The Young Lion

Aldridge's pre-season plan suffered another blow from reality.

He will play in the European Cup Winners' Cup next season. Although he doesn't value it, he wants the team to familiarize himself with the football styles of different countries. Therefore, in his pre-season warm-up plan, in addition to inviting the Celtics to London for a friendly match In addition, the whole team plans to fly to France and Monaco for a game, then to Spain and Deportivo for a game, and finally return to London to play two domestic friendlies.

Before the Olympic Games, Andrew finalized the transfer of Rivaldo to Europe. Rivaldo joined Deportivo de La Coruna in Spain in the summer. At the same time, because of this relationship, Andrew helped Millwall and La Coruña to match up. Come to a friendly match, the friendly match in Monaco was finalized by Aldridge with Tigana when he was in France.

Scottish football is the originator of the style of short-pass coordination, which is separated from the cultural background of miners who are not united in Scotland. The purpose of Aldrich's invitation to Celtic is also to let Millwall experience Scotland's overall coordination of football style.

However, when August came, Aldridge had to cancel two friendlies in Monaco and Deportivo.

Because the test after the team's training camp showed that his players were too tired.

Except for a few players who participated in the European Cup, most of the other players went to the United States to participate in the Olympic Games, and returned to the club almost non-stop without rest. Aldridge was a little helpless. He counted Spain, Italy, and France as missing. All entered the Olympic men's football field.

However, Millwall's players are all young, so they are naturally the targets of the Olympic teams from all over the world.

Therefore, he can no longer take the players to fly to France and Spain to play away friendly matches.

Benitez moved to London. Immediately took office and became one of Aldrich's assistants.

But he stumbled on the first day of training.

Aldridge was talking and laughing with the players returning to the team. The training was like playing a football game together.

After the training, Benitez asked puzzledly: Is this how you train players?

Aldridge sighed: Of course not, but you have to understand what the players need most. They have just gone through a period of physical excitement. They are very tired, so giving them high-intensity training now will not have any effect, and will Affects the entire season.

The Millwall players spent the next few days in a relaxed and happy atmosphere.

When the first opponent Celtic came to the Lions Den,

Aldridge put players who participated in the European Cup and Olympics in the summer on the bench. Put together a dynamic lineup to play friendly matches.

Then he did that against newly promoted Sunderland and Everton, resting the players as much as possible.

In the three friendly matches, Millwall lost all three games. It's not that the state is so bad, but the opponents are very serious.

In mid-August, the day before the launch of the Community Shield. Millwall held a press conference.

Aldridge attended with ease, and was asked about Millwall's summer preparations. He said that everything was planned and that friendly matches don't depend on winning or losing.

Millwall has been a bit quiet this summer. In addition to reaching an agreement with the FA to lease Wembley and causing criticism, Millwall's new stadium plan has not yet come out, and the loan agreement has not yet been finalized.

Fleet Street has been mocking Arsenal recently. As Arsenal's neighbors, at the press conference, Thomson of The Sun asked Aldrich directly: Mr. Hall. Have you heard that Arsene Wenger is someone?

In the past few days, there have been headlines in the London media humiliating Arsenal.

Arsene - Who?

The reporters in the audience snickered, and most of the reporters were also ready to listen to Aldrich say some provocative words to his neighbors.

However, Aldridge let them down.

Arsene Wenger came to the Lion's Den Stadium to watch the game twice, which was not enough for the outside world to remember him.

Sighing, Aldrich couldn't bear the foolish arrogance of Fleet Street.

Have you heard of Glenn Hoddle? And George Weah, and, never mind. Just those two.

The reporters in the audience looked at each other, and Richard frowned and said, Mr. Hall, I don't understand what you mean.

Hoddle is the new coach of the England national team, and Weah was the double player of world football and European football last year. These two people are famous, how can no one not know?

Even if Aldridge doesn't hear anything out of the window, he should remember Hoddle who played against him in the Premier League!

Aldrich sighed again, and said rather boringly: Then, you should ask Hoddle and Weah if they know who Wenger is.

The reporters were still in the dark.

Mr. Hall, can you explain why?

Aldridge held his forehead and sighed helplessly: If I remember correctly, the only league title in Hoddle's career was won under the coaching of Mr. Wenger. When Weah won the Golden Globe, he was most grateful Who is it? It is Wenger you are constantly mocking and sarcastic.

The audience was silent, and Aldrich got up and left.

The British media is like this. Yelang is used to being arrogant, laughing at others triumphantly, and taking his ignorance as his personality.

In the final analysis, it is still because Wenger is still in Japan. If Wenger is still in France, the British media may not be so lacking in respect.

Although Wenger only won one league championship in Monaco, he has also achieved good results in the European competition, which is already better than many local coaches in England.

Fleet Street shot himself in the foot with a stone, and put his face in it to make people slap him, but they didn't care, it was all news anyway, how much is face worth?

The next day, he went to Wembley to play the Community Shield. Aldridge still used the lineup during the warm-up, half main and half substitute.

Manchester United's lineup is relatively neat, at least in terms of summer preparations, Manchester United is more prepared than Millwall.

At least England does not even qualify for the Olympics, and there are no Manchester United players in the main force of the England national team. Their players can get enough time to rest.

A packed Wembley Stadium. Aldridge did not stand on the sidelines to direct, but sat quietly, even if the situation on the court was very unfavorable, he never got up once.

At the end of the game, the mediocre Manchester United won the Community Shield with a small victory over Millwall with Solskjaer's goal.

After the game, Aldridge was criticized and ridiculed by the outside world, thinking that he was aggressive when he was fighting with all kinds of monsters in English football in the summer. His own team performed poorly.

And that's just the beginning.

In the opening game of the Premier League, Millwall rushed to the away game and played 0-0 with Southampton.

Four days later, they lost 1-2 at home to Middlesbrough.

The two-year home unbeaten record ended.

In addition to the fact that Millwall's lineup is still half main force and half substitute due to poor tacit understanding, Middlesbrough is also not what it used to be. The team has recruited many powerful players, such as Juninho and Ravanelli. Emerson and others gave Middlesbrough a strong momentum after the start of the league.

Millwall's poor form continued with a tough penalty win over fourth-tier side Bristol City in the League Cup.

Millwall's performance from the friendly match in early August to the third round of the league at the end of August has simply made all the ball critics dumbfounded!

This Nima fell to the ground too quickly, right?

Comets never hit Earth so fast!

All parties began to add insult to injury again, and the voice of Manchester United's defending title was louder and louder.

All because in the first game of the season, Manchester United's handsome Beckham completed a super lob in the middle circle.

Although Millwall did not fall into the relegation zone, it is actually not too far away.

Aldridge will compete for the championship this season. But the championship depends on the players, so what he cares about is the state of the players.

Judging from this nearly a month of training, the players who didn't have enough time to rest in the summer are getting better and better.

During training, their various indicators have surpassed the best state of last season, and they have also relieved the boredom and fatigue of the game psychologically, and they have accumulated a sense of hunger for the game day after day!

After successfully passing the League Cup, every player of the team showed their best form on the training ground, so that Aldridge finally confirmed that their season can start!

Ahead of the weekend's home game against Coventry. Aldrich attended the press conference.

Recently, he has been trampled badly, whether everyone can shit and piss on his head, and some tabloids on the roadside have faked news, claiming that Aldridge has created a crisis of trust in the locker room. Before the transfer window closed, Milwaukee Hall may also be poached heavyweight star.

All the reporters raised their hands to ask questions, this one asked whether the conflict in the dressing room was true, and the other asked whether the players would want to escape from Millwall...

Aldridge didn't answer anything. In the end, only one sentence was said.

Millwall's pre-season is over.

The next day, Fleet Street collectively criticized Aldrich's arrogance, and even laughed at his naive excuses.

Before the start of the game that day, Aldridge entered the court ahead of time. The fans in the stands of the stadium are still very enthusiastic. Although they suffered their first defeat in two years at the last home game, they still unswervingly support the team.

In England, fans have a relatively clear definition. The first type is supporters. No matter the team’s record is good or bad, supporters will never leave. The second type is fans. They do not have a particularly firm stand. Whose football They like whoever looks good. Before Manchester United, they may like Liverpool or Tottenham. When Manchester United has a youth storm, they will turn to Manchester United. The third type is just a follower. Where there are stars, which team is the best? The ones that get the most attention, that's where their eyes are focused.

Millwall Before Aldridge took over, the latter two fans would not like Millwall. Therefore, although the stadium is small, the crowds are full of spectators. They are all staunch supporters of the club. They don’t care what the outside world thinks about Millwall. They will not shake their support for the team because of their record. They are a solid force for the long-term survival of a club.

Although Millwall now has many fans and followers, once Millwall's record declines, they will turn around and leave indifferently.

Aldridge walked up to the stands, step by step towards the direction of the box, on the VIP stand at the bottom of the box, the environment here is a little better, and the seats are not crowded, on the highest row of seats behind the aisle, sit Arthur and Pu Scash and Ivan.

Puskas has been recuperating in the UK for the past six months, and his condition has been well controlled. At least most of the time he is sober and has a normal mind. At the beginning of this season, he wants to watch Aldridge command the team. The game, so I came to the Lion's Den Stadium.

But in order to prevent him from getting into trouble, Aldridge still asked his friend Evan to take care of him, and the staff in the stadium would also be on call.

Arthur felt that watching the ball in the box was not enjoyable, so he sat next to him.

And very fortunately, Arthur watched the Battle of the Century between Hungary and England at Wembley when he was a child. For him, Puskas is a generation of kings in his memory.

Hey Aldridge, your team doesn't seem to be doing well.

Puskas didn't give Aldridge any face, and said with a smile.

Aldridge curled his lips and said: You just sit here and watch, watch carefully, how is my team doing, let's discuss after the game.

Little guy, you said this yourself, don't forget.

After Puskas laughed, he turned around and chatted with Arthur. As a father, Arthur could naturally see how much Puskas recognized and appreciated Aldrich’s attitude, and happily introduced Puskas to Milwaukee. The players on my team talked eloquently about what they can do on the court.

For example, Nedved became what Arthur called Superman, a man of iron can blast a football into the goal with the ball!

Aldridge chatted briefly with Ivan again, and then walked down the aisle.

Players from both sides appeared on the stage, and Millwall officially launched the strongest lineup of the season to face the visiting underdog Coventry.

Goalkeeper: Bout.

Defenders: Schneider, Stam, Southgate, Capdevila.

Midfield: Makelele, Pirlo, Nedved.

Forwards: Larsson, Trezeguet, Shevchenko.