Capítulo 18: Chapter 220: Barcelona undergoes a sudden change, Russell goes to jail,
Lin Quan had not paid attention to Barcelona's affairs for a long time, but he was still shocked when he learned that Russell had used his position to misappropriate as much as 40 million euros in funds.
"Does the club president have that much power?"
Barcelona is a membership-based team, and the authority of the club president should not be that great.
"Who knows, 80% of the time the money was misappropriated due to transfer operations. As for whose pocket the money went to, I don't know!"
David Silva shook his head. He was not a player from La Masia's youth academy and didn't know much about Barcelona's situation.
He heard this news from friends in Spain. It is reported that when Russell faced the jury charges, he denied the relevant charges and refused to disclose the whereabouts of the money on the grounds of commercial confidentiality.
But outsiders are speculating that the money is likely to be related to Neymar's transfer this summer.
"The fans at Barcelona were very angry. They protested outside the club and asked Russell to step down. It is said that Russell does not even dare to go home now for fear of being caught by the angry fans!"
Lin Quan nodded, this is what he deserves!
He came to power through unfair means, and then stepped down in disgrace for the same reason. This is a cycle.
The news that Rosell was suspected of a job crime obviously had some impact on Barcelona's record. Barcelona, which had maintained an unbeaten streak of 14 rounds before, was defeated by Athletic Bilbao in an away game, and its unbeaten streak came to an end.
At this point, there is no unbeaten team in La Liga.
The competition in La Liga is very fierce. After Barcelona lost this game, their points were overtaken by Atletico Madrid.
Their old rival Real Madrid was only 3 points behind them, and the originally advantageous championship situation suddenly became a bit confusing.
If Barcelona cannot get out of this negative impact as soon as possible, they are likely to be widened by the Madrid duo.
Probably knowing this, the Catalan district court stepped up its investigation and trial of the Russell case.
Based on reports from informants, they found evidence that Russell was suspected of tax evasion, forging certificates to run games, and bribing the president of the Brazilian Football Association and the executive committee of the National Football Federation.
As soon as these news came out, they immediately caused an earthquake in the football world.
The president of the Brazilian Football Confederation and the executive committee of FIFA resigned one after another and accepted investigations by their country's courts.
Rosell himself was forced to resign as Barcelona chairman and faces a court trial. It is said that he may be sentenced to at least three years in prison.
As soon as this news came out, many people were disappointed.
The position of Barcelona president is just like the president of a certain country. It is really a high-ranking profession.
From Nunez to Laporta, and then to Rosell, these Barcelona presidents have not ended well.
And Bartomeu, who temporarily took over as Chairman Rosell's executive committee, doesn't know if he can escape this curse.
…
Barcelona's undefeated streak was ended, which actually benefited Manchester City.
"Haha, Barcelona loses, and we and Bayern are the only two undefeated teams in the five major leagues!"
Navas said with some gloating.
"Hehe, we face West Bromwich Albion in the next game. Our opponent is not strong. We will definitely win this game!"
Negredo seemed confident and did not take his opponent seriously at all.
"Now it depends on who makes the first mistake between us and Bayern!"
The players are still very concerned about the team's unbeaten record. They want to defeat Bayern and become the only unbeaten team in the five major leagues.
However, Lin Quan is not very optimistic about this. He vaguely remembers that Guardiola seemed to have created the longest unbeaten record in the history of Bayern in his first season.
He couldn't remember exactly how many unbeaten games it was, but it obviously wouldn't be short. After all, it was Bayern's historical record.
"The winter break in other leagues is coming soon, but there is no winter break in the Premier League. We must be prepared for a decline in record!"
During the team training before the game, Pellegrini discussed with several assistant coaches.
This is Pellegrini's first time coaching a Premier League team and he has to be more cautious.
"Is the Premier League's winter break so terrible?"
an assistant coach asked curiously.
"Yes, it's scary. Players in other leagues can get almost a month's rest after playing for more than three months.
Since the Premier League does not have a winter break, in December, as various cup and league schedules become increasingly intensive, the number of games that players have to participate in will be significantly higher than in previous months.
Taking us as an example, we only have 3 league games in November, but we have 7 league games in December, including three games in the 6 days before and after Christmas. The 17th and 18th rounds are even close to each other, two consecutive days. There are leagues to play! "
"Hey, this schedule is too anti-human, isn't it? Why does the Premier League arrange the schedule this way?"
"Commercialization, in order to pursue the greatest commercial interests, they deliberately chose to increase the number of games on Christmas when other leagues are on break, and use people's Christmas vacation time to attract fans to watch the games!"
"Haha, when the time comes, whether the fans are Premier League fans or not, if they want to watch games they will have to watch Premier League games. It's really a good idea!"
"But this is not a good thing for the players. The continuous intensive schedule will greatly increase the players' physical consumption and even lead to a large number of players suffering from injuries.
Moreover, during the Christmas period, they cannot return home to be with their families, but have to play games on the court. This will create resistance among the players and their game performance will also decline. "
Pellegrini has obviously done his homework in advance. Although he has not played in the Premier League's devilish winter break schedule, he has some understanding of the difficulties during the Premier League's Christmas period.
"Then what should we do now?"
Seeing how terrible the Premier League's winter break was, the assistant coach asked worriedly.
"Rotation is necessary. We must plan ahead from now on and try to reduce the physical consumption of the main players. In this way, when the Christmas league starts, the main players' condition will not decline too much."
Pellegrini is very considerate and even plans to give the team's players a rotating holiday before Christmas.
Give them time to rest early and spend time with their families.
In this case, when the league starts racing during the Christmas period, their resistance will be smaller.
However, after taking a look at Manchester City's December schedule, he had a headache.
After the game against Swansea, Manchester City still has 8 games to play in December.
Among them are 6 league matches, one Champions League match and one League Cup match.
The Champions League group match against Bayern on December 11 is an away game, and involves a battle for the top spot in the group.
On December 14, they will face the challenge of Arsenal, who are second in the league.
Arsenal is Manchester City's direct competitor on the road to winning the championship. This game is worth six points and Manchester City cannot afford to lose.
These two games are very important for Manchester City and are directly related to their Champions League and league record this season.
Pellegrini did not dare to give up any of them easily, so he could only bite the bullet and play.
On December 5, Manchester City challenged West Bromwich Albion, ranked 12th in the league, away from home.
Because Lin Quan had just returned from Italy, considering his physical condition, Pellegrini did not put him in the starting lineup, but let him sit on the bench.
The intensive Christmas schedule is coming soon. Lin Quan is the most important player in the Manchester City team. He must ensure his condition, otherwise the team is likely to collapse.
In this game, Manchester City arranged for Aguero and Negredo to partner in the frontcourt, playing a 442 diamond formation.
Although Lin Quan did not play, Manchester City's offensive firepower was still terrifying.
At the Hawthorn Stadium, Manchester City's players were high-spirited and turned away from home from the start, launching a fierce attack on West Bromwich Albion.
Aguero opened the scoring in just 9 minutes, helping Manchester City take the lead.
The Argentinian's scoring efficiency has been greatly improved this season. This goal is his 14th goal in the league, temporarily ranking second in the Premier League Golden Boot list, second only to Lin Quan, who scored 21 goals.
In the 22nd minute, Yaya Toure scored with a high-quality direct free kick, helping Manchester City expand its lead.
When Lin Quan is not on the court, Yaya Toure is Manchester City's first penalty kicker, taking both free kicks and penalty kicks.
In just over 20 minutes, Manchester City took a two-goal lead.
This made the Manchester City fans who traveled with the team happily sing songs!
The game has entered a rhythm that Manchester City is familiar with. Facing such a crazy Manchester City, who can resist their attack?
Seeing this result, Pellegrini felt relieved. He stood up and applauded the players, asking them to control the rhythm of the game and reduce physical exertion.
After Manchester City's offense restrained, neither team had a good chance, and the 2:0 score remained until the end of the half.
In the second half, West Bromwich Albion's performance was still very poor.
They seemed to be stunned by Manchester City's terrifying attack in the opening stage, and all they could think about was the tragedy of Tottenham and Norwich being massacred by Manchester City.
There is no shame in losing to Manchester City. What is shameful is that they were bloodbathed by the opponent at their own home court.
Seeing that his opponent seemed to have lost his fighting spirit, Pellegrini started making substitutions early.
In the 65th minute of the game, Manchester City made personnel adjustments. Milner came on and replaced the goal hero Aguero.
However, what he didn't expect was that just after he made this substitution, the situation on the field suddenly changed.
In the 72nd minute, West Bromwich Albion forward Sean's long shot caused chaos in the Manchester City penalty area.
During the melee, Manchester City goalkeeper Pantilimon made a low-level mistake. He blocked his teammate's clearance into his own goal and gave the opponent an own goal.
Kolarov was speechless. He had obviously successfully cleared the ball. Pantilimon didn't know what he was thinking, but he had to stretch his foot to block it!
Pantilimon quickly apologized to his teammates, saying that the goal was his responsibility.
However, after unexpectedly scoring a goal, West Bromwich Albion, which had already felt that the end was over, suddenly seemed to see hope.
They rekindled their fighting spirit, changed their previous situation of being passively beaten, and actually took the initiative to attack Manchester City.
In the 85th minute, Anichebe, who came on as a substitute in the second half, dribbled the ball in from the wing. Manchester City's defender made a coordination error and failed to close the door, allowing the opponent to kill.
Goalkeeper Pantilimon immediately chose to attack, but was knocked down by the opponent's spike.
In panic, he subconsciously grabbed the opponent's ankle and knocked the opponent down in the penalty area.
Beep!
The referee blew his whistle quickly and trotted over with a serious look on his face.
Pantilimon had already realized that he had made a mistake. He quickly got up and wanted to explain to the referee. He also tried to pick up Aniche, who was lying on the ground and rolling on the ground.
However, the referee ignored his explanation and mercilessly took out a red card from his breast pocket and sent him off!
"This idiot!"
Seeing Pantilimon being shown a red card, Pellegrini, who has always been good-tempered, couldn't help but curse.
So what if the opponent rushes over and hits an empty goal?
At worst, it's just tied!
Now that the goalkeeper was sent off, Manchester City not only had to make passive substitutions, but also had one less player to play, and the situation suddenly deteriorated.
While the referee sent off the Manchester City goalkeeper, he also awarded a penalty kick.
The fans at Hawthorn Stadium are going crazy. If this penalty kick is scored, the score will be tied!
The team actually caught up after falling behind by two goals! ?
Moreover, the opponent was sent off one person. Could it be said that Manchester City's unbeaten golden status will end in their hands?
The situation of the game took a turn for the worse, and Pellegrini could not sit still at all.
He first replaced Joe Hart, then asked Lin Quan to warm up, preparing to replace him later.
Joe Hart has been on the bench for several games. He had seen Pantilimon's performance in the team getting better and better and was deeply trusted by the head coach. He was already half-hearted, feeling that his future in Manchester City It's completely finished.
The result was an unexpected turn of events. Pantilimon's two low-level mistakes will definitely greatly affect his impression on the head coach.
Maybe I can use this opportunity to regain my starting position!
When he thought of this, Joe Hart was so excited that he came on the stage without any hesitation!
Compared to Joe Hart, Lin Quan was not so excited.
The team fell behind inexplicably, which gave him a bad feeling.
Although Pantilimon's performance was indeed poor, Manchester City's defense also performed poorly today.
Especially captain Kompany, his performance is completely different from before, as if he suddenly became unable to defend.
Lin Quan, as Manchester City's lucky general, has staged a number of winning performances this season.
As long as he is on the field, Manchester City can always save the day.
So with only two substitutions left, Pellegrini chose Lin Quan without hesitation.
Replacing him, even if the team has one less player, Manchester City still has hope of winning.
Moreover, what if Joe Hart explodes and saves the opponent's penalty kick?
…
The miracle did not happen, Joe Hart failed to save the opponent's penalty kick.
When Lin Quan came on the court, the score was already 2:2.
In fact, the situation is not that bad. Manchester City is just tied, not behind.
However, when Lin Quan came on the field, he clearly felt that something was wrong with the mood and state of his teammates.
Lin Quan didn't think much about it at first. He reached out for the ball. After receiving the ball, he immediately cooperated with Milner, David Silva and others, hoping to reorganize an effective attack.
He had just observed off the court that after Aguero came off the field, Manchester City's frontcourt offense became a bit chaotic, and the threat to West Bromwich Albion was greatly reduced.
This is the reason why the other party dares to come out and fight with them!
Therefore, as long as the team's offense is sorted out clearly and poses a threat to the opponent's goal in the frontcourt, they will not dare to be so unscrupulous.
However, Lin Quan soon discovered a problem:
When he was attacking, his teammates didn't dare to assist him.
They seemed to be afraid of something. Except for Navas and David Silva, no one else dared to participate in the attack.
This situation made Lin Quan couldn't help but frown. He could confirm that there was something wrong with the mentality of his teammates.
But, what is the problem?
Suddenly, he remembered something. Could it be because of that?
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