Chapter 952: Battle of Boxing Day
Before Christmas, Manchester City fans received a long-awaited gift.
That's the renewal.
Manchester City’s official website announced that the team has officially renewed the contract with head coach Guardiola for a period of three years.
Since coaching Manchester City in 2009, Guardiola's coaching style has been fully reflected in Manchester City. Although the performance in the first season was not good, with the joining of Su Dong and the arrival of strong reinforcements, Guardiola's passing and controlling system has been fully demonstrated and has been widely praised by the world. The concept is also very advanced.
There were previous reports that Barcelona intended to invite Guardiola back to replace Mourinho. Although this was denied by Guardiola's agent and brother, it still attracted the attention of Manchester City's management.
After negotiations, the two sides finally reached an agreement. Guardiola successfully renewed his contract with Manchester City with a sky-high annual salary of 15 million pounds, making him the highest-paid head coach in the world. He will also coach Manchester City until 2015.
Manchester City's official website released photos of Guardiola, Soriano and Begiristain signing the contract, and posted a few words from Guardiola. The Spanish head coach expressed his expectations for the prospects of coaching Manchester City.
Guardiola said that here have the best players, a united locker room, and professional management. He believes that it is probably difficult for other teams in the world to reach the level of Manchester City, so he is very happy to stay in Manchester City and continue to lead the team to success.
Manchester City's head coach said that he does not think Manchester City is sure to win the Premier League. He said that the team's challenges in the second half are still huge, but this is also the most fascinating part of the Premier League. Accepting such a challenge is very motivating. It will constantly encourage the head coach and motivate the players to show better performance and condition.
Finally, Guardiola thanked the management and coaching staff, and also specifically mentioned Su Dong, expressing his gratitude to Su Dong, especially after Su Dong joined the team. He said that he had received strong support and help from Su Dong.
"He played a vital role in our management of the dressing room. In a way, he was the manager of the Manchester City dressing room, and his support for me was very touching."
It's just a simple sentence, but it reveals the relationship between Guardiola and Su Dong.
The two can be said to have achieved each other's success and jointly created Manchester City's peak performance in the past two seasons.
…
Coincidentally, the day after the official announcement of Guardiola's contract renewal, Manchester City officially announced that it had reached a contract renewal agreement with Su Dong, indicating that Su Dong would continue to stay in Manchester City until his retirement.
"We hope he can play until he is 40 years old, or even older. With his current physical condition and self-discipline, we believe he can do it. He will become a monument and benchmark in the history of Manchester City and even English football."
General Manager Soriano spoke highly of Su Dong's contract renewal. He also said that with Su Dong's promotion, Manchester City's global expansion has made considerable progress. He firmly believes that Manchester City will soon become the most influential sports brand in the world.
Su Dong also accepted an interview with Manchester City's official website and expressed his gratitude for the contract renewal. He said that he was very happy in Manchester City. From the management to the coaching staff to the players, and finally to the fans, everyone made him feel very comfortable. He had no reason not to stay in Manchester City.
Like Guardiola, Su Dong also reminded the team that they must not be blindly arrogant.
“We Chinese have a saying: A journey of a hundred miles begins with a single step.”
"It means that if you want to walk a hundred miles, you're only halfway there after you've walked ninety kilometers. The last ten kilometers are the most important and also the most difficult."
Su Dong called on all Manchester City players to guard against arrogance and impatience. "Before we get the championship trophy, we must maintain a sense of crisis and must not be careless, because our competitors are chasing us closely behind us."
Regarding his contract renewal with Manchester City, Su Dong said that it is hard to say whether it is a lifetime contract for the time being. He hopes that he can make more contributions to Manchester City, but if one day in the future Manchester City does not need him and feels that both parties are no longer suitable, then he will choose to leave decently instead of staying in the team.
As for whether he will retire or join another team at that time, he can't say for now.
"Who can say for sure what will happen in the future?"
But one thing is certain, that is, Manchester City will be the team where Su Dong will play for the longest time in his career.
Of course, the conditions offered by Manchester City are also the most favorable.
Although it has not been disclosed to the public how much Su Dong's annual salary for the contract extension and how much the signing fee is, the outside media are still speculating that after Su Dong renews his contract with Manchester City, his annual salary will increase by 50% on the original basis, and this is after tax.
It can be said that Manchester City spent a lot of money to keep Su Dong.
But this is understandable, because Su Dong is now Manchester City’s core competitiveness.
Although Dzeko and Aguero scored goals when Su Dong was there, especially Aguero, who scored quite a few goals, what happened in reality? When Su Dong was gone and the team ran into trouble, Dzeko and Aguero both raised their hands and surrendered, and in the end it was still up to Su Dong to solve the battle.
Regarding this point, whether it is Manchester City fans, the outside media, or even the Manchester City locker room, everyone has already reached a conclusion on this, so they all tacitly agree that Su Dong should get the highest annual salary in the team, even an astonishingly high one.
His strength is there for everyone to see, how can you refuse to accept it?
…
Regarding Manchester City's contract renewal with Sudon and Guardiola, the reactions from the players in the locker room, the media outside, and the fans were all very positive and enthusiastic.
The Mirror stated that after Manchester City completed the contract renewal of two core soul figures, the Premier League championship was basically in their hands.
British media said that the importance of Sudon and Guardiola to Manchester City is self-evident, and Manchester City's progress in the past two seasons is also obvious to all. Today's Manchester City is already a very competitive team in Europe. Renewing the contracts of Sudon and Guardiola can help the team stabilize morale and better meet the challenges of the second half.
The Manchester Evening News interviewed Manchester City's technical director Begiristain, who said that after the successful renewal of contracts with Sudon and Guardiola, Manchester City's work is just the beginning. The team will go a step further and renew contracts with players who have made great contributions and played an obvious role in the team.
"We are a very young team. We only have two or three players in the first team who are over 30 years old. The oldest player in the starting lineup is 28 years old. This gives us reason to believe that the team still has room for further improvement and we can perform even better."
Begiristain said that Manchester City management will further tap the team's potential, enhance the players' enthusiasm, and most importantly maintain the team's stability, so the scope of this renewal is very large, hoping to retain this group of players in the team.
This is also seen as Manchester City’s grand plan for the next few years.
With Manchester City's current situation and lineup, if they can maintain stability, they will be the most competitive team in European football in the next few years, and may even become the strongest team in European football.
Anyone can see that Manchester City's management is ambitious and wants to use this opportunity to build Manchester City into a top club in the Premier League and even European football, and to lay a solid foundation for Manchester City by achieving solid results.
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The two contract renewals before Christmas were undoubtedly the best Christmas gifts, sparking heated discussions and making Christmas seem a little dull. After all, the team had a day off to let everyone go home and reunite.
But on the morning of the day after Christmas, everyone had to leave their warm and comfortable homes and report to the cold Carrington training base, board the team bus, and head south to West Bromwich, 150 kilometers away.
The town is located northwest of Birmingham, about an hour's drive from Manchester.
The game is held in the afternoon, which is also a big test for Manchester City.
No one wants to leave their family and travel to an away game early in the morning the day after Christmas.
More importantly, everyone was very relaxed and happy after the Christmas holiday, and many people were not even in serious game shape. This resulted in the game on the day after Christmas, especially away games, often becoming a hotbed of upsets and the hardest hit area for all strong teams to fail.
Sure enough, when Manchester City arrived in West Bromwich, they received news from London further south that Chelsea had drawn 1-1 with Fulham at home.
The West London derby ended in a draw, but this was definitely not a good thing for Chelsea.
Villas-Boas's position as coach has been shaken again! After the disastrous defeat to Manchester City at home, Chelsea has drawn three games in a row, and all three games ended in a 1-1 draw. This is obviously not a good sign, especially with the Christmas devil schedule. This kind of consecutive games will not give the team any breathing space, and it is very likely that they will lose again and again.
Manchester City is the second game of this round, and Everton will also be away to Sunderland.
The head coach of West Bromwich Albion is former Liverpool coach Roy Hodgson. This old coach is also an experienced Premier League veteran with excellent coaching ability. After being dismissed from Liverpool, he got the job of coaching West Bromwich Albion within a month, which shows his ability.
Hodgson's familiarity with the Premier League makes him very clear about how to use the home advantage on Boxing Day to hit the away team head-on. Even for a team as strong as Manchester City, the players' minds are not on the game.
After the opening, West Bromwich Albion took the initiative to attack, disrupting Manchester City's idea of controlling the ball and rhythm of the game, making Manchester City's start seem a bit passive. Coupled with the fact that the players were not in good shape, the team started off in a chaotic manner.
After a strong start, Hodgson's team decided to quit. When Manchester City tried to counterattack, they retreated decisively and organized a tight defensive formation, forcing Manchester City to attack while they concentrated on waiting for the opportunity to counterattack.
Hodgson is well aware that it is normal for players to be in poor form in a game like this on Boxing Day. As long as Manchester City makes a mistake, it will be an opportunity for West Bromwich Albion.
Of course, the prerequisite is that the Knickers’ defense must be able to stop Su Dong.
(End of this chapter)
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