From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 811 Young Talent

In the entire Premier League, except for Chelsea who are spending lavishly, the rest of the teams are cutting back on spending. Of course, there are not many teams like Manchester United that have made almost no moves in the transfer market.

In order to break Manchester United's monopoly on the Premier League title, Manchester City also made two big transfers this summer. They spent 4100 million pounds to dig Dutch central defender Nathan Ake from Bournemouth and spent 3000 million pounds to dig talented striker Ferran Torres from La Liga Valencia.

Liverpool spent 4500 million pounds to bring Portuguese winger Diogo Jota from Wolves, and spent another 1200 million pounds to bring in Greek defender Tsimikas.

Arsenal officially announced on September 9 that they had signed Brazilian central defender Gabriel Magalhaes from Lille in Ligue 1 for a reported transfer fee of 2600 million euros. They also signed former Chelsea Brazilian veteran Willian for free. In addition, Arteta also hopes to get Brazilian midfielder Coutinho from Barcelona.

Tottenham bought out Argentine striker Lo Celso, and spent £1500 million each to sign Wolves defender Matt Doherty and Southampton midfielder Hojbjerg. They also signed Paris Saint-Germain's Uruguayan striker Cavani for free.

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According to the schedule, the new Premier League season will start on the first weekend in mid-September, while the Community Shield, the Premier League's prelude, will be held in early September.

However, because Manchester United participated in the Champions League final and there was less than three weeks of rest time, the Community Shield between Premier League champions Manchester United and Premier League runner-up Liverpool was forced to be postponed. The specific match time will depend on the subsequent schedules of the two teams and it is very likely to be arranged in January next year.

Under such circumstances, Manchester United’s first official game of the new season will be the first round of the Premier League, which will be held on the evening of September 9.

This means that Manchester United will not have pre-season training in the new season. The team will gather on September 9 and then start the game.

Of course, this situation is not unique to Manchester United. Teams such as Manchester City and Chelsea, which have reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League and the Europa League, have had a short pre-season training camp, but their preparation is definitely not as good as those teams that did not participate in the Champions League knockout stage.

The good news for Manchester United is that the team's lineup is very stable and there is no problem of new players integrating into the team.

This may also be one of the reasons why Manchester United finally decided not to make big signings this summer.

However, Bruno's first game of the season came before the start of the Premier League.

After entering September, international football ushered in the first international match day of 9. During this period, the Portuguese national team will have two UEFA Nations League games, one at home against Croatia and one away to challenge Sweden.

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The competition system of this UEFA Nations League has changed significantly. League A has become 16 teams, including the 12 teams of the previous League A and the 4 group winners of the previous League B. They are divided into 4 groups, each with 4 teams, and will play a double round-robin group stage. After that, the 4 group winners will enter the semi-finals for a single elimination match.

As the defending champion, Portugal was placed in the group of death. Its opponents in the same group include World Cup runner-up France, strong team Croatia, and the resurgent Sweden. Every game is a big battle.

Before this game, Ronaldo had scored 99 goals for Portugal, just one goal away from the national team's -goal milestone. However, Ronaldo missed the squad due to toe inflammation, but he still sat in the stands to cheer for his teammates and stole the spotlight many times.

In the absence of Ronaldo, Bruno wore the captain's armband of the Portugal national team.

Without Ronaldo, Portugal was still strong and threatened Croatia from the start. However, Portugal was not lucky, as Cancelo, Guerrero, Joao Felix and Diogo Jota's shots hit the post one after another.

It was not until the 41st minute that Bruno made a diagonal pass, Cancelo took the ball on the right side in front of the penalty area, turned and cut inside, and made a long shot near the top of the penalty area. The ball went straight to the upper left corner of the goal. Portugal 1:0 Croatia.

From the slow motion, the Croatian goalkeeper touched the ball but was unable to prevent it from entering the net.

After the change of sides, Portugal still took the initiative and continued to attack Croatia.

In the 58th minute, Guerrero made an accurate long pass from the backcourt, and Diogo Jota broke into the penalty area and shot to score another goal. The score became 2:0 and Portugal secured the victory.

In the 70th minute, Portugal continued to score. Bruno hit the top of the arc, and Felix suddenly shot with his right foot to the left side of the goal. Livakovic pounced on the ball, and the ball bounced off the ground and flew into the goal. Portugal 3:0 Croatia. The 1.26 million man cheered.

In the first minute of injury time, Rebic made a straight pass and Petkovic got the ball on the left side of the penalty area and scored, and Croatia pulled one point back.

In the 4th minute of injury time, Portugal took a corner kick from the right side. Pepe headed the ball to the left side at the penalty spot. Andre Silva scored with a shovel shot. Portugal led Croatia 4:1.

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Judging from the technical statistics of both sides, Portugal has an overwhelming advantage. Although big brother Cristiano Ronaldo was unable to play due to toe inflammation, his national team teammates still achieved a big victory.

Since the official launch of the UEFA Nations League, Portugal has not lost a game in this tournament. So far, their record is 5 wins and 2 draws.

The score of 4:1 is also Portugal's biggest score in the UEFA Nations League.

Three days later, Portugal traveled to Scandinavia to challenge Sweden as a guest.

In this game, Ronaldo finally returned to the starting lineup and performed well in the game.

In the 39th minute, Bruno made a long pass from the right side of the midfield to find Ronaldo, who broke into the penalty area from the right and volleyed the ball, scoring his 100th goal for the Portugal national team.

In the 44th minute, Svensson fouled Bruno at the top of the penalty area and received his second yellow card. The home team had to play with 10 players for the rest of the game.

Portugal got a free kick in a good position in the frontcourt. Ronaldo took the free kick near the top of the penalty area. The free kick went straight to the upper left corner of the goal and Portugal led 2:0.

Five minutes into the second half, Bruno's long shot from the right side of the penalty area went past the goalkeeper Olsen, who was guarding the Swedish goal. Portugal completely secured the victory, 5:3.

Ten minutes later, Portugal's offensive came back. Guedes passed the ball back with his heel from the left, Guerrero made a cross from the right, and Bruno shot with the outside of his foot in front of the goal. The ball hit the top of the goal frame and went into the net. Portugal led 10:4.

In the 71st minute, Felix passed the ball to the middle, and Ronaldo shot to the far corner from the left side outside the penalty area. The ball went over the goalkeeper's head and fell into the net. Ronaldo completed a hat trick and Portugal's lead expanded to 5 goals.

At the end of the game, Portugal defeated Sweden 5:0, winning both games and ranking first in the group standings.

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After the game, Bruno flew back to Manchester on a private jet to prepare for the first round of the new Premier League season starting next Monday.

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After returning to Manchester, Bruno received good news that the main construction of Manchester United's home stadium, Old Trafford, has been completed after 20 months of closed construction and has entered the later stage of construction.

According to the construction progress, all construction projects of the entire stadium will be completed in December. Manchester United will return to Old Trafford for a match in January 12.

Although the new coronavirus pandemic has had a great impact on the world, it has not affected the construction of Manchester United's new home stadium.

Of course, it is still three or four months before Manchester United moves back to Old Trafford to play.

Manchester United's first league game of the new season will be away against Burnley.

In this game, there is a new face in Manchester United's squad. However, Bruno is no stranger to this person, as he is Dean Henderson, Sheffield United's main goalkeeper last season.

This Manchester United youth goalkeeper performed well for Sheffield United last season. He played 36 games in the Premier League throughout the season and kept 13 clean sheets, helping Sheffield United become the fourth team with the fewest goals conceded in the Premier League last season. They only conceded 39 goals throughout the season, of which only 31 goals were conceded during Henderson's play. He was the number one contributor to Sheffield United's ability to be a newly promoted team last season and eventually rank eighth in the standings.

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Manchester United recalled Dean Henderson after the end of last season.

However, according to what Bruno knew, this young Manchester United youth player did not want to stay in Manchester United, but hoped to seek another loan opportunity or even a transfer.

This is mainly because Manchester United currently has too much competition in the goalkeeper position. In addition to De Gea, the main goalkeeper of Spain, the team's backup goalkeeper is Romero, the number one goalkeeper of the Argentine national team.

With two such goalkeeper-level players, it is difficult for Henderson to get too many opportunities in the team.

Moreover, Dean Henderson has no shortage of suitors because of his outstanding performance for Sheffield United last season.

First of all, Sheffield United hopes to continue to loan Henderson to play for them. Of course, if the price is right, they would rather sign Henderson.

Secondly, Chelsea, another Premier League giant, is also eager to sign Henderson. As their main goalkeeper Kepa performed very poorly last season, Lampard hopes to sign a top goalkeeper to replace the Spaniard. Henderson, who performed well at Sheffield United last season, has entered the sights of Lampard and Chelsea.

After the summer transfer window opened, Chelsea submitted a transfer request to Manchester United, hoping to sign the 5000-year-old talented goalkeeper for a sky-high price of 23 million pounds.

Manchester United rejected Chelsea's offer, but did not close the door to negotiations. Later, Chelsea made a new offer to Manchester United, and the two sides are still negotiating.

When chatting with Manchester United CEO Giarretta, Bruno expressed his hope that the team would let Henderson leave. He also hoped that the young talent could get better training opportunities instead of wasting time on Manchester United's bench.