i want to be king

Chapter 874 The Horn of the Final

The FA Cup final battle between Manchester City and Manchester United began with a hotel competition.

By convention, the venue for the FA Cup final is arranged to be held at Wembley Stadium on the outskirts of London, which is the same as the home game of the England national team, and every time the England national team plays at home, they will stay at a Grove Hotel in the north of Watford, Hertfordshire.

This is a country house hotel, built in [-], next to the famous Grove Golf Park. The hotel not only has a beautiful environment, but also is located in the suburbs, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. It is a rare and good place for vacation.

What's more, the hotel regularly hosts high profile guests with a wealth of experience, especially the football team.

From the England national team to various club teams, they are frequent guests of the Grove Hotel.

Since the Abu Dhabi consortium took over Manchester City, every time the team goes south to play near London, they will choose to stay in this hotel, and so do other teams, including Manchester United.

It is very convenient for training, as well as various physical therapy and spa facilities, which are very complete and very popular with football teams.

The British Guardian revealed that after Manchester City defeated Arsenal, they had already booked the Grove Hotel in advance.

"Manchester City booked through Darren Hart, the sales director of the Grove Hotel. First, they booked [-] rooms. The two parties agreed that after Manchester City looked back and made statistics, they would decide whether to book the entire hotel for their own players, their families and guests invited by the club."

The problem was with sales director Darren Hart, who had timed Manchester City under his own name.

"Two days later, Manchester City received a call from Darren Hart. On the phone, the sales director of the Grove Hotel told Manchester City that Manchester United had already booked the hotel, and the fifty rooms under his name could not be kept."

The Guardian revealed that after Manchester City got the news, general manager Soriano immediately sent someone south to force the Grove Hotel to sign before Manchester United's signing representatives arrived, otherwise they would file a lawsuit.

The reason is that Darren Hart received a deposit from Manchester City, but did not fulfill the corresponding obligations.

Due to Manchester City's tough attitude, Grove Hotel was forced to sign with Manchester City before the Manchester United signing representative arrived.

"Manchester City, rich and powerful, bought the entire hotel at once, let alone a room, even a utility room, and did not leave it to Manchester United. They signed a contract on the spot and paid the remaining payment."

"Manchester United originally thought they had a chance to win. When Shi Shiran came to Watford, they found that the hotel they had snatched was taken away by their opponents. They questioned the person in charge of the hotel on the spot, and the explanation they got was that they had to sign a contract if they booked more than half of the hotel rooms. Everything was subject to the contract."

The Guardian said Manchester United lost the battle for the hotel and were forced to choose a five-star hotel on the outskirts of London.

The distance was about the same, but he was not able to stay in the more familiar Grove Hotel, which made Ferguson extremely angry. He immediately criticized Manchester City in an interview with the media, thinking that the team from the same city used a higher price and used a dishonorable way to force the hotel to change the room reservation.

Ferguson's bombardment quickly triggered the follow-up of the British media.

Manchester City general manager Soriano said in an interview with the media that Manchester City did not use any means, but strictly followed the regulations of the Grove Hotel to book the room, neither paying a higher price nor any coercion.

A spokesman for the Grove Hotel also accepted an interview with the Guardian reporter, saying that the team did not have any violations.

"First of all, we are very grateful for the trust of the two teams, but unfortunately, it is difficult for us to host two top English clubs at the same time, and they both want to stay in our hotel, so we are forced to choose between the two. According to the charter, we finally chose Manchester City, which signed the contract."

Regarding Manchester United's accusation that Manchester City snatched the hotel contract that should have belonged to Manchester United at a high price, a spokesman for the Grove Hotel said that this is not true because the hotel has not signed any form of contract with Manchester United.

The hotel spokesperson also revealed that after Ferguson was interviewed by the media, the hotel immediately contacted Ferguson through the staff of Manchester United and explained the matter, which was also understood by Ferguson and Manchester United. The two parties will continue to cooperate in the future.

Future cooperation is a matter for the future, but before the FA Cup final, Manchester United will definitely not be able to stay at the Grove Hotel.

And the battle for the hotel before the final also made the two sides tense.

The horn of the final has sounded!
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Manchester City traveled south from Manchester to Hertfordshire the day before the game and stayed at the Grove Hotel.

At this time, the guests invited by the team, the families of the players and staff members had already arrived at the hotel.

At this point, Manchester City is still very generous.

In the last round of the league, neither Manchester City nor Manchester United did their best. Manchester City played from the bench and finally defeated Bolton [-]-[-] with goals from Dzeko and David Luiz.

The same is basically true of Manchester United, beating their opponents [-]-[-] at home.

After Manchester City won the championship one round earlier, it is impossible for the Manchester duo to try their best in the final round.

……

The Grove Hotel is all built in British style. They are all country villas, divided into several buildings, and the floors are not high.

Manchester City, based on the characteristics of the Grove Hotel, separates players from staff, family members and guests, and arranges them to live in different buildings. Although they are not isolated from each other, everyone remains conscious.

Everyone also knows that the day before the final, players still need to rest early.

Su Dong's family members came quite a lot. Except for Wang Chuqing who rushed over from Oxford, his parents, Wang Qingquan and his wife also came to feel London, and checked into the Grove Hotel in advance.

They will both stay in England until after the Europa League final.

Guardiola prefers humanized management, so on the night before the final, he gave each player time to visit.

Su Dong went to meet Wang Chuqing and her parents.

I was happy to reunite after a long absence, but in fact, the conversations were all old-fashioned, nothing more than how I prepared, whether I was confident, how my state was, and how to cheer tomorrow and so on.

Sometimes Su Dong felt that since he was a child, his parents seemed to only talk about these things.

Of course, this is not disgust, but a feeling of kindness.

Before every exam, my parents would say that, and then I played football, and they would say that before every game, and then I went abroad, and they still said that.

If one day, he suddenly couldn't hear it, he must be very uncomfortable.

"Don't worry, I've made all the arrangements. After the game tomorrow night, there will be a special car to pick you up. Just follow our team's bus and the fans' cars and head north all the way to celebrate your return to Manchester!"

When Su Dong said this, he was full of confidence.

Both Su Wenji and his wife were also very proud and kept nodding.

Today's Sudong is not only their pride, but also the pride of their hometown and motherland.

After chatting with his parents and Wang Qingquan and his wife for a while, Su Dong took the time to go back.

Before leaving, he specially told Wang Chuqing that during this period of time, he had to take good care of the four elders, and he was responsible for all the eating, drinking and having fun, and it must be the best.

"I know, I know!" Wang Chuqing coquettishly pushed him out.

The Su Wenji couple and Wang Qingquan couple in the room would smile heartily.

These two young people dared to love each other so well that there was nothing to say, and Su Dong loved Wang Chuqing so much, the fly in the ointment was that he didn't have a child.

Men are talented and women are beautiful, and the children born must be beautiful.

……

The building where the players live is just a few steps away from the building where the family lives.

When Su Dong returned to the room, Torrent came to him and said that Guardiola was waiting for him.

When I came to Guardiola's room, I found that Soriano, Begiristan and Estiat were also present.

After saying hello one by one, Su Dong could clearly feel the strange atmosphere of the scene as soon as he sat down.

After Su Dong's gaze swept over everyone, he finally fell on Guardiola.

He saw the Spaniard frowning and sitting on pins and needles. After noticing Su Dong's eyes, Guardio stretched out his hands, wiped his face vigorously, stood up, "I'm going to wash my face and wake up."

Watching Guardiola's back leave, Su Dong understood what the problem was, and immediately nodded with some amusement.

"He has been like this recently, especially at night, he can't sleep at all, and it's the same from yesterday to now, too anxious!" Estiat shook his head helplessly and sighed.

There was no ridicule or even sarcasm in the crowd.

In fact, this situation is very normal.

Many fans don't even know that before an important game, many, many players even need to rely on drugs to fall asleep, otherwise they won't be able to sleep at all, and they will be hyperactive and anxious.

Excitement, that is because the body has adjusted to the best state, how can it not be hyperactive?
Needless to say, anxiety, the importance of the competition determines that all participants cannot avoid anxiety.

Many fans may think, cut, isn't it just an FA Cup?

The gold content of the FA Cup is relative.

In any case, it is also a national championship trophy, only one is released every year, and no number of teams can compete for it.

The biggest difference between the league and the cup is that the league actually doesn't have so much thought, it just plays one game at a time, the battle line is very long, basically there is not much anxiety, at best it is in a strong dialogue.

But cup games, especially finals, are different.

It is a single match.

Players have player anxiety, coaches have coach anxiety, and management has management anxiety.

Good grades have anxiety, and bad grades have anxiety.

Professional football is a huge vanity fair, which involves too many and too complicated interests. It is impossible for everyone in it to be without pressure. If there is pressure, there will naturally be anxiety.

Maybe many people don't realize that, in fact, whether it is a player or a head coach, they are all high-risk occupations.

The higher up the pyramid, the greater the rewards and the greater the risks.

(End of this chapter)