Chapter 10: The Summer of '03
"A butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can cause a tornado in Texas a month later."
A very small thing that seems unrelated on the surface can make a huge difference.
It all started with the FA Cup a few months ago.
In the fifth round of the FA Cup, Gunners Arsenal and Red Devils Manchester United met early.
Since the FA Cup is a one-game affair, both sides will try their best to win the game in this game.
Arsenal's battle with Manchester United, Arsene Wenger's battle with Ferguson, all this goes without saying.
Anyone with a modicum of common sense knows that at the beginning of the 21st century, Arsenal and Manchester United were even more fierce than the north London derby and the Double Red Cross.
But in that game, United lost 2-0 to Arsenal.
Victory and defeat are commonplace, but in the middle of the game, David Beckham headed Edu's free-kick into his own goal. Of course, the goal went to Edu.
After the game, Ferguson and Beckham had a bad fight in the dressing room. Ferguson flew up and kicked a sneaker against Becky's eyebrowbone, and Becky bled and raged on the spot.
The flying boots door was exposed by the media, and the relationship between the master and apprentice was on the verge of collapse.
As a result, it seemed logical for Beckham to leave Manchester United at the end of the season, and transfer rumors were overwhelming. Among them, there are three top giants who want to get Xiaobei, they are Real Madrid, Barcelona and AC Milan.
In the later Champions League, Real Madrid played against Manchester United at Old Trafford, and Becky was placed on the bench by Ferguson, and Veron, who replaced Becky, did not play well.
Alien Ronaldo shines with a hat-trick at Old Trafford.
Beckham later came off the bench and scored two goals to help United overtake the scoreline, but the Reds still failed to qualify.
And all this was watched by Abramovich in the stands.
In July, Roman Abramovich took Chelsea private for £150 million in debt-ridden Chelsea.
A whirlwind in the European transfer market has begun.
Although the club is free of debt, it has also paid back the players' wages. But what kind of person the new owner is, all this is still a mystery.
Many of Chelsea's veterans have moved to other clubs because no one can imagine what Chelsea will be like next season.
It soon became clear that the Russian billionaire's intentions for Chelsea were clear. Most of the players were sold, but the cost of buying them ahead of the new season was unimaginable for any club before.
Abu took out a huge amount of money and announced that the Premier League had entered the golden era.
At this time, the European economy was generally in recession, and in addition to Chelsea, there were many upstarts in football who were rising too fast and their investment was difficult to maintain. The entry of Abu completely helped the commercialization of the Premier League and opened a new era of the Premier League.
Veron, Duff, Joe Cole, Crespo, Clauclele, Glen Johnson and other "high-class" players have joined the Blues, and Amid the media's scoffing questions about "can you be strong with more money", Abu resisted the pressure and continued to buy players aggressively.
This summer, the signs of the Premier League's rise have not been well received because the darling of the world has left Manchester United.
David Beckham was voted the summer champion for €37 million, becoming the last superstar to join the Galaxy.
Of course, there is one more thing worth mentioning.
In order to make up for the vacancy of the No. 7 shirt after Xiaobei's departure, Manchester United specially came to Sporting Lisbon in Portugal for inspection.
In the end, instead of bringing back the more famous Quaresma, the old lord brought back a man named Cristiano. Ronaldo's young man.
When Ronaldo made his debut at Old Trafford, Red Devils fans couldn't help but ask: Did the old man buy him because he was also called "Ronaldo"?
When it comes to Ronaldo, before 2003, there was still only one Ronaldo in football.
But because of the arrival of a person, the alien is no longer the spokesperson of the "Luo" family.
Real Madrid has added a new player, and Barcelona president Laporta, who did not win Becky, continued to save his reputation, and did not hesitate to sell Riquelme to bring back the dazzling Ronaldinho in the World Cup from Paris Saint-Germain for 21.25 million pounds.
It was the arrival of Xiao Luo that laid the foundation of the Barcelona Dream II dynasty. A year later, Davies left the old woman who was in the doldrums and came to La Liga to join his fellow countryman Rijkaard, which also became a very key stroke for the Dream II Dynasty.
Coupled with the gradual growth of Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, and Valdés promoted by Van Gaal, the team's original core lineup such as Kluivert and Saviola have been set to leave the team.
Defending champions Real Madrid are going further and further under the policy of commercialization and superstardom.
In order to introduce Xiaobei, he did not hesitate to sell Makelele and Geremi, and loan Morientes and other leading stars.
At this time, it was inevitable that the Spanish economy would be unsustainable, whether it was the black bat Valencia or the super black Mara Coruña, these teams that could have been on the same level as Real Madrid did not make any big moves in the transfer market.
Some people of insight pointed out that the dawn of La Liga's top giants has arrived. But whether it is the luxurious Real Madrid or the Barcelona with the new king joining, there are different opinions.
In Serie A, the Milan dynasty won the Champions League again this year. Although it has been missing out on Europe's highest honours for the past few years, in the era of the three major cups, this has not affected Serie A's status as the top of the top five leagues.
After failing to grab Xiaobei, in order to seek long-term development, AC Milan and Bayer Leverkusen were competing for Franza and Kaka at the same time, and Milan finally got Kaka and reaped the fruits of this summer's harvest.
The old woman, in pursuit of stability, brought in only Lerotalje and Appia. The economic crisis of Lazio and Parma gradually deepened, and Roma only bought Zivo and Mancini Jr.
This summer, the brightest in Serie A is Inter Milan.
27 million euros to buy back half of the ownership of Adriano, Ajax talent Donny van der Meyde, and Lazio midfielder Stankovic at a high price.
Inter will always win a big chunk in the transfer market.
But the results and feedback are still up for debate.
In the Bundesliga, the Bundesliga's predicament is becoming more and more embarrassing with the bankruptcy of Kirsch.
Dortmund, the hornets that have been competing with Bayern for a decade, have faced an unprecedented crisis.
At the same time, Bayern, who experienced the elimination of the Champions League group stage last year, brought in the European Golden Boot winner Mackay with a team-breaking 18.6 million euros, as well as Argentine defender Demichelis, in an attempt to regain absolute control of the Bundesliga.
But in any case, it is an indisputable fact that the Bundesliga is in a slump as a whole.
In the Eredivisie, giants Ajax have seen a surge of talent after Louis van Gaal's return as technical director.
Ibrahimovic, Sneijder, Van der Meyde, Zivo, Heitinga, Yakubu, Pasanen, De Jong, Maxwell, but Ajax, who once again hung the storm of youth, is unlikely to replicate the miracle of 1995!
This is known as the Boseman Act (when a player's contract expires, he can play in another EU country without paying a transfer fee; When EU players play abroad, the "foreign athlete restrictions" are abolished).
More dramatically, however, Van der Vaart, the winner of the first European Golden Boy Award, was later reduced to mediocrity because of his meniscus. On the contrary, it was a young superstar named Aljan Robben in Eindhoven who suddenly broke out and was not destroyed by injuries. Of course, that's all for later.
This summer, the Premier League opened a new pattern, and the La Liga dynasty also built the first brick. The small World Cup Serie A sang the sunset red, the Bundesliga suffered a trough in history, and the French family dominated (Lyon). The Eredivisie, which is comparable to the five major leagues, has plummeted because of the Bosman Act and is no longer in its prime.
However, it wasn't the transfers that really shaped the landscape of European football, and this summer saw another overhaul of European football.
The three major European cups, which once boasted of football, focused all their attractions on the Champions League, which expanded from 24 teams to 32, but the Europa League has become a "dispensable" alternative for major clubs, just like chicken ribs.
More than a decade later, when fans look back on the transfer of this summer, the most talked about is not Xiaobei, Xiaoluo, Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, but the Chinese who appeared in the Chelsea 35-man squad for the new season, known as "TOM".