Chapter 255 The New Era's Little White Face
Manchester is a unitary administrative area in the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in the northwest of England. It is the third largest city in the UK. It is known as the 'Capital of the North' and is united with towns such as Trafford, Tameside, Salford and Stockport to form the Manchester region.
This city has two teams competing in the Premier League, the famous Manchester United and the less famous Manchester City. Although the number of Manchester United fans is several times that of Manchester City worldwide, it is completely the opposite in Manchester. Manchester City has many more local fans than Manchester United.
Most local Manchester fans believe that only Manchester City is the team that can truly represent the city of Manchester, because Manchester City represents Manchester in terms of players, stadiums and historical origins, while Manchester United is just a joint team.
Yes, it's just the United team. Apart from the fact that the team is located in Manchester, Manchester United has almost nothing to do with this city.
Therefore, fans cannot find any sense of belonging to Manchester United at all.
However, compared to the famous Manchester United team, Manchester City, which was promoted to the Premier League in 2002, does not have a very outstanding lineup and its performance in the Premier League is mediocre.
Perhaps, the only big-name player in the entire team is striker Nicolas Anelka. This French star became famous at a young age. As early as when he was 16 years old, he had already played in Ligue 1 for Paris Saint-Germain. However, the French team was full of talented players at that time, and he was unable to participate in the World Cup of the 1998 golden generation. In 1999, Anelka finally got his wish and joined the French national team with his outstanding performance in Arsenal.
However, even so, Chelsea still has to pay attention to Manchester City, just because Manchester City's performance last season is definitely worrying. Even at the end of the league, they barely managed to stay in the league under the leadership of head coach Keegan, but in the league, their performance in challenging Manchester United and Chelsea and drawing with Arsenal still made people sweat.
The media's evaluation of Manchester City is "the nemesis of giants"
Yes, Manchester City is just unstable because it has just been promoted to the Premier League, but the foundation and strength of this veteran team are unquestionable.
………
For the English media, this Manchester City vs Chelsea match is not the focus. Even though Manchester City performed very well against the giants last season, they still feel that there is no suspense about the result because Chelsea is too strong.
In the 8th round of the Premier League, the match between Arsenal and Aston Villa is the focus of attention. Since losing to Wolverhampton last season, Arsenal has maintained its strength. Except for losing a game at the beginning of the season, they have won all the games and accumulated 18 points in 7 rounds, ranking second in the league.
With Aston Villa's strength, it is very likely that they will end Arsenal's dominance and change the ranking in the standings, so the English media went to Birmingham to conduct a series of interviews on this game.
But for the media and fans of the ancient Eastern country, this match between Chelsea and Manchester City is the real "focus battle"
Sun Jihai
A representative of Chinese overseas players, Sun Jihai is currently playing for Manchester City. He is also the only Chinese player playing in the Premier League. Last season, Sun Jihai played 33 times for Manchester City and scored one goal. As a versatile player in the front, midfield and backcourt, he is quite popular with head coach Keegan.
Even though Sun Jihai only played two games in the first seven league rounds this season due to a leg injury, Keegan still gave him 30 minutes of playing time after he returned from injury in the sixth round. The Chinese media have every reason to believe that he will still get a chance to play in this Manchester City vs. Chelsea match, and he may even be the starter.
Wang Li, English name Alan Wang
Overseas Chinese, Chelsea's superstar, all media had no objection to his starting in this game. This English star played almost all the games in the first seven rounds and scored 13 goals. His sharp edge is unmatched.
Therefore, this match was hyped by the Chinese media as an "alien Chinese derby", with Chinese overseas Chinese representatives playing against Chinese overseas Chinese stars, which was indeed enough to attract the attention of fans.
As for who will win, the media did not comment.
The Chinese media are not stupid enough to think that Manchester City will win and Sun Jihai will beat Wang Li. Even if everyone is paying attention, maybe, maybe, Sun Jihai will perform exceptionally well, but that will never overshadow the brilliance of the dance master.
What they are concerned about is only how Sun Jihai and Wang Li can perform in the derby. Perhaps this is also a kind of sadness of Chinese fans. Their requirements for Chinese football are too low, too low, but they are still not satisfied.
………
Kevin Keegan is a legend in English football. During his career as a professional player, he was a superstar in England, and his football career at Newcastle United was considered legendary by many media and fans. In 1984, he retired from Newcastle United and became a football coach eight years later.
What is unexpected is that Keegan is also very talented in the football coaching industry. In his more than ten years of coaching career, he has coached the Malaysian national team, Newcastle United, Fulham, the England national team and now Manchester City.
Undoubtedly, Keegan's coaching career has been smooth sailing, but now he has encountered a difficult problem.
Kevin Keegan has been paying attention to Chelsea star Alan Wang for a long time. When Wang Li represented Wolverhampton in the Premier League, Keegan wanted to recruit this outstanding young player to Manchester City, but all the transfer applications issued by the club were rejected.
With Wang Li's outstanding performance in the European Cup, Keegan knew that he would never be able to get this outstanding player again, because among the Premier League teams, Manchester City's competitiveness was pitifully low compared to Manchester United, Liverpool and other giants. But he did not expect that the young player would finally choose the unknown Chelsea team.
Even if the Russian tycoon invests more money, can it match the appeal of a top football team?
But this season, Chelsea's strong performance made Keegan understand everything. With the black-haired boy's ability, he didn't have to worry about which team to join, whether he would get a starting position, etc. Even if he joined the world's most luxurious galactic battleship, with such outstanding performance, would he be afraid of not getting a starting position?
In the past two days, like other teams that will face Chelsea, Keegan has also been conducting special coaching and training on the team's left-wing defense, and he has also watched Wang Li's game videos one after another, but the more he watched, the more disheartened he felt. How can Manchester City defend against this all-around super genius who is good at dribbling, passing, long shots, headers, etc. to limit his performance?
This question has been on Keegan's mind, making him hesitate.
As for completely suppressing his performance? As a coach with outstanding ability, Keegan is not so arrogant. He knows that such an almost all-round player cannot be completely blocked, especially when Manchester City's defense is not very good.
Among Manchester City's main players, Wang Li is matched against left-back Danny Mills and left winger Joey Barton.
Danny Mills was once a member of the England national team. His defensive ability is unquestionable. However, when the team is attacking, he rarely takes the lead because his offensive ability is not strong. This is why Keegan is very confident about the team's left-wing defense.
Joey Barton is just the opposite. As a winger, he is better at attacking, with good dribbling and speed. Often Manchester City's frontcourt support still depends on Barton's breakthrough on the left. In the first 7 rounds of the Premier League, Manchester City had 3 goals scored by Barton from the left. You know, in the first 7 rounds, Manchester City only scored a total of 7 goals, so Barton's offense is also indispensable to Manchester City.
But in the match against Chelsea, Keegan didn't want Barton to play, even if it meant giving up the attack on the left.
No matter how strong Joey Barton's offensive ability is and how stable his performance is, can he catch up with Wang Li? This is simply impossible. If the two of them play at the same time, not to mention Chelsea's strong midfield interception ability, even if they play freely, Manchester City may score one goal, but Chelsea can score 3 or more.
So, although Barton and Mills' attack and defense usually make Manchester City's left side very stable and perform very well, what Keegan wants now is defense. He doesn't believe that these two disciples can cope with the attack of the black-haired boy.
With his mind in a mess, Keegan strolled to the edge of the field, squinting his eyes and glancing at the players who were training on the field. From left to right, his eyes were fixed on the Oriental man who was running hard on the field---
The team's best substitute---Sun.
This player played many games for the team last season. He can be said to be the all-around player of Manchester City. His performance in offense and defense is not outstanding. The reason why he can get so many appearances is mainly because he is a versatile player. Whether it is offense or defense, he can play almost every position on the field. This is also the main reason why Sun Jihai got so many appearances last season---
Yes, Keegan positioned him as the team's best substitute.
However, at this time, Keegan's mind was full of Wang Li's image. When he saw Sun Jihai working hard on the field, he realized that Chelsea's Alan Wang also had half Chinese ancestry, and like Sun, they were from the far east. With this thought, he waved his hand and called Sun Jihai to the sidelines, asking, "Sun, do you know Chelsea's Alan Wang?"
Sun Jihai didn't expect the head coach to ask such a question. He was stunned for a moment before answering, "Yes, sir."
"It is said that he is half Chinese?"
“I heard his father is Chinese.”
Hearing Sun's answer, Keegan held his chin with his left hand and looked at Sun Jihai carefully, then compared it with Wang Li and thought for a long time, and then he seemed to suddenly understand and said: "Oh, I think you two are really alike."
"I am very similar to Allen?" Sun Jihai frowned, thinking that the head coach was praising him. So he immediately said modestly, "Sir, I will work hard."
Keegan looked at the confident young man and nodded. After a long while, he said hesitantly, "Try hard. Maybe I'll consider giving you a chance to start in the next game."
Hearing this, Sun Jihai immediately became excited. In the past few days, many Chinese media had started to follow up on him, and he also learned about the so-called "unusual Chinese Derby" from these reporters.
Now, I don’t know how many fans in my distant homeland are looking forward to this big battle, but if I can’t even play in the game, it would be a shame in front of fans across the country.
Therefore, even if Keegan didn't say anything, he would take the initiative to ask for a starting position, even if it meant offending the Englishman.
Face is extremely important to Chinese people, and many people even risk their lives for it. Although it is not so serious for Sun Jihai, he will definitely ask for a starting position for the sake of face.
Sun Jihai ran to the court, but he didn't hear Keegan's mumbling words behind him---
"They are both all-rounders on the court, but...the gap in their personal abilities is too big."
………
Just as the Manchester City team was gearing up to face Chelsea, there was a relaxed atmosphere on the first team training ground of Chelsea Club.
Recently, the topic of discussion within the Chelsea team has shifted from Bridge to Lampard, and now to Wang Li, simply because the media hype about his relationship with Angela has been too hot in recent days.
"When are you getting married?" This sentence has become a popular phrase in Chelsea Club. Some people even seemed bored and helped Wang Li analyze the assets of Angela's father, Earl Edward - the value of a newspaper and a film company.
Earl Edward is the third in line to the throne of Queen Elizabeth. If he cannot inherit the throne, his property will be completely his private property, and the shares will not be distributed to other members of the royal family. Then of course, these will be inherited by his daughter Angela.
In other words, Wang Li and his wife will inherit.
Also, if Wang Li really marries Angela, as long as he can represent the England team in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, then given Queen Elizabeth's love for Angela, he will definitely be granted a noble title by the royal family.
Then, Wang Li really became an honorary nobleman and naturally entered the upper class of England. This would be very beneficial to his development after retirement. These are by no means something that can be easily obtained through hard work, but what is needed more is opportunity.
These are what Mr. Abu has always dreamed of. He has no idea how many rubles he has spent for this. However, Wang Li can get them easily. It seems that this world is really unfair.
After his teammates' assumptions, reasoning and analysis, Wang Li made a tragic discovery that he seemed to have become a new-age gigolo. Even though he could make a lot of money from football, which was enough for him to spend for several lifetimes, it was still very far away from the upper class. You know, the aristocratic exchange circle that has been passed down for centuries cannot be entered by money alone.
As for the so-called Earl Edward's property, Wang Li would think of his grandfather Mr. Wilbur in this world when he heard this. He always said that he would leave his property to Wang Li. Thinking of this, Wang Li felt that a good identity was really very important. At least he could get a lot of pounds for free.
There is no one who doesn't like the British pound.
However, Wang Li is not interested in these things at all now. All these things are still too far away for him, and he will not think too much about the future.
So when he was annoyed by his teammates and was dizzy, he betrayed his friend and revealed a big news - Bridget's love interest, the famous Portuguese singer Nelly Furtado, would come to London in a few days.
This trick was indeed effective. These bored teammates had blazing fire in their eyes and started to pester Bridget. They all wanted to know what kind of charm this woman had that could make Wayne Bridget, a famous playboy in England, so infatuated that he even turned into a pure boy.
………
P: Yesterday my sister called me a stay-at-home and she dragged me to play basketball. I was so tired that my waist and legs ached and I didn’t get up until 10 o’clock in the morning. So this chapter is updated a little late, sorry for that.