Chapter 847 Chelsea's Big Gamble
In the fourth round of the FA Cup, Manchester City will challenge Nottingham Forest away.
This was originally a duel between two teams with completely different levels of strength, but as the world's oldest football club, Nottingham Forest showed a very tenacious side at its home ground.
Although Manchester City controlled the ball and the tempo of the game, they were unable to break through Nottingham Forest's goal. Instead, in the 59th minute, Nottingham Forest scored from a corner kick.
But this goal also completely awakened Manchester City.
Then, Dzeko scored with a header, and then Adam Johnson seized the opportunity to score a goal to reverse the score for Manchester City.
In the end, Manchester City defeated Notts County 2-1 away and advanced to the fifth round.
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Back in Manchester, Manchester City headed straight to Birmingham.
In the 25th round of the Premier League, Manchester City will challenge Birmingham away.
Just four minutes into the game, David Silva made a straight pass in front of the penalty area, and Su Dong made an offside move and had a single shot, scoring the first goal for Manchester City.
But in the 23rd minute, Birmingham took advantage of a free kick in the frontcourt. Former Arsenal player Bentley made a cross, and center forward Zigic headed the ball into the goal, equalizing the score for Birmingham.
Joe Hart once again made a mistake while guarding the goal.
But in the 39th minute, after receiving the pass from his teammate, Su Dong drove straight into the game with the ball, passed three opposing players, and was about to enter the shooting range when he was fouled by the opponent and got a chance for a free kick in the frontcourt.
This time Su Dong took the penalty kick himself. His precise falling leaf ball went around the wall and went straight into the blind corner of the goal, making it two to one!
This score remained until the end of the game.
Manchester City beat Birmingham 2-1 away from home.
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After the game against Birmingham, Manchester City returned to Carrington, Manchester. It was already past ten o'clock in the evening.
But what was surprising was that Soriano and Begiristain were both at the training base to greet the team.
The match against Birmingham isn't an important one, so it shouldn't require such a big fanfare, right?
Soriano and Begiristain first spoke a few words to the players, which were nothing more than affirming their performance on the road, and at the same time encouraging them to continue to grit their teeth in the upcoming league and get through the winter break and the difficult period of fighting on multiple fronts.
After the lessons of last season, Manchester City’s management is basically aware that after Christmas and the winter break, the multi-line battles in February, March and April will also be the most difficult period in the Premier League.
After talking to the players, Soriano and Begiristain invited the coaching staff including Guardiola, Estiate, Torrent, and the three players Sudon, Kompany and Zabaleta to the conference room.
Watching Su Dong and others leave, Pepe and other players looked at each other in confusion.
Something big has happened! Everyone checked and found out!
While they were fighting in Birmingham, Chelsea successfully brought in Torres from Liverpool in the final stage of the transfer market.
The transfer fee was as high as 50 million pounds.
…
"No one expected that such explosive news would suddenly break out in the final stage of the transfer market."
"Chelsea spent 50 million pounds on Torres, and Liverpool immediately signed Andy Carroll from Newcastle for 35 million pounds and Suarez from Ajax for 26.5 million pounds."
"What do you think?"
In the conference room, Begiristain introduced to everyone the latest intelligence the team had just obtained. A lot of the content will not be published in the media until tomorrow morning, or even until the day after tomorrow, but Manchester City management is still quite nervous about this.
It's not easy to be the league leader.
Manchester United is chasing hard and could turn the tables at any time. Arsenal is lukewarm, but Chelsea, which has fallen out of the top four in the league, has started recruiting new players. Torres' joining will undoubtedly greatly enhance Chelsea's competitiveness, especially its offensive firepower.
"What does the technical team's assessment say?" Guardiola asked with concern.
Begiristain shook his head. "We don't have the specific situation of Torres at the moment, so we can't make a judgment. If he can get back to his peak form in the early days of Liverpool, it will undoubtedly be quite amazing, and Chelsea's deal will be very cost-effective, but if he can't do that, we are less optimistic."
"This is a big gamble!" Assistant coach Manel Estiart analyzed. "Chelsea must strive to stay in the top four, and they must also recruit players. After we got the first chance to recruit central defender David Luiz, bringing in a strong scorer is very much in line with Chelsea's requirements."
Everyone nodded, this analysis was reasonable.
Many people know that the huge broadcasting fee sharing of the Premier League has led many teams to focus on domestic leagues and ignore European competitions. Even in thankless competitions like the Europa League, basically no team is willing to play.
The reason is simple, it is really very strenuous and may even be a losing business.
But there is one thing that no Premier League team will ignore, and that is the qualification for the Champions League.
Participating in the Champions League is not just about a league ranking, nor is it just about the Champions League participation prize money, but about having the right to distribute the huge sum of money in the Champions League's English prize pool.
In other words, only teams participating in the Champions League are eligible to obtain this part of the bonus pool.
This is also quite tempting.
The cost-conscious Wenger and his Arsenal have set the best example that the way for Premier League teams to maximize their interests is to finish in the top four in the league and reach the round of 16 in the Champions League.
In other words, reaching the top four in the Premier League and the round of 16 in the Champions League were both fruitful results.
So over the years, Arsenal's strategy has revolved around these two points. As for whether they can achieve better results, that depends on fate.
In the past, the competition for the top four in the Premier League was not so fierce. Even if Arsenal sold their captain every year, they could still make it into the top four. But that is no longer the case. With the rise of teams such as Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur, the competition for the top four in the league has become unprecedentedly fierce. Liverpool's current ranking and Chelsea's fall out of the top four are the best proof of this.
Because of this, Chelsea and Liverpool must get back to the top four at all costs.
Chelsea tried their best to dig Torres. After Liverpool cashed in on Torres at a high price, they turned around and introduced Andy Carroll and Suarez. This is undoubtedly an attempt to further enhance the team's strength.
"Liverpool must have been well prepared, otherwise they wouldn't be so efficient. After selling Torres, they immediately secured Andy Carroll and Suarez. The most likely scenario is..."
When Su Dong said this, he deliberately paused and looked at the people present.
Those who can sit in this conference room are basically smart people. Zabaleta and Kompany are also vice-captains of the team and play a certain management role. At this time, they can immediately understand what Su Dong said.
"Yes, we also suspect that Liverpool was half-hearted or even took the initiative to sell Torres, so they had already reached an agreement with Andy Carroll and Suarez. We speculate that the reason why Liverpool decided to sell Torres is probably because Liverpool felt that Torres could no longer return to his peak."
That makes sense.
"Tottenham Hotspur is still lacking in maturity and is not particularly stable. If Chelsea regroups, they still have a good chance of returning to the top four. Liverpool can only be in the European competition zone at best and it is basically impossible for them to enter the top four." Guardiola has a clear judgment.
After seeing this clearly, the next situation in the Premier League will basically be a competition between Manchester City and Manchester United.
What Manchester City needs to do is still to try its best to ensure its competitiveness, especially after the winter break.
Not long ago, Manchester City’s management gave out bonuses to the team, including a Europa League championship bonus, which is in no way inferior to that of the Premier League. It is not difficult to see that Manchester City’s management is eager for championship honors.
In fact, there is really no money to be made from playing in the Europa League. If high bonuses are offered, the club may even lose money to gain publicity. But there is no way around it. Manchester City has no foundation and really needs a European-level championship to add confidence.
To give the simplest example, Manchester City’s opponent in the Europa League knockout round is Aris from Greece.
The team is based in Kalamaria, a suburb southeast of the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki.
This is a small city.
Not to mention Kalamaria, there are no direct flights even from Thessaloniki and Manchester.
How do I get there?
The straight-line distance from Manchester to Thessaloniki is more than 2,000 kilometers. If you charter a plane, the flight will take more than three hours, not including the time outside the flight. Therefore, the team must arrive in Thessaloniki one day in advance and choose the hotel to stay in.
This is very troublesome.
The club not only has to charter a round-trip flight, but also has to provide hotel accommodation and meals, which will be a huge expense for the club.
Of course, the team can also choose not to charter a plane, but to go from Manchester to Thessaloniki, they either have to fly from London, where there is only one flight a day. If they fly from Manchester to London first and then transfer, it is expected to take nineteen hours.
If you transfer in Istanbul, it will take 24 hours.
This is why many teams are reluctant to play in the Europa League, as they cannot make money and even lose money.
In fact, this is not a problem unique to the Europa League. As far as Su Dong knows, China has a vast territory and the domestic leagues also have such problems.
Manchester City is not short of money and is willing to invest in the Europa League, so the club gave out considerable bonuses, hoping that the players can work harder in the Europa League and strive to achieve something.
As for Aris, according to the Greek media, this team has not been conquered at its home ground for forty years, which can almost be said to be the most solid home ground in Europe.
When Su Dong heard this report from Begiristain, his first reaction was "Oh shit".
This is just like the Chinese football fans making fun of the Chinese national football team for being a strong team in the World Cup, having only lost three games in the World Cup finals over the past few decades. Isn't it the same? The reason why Greece is called the PIIGS and is so poor that it is bankrupt is probably because they don't collect cowhide taxes.
Look at the bragging skills of their domestic media. If they really want to collect the bullshit tax, will Greece still go bankrupt?
(End of this chapter)
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