Chapter 316 The Devil’s Schedule

"I am very happy to receive this award because it is a recognition of my efforts over the past year!"

At the FIFA awards ceremony held at the Zurich Opera House on December 21, Ronaldinho, who won the World Footballer of the Year, stood on the stage holding the gold trophy and said to everyone emotionally.

"This is a very special moment in my career. This award is very important to me because it proves that all the sweat and efforts I have made in the past are worth it, and it will also inspire me to keep working hard and strive to stand here again and have the opportunity to win the award again like my predecessors!"

Ronaldinho's speech received a round of warm applause from the scene, and his teammate Lampard also gave him a warm hug. Although the English star failed to win the World Footballer of the Year, he ranked second, suppressing Henry who also played in the Premier League, while Shevchenko fell to fourth place and failed to enter the top three.

"It feels so good to win the award. I want to thank my family and friends. It was their efforts and support when I was in trouble. It was also their trust and affirmation that kept me going until today. I succeeded, so I want to share the joy of success with them!"

"I also want to thank our head coach, Mr. Ye Qiu!" Ronaldinho stood on the stage. "It's a pity that he couldn't come to the scene in person and see me win the award, but I believe he must be watching the live broadcast on TV, so I want to take this opportunity to tell him, boss, in my mind, you are the best in the world!"

The live broadcast also gave Ronaldinho a big close-up, obviously to capture the Brazilian's serious expression.

"I have been in Europe for many years, but I have never won a championship, and I have encountered many difficulties, but all of this ended after I joined Chelsea!"

"Many people asked me why I joined Chelsea in the first place? In fact, it was because there was a person who told me and promised me personally when I was at a loss about what to do, come to Chelsea, you will become the best and most outstanding player in the world, you have the opportunity to get the highest honor in football like your predecessors Ronaldo, Romario and Rivaldo!"

"This person is our head coach, Mr. Ye Qiu, and it was his words that finally made me determined to join Chelsea, so I must thank him here. Without his support and encouragement, I would not be able to get to where I am today."

"I also want to clarify here that Chelsea is a team that is very suitable for me, because here there is the best head coach in the world and the best teammates in the world. I have no reason to leave, and I also want to tell my teammates that this trophy is not only mine, but also yours!"

Ronaldinho's words won the constant nodding of Lampard standing next to him. Obviously, the Chelsea vice-captain also felt the same way, because without the other players of Chelsea, they would not be where they are now.

In the past summer and in the first half of this season, there have been constant rumors that Ronaldinho might leave Chelsea. Among them, the most popular news is that Real Madrid and Barcelona want Ronaldinho.

But I believe that all this will come to an end with Ronaldinho's statement. He has no intention of leaving Chelsea, and Chelsea will not easily let go of the World Footballer cultivated by the club.

Especially the last sentence in his speech, "Everyone in Chelsea has given me much more than I have given them. I will do my best to give Chelsea everything I have!"

Ronaldinho's words really touched many Chelsea fans. They all believed that the club should sign a lifetime contract with Ronaldinho and keep this first World Footballer in the history of the club and even the Premier League. The team captain Terry and Lampard, as well as Ye Qiu, were also listed by the fans as those who should sign a lifetime contract.

Ronaldinho was able to win the World Footballer. Even he himself knew very well that all this depended on Chelsea's overall tactics, and all this was pushed by Ye Qiu behind the scenes.

Unfortunately, Ye Qiu was not selected for FIFA's Coach of the Year again. Rehhagel won the award. The latter led Greece to win the European Cup miraculously, beating Ye Qiu to win the award. Coincidentally, UEFA's Coach of the Year Award was also given to Rehhagel.

Once again, Ye Qiu tragically became the runner-up for a thousand years. He was helpless about it. Fortunately, he did not put his warm face on others' cold buttocks, so he did not participate in those activities of FIFA and UEFA.

But it is obvious that Ronaldinho, who just won the World Footballer of the Year, was in a good mood. At the Christmas party, when everyone started to draw lots, this guy actually drew the Mercedes-Benz sports car sponsored by Ye Qiu.

This made others very unhappy. Everyone booed him, and the new World Footballer of the Year felt that he was indeed a bit unkind, so he opened his mouth and shouted to take out the Mercedes-Benz for the draw again, and all those who did not draw the prize could draw again.

The whole stadium was in uproar. All the players who had not won the prizes were so happy. But when they drew the prize again, it was the young player Leo Messi who got the prize. The whole stadium booed again because Messi did not even have a driver's license.

In the UK, you need to be at least 17 years old to get a driver's license. Messi just reached that age and he also applied for a driver's license. However, the difficulty of the Premier League driver's license test is well-known all over the world. So Messi has studied for three months but has not yet obtained a driver's license. However, he won this Mercedes sports car.

The price of this Mercedes is not high, only more than 50,000 euros. Chelsea's first-team players basically have good salaries. No one cares about this little money. The booing is more to create an atmosphere. No matter who gets the prize, he will be booed. It's a bit like the leader of the Beggars' Sect has to be spit on when he takes the throne.

After the draw, many people came up to Messi with licking faces, wanting to take the prize from Messi at a low price, but the young Argentine player was also very ambitious. Even though he had been taking the driver's license test for more than three months and still hadn't passed, he still expressed his confidence that he would definitely pass the test. He kept fighting despite repeated failures, and his fighting spirit was commendable.

Although professional players are a group of young rich people, everyone has a glimmer of hope that they will become lucky, so in this draw, everyone in the team was encouraged, and after the draw, Ye Qiu and Peter Kenyon came out and gave each player a small gift worth a lot of money.

Although the gift was small, it also soothed the wounded hearts of those players who failed to get the Mercedes-Benz sports car, and Ye Qiu's cleverness was that he drew the lottery first and then gave the gift, so as to avoid the disappointment of the players.

The reason why the Premier League's Christmas schedule is regarded as a devil's schedule is mainly because it is too dense.

There will be a Premier League match on December 26 and 28, and January 1 and 3, 2005. There will be 4 matches in just 9 days. This schedule is a bit scary in any league, and all of them are the most competitive Premier League matches, which shows how difficult the schedule is.

You know, the previous Premier League Christmas schedule basically arranged 3 rounds of Premier League matches, but now it has arranged 4 rounds. One more round is not just as simple as one more game, but directly compresses the preparation time for the other three games. This is a huge test for any Premier League team.

Although the Premier League officials did not say it, in fact, everyone knows that this is a promotion strategy of the Premier League. When the other three major leagues are in the winter break, the Premier League has ushered in a fierce battle period, which can almost be said to be the exclusive Christmas holiday.

Just imagine, a Hollywood blockbuster has the exclusive summer prime time, how spectacular will the box office be?

As a Premier League team, it is indeed profitable from the successful operation of the overall promotion of the Premier League. The most obvious is the sharing of broadcasting fees. Now the Premier League has also begun to promote pre-season warm-up matches. These have benefited Premier League teams a lot. As a head coach, this Christmas schedule is definitely the biggest test.

Ye Qiu is very clear that to cope with this Christmas schedule, the team's biggest bargaining chip is to give full play to Chelsea's ample bench thickness, so he arranged Ronaldinho, Rooney, Cannavaro and other players to take turns to rest in the first home game against Aston Villa.

Chelsea had a difficult time playing at Stamford Bridge due to the lack of soldiers and generals. Aston Villa's lineup is not as thick as Chelsea, but after a week of rest, they played with a full lineup, which inevitably brought some difficulties to Chelsea. In addition, Aston Villa head coach O'Leary went all out to attack after the opening, which put Chelsea in a passive situation for a while.

As a player, O'Leary has nearly 20 years of experience in the English professional league, and as a head coach, he was the head coach of the young guards of Leeds United back then, leading Leeds United to the peak of glory, and he is experienced in dealing with the winter break.

Aston Villa is different from Chelsea. The latter is determined to win the championship, so it is inevitable to win every game, while Aston Villa has obviously fewer goals, so they can fight hard in some necessary games.

Obviously, O'Leary just wants to do his best in the first game against Chelsea and make a good start.

Chelsea's start was slightly conservative. Ye Qiu's winter break schedule was still based on stability, so it seemed a bit passive, but the team's defense was very stable. Aston Villa could not attack for a long time and gradually retreated, but Chelsea made a counterattack in the 33rd minute of the first half.

Ribery broke through on the left and passed the ball to the right. Lampard cut into the penalty area after offside and knocked the ball back to Van Persie who followed behind him. The Dutch striker easily pushed the ball in front of the goal, 1:0!

This goal also kept Chelsea's advantage until the end, and the Blues finally defeated Aston Villa 1:0 at home.

In the press conference after the game, O'Leary said with a slightly sarcastic tone that Chelsea's tactics were too conservative and the victory was unfair, while Ye Qiu countered that Aston Villa's goal was Chelsea, but Chelsea's goal was the entire season.

"We Chinese have a saying, how can a sparrow know the ambition of a swan? It means that how can a swallow or a sparrow know the lofty ambition of a swan? In the same way, Aston Villa doesn't understand our goals and pursuits at all!"

O'Leary was obviously irritated by Ye Qiu's sarcasm and ridicule. He left the venue on the spot a little angrily, while Ye Qiu was indifferent to it, because this was purely O'Leary's own trouble. If you lose, you lose. Why do you ridicule me, right?

However, it can be seen that O'Leary was a famous coach in Europe back then, but after leaving Leeds United, he was Wang Xiaoer's New Year, and each year was worse than the previous year. It was inevitable that he would feel a little unbalanced.

While Chelsea beat Aston Villa with difficulty, Arsenal beat Fulham 2:0 at home, and Manchester United beat Bolton 2:0 at home. Both teams obviously did not fall behind and were still chasing behind Chelsea, while Everton, currently ranked third in the Premier League, narrowly beat Manchester City 2:1.

Moyes became famous this season. After Everton sold Rooney, many people thought that the team would be greatly reduced in strength, but what they did not expect was that after experiencing the downturn last season, Everton's current performance is shocking.

But there are also hidden dangers. It is rumored that Real Madrid wants to strengthen the midfield and has set its sights on Everton's Danish midfielder Gravesen, who has performed very well this season, while Moyes is now trying his best to retain the Danish midfielder.

The most eye-catching team in the first round after Christmas is Benitez's Liverpool.

The Reds ranked 7th before this game, but they beat West Bromwich 5:0 away, surpassing Charlton, and ranked 6th in the Premier League and entered the League Cup qualification zone.

After this round of games, all British media were a little surprised, because the situation that the giants they had high hopes for did not happen. On the contrary, all the strong teams won one after another, and there were even big wins like Liverpool.

However, everyone knows that the real test has just arrived.

On the 28th, Chelsea will challenge Portsmouth away.

Portsmouth has been plagued by disasters this season. After leading the team to promotion and successfully staying in the Premier League, the conflict between Redknapp and the board of directors has become increasingly serious. In November this year, Redknapp announced his resignation, and technical director Zajec temporarily took over the position of head coach, with Joe Jordan as deputy.

Speaking of which, this is also a major trend in the Premier League at present. More and more teams are beginning to add the position of technical director, which is obviously to weaken the power of the head coach. After all, in the past few years, Premier League football has been frequently involved in black money cases, and almost every local coach has been affected, including Ferguson.

In this case, Premier League teams that pay more and more attention to business operations have begun to add technical directors, and this position is basically occupied by foreign monks. For example, Tottenham Hotspur recently appointed Frank Arnesen as technical director, and Portsmouth also appointed Croatian Zajec as technical director.

There will definitely be some power conflicts between the head coach and the technical director, because the boundary between the two is originally very vague. Even in other leagues on the continent where the framework is already very mature, such disputes and conflicts are more frequent.

Therefore, Redknapp left in anger, and the first thing Zajec had to do after taking office was to stabilize the team's morale and situation, and he did a good job. The first league game was the 19th round of the winter break. They defeated Crystal Palace away, which also made Zajec and his assistant Joe Jordan full of confidence.

Portsmouth welcomed Chelsea at home. The team's strategy was obviously to defend and counterattack. With the momentum of defeating Crystal Palace, they were full of fighting spirit at home and put up a very solid defensive formation in the game. In addition, two fast horses were arranged in the frontcourt to partner with the striker, obviously to use them to harass Chelsea's defense.

Chelsea, who failed to play at full strength, fell into a hard battle in the first half. Under Portsmouth's full defense, the Blues failed to find an effective way to break the opponent's goal. In addition, the winter break schedule was dense, and the players were under great pressure, so it was inevitable that they were a little impatient.

At halftime, even when the team entered the locker room with a score of 0:0, Ye Qiu still encouraged the team and kept comforting the players, asking them to play more patiently. He believed that the team would definitely win.

After the start of the second half, Chelsea's performance still did not improve much, but Ye Qiu kept calling on the players to calm down on the sidelines, which obviously played a certain role, especially in the 60th minute, Ye Qiu replaced Drogba, who performed poorly in this game, with Gudjohnsen, who was more physically fit, and the team's frontcourt became more dynamic.

In the 74th minute, Lampard stole the ball in the frontcourt and passed it to Ronaldinho. The Brazilian kicked directly from the left side of the penalty area. The ball hit the leg of the Portsmouth defender, turned in a direction and folded into the goal, 1:0!

Just 5 minutes later, Chelsea got another chance. Gudjohnsen got the ball in the frontcourt and passed it back. Ronaldinho shot from a corner 25 meters away from the goal and broke the Portsmouth goal again, 2:0!

The Brazilian scored twice and became the best player of the game, becoming the main contributor to the team's winning streak!

But what disappointed many Chelsea players was that in the same round, Manchester United beat Aston Villa 1:0 away, Arsenal beat Newcastle 1:0 away, and Liverpool beat Southampton 1:0 at home. The only team that really fell behind was Everton, whose bench was not deep enough. They lost 0:2 to Charlton away, but still maintained the third place in the league.

Such a fierce competition not only surprised the fans, but also the media and reporters, because after two consecutive rounds, no one fell behind, and the rankings of the traditional giants were rising steadily. This must be said to be a very frustrating thing for the mid- and lower-level teams.

And with the victory of this game, Chelsea's winning streak quickly expanded to 11 games, and it was only one step away from Arsenal's 14-game winning streak.

But just two days after the 20th round of the Premier League, on January 1, Chelsea visited Anfield.