Chapter 831 I’m here to grab the main position!
This is the first time that the Abu Dhabi consortium has held such a grand Christmas dinner since its acquisition of Manchester City.
In fact, this may be the largest Christmas dinner in Manchester City’s history.
Not only were the players, employees and staff of the first team and two youth academy teams invited to attend, but many club legends were also specially invited to attend to celebrate the club's continued top spot in the Premier League before Christmas.
There were also a lot of media gathered outside, and many newspapers arranged personnel to wait outside.
It is obvious that Manchester City has begun to possess the temperament of a big team and has begun to attract attention from the media and fans.
As the captain of the team, Su Dong is responsible for greeting the players. In addition to receiving the players of the first team, he also has to greet the players of the youth team, with the focus on several new players.
Strictly speaking, Thiago and Bellerin are not official players of Manchester City yet. They have to wait until the winter transfer market opens, that is, after January 1st, when both clubs officially submit transfer documents to FIFA and UEFA. Only then can the transfer process be considered completed. Before that, they are still Barcelona players.
But the two clubs have officially signed the contract, and they are actually Manchester City players, so after Begiristain negotiated with Bartomeu and signed the contract, the two players left Barcelona and went directly to Manchester to train with the team.
Su Dong is the captain, and he is responsible for helping the two players integrate into the team.
Bellerin was handed over to Sterling by Sudon, while Thiago went directly into the first team. Sudon handed him over to David Silva because both of them are Spanish.
This dinner was the first time the two appeared in public as Manchester City players, and naturally attracted attention from the outside media.
Su Dong still remembers that when he joined Valencia, the media paid so much attention to him, so this time he took the initiative to block a lot of challenges for Thiago and Bellerin, especially when entering the stadium, some of the challenges from the media reporters were blocked by Su Dong.
This also made the two newly joined players have a better impression of Su Dong.
You know, when Su Dong played for Barcelona, he was the goal that many players in the youth team looked up to.
Although he later fell out with the Barcelona management, Su Dong's status in Barcelona is still extraordinary, and he is still the benchmark that countless players aspire to catch up with.
In addition to the two players transferred from Barcelona, Manchester City also invited some players on loan, as well as De Bruyne and Courtois who played for Genk in Belgium. These two players, like Thiago and the other two, did not complete the formal transfer procedures, but are actually already Manchester City players.
There was nothing wrong with De Bruyne, the most noticeable thing was his hair, but Courtois surprised Su Dong.
In European football, Su Dong is already considered quite tall, but unexpectedly, Courtois is taller than him.
It's just that the Belgian goalkeeper looks thin, a bit like a bamboo pole, which makes Su Dong quite worried. He really wants to grab Begiristain, who is in charge of technical matters, and ask him if he is sure that this is the goalkeeper approved by Guardiola?
You know, it is not a problem for a goalkeeper to be tall, as many goalkeepers are very tall. However, tall goalkeepers are often not agile enough, especially in their footwork, which is what Guardiola values most.
Are you sure Courtois can pass the ball to the players in the backcourt?
Although he had some doubts in his heart, Su Dong still appeared very enthusiastic. After all, the Belgian goalkeeper would become his teammate, and as the captain, he should have a good relationship with each of them.
So, after they arrived in Manchester, Su Dong arranged for the club's driver to pick them up at the hotel for dinner. He also took the two to the area where the first-team was located to meet all the first-team players and introduce their teammates to them one by one.
Joe Hart and Given were both quite cold towards Courtois, and were obviously influenced by the outside world.
"Don't take it too seriously. When you get familiar with them in the future, they will be enthusiastic as well." Su Dong explained with a smile.
Courtois didn't seem to care. "I'm here to grab a starting position, not to make friends."
These words made Su Dong obviously stunned.
Damn, do you need to be so straightforward?
Although the whole world knows that you are here to grab the main position, can't you be more tactful? Su Dong immediately turned his head to look at Toni Kroos and shook his head secretly.
Well, another player who is loved and welcomed by the media!
You know, the media likes these players who speak their mind the most, because once they speak, they say everything, and they usually speak very bluntly, so there will often be explosive remarks.
Just like what Toni Kroos said about Su Dong back then, if the two didn’t have a good relationship, anyone would probably have a falling out.
Toni Kroos generally does not accept media interviews easily, nor does he take the initiative to say anything, but once he opens his mouth, it is often necessary for the club's public relations staff to clean up his mess, and even Su Dong needs to help him clean up in the locker room.
It's not easy to be a straight man these days! ...
The process of a dinner party is actually similar.
Mubarak spoke on behalf of the Abu Dhabi consortium before the dinner, mainly thanking the players for their hard work over the past few months, which enabled Manchester City to make progress in both the Europa League and the Premier League.
Although there is still one round of the Europa League to be played in the middle of the week, Manchester City will qualify as the group leader regardless of the outcome.
The real suspense is between Juventus and Lech Poznan. Among them, the Zebras are the most miserable now. They have to look at the faces of both Manchester City and Lech Poznan. Where is the glory of the European powerhouse they once were?
Mubarak conveyed Mansour's appreciation and greetings, and also promised on behalf of the club management that he hoped the team would continue to work hard and strive to achieve success in both the Europa League and the Premier League. The club will never be stingy and will offer the team huge rewards to reward the players' outstanding performance.
In Manchester City's history, it has never won the Premier League championship, and has only won two English top league championships. The most recent one was almost fifty years ago. If we don't talk about it, it will be forgotten.
As for the European Championship, the only Cup Winners' Cup in the club's history, it is not of high quality and it has been almost half a century since then.
If the club can achieve something in the Premier League and the Europa League this season, it will definitely be a glorious period in the club's history. This will also greatly ease the pressure on the Abu Dhabi consortium, which has acquired Manchester City for two years but has not achieved any improvement and has even been criticized and ridiculed.
Mansour conveyed through Mubarak that the team management is drawing up a new reward system. As long as the team can continue to work hard, maintain the current state, and achieve good results in the Premier League and Europa League, everyone will receive a generous bonus.
There is no more attractive move than bonuses, as can be seen from the enthusiastic response of the players on site.
As a professional player, isn't the purpose of playing football to make money?
Soriano also came up to speak quickly, saying that in addition to the players, coaches and employees will also have corresponding reward systems, which are currently being improved and will be announced in January.
"Everyone, I hope everyone can understand that every effort we make now is creating a new history for this century-old club. Each of you can leave your name in the history of the club!"
Fame and fortune are undoubtedly the most tempting things.
Especially for players who join Manchester City, there are very few who say it is not for money.
For example, Su Dong is not doing it for money, but he also cares about fame.
He is eager to succeed in Manchester City, especially to lead a weak team to rise from the strong position like Maradona did in Naples, and he even wants to do better than Maradona.
Not only does he want to win the league title, he also hopes to lead Manchester City to win the Champions League one day.
Although it is difficult, he is working hard for it.
This requires him to unite everyone in the team and play a good leading role as captain.
…
The atmosphere of the dinner was very good. After all, Manchester City was not stingy in this regard.
As the busy Christmas holiday was approaching, the players were quite restrained. Not to mention drinking, even many of the dishes were served to other guests. The dishes for the players were obviously much lighter.
There is no other way around this. During the league, everyone must exercise restraint.
As the team's top star, Su Dong was initially dragged along by Guardiola, Soriano and Begiristain to entertain guests everywhere and meet many people, which made him very annoyed. Finally, he found an excuse and slipped away.
He is really not used to such social occasions! The same is true for Guardiola.
After seeing Su Dong running away, Spanish Bald Qiang quickly found an excuse to slip away.
The two ran back to the players' area one after the other, looked at each other, and laughed at the same time.
"Honestly, to deal with this kind of situation, I would rather go to the gym and train for a few hours." Su Dong smiled bitterly.
Guardiola nodded hurriedly. "Yes, I also prefer to watch the game video in the coaching room, or study our next opponent, which is more interesting than this occasion."
"So, people like you don't have many friends." Su Dong laughed and "attacked" him.
Guardiola raised his eyebrows, "You don't seem to be much better."
They both laughed again.
In fact, they are not very good at socializing.
Don't think that Su Dong is very good at dealing with the media now. In fact, that is the result of a lot of experience and training. In addition, when he was at Barcelona and Bayern, the club's public relations staff provided special training, which made Su Dong quite experienced.
But faced with such a situation, he was really helpless.
Afterwards, both Su Dong and Guardiola returned to the players, which was where they felt most comfortable.
The players' main topic was the Christmas schedule, especially the first game of the new year, an away game against the Gunners.
A red card four minutes into the first leg, a penalty in the first half stoppage time, and a final 3-3 draw made Arsenal the only Premier League giant that Manchester City has failed to defeat so far this season.
"New grudges plus old grievances, now it's a good time to settle with Arsenal!" Su Dong encouraged his teammates proudly.
(End of this chapter)
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