The Young Lion

Thanks to Thieves and Sad Kong for their rewards!

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After leading the national team to a 3-1 victory over visiting Japan at Old Trafford in November, Aldridge has settled into a reclusive life.

Yiwen is about to give birth, and Aldrich, a good family man, is very competent and is always by his side.

The Premier League is about to enter the Christmas Express schedule. Millwall's performance in the league is not bad. It stabilizes the top three, but it feels that it lacks the stability of the past. After all, the distraction is in the European war. The fifth round of the Champions League group stage defeated Lang After that, Millwall overtook Barcelona in the ranking, because Barcelona and Milan ended in a draw. As a result, Milan still ranked first with 9 points, Barcelona and Millwall had 8 points, and Millwall dominated the battle record rank the top.

This is the case in the group stage, where the front is left behind, and the rest of the game is a life-and-death battle.

Counting it, Millwall just didn't play well in the first game and lost 2 points to Lens, which led to the last three games becoming life-and-death battles, with one loss and all losses.

They beat Barcelona and Lens in the first two games, and the last game will be a guest at San Siro. It will be another life-and-death battle. Milan can qualify without defeat. Although Barcelona ranks third, as long as they beat Lens in the last round, they can also advance. Round of 16.

In early December, Aldridge accompanied Ivan to the hospital, and the due date was just two days away.

On December 9th, another important moment in Aldrich's life was born. When he held his newborn daughter in his arms, he felt that this moment made him more excited and joyful than winning the World Cup.

Presumably because of the good prenatal care, Ivan did not look particularly haggard and weak after giving birth. The picture of her and Aldrich kissing the little baby's face is full of happiness.

Little Princess Bonnie is born!

It is rare that the weather in London these two days is good, and the winter sun shines on people warmly. Aldrich gently pushed the cradle back and forth in the bedroom. Looking at the small face as big as a palm, he couldn't help but smile at the corner of his mouth all the time. Yiwen sat on the opposite side of the cradle, his face was full of love, as if he really had a three-dimensional maternal brilliance.

Bonnie, what will you be when you grow up?

Hehe, her mother is a beauty, and she will definitely be a big beauty in the future.

Yiwen raised his head and looked directly at Aldrich,

Ask: Then you say, is she beautiful in the future. Or am I beautiful?

Aldrich said without hesitation: Of course you are still beautiful.

Yiwen smiled disapprovingly, got up and went out, intending to go downstairs to get some food back, when she left the bedroom, Aldridge lowered his head and said softly to the sleeping baby in the cradle: You will definitely be the most beautiful in the future.

Aldrich, I heard you.

Aldridge looked up, and was surprised to see Ivan smiling and poking in from the bedroom door.

 …

Compared with the bright sunshine in London in winter, the city of Milan, Italy is covered with dark clouds and rainy.

Millwall, who just won the Toyota Cup in Japan at the beginning of the month, challenged Milan away. In the 88th minute of the game, Pirlo responded with a long shot from Shevchenko outside the penalty area. The bouncing ball accelerated on the wet and slippery turf in rainy days, and rushed directly into the dead corner of Millwall's gate.

Pirlo's blow before the end of the game was like a poisonous dagger piercing the heart of a wild lion!

The atmosphere in the San Siro stands was full. All Milan fans cheered wildly for Pirlo.

But Pirlo lowered his head and walked slowly towards the backcourt. There were teammates around him to celebrate. He gently pushed his teammates away and continued to walk towards the backcourt.

Pirlo saved Milan! 1:1, 1:1, Klinsmann paid the price for his conservatism! After leading by one goal, Klinsmann only wanted to keep 1:0 until the end of the game, but Milan Did not let him succeed! The score of 1:1 will allow Milan to advance to the top 16, and Millwall will bid farewell to the Champions League this season! Barcelona has already led Lens 3:0 in another game, if this game ends in a draw. Barcelona will advance to the round of 16 with the first place in the group, and the death group will reach the final round. At the last moment, the suspense still exists. But Barcelona went ashore ahead of schedule!

In the cold wind and rain, the drenched Klinsmann could only order the team to press hard at the last moment to pray for a miracle.

Unfortunately, the miracle did not come.

When Millwall scored the first goal to break the deadlock in the 53rd minute, Klinsmann chose to retreat between advance and retreat. With this retreat, Millwall no longer had the energy to counterattack.

If he can hold for another 5 minutes, Klinsmann will get the result he wants, and Millwall will also enter the top 16 of the Champions League.

However, in the end it became a wild lion struggling weakly in San Siro.

Ancelotti wiped the rain off his face and let out a roar when the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game!

Milan defeated the defending champion Millwall from the death group to enter the siege!

All the Wild Lions collapsed on the field, and even the players on the bench looked dull.

Since 1997, Millwall missed the Champions League round of 16 for the first time, and the worst Champions League record is the Champions League semi-finals!

This time, as the defending champion, they were eliminated in the group stage and were forced to move to the Europa League.

Thousands of Wild Lions fans who came from afar were also stunned in the stands.

In the group of death, Millwall's record against direct competitors is not bad.

One win and one loss with Barcelona, ​​the total score of the battle is better than that of the opponent.

Both games were tied with Milan, and the number of away goals was not as good as that of their opponents.

The real factor that really made them eliminated was the 2 points they lost on Lens in the first game in France!

But such reasons cannot convince Wild Lions fans, for them, no one will calculate such gains and losses.

The wild lion has lost the momentum of the king!

The most unacceptable thing for the fans at the scene was Klinsmann's conservatism. After taking the lead, he only wanted to hold the utilitarianism of the draw.

As a result, some Wild Lion fans booed, and some people echoed. The Wild Lion fan group began to disagree on whether to support Klinsmann.

The new season is about halfway through. Prior to this, no matter how alarmist Fleet Street was about Klinsmann's unstable position, Wild Lions fans always ignored the voice of the media. Klinsmann is reported with a firm support attitude.

But after the result of failing to qualify in the Champions League group stage, groups of fans who opposed Klinsmann began to appear. And gradually grow!

 …

The rich Aldridge comforted his children at home for the first time.

Burt and Earl sat on the sofa sullenly, and Millwall failed to reach the last 16 of the Champions League, which made the two little guys feel down.

They asked Aldridge a lot of questions.

Why didn't the Wild Lion advance?

If Millwall is not in the group of death, in any other group, even if the defending champion does not perform well, he will definitely reach the top 16. It is nothing more than the difference between first and second, but he is in the group of death. Eliminated by Barcelona and Milan.

Is Klinsmann leaving?

If firing Klinsmann can allow the team to advance to the top 16 of the Champions League, Aldridge will fire Klinsmann, but the fact is that it cannot change the fate of the Wild Lions in the European war.

Dad, if you were still the head coach, would Wild Lions do this?

Aldridge was silent.

Confidence, of course he has.

But if he is still on the team, how can he spend wonderful and happy time with the children? How to take good care of your own woman? How to enjoy the joy brought by the birth of a daughter from beginning to end?

On this day, Aldridge's e-mail was full of emails from Wild Lions fans. Aldridge didn't read the content, and directly closed the e-mail account.

the next day. As the Millwall squad returned to London, another piece of news arose.

Millwall players strike!

Ivory Coast striker: I don't see a future here!

Fleet Street alarmism is inertia, in fact. Millwall did have players who went on strike to protest.

But just one player.

Drogba.

The 24-year-old Ivorian striker, who will be 25 in four months, sat on the bench for nearly half a season after returning to Millwall in the new season. The only time he played was when Millwall lost to Liverpool. In the league game, the performance was rated as one of the worst in the game.

At the beginning of the season, Henry and Klose dominated the main force. When Henry was injured, Drogba once thought that he had hope of taking the lead. But after the first battle at Anfield, he was given up. In terms of technical ability, he is outstanding in individual combat. However, Millwall is mainly active in attacking, and it needs the support ability of the striker. Drogba's teamwork is slightly worse, which is related to his lack of tacit understanding with his teammates. This needs time and games to develop. Unfortunately, in the giants, the time is Everyone is scarce. After Henry came back, not to mention Drogba, even Larson had no chance to play. Drogba was disheartened and wanted to leave. It wasn't that he was messing around, it was just that he used more intense methods. .

Klinsmann responded to the crisis that erupted within the team, first delegating Drogba to the reserve team, and then Drogba took the initiative to submit a transfer application.

Meanwhile, the Christmas Express race schedule arrives.

God of War Nedved announced his comeback after half a year of serious injury!

As a result, Klinsmann faced a new problem, Nedved's position in the team.

Klinsmann chose to remove the defensive midfielder Pedretti and use Nedved and Alonso to play double central midfielders. Ideally, both of them can attack and defend, and provide stronger midfield support for the offense.

But in the early days of practice, Millwall's Christmas schedule was terrible. After being eliminated from the Champions League, the morale of the army fell to the bottom. All the remaining games this month did not have a win, and the League Cup also stopped at the top 8.

When the January transfer window opened, another player in the Millwall team also submitted a transfer application.

Essien, who plays the midfielder.

Although the ownership belonged to Millwall in the past, this African player who has been loaned out all the time does not have much sense of belonging to Millwall. Under Klinsmann, when he originally had a midfielder, he could still play with Deloitte. West, Pedretti competed. After Nedved came back, he and Drogba made the same voice: here, there is no future in sight.

On the first day of 2003, Klinsmann visited Aldridge. He felt guilty, but Aldridge received him warmly.

The two discussed for a long time in the study room. If Klinsmann wants to turn the tide in the second half of the season, he first needs stability in the locker room. Therefore, he needs to get rid of Drogba and Essien.

Aldridge agreed to his proposal and directly asked the club to put the two up for sale.

In Aldrich's view, today's situation cannot be avoided.

If Millwall 5 years ago faced a crisis of lack of resources and being poached from the main force, then Millwall is now facing a crisis of excess resources and internal chaos.

Why is there this situation?

On the one hand, it is caused by Aldrich's work of recruiting talents in advance.

On the other hand, poor is afraid.

In the past, I was worried, fearing that everyone on the team would be poached if they became famous, so the foundation of the team might be shaken. There is nothing wrong with being more prepared.

And now Millwall has Henry, Klose, Drogba and the 22-year-old Villa.

These strikers cannot be expected to share playing time on average, even if they are giants, at most two of them will compete with each other!

At this time point, in 2003, Millwall had the 25-year-old Henry, and he could ignore any other contemporary forwards.

So, Drogba, let him go.

The same is true for the defensive midfielder position. There are De Rossi and Pedretti. The latter may not have the potential to be comparable to world-class, but De Rossi and Essien can still compete. He is a person from the orthodox Millwall youth training. Furthermore, African players have a flawed injury: the African Cup.

The African Cup is held during the European season. Once African players are recruited, the impact on European clubs is very obvious, especially the main players of the giants.

Considering various factors, Aldridge agreed to let the two go, and at the same time sent a signal to the outside world: Millwall management firmly supports Klinsmann. (to be continued) ()