Chapter 10: The Scent of Flowers Outside the Wall (Part I)

Headquartered in Antwerp, in the Flemish region of Belgium, Belschott was just a mid-table team in the Belgian First Division a few years ago, but after being bought by Arthur in 2003, it has set off a storm of youth in the Belgian First Division in the past two seasons. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Arthur's phrase at the start of last season that "Belshot's goal for the new season is at least to qualify for the League Cup" was like an afterword, and the year was over.

Even in 2003, when Arthur first took over, "Give us 3 years, and I will deliver a satisfactory report card." "Now it looks like yesterday.

The 2004-05 season was a period of "first three-year goal" for Arthur's Belschott: a three-year period, even if it was a little smaller than the fans had hoped, but one step at a time.

At the end of last season's Ligue 1, Belshort finished third with 50 points, their best position since the 1989-1990 season, and will play in the League Cup play-offs, where they lost to Premier League side Liverpool - and the Reds have also avenged the suffering of being ravaged by Arthur Blackburn for many years.

For the young Belsshot, missing out on the UEFA Cup is not a nightmare, and if they can learn from it, they will continue to pursue their dream of winning the league under Pochettino.

With an average starting age of 24, Belshort has both youthful vigor and young talent in attack, and is the second-highest scorer in the first division; It is also mature and steady beyond its years, and the defensive end is rock-solid, and it is the team that concedes the fewest goals in the league.

Attacking and defending, they made steady progress for most of last season, and finally formed a trio of champions with Anderlecht and Club Brugge. Unfortunately, they dropped the chain at the most critical moment, and two consecutive draws made Anderlecht win the title early, and after losing the title, they lost to Genke and Standard Liege, showing the immaturity of this young team.

Looking back at the 2005-06 season, the feelings of Belshort fans must have been mixed. They saw a young and dynamic team that had been close to Anderlecht at the top of the table and had secured a place in the UEFA Cup play-offs ahead of schedule.

However, in the final game, the team suffered a heavy defeat to Genke, who had already missed the European zone in advance, and then lost to Club Brugge, which brought the latter to the top of Belshort again. It can be said that the team ended the last league season with a sense of frustration.

After the start of the new season, Berchhot's performance, which was excellent last season, was not very impressive. It wasn't until the third game of the season that they tasted victory.

But at the end of September, Arthur's side began to fight back with a 4-1 home win over defending champions Anderlecht, with Dembele netting his first goal of the season. But that didn't dispel doubts about Kane, and it wasn't until Dembele found his scoring touch with a hat-trick against Standard Liege at the end of October.

With another habitual collapse at Club Brugge, the title race for the season is starting to unfold between Anderlecht and Belshot.

Although the young Belshort kept putting pressure on Anderlecht last season, the young team eventually fell behind. After a 2-2 draw with Standard Liege, they watched Anderlecht become last season's new champions in the league.

Most of Berschot's main players last season experienced the fierce competition for the title for the first time, and there was no experience in either psychology or strain, and even their manager panicked, completely unaware that they could come this far.

Now, with Berschott, who failed in the final moments of last season, the new season is very different.

In fact, Arthur did not want Belshort to win the championship in the second division, because then the two European clubs he controlled would play in the Champions League, which UEFA did not want.

However, for Arthur, a Belgian First Division title is not an impressive achievement at all, and for him, Belshot's biggest success was not qualifying for the UEFA Cup play-offs last season, but rather providing Blackburn with a number of potential new stars to contribute to his future profitability in the transfer market.

At this summer's European Youth Championships, Belshort provided five future internationals for the Belgian national youth team, and these five young newcomers have also begun to be dubbed the "Belshort Five Eagles" by industry insiders in the new season.

1. Vermaelen - the core of Bellshot's defense, outstanding awareness, accurate prediction and selection, and free tackle interception, he has achieved the miracle of not fouling in the league for more than 600 minutes, not to mention that he is still one of the best "guards with knives" in the league.

2. Vertonghen - At only 19 years old, he and Vermaelen formed the best central defender combination in the first division, and are considered to be the central defender combination of the Belgian national team in the next ten years.

3. Alderweireld - Although the 17-year-old has not been given many opportunities to perform because of the regular centre-back partnership of Vermaelen and Vertonghen, he was still in the Belshort reserve team a year ago, and a year later has become one of the brightest stars of the season.

4. Nainggolan - known as "Belgian Gattuso", you can see Nainggolan's playing style and talent, although he is only 18 years old, but Nainggolan, who serves as a midfielder, has a tenacious style and fierce interception, and is already an out-and-out ball-grabbing machine.

5. Dembele - Best new goal in the first division last season and the best goal owner. A tall midfielder who can also play as a striker, his physical flexibility and excellent ability make him one of the best in the Belgian national team. The combination of passing vision and scoring ability is undoubtedly reminiscent of Zinedine Zidane's name. The playmaking heart and brain of Belshort connected the team's central midfield attack with creative passing, ranking first in the team and second in the league with 13 assists. Not only is he an Alan Shearer-style killer, but he can also deliver cannonballs to his teammates.

The emergence of the "Belshot Five Eagles" is the product of Arthur's butterfly effect again, although no one in the previous life Alderweireld and Vermaelen received youth training in Belshott, but eventually switched to the Eredivisie, Serie A and other teams, but under the influence of Arthur's heavy investment and the building style of the youth team, these five people have been entrusted with important tasks, and now they are exuding a more dazzling brilliance than the previous life.

And the Belshort Five Eagles are undoubtedly the talents that Arthur has reserved for Blackburn's future, these five have become giants or giants in Arthur's previous life, and Arthur believes that their achievements will not be bad in this life.

In addition to developing young potential stars, Belshort has also cultivated a young coach with great potential - Antonio Conte.

Conte began his coaching career with Siena in 2004 as an assistant coach to Luigi De Canio. In the 2005-06 season, Arthur was interested in becoming the head coach of Bell Shot.

Arthur chose Conte partly because he knew what a bright future the Italian coach had in his previous life, who had managed the likes of Juventus and Chelsea, but also because of his age.

Conte, who was born in 1969, was only 36 years old when he became manager of Belshort, so for the sake of balance in the dressing room and better execution of his own tactics, Conte will inevitably use more young players.

Although the team unfortunately failed to win the title last season, the industry and the community praised the young Bershort squad for "winning the future".

Conte signed a new contract with the squad in May, with the Italian saying: "We had a great season but we believe this is just the beginning. The team has a long-term plan and we firmly believe that there can be more achievements in the future. ”

The extension of Conte's contract until 2010 shows the ambition of Arthur and Belshort and has also played a role in stabilizing the morale of the military.

As long as they can retain the core players coveted by the big five European leagues such as Vermaelen, Belshort will be a favourite to win the league next season and even in the next few seasons.

In their 19 games to start the season, Belshort have lost just three of their 19 games in the UEFA Cup play-offs, two of which have been a one-goal deficit and only four games in which they have drawn with their opponents.

Belshort has scored and conceded second in the league this season, with Belshort striker Ousmane Dembele leading the league list of top scorers with 11 goals.

'This is probably the most exciting season for Belshort in recent years because they are always in the race for the title, they have the best defence in the league and they are always a threat in attack.

'In attack, only Anderlecht have scored more goals than them, and they have the second-best defensive stats in the league, so it's hard to understand why they can't win the league title. The team's performance at the start of the season was a bit disappointing, but overall the fans were worth the ticket price, and everyone was fascinated by the performances that followed. "Countless Belshort fans on the streets were raving about the team, singing for Arthur like Blackburn fans.

To build a satellite club into such a success, Arthur has no intention of becoming shady in the willows.

And Arthur is more than just a satellite club. (To be continued.) )