"Mr. President, what do you think about Blackburn's first two winless games in the second stage of the Champions League group stage and the difficult situation in the group?"

This question made Arthur frown subconsciously, and secretly complained: "I'm not Yuan Fang, what 'what do I think'?" ”

Blackburn's Champions League campaign has not been too smooth this season, with the young defenders lacking Champions League experience finishing in Group E with Feyenoord, Juventus and Kip Dinamo in the first stage of the group stage. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The first stage of the group stage was not very difficult for Blackburn, and apart from Juventus, Feyenoord and Kip Dinamo were not enough to really threaten Blackburn in Group E.

In the first stage of the Champions League group stage, Blackburn Rovers faced Kip Dinamo and Feyenoord with one win and one draw, picking up eight points from both teams.

In the face of Juventus, Blackburn Rovers did not fall behind, although they lost 0:1 away in the first leg, but returned to home in the second leg and handed over a satisfactory 1:0 answer.

In the first stage of this season's Champions League group stage, Blackburn performed remarkably, losing only one away to Juventus, winning all three home games, and getting 11 points from six games, and successfully qualified as the second place in the group.

However, after advancing to the second stage of the group stage, Blackburn's performance has plummeted.

In the second group stage, Blackburn Rovers were placed in Group A, along with Bundesliga giants Bayer Leverkusen, La Liga giants Barcelona and Serie A giants Inter Milan.

In the first two rounds away to Inter Milan and Barcelona, Jose Mourinho's side were lucky enough to bring a point back at Camp Nou, only to be beaten 2-0 against Inter.

With just one point from two games, the top two teams in the group, Inter Milan and Barcelona, have six and four points respectively, casting a shadow over Blackburn's prospects of qualifying from the group.

In stark contrast to the second group stage of the Champions League, Blackburn have been quite good in the league this season.

In the race for the Premier League title this season, Liverpool seem to have been knocked down by last season's Blackburn Rovers reversal, and this season has been in a slump, and the Barclays trophy is up for grabs from Blackburn, Manchester United and Arsenal.

At the start of the season, both Blackburn Rovers and Arsenal were in good shape, with Blackburn Rovers starting the season with five wins in a row and once firmly occupying the top spot.

However, with the start of the Champions League group stage, Blackburn, who was distracted by the Premier League and the Champions League, obviously has not adapted to the two-line battle and gradually fell behind, and the championship seems to belong to Highbury for a while.

But soon, Jose Mourinho and Alex Ferguson proved once again that the Premier League title race is a marathon, not a sprint race.

Arsenal had an excellent start to the game, extending their unbeaten run to 30 games at one point, and Arsene Wenger believed they were 'getting closer and closer' to perfection.

On October 19, Arsenal finally lost the game to Everton, a game in which a kid named Wayne Rooney scored in the last minute, the 16-year-old became the youngest goalscorer in the Premier League, and TV commentators shouted: Remember his name, Wayne Rooney!

Arsenal suffered a defeat at Everton and then were blocked by Blackburn Rovers to make it 2-1 to wipe out their lead. At this time, the bookies are unanimously bullish on Blackburn Rover, believing that they will successfully defend their title.

Blackburn Rovers erupted after a 1-0 defeat to Everton on 17 November and they haven't lost a league game since. Including two consecutive 1-0 victories over Manchester United and Liverpool in five days during the Christmas holiday, and after the victory over Aston Villa in the previous round, it also reversed Arsenal for the first time in points and returned to the top of the league again.

With the arrival of New Year's Day, European football has officially ushered in the opening of the European transfer window. There are few big deals in the winter, and the Premier League's giants are not moving.

Blackburn not only did not bring in any new signings in the 2003 winter window, but also sold three players.

One of them is Li Weifeng, the core of the Chinese national team's defense, whose situation at Blackburn is completely different from that of compatriots Li Tie and Sun Jihai.

Li Tie Because of Mourinho's 4-2-3-1 style of play, Blackburn always has two midfielders, so Li Tie, as the team's fourth back after Alonso, Cambiaso, and Carsley, can often get rotation opportunities.

Li Tie has played nine games for the team this season, including one start in the Premier League and five substitute appearances in the Premier League, and two substitute opportunities in the Champions League.

Sun Jihai is the best of the three Chinese internationals, and he is a jack-of-all-trades at the back, playing 15 games for the team this season, with one assist and one goal, and is the main substitute at the Blackburn backline.

And Li Weifeng's performance is much worse than that of his two compatriots.

In one season at Blackburn, Li Weifeng was affected by language, tactical play and intra-team competition, and only got 1 start and 3 substitute opportunities in the new season, and the starters all appeared in cup competitions, and the Premier League only appeared once as a substitute, and the team did not even register for him in the Champions League.

Seeing that Blackburn had no future, Li Weifeng finally decided to suspend his stay in the ocean and rejoin the Chinese team in order to be the main position of the national team to be held at the Asian Games in China next year.

On the evening of January 10, 2003, SH Shenhua Club held a simple press conference in the restaurant on the third floor of the Xinyuan Hot Spring Hotel in Haikou.

Under the gaze of reporters, Li Weifeng, a cool brother with long hair and a black suit, also changed his domineering appearance before, smiled and took the black pen handed to him by Wei Jianhua, deputy general manager of Shenhua Club, and carefully traced a "5" on the jersey printed with the word Shenhua SVA.

In the new season, Li Weifeng will wear Shenhua's No. 5 jersey and play for the Shenhua team.

Although Li Weifeng was the focus of many reporters at the scene, at the press conference, Shenhua boss Lou Shifang and Blackburn Sports deputy director took the initiative to explain everyone's concerns.

SH Shenhua has already spent more than £1 million on bringing in Li Weifeng.

In the transaction to transfer Li Weifeng, Shenhua, Blackburn and Li Weifeng can all be called winners.

A year ago, Li Weifeng joined Blackburn as the operation of Kejian Company, Blackburn not only did not pay a penny of transfer fees, but also received a large amount of sponsorship fees from Kejian Company, and even the salaries of Li Weifeng and Li Tie, two Chinese internationals, after joining Blackburn, were paid by Kejian Company.

In other words, on the transfer of Li Weifeng, Blackburn made 1 million pounds for nothing.

SH Shenhua got Li Weifeng is also an excellent recruitment, although Li Weifeng can't play at Blackburn, but that's because before his playing sequence are Carvalho, Stam, Heinze and other top central defenders in the world, Henning Berg is an old and strong old demon, even a rising star like Martin Taylor, is also a star of hope in the British Peninsula.

However, in terms of strength alone, after more than a year of tempering by Blackburn, Li Weifeng's personal strength is absolutely the best of all the current Chinese central defenders, including foreign aid, and can even play the main team in the Premier League relegation zone.

However, strength is strength, and how much can be played in the game is the most important, so Li Weifeng still made the decision to return to China from the British Peninsula in a foreign country.

Back home, Li Weifeng can get more appearances and higher annual salaries, Shenhua also gains China's No. 1 centre-back, and Blackburn Rovers netted £1 million without losing their strength, and the deal is undoubtedly a win-win-win.

In addition to Li Weifeng's return to China, Blackburn will also have midfielder Gillespie.

Gillespie is one of Manchester United's 92 generation, helping Manchester United's youth team to FA Youth Cup triumph in 1992, along with the likes of David Beckham and Gary Neville.

Two seasons ago, Gillespie was an absolute mainstay for Blackburn, but after Frank Lampard joined the team, he completely lost his place in the main team, and Frank Lampard's physical and injury-free "iron man" attributes made Gillespie's opportunities to come off the bench were rare.

With Giuli and Benayoun both available in midfield, Gillespie has been relegated to the fringes of the squad and has only been able to make more consistent appearances in domestic cup competitions this season.

With only one and a half years left on his contract, Gillespie, who is 27 years old and in his playing years, is fully qualified to be the main position of the middle and lower teams in the Premier League, so he is naturally unwilling to sit on the bench, so he took the initiative to apply for a trade to Mourinho and Monchi.

After some negotiations, Gillespie opted to join Leicester City, who are currently in the Premier League's relegation zone, for a fee of £3.75 million, and with Mourinho no objections, the two sides agreed on the transfer.

The last player to leave Blackburn Rovers in the '03 winter window was the team's No.3 goalkeeper, Lee Davis.

With Blackburn Rovers No.1 goalkeeper Friedel firmly in the Champions League and Premier League, No.2 goalkeeper Giroud Robinson has only been able to make a handful of appearances in domestic cup competitions, while Lee Davies, the No.3 goalkeeper, has not made a single appearance this season.

Lee Davies was sold for £500,000 to League Two toppers Wigan Athletic after bringing youth goalkeeper Lewis to the first team for training.

With that, Blackburn's 2002-03 winter transfer window came to an end, and without a single new signing, Blackburn Rovers made a profit for the first time since Arthur took charge of the team for £5.25 million by selling three fringe players.

……

Attached is the Blackburn Rovers squad after the 2002-03 winter window (25):

Goalkeepers: Friedel, Giroud Robinson, Lewis;

Defenders: Jeff Kenna, Finnan, Henning Berg, Carvalho, Stam, Sun Jihai, Paolo Ferreira, Martin Taylor, Heinze, Ashley Cole;

Midfielders: Benayoun, Lampard, Duff, Alonso, David Dunn, Carsley, Cambiaso, Li Tie, Gyuli;

Forwards: Larsson, Ibrahimovic, Drogba.