After playing against Athletic Bilbao that night, the team disbanded in Valdebebas.
As a wealthy club, almost all Real Madrid players have national team competition duties, and even some who will not make the 18-man roster have been approved by Gao Shen to leave the team in advance.
And for every player who leaves the team, including the eighteen players who played for Athletic Bilbao, Gao Shen has only one request.
Don't get hurt!
Last season, Real Madrid suffered from the national team competition. If Marcelo had not been injured, Real Madrid would not have lost to Barcelona in the La Liga championship. Therefore, Gao Shen's request is very clear, asking all players to protect themselves.
Previously, Gao Shen also called the national team coach one by one. The Real Madrid coaching staff will also keep in touch with the players and the national team coach at any time and pay close attention to every move of the Real Madrid players.
Since it is a World Cup qualifier, Gao Shen has no way to demand the national team coach to accommodate the club. After all, they also have their own performance pressure, and Real Madrid players are basically the backbone of each national team.
Therefore, what Real Madrid can do is very limited and can only try to ensure logistics.
For example, chartering a flight for the South American national football team is nothing.
Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid teamed up to charter a plane, which has become a common practice.
After the players were disbanded and reported to the national team, Gao Shen couldn't be idle and flew to Nyon, Switzerland the next day.
…
Gao Shen has forgotten the last time he attended UEFA's Elite Coaches Summit.
He didn't want to participate this year because he was too busy and had a very important matter waiting for him to deal with at Leeds United. How could he still have time to participate?
But there is no way, Platini and Infantino have been inviting, they even arranged for Ferguson to host this meeting, and it is fixed, and the position is European Coach Ambassador.
When a new official takes office, it's natural that the old knight wants Gao Shen to give him face. How about not going?
Ferguson has said that if Gao Shen doesn't go, he will go to Madrid.
However, not to mention, many of the people present were old acquaintances.
Anyway, all the world-famous coaches from the top teams are here.
What surprised Gao Shen was that Pochettino also arrived.
The two met, and Pochettino was quite embarrassed, especially when he noticed the questioning look in his eyes.
It's really hard to ask this kind of thing.
Gao Shen couldn't ask him: Why are you here?
Isn't this a slap in the face?
What's going on?
Not qualified to come?
"Specially invited by Sir Alex Ferguson," Pochettino took the initiative to explain.
Gao Shen nodded, suddenly enlightened.
To some extent, this was Ferguson giving him face. After all, everyone knew that Pochettino was highly recommended to coach Leeds United.
"I made an impromptu call the day before yesterday. Originally, I wanted to call you yesterday, but Miss Su said that you were busy, so I shouldn't bother you with such a small matter, so..." Pochettino explained a little more.
"It's okay. This is a very good opportunity. It will be good for you to communicate with them more."
"But I have to remind you, Mauricio, just listen to what some people say and don't take it seriously. No matter how many reasons and excuses a loser gives, it will be useless. There is nothing worth learning from."
"Not to mention those who have retired. They are no longer on the front line, and what they say has no reference value. You don't even need to listen, just go in and out on the right. It's a waste of time to say anything to him."
Pochettino was a little surprised, why did it suddenly become so obvious?
Looking around, I suddenly found two people coming behind me.
Isn’t it just Ferguson and Wenger?
Despite the fact that these two old men fought bitterly in the Premier League, they actually have a good relationship in private.
Especially now, as soon as Ferguson retires, these two old men are as good as honey.
At this moment, they both stood back and listened, laughing.
Pochettino immediately smiled bitterly and quickly pushed the "boss" next to him to signal him to stop talking and be heard.
Gao Shen didn't care, he had seen it a long time ago and deliberately told them.
"Don't be nervous, your boss is blaming me." Ferguson seemed generous.
Can you not be generous?
Today, he is the host.
He is also a UEFA coaching ambassador.
"How dare I? Now you represent me." At the end of the sentence, Gao Shen himself snorted and couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Ferguson didn't blush and was out of breath, "I am a retired old man making some money to live on, do you understand?"
Gao Shen said oh, looked at Wenger again, and chuckled, "Professor, we were hoping for the stars and the moon, and finally we got you back." After saying that, he even exaggeratedly stepped forward and hugged Wenger.
Wenger's expression is simply too rich.
I wanted to crush this bastard to death, but I had to force a smile.
Gao Shen is not just talking about the UEFA Elite Coaches Summit, but the Champions League.
Everyone knows that generally speaking, only coaches who have participated in the Champions League are invited to attend the Elite Coaches Summit.
Like Pochettino, the Leeds United he coaches is participating in the Europa League, so he would not normally receive an invitation, but Ferguson made an exception and invited him, which is considered a good deal for Gao Shen.
In the past few years, Arsenal has not been able to participate in the Champions League, so Wenger will naturally not come to attend the coaching summit.
Both Ferguson and Pochettino couldn't stop laughing. Only Wenger had a bitter look on his face and dared not speak out in anger.
…
Everything before the meeting was actually teasing and joking. When it came to the actual meeting, everyone was more serious because everyone's speeches and suggestions would be recorded.
There are many major topics, some of which have been discussed for many years.
For example, UEFA President Platini proposed that football should learn from the rules of ice hockey. If a player commits a serious foul, which is more than a yellow card or less than a red card, he can be sent off the court for a period of time.
This proposal is actually very interesting. It was mentioned last year, but it was not very feasible.
This year, the president of UEFA brought it up for discussion again and gave a feasible plan for everyone to discuss together.
As a result, basically no one agreed.
There is also the cancellation of the Champions League seeding teams.
This is actually an old topic.
The current Champions League group stage rankings are based on European War points, but the Europa League also counts towards European War points, so many teams do well in the Europa League and their European War points keep rising.
But there will also be another situation where the team is obviously very strong, but due to various reasons, the points in the European competition are not ideal, so it is ranked in the lower grades.
For example, Manchester City before Gao Shen, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain now, and Real Madrid last season.
This is actually a very troublesome thing, because these teams are very strong, but they are all placed in the third and fourth gears. How can others do it?
They are a super deadly group at every turn, who can stand it?
The plan given by many people is that the league champion and defending champion will automatically enter the seeding team.
But this kind of reform will definitely be opposed by people.
Benfica and Porto, for example, would not agree.
Why?
With the current ranking situation, these two Portuguese Super League teams can easily reach the second tier, and this season they have reached the first tier.
This is awesome, right?
Everyone knows that if you get into a seeded team, your chances of qualifying for the group stage will be greatly increased, especially if you have better luck in the draw, it will simply be a walk-off.
Is this the qualification to qualify?
No, it's all money!
Tens of millions of euros of money!
Therefore, this still needs to be discussed further.
Of course, the Elite Coaches Summit has never been an important meeting. It is more about letting UEFA hear the opinions and suggestions from the top coaches in the Champions League.
But this year there is a new topic, and that is player transfer fees.
Of course, no one will discuss the transfer fee, but discuss the club's finances by discussing the transfer fee.
The likes of Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco are terrible.
The transfer market has closed.
According to current UEFA statistics, two teams have invested more than 200 million euros in the transfer market this summer, both from Ligue 1, namely Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco.
Among them, Paris Saint-Germain has more money than Monaco, which is just over 200 million euros.
This makes it stand out from the crowd.
Because most of the remaining teams are worth around 100 million euros.
But one thing is worth noting, that is, a total of seven teams have invested more than 100 million this summer, including Real Madrid and Arsenal. The Gunners mainly introduced Icardi, but also signed in several other positions.
Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League has also invested a lot of money. They ranked fifth last season and want to make a run at the Champions League.
This is actually the norm.
Like Tottenham, if they want to break into the Champions League, they often need to work harder and invest more.
Therefore, Tottenham also invested over 100 million this summer, but after deducting the income of players such as Dzeko, Tottenham’s net investment is not outrageous.
In Serie A, Napoli also invested over 100 million, mainly because of the introduction of Higuain and Alan.
On the contrary, Barcelona only introduced one Neymar, and Neymar's transfer fee has always been questionable.
Manchester United only spent 34 million euros. This is no longer a question of whether there is money to invest, but a problem with Manchester United's management's operational capabilities.
Obviously, the Red Devils' lineup is in serious need of fresh blood, but Manchester United didn't work, which surprised many people.
In terms of total league investment, the Premier League has the largest investment, exceeding 750 million euros, which is nearly twice the 380 million euros of La Liga in second place.
However, the Premier League also has a lot of transfer revenue, reaching 500 million, of which 300 million is contributed by Leeds United.
Of course, no one will discuss how Leeds United makes money in front of Gao Shen and Pochettino. What they are more concerned about is that the transfer value of players has increased significantly compared with before, and the overall annual salary of players has also increased.
Many people believe that the money-burning craze in European football has become more intense.
In the cruel environment of the financial crisis, transfer investment and player annual salaries have intensified. This is abnormal, and UEFA needs to step in to properly curb this trend.
At the same time, we also need to pay attention to the financial status of teams such as Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco. Otherwise, it will be unfair to other hard-working teams.
Regarding this, Gao Shen did not express any opinions because he knew that no one would listen.
The reality will be more cruel.
Because in the future, there will be more and more teams like Paris, Monaco and Manchester City, especially in the Premier League.
It was a crazy era when any young player could easily exceed 100 million.
