The 23rd round of the Premier League against Tottenham Hotspur is a key battle.

Tottenham Hotspur finished fourth last season and are currently fourth this season and still have the quality to reach the Champions League, with a comfortable 3-0 win in the first leg but not on the road. Even if Tottenham don't want Chelsea and Arsenal to win the title, they won't allow themselves to lose to Manchester United at White Hart Lane.

Manchester United's lead over Chelsea has shrunk to nine points, and if this game loses to Tottenham and Chelsea closes the gap to six points, then there will be a lot of variables in the league.

For Manchester United's bigwigs and upstarts, the game meant even more.

Gary. Neville has just retired, and the vacated captaincy position is temporarily unavailable, and whoever can perform well in this kind of tough battle will undoubtedly add a lot of impression points to himself.

Ferguson has some concerns about this game, although in terms of strength and form, Manchester United has no problem beating Tottenham, but now Gao Xiaodong is questioned after winning the Ballon d'Or, and he doesn't know what to do, and Gary. Neville's retirement has brought about a captaincy within the team, which is the X-factor that affects the game.

Before the start of the game, Ferguson held a team meeting to emphasise the importance of the game and hope that the players would unite and work hard to maintain the lead over second place before the start of the Champions League knockout round.

The meetings went on one by one, until near the end of the meeting, Ferdinand suddenly asked: "Captain Gary has retired, who will wear the captain's armband tomorrow against Tottenham?"

This is knowingly asked, although Ferdinand and Vidic have both served as vice-captains, but in recent times, even if Ferdinand and Vidic appear at the same time, it is Vidic who wears the captain's armband.

However, Ferdinand asked this question for a reason, before Neville retired, no matter how many times Vidic wore the captain's armband, fans knew that the captain was Neville, and now that Neville is retired, Ferguson has not appointed a new captain, if Vidic wears the captain every time, I am afraid that the media and fans will default to Vidic as the first captain of Manchester United.

Ferdinand didn't want this to become a given, so he openly raised his doubts.

In the Manchester United squad, apart from Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, only Rio Ferdinand is qualified to challenge Vidic publicly.

Ferguson was displeased, he wanted to delay the establishment of the captain, but Ferdinand picked the matter on the table.

"Leo, do I need to repeat this? ”

Ferguson made up his mind that if Ferdinand continued to ask about it, he would give Ferdinand a hard beating.

But Ferdinand didn't say anything after asking the question, and sat down silently.

Ferguson was wondering when Fletcher stood up again and said, "Coach, who will manage the dressing room on weekdays?"

Fletcher is also one of the candidates for captain this time, and Ferdinand is a competitor, but he is also a big player in the local gang, Ferdinand took the lead in attacking Vidic of the continental gang, and he naturally will not miss the opportunity to attack his rivals.

Ferguson's face sank, "Gary will not leave the team for the time being, even if Gary is not there, isn't there still a vice captain." ”

Ferguson was already very unhappy, smart people would not talk about the captain anymore, Fletcher sat down silently, but Rooney, who was stunned, stood up again and said: "Coach, if you are not sure about the captain for the time being, why not let the vice-captain take turns to be the captain on the field and manage the locker room?"

Rooney's words were discussed between Ferdinand and Fletcher, and under normal circumstances, it would be nothing to say this, but now Ferguson is very unhappy, and Rooney is asking for trouble when he says it again.

Sure enough, Ferguson was furious and said sharply: "Wayne, when to determine the captain and how to exercise the captain's duties, you don't need to make the decision, today is a tactical meeting, a pre-game mobilization meeting, not to discuss the captain's choice." ”

Ferguson couldn't help but get angry, the three generals of the local gang stood up and spoke one by one, and Evra of the mainland gang over there was also eager to try, if he didn't interrupt this discussion, it was estimated that there would be a quarrel below, and he would play Tottenham tomorrow, Ferguson didn't want to make trouble in the dressing room.

Rooney saw that Ferguson was angry and did not dare to speak anymore, but when he sat down, he was not convinced, and Rooney felt that he was not wrong, since Ferdinand and Fletcher could speak, why criticize him alone.

After the meeting, Ferguson had just returned to the locker room when Gao Xiaodong came in.

"Xiaodong, sit, is there something wrong?"

Although Ferguson was still angry, he still put on a smiling face when he saw Gao Xiaodong.

Gao Xiaodong said: "It's a little trivial, at the moment of the war, I don't know whether to ask or not, I'm a little anxious, don't ask, and I'm panicking." ”

Ferguson smiled and said in his heart, this kid is still playing tricks on me, so he said: "If there is anything that should or should not be, you ask." ”

Gao Xiaodong said: "I read the announcement on the official website yesterday, there are five candidates for captaincy, I want to ask, I am new to the city, I don't know what kind of conditions are required to be the captain of Manchester United? ”

When Ferguson heard this, he was very surprised, he knew that there were fans on the Internet who protested that there was no captain candidate Gao Xiaodong, but he didn't expect Gao Xiaodong to have the ambition to be the captain now.

If you want to say what the standard is for being a captain at Manchester United, Ferguson really hasn't thought about it, like the original captain, whether it is Cantona or Keane or Neville, it is a matter of self-heating, and no one doubts whether they are worthy of the position of captain of Manchester United.

But now, there are so many people who can be captains, and none of them can completely press the competition like Keane, and it seems that there is a real need for a standard.

Ferguson groaned for a moment and said: "Actually, there are no too detailed standards, generally speaking, you have to be loyal to the club, you have to have high skills, you have to be able to play consistently, you have to have some seniority and prestige, you have to be able to control the dressing room, and you have to have a good reputation and popularity." ”

When Gao Xiaodong heard this, his spirits perked up, and he said with a smile: "Coach, I didn't want to be the captain of the team, but listening to you say this, I think I seem to be qualified."

Look at me, Mu Shuai asked me to go to Real Madrid, Real Madrid has a higher status than Manchester United, Manchester City gave me a salary that is not low, I didn't go, I can be regarded as loyal to the club.

In terms of skills, I can't say the highest at Manchester United, but at least the playing time is consistent and I haven't missed a minute in the league now.

The qualifications may be a little worse, the prestige should still be there, anyway, no one dares to mess with me, if you want to talk about reputation, I won the Golden Ball, popularity, there are few people in the team who are not good with me. ”

Ferguson was dumbfounded when he heard it, he had seen people who boasted about themselves, but he had never seen someone as boastful as Gao Xiaodong, but what surprised Ferguson even more was that Gao Xiaodong's analysis really made some sense, Gao Xiaodong seemed to be not bad at all except for his qualifications and age, not to mention that he was not bad, he was simply excellent.

But having a 21-year-old captain of Manchester United is so shocking that even a less conservative person like Alex Ferguson is a bit hard to accept.

With a wry smile, Ferguson said gently: "Xiao Dong, as soon as you say that, I think you are really a good candidate, okay, I will add you to the captaincy candidate, but now the captain has not been determined yet, you play hard, wait for the decision of the coaching staff, don't be distracted by these things." ”

Gao Xiaodong's purpose for coming today is this, and when the purpose is achieved, he immediately stood up with a smile and said: "Thank you, coach, I will definitely play hard and strive to make myself more in line with your captain's standard." ”

Gao Xiaodong left, looking at Gao Xiaodong's back, Ferguson shook his head again and again, and said in his heart, what kind of magical place is Huaguo, how could such a demon be produced.