Chapter 554: With successive losses, is the Manchester City dynasty coming to an end?

Facts have proved that Manchester City Club was correct in announcing the news as soon as possible.

After learning that Lin Quan had renewed his contract with the club, De Bruyne readily signed the new contract and completed the contract extension with Manchester City.

The news that the two have renewed their contract has made fans of Manchester City breathe a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, okay, after stabilizing the two cornerstones of the team, there is no need to worry about the team falling apart.

However, the gap caused by Cross's departure must be filled as soon as possible.

For top clubs like Manchester City, the main midfielder they need cannot be weak, and the age cannot be too young, because they are not buying substitutes, but the main players who have strong immediate combat ability and can play when they come.

There are not many players who meet this requirement, and many of them are not for sale by major teams. It is not easy to find suitable replacements in a short period of time.

But Manchester City was very lucky and successfully missed the opportunity.

Dortmund midfielder Gundogan had already negotiated terms with Barcelona and even went to Barcelona to complete a medical examination. However, Barcelona was restricted from transferring, causing the deal to fall through.

Gundogan himself has a very strong desire to seek a transfer. After learning that Manchester City intended to introduce him, he agreed to Manchester City's invitation without hesitation.

Just kidding, Manchester City is the defending champion of the Champions League and is currently the most popular top club in the five major leagues.

Since a large number of Dortmund's main players and head coaches left, the team's strength has plummeted, and it can no longer challenge Bayern's dominance.

What's more, Bumblebee started running a black shop, and his pursuit of honor was no longer as active as before.

This has led to many ambitious players like Gundogan wanting to change platforms.

That way you can get a higher salary and have more opportunities to pursue honors.

The player's own attitude made this transaction go very smoothly.

Since Gundogan's own contract time was running out, Dortmund did not ask for a high price. After some bargaining, the two parties finally reached a deal at a price of 26 million euros.

This transfer did not attract much attention. After all, the transfer amount was too low. With the news of huge transfers constantly breaking out in the football world, this transfer seemed so unpretentious. .

Compared with Cross, who left, Gundogan's reputation is much lower.

On the one hand, it is because the platform he is on is not as well-known and popular as Kroos' previous team.

Another point is also related to his past performance. Gundogan has been injured a lot in the past few years. He often misses club and national team games. His unstable performance and frequent injuries make people less optimistic about his future.

Looking back at Kroos, his resume in the past four years has been perfect. He has won four Champions League trophies in four years. He is also the core midfielder of the German team. Such brilliant record and transcendent status have made him the world's No. 1 player in the eyes of many fans. A midfielder.

It's no wonder that the news of Kroos' transfer to Real Madrid caused such a sensation in the football world, because his performance in the past few years has been so good.

Compared with Cross, Gundogan is obviously much inferior. In the eyes of many people, he is almost a level behind Cross.

If Manchester City really wants to use Gundogan as the main force, then the overall strength of their midfield will definitely decline.

This has led many people to begin to pessimize Manchester City and support Real Madrid, believing that Real Madrid will end Manchester City's Champions League dominance.

A low price does not mean that he must be weak. Gundogan is still very young and very malleable. If he meets a head coach who is good at training players, he may not be able to fully develop his potential.

And Manchester City happens to have such a head coach who is very good at training players!

Some people come in and others leave. After learning that the team bought Stones, substitute defender Rudiger, who couldn't find many playing opportunities last season, was disheartened and wanted to leave the team and go to a place that could provide him with more opportunities. The team where he plays his main role.

After Guardiola tried to communicate with the players to retain them, he finally chose to respect the players' choices.

Roma, which had long had ideas about him, immediately took action and made an offer to Manchester City. After some bargaining, the two parties finally reached an agreement on a price of 32 million euros.

Subsequently, Guardiola strengthened the team's full-back position and spent 30 million euros to introduce the opponent's backup defender Danilo from Real Madrid.

Since Danilo is a player produced by the black shop Porto, Lin Quan advised Guardiola before the transfer to carefully consider the deal.

But Guardiola didn't seem to listen to his words, or maybe he couldn't find a more suitable candidate in a short time.

So the deal was finally reached.

Real Madrid is naturally delighted, although they spent more money to buy people from Porto.

But this guy can't play in the team at all, and has many shortcomings. Continuing to stay in the team will only waste spots and wages.

Selling him will not only repay the blood, but also reduce the pressure on the team's salary system and allow Real Madrid to breathe.

Although Kroos is good, he is too expensive. Forcing him to eat Kroos gives Real Madrid some indigestion.

After completing this transaction, Guardiola began to stop and did not carry out any more transfer operations. Instead, he promoted a group of young players from the youth team and planned to give these young players more in the new season. Chance.

Manchester City's youth training camp is now full of talents. Sancho, Foden, Haaland and others are shining in the youth league, making many people know that there are three incredible young talents in Manchester City's youth training camp.

If Manchester City's protection work had not been done well, these young players might have been poached by major giants.

After the transfer was completed, Manchester City's pre-match training began.

As in the past, Manchester City still chose to go to Asia this time to participate in a series of warm-up games such as the International Champions Cup.

There are many wealthy teams participating in this kind of competition, the quality is not bad, and it is suitable for training new players in the team.

Manchester City is lucky enough to be placed with Bayern, Dortmund, and Manchester United, and they will play Bayern in the first game.

Because this kind of game does not limit substitutions, Guardiola sent almost all substitutes to play in the first half.

Haaland, Foden, Sancho and others all got the chance to play.

However, among the three, except for Haaland, the remaining two did not perform well.

The German team has outstanding physical fitness and strong impact. Sancho and Foden's foot skills are somewhat unable to be used under the opponent's high-intensity physical confrontation.

On the contrary, it was Haaland. This guy's foot skills were not very good, but his physical fitness was really good. He actually found an opportunity through physical confrontation and scored a goal.

However, in the first half, because Bayern played a half-main and half-substitute lineup, Manchester City was beaten badly. At the end of the first half, the score between the two sides was 4:1, and Manchester City was given four goals by the opponent.

This result made Foden, Haaland and others feel very frustrated. They deeply realized the strength gap between themselves and the main players.

After Guardiola saw the expressions of these three little ones, he looked at Lin Quan, and both of them couldn't help but chuckle.

These guys are killing everyone in the youth league, and they are all so swollen that they want to play in the first team.

Okay, now I give you a chance. Are you being abused?

Although these people are all geniuses, it is obviously not time for them to dominate football yet, so they should continue to level up patiently!

Compared with young players born in 2000 such as Foden and Haaland, Mbappe, who was born in 1998, is already 18 years old.

His physical fitness and foot skills were stronger than these three, so in the second half, Guardiola put him into the main lineup to replace David Silva as the left winger.

After Mbappe came on the field, he was very active on the wing, frequently using speed and passing to create opportunities on the wing.

Seeing that the opponent was so active, Lin Quan also cooperated and frequently passed the ball to him, helping Mbappe complete a hat trick in the second half and equalize the score.

However, Bayern took the lead again using set pieces at the end of the game and eventually defeated Manchester City 5:4.

The team lost, but Mbappe was very happy.

After the game, I sang and danced excitedly in the locker room, wishing I could become the King of Dance.

In the following games, Guardiola also took good care of these young players and gave them a chance to play in almost every game.

Foden and others adjusted their mentality in the subsequent games, no longer as arrogant as they were at the beginning, treating the world's heroes as nothing.

Although they still suffer a lot in physical confrontation, after adjusting their mentality, at least they will not be so lost and frustrated. Moreover, they will also look for opportunities to reduce direct physical confrontation with the opponent and use tacit cooperation to open up the situation.

Although the effect was not very good, their attempt was encouraged by Guardiola.

However, Manchester City still lost the game. In the second game, they lost 2:1 to Dortmund.

The last opponent they encountered was rival Manchester United in the same city. Although it was only a warm-up match, neither team wanted to lose.

As a result, in the last game, all the main players of both sides came out, and they fought with real swords and guns.

In the end, Manchester City defeated Manchester United with a score of 3:1 and ended the Asian trip with a record of 1 win and two losses.

When Manchester City was training in China, some local clubs sent them invitations, hoping to play a friendly match with them.

However, Guardiola declined the other party's invitation considering the schedule and players' physical reserves.

After the whole team returned to Manchester, they rested for a week and saw that the new season of Premier League games was about to begin.

Manchester City contacted Arsenal and arranged a friendly match.

This summer, Arsenal's moves in the transfer market are not small.

Maybe it's because the loan from the Emirates Stadium has been paid off, or maybe it's because the big boss finally found his conscience and was willing to spend money.

Arsenal has completed several major transactions in the transfer market.

They first bought the opponent's talented midfielder Xhaka from Monchengladbach for 45 million euros.

The opponent's main center back Mustafi was bought from Valencia for 41 million euros.

Then they spent another 20 million to buy La Luconia forward Lucas, and also bought Japanese international Takuma Asano from Sanfrecce Hiroshima of the Japanese J League.

Thanks to the Japanese Football Association's strong support for players studying abroad, the transfer only cost 4 million euros.

Counting other miscellaneous transfers, Arsenal spent hundreds of millions of euros this summer. The expenditure is really not small, at least more than Manchester City. Manchester City's net transfer expenditure is less than 50 million euros, not even half of Arsenal's. arrive.

After spending so much money, and with the opponent's main midfielder being poached, the Arsenal people obviously have some thoughts about this warm-up match.

They don't necessarily think they can beat Manchester City, but they want to weigh in on Manchester City's current strength and see how much Manchester City's current strength has dropped.

Although Arsenal maintains fourth place every year, they still have the desire to win the championship. If Manchester City really fails, then Arsenal may not have no chance.

Arsenal attaches great importance to this game, but Manchester City does not.

Guardiola arranged a half-main and half-substitute lineup to play. As a result, Aguero showed off his power in the first half, receiving assists from Lin Quan and Mbappe respectively, and scored twice to help the team lead 2:0.

Arsenal was a bit stunned. The opponent's semi-main lineup was still so strong?

In this river?

Wenger frowned and thought hard, and decided to change his tactics in the second half.

This adjustment quickly bore fruit. In the second half, with goals from Xhaka, Theo Walcott and others, Arsenal equalized the score.

Arsenal, with their morale boosted, almost kicked around Manchester City's goal at the end of the game. Finally, in the 89th minute, they scored a goal in the chaos, setting the score at 3:2.

Although it was just a friendly match, when the referee blew the whistle to end the game, the Arsenal players on the field were still extremely excited. They hugged each other happily to celebrate this hard-won victory. .

It's not easy, it's really not easy. They haven't tasted defeating Manchester City for a long time.

In the past few years, Manchester City has been too strong. Arsenal could not take any advantage in front of them. Instead, they were frequently humiliated by Manchester City.

Now that I have finally turned over and become the master, how can this not make people excited and happy?

It's just a friendly match, so it's not like this, but the problems reflected by Manchester City in this game have attracted great attention from Premier League teams.

Everyone has discovered that Manchester City's strength seems to be not as strong as before?

They actually completely lost the initiative in the second half and were suppressed by Arsenal throughout the second half.

This is very strange, because the Manchester City team they knew before was not like this at all.

Could it be said that Cross's departure really had a huge impact on Manchester City and reduced their strength to this level?

If this is really the case, then everyone has ideas for the Premier League in the new season!