran like a snake, but Gu Ran withstood the test and endured it.
Of course, this is definitely not because Gu Ran is tired of playing. He will never get tired of carrying 240 million. This is really just because Gu Ran is professional enough. Even if he has plenty of energy and a strong physique, Gu Ran will never do anything rash before the game.
After finishing the customized breakfast in the morning, there was still some time before departure, so Gu Ran warmed up and practiced for a while on the training ground.
At 9:30 in the morning, all the Southampton players arrived. Lallana, who had just returned from injury, even went to the bus early to save a seat for Gu Ran.
The Southampton club bus carrying the players slowly drove out of Staplewood and headed for Brighton & Hove Albion, 110 kilometers away.
As of today, Gu Ran has not allocated talent points for two consecutive games.
During this period of time, Gu Ran got 12 talent point bubbles for free from the little queen Taylor, and also got a lot of white training bubbles for free during normal training. These white training bubbles were automatically exchanged for 4 special talent point bubbles.
Gu Ran has accumulated a total of 16 talent points.
It’s so cool to have this magical tool, little queen Taylor, here!
Gu Ran felt that he had never been so rich.
It’s a pity that after today’s game, Taylor will leave tomorrow.
So, we must do a good job today! Let Taylor have a good time! Of course, Gu Ran is a serious person, and the good job and good time here refer to the game...
The previous two games were against weak teams. Today's game is the second knockout round of the Southern Division of the British Championship, playing away against the Seagulls, so Gu Ran is not taking it lightly and is preparing to improve his weaknesses in a targeted manner before the game.
In addition, Gu Ran had also acquired a lot of practical skills for free during previous competitions and training.
Step turn increased from +4 to +5.
Close defense increased from +5 to a cap of +6.
Chase back and steal increased from +3 to +5.
Quick pass increased from +3 to +4.
Cycling increased from +3 to +4.
Juggling ability increased from +4 to a cap of +6.
First touch increased from +3 to +4.
These improvements in football skills have also allowed Gu Ran to grow to a new level.
If they continue to grow like this, they will be confident enough to play in the Championship and Europa League next season after this season.
Brighton & Hove is not far from Southampton. Both cities are in southern England and are only a little over an hour's drive away.
To be honest, except for Gu Ran himself who took this knockout match very seriously, the other players of the Southampton team were all laughing and didn't take the Brighton team seriously at all.
Even the usually "magical" head coach Adkins did not take Brighton too seriously in the pre-match tactical analysis class.
This is understandable.
Who would have thought that Brighton, a club with a very weak presence and whose ancestors had never been rich, would become a hot star in the Premier League in the next few years?
The city of Brighton is very small, with an area of only 87.54 square kilometers and a total population of only 300,000. Not to mention football, there is not much favorable soil for the development of other sports.
As a southern city, Southampton has various halos. It is not only the earliest international and intercontinental port, but also the earliest industrial port. It has quite developed fishery and shipbuilding industries, a large population, especially a large industrial population. Football started early and its ancestors were also wealthy. It has won the English Premier League championship once, three runner-ups, six Southern League championships, one FA Cup championship, three FA Cup runner-ups, one League Cup runner-up, and one British Championship championship.
Brighton has only been runner-up in the FA Cup once in its history - that time was in the 82/83 season when it competed with Manchester United for the championship. The game ended in a 2:2 draw, but according to the rules at the time, a draw had to be replayed on another day. As a result, Brighton lost 0:4 to Manchester United at home and only got runner-up.
This was the most glorious moment in Brighton's history.
Historically, Southampton is an aristocratic city-state of the York faction, and even the club's logo has a white rose, while Brighton... only has seagulls.
Brighton is poorly developed in economy, humanities and sports. Before the 18th century, it was still a small fishing village.
But the gears of fate began to turn in 1815.
George IV, who was still a prince at the time, built a magnificent palace, the Royal Pavilion, in Brighton for his trysts with his mistress, Maria Fitzherbert.
This is also what Brighton people are most proud of.
Brighton is also known as the best classical city for trysts.
The city has a very beautiful coastline, perfect natural scenery protection, no industrial pollution and not too many people, so the tourism industry has always been very good.
Many world celebrities have flocked to Brighton to buy properties and experience aristocratic debauchery, such as Li Moujie and Fan Moubing from China, and Wang in Leather Pants who never makes the headlines.
The pace of life in Brighton is very slow. When the locals have nothing to do, they like to go fishing and look at bikinis. They are not very keen on football.
Since Brighton Club won the FA Cup runner-up, it began to decline. After the FA Cup, they were relegated from the then top English League One and have not appeared in the top league for the next 34 years.
But these are actually not a big deal.
What really torments Brighton Football Club is that... they don't have their own stadium, and their die-hard Seagulls can only wander around with them.
In fact, Brighton did not have no stadium of its own from the beginning. When the club was founded in 1901, one of the senior directors was the owner of the Goldstone Stadium. The stadium was used for 90 years until the senior director died. His son, grandson, and great-grandson did not like football and only liked fishing, so the great-grandson sold the Goldstone Stadium to a local real estate developer for 400,000 pounds.
The real estate developer plans to demolish Jinshi Farm and build a beautiful shopping mall.
After learning the news, Brighton fans angrily rushed into the stadium to protest during a match. Finally, under pressure, the real estate developer had to tearfully rent the stadium back to Brighton Club for £480,000.
Brighton felt that they were being played around by the right and left hands, so after less than a year on loan, Brighton moved to Kent, 100 kilometers away from home, and shared the Priestfield Stadium with Gillingham.
During that period, there was no difference between Brighton playing at home and playing away, and a lot of Seagulls fans left.
At the worst time, there were less than 500 Seagulls fans coming to watch Brighton's "home" games.
It wasn't until the team's ticket revenue couldn't even pay for the cheapest office cleaner that Brighton Club was forced to move back home.
With limited funds and no achievements to attract sponsors, Brighton chose to rent the local Westham Stadium as its home ground.
Strictly speaking, Westdam Stadium is not a football field, but an athletics field with a running track. It is a fully open-air structure, and the artificial turf on the field is also very poor.
Moreover, the Westdam Stadium only has 7,500 seats, and even after the expansion, it only reached 9,000 seats.
Only the main stand of the Westdam Stadium is fixed, while the other three stands are made of iron frames.
What’s even worse is that this stadium doesn’t even have a changing room, and the only way to change clothes and rest is on the club’s own bus.
It is really as simple as it can be, and as difficult as it can be.
However, the local fans of Brighton are very happy because they can finally watch the "Seagulls" play football at their doorstep.
Brighton Club couldn't even afford to hire cleaners to clean the field after the game. For a while, the club's staff acted as cleaners, picking up garbage on the ground after the game.
Brighton stayed at the Westden Stadium for 10 years, and finally, they waited for their true love - super gambler Tony Bloom.
Tony Bloom bought 75% of the club's shares in 2009 and has since become the Seagulls' decision-maker.
In 2010, the "American Express Community Stadium", commonly known as the Falma Stadium, was launched and completed in May 2011. At the start of the new season in 11/12, Brighton moved into its own new stadium, ending more than 20 years of wandering.
A small club like Brighton has persisted and held on until the end of the tunnel. No matter how bad their performance was during this period, they never gave up or disbanded. This tenacious spirit of survival is truly remarkable.
Therefore, when this club, which had never been rich in its history, met their Mr. Right, it was already in the process of transformation.
The 2010 season was the first season of Brighton's transformation.
Last season they were still in the relegation stage in League One, but this season they have beaten strong teams in League One and are now behind Southampton.
The real awesomeness of Brighton lies in the fact that they do not believe in any big-name stars or famous coaches. They completely rely on the intelligent gambling algorithm owned by big boss Tony Bloom to select the Mavericks.
The players they bought were all very cheap, but they all had great potential.
Therefore, today's knockout match of the British Championship is destined to be a tough battle.
However, the Southampton players were unable to understand this, and most of them were still in a relaxed state of mind, which really made Gu Ran a little worried.
After more than an hour's drive, Southampton's bus arrived at Brighton's current loan stadium, the Westham Stadium.
It drizzled today. Although it is still summer, the temperature has dropped to 7 degrees Celsius.
Most of Southampton's players were huddled in the bus to rest.
Gu Ran took Lallana and Chamberlain to warm up together and get used to the venue.
I have to say, the venue is really bad.
This is also the worst stadium Gu Ran has ever played on since entering the professional league.
But Gu Ran still trained seriously in the drizzle.
The field was artificial turf. Although the rain was light, it accumulated on the turf and could not penetrate. It was easy to slip and fall while running, and it was also difficult to control and stop the ball. If we did not adapt to this objective condition early, we would inevitably suffer in the game.
Seeing that Gu Ran and Lallana and Chamberlain were warming up in the rain, the other players reluctantly entered the field to adapt to the training.
But after training for a while, most of the players ran back and waited for their lunch boxes.
…
(End of this chapter)