The win over Manchester City saw Leeds close the gap to nine points and it looks like there is hope for the league. However, Li Chengfeng knew that in fact, the hope was really small. Pep Guardiola's coaching is characterized by a steady league and a cup that is too difficult to turn around when falling behind so much.

However, Li Chengfeng wanted to make a fortune quietly, but others didn't want to let Leeds United go. In recent years, the players transferred out of Leeds United have shown extremely high quality, even if they sell the sky-high price of Dembele, it is worth the money, and it makes the giants who are not bad at money want to keep an eye on Leeds United. They weren't afraid to spend money, but they weren't afraid that they wouldn't be able to buy the right person after spending money, so the well-known Leeds United became their target.

Manchester City and Liverpool, for example, have both made sky-high offers to Van Dijk, up to £50 million, a record price. However, Li Chengfeng will not let people go, like Van Dijk, who is fast, has a good header, can pass the ball, can advance with the ball, has both body and consciousness, and has no shortcomings.

Li Chengfeng wants to build a giant, so naturally he will not give up Van Dijk, and Manchester City and Liverpool have no way to snatch people from Leeds United. However, they are not giving up on the idea of adding to their defenders, especially Manchester City, with John Stones and Vincent Kompany both injured.

So Manchester City made another offer to Skriniar, who had a strong ball and passing ability, which met Pep Guardiola's requirements, and although he was a little slower, he had a good sense of defence.

As for Liverpool, they turned to Harry Maguire, who was strong in frontal defence and good at headers. However, the disadvantage is also speed, and because of the tall body, the speed of turning is also a problem. He also has a long ball and a good ability to push, which is in line with Klopp's tactical requirements. He is still an English household register, which is even more rare, and there are not many powerful British household registers. However, Liverpool face competition from Manchester United, and Mourinho's tactics are even less concerned about Maguire's slow pace.

Li Chengfeng can't sell two main rotation defenders at the same time, but one can be considered, after all, Lenglet and De Ligt also need a lot of opportunities, they are also younger, more talented, and it is a bit of a waste of talent to only play in cup games. Li Chengfeng is not ready to compete for the league championship this season, so he can squeeze out some time for them to exercise.

In the end, Li Chengfeng agreed to the offer for Maguire, and his account book did not mean much to Leeds United, which has a lot of young players in England, but could be sold at a premium. As for his long passing, there is also some repetition when there is a goalkeeper Ederson.

Another reason is that Skriniar is handsome, really handsome. Maguire looks relatively ordinary, and is not at all a grade compared to Skriniar. Although being handsome does not mean that you perform well on the pitch, it is an advantage for commercial development, at least the shirts of Slovenian handsome guys sell much better than Maguire.

The rejected Manchester City turned their attention to Laporte in La Liga Bilbao and paid £57 million in liquidated damages to take him down. And Liverpool, which also targeted Laporte, had to spend 50 million pounds to buy Maguire.

Leeds United have only sold this one first-team player this winter, and although Li Chengfeng does not have high expectations for the league, he still wants to make a breakthrough in the cup.

As for bringing in players, Leeds United have not made any big moves, but have spent £25 million to buy talented Italian striker Manuel Pellegri as a future reserve.

The young talent, who was on the scene in Serie A at the age of 15 and scored twice at the age of 16, has everything he needs to succeed, both hardware and software, as long as he doesn't die of injury. Leeds United snatched him up in the face of a host of big clubs, and the team's approach to developing young players attracted him to England for an adventure.

But he was too young, not yet 17 years old. Li Chengfeng originally wanted to keep him in Genoa for the second half of the season, and his father was a member of Genoa's coaching staff, which was an advantage.

But Pellegri's physical examination showed that his muscles were growing faster than his bones, and that he was more prone to injury during high-intensity exercise. So Li Chengfeng chose to keep him at Leeds United and play with the youth team, of course, he will occasionally be brought to the first team to play cup games, and the time must be controlled. It's good for his development, not every little kid can develop like Mbappe in advance.

There is also Brescia's young defender Tonali, although he will remain with Brescia in the future. Young people need a workout for the game and Leeds United can't give it to him right now.

Originally, Li Chengfeng also wanted to buy Keane, but Juventus is not an ordinary team, although his guardian, that is, his mother, wants him to come to England. But Juventus was reluctant to let go, and Li Chengfeng did not insist, and his agent was Raiola, which made Li Chengfeng feel uneasy.

In this way, Leeds United ended the operation of the winter window, and the team has not changed much, except for the departure of Maguire, which has basically no impact.

In the league, Leeds United defeated Southampton and Burnley in succession, although the subsequent loss to Arsenal will not affect the league standings, and the gap with Manchester City is still 9 points, Manchester City is very stable in the league.

What really delights Li Chengfeng is the performance of the team's young people, such as De Ligt, Sancho, De Jong and others have successfully reached the fifth round of the FA Cup, and their performance in the league is also remarkable. They may not be expected to compete for the title this season, but as long as they can rotate and not delay and give the main players time to rest, Leeds can go far in the Champions League.

Leeds United, who were then semi-main and semi-rotational, won two more games and then lost to Everton, and Li Chengfeng rotated almost all of his main players for the Champions League a few days later, but even then only lost to Everton by one goal 2:3 away, and the talent of Leeds United's young people is visible to the naked eye.

The Champions League match with Portuguese Super League Porto was the focus of Li Chengfeng, and the well-rested Leeds United overthrew the opponent away from home, and the 5:0 slaughter directly ended the suspense.

The Portuguese resisted for just over 20 minutes before crumbling under the frantic pressure of Leeds United. In the 25th minute, Ali broke through into the penalty area with the ball, and after the shot was blocked, it was distributed to Sane, Sane's push was blocked by Jose Sa and still rolled into the goal, 1:0, Leeds United took the lead!

Porto had not yet recovered from the blow of conceding before conceding another goal, and in the 29th minute, Milner made a steal in front of the field and took it into the box and hit the post with a shot himself. Salah gets the ball, picks the goalkeeper and scores an empty goal! 2:0, Leeds United quickly expanded the score!

In the second half, Porto, who were unwilling to lose at home, stepped up their attack, showing more holes in the defence, and were caught by Leeds United in a massacre.

In the 53rd minute, Leeds United quickly counterattacked, Salah split the ball forward, Mbappe's low shot was blocked, and Mane scored with a supplementary shot! 3:0！

The Porto people collapsed, although they were still trying, but there was no more discipline and Leeds United played more easily.

In the 69th minute, Milner made a low cross, and Mbappe pushed the goal in the middle! 4:0！

In the 85th minute, Mane shot hard from outside the penalty area and completed a hat trick!

Leeds United claimed a 5-0 win away from home to declare advance ahead of schedule. Although the opponent is not a strong team, these young people with an average age of only in their early 20s can go so far, which is enough to make Li Chengfeng proud, I don't know if they can still perform so well when facing the next leg opponent Manchester United.

In contrast, the real-world Birmingham City basically lost 1-3 at home to Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Champions League knockout round. If you want to become a giant, Birmingham still has a long way to go. However, Birmingham's revenue has improved significantly this season, with new commercial sponsorship contracts, stadium naming rights and matchday revenues adding up to more than £50 million compared to last season.

Li Chengfeng decided to put the money to good use in the summer, if he wants to build a first-class team, he needs first-class stars, and it is time for Birmingham to pursue results.

In fact, after so many years of operation, Birmingham has accumulated a group of powerful players, especially the depth of the squad is very thick, which is also the reason why the team can steadily qualify for the Champions League.

However, at a higher level of competition, Birmingham's lack of superstar players has prevented them from going further, and it is not uncommon for them to be defeated by their opponents' superstar performances. That's what makes superstars superstars, and they can often save the team on their own. Birmingham are short of such players right now, and even if there are one or two more, Li Chengfeng dares to look forward to the championship. But at Birmingham's level, it's not possible to buy a mature superstar, and it's already a good deal to keep the existing star. But now you can consider the superstar embryo, the previous Birmingham couldn't even leave the superstar embryo, but now Birmingham, if he can get a superstar embryo, Li Chengfeng is confident that he will stay. Of course, the premise is to be able to get a superstar embryo.

This is not a very difficult thing, those young geniuses who threw themselves into the arms of wealthy families at a young age, but sat on the cold bench, there are countless young geniuses, among which there are many superstar embryos, which others can't see, but Li Chengfeng's golden eyes give him confidence. He now has a few candidates, just waiting for the summer to come.

(End of chapter)

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