Chapter 347: Choice (1)

As Chelsea continued to move forward with victory, teams across England could only look up to the rise of this new giant.

Perhaps before, Arsenal, the "eternal runner-up" of the Premier League this season, did not verbally acknowledge Chelsea's strength, but as Arsenal drew 1:1 with Manchester City again, even Arsenal fans had to admit that, at least this season, the league championship was already in Chelsea's pocket.

After the first FA Cup victory, Arsenal manager Wenger admitted in an interview with reporters: "Arsenal can only retain the title if Chelsea, the current leader, declines in form, or at least makes mistakes in many games."

Later, the Frenchman said again: "With only 16 rounds left in the league, Chelsea, who have not lost this season, obviously have too much advantage. Our points gap is almost unreachable. If they have a big slump, we will seize the opportunity and do our best to catch up with them."

"Although Arsenal has got 10 points in the last four league games, which is already a very good result, Chelsea has got all 66 points in 22 league games. This is not comparable at all." Wenger said frankly with a gloomy face.

However, at the end of the interview, Wenger may have felt that his words were a bit cowardly, so he changed his tone and said: "We lost two points today, but we can't give up easily and admit that they are the new champions. The football field is ever-changing. Although Chelsea looks unbeatable now, **doing our best in every game is what the strong do."

This is indeed the case.

Compared with Chelsea's rapid progress, although there are occasional flaws on various fronts, they are not seriously damaged at all. The situation of other teams is much different.

For example, Manchester United and Arsenal have not completely solved the problem of goalkeeping. The huge vacancy left by Schmeichel and Seaman has never been filled. Carroll and Almunia are far behind Cech and Thomas, and are not even as good as the third goalkeeper at Stamford Bridge. In terms of defense, after Campbell, the general of Arsenal, was injured, only the poor Sigan was left. Manchester United's defense has always lacked a good partner for Ferdinand.

Despite the huge gap, what made Wenger and Ferguson extremely jealous was that Chelsea had a superstar, Wang Li, who could turn the tide of the game between the giants. That was a heavyweight.

Perhaps it is not just Arsenal and Manchester United this year. Almost all European giants are jealous of Chelsea for having a player like Wang Li. When AC Milan coach Ancelotti commented on Chelsea's young head coach Mourinho, his words directly revealed his jealousy: "...He is lucky"

As for the performance of other Chelsea players, it was also very unusual. If they played a defensive counterattack, not to mention Wang Li's strength, just the cooperation between the two deadly flying knives Duff and Robben on the wing was enough to make people extremely jealous. The speed and breakthroughs of these two "crazy wingers" always allowed the team to find good opportunities.

The strength of the Blues' bench also frightens their opponents. When Carvalho, Huth, Parker and others were injured, and Jose Mourinho shouted "disaster" in front of reporters, even the neutral media could not stand it. They took up their pens to accuse the Portuguese of exaggerating and asked him to "study" Liverpool's injury list.

That's true. Although Chelsea has serious injuries, it is actually still very good compared to other Premier League teams, especially Liverpool. Liverpool is now almost unable to put together a 16-man roster.

However, although Chelsea has firmly grasped the league title, Manchester United and Arsenal, the previous Premier League champions, still have some advantages.

Arsenal, which is financially strapped for building a new stadium, cannot have 100 million idle funds on the bench like Chelsea, but the team has the most powerful rookie team in the Premier League: the youth team's easy win over Manchester City away in the League Cup impressed the whole of Europe. Cesc, Flamini, Reyes, Clichy, Hoyte and so on, these young players are no longer marginal figures.

However, the biggest problem of young people is instability. Although coach Wenger has always said that "they will be more mature around March", whether these young people will develop as he said, I am afraid we still have to wait and see the actual situation.

Compared with the powerful Chelsea and defending champions Arsenal, Manchester United, which has just regained the third place, has the advantage of rich experience.

Old captain Roy Keane said in an interview with reporters: "We hope that our experience can count. In the past 12 years, we have always been in the championship ranks. After going through this road too many times, you will know how much surprise pressure can bring. As long as we keep winning, no one knows what will happen at the end of the season."

In fact, Manchester United has a record of 7 wins and 1 loss in the last 8 Premier League games, and has already scored 22 points. In the Premier League, the recognized Manchester United law is that the Red Devils usually perform better in the second half than in the first half. In the 200203 season, Arsenal also led Manchester United by 5 points during the Christmas and New Year period, but by the end of the season, Manchester United not only caught up with the gap, but also won the championship with a 5-point advantage: Manchester United won 14 and drew 3 in the last 17 games, grabbing 45 points.

Don't forget the 1995-96 season, when Manchester United miraculously overtook Newcastle after trailing by 12 points, and achieved 13 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss in the last 15 games. Although they are currently 9 points behind Chelsea, as the media said: "If they win the remaining 9th Premier League title." In fact, there have been Premier League comebacks with a bigger points gap than this: On New Year's Day in 1998, Manchester United's lead at the top of the table was 5 points, but at the end of the season, the Gunners, who were 6th behind the Red Devils on New Year's Day, eventually won the championship with a record of 14 wins and 2 draws.

Therefore, if it weren't for Chelsea's strong performance this season, Manchester United would still have hope of competing for the championship.

Of course, there is no but...

In short, although Arsenal and Manchester United performed very well, everything is nothing compared to Chelsea's league situation.

…………

During this vigorous competition, Chelsea, as the overlord of the Premier League and the overlord of the transfer market for two years, was also poached by many teams in the winter transfer. This has nothing to do with the funds and financial situation of the Russian tycoon Abramovich. The main reason is that Chelsea's strong performance has made almost all European giants want to divide up this team that has won all the games in the first half, because Chelsea has posed a great threat to their influence.

Wang Li was of course the first to be affected. Real Madrid, which has always liked the "star-hunting movement", Inter Milan, which has been unsatisfactory every season, and even Barcelona, ​​Chelsea's next opponent in the Champions League, all offered huge prices to buy Wang Li. Among them, AC Milan was the most sincere. They even offered 80 million euros for this. You must know that so far the transfer value of Wayne Rooney, the world's most expensive player, is only 27 million pounds. In the context of the general economic depression, this price can definitely impress many wealthy clubs.

Of course, Abramovich's Chelsea is by no means one of them.

Abramovich, with assets worth tens of billions, would sell Alan Wang? No fans would believe it.

In fact, facing the price offered by AC Milan chairman Berlusconi himself, Abramovich refused it without blinking an eye. For this Russian tycoon, he still wants to spend more money to buy better players. How could he sell his team's star player? Not to mention 80 million euros, even if he was given 200 million euros, he would not sell it.

Do you think a star who scores more than 50 goals in half a season is a cabbage? This is a rare event in a century.

However, Berlusconi's second condition moved Abramovich to help Chelsea enter the G14 League.

This condition is indeed very attractive. If Chelsea cannot enter G14 in 2005, the most exciting year of G14 expansion, then it will be extremely difficult to enter again, and it can be said that it is a distant dream.

What does it mean to be in G14?

This means that in the hearts of many European fans, Chelsea has directly advanced from a "nouveau riche" to a wealthy club, even though they have never won the league championship trophy in 50 years.

This is almost more valuable to Chelsea than a Champions League title.

The Russian was indeed very tempted by this condition, but as a famous Russian oligarch, he could analyze the pros and cons of a matter very clearly and was absolutely decisive. He knew that as long as Wang Li could continue to perform so stably in Chelsea, he would be able to win more championships for Chelsea. As long as this condition was met, what difference would it make whether he entered G14 or not?

Although that organization is indeed very influential, a superstar that only appears once in a century is more important.

Of course, the premise of everything is that Wang Li can have a stable performance, that is to say, stick to his current performance. In fact, even Abramovich himself does not have this confidence, so perhaps in order to balance his own psychology, he must find some confidence from others, so he called the team's head coach Jose Mourinho.

"Jose, come and look at this." When Mourinho walked into Abramovich's room with a puzzled expression on his face, the latter went straight to the point and handed Mourinho a transfer application form.

Mourinho took the application form and looked at it in confusion. His face instantly turned from red to black and he immediately screamed: "What? Boss, you want to sell Allen? Are you crazy?"

After he finished speaking, Mourinho realized that his words seemed a bit rude, but Abramovich seemed to understand his thoughts and did not blame him. Instead, he picked up a cigar, lit it, took a deep puff, and then faced the former's wide eyes, pointed at the application form in his hand and said, "Keep reading."

Seeing Mr. Abramovich's calm expression, Mourinho suppressed his doubts and carefully read the document in his hand.

"G14?"

After a long while, Mourinho took a deep breath and shouted in surprise. Although he had only been the head coach of Chelsea for more than half a year, the Portuguese knew very well that the most important thing for the development of Chelsea Club was to win more championship trophies and strive to enter the G14, and the latter was more important than the former.

Originally, the reason for entering G14 was just because of the news of G14 expansion. There are three places in the whole of Europe, one each in Serie A, Premier League and La Liga. But now, the other two clubs are facing financial crises, which seriously hinders Chelsea's development, making this year's expansion seem to be a distant prospect.

Italy's richest man, Berlusconi, does have this ability. With his influence in Europe, if he tries his best to help, Chelsea may be "specially recruited". In this way, Chelsea's road to becoming a wealthy club can directly jump a level and become a real wealthy club.

This is indeed a huge ** for Chelsea at the moment.

Faced with the chips of 80 million Euros + G14 quota, even the head coach Jose Mourinho was a little hesitant. Now he finally understood why Abramovich called him to discuss Wang Li's transfer.

There is no doubt about Wang Li's strength. As a head coach, Mourinho knows very well that he is truly a super football genius that is rare in a century. But even if he has performed very well this season, and even broke many Premier League and even world goal records in one fell swoop, who knows that this kind of performance is not a kind of brilliance?

At least, he couldn't guarantee it.

It can be said that the idea that Galliani gave to Berlusconi directly hit Chelsea's soft spot and found their most important needs. It was really ruthless.

So, there was another man who couldn't make a decision in Abramovich's office.

…………

At this time, Wang Li was on the training ground of Chelsea's first team, playing a simple football game with his teammates. Three people stood at three corners and could pass the ball at will. Two people kept running in the middle to grab the ball. The person who made a mistake would replace the person who grabbed the ball in the middle.

Simple games like this are just a way for these big-name stars to relax during boring training, but many people enjoy playing them.

However, few people like to play with Wang Li, because Wang Li almost never loses. Even if he stands in the middle to grab the ball, his "shadow-like leg" that is almost like a plug-in for stealing the ball allows him to quickly grab the ball again.

At this time on the court, in the group that Wang Li was in, standing on the triangle were Lampard, Wang Li, and Bridge, and the ones stealing the ball in the middle were Robben and Johnson. As an offensive player, Robben was obviously not very good at stealing the ball, so he was now tired and sweating.

Wang Li once again passed the ball to Lampard with an easy diagonal pass. Robben, who was trying to grab the ball next to him, looked at him with sad eyes and complained: "Alan, you must conserve your strength. You know, we will play against Manchester United in a few days. You should show your strength in the game."

"Hahahaha, Alkin, don't you admit that you are too stupid?" Lampard, who had just received the pass, said sarcastically.

"Otherwise you come and try to grab the ball. If you can grab Alan's ball, I will treat your whole family to a big meal." Robben heard this harsh sound, and he immediately turned around and counterattacked with resentment.

Lampard spread his hands, turned his head to avoid Johnson's grab, kicked the ball to Bridge, and said, "But you are the loser now, don't try to lie to me, wait until you get the ball."

At this time, assistant coach Clark ran towards them. Everyone thought they had to regroup for other training, so Bridge kicked the ball to Robben and ran over.

However, Clark had no intention of gathering. He just walked to Wang Li and said, "Alan, stop training first. The chairman wants to see you."

"See me?" Wang Li was stunned for a moment after hearing what assistant coach Clark said, then he reacted and asked in confusion.

Wang Li was a little surprised. In his impression, the club's chairman, Mr. Abramovich, was more like a marginal figure. He only invested money in the transfer market. In normal times, even if there was anything, he would consult the team's head coach Mourinho and CEO Peter Kenyon. Only after the team achieved a very meaningful victory would this mysterious chairman appear in front of the players.

What surprised Wang Li was that since he joined Chelsea, he had only seen Mr. Abramovich after the game. Normally, he had only seen the chairman's car driving around the club. In other words, except for the one time they met alone at the beginning of the season, they had not met alone for a long time.

"So, what will happen this time?" Wang Li wondered silently.

"Now?"

Clark smiled and said, "Right now, in the office on the top floor. Mr. Mourinho is there too."

"Oh, okay, I'll go right away." Wang Li nodded, turned and walked out of the court.

…………

Watching Wang Li's leaving back, Lampard and his colleagues looked at each other. When they saw assistant coach Clark also walked away, they reacted and continued their football game. However, at this time, the football had already reached Arkin Robben's feet.

The Dutch kid had been fooled for a long time, and now he finally got the ball. He looked very proud: "Haha, it's not over yet, I got the ball"

"No, I sent it to you." Bridget couldn't help but retort.

"But the game isn't over yet. This was your mistake, so..."

"But now there are only four people left. We have to find someone new to continue. Then the game will have to start all over again." 'Upright Man' Lampard chuckled a few times and said.

"Oh no, God."