This is a question common to all football investors around the world.
If it is possible, then why, after investing so many years, has Chelsea never been able to win the Champions League as they wished?
We managed to reach the final last season, but lost to Manchester United.
But if you say no, then how did Chelsea win the league title? Real Madrid and Barcelona and other wealthy teams buy so many stars and invest so much money every year. Why?
This is actually a very deep knowledge.
Football investors in the City of London often say: If you want to know the answer, just look at Chelsea.
The same team, with the same huge investment, could not win the championship under Ranieri, but they could under Mourinho. Why?
"Stars are scarce, but even more scarce are those head coaches who are dedicated to winning championships!"
This is what Manchester City's current chairman Mubarak heard when he just landed in London and met with investors in the Financial City.
It has been five months since he hastily took over Manchester City at the end of September. From the beginning, he knew nothing about football business, to now he is gradually getting started with the affairs of Manchester City. Mubarak, as a top student who studied at New York University in the United States, has an understanding of professional football.
A deeper understanding.
This background, coupled with the fact that he is less than thirty years old, makes Mubarak look down on those football people who cannot keep up with the times and have outdated ideas, such as the current Manchester City head coach Mark.
Hughes.
In his eyes, Mark Hughes has become the biggest obstacle to Manchester City's development.
The British head coach would only ask for buy, buy, buy. Manchester City invested a huge sum of 60 million pounds during the winter break. If you include summer transfers, the investment is very staggering.
But so far in the new season, Manchester City's league ranking has always been around ten, and it is difficult to go further.
After investing so much money, Mark Hughes has never been able to come up with a mature and stable idea and plan and produce competitive performance. If this were placed in a company, the department leader would have been doomed long ago.
In Mubarak's first meeting with Mark Hughes, Mubarak promised Mansour, the boss behind the Abu Dhabi consortium, that the team's business plan for Manchester City was based on a ten-year period, proving that they have a long-term
Business determination.
At that time, Mark Hughes also confessed that his coaching was aimed at Ferguson and Wenger, which was in line with Mubarak's plan. In addition, the season had already begun, so he had no intention of changing coaches.
Even in December, when Manchester City fell into the relegation zone, Mark Hughes was still using a lot of high-sounding words to prove that there was no problem with his coaching, but that Manchester City's lineup was too poor, which made the management take a winter break.
An additional £60 million was invested in the period.
But who would have thought that the team's results would show no improvement.
Maybe, it’s really time to change the coach!
Another thing that contributed to Mubarak's determination was the introduction of Kaká during the winter break.
At that time, Manchester City offered a huge sum of money to AC Milan in an attempt to bring in Kaká, and offered a sky-high annual salary. This had convinced everyone except Kaká, but in the end, due to the intervention of former Real Madrid chairman Florentino, Kaká
In the end, I chose to stay on the team.
Outsiders thought that Kaká had feelings for AC Milan, but Mubarak knew that it was because Kaká wanted to go to Real Madrid.
There is news that Real Madrid will hold general elections this summer and no one can prevent Florentino from returning to the chairmanship.
After the Galacticos era giant returned to Real Madrid, the first thing he did was to win over the two superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká. What is even more exciting is that he will take over the two superstars who have excellent coaching achievements in Serie A.
Gao Shen, please return to Real Madrid.
Gao Shen came out of nowhere in 2006 and led Real Madrid to create a double-championship miracle. After that, he went to Italy and staged a miracle for the newly promoted team to win the championship for two consecutive years. He is the most popular talented young coach in world football today.
At the beginning, Mubarak got to know Gao Shen with a revenge mentality. Because Real Madrid poached Kaka, who Manchester City was determined to win, Mubarak wanted to take revenge. It happened that Manchester City needed to change their coach, and Gao Shen could also be considered.
But the more contact they had, especially after in-depth discussions with Chairman Advisor Brian Marwood and Technical Director Brian Kidd, both of them were full of praise for Gao Shen and believed that he was the best coach in world football now.
One of the coaches.
The key is that his coaching style is very likable and he is especially good at building a team.
Naples is the best proof of this.
Mubarak was also full of expectations and brought Marwood and Kidd to Stamford Bridge to watch Chelsea's game against Naples. He hoped to get to know Gao Shen up close.
As a result, frankly, he was disappointed.
…
"Is this the genius young commander?"
Mubarak doesn't know much about football, but he can still see that Naples is lagging behind and the scene is not good to watch. Except for playing well in the second half of the first half, everything else is very passive.
He even had some doubts: Are the Italian media, or the European football media, just like the British media, good at flattering and building momentum? Anyone can be praised as a genius?
Marwood and Kidd looked at each other with wry smiles on their faces.
How to explain this kind of thing?
The situation was passive and the score was behind. Can we still say that Gao Shen did a good job?
If someone knew a little bit about football, he could explain it, but Mubarak didn't understand football.
He doesn't even have any idea what level of head coach Hiddink is.
"The game lasts for ninety minutes, and the Champions League knockout rounds are two-legged, so sometimes temporary gains and losses will not change the outcome of the game. I even personally feel that the current situation and score behind may not be without profound meaning.
It's possible." Marwood tried to explain.
Mubarak didn't understand, "You mean, he lost on purpose?"
"No, no, no, Mr. Chairman, it's just sixty minutes and he hasn't lost yet."
"Can we win?" Mubarak asked again.
Marwood was immediately speechless.
Whether we can win or not, who knows?
Don't talk about him, even if he is a master, he may not dare to say that he can win, right?
"If you continue to watch patiently, the interesting thing about football is that it always surprises you," Marwood said.
Brian Kidd nodded and said: "It's been sixty minutes, it's almost time for Gao Shen to exert his strength."
Mubarak was dubious, but secretly sneered.
Are you a genius?
What you say is so mysterious, do you really think I'm being fooled?
But at this moment, in the 62nd minute, Gao Shen made a substitution.
…………
…………
"Naples took the lead in making the first substitution adjustment of this game."
"Italian full-back Maggio replaced Lichtsteiner."
"It's like a matchup substitution."
"Macho performed very well for Sampdoria in Serie A last season and won the title of the best right back in Serie A. After moving to Naples this season, his performance is also remarkable, but he has always been in the main position.
Lost the competition to Lichtsteiner."
"This time, Gao Shen asked Maggio to replace the Swiss full-back. Is he not satisfied with Lichtsteiner's state tonight?"
…
Gao Shen took advantage of the substitution opportunity and called Thiago Motta to the sidelines and gave him some instructions.
Immediately afterwards, he stood on the sidelines and kept gesturing towards the players on the court.
When the game restarted, everyone was surprised to find that Naples' entire formation had changed.
In the front, Sanchez played on the left, and Di Maria appeared on the right, becoming an inverted winger.
Thiago Motta, who was deep in the midfield, returned to the defense to form a three-centre back three with David Luiz and Bonucci, while Vargas and Macho were pushed to the midfield position.
As a result, Naples' formation became close to a three-four-three position.
After the substitutions and the restart of the game, Naples showed aggressiveness and launched a high-pressure attack on Chelsea, especially when the entire defense line was directly pressed near the midline.
Although this sudden attack did not catch Chelsea by surprise, Hiddink immediately gave the order to retreat, but Chelsea still dealt with it in a very awkward manner, and the scene suddenly fell into a passive position.
Just one minute after the substitution, with the support of Maggio on the right, Di Maria suddenly shook off Ashley Cole, smashed the ball horizontally with his right foot and cut inside. After adjusting slightly with his left foot, he quickly kicked out.
A curve ball.
The ball missed the left corner and flew out, causing everyone at Chelsea to break out in a cold sweat.
…
Ever since Naples broke out, Hiddink's face has never looked good.
The Dutchman, whose face was as deep as water, kept adjusting the team's defense on the sidelines and thinking about it in his mind.
Is he considering whether to make a substitution?
In fact, he doesn't have a good candidate now, because there are two players Ivanovic and Ferreira sitting on the bench.
Ivanovic is what he wants to replace to strengthen the defense on the right, but if he is replaced, the offense on the right will be greatly affected, so Hiddink is still more cautious about this.
Naples is now attacking Chelsea's left wing, which is Ashley Cole's side. It is obvious that Gao Shen saw that Ashley Cole was not in good condition and wanted to create a threat from the left wing.
For Ferreira?
Judging from the game against Aston Villa, his condition was even worse than Ashley Cole.
How to change?
Hiddink closed his eyes and thought seriously.
But at this moment, a burst of exclamations suddenly erupted in the stadium, which startled the Dutchman and he quickly opened his eyes.
I saw Naples exerting pressure in the frontcourt. Rakitic suddenly stepped forward and double-teamed Mikel with Di Maria at the same time. After successfully stealing the ball, Di Maria dribbled the ball forward from the right side of the ribs.
Pushed, and after attracting the attention of Ashley Cole at the edge of the penalty area, he distributed the ball to the right wing.
Like a bolt of lightning, Macho rushed over and used his speed to drive the ball to the baseline. He forced his way past Ashley Cole's defense and picked up the ball near the baseline on the right and passed the ball.
This kick did not look for Cavani in the front post. After attracting the attention of the central defender, the Uruguayan center emptied the entire area from the front of the small penalty area to the penalty spot.
And Rakitic, who was wearing Napoli's away jersey, quickly stepped forward from behind, faced the cross from the right, and used his left foot to volley a ball directly.
Cech was standing on the right post of the goal just now, but after the cross, he quickly moved to the middle, but Rakitic's volley hit the right side again.
