Chapter 507: First defeat of the season

As a fan, Ye Qiu has always admired an interesting tradition in English football, that is, working without a license, that is, not having a professional coaching certificate, but serving as the head coach of a Premier League team. Later, he summed up his experience and thought that this is a rebellious mentality, a rebellion against managers!

To a certain extent, people do need to be managed, because not everyone can clearly know what they want. Many people often wait until they miss it or get it before they know, oh, it turns out that this is what I want, and only a very small number of people know how to get it.

It is useless to just talk about what I want and what I want. The key is to know how to get it, which is helpful to mankind, because everyone can say it, but not necessarily do it.

Just like in the world of football, many people will say it, and there have even been many precedents of saying it in a grandiose way, but in the end they have achieved nothing, such as Grant in the Chelsea period, or the one sitting next to Ye Qiu now, former England international Gareth Southgate.

Southgate is another example of an unlicensed coach in England. He was once greatly praised by the English media, who believed that he was an excellent central defender in his career. After retiring, he could become a rising star in English football and a famous young coach. However, the facts prove that Middlesbrough has always been tepid in the past few years that he has coached.

Many people say that coaching a top team is not a skill, and coaching a mid- and lower-level team can show real skills. The reason is very simple. The mid- and lower-level teams can neither win the championship nor get the championship, but at the same time they cannot be relegated. In the mid- and lower-level teams where the quality of players is generally not high, the head coach can play his tactical role.

Ye Qiu thinks this is a bit nonsense. He dare not say which head coach is better between the mid- and lower-level teams and the top teams, but he can say with certainty that it is nonsense to say that the mid- and lower-level teams can better reflect the role of the head coach.

And when he really understood the tactical knowledge, management level and a lot of other things required for the position of head coach, he really realized that unlicensed work is actually a very stupid and backward appointment method.

The reason is very simple. It's like you give all the power of a listed company to a person who has no business management experience at all, or like the US government, giving the core position of the president to a person who has not even managed a city alone. This is called absurd, not courage!

In a listed company, at least there are many different departments, a board of directors, and other executives to form constraints. In the US government, not to mention the big consortium behind the scenes, there are quite a few departments in the government to constrain the power of the president, which can ensure that they will not mess around.

But in a football club, who will constrain the head coach?

Everyone knows that Middlesbrough's current lineup is actually not bad. I dare not say that it can rush into the front, but at least it does not need to enter the relegation zone like now, because their team, whether it is the back line or the front court, has good Premier League first-class stars including Downing, Robert Huth, Adam Johnson, etc.

But now, Southgate will only announce to the outside world again and again that the team has no problems and he has found a way to solve the problem, but the game has proved again and again that he can't solve the problem at all.

The fans of Middlesbrough who came to White Hart Lane even mocked in the stands, thinking that Southgate had only one thing left to lose, that is, the trust of club chairman Gibson in him. In addition, he even lost his underwear.

To use the cartoon of Middlesbrough fans, Southgate was stripped naked, and his face was covered with a pair of underwear with Gibson's trust written on it, which shows the dissatisfaction and disappointment of Middlesbrough fans.

When the team is in good shape, you win the game and defeat the opponent, which is not your ability. The real measure of a head coach's level is how you help the team out of trouble in adversity and crisis.

Compared with Middlesbrough, which just defeated Liverpool 2:0 at home in the last round and won a week of rest time, Tottenham Hotspur is obviously in a more unfavorable situation in this game, because they have been fighting on multiple fronts for a long time, and just lost to Manchester United in the League Cup final, missing the League Cup championship, and morale is undoubtedly at a low point.

In this case, many media felt before the game that Middlesbrough was not completely without the possibility of an upset.

But Ye Qiu made the most daring changes and adjustments in this game. He resolutely chose to let Ribery, who had just recovered from injury, return to the starting lineup, but not to the left winger position he was most familiar with. Instead, he was asked to play on the right winger. The left winger was the young player Eden Hazard, and the single striker was Cavani.

After replacing the starting trident, the midfielder kept the combination of David Silva and Fabregas, the defensive midfielder was replaced by Lucas, the back line was composed of Arbeloa, Kompany, Thiago Silva and Kyle Walker, and the goalkeeper was still Peter Cech.

Such a semi-main lineup surprised and astonished many people before the game, because they all knew that this game would be crucial for Tottenham Hotspur, but at this time Ye Qiu chose to rotate a lot, and also took the best Messi, Van Persie and Alves, which was really puzzling.

But it was such a lineup that defeated Middlesbrough 4-0 at White Hart Lane, pushing Southgate's team further into the abyss of relegation. The goal for Tottenham Hotspur was Cavani opened the scoring, Eden Hazard scored the second goal, and Franck Ribery followed with a brace.

Obviously, Tottenham Hotspur did not lose its competitiveness because of the large-scale rotation. On the contrary, because of the large-scale rotation, Tottenham Hotspur performed quite well in the game, especially Eden on the left? Hazard has almost become Tottenham Hotspur's most threatening player. Although Ribery scored two goals, his performance was not as good as Cavani and Eden Hazard.

Therefore, at this moment, at White Hart Lane, when reporters asked Ye Qiu about the large rotation for this game and whether he was absolutely confident that he could win Middlesbrough before the game, Ye Qiu said that he Confident but unsure.

"Sometimes we can't play cards with complete certainty because no one knows the result before the game is played. But before the game, I have already felt that many players on the team need to rest. , because their physical and mental state are at a critical point, and they need to relax! "

"Mr. Ye Qiu, Ferguson's Manchester United has performed very well in recent times. The gap between them and Tottenham Hotspur is only four points, and everyone at Manchester United is ambitious about turning around. What do you think? Woolen cloth?"

Ye Qiu laughed after hearing this, "If I thought so, I would definitely say that they were dreaming!"

Everyone present also laughed after hearing this. They thought this was a bit crude, but it relieved their anger.

"What I want to say is that we have indeed encountered a problem recently, but we are already a mature team. I feel that in our current situation, it is difficult for our opponents to have a chance to challenge us. We There is only one enemy, and that is ourselves!”

Another reporter raised his hand, "I think you are right, Mr. Ye Qiu, but it is true that in the past period, your team also encountered many problems due to multi-front operations, just like the League Cup It was the same as losing to Manchester United in the final.”

"You don't need to emphasize our loss with a strong tone, I know!" Ye Qiu reminded this reporter who was obviously trying to uncover Tottenham Hotspur's scars in a more relaxed and joking tone, "But That’s all over, we are still moving forward in the Champions League and Premier League, and I am full of confidence in the future!”

After playing Middlesbrough, we ushered in the second leg of the Champions League knockout round of 16 in midweek.

Tottenham Hotspur still adopted the starting lineup of the first round. The only change to the starting eleven players was at the left back position, replacing Marcelo with Arbeloa and freezing Robben.

As a result, Tottenham Hotspur defeated Real Madrid 2:0 at home, which had completely lost hope of promotion, and eliminated Real Madrid from the Champions League with a total score of 7:0, successfully advancing to the quarterfinals.

The day after the game, UEFA held a draw ceremony at its headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. Ye Qiu did not attend this time. Club CEO Peter Kenyon attended on behalf of the team, while Tottenham Tottenham's opponent in the quarter-finals was Sporting Lisbon from Portugal.

This is the weakest team among all the teams that have reached the quarterfinals. It can also be regarded as compensation after Tottenham Hotspur encountered Real Madrid in the first round of the knockout round. Together with Tottenham Hotspur, it is ranked in the bottom half. There are also duels between Manchester United and Porto, England and Portugal.

The top half is a duel between England and Spain. Barcelona met Bayern Munich, and Arsenal met Chelsea. This can be regarded as a siege by UEFA on the four Premier League teams in the draw arrangement to avoid the four Premier League teams. The team has a chance to monopolize the top four.

But everyone already has a very deep understanding of the strength of the Premier League. In the past two seasons, the Premier League has occupied three of the top four seats in the Champions League semi-finals, and it is very hopeful to occupy three seats again this season. With the decline of Serie A, it has become very obvious that the Premier League is a one-man show.

After playing against Real Madrid, he returned to the Premier League. In the 29th round, Tottenham Hotspur challenged Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa. Ye Qiuye continued to make appropriate rotations in the team and successfully played in the Premier League. At the beginning, Cesc Fabregas and Cavani scored successively to take a 2:0 lead.

But in the second half, Aston Villa created several threats, the most threatening of which was forward Agbonlahor's single-handed goal. In almost a one-on-one situation, Aston Villa was about to be beaten by Agbonlahor. It passed, but Cech decisively abandoned the goal and saved the ball from Agbonlahor's feet, and also tripped Agbonlahor.

However, the referee thought it was a beautiful attack, so he did not penalize Cech for a foul. Tottenham Hotspur also relied on Cech's critical moment save to maintain their 16th consecutive game without conceding.

Cech's clean sheet in this game also made Cech famous. By virtue of these 16 consecutive games without conceding a goal, he successfully reached the second place in FIFA's world goalkeeper clean sheet record rankings, which can be called The current number one player is only behind Mazzarope, the goalkeeper of Da Gama in Brazil in 1977, and it will take at least five games to break Mazzarope's record.

Because there is a week's break between the 29th and 30th rounds, Tottenham Hotspur Club has specially arranged a series of activities to celebrate Cech's record and arranged for Cech to be interviewed by the official website and the media.

Regarding his clean sheet record, Cech said that he did not take it too seriously. "What I am thinking about most now is how to help the team continue the current unbeaten record and winning momentum. I firmly believe that we will be successful this season."

"Being able to break so many records and achieve such results, I think the most important thing to thank is my teammates and head coach. Without their support and help, I would not have been able to get this honor, so I hope to repay them and the fans with better and better performances."

Perhaps because there were no games and no news during this week, the outside media tried every means to dig up news everywhere, and they really found it.

The Sun, which is known for its omnipresence, photographed Manchester City CEO Gary Cook and transfer consultant Joorabchian going south to London on Wednesday and meeting privately with Tottenham Hotspur CEO Peter Kenyon in a hotel. A series of photos and evidence of the meeting were also released.

According to the digging of the Sun, a potential transfer has officially surfaced. That is, this summer, Tottenham Hotspur's top star Leo Messi will transfer to Manchester City for a super high price of 150 million euros. This will be a super high price that breaks all transfer fee records. Manchester City will offer Messi a huge salary that is twice as high as his current salary, making him the number one in the current football world in all aspects.

The Sun is a famous newspaper in England. It was them who dug out the inside story of Beckham's transfer and provided photos of Peter Kenyon, who was working at Manchester United at the time, meeting with Real Madrid executives. They have also repeatedly revealed some explosive inside stories, and are called omnipresence by English fans.

This news from The Sun immediately set off a global media explosion. Everyone was surprised at Manchester City's big spending and Tottenham's operation. In the past few years, Tottenham has sold players almost every year, but the overall strength of the team has not been affected at all. Instead, the performance has been rising steadily.

The first black shop in Europe, this hat is well deserved for Tottenham.

And Ye Qiuwuyi is the most valuable black shopkeeper in this black shop, because if it weren't for his pair of sharp eyes to find players, how could Tottenham dare to guarantee that they could sell their star players casually?

Tottenham directly denied the rumors from the outside world, saying that the team had not received any offers and had never had any contact with Manchester City, but such a statement was obviously unconvincing.

Soon, Real Madrid also joined the battle. Spanish media revealed that Florentino intends to return to Real Madrid this summer to reshape the Galacticos, and Messi is a crucial part of Florentino's superstar strategy. The former Real Madrid president hopes to pack Messi, Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo in one go and reproduce the glorious peak of the Galacticos period.

Barcelona also joined the battle, but relatively speaking, Barcelona can't compare with Real Madrid in terms of transfer fees, let alone the wealthy Manchester City, so what Barcelona can give is sincerity and emotional offensive that can persuade players. Therefore, many media in Catalonia are rumored that Messi will return to Barcelona this summer.

In addition to Messi, many players in Tottenham Hotspur are targeted by opponents, such as Gareth Bale. It is reported that Ferguson intends to sell Cristiano Ronaldo and introduce Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur, and Manchester United should be able to make a net profit of about 50 million euros from these two transfers.

But there are also reports that Ferguson has already started to prepare to introduce Lyon's talented striker Benzema, and Chelsea's England star Rooney is also within Ferguson's consideration. There are reports that Ferguson intends to use the funds from the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to reorganize Manchester United's trident.

In addition, players like Van Persie, Fabregas, Alves and Yaya Toure, who has performed very well this season, have become hot spots in the transfer market and have been targeted by many competitors, but Tottenham Hotspur has denied these transfers one by one, saying that Tottenham Hotspur has no plans to sell anyone.

Obviously affected by the overwhelming news hype from the outside world, Tottenham Hotspur played against Hiddink's Chelsea at home in the 30th round of the league, but this time Tottenham Hotspur faced Chelsea, who was defending, and obviously performed very poorly. The offense lacked threats and the defense was not very good.

The best players of the game were two players. One was Beckham, who replaced the injured Fabregas. The Englishman used a direct free kick to help Tottenham Hotspur beat Chelsea 1:0. The other was Petr Cech, who had the best performance of the game. He kept Tottenham Hotspur's goal intact.

In this round, Manchester United lost 0:2 to Fulham away, and they were the first to lose the game.

But in the 31st round of the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur finally lost the goal. When playing away against Allardyce's Blackburn, the team paid the painful price of Messi's injury and Kompany's red card, and lost 1:2 to the violent Blackburn away. What made Ye Qiu feel helpless was that it was McCarthy who scored for Blackburn.

This disciple of Mourinho almost exclusively scored against Tottenham Hotspur, and he can be called a Tottenham killer!

And this was Tottenham Hotspur's first defeat this season.