long live the king

UK, London, Kearney training base.

For European giants, a complete training base is the foundation for the team to continue to achieve good results. After all, compared with limited match days, everyone spends more time in the training base.In a sense, the training base is the home of the players. The more comfortable the home feels, the more laughter the players have in their daily life, and the team's record will be better and better as a result.

Natural tranquility and uninterruptedness are essential elements for all professional team training bases. Chelsea’s previous training ground was close to London Heathrow Airport. As a result, “players’ conversations were often interrupted by the sound of planes taking off and landing”. After Abramovich took charge of the "Blue Army", he spent a lot of money to establish the Colbham training base in Kent, southeast of Greater London. The planned Corbham training base will have 15 football fields and a winter training facility. The luxury of the indoor football field is just in line with Abramovich's appetite.

Compared with the London giants, Liverpool's Melwood base has a long history. It has been 50 years since it was built in the 60s and has witnessed the rise and fall of the "Red Army". The last one among the rich and powerful.As for Manchester United's Carrington base, since its opening in 1995, it has witnessed the era when the "Red Devils" dominated the Premier League.It is worth mentioning that when entering the Carrington training base, you must pass through the Manchester City training base.It is said that during training, players with excellent feet often accidentally kick the ball onto the opponent's field. Sun Jihai once accidentally kicked the ball away during training, and was sent to Manchester United's Carrington by the head coach Keegan. pick the ball.

Don't look at Arsenal's moves in the transfer market, which have always been small and rarely shocking. But when it comes to training bases, the "Gunners" Kearney base can be regarded as the leader among giants.The Kearney training base was completed in 2000 and is built in the lush Hertfordshire. In addition, the Kearney training base is only a 45-minute drive from the Emirates Stadium, the new stadium that Arsenal will open next season.It is currently the best training ground in the UK, with a total of ten standard courts, each of which is equipped with underground drainage facilities and an automated sprinkler system.

Because of the advanced training base at Kearney, the England team has used it as a base for preparing for important games many times. When it comes to the Kearney training base, I would also like to thank Real Madrid—Arsenal coach Wenger bought Real Madrid for Anelka Half of the £2300 million was used to build the Kearney base, and the other half was used to acquire Henry. As a result, Arsenal have been sublimated to greatness.

In the manager's office at Kearney's training ground, Arsene Wenger's face was as bad as his mood. Seventeen rounds of the 20052006-8 season of the Premier League have been played, and Arsenal is now ranked No.[-] in the league. This can really be said to be a hellish situation for the London giants who won the championship undefeated a season ago.

This season, as Arsenal's away game continues to be sluggish, Manchester United and Liverpool's ups and downs, after the 2th round of the league, the defending champion Chelsea has already led No.[-] Manchester United by nine points and Arsenal by [-] points. This will end the suspense of the championship, but at the beginning of the season, there are mid-lower teams like Charlton among the top few in the league, and the newly promoted Wigan once occupied the second place in the standings, which surprised experts. The birth of the new Premier League structure is full of expectations.

However, this means a great shame to Arsenal. Before half of the league, Chelsea, the "rival in the same city" who had been underestimated before, dropped [-] points. Chelsea's points are almost as high as Arsenal's. Twice as much, which makes pride such as Wenger suffer.

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It's very cold in London these days. When people get up in the morning, they will always find a piece of silver - there is no snow, and there is hoarfrost everywhere.London has more rain in winter, which is also a characteristic of the temperate maritime climate.But these days are not bad, basically can see the sun.The sun doesn't always rise high, it's still a little dark at 8:3 in the morning, and the moon is always high after [-]:[-] in the afternoon.By four o'clock, it was almost dark.

The temperature of the air conditioner was too high. Wenger turned off the air conditioner and opened the window to let the cool wind blow in. He shivered and became more refreshed.

Arsenal's recent situation worried him.

There were a few sheets of paper randomly on the desk, with the names of Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham, and Manchester City written on them, with numbers next to the names of these clubs.

Wenger is worrying about the team's weak attack. Now Arsenal is only ranked No.8 in the Premier League. This is directly related to Arsenal's sudden attack weak this season.The statistics on this paper speak for themselves.

领头羊切尔西在十七场比赛中打入了37球；排名No.2的曼联在十七场比赛中打入了31球；排名No.4的托特纳姆热刺也打入了25球；就连排名No.7的曼城队都进了24球。

Among the top four teams, only Liverpool scored 21 goals, one goal less than Arsenal, but Liverpool conceded 11 goals, six less than Arsenal.

Arsenal's defense should be criticized, but, in the end, it is Arsenal's attackers who should be held accountable.While Henry fell into a scoring drought, Arsenal's other attackers failed to stand up.

Seeing that Christmas is coming, halfway through the schedule, Arsenal's shooters seem to be still hibernating, and Wenger is also anxious. He decided to introduce a shooter in the winter transfer market, and the most direct request is "come and fight".

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The door was pushed open and in came Arsenal's assistant coach Patrice.When Arsenal's game situation is unfavorable, the fans in front of the TV will always see Wenger and his assistants complaining about something. This "audience" is Rice, Arsenal's assistant coach.Rice was a member of Arsenal when he was a player, and he was also the captain of the Gunners. He has played for Arsenal in different positions for more than 40 years.In fact, Rice's work is not just as simple as listening. He plays an important role in daily training, and at the same time gives Wenger advice on tactics, substitutions and player selection.

At this moment, there were only two people who could enter Wenger's office without knocking. One was the chief scout of Arsenal, the highly respected Steve Lowery, and the other was Pat Rice.

"Arsene." Pat Rice shook the document in his hand, "Marseilles answered."

"What did they say?" Wenger asked, stopping what he was doing.After watching the game video and analysis report sent by Gremandy, he became interested in this young Chinese striker named Zhang Yang. His scoring efficiency of [-] goals in seven games is also in the Ligue [-] where there are frequent geniuses. Wonderful.Of course, it will attract Wenger's attention, and Gremendy also strongly suggested in the report that this is a talented shooter that Arsenal must not miss!Scouts use their words carefully in their personal reports, and comments like this are rare.

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After watching the ostentatious game video compiled by Gremendy, Wenger communicated with the chief scout Steve Lowery, and then the chief scout of Arsenal rushed to France in person to watch the Marseille team In the match against Strasbourg, Zhang Yang's hat-trick moved Steve Lowery, who was not interested in Zhang Yang before. After he returned to London, the words he used in his report to Wenger were 'A respectable young man. 'Although this comment is not as good as Greymandy's comment to Zhang Yang, but considering this gentleman's boss-level status in Arsenal's scouting system, he was able to make such a comment after only watching one game , is also good.

Later, Wenger also carefully studied all the game videos and data analysis about Zhang Yang. He had a deeper understanding of Zhang Yang's situation, and Wenger became interested in this young man.

To be precise, Wenger was tempted by Zhang Yang.

After that, they made a tentative offer to Marseille. Of course, the process in the middle is not that simple. Making an offer to a player requires a lot of procedures and investigations.

Although it is tentative, whether it is Wenger himself, Steve Lowery or Gremandy, they all believe that this quotation can completely satisfy the Marseille team.

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"Rejected." Pat Rice shrugged, which expressed his emotions well, and he felt a little surprised, "They declined our offer."

"Oh?" Wenger was also a little surprised. He motioned for Pat Rice to sit down, and then he casually opened the document with the word 'zhang' written on it, looked at it twice, and shook his head.Marseille was too much.The offer given by the Arsenal Club is 350 million euros, which is considered a relatively high offer for Arsenal.For an amateur player who has only played less than double-digit professional games, this is a sky-high price.

"They also said—" Pat Rice had a strange expression on his face.

"What else?" Wenger became interested. To make Rice such an expression, something very interesting must have happened.

"They said that Zhang is not for sale. They don't sell it for any amount of money."

"Uh——" Hearing Pat Rice say this, Wenger's expression was equally exciting. It wasn't the phrase 'not for sale' that changed his expression. This word has been used badly now. To put it bluntly, Even if you buy a team's players who will sit on the bench, that team will say that someone is not for sale. This is a skill and means of negotiation.What surprised Wenger and even made him funny was the last sentence, 'I won't sell it for any money. ' This is a further note to the previous 'not for sale'.

From this supplement, Wenger really felt the attitude of the Marseille team. The Masai people seem to really attach importance to this Chinese boy. The phrase 'not for sale' is obviously not a casual talk about bargaining.

Tut tut.The Arsenal manager clicked his tongue.He found it very interesting.Obviously, this was written by Marseille coach Fernandez. From Wenger's understanding, Marseille chairman Diouf would definitely not set up any obstacles for this transfer transaction. Someone who understands football but actually only thinks about making money.Only Fernandez is qualified to say no to this transfer.

This at least shows that Fernandez attaches great importance to his No. 27 player. In Fernandez's blueprint, this young Chinese is very important.

If Wenger is recognized in international football as being good at discovering young players, then in France, Fernandez's reputation for knowing people is not weaker than Wenger.

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Pat Rice thought that Wenger would continue to ask about Zhang Yang, but he saw that Wenger just opened his notebook, wrote a few words on a page, closed the notebook, and moved on to the next topic.

"What's going on in Monaco?" Wenger asked.

In addition to making a tentative offer to Marseille for Zhang Yang, Arsenal also asked the Monaco Club for Adebayor. This is the reason why you should never put your eggs in one basket.

Compared with Arsenal's tentative offer for Zhang Yang, Arsenal's offer for Adebayor is more serious and sincere. After all, Arsenal has not paid attention to Adebayor for a day or two. In the offices of chief scout Steve Lowery and Wenger, there is a drawer of information about Adebayor.Arsenal's offer to Monaco for Adebayor is 600 million.For a 21-year-old young shooter, this offer is not low.Of course not high.However, considering that this is an offer made by Arsenal, and in view of Arsenal's tradition of spending a small amount of money to poach little demons, this offer shows sincerity.

"They said that the Togolese have a two-year contract with the team, and the Togolese are not for sale." Speaking of this, Pat Rice himself laughed. Compared with Marseille's answer about asking for publicity, Monaco I am more sincere about this offer to buy Adebayor. Don’t look at what the Monaco said as if it was a flat-out rejection, but the subtext is, yes, Adebayor is our player, and he is ours. Got a contract and want to buy it?this, huh?Hey, your price tag is obviously not good.

This is what it means to bargain.

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Now, one of the multiple-choice questions before Wenger is to continue talking with the Marseille team about Zhang Yang. This transfer income is used to buy more suitable players and finally let them go.Therefore, the important thing is the agreement of the head coach. From the perspective of Arsenal people including Wenger, as long as the club and the head coach agree, there will be absolutely no problems with Zhang Yang himself. The club's appeal is confident.

Another multiple-choice question is to continue bargaining with Monaco to buy Adebayor.

The difference between the two multiple-choice questions is that if you continue to buy and make public, the possibility of success is unlikely.Wenger saw the Marseille coach's resolute 'not selling' attitude from Fernandez's reply.

As for the transfer of Adebayor between Arsenal and Monaco, there is still some discussion. The gap between the two parties should not be large. Therefore, this acquisition is very likely to be successful.

If you want to buy publicity, you may be rejected; if you want to buy Adebayor, you are likely to succeed.

And the most important thing is that compared with Zhang Yang's sudden outbreak in Ligue [-], which may be short-lived, the acquisition of Zhang Yang is extremely risky; Adebayor has more experience, and his continuous good performance is more worthy of reference. There is a relatively stable side, and the striker is lower.

In addition, Wenger didn't like his flamboyant and troublesome personality.In the history of Arsenal, among the players personally selected by Wenger, except for Anelka, there are not many thorny players. Wasn’t Anelka also sold to Real Madrid by Wenger? .

For Wenger, this choice seems not difficult to make...

However, Arsenal assistant coach Pat Riley saw Wenger frowning, and it seemed difficult to make a decision.

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Marseille coach Fernandez firmly told club chairman Diouf that Zhang Yang is not for sale.He told Mr. Chairman bluntly that Zhang Yang was one of the few players on the team who couldn't move.These players are at the heart of his planned Marseille squad.Want to sell these players?Yes, unless Fernandez is fired first!

However, the previous offer from Monaco, and now the offer from Arsenal, made Fernandez start to be vigilant. With his performance getting better and better, more and more clubs have noticed that Zhang Yang is very capable of scoring goals. Little young again.And it has been put into action directly.

Fernandez felt suddenly.Renewing the contract with Zhang Yang as soon as possible is now an imminent matter.

Among other things, Arsenal's invitation is definitely a great surprise and temptation for a young player. important role.

Fernandez knew that Zhang Yang had returned to China, and the kid returned home from vacation, bid farewell to almost the entire team of players and coaches, and even bluffed to bring gifts back.

Fernandez dialed Zhang Yang's mobile phone number. He wanted to have a better communication with his proud disciple, and wanted to reach an agreement as much as possible on the new covenant.Prevent others from taking advantage of it.

"Shut down?" Fernandez put down the phone, a little confused.This kid, what to do if you have nothing to do.

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"Hahaha. You understand this. I didn't say that. Of course, you can dial out. I have no objection anyway." Zhang Yang laughed.

He is being recorded in an interview program on Oriental TV.

I have to say that Oriental TV Station is still very well prepared. They have already listed more than ten pages of questions. This is an early preparation, not a temporary one.

Just now He Ping asked Zhang Yang a question, could it be that if he had not been "persecuted" by a certain domestic club, he is now just a marginal player in a domestic Chinese Super League club, but would not have the current results and such a promising future?

Zhang Yang replied with a smile.

He is not stupid, Zhang Yang is not afraid of some sensitive issues, but he also doesn't want to get into trouble, it's not worth worrying about such crap.Of course, if someone troubled him, it would be another matter.

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ps: I’m back in Suzhou, and when I get off the train and get home, I’ll hurry up and write.Today, a chapter of more than 5000 words will be published first.This month's update will be much better.