On the evening of May 18, 1997, Millwall, the club that won the Triple Crown, celebrated with a bus parade in East London. Millwall fans gathered on both sides of the road to cheer enthusiastically.
The players wore suits and ties to feel the glory brought by the championship. For them, the season is over, and celebrations at this time are part of enjoying life.
But for the other protagonist who never showed up, work continues.
Millwall Club Community, Aldridge Residence Apartments.
Ronaldinho, with a tissue stuffed in his nostrils, sat cross-legged on the sofa with half a watermelon in his arms, scooping out the flesh with a spoon and putting it in his mouth. He stared intently at the football news on TV.
This afternoon, compared to the sensational celebration of Millwall's Triple Crown, another piece of news in the English football circle became the focus.
Old Trafford King Cantona officially announced his retirement this afternoon!
This football superstar, who was one week away from turning 31, unexpectedly chose to bid farewell to the pitch at this time, which not only caused an uproar in Fleet Street, but also probably shocked the Manchester United dressing room and all Manchester United fans.
Aldrich walked down the stairs, followed by two young men in work clothes, who were carrying a malfunctioning treadmill.
"We will take this treadmill back for inspection. If it is due to quality reasons, we will replace it with a new one for you."
After the two young men finished speaking, they carried the treadmill and left Aldrich's apartment.
Aldridge closed the door and walked back to Ronaldinho and complained: "You don't weigh too much. Why did you break my treadmill? By the way, the team is on holiday. You don't go to celebrate with the first team."
.If you want to train on your own, just go to the youth training base."
Ronaldinho said without looking back: "It's a long way to go, and I don't know if anyone is there. Boss, your treadmill is too fragile. I only ran for three minutes, and the machine suddenly stopped."
It caused me to hit the wall directly, and my nose still hurts now."
Aldridge patted his forehead and looked helpless. Ronaldinho suddenly turned around, pointed at the TV and said: "They say Cantona is a superstar, why do I feel that he is not good at all? He played six years in the UK.
In one and a half years, I haven't scored as many goals as Henrik did in three years at Millwall."
Aldridge scratched his head and was silent for a moment, then said: "Because you can't just regard him as a striker. He is not only the core player of Manchester United, but also the spiritual leader of Manchester United. In addition to scoring goals or assists, his role also includes
The impact on the morale of the team, uh, this kind of intangible effect is difficult to find through data. Why is he a superstar? Because he is not only a star himself, but he can also help his teammates become stars."
For a superstar like Cantona, the goal efficiency cannot reflect his value. The more intuitive effect of this kind of player's team value is: whether he is on the court or not, the team's record fluctuates.
Millwall also has such a player, and Nedvěd is one of them. His fighting spirit infects his teammates, making them not give up in adversity and giving others the belief to fight tenaciously. This invisible spiritual temperament is the most valuable.
Therefore, in the history of Manchester United, there are many stars who have scored more goals than Cantona and are more efficient, and there are also many players who have played for longer. But in terms of status, the King of Old Trafford is not in vain.
Ronaldinho put down the watermelon in his arms, stood up and stretched. He understood the literal meaning of what Aldrich said, but did not understand the meaning.
What does it mean to "not only be a star yourself, but also help your teammates become stars?"
Ronaldinho didn't think too much about it. This was not a problem he should worry about. He just asked casually.
He picked up the travel bag he had placed on the other end of the sofa, waved to Aldrich and said, "Boss, I'm leaving, don't think about me."
Aldridge gave him a thumbs up and encouraged him: "Go to the national team and perform well."
Ronaldinho walked out of the door, waved his hand without looking back and said: "Don't worry, I won't embarrass Millwall."
Aldridge burst into laughter. How embarrassing? It would also be embarrassing for Brazil.
Ronaldinho was called up by the Brazilian national team to participate in the World Junior Championships held in the summer.
The World Youth Championship will be held in the summer, and Aldridge's colleagues have already taken action to watch the game and collect good prospects. However, he does not intend to watch the game because it is too far. One is held in Africa and the other is held in Asia.
Even the Confederations Cup is held in Saudi Arabia, and Aldridge's plan this summer is to play in Europe.
He went back to the gym to tidy up, especially because there was nosebleed on the wall from Ronaldinho's face hitting the wall. Aldrich worked for a long time to clean it up. At dinner time, he went downstairs to open the refrigerator and searched around with his eyes.
After closing the refrigerator door helplessly, he sighed in confusion: "Ronald, you are a thief!"
I put the fruit juice I squeezed out at noon in the refrigerator to refrigerate, but when I was about to enjoy it, I found that the juice bottle was missing.
Ronaldinho, who threw the juice bottle into the trash can at the airport, sneezed and started boarding the plane with his travel bag. He was still thinking: The juice prepared by the boss is really delicious. Let’s try it again when we get back.
Taste it at his house.
Aldridge rested at home for two days and then quickly got back to work.
Although the door to the transfer market has not yet opened, as long as the club has no personnel changes, it has already begun intensive recruitment work.
Following Millwall's glorious Triple Crown last season, the official website will update news about a player's contract extension every day. This is a promotional method to keep the team in the news.
In fact, the contracts of the players in the team have been renewed. Some players have five-year long-term contracts, such as Southgate, Larsson, Nedved, Schneider and other players, while some players have three to four-year contracts.
As for the two-year contract, some players wanted to sign it, such as Shevchenko, but Aldrich directly refused. After negotiation, the contract period was set to three years.
The two-year contract has almost no binding force. After one year, the player becomes a semi-free agent. Aldridge will never wait for one year left on the player's contract before considering renewing or selling him.
He will sell early and renew the contract. He will ensure the safety of the contract for at least two years. Because he looks at the overall situation. He is looking at the team's construction in the next five years.
If a player proposes to renew his contract for less than three years and is resolute, Aldridge will immediately consider a replacement for this player.
The authority of the head coach must be above that of the players, but the players are the role of the head coach in achieving the goals. From this point of view, the players are actually above the head coach.
The Millwall club is singing and dancing, but Aldridge's worries about future construction and the current situation can only be hidden in his heart. For example, he is already thinking about the future replacements of Trezeguet and Shevchenko.
Trezeguet is full of ambitions. When he renewed his contract in the summer, he had already hesitated, and the same was true for Shevchenko. When Aldrich introduced him, Shevchenko expressed that the league he wanted to land in was Serie A.
.
In this era, the best players gather in Italy, and the attraction of Serie A is difficult to shake in a short period of time. This has nothing to do with the strength of Millwall. It is the influence of the league.
In comparison, Larsson happily signed his name on a five-year contract. The 26-year-old Swede is not without dreams, but he is more mature and understands the power of the team better than the fledgling newcomer.
When he was in the Netherlands, his scoring rate could only be regarded as average, but when he came to Millwall, his scoring efficiency made a huge leap, and he started the peak of his career this season. He knew that he was in an excellent and suitable team for him.
A team is far more beneficial than flocking to wealthy clubs.
Stam transferred and left, and Millwall received 15 million pounds. The other two players who are sure to leave in the summer are two strikers, Phillips and Tony.
Regarding the transfer of Phillips, Aldridge reached an agreement with Peter Reid over the phone on the night of the FA Cup victory on the 17th.
Although Sunderland have been relegated, Reid's position as manager is still secure, so he has plenty of room to rebuild the team.
Sunderland is not the only team that is interested in Phillips, there are also many teams that have higher bids than Sunderland.
However, Aldridge finally persuaded Phillips to join Sunderland.
He also explained the reasons to him. Sunderland will build the team with him as the core of tactics, and his status is guaranteed. Secondly, it is no problem to play in the Premier League with his strength. However, because he is not the main force in Millwall, this season
He has played less times, so he will first go to League One to integrate into the team. Sunderland will give him time, but other Premier League teams may not have the same patience. Even though they pay more than Sunderland, their emphasis is completely different.
.
In the end, Phillips joined Sunderland for 3 million pounds.
Tony is on loan to Martin O'Neill's Leicester City team. The deal was announced early, allowing Tony to report to Leicester City in the summer.
At this point, Martin O'Neal admires Aldridge very much. If he doesn't make a deal, if he does, then he will be happy.
Head coaches resent the procrastination of trades in the summer, which not only affects preparations for games, but also makes people feel irritated: whether the players will come or not!
At the end of May, Aldrich listened to the management's financial report from last season at the club.
Millwall's income increased significantly through the Triple Crown last season, but due to the small stadium, ticket income is a weakness. Fortunately, broadcast income and bonuses have made their financial situation significantly better than last summer, and in Sri Lanka
Tam and Phillips earned 18 million pounds, directly bringing their season income to more than 50 million pounds.
But compared with the same period last year, Manchester United's operating income ranked first in the world last season, with operating income of nearly 60 million pounds.
And this does not include revenue and expenses in the transfer market.
In terms of pure management, even if Millwall won the Triple Crown and Manchester United received nothing, their income would not even be half of Manchester United's!
Millwall's income will be even greater in the new season because they have secured qualification for the Champions League and a new Premier League broadcast contract will come into effect.
The last broadcast contract was for 5 years and 191 million pounds.
The new contract, which came into effect in the summer of 1997, was for four years and worth £670 million.
On average, each club has an income of more than 8 million pounds per season, and Millwall can obtain a broadcast share second only to Manchester United due to its record, team influence, and live broadcasts. The reason why Manchester United has higher income than Millwall , that is, Manchester United has more fans and is superior in influence. In the other two items, record and live broadcasts, Millwall does not fall behind at all.
In Aldridge's view, the team's most difficult financial moment has passed. Apart from the fact that he cannot spend large sums of money to introduce stars in the transfer market, he will have no problem living a stable life.
There are many reasons why he cannot introduce stars. Transfer fees are only one aspect, and wages are also one of the costs. For example, to buy a first-class star, the transfer fee may be between 5 million and 10 million pounds. This is a one-time payment. , but what about the salary? According to the maximum weekly salary of 25,000 pounds in the Millwall team, only three players can get this salary. Then the introduced stars are ranked in the second tier, with a weekly salary of 20,000 pounds. If they sign for five years, In these five years, more than 5 million yuan will be paid in salary alone. Including bonuses, it may exceed 6.5 million yuan.
Aldridge believes that instead of spending more than 10 million pounds on first-class stars, and there is no guarantee that the stars will be worth their money when they come to the team, he would rather invest this money in youth training and spend it on the cost of cultivating stars.
This summer, the club's transfer budget is 15 million pounds, and Aldridge plans to spend all of it on youth training, and his European network talent journey has thus begun. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, The novel is better and updated faster!
