The Young Lion

The closer to the end of the season, the more onerous the head coach's work, especially a coach like Aldridge who leads the team and still has championships to fight for.

When I went home on Sunday night, my parents hosted a banquet for Puskas and his wife at home. In the past year, Puskas’s life has been very regular. Except for receiving recuperation in the hospital on weekdays, he will watch a football game every week, but basically he will not leave In London, he will be the focus of attention wherever he goes, and Arthur is inseparable from him, taking him around the city as a guide.

At the dinner table, Arthur proposed to go on vacation abroad together in summer and travel around the tourist destinations in the Mediterranean, but the Puskas couple could not shirk and had to agree.

This made Arthur very excited. He immediately called Barnett and said domineeringly to his son: I want to go on a trip with my friends and get a large yacht.

Barnett has been staying in the United States since the beginning of the year. Last year, he began to cash out his investment in Southeast Asia. At the beginning of this year, he completed the withdrawal of investment in Southeast Asia, and then transferred to the international capital market. He got acquainted with many Wall Street financial institutions in the United States. Speculators, like a second attack on a football field, Barnett withdrew his investment, which was a reminder from Aldrich. In turn, it meant that Aldrich was not optimistic about the market prospects in Southeast Asia. It happened that Barnett was in Wall Street has heard some rumors that international financial speculators are going to do a big job in Asia, and Barnett will naturally participate in it and get a share of it.

Therefore, Barnett told Arthur very helplessly: I don't have a yacht, and I don't have any spare money to buy it recently. I can only ask a friend to borrow one.

Arthur didn't care about that, as long as he had it, whoever he was.

Barnett then quickly contacted his friends in Europe, and finally borrowed a luxurious yacht. The price was the exchange of information, allowing his friends to join the financial war that was being prepared.

Aldridge is so focused on his work that there are not many other things that can distract him. Melanie's Spice Girls became popular in Europe, and now they rarely stay in London, and most of the time they perform around the UK. There are also those going to other European countries. In the second half of the year, we will go all out to hit the US market. If they succeed, they will start a global tour next year. The two get together less often, and just talk on the phone every night to chat about the current situation.

But within the scope of work, there are really many trivial matters that Aldrich needs to worry about.

Poaching is happening every day, and now not only are the players poaching Aldridge, but even their coaches are being seduced.

Benitez has always had an invitation from the Spanish team. But he has no plans to leave. The coaches from the Netherlands, including Jensen, have also been contacted by the Dutch small club. They don't want to move for the time being, because they think they don't have Aldridge's capital. Once you go back to coach the team and are laid off due to poor performance, will you come back to Millwall again? After all, they are not yet thirty years old.

However, the 30-year-old Najib coached the youth team and was also favored by the League One team.

Maybe I think Najib's 1996 Youth FA Youth Cup champion generation can seamlessly connect with the Millwall first team, which represents his coaching ability, although the Millwall youth team failed to break into the FA Youth Cup final this season. . However, they still won the championship in advance in the youth league, and in the youth team friendly matches between Norway and France, the Millwall youth team performed well.

The most important thing is that if Najib is poached, maybe he can also poach a few good youngsters from the Millwall youth team.

However, the outside world obviously does not understand the relationship between Najib and Aldrich. In a sense, the two are brothers, Najib and Aldrich, but they have completely opposite characteristics. Aldridge has no patience for the initial stage of training. He likes to play around with tactics. Let some powerful players become his pawns, but Najib is just the opposite. He leads the team alone with less passion and too calm, but is meticulous in cultivating players to grow.

The two were simply a match made in heaven. Najib rejected all the invitations without even looking at them. The calmer he was, the less he would rush to coach the first team in a flash of brain, which would expose his shortcomings.

Besides, he is not a person who likes to show off.

In the midweek trip to Old Trafford, Aldridge did not bring all the main players, Stam has been downgraded to the reserve team, and Millwall and Manchester United have also reached a transfer agreement. After Ferguson had a verbal conflict, Ferguson had no further contact with Aldridge, and Manchester United also directly offered a transfer offer of 15 million pounds. Adam wanted to bargain, because Manchester United's first This number is the price of one quotation. For negotiation, of course Millwall has the room to bargain.

But Aldridge directly let Adam agree to the offer.

This offer has already equaled the world transfer value record. Although it will be surpassed by aliens in the summer, it is still the world's most valuable defender. Aldridge can't afford to entangle with Manchester United on the transfer fee. After all, that price is what he himself said. Come out, he is a person who abides by the rules of the game, and things that go back and forth are unnecessary.

Both clubs kept this transfer confidential. When the season officially ends, Stam will go to Manchester for a medical examination and will announce his joining after passing.

Prior to this, neither Manchester United nor Millwall wanted to disturb the morale of the army by announcing in advance.

How do you say that Manchester United still want to keep the second round of the league and the second round of the Champions League semi-finals. Once Stam's transfer is announced, what do Manchester United's two central defenders think? Who will be kicked out of the main lineup next season?

But Millwall just can't hold the fire. Stam, the absolute main force, has not appeared in the big list in a row. Fleet Street didn't think there was any big problem at the beginning. One or two games is normal, but after the scene of Stam being sent to the reserve team was photographed by reporters, it quickly caused an uproar.

Fleet Street speculates that there are two possibilities, first: discipline, Stam may have violated team discipline and was punished. Second: Transfer, either Stam is no longer in Millwall's future plan, or Stam wants to transfer and turns against Aldridge. The young coach punished the Dutchman with an iron fist and sent him to the reserve team.

This is why Aldridge was angry at Manchester United before.

Millwall's season is not over, Manchester United poach the wall, whether it is successful or not, Manchester United has little impact, but Millwall will be hurt, especially disturbing the morale of the army.

Aldridge also wanted Stam to leave decently, but at this stage. He had to make Stam disappear from the first team's sights and give the players a clear signal: Stam is no longer one of us!

Otherwise, teammates look at Stam every day. But Aldridge didn't use him, which obviously caused a lot of suspicion. This kind of suspicion is contagious, which is definitely not a good thing.

Before the start of the FA Cup, Aldridge appeared on the sidelines of Old Trafford early, and there were still more than 20 minutes before the start of the game.

He sat in the stands behind the coach's bench and chatted with the live reporter of ITV.

Is Larson injured?

No, he's just a little tired. I asked him to stay in London to rest and prepare for the weekend league.

Hehe. Is it to help him win the European Golden Boot?

That is a very important honor for a shooter. He has the opportunity to strive for it. Of course I will help him. His teammates also want to help him achieve this goal, but Larson is not the kind of selfish player. Ranked first in the scorer list and ranked third in the league in assists.

Can you talk about Jaap Stam? He played the reserve team game yesterday and helped Millwall reserve team win. He's in good shape, why not use him? The league, the European war, the FA Cup today, he's all there. Disappeared from the list.

Aldrich looked around the Theater of Dreams. In the end, he smiled lightly and said, His heart is no longer in Millwall.

The on-site reporter of itv was stunned, and did not expect to get such explosive news from Aldridge.

Aldridge just felt that instead of letting the outside world keep speculating, it would be better to pierce the last window paper, and end the public opinion turmoil early, which can also stabilize the team's morale.

You mean he's going to transfer?

Yes. He wants to go to a big club, bigger, stronger and more attractive than Millwall in his mind.

The itv reporter thought about it for a while, and finally asked, Is it a Spanish or Italian giant?

He feels that in England, there is no stronger team than Millwall.

Aldridge shook his head and said: I can't say that, what I can tell you is that the transfer conditions have basically been agreed, but in order to respect this transfer, Millwall will not reveal Stam's status until the end of the season. next home.

Is it because of this reason that Stam was sent to the reserve team?

That is to keep him in shape. Maybe people outside think he is very strong. I should continue to use him at this time, because at least he has not gone yet. However, I coach the team and value team unity. I can't imagine a To have players in my lineup with out-of-the-box players, it's like you see 10 of your own plus a betrayer, and it destroys our unity.

Betrayer? Is that how you judge Stam's move?

Aldridge nodded and said: Yes, because he chose to transfer when the team needed him the most. I am not saying that I must stay in Millwall for the rest of his life, but we are at the most important point of the season. At the moment, his transfer will have a negative impact on the team, this is a betrayal, I don't want to see him again until the end of the season, although I am very grateful for what he has done for the team in the past three years, now , I think it's better for him to stay away from my team as much as possible, and when he leaves at the end of the season, I will wish him luck.

 …

After all, ITV is not a TV broadcasting company. Even if it gets first-hand hot news, it is impossible to release it immediately. After all, the media network is still in a blank period at this time, and mobile phones are only used for sending text messages and making calls.

So the FA Cup semi-final is about to start, and the fans' attention is still on the field.

There are many things Millwall fans don't understand. They even put up a slogan in the stands of Old Trafford: Please bring Stam back!

They just speculate that Aldridge and Stam have conflicts. Before they know the truth, they hope that the team will face the next schedule with the strongest lineup.

And Stam is an important member of Millwall's transformation from League One to Premier League champions in the past three years. Every Wild Lions fan understands his importance to the team.

But in today's FA Cup semi-finals, Aldridge sent a half-main half-substitute lineup.

Goalkeeper: Bout.

Defenders: Mills, Helguera, Southgate, Zambrotta.

Midfield: Lampard, Makelele, Ballack, Nedved.

Forwards: Shevchenko, Phillips.

Aldridge played a 4312 formation that the team does not often play.

In fact, he doesn't want the team to only play 433 or 4231. A strong team often switches back and forth with multiple formations. Facing different opponents, there are more changes. It is not always possible to play a fixed tactical system. It's a good thing, because if you play for a long time, your thinking will become rigid and you will lack the ability to adapt at critical moments.

Today's opponent is Middlesbrough. Brian Robson's team performed well last season. Pursuing offense, rather than defending first and then attacking, this directly led to a decline in their record, because they were newly promoted last season, and their opponents underestimated them. Before the new lineup and new tactics took shape, the opponents counterattacked them, and they were accurate. The price Robson paid for adapting the formation and experimenting with new tactics was that he was mired in relegation in the standings.

This is also related to their private cancellation of the game against Blackburn, and they were directly deducted three points. This is the first time in the history of the Premier League that a team has been deducted. Also in the second tier. (m)