Chapter 349 Tragedy of Manchester United
"Chelsea pre-ordered Ronaldinho for 80 million, Allen + Ronaldinho to create the world's best striker combination!!"
"Mr. Abramovich has repeatedly shown his affection for the 'nuclear warhead', and the Ukrainian Shevchenko's days at AC Milan have entered a countdown"
"Mourinho: We need more and better midfielders, Wright is very suitable for my tactics"
"Zahavi claims: Chelsea is ready to offer £6 million a year to sign Rio Ferdinand"
…An expert can tell whether something is good or not with just one look.
In the days leading up to the game between Chelsea and Manchester United, Chelsea's chief executive Peter Kenyon was on the front page of the news, constantly luring the superstars of these top teams with naked pounds.
These were not all smoke screens, and all the clubs knew that Chelsea had the ability to make these transfers, so for a moment, European football clubs were once again trembling with fear, as they were afraid to hear the next day that their star players had some relationship with Chelsea.
Among these transfer rumors, not all of them are pure smokescreens. According to the analysis of some media, the rumors about Ronaldinho and Rio Ferdinand are the most authentic.
As early as 2002, Mr. Abramovich intended to bring Brazilian Ronaldinho from Paris Saint-Germain to CSKA Moscow, but ultimately failed due to Ronaldinho's own wishes. Now that Abramovich has Chelsea, which has achieved great results, he is likely to want Ronaldinho to supplement the team's lineup.
Before the Champions League quarter-finals - Chelsea vs. Barcelona, if the World Footballer of the Year could be brought to Stamford Bridge, it would not only enhance Chelsea's strength, but also be a serious blow to Barcelona. In this way, Barcelona might not be able to fight back in the game.
The transfer rumors about Rio Ferdinand are even more true.
Although Chelsea has many generals in the backcourt: John Terry, Claude Makelele, Ricardo Carvalho, etc., the strength of these players is not much worse than Ferdinand, but now Carvalho and Makelele are both injured, and captain Terry is frequently suspended, which makes Mourinho even promote Smerkin to the left back position. It can be seen that Chelsea is also in a very difficult situation, at least in the back line.
If Ferdinand can come to Stamford Bridge, Chelsea's willingness to offer an annual salary of 6 million is indeed not a blank check.
The Times has a detailed report on this transfer, claiming: "Last year, when Rio was suspended, Chelsea made a tentative offer, but was rejected by Manchester United. Although Chelsea's current defense is very solid, it is said that the Blues still hope to use Ferdinand to further strengthen the lineup. What is more sensitive is that Ferdinand's agent Zahavi has a close relationship with Chelsea owner Abramovich. This time, Chelsea offered an annual salary of 6 million to introduce this England's top defender, which really impressed Rio Ferdinand, who only earned 70,000 a week at Manchester United."
"Manchester United's current CEO Gill has been operating a policy of reducing player salaries and replacing them with a policy that links income to appearances and performance. This has significantly reduced the income of many players. From this perspective, this transfer is still very possible. If the transfer is successful, it is hard to imagine how terrifying the defense line composed of John Terry, Ricardo Carvalho, William Gallas and Rio Ferdinand will be!!"
Amid such sensational reports, Manchester United head coach Sir Alex Ferguson soon panicked. Ferdinand's role in Manchester United's defense is unquestionable. Since his comeback in September last year, Manchester United has only conceded 8 goals in the league in the past 4 months and earned 26 points in the past 10 league games.
In this case, Sir Alex Ferguson directly demanded that the club must: "Fight with teeth and nails to keep this 'best defender in the world'."
Facing the interview with reporters, the old Sir Alex said frankly: "Rio is only 25 years old. The central defender will reach his peak at the age of 29 or 30. He is still 4 years away from that, so he can play for another 10 years. There is no doubt that he is very calm on the court and can infect his teammates with this calmness. Manchester United needs him and we need him."
Many big clubs in Europe are often forced to renew their contracts to keep their star players once they are spotted by Chelsea. This time, Manchester United was no exception. When the terrifying Abramovich extended his tentacles to the main defender Ferdinand, they could only rely on money to "fight" with their opponents.
London's Evening Standard reported: "Since Chelsea has shown strong interest, Manchester United has to consider renewing Rio Ferdinand's contract early and is prepared to keep him at Old Trafford until 2010."
Soon, Manchester United had a bigger response. CEO Gill had made preliminary contact with Rio about the contract extension, and he and Ferdinand's agent Zahavi had drafted a contract extension.
Rio Ferdinand's current weekly salary is 70,000 pounds, which makes him one of the top players in the Premier League. Chelsea has offered Rio a contract with an annual salary of 6 million pounds, so the salary offered by Manchester United should not be significantly less than this figure.
According to the Mirror, Manchester United is prepared to pay 25 million pounds for 5 years. In addition to the increase in basic salary, his various performance rewards will be greatly increased. If Ferdinand successfully renews his contract with the club, he may not only surpass the team record of captain Roy Keane's 84,000 pounds per week, but also have the hope of getting the highest weekly salary of 99,000 pounds (the income tax rate will be completely different if it exceeds 100,000 pounds), tied with Vieira, Campbell and Lampard for the second place in the Premier League (the first place is Wang Li).
This alone shows how huge the impact of Chelsea's big move is.
After Peter Kenyon made his move, the smoke screens of many wealthy clubs targeting Chelsea were immediately dissipated. At least in terms of funds, they did not want to fight with Chelsea's "madman", as they would basically be hurt.
………Of course, all of the above are battles outside the stadium, a battlefield without the smoke of gunpowder. This is also the battle between big-name clubs during the transfer period, and it is an issue that club executives need to consider. For Chelsea, the biggest problem at the moment is the game against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge.
Before this game, Wang Li, who had scored three consecutive goals against Manchester United, immediately became the darling of the media. In the eyes of many media, Wang Li, who has always performed well, was destined to become the protagonist of this game.
In fact, many Manchester United fans now regard Wang Li as their mortal enemy. Since Wang Li joined the Premier League, he has scored more than two goals in almost every game against Manchester United. This has almost become the biggest pain for Manchester United fans.
As a world-class team and the dominant team in the Premier League, Manchester United lost all three games to one player. It has to be said that this is really a shame. No wonder Manchester United fans regard Wang Li as their mortal enemy.
But in fact, Wang Li has now become the mortal enemy of fans of almost all Premier League teams except Chelsea, because he has not only scored more goals than Manchester United, but also scored as many goals as other teams.
When English fans were interviewed and asked which player impressed them the most, more than 90% of them would blurt out: "Of course it's Alan. He scored too many goals. If he keeps performing like this, we won't see any hope of winning at all."
Before the game, Manchester United captain Roy Keane said: "I have played football for more than ten years and have seen many ups and downs. There have been forwards as crazy as Allen before, but the important thing is to maintain this high efficiency. Only by doing this can you be a real shooter. At least so far, Allen has fully met this requirement."
No matter how Wang Li performs next, at least in a few days, Manchester United will have to face this crazy Allen at the "tortured" Stamford Bridge. This is definitely not good news for them. Even Wayne Rooney, who used to be a double star with Wang Li, said with a smile: "I hope he doesn't perform well that day. Our defenders will try hard to suppress his goals, and I want to really compete with him."
From this, we can see that Rooney is still somewhat dissatisfied with Wang Li's current achievements. They were both England stars before, but in just half a year, the gap between them in the hearts of fans has become so big. It is no wonder that Rooney feels indignant.
Although they are very good friends off the court, they are absolute competitors on the court.
Of course, there were also reporters who went directly to interview Wang Li and asked him what he thought about the next game. They had done their homework before coming and were confident that they could dig out some big news from Wang Li's mouth.
"I have promised the fans that I will win three championships. If the League Cup ends here, the pressure on us will be much greater." In an interview, Wang Li spread his hands and said sincerely.
In other words, 'The League Cup is the easiest to win, we have already secured this title, Manchester United just wait to fail.'
This is indeed a bit ruthless, but since talking with the chairman, Wang Li's expectations for honors have become higher. He feels that he still lacks honors in the field of football. Until now, he has only won the honor of the top scorer in the European Cup, which is really miserable. Therefore, Wang Li doesn't care what Manchester United thinks. His mind is full of championship trophies. If he can't beat Manchester United at Stamford Bridge, how can he talk about winning the "Quadruple Crown"! ! ?
As for the mentality of winning the championship, Wang Li does not have a sense of club honor or anything like that. He just simply wants to win the championship to add a strong color to his football career.
Now he can get honors in Chelsea, so he chooses to stay in Chelsea. If he can get honors in AC Milan, he will choose AC Milan. This is not selfish. As a professional player, honor is like a medal of merit. As for the so-called sense of honor, his soul is originally a Chinese, and he is not a pure fan of a certain club. How can such a thing exist! ?
However, this time, facing Wang Li's provocative words, Manchester United fell silent. Except for Louis Saha, who had just returned from injury and vowed to "avenge the previous defeat at Stamford Bridge", there was almost no reaction from others.
Although many Manchester journalists described the situation as the 'calm before the storm', the London media saw it as 'lack of confidence'.
For some neutral media, they are still optimistic about Chelsea. Not to mention the performance gap between the two teams this season, just based on the current lineup, the two teams are almost evenly matched, but Chelsea has a super player Wang Li, which has become a heavyweight weight that overwhelms the scales.
Although some Manchester United players claimed that they wanted to curb Wang Li's performance, they did not reveal any real method on how to deal with such performance, which made many media completely unconvinced.
But even so, the game was still as dazzling as a collision of Mars and the Earth, and for all European football clubs, they certainly hope that Manchester United can end Chelsea's winning streak.
"They are really outstanding. I hope Manchester United can win. If Chelsea really usher in this kind of glory, it will definitely not be a happy thing for most clubs." In an interview, Liverpool coach Benitez talked about his views on this game: "However, I still think Chelsea will win. Regardless of the form of the two teams or any other factors, Chelsea has a certain advantage, but football games are uncertain. Of course, they may fail."
After Benítez, various "professionals" in English football have also expressed their opinions. The 46-year-old dribbling master Stanley Matthews even started predicting the score directly. In an interview with reporters, he claimed that he would go to Stamford Bridge to watch the game and predicted that Manchester United would win 1:0.
However, most media and fans remained silent on Stanley Matthews' statement. They did not believe that two teams with such strong offensive capabilities would only score one goal in 90 minutes. Even though both teams had strong defensive capabilities, Chelsea's offensive capabilities were real. Moreover, Wang Li had scored in every game since this season. If the final score was 1:0, many fans would rather believe that the winner was Chelsea, not Manchester United.
…………Amidst all the controversy, on November 11, before the match with Chelsea, an amateur team arrived at Old Trafford.
This was a knockout match of the FA Cup round of 64. Manchester United's opponent was an amateur team - Exeter. This amateur team relied on a little bit of strength and great luck to reach the round of 64 of the FA Cup this season. This was indeed incredible.
Although the lineup Ferguson arranged for this amateur team is mainly composed of young players, he believes that such a lineup is enough. In comparison, many people in this visiting amateur team are Manchester United fans, but they proved themselves to be the most alternative fans of Manchester United in this game, because since the beginning of the game, Exeter team has launched an offensive battle with the Red Devils at Manchester United's home.
Just 5 minutes into the game, Exeter and Manchester United both had opportunities to threaten the opponent's goal, and the subsequent game was more stalemate. Manchester United did not press the visiting team's attack as expected. There were many dangerous situations in front of their goal, especially Phil Neville's handball in the penalty area, which escaped the referee's death penalty. Recently, Manchester United seems to have become the darling of the referee. In two consecutive games, they relied on the help of the referee to barely keep their last underwear from being stripped by the opponent.
The subsequent game was a great insult to Manchester United. In the 34th minute, Exeter striker Steve Fleck blew open the door for Manchester United. Although the old Sir substituted several main players such as Scholes, Smith and C. Ronaldo in the second half, they could only score a 1:1 in the end, which forced Manchester United to participate in the rematch in embarrassment.
After the game, Exeter striker Steve Fleck, who is actually a bricklayer by profession, said: "In fact, I have been watching Manchester United's games on TV. I am probably half of their fan, but today's game made me feel very disappointed. Before the battle between Manchester United and Chelsea, I have to say that if Manchester United's strength is only this, they will definitely be beaten into a sieve."
This somewhat insulting remark left Ferguson stunned and breathless, but he was helpless.
Drawing with an amateur team at Old Trafford was definitely the most tragic game Manchester United had played in the FA Cup in 20 years.
Afterwards, head coach Ferguson could only apologize to the fans, claiming: "This is Manchester United's worst FA Cup game."
"My brain is spinning with everything that happened today but I need to apologise to the Manchester United fans because of the way the team played today. We played terribly in this game and that's something we never do in our games week in week out."
Finally, the hail and strong winds in northern England during the game became an excuse for Ferguson, who always said he would not make excuses, but such "excuses" were difficult to stand up because the opponents faced the same situation.
Before the big battle with Chelsea, Manchester United suffered such a "humiliating" game, which really made Manchester United fans lose much confidence in the team.
Amid the lively atmosphere of the media bombarding Manchester United and other Premier League teams mocking Manchester United, on the afternoon of January 13, the Manchester United bus still drove into London and drove into the Stamford Bridge stadium.
(To be continued)