Li Yi and Bell, the two current core offensive and defensive players of Crystal Palace, do not have to waste energy in meaningless friendly matches. Is there any other news that makes Friedman happier recently? Not really.
He trained with the team for a week and welcomed back Balzaretti Modric, who had returned from playing for the national team. On January 13, 2008, Crystal Palace sat at home and ushered in the 22nd round of their league match.
Not only were Li Yi and Bell, the core of the team's offense and defense, not hit by the ff virus, but they had a full week's rest due to last week's international match day, and the opponents they faced were really not strong.
Coupled with the home court advantage, well, based on the above-mentioned good news, there is nothing that can stop Crystal Palace from continuing its winning streak at home! Even Modric was not in good form in this game and was almost invisible throughout the game!
2-0, Li Yi and Bale each scored a goal. In the first round of the league after the ff match day, Crystal Palace scored all 3 points!
And as soon as the game at the Crystal Palace ended, the news coming back from other venues made the Crystal Palace even more happy!
Among the top four teams in the league, with the exception of Crystal Palace, which continued to be strong in this round of the league, the other three teams were more or less eroded by the ff virus, and all failed to win the game, either drawing or losing! Especially Crystal Palace's current league champion
Manchester United, the most advantageous contender, suffered greatly from the ff virus this time due to the number of 13 international players in the team, and lost to Chelsea in an away game!
In this way, without knowing it, Crystal Palace, a newly promoted team that was not expected by anyone before this season, miraculously topped the standings after the halfway point of the league, not to mention the gap with the second-placed Red Devils Manchester United.
However, Crystal Palace's good luck seems to have ended here! Again, because we did not expect that Crystal Palace would suddenly emerge like this, when arranging the schedule before the season, the Football Association was very effective in preparing multiple plans for Crystal Palace.
It was a devilish schedule, and after Crystal Palace won Portsmouth 2-0, they were very lucky and ushered in their second wave of devilish schedule this season!
One week later, on January 19, Crystal Palace challenged Tottenham in an away game. Although Tottenham at this time did not expect to introduce Bell, the future king, its strength should not be underestimated!
And playing Tottenham is just the beginning of Crystal Palace's devilish schedule. After playing Tottenham, they can only rest for 3 days, and Crystal Palace will face the challenge of the Red Army Liverpool!
After playing Liverpool, take a week off, and then face the challenge of Toffees Everton again!
In the next week, the team will face a devilish schedule of Tottenham, Liverpool, and Everton. These things are already enough for Friedman to worry about! But the things that worry him are far away.
It's much more than that.
Because, don't forget, it's already January, so the Premier League's winter transfer window has already opened!
Unfortunately, due to their outstanding performance in the first half of the season, almost the entire main lineup of Crystal Palace has attracted interest from surrounding powers!
Among them, Li Yi, Bale, and Modric have the largest and craziest audiences!
Normally, Crystal Palace is secretive and determined not to sell, so forget it! Unfortunately, Friedman, including everyone at Crystal Palace, underestimated the desire of the rich for these three players!
Modric cost Crystal Palace a small 8 million when he bought him! After signing him now, Crystal Palace wisely set a liquidated damages of 35 million pounds for Modric, which is a very high price! However, this is still
There is no way to stop the outside world's pursuit of this Crystal Palace midfield metronome. Among them, Real Madrid, who made a major change in the summer, suddenly discovered that their starting point was wrong. What the team currently lacks most is a midfield commander. Real Madrid showed the most generous performance! Almost!
After Crystal Palace expressed that they would not sell Modric, Real Madrid did not hesitate to send a fax to Horford's office demanding Modric's liquidated damages.
After Real Madrid made its statement, several other teams that were also interested in Modric naturally followed their lead! Even if Inter Milan and I buy it, it will be useless and it will not make you feel comfortable.
Barcelona, the buyer, and Manchester United also offered liquidated damages of 35 million pounds without showing any signs of weakness! In this way, even if Crystal Palace wants to interfere with it, it can no longer do so!
Therefore, as a last resort, Friedman had to convey the news to Modric after finishing the morning training at noon.
Compared with Modric, Bell's pursuits have only increased or decreased! Since the contract extension with Crystal Palace has not yet been completed, and in addition, at the time of purchase, Bell was worth a full 3 million cheaper than Modric, so
, Bell’s liquidated damages of 30 million pounds at this moment are actually only 30 million pounds! After Carlos retires, he will become a prominent left back! Bell’s 30 million pounds liquidated damages will appear to be so,
Cheap! Not to mention, compared with traditional left backs, Bell is much better in terms of speed and assist ability! Even compared with the assists of peak Carlos, Bell may not be far behind!
So, if you can buy a left-back who may not be weaker than Carlos for only 30 million pounds, will any wealthy family find it so cheap?
No, absolutely no! Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Inter Milan, there are many who are pursuing Modric, plus Bayern in the Bundesliga, Arsenal and Tottenham in the Premier League, just invitations from wealthy teams, Bale
The invitations he received were no less than 10 points. It can be said that from this moment on, Bell has truly become the most popular left back in the five major European leagues! [
And the above two people are like this. It can be imagined that as Li Yi, who is currently the hottest in Europe and has an EU household registration, the attention he has received is really need to be mentioned!
Of course, for Crystal Palace, the only good news about Li Yi is that when they renewed their contract, they raised Li Yi's liquidated damages from 10 million to 60 million!
In 2008, 60 million pounds! In this era, which is far from the inflated value of players in later generations, to be honest, this price can already help Crystal Palace scare away most potential buyers!
However, it only scares away most of them, but not all of them!
Due to Ronaldinho's strong performance, he has often been at a disadvantage in the confrontations with Barcelona in the past two years. This time, Real Madrid was almost hysterical at the winter transfer window!
That is to say, Bale and Modric did not hesitate to pay liquidated damages before. After testing it twice, they found that Crystal Palace's attitude was extremely tough and did not bargain with them at all. With a stroke of his pen, Lafayette imposed another liquidated damages.
"Lee? Do you have time? Can we chat for a few words?"
Just after lunch, he was sitting in the lounge and heard the voice of a teammate calling him. Li Yi instinctively opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the sound!
Seeing that the visitor was Modric, who usually had a good relationship with him, Li Yi immediately sat up, pointed to the sofa opposite him, and said with a smile, "Of course, sit down!"
"Okay!" He was not an outsider to Li Yi, and he was not used to standing and talking to others. Modric went to sit opposite Li Yi and then continued, "The coach will also see you at noon, right?"
