The Young Lion

The old saying often says that the new year has a new atmosphere, and time spans from 1999 to 2000. This is not just a new year, it is a century, a millennium!

At such a historic moment, the Arsenal club also made a historic move.

Vice-chairman Dane and head coach Wenger proudly announced: Arsenal is going to build a new stadium!

Many Gunners fans rushed to tell each other and celebrate each other, and there was a momentum of celebrating and celebrating. After all, Highbury's capacity made it difficult for Gunners fans who appreciate beautiful football to get a ticket.

I just don't know how much heartache and tears are hidden behind the pride of Wenger and Dane.

Arsenal will not build a new stadium, and if they don’t build a stadium with a larger capacity, Arsenal will gradually fall from the Premier League championship group to the mid-range. This is not alarmist. As prices rise, stadium tickets are also rising. Arsenal Even in London, the ticket revenue gap between Manchester United and Manchester United is gradually widening every season. It is conservatively estimated this season that the gap has been widened by more than ten million pounds!

The gap of tens of millions of pounds, and further development, may be 20 million pounds, 30 million pounds.

If there is no new stadium, there will inevitably be a gap of hundreds of millions of pounds between Arsenal and Manchester United in terms of financial revenue from stadium tickets within ten years.

What can hundreds of millions of pounds bring to the club?

The most intuitive one is competitiveness.

In view of such a brutal competitive situation, Arsenal's new stadium plan is imperative.

Of course, there is no need for them to compare with the Premier League champion Millwall. No comparison. Millwall has already earned a new stadium as a human trafficker, and the team not only has a guaranteed record, but it will be able to accept the new stadium in three months.

In other words, Arsenal, a traditional giant, has lagged behind Manchester United and Millwall by at least five years of development cycle.

Why five years?

Because it was almost five years ago that ground was broken for Millwall's new stadium.

And Arsenal just announced that they will build a new stadium, the specific stadium design and site selection. Sponsors, loans, and other specific businesses are still under preparation, it's just that. Their words are more reliable and credible than those of other midstream and downstream club chairmen.

Like the chairman of Everton talking about building a new stadium every year, Toffee fans know that he is farting.

Among Premier League bosses,

Aldridge is definitely not the richest person. We can’t say too much about those who are richer than him, but there are still a lot of big money. For example, Arsenal’s major shareholders are all richer than him, and some are even richer than Hall’s entire family. rich.

But in the plan to build a new stadium, they are all following the most basic principle of running a business: living within their means.

This directly led to both Wenger and Dane knowing that in the next few years. No, for many years, Arsenal has to save money and save money!

Therefore, when visiting the Lions Den Stadium in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. Wenger sent a substitute.

There is no way, the battle between the 3rd and 6th places in the Premier League for the last two Champions League places is too fierce. There are 6 rounds left in the league, and Wenger has to make a choice.

In the first half of the season, he met Millwall in the League Cup, chose to fight with all the main players, and finally eliminated Millwall.

then. In the league, he was defeated by North London rivals Tottenham. Then, the League Cup did not come to the end. Martin O'Neill really created a miracle again, leading the small Leicester City to win the first place in England in the 21st century. champion.

Probably influenced by the lesson in the first half of the season, Wenger simply sent a substitute to play today. Concentrate on playing the league, entering the Champions League and getting the profit share of the Champions League is more important than anything else.

With the countdown to the end of the season, Millwall's attendance rate in any home game is overwhelming, and the FA Cup may have something to do with entering the second half of the game. But in the league, there is almost no suspense about Millwall's success in defending the title, but fans still pour into the stadium to support the team every home match day, and keep the tickets of the day as souvenirs.

Because Millwall's official first-team match at the Lion's Den Stadium is to play one game less. In the summer, if there is no accident, they will move to the new stadium. Now, they are saying goodbye to the Lion's Den Stadium.

In the quarter-finals of the FA Cup against Arsenal, Aldridge and Arsene Wenger were sitting on the coaching bench. Caring about the progress of the game, just to be here and enjoy the atmosphere at the end of the Lion's Den Stadium, next season, everything will be different.

In the first half of the game, Millwall basically sealed the victory. The goals of Larmore and Glenshire made the gap between the two teams' substitute lineups more intuitive.

Wenger is powerless to the game, the main lineup still has many hidden dangers, and the substitute lineup is even more embarrassing to use.

Take another look at Millwall's bench lineup, change the team logo, change the name, it is estimated that they can play in the Premier League and rank in the middle!

He turned to his assistant and complained: Why are there so many good players in Millwall who don't need money?

Most of the Arsenal coaching staff chose silence.

I can't be envious.

Someone said seriously: Hall's vision for discovering talents and his ability to cultivate players are indeed rare in the world.

Is there any trick in this?

Wenger racked his brains trying to figure out the secret of Aldrich's training of players, no, it should be the secret of digging good seedlings.

To train players, he thinks he is not under Aldridge.

The key point is, where to get so many good seedlings to cultivate!

Here, uh, I did a survey. Players like Nedved, Glenciel, and sold Solskjaer in the first team were all excavated from the second-tier leagues, and a considerable part of them were from the second-tier leagues. Players were discovered by Hall when they did not enter the formal youth training system at all, such as Villa, Brazilian Ronaldinho, Vicente, Joaquin. There are also some places that are incredible to us, Klose , Phillips, who is ranked third in the Premier League scorer list this year and has scored almost 30 goals, they were discovered by Hall from the amateur league, some players who have not yet made their names, like Ribery, Drogba, Abandoned by Lille, one rejected by Paris Saint-Germain, the one who just scored, Lamour, he was also a player who was abandoned by Liverpool, etc. Instead, Hall took the opportunity to recruit him to Millwall.

Wenger scratched his head and couldn't figure it out.

Amateur leagues, discarded sons of other clubs, second-rate leagues panning for gold.

This Nima, to put it mildly, is Aldrich's insightful eyes. To put it bluntly, this fellow is a wonderful creature who specializes in collecting scrap copper and rotten iron to turn waste into treasure!

Wenger has been a little nervous lately.

All he thought about was how to improve his hematopoietic ability, but after wandering around in the youth team for a month or two, he was really disheartened. No matter how fine the processing procedure is, the texture of the material itself is not good enough, and the quality of the finished product is not good enough. ?

Now is the time to do big things with little money.

God damn Barcelona is seducing Overmars recently. Even Overmars himself lamented the team's two Champions League experience in the interview and wanted to change the league to meet the challenge.

Wenger really couldn't sit still, but he didn't have the confidence to keep people. It is impossible for the club to be indifferent to the transfer fee, but the team's season is not over yet, the league is going to compete for the fourth place, and the UEFA Cup is also on the way to the semi-finals, but there are rumors that the general will leave the team first. No, it's not a gossip, it's true, Peter Pan Overmars himself has expressed his opinion.

Arsenal is very good, but I can't afford to wait for the Champions League!

Wenger is thinking about how to search for more star seedlings, while Aldridge is thinking about how to accelerate the growth of young players in the team.

A successful team does not take the initiative to change, but must strengthen the stimulation of internal competition. Maintain a high level of competitiveness and even self-improvement through internal competition. This season Milan is a counterexample. After winning the championship last season, this season lacks strong internal supplements, and it lags behind in the league. Juventus and Lazio. Out of the championship group.

Aldridge looked into the court with his chin lifted. I wondered in my heart whether to loan some players to the first-tier clubs for training next season.

Like Klose and Glenshire, they can stay in the team, as long as the main players are injured, they can immediately step up.

Can be like Vicente. For players like Joaquin and Villa, cup competition alone is not enough for them to accumulate enough experience.

The situation that Aldridge is most afraid of is that it is easy to go out on loan, but he is afraid that after the loan is out, the player will not want to come back.

Klose scored twice in the second half, van der Meyde scored a hat-trick of assists, and Millwall's substitute team won a hearty 4-0 victory.

But the on-site commentator mercilessly attacked the two teams at the end of the game.

Millwall, Arsenal, what are they doing with the FA Cup, which has the longest history and the greatest influence in England? This is the quarter-finals, and everyone is looking forward to the peak match between the two teams. As a result, the two teams have a tacit understanding They sent a sub-team to play this peak match, the peak substitute match! The FA should punish these two teams. Their lack of respect for the FA Cup, lack of respect for the fans, lack of respect for all spectators!

Aldridge certainly didn’t know what the commentator said. Anyway, he shook hands with Wenger calmly after the game. Wenger lost the game, and it seemed that his mood was not affected too much, but there was a lot of disappointment. , at least on the face.

It's not that they don't respect the FA Cup. Before the 1990s, the FA Cup was indeed more influential than the League One. But in the era of the Premier League, how much is the FA Cup broadcast fee? How much is the bonus? Can you play the Champions League if you win the championship?

Every team has to be more pragmatic. To put it bluntly, it is about money. We will focus on where we make more money.

Aldridge was asked about the commentator's anger after the game, and he looked puzzled.

I didn't sleepwalk, did I? Millwall seems to have won the game and advanced to the semi-finals. If we lose the game and hear people criticize, I think it's normal, but if we win, do we still have to be scolded? This is What's the point?

Aldrich scoffed at the groundless accusations.

There is only one truth in football: winning is everything.

I led the team to win, you should praise and criticize, I'm sorry, because I won, so you don't have to buy it, get out!

The next day, after the Millwall FA Cup semi-final opponent came out, the Wild Lions fans cheered.

Good luck in the FA Cup.

The opponent in the semi-finals is Aston Villa!

The FA Cup came to an end, and Millwall's attention turned back to the European competition.

When preparing for the second round match against Bayern Munich, Millwall has been very mysterious and declined training interviews, as if to conduct some secret experiment.

At the press conference before the Champions League match, Aldridge also said that Millwall will try to end the suspense quickly at home. He talked loudly, with great publicity and confidence.

We scored one goal for Bayern Munich, Bayern Munich had to score three goals to bring the game back to the starting point! We scored two, Bayern Munich scored four goals, we scored three...

Ahem, Mr. Hall, we all understand what you said.

The reporters in the audience had to interrupt Aldrich who was declaring war with his body movements.

Aldrich paused, and then said calmly: Since you all know, then I have nothing to say, goodbye.