Chapter 608 An offer of eighty million euros
On January 4, 2009, in the third round of the FA Cup, Manchester United hosted Southampton away. {}
Southampton is a Championship team, this team is also considered an old Premier League fritter team, but in the 2004/2005 season relegated from the Premier League, and then has been in the Championship struggle, this season Southampton's table is even worse, now Southampton in the Championship second-to-last, according to the current situation, Southampton is likely to be relegated from the Championship to the third tier of League One at the end of the season.
Therefore, in the face of Southampton, the media in England generally believed that Manchester United could win easily.
In the end, though, the game went out as no one expected, with Southampton, who are second from bottom in the Championship, playing well against Manchester United, who had not been breached by United's formidable attacking line until the 81st minute played.
"I take back my pre-match predictions, Southampton's table is fantastic, this team seems to be telling everyone that their current position in the Championship is just an illusion! They will be serious contenders for promotion to the Championship next season. Lineker was full of praise for Southampton's watch.
'Manchester United haven't been able to play for a long time and they need someone to step up now. Mortensen looked at Yang Fan as he said this, and it was clear that he was looking forward to seeing the Chinese star explode and step up like a hero to deliver the killer blow.
Sure enough, it was Yang Fan who finally saved Manchester United!
In the 86th minute of the game, Manchester United got a free kick opportunity, Anderson's football flew into the penalty area, Yang Fan pressed his defender of Southampton, and shook his head beautifully, breaking through Southampton's goal!
“goooooooooaaaaaaal!”
"Goal! Finally scored! Yang Fan! I had to rely on him at the critical moment! 1-0! This was Yang Fan's first FA Cup game, and he used this goal to avoid the embarrassment of Manchester United in a replay! He saved Ferguson's heart!"
According to the rules of the FA Cup, if the two sides draw in the game, there will be no extra time, and there will be a replay at a later date, which is an unbearable result for Manchester United, who are now in the devil's schedule. So, the commentator said that Yang Fan's goal saved Manchester United, which is absolutely true.
1 to 0!
It was the deadlock-breaking goal and the only goal of the game.
In the end, Manchester United eliminated Southampton with a score of 1-0 with Yang Fan's goal and reached the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Three days later, on 7 January 2009, the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final was played away by Manchester United at Derby County. Derby County is also a team from the Championship, and the strength can be seen.
Manchester United won 2-1 away at Derby County thanks to goals from Yang Fan and Michael Carrick to take the lead in the two-legged knockout round.
The FA Cup against Southampton and the League Cup semi-final against Derby County were not easy for United to win, leading many to wonder if the Reds are in trouble right now.
'There's no doubt that Manchester United are in a period of exhaustion. Winning those two games was barely enough and you can fully imagine what a bad situation it would be when their luck ran out......"
Manchester United seem to be in trouble, facing opponents who can easily win but are locked in a tough battle that they don't want to see for the tired European champions.
However, even the media criticizing Manchester United have to face up to one point: Yang Fan's fiery goalscoring form.
Both the English and Chinese media are saying that if Yang Fan's crazy form continues, he is likely to score 50 goals on all fronts in his first season at Manchester United! You know, now halfway through the league schedule, Yang Fan has scored 17 goals in the Premier League, 3 goals in the League Cup, 4 goals in the Champions League, and one goal in the FA Cup, and now, his goal for Manchester United in the season has reached 25.
With his current red-hot goalscoring form, it's really possible to score 50 goals for Manchester United in one season.
In an interview with the media, Yang Fan said that he no longer thinks about his goal count, and the important thing is that the team can win.
Not to mention whether Yang Fan said this sincerely, but compared with the time when he shouted to win the Golden Boot at the beginning of the season, this young shooter seems to be more mature.
Ferguson was very satisfied with Yang Fan's statement, he praised Yang Fan as one of the most feared goalscorers in today's football, and said that he would be proud and proud of his decision to bring in Yang Fan for the rest of his life.
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At this point, the 2008/2009 winter transfer window has opened, and this is the time for teams to use this short transfer window to fill in the gaps.
In the transfer market, the Big Four are far less enthusiastic about recruiting than they are hungry for titles. At present, Manchester United has suffered a large number of injuries, Hargreaves is injured again, Ferdinand is also injured, however, until January 10, Manchester United has not moved in the transfer market, Ferguson only ate 22-year-old Tosic, 17-year-old Rajadzic and 22-year-old De Lait, obviously the lord is planning in the future, these transactions are expected to play a big role in the second half of the season to win the championship, but Manucho, who was introduced last winter, was "sent" to Hull City for training in the form of loan.
Liverpool, who are still struggling to catch up with Manchester United, are also in and out, and Benitez has only brought in one new signing, and is still a 17-year-old young Parson. What brought the Reds' attention to the Reds was that they had brought in Robbie Keane for £20.3 million last summer and were clearly not comfortable at Anfield and could well return to his former club Tottenham Hotspur.
Chelsea, the big money spenders in the past, have not made any moves, and it seems that they are not planning to spend money in this winter transfer window.
Arsenal have been chasing Russia's 'Tsar' Arshavin, but it seems that it will be difficult to successfully bring in Arshavin at the moment.
In fact, in this winter, the most active is still Manchester United's brother Manchester City, after being acquired by the Arab consortium, Manchester City has become the upstart in the eyes of the Premier League giants, at this time the winter transfer window has only opened for ten days, Manchester City's winter transfer market has thrown nearly 50 million euros, of which the price of De Jong introduced from Hamburg is 16 million pounds, about 19.5 million euros, which is likely to become the Premier League and even the five major leagues in this winter transfer market "standard king" In addition, Bellamy spent 15.5 million euros to bring in Bellamy, and Bridge was 13 million euros, and after bringing in Robinho for a whopping 43 million euros last summer, the Arabs still have no intention of stopping. Nearly $50 million has been invested to mean that Manchester City has become the most bleeding consumer in the European transfer market this winter.
Now, the most talked-about transfer soap opera in the whole of Europe is Manchester City's pursuit of AC Milan's Brazilian star Kaka, at first people thought it was a prank, everyone on earth knows what kind of team Manchester City is, it is impossible for a star of Kaka's level to come to Manchester City, but, at present, this prank has a tendency to develop towards a soap opera...... AC Milan don't seem to mind selling the team's number one star to the Premier League nouveau riche......
Not only in the transfer market, Manchester City is also pondering to make adjustments in the managerial position, according to the British "Mirror" report, the club has pointed the finger at coach Hughes, it is reported that they are ready to fire the Welshman, and the replacement is the current England coach Capello. The outlet also said that the decision had already been made, that Hughes' departure would be the first step in a change for Manchester City, while club president Gary Cook and chief operating director Aldridge were already planning how to proceed without Hughes.
Manchester City's Middle East owners are already extremely unhappy with the current state of the team, and it now seems that Hughes will simply not be able to control a team that is ready to become a giant, just as Ranieri could not play Chelsea in the first place. Manchester City seem to look more and more like Chelsea these days, which is why they are ready to hire Fabio Capello, they need a coach with experience in major tournaments and a track record of success to deserve their huge investment, and only in this way can they attract the best players in the world to join the team.
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After beating Derby County in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final, Manchester United will face a match of Mars against Earth. This weekend, in the 21st round of the league, they will host old rivals Chelsea at their home stadium at Old Trafford!
At present, Manchester United is the leader in the league standings, and Chelsea are two points less than Manchester United, and the gap is quite small, so this direct duel is considered by the English media to be a heavyweight duel that may decide the championship.
Although Manchester United seem to be tired and out of shape right now, Yang Fan is in good shape and has been scoring goals! Chelsea naturally take this game very seriously. Head coach Scolari was cautious when talking about the game, "Manchester United is not in good shape now, I don't see it that way, they are winning all the time, how can such a team be in bad shape? Yang Fan is in good shape? Of course I saw it, such a goalscorer is terrible, and he will be the focus of our attention in the game after tomorrow." ”
Interestingly, the media turned out a news in the summer of last year, it is said that Chelsea owner Abramovich admired Yang Fan very much and wanted to buy Yang Fan as a gift to the team's new coach Scolari, however, Scolari did not look down on Yang Fan, only Robinho in his eyes, and finally Chelsea and Yang Fan missed each other, but Robinho was not able to come to Chelsea, but was cut off by the upstart Manchester City......
It's an interesting story, and with the feud between Manchester United and Chelsea over the past few seasons, this is a particularly striking matchup.
However, just one day before the game, a piece of news exploded, grabbed everyone's attention and stole all the show.
"Manchester City's 80 million euros to buy Yang Fan"
"Sky Sports" suddenly broke the news that Manchester City, which was chasing Kaka, started a super plan to chase superstars, and they suddenly offered Manchester United to officially buy Manchester United's Chinese star Yang Fan, and the first offer reached 80 million euros......
The news immediately shocked the whole of Europe.
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