Chapter 365 The battle for the top spot, Manchester City VS Chelsea

The Egyptian Pharaoh's life at Chelsea has not been easy. Since joining Chelsea during the winter break last year, Salah's life at Chelsea has become more difficult day by day.

When he first joined the team, Mourinho was still very interested in him.

Salah, who led his team to defeat Chelsea in the Champions League, left a deep impression on Mourinho.

It is precisely because of this that Mourinho bought him, intending to use it to solve the team's weak forward problem.

However, Salah, who performed well in Basel, became seriously acclimatized after arriving at Chelsea.

In the 2013-2014 season, Salah still had a chance to play. He played 10 times in the Premier League and scored two goals.

However, this season, after Chelsea bought Diego Costa, Salah completely lost his chance to play.

So far this season, Salah has only played 3 Premier League games for Chelsea, all of which were garbage time substitutes and did not score any goals or assists.

The Egyptian Pharaoh was frustrated by not being able to play for a long time.

He realized that he might not have a future at Chelsea, so he began to look for a loan or simply a transfer to leave!

It just so happened that Mourinho took a fancy to Fiorentina's Cuadrado, so he planned to loan Salah to Viola as a transfer addition.

The transfer negotiations were going smoothly until Manchester City intervened.

Chelsea were surprised after receiving a £12 million offer from Manchester City.

Does the other party really want to buy someone, or is it planning to disrupt the transfer negotiations between them and Florence?

It is said that Manchester City is looking for defenders all over the world, and Cuadrado's performance in Serie A is obvious to all. Could it be that Guardiola also has his eye on him?

For a moment, Mourinho couldn't see through Guardiola's intentions.

Chelsea spent 15 million pounds to buy Salah. However, Salah's performance has declined in the past two seasons and his value has dropped a lot.

Therefore, Manchester City's offer of 12 million pounds is not too low, and it can still be negotiated with the other party.

The final transaction price is about 15 million pounds. If Manchester City is really sincere about buying, this price is acceptable to Chelsea.

However, most teams are unwilling to do this kind of thing by selling a player with great potential to a direct competitor in their own league.

Even if the price is lower, selling to teams in other leagues is better than selling to competitors.

What's more, during the winter break last year, Manchester City poached De Bruyne, who was ignored by the Blues, from them at a low price. It was later proven that the Blues were wrong and suffered a big loss.

Seeing De Bruyne's performance in Manchester City getting better and better, Chelsea fans regret it!

If I had known that De Bruyne was so strong, I shouldn't have sold him.

Even if it really needs to be sold, it shouldn’t be sold to Manchester City!

For only 20 million euros, he gave Manchester City a core midfielder. This deal was a huge loss!

After learning from the lessons of last year, Chelsea were particularly vigilant when receiving the transfer offer for Salah from Manchester City.

"Let's contact Florence again. The maximum price is 30 million euros. No matter how expensive it is, we won't buy it!"

Mourinho originally didn't pay much attention to Salah, and he almost forgot about this person.

But Manchester City's offer made him wary, and he couldn't help but want to keep Salah for further observation.

Maybe I made a mistake?

Guardiola has always had a very accurate eye for people, and the players he likes must have something special about him.

But if Salah is forced to stay, Florence's transfer fee may not be affordable.

Fiorentina's psychological price is 35 million euros, and Chelsea's offer is 5 million euros lower than their psychological price, and it also deducts Salah, who was originally agreed to be loaned out.

This made Florence very dissatisfied!

They feel that Chelsea are not sincere and Cuadrado's performance was dazzling both in Serie A and last year's World Cup.

And now that he is at his peak, selling such a player for 35 million euros is definitely a reasonable price.

The negotiations between the two parties were not progressing smoothly and were about to end. Chelsea had to make concessions and added 2 million euros to the original price.

Fiorentina did not intend to agree to the transfer, but Cuadrado himself yearned for Chelsea very much. If the transfer was refused, the relationship between the club and the players would be very tense.

Therefore, Viola could only hold its nose and agreed to the transfer.

As for Salah, who was originally going to be loaned out, Chelsea forced him to stay because of Manchester City's offer.

This may not be good news for the Egyptian pharaoh himself.

Because at the critical moment of Chelsea's championship competition, it is difficult for him to get playing time in a marginal role.

And being without games for a long time can be said to be a very disadvantageous thing for young players who are in the critical period of rising goals.

It is precisely because of this that Salah's attitude towards Mourinho has undergone a huge change, from the original respect to keeping a distance.

After being rejected by Chelsea, Guardiola didn't feel much regret.

Salah's style is somewhat similar to Messi and Lin Quan. Since Lin Quan is already in the team, buying him is just to serve as Lin Quan's substitute.

However, Guardiola discovered that Lin Quan's attendance rate was very high. Not only did he have few injuries, but he also had extremely strong physical fitness.

He doesn't seem to need a substitute...

So Chelsea just refused. It was no big deal. After all, he just listened to Lin Quan and gave it a try.

Guardiola didn't care, but Lin Quan felt a little sorry.

Salah is a big player in Liverpool. If he can be poached in advance, it will be like cutting off an arm of Liverpool.

It's a pity that the plan failed to succeed, and I don't know if Salah will join Liverpool as originally planned after Klopp lands in the Premier League.

During this winter break, Manchester City made a total of four transfers, selling one person and buying three people, with a total expenditure of only 5 million euros.

With this kind of expenditure, one would think it was a small team from one of the five major leagues even if the team name was covered up!

Blue Moon fans who are accustomed to the team spending money lavishly are a little uncomfortable with the team suddenly becoming so frugal.

Last winter, they made a lot of news, including the transfer of Kroos for 50 million, and they even became the bidding king.

As a result, this winter, their total expenditure was only one-tenth of what it cost to buy a player last year.

This is too economical!

After learning the news, the club's president Fahim went to Guardiola alone and chatted with him:

"Mr. Guardiola, the club has no financial problems and the transfer budget is sufficient. You don't have to be so frugal at all."

He thought Guardiola was saving money for the team, so he reminded him tactfully:

The backer behind our Manchester City is the Abu Dhabi Consortium. Unlike other teams, we don't have to consider saving money.

"Haha, Mr. Fahim, you misunderstood. I didn't mean to save money for the team. I just spent the money where it should be spent. I am already very satisfied with these signings."

Guardiola said so, and Fahim had nothing to say.

You can't just press the other person's head and force him to spend the money!

Moreover, the winter break is indeed a bit short, and signings are also greatly restricted. Guardiola may not make big moves until the summer transfer period.

Thinking of this, Fahim stopped persuading.

After Fahim left, Guardiola suddenly became emotional.

The feelings of Manchester City and Bayern are indeed completely different.

When he was at Bayern, the club's annual transfer budget for him was very small, only about 30 million euros.

For such a small amount of money, to buy suitable players, you have to sell them to raise money.

In Manchester City, not only did he have no concerns about the transfer fee cap, but he even aroused concern from the club president because of the lack of money spent.

This kind of thing is really unheard of.

The Manchester City club is indeed different from the rumors outside.

He was glad that he made the right choice!

…

Since it is the first winter break after the World Cup, there are not many transfers in the five major leagues during this year's winter break.

The main transfers have been completed in the summer, and in the winter there are only minor changes in local positions.

Among the major clubs in the Premier League, Chelsea has made the biggest transfer move.

They sold Schurrle to Wolfsburg for 32 million euros and then brought Cuadrado from Fiorentina for the same price.

These two transfers are the highest transfer records during this winter break, so Schürrle and Cuadrado share the title of top bidder.

In addition to selling Schurrle, Mourinho also sold Bertrand, who had no place in the team, to Southampton for 13 million euros.

After calculation, Chelsea not only spent no money, but also earned 13 million euros. If they are willing to sell Salah to Manchester City, they can earn about 30 million euros this winter.

The professor's Arsenal still adheres to the style of spending small money to do big things. They bought two players, Belik and Gabriel, for 2.5 million euros and 15 million euros respectively. One of them is a midfielder and the other is a defender. Arsenal need to strengthen.

Among them, Belik is only 17 years old and is still an underage demon.

It seems that the professor still can't change his habit of buying little monsters!

The Red Army, Liverpool, have not made any moves. I don’t know if they are saving money to prepare for some big news in the summer, or they are thinking about something. It stands to reason that they are the team that needs reinforcements most with their current poor record.

Manchester City's neighbor, Manchester United, was also very quiet during the winter break, with no one buying.

There are rumors that Manchester United is interested in Juventus midfield star Pogba, but for some reason, there is no movement later.

Van Gaal's life at Manchester United was not easy. He spent so much money in the summer, but his record was so bad.

Affected by this, it is estimated that Manchester United's board of directors is unwilling to give him money to spend recklessly.

Although the investment of the five major leagues is not large, the expenditure of the Chinese Super League, the sixth league in the world, is not small.

This winter, Guangzhou Evergrande spent huge sums of money in the transfer market to introduce two players, Goulart and Alan, who spent a total of 26 million euros on Evergrande.

If this investment were placed in Europe, it would rank among the top three, second only to Wolfsburg and Valencia.

It seems that Jinyuan Football in the Chinese Super League has not only failed to restrain itself, but has intensified.

When the transfer period was about to close, Lin Quan received a call.

This is his old teammate from Werder Bremen - high center forward Anautovic!

"Hey Lin, have you watched the news?"

On the other end of the phone, Arnautovich sounded very excited.

"What news?"

Lin Quan was confused and didn't know what the other person was talking about.

"Ahem, I was pursued by many Premier League teams, and finally joined Stoke City Club for a high price of 5.5 million pounds!

How about it, awesome, right? "

"awesome!"

Lin Quan was stunned for a moment, and then complimented with a smile after realizing it.

"Hehe, it's good that you know. I've seen the schedule. There will be a direct match between our two teams next month. I will treat you to dinner then, and remember to bring that boy De Bruyne with me.

This guy hasn't even made a phone call since he left Bremen, and I haven't contacted him for a long time! "

"Okay, I will notify De Bruyne. If he refuses to go, then I will call you and drag him off the bus!"

"That `s a deal!"

After hanging up the phone, Lin Quan felt a burst of emotion in his heart.

Arnautovic also came to the Premier League, a season and a half later than the original time. Is this also due to his own influence?

With Anautovic's physical fitness and mental attributes, it is not very difficult for him to gain a foothold in the Premier League. It can even be said that the rhythm of the Premier League is the most suitable for him.

I just don’t know if this guy will go to the Chinese Super League to seek gold in the future...

…

Time flies so fast, January has passed in the blink of an eye.

On February 1, the Premier League war resumed.

In this round of the league, Chelsea's first-place match against Manchester City at home is definitely the top priority.

Because of this, the Premier League officials placed the game time at prime time on the last day, separated from other games, in order to avoid diverting the audience.

Chelsea and Manchester City are currently ranked first and second in the standings respectively. This game may directly determine the final ownership of this Premier League crown.

If Chelsea can defend their home court and beat Manchester City at home, they can open the score to 6 points.

With only 15 rounds left in the league and there have been no direct matches between the two teams, this lead is very large. Unless Chelsea makes consecutive mistakes, there is no possibility for Manchester City to recover.

But on the contrary, if Manchester City defeats the Blues at Chelsea's home court, then the two teams will return to the same starting line.

As a result, the ownership of the Premier League championship this season will become even more confusing.

It is precisely because this game is so important that it has attracted the attention of countless fans throughout the Premier League before the game has even started.

Before the game, Fleet Street media interviewed many football celebrities and experts to ask their opinions on the game.

Most of these celebrities think that Chelsea has a high probability of winning or drawing in this game.

Less than 30% of people are optimistic about Manchester City's victory over Chelsea in the away game.

Stamford Bridge is the famous home ground of the devil, and it is not that easy to break here!