Red Rebels

2006 was a year of pain and joy for Barcelona.

Defending the La Liga title and successfully reaching the Champions League final made Barcelona fans very proud. However, being killed three times by the Red Rebels in one season and the team's weak performance in the final, which was almost powerless, made Barcelona fans feel... So ashamed.

Is this still the Barcelona team that once shocked the world and claimed to be the new generation's dream team?

It's time for the election of a new club president. Laporta is determined to be re-elected, but former vice president Rosell, who was expelled from Barcelona by him, also decided to run. The latter's campaign slogan was to attack Laporta. Blaming the latter for failing to bring glory to Barcelona, ​​on the contrary, he dragged Barcelona into the quagmire of debt.

The cause of this incident can be traced back to when Laporta was elected as the chairman of Barcelona in 2003. At that time, he took over a mess from Gaspart, with debts of nearly 100 million and was on the verge of bankruptcy. But at that time Laporta The decision to borrow 150 million euros from the bank not only repaid the debt in one fell swoop, but also captured Ronaldinho from Manchester United.

This was hailed by Laporta as one of the most important transfers in Barcelona's history. Ronaldinho also laid the foundation for Barcelona's rapid rise and became the soul of Barcelona!

In Xiao Yu's previous life, Barcelona relied on their outstanding results, Ronaldinho became the number one football player in one fell swoop, and his commercial value surpassed that of Beckham. This benefited Barcelona a lot and made Barcelona become The richest club.

However, with Xiao Yu's time travel and the rise of the Red Rebels, Barcelona has always lived under the shadow of the Red Rebels in recent years. First, they were double-killed in the knockout round, and then three-killed in the following season. Although they scored However, Barcelona's revenue capacity has grown slowly, and Ronaldinho's commercial value cannot be compared with the Red Rebels combination of Beckham, Kaká, Ronaldinho and Messi.

All of this seemed to knock over dominoes, causing Barcelona's debt crisis to intensify. Although Barcelona under Laporta has been in a state of growth, Russell felt that Laporta made many wrong decisions. Influenced Barcelona.

From the time Laporta borrowed Beckham to participate in the campaign, which caused Barcelona's image to be damaged, and later Laporta made many mistakes in the transfer market, such as key player Deco being taken over by Chelsea, and Van Bommel was also taken over by Manchester City. Preemptive success, etc., resulted in Barcelona's competitive strength not being improved, and its debts not being alleviated.

But Laporta scoffed at Russell's accusations. Although the latter was hailed by the media as Laporta's most powerful rival, in fact, Laporta did not take him seriously because he It is very easy to get support from members.

According to Barcelona's election regulations, candidates who want to participate in the Barcelona presidential election must obtain the signature support of 1,804 members.

Russell was unable to do anything about it, while Laporta easily obtained the signature support of over 10,000 members.

In other words, even Rosell, who is considered Laporta's biggest competitor by the media, is not even qualified to run for election. In this case, why should Laporta care about him?

It can be said that the campaign has not yet begun, but Laporta has already confirmed his re-election in advance.

Barcelona is like a government institution, and the presidential election is a political election. Since Laporta has been re-elected, he must start to settle all the old scores, such as those players who supported Rosell.

For Ronaldinho, Laporta both loves and hates him. On the one hand, he is the soul and cornerstone of Barcelona. On the other hand, he has a close relationship with Russell. He was signed by Russell himself. Star, during the presidential election, he even stated his stance on Rosell's side, which was an offense to Laporta.

It's hard to say why Laporta easily thought of selling the soul star. Maybe it was when Ronaldinho clearly supported Rosell, maybe it was when he saw the offer from Chelsea. A transfer offer too heavy to refuse.

All in all, with Laporta's re-election, Ronaldinho is no longer for sale to Barcelona!

Selling Ronaldinho and getting a large transfer fee can, on the one hand, fill the financial hole. On the other hand, Laporta's emphasis on youth training paid off last season, with Iniesta, Pep De Deiro and other stars have emerged one after another, which made Laporta decide to focus on the youth training camp.

When Kenyon proposed to Laporta to acquire Ronaldinho, Laporta did not express his attitude, but he decided to listen to Kenyon's opinion, which means that anything is possible!

In the end, after more than half a month of operation, Kenyon brought Ronaldinho to the Premier League and Stamford Bridge as he wished, although he once again created a sky-high transfer in the history of football transfers.

For 65 million euros, such a transfer is astonishing at any time, but Kenyon said with a smile at the press conference when Ronaldinho appeared at Stamford Bridge that the transfer was worth it. Because Ronaldinho can bring huge influence to Chelsea and improve its strength.

Ancelotti even said with a smile that Ronaldinho will become the soul of Chelsea. He will be the last piece of his tactical puzzle, but he is also the most critical piece.

Analysts believe that if Ronaldinho's sluggish performance in the World Cup had not affected his value, he would have been able to break Zidane's transfer record, but unfortunately, Ronaldinho eventually failed. Failed to achieve sky-high prices again.

But now that more and more teams are choosing to live frugally, Chelsea and Manchester City are probably the only ones in football today who can offer such a sky-high transfer fee to attract players.

Therefore, coincidentally, when Chelsea signed Ronaldinho, Manchester City also announced an equally surprising transfer.

…………… For two consecutive days, almost all sports journalists in England were busy. They had to travel back and forth between London and Manchester, but not for the Red Rebels and Droylsden. The Newton Heath Cup charity friendly match, which was becoming more and more prosperous, was for two players.

One is Ronaldinho, and the other is Italy's main goalkeeper, Buffon!

It’s hard to imagine why Buffon would switch to Manchester City?

Just like many people who found it incredible that Vieira defected to Manchester City last year, this club can hardly provide players with anything except money. However, after one season, Manchester City told everyone that money can be exchanged for competition. Strong!

Vieira, Kolo Toure, Ibrahimovic, Van der Vaart, Sneijder, Van Bommel... all star-studded names. They packed the almost relegated Manchester City into fourth place in the league, killing Entering the Champions League is an absolutely amazing achievement for Manchester City.

This season, Manchester City's new stadium, the City Stadium, is opening. Entering the new stadium must have a new atmosphere. Alfasim hopes that Manchester City's strength can be further improved. He wants to see Manchester City become the second Red Rebels and not only aspire to win the Premier League. , and also aspired to win the Champions League.

is it possible?

The answer is, maybe!

Buffon, the transfer fee is 35 million pounds; Dutch international Kronkamp, ​​the transfer fee is 10 million pounds; Ajax defense core Heitinga, bundled with the powerful midfielder De Jong, the transfer fee is 20 million pounds.

Several consecutive transfers are considered by many professionals as a major signal for Van Gaal to build a strong defense for Manchester City. After all, Kronkamp and Heitinga are all-rounders in the backcourt, while De Jong can become a guarantee in the midfield. They have both proven their quality at Villarreal and Ajax respectively.

The introduction of Buffon has also greatly strengthened Manchester City's goalkeeper. I believe that the main goalkeeper in the new season will undoubtedly be Buffon, while Given can only become Buffon's substitute. This will inevitably be a waste of resources.

On the front line, in order to find a suitable partner and substitute for Ibrahimovic, Manchester City introduced the Brazilian player Elano, worth up to 10 million pounds, and also reached a transfer with Bayern in Santa Cruz. The Paraguayan player who had torn his cruciate ligament and bid farewell to the entire season had performed well before, but he has been unable to play the main role since recovering from the injury.

Van Gaal is very optimistic about Santa Cruz's ability and feels that he can become a competitor for Ibrahimovic, while Elano is an all-rounder in the frontcourt. From this point of view, Van Gaal is undoubtedly preparing for the double line and even the Prepare for multi-front operations.

………… In addition to Chelsea and Manchester City’s aggressive signings, the mid-tier Premier League teams have also made significant signings this season. Many professionals believe that this is a result of the increased revenue of Premier League teams and the financial shift. Big positive sign.

Newcastle's league ranking last season was not very satisfactory, and they could not even win the UEFA Cup. This made this veteran Premier League team determined to strengthen its strength this season, especially with the retirement of veteran Shearer. Newcastle bought forward Martins from Inter Milan for 10 million pounds, and then purchased Kuaisuma Duff from Chelsea for 5 million pounds.

Newcastle head coach Lord said that Martins will become Shearer's successor. His speed will scare all Premier League teams. For this reason, he specially gave Shearer's No. 9 jersey to Martins. In addition, he also Duff has been introduced, hoping that this pair of fast and fast combination can help Newcastle play beautiful offensive football.

Middlesbrough began to strengthen their defense and introduced central defender Huth from Chelsea, which cost them 6 million pounds. At the same time, they also successfully retained Hasselba, the shooter who performed well last season. Inke, this has also steadily improved Middlesbrough's strength.

Another team that has made a lot of moves is Tottenham Hotspur. This well-run Premier League team almost made it to the UEFA Cup last year. This season, Tottenham head coach Jol decided to put the core midfielder in the place. Rick sold to Manchester United for a high price of 19 million pounds in exchange for sufficient transfer fees to allow them to operate in the market.

In order to strengthen their offense, Tottenham spent 11 million pounds to introduce the dashing Berbatov from Leverkusen. The Bulgarian forward's performance was not satisfactory when he first joined Leverkusen, but by 03/04 This season, he broke out in one fell swoop, scoring 16 goals in 33 league games. In the following two seasons, the number of goals also reached 20 and 21 respectively, which was very stable and attracted the attention of many European clubs. interest, but he ultimately chose Tottenham.

"Joel personally called me and told me that Tottenham is a very ambitious team. Their goal this season is to strive to enter the European competition and try their best to enter the Champions League. I was surprised by this, but I believe him. , so I decided to refuse other invitations and come to the Premier League. I hope to contribute to this team!"

In addition, in order to set off their ambitions, Tottenham also introduced right back Chimbonda from Bastia. This transfer cost them 6 million pounds, and they also introduced the Ivory Coast center for 8 million pounds. Zocola brought in Malbranque from Fulham for £2 million.

Although the sale of Carrick resulted in a hefty transfer fee, Tottenham's investment this season is still considerable, which makes everyone curious about this veteran team and looking forward to their performance in the new season.

But when it comes to another surprising transfer in the transfer market, it is West Ham United.

The background of the MSI company founded by the British-Iranian Horabchian has always been confusing, but Horabchian’s idea of ​​acquiring West Ham United has never been given up. There are even rumors that after Horabchian Before acquiring Corinthian, he had thought about acquiring a Premier League capital team, but failed to do so due to financial problems.

Acquiring Corinthian, Joorabchian brought a sworn enemy to the old Brazilian team, the Argentine star Tevez, and at the same time poached Felipe Melo from Flamengo. Both players relied on their With his outstanding performance in Corinthian, he was successfully selected for the respective national team and landed on the stage of the World Cup in Germany.

Now, Joorabchian has brought these two players to the Premier League and he hopes to acquire West Ham United.

Since West Ham United is not a listed company, the acquisition can proceed as long as the shareholders agree. However, after the shareholders of West Ham United agreed to be acquired, the Premier League came forward to stop the transaction. The reason is simple. They suspected Horab. Qin's financial resources.

If it were in the previous Premier League, perhaps Joorabchian would have had a chance of success, but as the Premier League becomes more standardized and has higher requirements for acquisitions, the possibility of Joorabchian passing the acquisition is slim.

The acquisition of West Ham United ended up in vain, but Tevez and Felipe Melo were left at West Ham United. Some said it was a loan, some said it was a buyout. No one knows what the situation is. The only thing that is certain Yes, West Ham United's strength has greatly increased.

While the strength of other Premier League teams has steadily improved, the three newly promoted teams have made very small moves. Reading introduced Korean player Seol Qi-hyun, spending 1.5 million pounds, and Sheffield United acquired a free transfer from Everton. Chinese player Li Tie was introduced, and Watford loaned goalkeeper Foster from Manchester United.

Compared with the two newly promoted teams last year, West Ham United and Droylsden, the three promoted teams in the Premier League this season are more likely to stay in Reading. Sheffield United and Watford obviously do not have the strength. With the ability to stay in the Premier League, they are the favorites to be relegated this season.

However, Sheffield United head coach Warnock said that he is very confident in the team's avoidance of relegation. He is convinced that his team can stay in the Premier League!

But who knows?

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