"Is this the Europa League draw ceremony? I thought there were a lot of reporters."
Standing outside the hotel where the Europa League lottery ceremony was held in Zurich, facing a dozen reporters taking photos, Benelli looked at the camera with a smile, turned his head and covered his mouth and complained to Ji Ya.
"After all, it's only the Europa League. The Champions League draw just happened yesterday, so the impact will naturally be much worse." Ji Ya replied without changing his expression.
In fact, he has known this for a long time. Although the Europa League is one of the two major European club cups, in terms of income and influence, the Europa League is inferior to the Champions League. Back then, the traditional UEFA Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup were merged.
, just to resist the influence of the Champions League. As a result, as the Champions League expanded, it basically included some teams with good results, so the influence of the Europa League became worse and worse.
Although there are still many strong teams participating in the Europa League this year, such as Juventus and Napoli in Serie A, Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga, Liverpool and Manchester City in the Premier League, PSV Eindhoven in the Eredivisie, and Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1.
...But overall, the influence is still not high.
These giant clubs will not be too happy to participate in the Europa League.
"Look, for the first time in the history of the club, we are playing a game that no one else is willing to play. What a gap." Ji Ya sighed as he walked towards the store.
"Yes, there is a real gap, but we can catch up with this gap!" Benali seemed very optimistic.
"That's right." Ji Ya gave a thumbs up to his partner.
The two people walked into the lottery ceremony at the same time. None of the head coaches Ji Ya knew him, but the others looked at him one after another. After all, it was rare to see a young and new face on such an occasion.
Seen.
No one greeted Ji Ya, and Ji Ya didn't say hello to anyone else. As a newcomer, he naturally found a place to sit down with Benelli, and then waited for the lottery ceremony to begin.
After a while, Ji Ya found someone sitting down next to him. He turned his head curiously and saw a bearded face...
He didn't know this Noriya, and the other person didn't seem to know him either. After the two looked at each other, the other person extended his hand: "Hello, I'm Jurgen Klopp, the head coach of Dortmund."
"Oh, hello, I'm Ji Ya, the head coach of Southampton." Ji Ya shook the other person's hand and said.
As a fan, Noriya is relatively familiar with the trends of other clubs. However, in the past year, he has focused on coaching and his eyes have only been on English League One opponents. He is not too familiar with the situation in European football.
Already.
But he knows about Dortmund. This team was a bit struggling in the past few years and was almost relegated because of lack of money. Is this Klopp the new Dortmund coach?
Just when Ji Ya was thinking, Klopp's eyes lit up: "Ah, I remembered, you are the Chinese owner and coach of Southampton. I was wondering, how could it happen at the Europa League draw?
There is a Chinese here."
"Ha, I am only coaching the English Championship team now, and this is probably the only thing that will be remembered by people." Ji Ya smiled mockingly to himself.
"I watched your League Cup game last year, and I admire your courage to reuse new players and have the courage to let them perform on the field." Klopp took the initiative to get close.
"This is Southampton's tradition, and it is what we must do...and I am just a new coach. If I use famous players, firstly, we can't afford them, and secondly, I can't suppress them, so I use new players who are eager."
, Very good, they have needs and desires, then we can take advantage of this and let them perform better." Ji Ya replied.
"You are absolutely right, that's what I think, so in Dortmund, I will also use more newcomers to let their energy perform well. But I am in Dortmund, which is a strong Bundesliga team, and I need to recover.
It's easy to be strong, but it's much more difficult for Southampton." Klopp said hello.
"I'm still the owner of the club, so it's easier to control." Ji Ya replied with a smile.
After chatting with Klopp for a few more words, Ji Ya found that Klopp was very eloquent and had a deep understanding of using young people and mobilizing their emotions. Ji Ya was somewhat impressed by this unknown head coach.
It's really awesome.
But he was surprised, and Klopp was even more surprised. He originally thought that Ji Ya's appointment as owner and coach was just a gimmick. Although it was magical to win the League Cup last season, it was obvious that in the knockout stage, Southampton's
The strength is not much weaker than the opponent. It is normal to take advantage of the opponent through performance and unfamiliarity with the opponent. The defeat of Manchester United in the final was a unanimous breakthrough for the whole team - Southampton was in amazingly good condition in that game and ran well.
They all showed their highest level, and Manchester United lost unjustly.
Therefore, Klopp felt that the other coach might be very good at mobilizing the morale of the team and making the players obedient because of his status as chairman. This may not be the case in other places. However, when we talk now, Klopp feels that Jiya's conversation and other things are...
They all showed the qualities that an excellent head coach should have.
Thinking about the opponent's age, Klopp felt that this guy was really awesome.
After chatting for a while, another handsome guy sat down on the other side of Ji Ya.
Ji Ya turned around and looked over. He knew this person, so he nodded: "Hello, Mr. Mancini."
The handsome Italian guy also nodded: "Mr. Jiya, it's my honor to see you here."
Although Mancini has only coached Manchester City for half a season, he is also aware of the magic of Southampton last season. As a team in the English League, he is also somewhat familiar with it.
"Southampton has no European points to speak of, so it must be in the last tier. Under such circumstances, you will probably encounter one or two of the strong teams in front of you. There is nothing to worry about. Just play well. If you can come
Strong teams that play in the Europa League often have some problems with themselves." Mancini shared his experience.
Ji Ya nodded repeatedly. This kind of experience is what he needs. Obviously Klopp also lacks such experience. Although Mancini's results in leading the team in the European war are hard to describe, he still has a lot of experience in drawing lots!
As more and more people entered the venue, Ji Ya, who was initially a little unconcerned, began to become slightly nervous.
Although it is a level lower than the Champions League, this is still a place where dragons and tigers meet and heroes gather!
In martial arts novels, the annual Champions League is a sword debate on Mount Huashan, so the annual European League is at least as good as a hero conference!
