i am beckham

Chapter 233 The Opening Explosion

A well-staffed United, undefeated since November, returned to the long-lost top spot with nine wins and four draws in their next 11 games.

The biggest news during this period was Keegan's resignation from Newcastle United. For Newcastle fans, this is undoubtedly bitter news.

Newcastle United went public, and Chairman Hall, who had supported him in every possible way, lost interest in investing in the club, which also restricted Keegan's rights.

Keegan, who is extremely strong, made a request to the boss Hall. He needs the boss to reserve enough power for him, instead of treating himself as a superstar who polishes Newcastle's brand.

At this time, Hall had gradually lost his ambition to compete for the championship and did not agree to Keegan.A few days later, in Hall's mansion in Wynyard Park, the Newcastle management negotiated with Keegan to renew his contract. They handed Keegan a 10-year contract and said "either sign or leave".

Stubborn Keegan had only one answer: refusal, and offered to resign immediately.

Keegan defended himself and said: "I don't think I'm a person who stays in one place for ten years. I can't sit still after five years. I'm not like some coaches who live their lives in one city. I like different lives.

Hearing the news of Keegan's resignation, even Ferguson expressed deep regret, saying: "Kevin is full of talent, but it's a pity that he failed to achieve greater achievements.

He was a likable football star, so talented and charismatic that no one could help admiring him.

He selflessly gives a lot of time to others, which is evident in his willingness to meet with reporters every day.He was generous and gave a lot, but maybe not all of it was appropriate. "

In fact, the two met many years ago, when Ferguson was still coaching the Aberdeen team, and Keegan was an enviable star.

The two met in a friendly tournament during summer preparations, and Ferguson asked Keegan to chat with his players at a training session, and Keegan happily went.

The two were yelling at each other in the media last season, and Ferguson was almost driven crazy by Keegan at the end of the season, all for work.

If Keegan is an incompetent person, how could Ferguson spend so much effort on fighting the other party.

When playing last season until Christmas, Newcastle led by Keegan almost pushed the Manchester United coach to a cliff.

At that time, Ferguson was still in trouble with the club. He threatened to negotiate the contract after the end of the season when the contract entered the final year.

In that case, doing Keegan was all about his career, to support his family.

Now that Keegan is gone, Ferguson is a little depressed. He thought that the war between the two would last at least a few years, and he didn't expect that the plot of the duo to fight for hegemony would change halfway.

In this way, Keegan took the initiative to leave the club he loved and disappointed.

While all the media attention is on Ferguson and Keegan, there is one man who is racing against time to make base for the club.

As soon as he took office, he revised the team's recipes, and injected his own tactical style into the team a month later.

Arsenal are still as tough as before when they play, but the players have learned to use the ball at their feet to find their teammates after receiving the ball.

In the second month of coming to the club, he began to get involved in all the work of the club.

It takes time to transform the first team, so he first transformed the training model of the youth training and reserve team beyond recognition, followed by the club's administrative management, medical care, technology, logistics, and coaching staff.

He didn't ask the club to meet his demands immediately, but he let everyone know what the future work should be.

As long as he has time, he will watch the club's youth team games.

Not only that, but the French are often seen on the schedule of Ligue [-] and La Liga.

He spread scouts all over Europe, with the goal of taking away children from other clubs.

According to the staff, there are many boxes of videotapes in his office, and he watches games from all over the world every day.

His workload is so great that even the media are amazed.

What's even more miraculous is that Adams, the spiritual leader of the Arsenal team, adopted his advice and began to try to quit drinking, which is miraculous.

He came to England for three months, and many media felt that he had Ferguson's shadow in him.

Some, however, feel that his movements at the club are much bigger than they were when Ferguson took charge.

Keegan left, and the media's attention seemed to suddenly shift to Wenger.

Compared with Arsenal, Liverpool's results are better, but the media thinks their coach Evans is an old-school coach, and he does not represent the future.

Meanwhile, England have assembled in London, where they will host Italy, the favorites to advance from Group Two, on February 2.

Because last year's European Cup broke into the semi-finals, England's actual ranking rose to No. 8 in the world. It was also because the European Cup group stage failed to qualify, and Italy's world ranking fell to No. 5.

Judging from the world rankings, the match between the two teams will be a close contest.

But the reality is that the England team has not defeated the Italian team for 19 years, which is an embarrassing record.

Although every encounter is a new beginning, the fact that the England team has been following the old path for nearly 20 years can more or less explain some problems.

As we all know, the England team has been on the road of long balls for 30 years, and their way of playing has been ridiculed as ancient tactics by other countries in continental Europe.

But what makes people speechless is that England has persisted in this style of playing from top to bottom.

Nearly 31 years ago, England won their only World Cup on home soil.Since then, the lineup that England was forced to use in that cup due to lack of personnel was used as a template and implemented.

Everyone played long passes, but they didn't understand the essence of this tactic.

At that time, the England team had a world-class midfielder like Bobby Charlton. You must know that players of this level are hard to come by.

And it is just that the long pass tactic is extremely selective for players. Those players with excellent skills but thin bodies can't even survive the youth team. Over the years, the England team has been mass-producing players of the same model.

If Venables hadn't turned a bunch of strong men into a semi-skilled team, the England team might still be playing barbaric football.

At the end of the European Cup, Venables resigned, and the England team encountered a shortage of coaches.

Robson, who led England to the semi-finals in 1990, refused to accept the invitation of the FA. He was afraid that he would not be safe at the end of the season.

And Keegan also rejected the invitation of the FA. Looking at the 20 muscular players in the England squad, he felt that his coffee position might be okay, but his rank was really not good.

The England team chose to choose, and the only one who met the requirements was Hoddle.

Probably influenced by Ferguson's ten-year reign and turning Manchester United into the Premier League's hegemony, the FA really wanted a young and vigorous head coach.

Hoddle is only 38 years old this year, and he is at best an older brother in the locker room.

He started his coaching career as a player-coach five years ago. He first trained in Swindon for three years, bringing the Swindon team from the third level to the top league, and then coached Chelsea. He is still a player-coach.

In the 1993-1994 season, Hoddle led Chelsea to the FA Cup final, and the next season led the team to the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup.

As a new-generation head coach, Hoddle no longer sticks to the rules.As Wenger's main midfielder in Monaco, his coaching ability is second to none among coaches of the same age.

But he also has a natural flaw in character. The staff of the club he coached commented that he is a smart person, but he sometimes looks naive.He makes people feel distant. Although he is not indifferent, he always shows a sense of superiority in IQ in front of others.

For this reason, the English media also ridiculed the FA for being "unfriendly to people".

Obviously, the longer a team is in charge, the more Hoddle's character flaws affect the unity of the dressing room.

Some media revealed that when Hoddle was appointed to accept the England team after the European Cup, Venables was still in intense preparations.

But Hoddle actually discussed with Venables whether he could meet with the players three months in advance.

It was an impolite and thoughtless request, but Venables graciously accepted it.

Hoddle attended a training session and had lunch.

In the past two months, a reporter also asked Venables how he felt about this incident. The old bastard grinned and said, "When you get my autobiography later, you will understand everything."

Through these days of contact, Beckham also gave Hoddle a preliminary evaluation in his heart: a head coach with rich tactics and advanced concepts.A hard-working, well-meaning, well-mannered head coach who occasionally irritates others.
He will tirelessly and unreservedly explain his tactics in tactical meetings, over and over again, until the players understand it, which is very similar to Venables.

But he also kept saying things like, "Paul, can't you be smarter with the ball?"

"Tony, you're walking so slowly, I was wondering if you should have a drink now?"

"David, your set kicks have no soul at all. What's the use of such free kicks where neither teammates nor opponents can guess where they will land?"

Look, is this what a head coach should say?

Although he is mentally disabled from time to time, in general, he has met the rare England team in ten years.

The England team has just entered the semi-finals in the local European Cup. The age structure of the team is reasonable. There are veterans like Seaman, Adams and Pierce, as well as Paul Ince and Shearer.

In addition, Beckham, Gary Neville, and McManaman have accumulated rich experience in the last two years, and the team is on an upward trend.

The England team was in the same group as Italy, Poland, Georgia and Moldova in the world preliminaries. According to the qualifications for the World Cup qualifiers, the first place in the nine groups and the second place in the best group will advance directly.

There are many places in the European qualifiers, but there are also many strong teams, and there will always be strong teams that miss the World Series.

The two teams won the first two games of the group stage, and this game largely determined the direction of the group stage.

On the afternoon of February 2th, England and Italy stood against each other. This game is likely to determine the ownership of the World Cup places. Both teams are very serious.

In the corner of the stands, Italian fans happily waved flags of the same color as the national flag, and they were surrounded by many home team fans holding high the English flag.

At the reminder of the host, all the fans stood up.

The Italian national anthem was played first. Under the leadership of a soprano singer, the Italian fans who went to England to cheer for the team sang happily.

Next, "God Save the Queen" was played on the field, and a high-pitched male singer led all the fans to sing in unison.

Probably because the emotions were too high, the England fans sang halfway through, and the rhythm picked up significantly.

The male singer tried to suppress the rhythm as much as possible, but the tens of thousands of fans in the audience were full of excitement, and his lead singing ended in embarrassment.

"Hello everyone, the viewers in front of the TV, the third round of the world preliminaries is about to start. This match will be played by the England team against the Italy team at home.

Let's take a look at the starting lineups of the two teams. The Italian team played a 3-5-2 formation today.

The goalkeeper is Peruzzi, and the three defenders from right to left are Ferrara, Costacurta and Cannavaro.

In the midfield, Di Livio is on the right, Maldini is on the left, and the three players in the center are Baggio, Albertini and Di Matteo.

The two strikers are Casiraghi and Zola.

Coincidentally, England's formation is also 3-5-2!

The goalkeeper is Walker of Nottingham Forest, and the three defenders are Gary, Campbell and Pierce.

The five players in the midfield are David Beckham, Ince, Barty, McManaman and Le Saux, with McManaman at the front.

The two strikers are Alan Shearer and Le Tissier.

The Italian lineup is complete, while Adams and Gascoigne in the England team are absent due to injury.

When the England captain was rarely injured, some people thought it was because of alcohol withdrawal that he was absent this time!

It’s kind of funny to say that.”

As soon as the referee's whistle was heard, the Italian players rushed to the backcourt of the England team, and Albertini immediately passed a long pass to the left.

Gary Neville broke the ball ahead of Di Matteo, England passed the ball to Pierce, who went straight forward and Ferrara broke the ball before Shearer.

The Italian team, who got the ball, then passed the football to the left. Zola and Di Matteo played a wall two and one past Gary Neville and rushed the ball to the edge of the penalty area.

Just as Zola was about to cut inside, Beckham accelerated to get the ball in front of him.

The 1-meter Italian striker wanted to fight, but he bounced back after touching Beckham.

Just when the Italian players were about to run to block the passing route, Beckham suddenly accelerated and passed Di Matteo in an instant.

The bad boy of the Italian team reacted very quickly. He turned and tripped Beckham from behind.

The whistle sounded immediately, and the referee gave a yellow card backhand. Di Matteo was not happy immediately, and had a chat with the referee on duty before giving up.

"David's breakthrough was very decisive. He gave Di Matteo a yellow card in the first minute. This is a good start for the England team!"

(End of this chapter)