Chapter 102 Who is the King of Europe?

The first day the team arrived in Dortmund was destined to be turbulent.

Nowadays, many major European leagues have ended, and the European Champions League final has not yet ignited the war. During this period of rest, the UEFA Cup has undoubtedly attracted more attention, especially before the UEFA Cup, Ajax unexpectedly broke out such a shocking news of a sudden change of coach, which is indeed very eye-catching.

Many reporters from all over the world are curious about Ajax's decision to change coaches, and they all want to know what exactly made Ajax's management decide to change coaches?

Is Ye Qiu not good enough?

Or is Advocat better?

Van Praag's clarification seems to be more weak and powerless, and is more interpreted as an attitude and compromise that has to be made in order to stabilize the current situation. Many people even doubt that without Van Praag's instruction, would Korner dare to do this?

Obviously, not everyone is clear about the current power structure of Ajax clubs. They can't distinguish the contradictions and disputes between the board of directors and the management, so they can easily take a conspiracy theory to look at this matter, that is, Ye Qiu must be dismissed!

The Dutch media is divided into two groups, one supporting Ye Qiu's dismissal and the other supporting his retention. Interestingly, the group supporting Ye Qiu's dismissal is almost all anti-Ajax media, while the group supporting Ye Qiu's retention includes several pro-Ajax media, including Amsterdam Evening Post and Common Daily News.

The two groups wrote articles to attack each other and competed with each other, but no one could convince the other.

These reporters are all pen-wielding. If they attack and debate face to face, they may not be good, but writing articles and debates is their livelihood and their strengths. Will they lose?

Perhaps considering that there was too much interference from the outside world, after Ye Qiu arrived in Dortmund, except for a warm-up training at the Westfalen Stadium, Dortmund's home stadium in the afternoon, Ajax stayed in the hotel to rest for the rest of the time.

On the floor of the hotel where Ajax stayed, all visitors were rejected, including reporters and relatives of the players. On the day of the game, the club would help them come to Dortmund from Amsterdam, and then meet with the team after the game, but they were not allowed to appear in the team's hotel before the game.

Some media gave understanding to Ajax's arrangement similar to martial law, but some media thought that Ajax was too nervous and Ye Qiu's behavior was a bit dictatorial, which might cause the players to be disgusted.

Ye Qiu himself was not worried about the players' disgust, because he arranged a series of activities in the hotel so that the players would not be too bored, and even let them watch movies together as entertainment.

On the morning of the game, the club management came to Dortmund together. Van Praag brought several senior executives to the hotel to visit the players, comfort the players, and personally stated in front of the players that the Ajax management always trusted Ye Qiu and firmly believed that Ye Qiu would still be the head coach of Ajax next season.

After watching the players, Van Praag met with Ye Qiu privately. He did not visit Ye Qiu in a tone, nor did he mention what Eliza said in the media interview. He just repeatedly told Ye Qiu that he would give Ye Qiu a brand new contract after the season ended to completely appease people.

"You can coach Ajax with confidence, and leave the rest to me. Next season, I will give you a stable environment. I promise that the same thing will not happen again!" Van Praag finally gave a weighty guarantee.

Perhaps some people will think that Van Praag does not have much say now, and they will think that he may be kicked out of Ajax at any time, but Ye Qiu does not think so, because Van Praag has been the chairman of Ajax for more than ten years and has extensive connections in Dutch football and Europe.

Such a person who was once regarded as a savior by Ajax fans, will he be driven down by a group of people who only understand money?

Ye Qiu absolutely did not believe it, so he called Eliza at noon.

Keep communicating with Eliza, so as to ensure that Ye Qiu has a basis for his actions.

"Do you really believe in Van Praag's promise?" Eliza asked with a smile on the other end of the phone. She was a little skeptical.

Without saying anything else, a year ago, when he invited Ye Qiu to coach Ajax, he had promised to give him a stable environment, but in the past year, such an environment has never appeared. Ye Qiu has always been accompanied by controversy and opposition. Therefore, from Eliza's perspective, Van Praag's promise is of little value.

Ye Qiu smiled, "If you want to talk about other things, you are better than me, but when it comes to playing tricks and people's hearts, you don't see it as thoroughly as I do!"

"What do you mean?" Eliza didn't quite understand.

"Didn't you notice? Is there a new fan organization in Amsterdam recently?"

"You mean..." Eliza remembered that there was indeed a new fan organization, and it was also reported in the newspaper.

"Yes, it's that radical fan organization that claims to raise funds to buy back the club's shares from the directors!"

Ye Qiu knows very well that the listing of a club is a freak in itself. Except for Manchester United, no club can still make money after going public. Basically, as soon as it goes public, the stock price plummets, and some teams even drop as much as Even his grandmother didn't recognize it.

Ajax's shares are also falling, but for those directors who really hold a large number of Ajax shares, the value of the shares is not important. What they want is face and the brand name of Ajax. , so they don’t care about the value and always hold it in their hands.

But now the fans have quit. They feel that you, the directors, have overstepped your authority. You are taking too much control of things that are not yours to control. I will raise money now to buy out those stocks that have fallen to the bottom in your hands. You bought it back at a much lower price. You bastards will get out of Ajax from now on.

This is how Van Praag fights back!

Of course, there will still be some people who don’t want to sell, but it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to sell, but I want to reorganize the power of the club. From now on, you will be your director. If there are meetings, you will come and watch games. It's okay for you to be the master of the celebration, but on weekdays you should stop farting for me and stop criticizing the team.

After listening to Ye Qiu's words, Eliza was a little surprised. She really didn't expect that Van Praag could be so powerful in his tricks. He knew that if he really sold his shares, those directors would suffer. It's a big loss, but if you don't sell it, you'll have to be frightened by Van Praag and be obedient.

"Why do you think that Van Praage was behind all this?" Eliza didn't quite believe it.

Ye Qiu smiled, he also knew that this girl was very tough-talking, "I don't know, I guess, but I don't believe it. For no reason, and at such a coincidence, a group of fans stood up to oppose the board of directors!"

After hearing this, Eliza sighed pleasantly, "I can't understand these things of yours anyway!"

"However, you still have to tell me, do you still plan to stay at Ajax?"

Ye Qiu was slightly stunned after hearing this, and for a moment he didn't know how to answer.

He has put a lot of effort and energy into Ajax in the past two years. The progress and growth of every Ajax player is inseparable from his promotion and efforts behind the scenes. It was easy to put together such a lineup, and finally brought this group of players to this day.

Ye Qiu can say with certainty that as long as he is given another two or three years, he can bring this Ajax team to a level not inferior to that of Van Gaal's era, because he has completely transformed the current Ajax team. The overall framework of the game has been worked out, and the rest is to constantly improve and adjust the parts and details.

As long as he is given two or three more years of accumulation, this team will become a powerful force that cannot be ignored in the European League.

But Ye Qiu also knew very well that there were actually a lot of troubles ahead of him.

First of all, it comes from the board of directors. The management trusts him, but the board of directors does not trust him at all.

Also, in the next two or three years, will this group of his players be poached by the outside world and leave?

All of these are things he needs to consider and are risks to his success.

But if Ye Qiu gives up on Ajax now, he will not lack a new partner. But the problem is that he has to give up everything he has put in and invested in Ajax in the past two years and start over, which makes him hesitate. .

Because he is too eager to prove himself!

"I know, don't worry, I'll help you do it!" Eliza understood what he was thinking without hearing his answer.

"Thank you!" Ye Qiu thanked him with a smile. There was a very smart woman on the other side of the phone. She knew Ye Qiu very well.

"It's time. Achu and I are going to the airport. See you in the evening!"

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After the second expansion, the capacity of the Westfalenstadion reached 68,600 people. However, because UEFA required that all seats in the final venue must be seats, the management of the Westfalenstadion temporarily renovated the south stand. The number of seats has been expanded to 52,000, while all standing seats are vacant.

But when I walked into the Westfalenstadion and looked up, I saw that it was packed with people and the whole stadium was filled with deafening noises. It was easy for people to feel irritated and have the urge to vent loudly.

Humans are such strange animals. They can make two completely different actions when they are alone or when there are few people, and when there are many people and the mood is turbulent.

The players are conducting warm-up training on the court. In this kind of open training, Ajax basically does not choose new training, but adopts some more traditional training that other teams know the basics, such as the monkey slide. , or some triangle passing coordination, etc. These are Ajax's traditional training methods, and they are not afraid of leaks.

The number of Ajax fans and Barcelona fans is the same, and they are divided into the north and south sides of the Westfalenstadion. UEFA occupies the President's Stand and other neutral stands to separate the fans of the two teams. , for fear that fan conflicts may occur accidentally. After all, fan conflicts in European leagues are not uncommon nowadays, especially for Premier League teams.

Today, Ajax players will wear their classic red and white jerseys, while Barcelona will wear their red and blue jerseys. This has also resulted in fans of both teams wearing their respective team jerseys in the stands, which is very neat. , very spectacular.

Barcelona's results in La Liga this season are not ideal, and there are strong calls for Ferrer to be sacked. He now urgently needs a UEFA Cup to make his final effort, while Ye Qiu is eager to win a UEFA Cup to prove himself. .

As early as before the game, the head coaches of the two teams had already started a war of words. Ferrer said that Barcelona's victory over Ajax before the season gave Barcelona more confidence, so he believed in him. The team will definitely be able to defeat Ye Qiu's Ajax.

But Ye Qiu said in an interview that he and his Ajax will definitely use facts to prove during the game that the gap between Ajax and Barcelona is not big, and they can even beat Barcelona.

The tension before the game obviously continued into the game. At least Ye Qiu and Ferrer, except for polite handshakes and greetings, spent the rest of the time in front of their own coaching benches, watching the players on the court warming up.

"This is UEFA President Johansson, and CEO Olsen, this is the German football emperor Beckenbauer, Cruyff from the Netherlands, Barcelona President Gaspart, Ajax Chairman Van Praag and others, as well as officials from the Spanish and Dutch Football Associations, all appeared on the podium at the Westfalenstadion.”

"Everyone believes that this will be a battle between dragons and tigers, because the head coaches of both teams are currently facing a huge coaching crisis. They both urgently need a meaningful championship trophy to prove themselves. Therefore, which one of them will We won’t give up this UEFA Cup championship easily!”

The live TV camera swept across the rostrum and came to the side of the court. When it saw Ferrer, the head coach of Barcelona as the home team, he immediately typed an introductory subtitle, "Ferrer's team's offense this season is indeed very good. , but the results are not very satisfactory, which also leads to the possibility and calls for him to leave Barcelona after the season!”

The camera panned again and landed on Ye Qiu.

Today, Ye Qiu's outfit of black trousers and casual white shirt came from Eliza's handiwork. He has half-inch hair and the only accessory on his body is the Hamilton watch on his left wrist.

"This is the youngest head coach in the history of the UEFA Cup final. The 26-year-old Ajax coach Ye Qiu from China. Although this head coach is young, he has extraordinary strength. He led Ajax last season. The second team of Kes made Dutch football history and won the Dutch Cup! ”

"After that, he took over the first team and carried out drastic reforms. Before the season, many people were shocked by his large-scale purge of stars in their prime, thinking that Ajax would be relegated by him, but after one season After that, he finished second in the Eredivisie and even almost defeated PSV Eindhoven to win the championship.”

"Successfully defending the Dutch Cup title, Ye Qiu spent a year telling everyone how wise his decision to purge the group of veterans and stars before the season was, and now Ajax has become a European football team. The famous young guard has created a youthful storm and won the appreciation and recognition of fans all over the world. "

"But it is obvious that this young team led by a young head coach is not just satisfied with the Netherlands. They have set their sights on Europe and are launching a new impact on the UEFA Cup. What stands in front of them is Barcelona, ​​a traditional European powerhouse.”

"This game is not only a competition between Barcelona and Ajax, but also a strong collision between the established giants and the new powerhouses. It is also a direct challenge between the young Ye Qiu and the young Ferrer. , see who is the king of Europe!”

After this round of introductions by the on-site commentators and passionate speeches to mobilize the fans, they got the starting lineups for both sides.

"Barcelona's starting lineup for this game, the goalkeeper is Reina, a young player who was promoted from the youth training camp. There is news that Ye Qiu once had his eye on this goalkeeper before, but then he didn't care about it; the defense line has changed from From left to right are Serge, Frank de Boer, Reiziger and Puyol.”

"The double defensive midfielder is the fixed combination of Guardiola and Cocu, the three attackers from left to right are Overmars, Rivaldo and Luis Enrique, and the lone forward is Kluivert!"

"In Barcelona's 11-man starting lineup, four players are from Ajax, and Ferrer's tactics are also derived from Louis van Gaal, who is a direct descendant of Ajax. This makes many people feel that , this game will be a direct dialogue between Ajax’s traditionalists and the reformists headed by Ye Qiu!”

"Ye Qiu also arranged the strongest lineup of Ajax for this game. The goalkeeper is Grimm. The defense is Abidal, Kivu, Lucio and Maicon from left to right. The midfielder is The three players are Keita, Gilberto Silva and Sneijder, and the front trident is Robben, Ibrahimovic and Van der Meyde.”

"Ajax's 433 tactics have undoubtedly changed in Ye Qiu's hands, especially the adjustments and changes to the midfield configuration, and there are frequent masters. How do three players with different styles achieve reorganization in the midfield? Suppressing Barcelona’s midfield is undoubtedly a major crisis faced by Ajax in this game.”

"And we should see that Overmars and Luis Enrique play a very obvious role on the two wings and are the most threatening areas of Barcelona's offense, while the combination of Rivaldo and Kluivert in the center, He has repeatedly proven his strength in La Liga, coupled with the double defensive midfielder composed of Cocu and Guardiola."

“We have every reason to believe that Barcelona’s attack in this game will pose a huge threat to Ajax, and the key to the outcome of the game may lie in whether Ajax has enough ability to withstand Barcelona’s attack!”