Chapter 432 Buffon’s visit

"Ranieri has something, he actually led a mid-table team into the top three in the standings without making any noise!"

"How else would you call me a tinker?"

"There is nothing to say about Ranieri's strength. The most criticized thing about him is that he is not good at using stars, but he is very good at discovering and training newcomers, taking a team with an average record to a new height, and then Just because he couldn't take any further steps, he was kicked out by the team owner!"

"Haha, it's so true. If you think about it carefully, aren't Ranieri's past experiences all such a cycle?"

The news that Leicester City has rushed to second place in the Premier League standings has aroused attention and heated discussion from all parties after the end of this round of Premier League games.

For Premier League fans, they have long been accustomed to the scene where the top spots in the standings are dominated by giants like BIG5. Suddenly, an unfamiliar team rushed in, which made them a little uncomfortable.

What's more, Leicester City is not a traditional Premier League team. They have been in the English Championship for a long time. It was not until last year that they were promoted from the English Championship to the Premier League.

It is really surprising that such a second-year freshman can explode with such strength this season.

However, what they don't know is that without the butterfly Lin Quan flapping its wings, the championship this season will eventually be Ranieri and his Fox City!

However, with the comprehensive reinforcement of Manchester City's Lin Quan and Guardiola, it is a bit difficult for Leicester City to snatch the league championship from them.

After all, Guardiola's team has always had a stable record in the league, with very small fluctuations in performance.

After the first five rounds of matches, BBC Sports invited some experts in the football field to evaluate the performance of each team in the Premier League in the first month and rate their strength.

These experts all classified Manchester City as an S-level team, which is also the only S-level team in the entire Premier League.

"Manchester City's offensive firepower is still terrifying this season, and the most daunting thing is their defensive ability!"

Among the guests invited to attend the event was Manchester United's legendary coach Sir Alex Ferguson.

He evaluated Guardiola's achievements at Manchester City with an appreciative attitude:

"After Pep came to Manchester City, he spent a long time reorganizing Manchester City's defense. Now Manchester City's defense is composed of Kompany, Van Dijk, Zabaleta and Rudiger, and there is Kremlin in front. Rose and Kanter intercept and protect.

When necessary, Guardiola will even use a three-midfielder lineup and send Fernandinho on the field to further enhance the interception ability of the midfielder and build an airtight wall in front of his own penalty area.

This kind of defensive combination is almost invincible in the entire Premier League. "

Ferguson's statement is not an exaggeration. Since the start of this season, Manchester City has kept clean sheets in all five league games and has not conceded a goal so far.

This is the only team in the five major leagues that has not conceded a goal so far.

Manchester City's defensive ability this season is evident.

"In that case, is Manchester City really invincible?"

Hearing what Ferguson said, the faces of the guests and the host became serious.

It is not a good thing for one company to dominate, as you can see by looking at the Bundesliga next door.

Although Manchester City has not actually dominated the entire Premier League, they have already formed such a trend.

If Manchester City wins the championship again this season, they will have achieved three consecutive Premier League titles.

Since Manchester United achieved this feat in 2001, it has been 15 years since anyone has achieved this level of success.

"of course not!"

Ferguson smiled and said: "There is no invincible team in the world, and the same is true for Manchester City!"

"As long as we find Manchester City's weaknesses, develop strategies to restrain them, and with some luck, it's not impossible to defeat Manchester City!"

Having said this is like saying nothing, but Ferguson can only say this. After all, he has not found any tactics that can restrain Manchester City.

Even if it is found, a team that can produce this kind of tactical effect and has strong strength will be needed to challenge Manchester City.

Among the current giants in the Premier League, no one can achieve this.

So Ferguson can only say the right nonsense.

…

However, just because the Premier League teams can't do it doesn't mean that teams in other leagues can't do it.

After the end of this round of the league, this season's Champions League group stage also officially kicked off.

On September 16, Manchester City will face Serie A hegemon Juventus at home.

Juventus has won four consecutive Serie A championships, and in terms of league dominance, they are even better than Manchester City.

However, the Old Lady's record in the European war has not improved much. Last season, it finally reached the quarterfinals. However, it was unlucky to meet the defending champion Manchester City. They were eliminated by Manchester City by a huge score in two rounds. They were beaten with little ability to fight back. Power.

This season, they were unlucky to be drawn with Manchester City again, and their first game was a visit to Manchester City.

This makes the fans of the Old Lady feel very pessimistic about the outcome of this game. Few people think that Juventus can beat Manchester City away from home.

The best result is nothing more than to get away with a draw!

If you really lose, you can only count on your own team to withstand it and not lose too much. In the future, you may have to rely on goal difference to fight for the right to qualify for the group. If you are defeated right from the start, it will not only easily affect the players' The mentality will also make them fall far behind on goal difference.

With such a pessimistic attitude, the whole team of the old woman arrived in Manchester.

Like many other visiting teams in Manchester, the Old Lady chose to rent Manchester United's Carrington training ground.

Of course, if a team comes to Manchester to challenge Manchester United, there is a high probability that they will also rent Manchester City's training base.

As mortal rivals in the same city, the Manchester City duo are probably the teams in the world that most want each other to lose, right?

The training bases of Manchester City and Manchester United are very close to each other, but players from Manchester City and Manchester United do not visit each other on weekdays.

There is a deep grudge between the two teams, and this kind of visit can easily have a negative impact.

So even though the national team teammates De Gea, Mata and others are training in another venue separated by a wall, Lin Quan, David Silva and others have never visited them.

On the contrary, the same is true for De Gea.

But Juventus is different. They don't have such a deep hatred with Manchester City.

So, after arriving at the Carrington training base, Buffon and Morata visited Manchester City's training base.

"Is this your new base? It looks pretty good!"

After the two arrived at Manchester City's new base, their eyes suddenly lit up and they couldn't help but admire it.

Manchester City invested £260 million in 2014 to build a new training base.

Compared with the previous training base, the new base is more luxurious and has more comprehensive supporting facilities. It has completely surpassed the Carrington training base next door.

If Manchester City players used to be envious of the supporting facilities at the Carrington training base, now, after having better equipment, they only have deep sympathy for the Manchester United people.

It is really unlucky to meet a vampire boss. Manchester United has made an unknown amount of money for the Glazer family over the years. However, the Glazer family is not willing to spend money to renovate the training base. The current Carrington is simply shabby and shabby. Damn, no longer worthy of Manchester United's status as a giant.

"It's okay, it's no different from other training bases!"

"Is this okay? Are you still speaking in human language?"

Morata had an expression like "I don't know much, don't lie to me."

Buffon on the side also nodded repeatedly, and his eyes were attracted by the two brand-new buildings in the Manchester City training base.

"That is?"

"A stadium and a comprehensive service center with a gym, recovery center, and, yes, a swimming pool where you can relax after training!"

"Depend on!"

Morata cursed when he heard that there was a swimming pool in Manchester City's training base.

Damn oil guy, this is so enjoyable!

"No one will believe you unless you take me to the swimming pool to see with my own eyes!"

"sure!"

Lin Quan happened to be planning to go back and take a bath, so he took the two of them back together.

After walking into the comprehensive service center, the two of them were stunned by the dazzling array of equipment inside.

These equipments don't look cheap just from the outside. The key is that Manchester City has a very complete range of them, almost everything you need.

When passing by Manchester City's recovery center, they saw several players inside undergoing muscle relaxation and rehabilitation treatments.

Some of these people have just finished training and come here to let the rehabilitation therapist relax their muscles to reduce fatigue.

Others are injured players who have been injured in previous games and are currently in the rehabilitation stage.

Italy also attaches great importance to the team's medical care. For example, Milan has the famous Milan Laboratory.

But in terms of scale and professionalism, I'm afraid it's still not as good as Manchester City.

The other party not only purchased a large amount of expensive medical equipment, but also spent a lot of money to hire a large number of experts in kinesiology and rehabilitation.

No wonder Lin Quan said that Manchester City's new base cost 260 million pounds. The two of them were curious about where the money was spent.

Now it seems that in addition to the stadium and various buildings in the base, the remaining money is probably spent on these supporting facilities and human resources.

From this point of view alone, it can be confirmed that the boss behind Manchester City does not invest in football for fun as the outside world thinks.

Those who are interested in playing tickets are not willing to spend so much money on these invisible places!

This shows that the city group’s ambitions are not small.

After taking a bath, the two heard cheers coming from the stadium next door.

Buffon glanced at the stadium curiously and asked:

"Is there a game inside? Why are there still cheers?"

"Well, there's a game at the youth training. There seems to be a U15 game during the day today!"

"Let's go and take a look?"

Buffon became interested as soon as he heard there was a game to watch.

First of all, he was very interested in the stadium in Manchester City's training base and wanted to go in and have a look.

Secondly, he is also very interested in Manchester City's current youth training strength and wants to see how far Manchester City's own youth training camp has progressed.

"Fine!"

Lin Quan occasionally goes to this stadium to watch football, just to relax.

Morata had no interest in watching football, so he stayed and continued taking a bath.

Lin Quan walked into the stadium with Buffon and found a seat to sit down.

Although this stadium is small in size, it has all the supporting facilities.

One-third of the more than 7,000 seats at the venue were empty, with almost 4,500 people seated.

The U15 game did not receive much attention. In addition, today is still a working day. In the absence of big-name stars to attract, it is not easy to have so many fans.

Manchester City U15 faced Chelsea U15 today. The latter is very good and has won the championship in this age group.

Compared with them, Manchester City's youth team is much greener and their strength is weaker.

Sure enough, the score on the field was also Chelsea's 1:0 lead.

However, the situation of the game was not as one-sided as people imagined. Although Manchester City was at a disadvantage, their counterattacks were sharp, frequently leaving Chelsea in a hurry.

After watching for a while, the two were attracted by several young players on the court.

"That player No. 7 feels much better than his teammates. What's his name?"

Lin Quan glanced at the player Buffon was referring to and said, "Well, his name is Sancho. He is a very talented youngster in the U15. He is currently being watched by the head coach of the first team!"

The head coach of the first team is Guardiola, and being able to be paid attention to by Guardiola proves that this kid's talent and strength are indeed good.

"Where's the other one?"

"That guy's name is Foden. He's from the same year as Sancho. He's also very talented!"

Lin did not mention Guardiola at all, which proves that Foden did not attract Guardiola's attention.

Perhaps his talent and strength were limited by his age and were not fully displayed.

However, from Buffon's perspective, he believes that given time, Foden will be able to play.

After all, for veteran players like them who have played for many years, it is not too difficult to judge whether a person has the talent to play, not to mention that it is even easier when there are so many young players on the court for comparison. Distinguished.

"how do you feel?"

Manchester City lost the game in the end, but Foden and Sancho both scored goals, but the strength of their teammates could not keep up, which dragged them back.

However, in youth team games, the important thing is the process, not the results, but not many people care about it.

After all, what they have to do now is to train hard and improve their strength, win or lose, etc. It will not be too late to compete again in top competitions such as the Premier League and the five major leagues.

"Not bad. The quality of your team's youth training is much higher than I expected!"

Buffon nodded.

Manchester City used to be just a little-known mid-range team. Only after the Abu Dhabi consortium took over, they had the money to vigorously develop youth training.

After all, this time is too short, and the foundation is definitely not as good as other wealthy families.

For example, Barcelona's La Masia training camp was established by Cruyff in 1989. It took more than ten years to produce stars like Xavi, Messi and Iniesta.

Manchester City has just started, and if it wants to produce results, I'm afraid it will have to wait until ten years later.

There are no shortcuts to these, you can only take your time.

However, as Manchester City's popularity and influence continue to increase, coupled with their emphasis on youth training.

It will also be easier for them to attract more young players to come for trial training, and maybe the results will come earlier.