The closer we get to the end of the season, the harder the head coach's job becomes, especially a coach like Aldridge who leads his team and still has a championship to fight for.
Going home on Sunday night, his parents hosted a banquet for Mr. and Mrs. Puskas at home. In the past year, Puskas’ life was very regular. In addition to recuperating in the hospital on weekdays, he would watch a football game every week, but basically he would not leave.
In London, he would be the center of attention wherever he went, and Arthur was inseparable from him, taking him around the city as a guide.
At the dinner table, Arthur proposed that they go on vacation abroad together in the summer and travel to tourist resorts in the Mediterranean. The Puskas couldn't resist it and had to agree.
This made Arthur so excited that he immediately called Barnett and told his son domineeringly: I want to travel with my friends and get a large yacht.
Barnett has been staying in the United States since the beginning of the year. Last year, he began to cash out his investments in Southeast Asia. At the beginning of this year, he completed the withdrawal of investments from Southeast Asia and then transferred to the international capital market. He met many Wall Street financial institutions in the United States.
Speculators are like the second offense on the football field.
Barnett's withdrawal of investment was a reminder from Aldrich, which in turn meant that Aldrich was not optimistic about the market prospects in Southeast Asia. It happened that Barnett heard some rumors on Wall Street that international financial speculators were planning to invest in Asia.
If there is a fight, Barnett will naturally participate in it and take a share of the pie.
Therefore, Barnett reluctantly told Arthur: I don't have a yacht, and I don't have the spare money to buy one in the near future. I can only borrow one from a friend.
Arthur didn't care about that, as long as he had it, it didn't matter who it was.
Barnett quickly contacted friends in Europe and finally "borrowed" a luxury yacht at the cost of exchanging information, allowing his friends to join the financial war being prepared.
Aldrich is devoted to his work, and there are not many things outside of work that can distract him. Melanie's Spice Girls have become popular in Europe. Now they rarely stay in London and spend most of their time performing in various parts of the UK. They also go to other parts of Europe.
In the second half of the year, they will try their best to hit the US market. If they can succeed, they will start a global tour next year. The two of them spend less time together and stay apart more. They just talk on the phone every night to chat about their current situation.
But within the scope of work, there are really a lot of trivial things that Aldrich needs to worry about.
There are poachers every day, and now not only Aldridge's players are being poached, but their coaches are also being seduced.
Benitez has always had invitations from Spanish teams, but he has no intention of leaving. Coaches from the Netherlands such as Janson have also been contacted by small Dutch clubs, and they do not want to move for the time being. Because they believe that they do not have Aldridge.
With capital, once they go back to coach the team and are laid off due to poor performance, will they come back to Millwall? After all, they are not yet thirty years old.
However, the 30-year-old Nagy coached the youth team and was also attracted by the League One team. Perhaps he thought that the 1996 FA Youth Cup winning generation trained by Nagy was able to seamlessly connect with the Millwall first team, which represented his coaching.
Ability, although the Millwall youth team failed to reach the FA Youth Cup final this season, they still won the youth league early. In addition, in the youth team friendly matches in Norway and France, the Millwall youth team performed well.
The most important thing is that poaching Najib may also lead to the poaching of some good prospects from Millwall's youth team.
However, the outside world obviously does not understand the relationship between Najib and Aldrich. In a sense, the two are brothers, Najib is the brother, and Aldrich is the brother. However, the two have completely opposite characteristics.
Delic has no patience for early-stage training. He likes to play with tactics and let some capable players become his pawns, while Najib is just the opposite. He leads the team alone with less passion and is too calm. Instead, he is not interested in cultivating players.
Growth is meticulous.
The two are simply a "match made in heaven". Najib rejects all invitations without even looking at them. The calmer he is, the less likely he is to coach the first team on a whim, which would expose his shortcomings.
Besides, he is not a person who likes to be in the limelight.
During the midweek game at Old Trafford, Aldridge did not bring all the main players. Stam has been demoted to the reserve team. Millwall and Manchester United have also reached a transfer agreement.
After Ferguson had a verbal conflict, Ferguson did not continue
He had been in contact with Aldridge, and Manchester United directly made a transfer offer of 15 million pounds. Adam still wanted to bargain, because Manchester United's first offer was this figure. Negotiation.
Millwall certainly have room to bargain.
But Aldrich directly asked Adam to agree to the offer.
This offer has equaled the world transfer price record. Although it will be surpassed by Alien in the summer, it is still the most valuable defender in the world. Aldridge does not have to worry about the transfer fee with Manchester United. After all, the price was made by him himself.
It turns out that he is a person who abides by the rules of the game, and there is no need to go back on his word.
Both clubs have kept the transfer confidential. When the season officially ends, Stam will go to Manchester for a medical examination and will announce his joining after passing it.
Prior to this, neither Manchester United nor Millwall wanted to disturb military morale by announcing in advance.
Why do you think Manchester United still needs to secure second place in the league and the second leg of the Champions League semi-finals? Once Stam's transfer is announced, what will the two central defenders of Manchester United think? Who will be kicked out of the main lineup next season?
But Millwall just can't stop the fire. Stam, the absolute main force, has not appeared in the squad for a row. Fleet Street didn't think there was any big problem at first. Rotation or injury, no matter what the reason, he was absent.
One or two games were normal, but after the scene of Stam being sent to the reserve team was photographed by reporters, it quickly caused an uproar.
Fleet Street speculates that there are two possibilities. The first is discipline. Stam may have violated team discipline and was punished. The second is transfer. Either Stam is no longer in Millwall's future plans, or Stam is no longer in Millwall's future plans.
He wanted to transfer but fell out with Aldrich. The young coach punished the Dutchman with an iron fist and sent him to the reserve team.
This is the reason why Aldridge was angry at Manchester United before.
Millwall's season is not over yet, and Manchester United is poaching players. Whether it succeeds or not, the impact on Manchester United will not be big, but Millwall will be hurt. Especially it will disrupt the morale of the military.
Aldridge also wants Stam to leave honorably, but at this stage, he must make Stam disappear from the first team's sight and give the players a clear signal: Stam is no longer one of us!
Otherwise, teammates will look at Stam every day. But Aldridge does not use him, which will obviously cause a lot of suspicion. It is not a good thing if this suspicion spreads.
Before the start of the FA Cup, Aldridge appeared on the sidelines of Old Trafford early, with more than 20 minutes left before the start of the game.
Instead, he sat in the stands behind the coaching bench and chatted with ITV reporters.
"Is Larson hurt?"
"No. He is just a little tired. I asked him to stay in London to rest and prepare for the weekend league."
"Haha, is it to help him win the European Golden Boot?"
"That is a very important honor for a shooter, and he has the opportunity to fight for it. Of course I will help him, and his teammates also want to help him achieve this goal, but Larsson is not that kind of selfish player.
Ranked first in the scorer list and third in the league in assists."
"Can you talk about Stam? He played in the reserve team game yesterday and helped the Millwall reserve team win. His condition is fine. Why not use him? He played in the league, the European war, and today's FA Cup.
Disappeared from the squad."
Aldridge looked around the Theater of Dreams, and finally smiled and said: "His heart is no longer in Millwall."
The ITV reporter at the scene was stunned. He didn't expect to get such explosive news from Aldridge.
Aldridge just felt that instead of letting the outside world continue to speculate, it would be better to pierce the last window paper, end the public opinion storm as soon as possible, and stabilize the team's military morale.
"You mean he wants to transfer?"
"Yes. He wants to join a big club, a team that is bigger, stronger and more attractive than Millwall in his mind."
The ITV reporter thought for a while and finally asked: "Is it a Spanish or Italian giant?"
He feels that there is no better team than Millwall in England.
Aldridge shook his head and said: "I can't say this. What I can tell you is that the transfer conditions have basically been agreed upon, but in order to respect this transfer, Millwall will not reveal Stam until the end of the season.
The next home.”
"Is it because of this reason that Stam was sent to the reserve team?"
"That is to keep him in shape. Maybe people outside think that he is very strong and I should continue to use him at this time, because at least he has not left yet. However, when I coach the team, I value team unity more. I can't imagine a
Players who don't have their hearts here appear in my lineup, it's like you see a lineup of ten of your own and one betrayer, and it will destroy our unity."
"Betrayer? Is this how you describe Stam's move?"
Aldridge nodded and said: "Yes, because he chose to transfer when the team needed him most. I am not saying that I must keep the player in Millwall for the rest of his life, but we are in the most important period of the season."
moment, his transfer will have a negative impact on the team, which
It's a betrayal. I don't want to see him again before the end of the season. Although I am very grateful for his contribution to the team in the past three years, but now, I think it is better for him to stay as far away from my team as possible.
, when he leaves at the end of the season, I will wish him good luck."
...
After all, ITV is not a live broadcaster. Even if it obtains first-hand hot news, it cannot publish it immediately. After all, the media network is still in a blank period at this time, and mobile phones are only used for sending text messages and making calls.
So the FA Cup semi-finals are about to begin, and the fans' attention is still on the field.
There are a lot of Millwall fans who don't understand. They even put up slogans in the Old Trafford stands: Please bring Stam back!
They just speculated that there was a conflict between Aldridge and Stam. Before knowing the truth, they hoped that the team would face the next schedule with the strongest lineup.
Stam has been an important part of Millwall's transformation from League One to the Premier League champions in the past three years. His importance to the team is deeply understood by every Lions fan.
But in today's FA Cup semi-finals, Aldridge fielded a half-main and half-substitute lineup.
Goalkeeper: But.
Defenders: Mills, Helguera, Southgate, Zambrotta.
Midfielder: Lampard, Makelele, Ballack, Nedved.
Forwards: Shevchenko, Phillips.
Aldridge played a 4312 formation that the team does not often play.
In fact, he doesn't want the team to only play 433 or 4231. Strong teams often switch back and forth between multiple formations. Facing different opponents, there are more changes. It is not necessarily possible to always play a fixed tactical system. This is a good thing, because if you play for a long time, your thinking will become rigid and you will lack the ability to adapt at critical moments.
Today's opponent is Middlesbrough. Bryan Robson's team performed well last season. This season they have introduced many heavyweight players, such as Ravanelli, Juninho, Emerson, etc. They are starting to Pursuing offense instead of defending first and then attacking directly led to the decline in their record, because they were promoted last season and their opponents despised them. They defended and counterattacked with accuracy. This season, their opponents paid more attention to them. Before the new lineup and new tactics took shape, their opponents were able to hit them accurately every time they tried to counterattack. The price Robson paid for adjusting the lineup and experimenting with new tactics was that he was stuck in the relegation quagmire in the standings.
This was also related to the fact that they canceled the game against Blackburn without permission and were directly deducted three points. This was also the first time in the history of the Premier League that a team was deducted points. Even though Leeds United was later deducted points for financial reasons, that was not the case. Also in the second division league.
