With a win, Sheffield Wednesday are second in the league with 44 points, one point ahead of third-placed Chelsea and just three points clear of leaders Manchester United. Sheffield Wednesday's rise has had the biggest impact on former giants Arsenal and Liverpool, who are fourth and fifth in the league with 35 and 34 points respectively. There is still half of the league and the competition will be more fierce after that, even if Sheffield Wednesday is 10 points ahead of fifth-placed Liverpool, Lee Seungfeng still does not dare to relax.

However, Lee Seung-peak now has a chance to hit Liverpool. Liverpool brought in Mascherano on loan this season's winter transfer to form a luxurious midfield combination in the Premier League and even in Europe. Mascherano, Marcos Alonso, Steven Gerrard, the combination of these three world-class midfielders is the guarantee of Liverpool's next good results. But now Lee Seung-bong decided to intervene and try to see if he could get Mascherano. If he can really cut off the beard, then Li Chengfeng is also confident that he will wrestle with the European giants.

In the real world, Liverpool's acquisition of Mascherano is complicated and involves a lot of factors, first of all, the issue of transfer rules, the Premier League Committee stipulates that a player can only play for a maximum of two teams in a season, and Mascherano has already played for Corinthians and West Ham United this season and cannot transfer to other teams. The issue was resolved through the efforts of Liverpool and the Argentine Football Federation, with FIFA giving the green light on the grounds that Mascherano had made too few appearances for West Ham United. Then there is the issue of the ownership of Mascherano, which is owned by Corinthians, who are partly owned by Khorabchin's MSI Group, with West Ham United on a £4 million loan for 24 months. In the end, Liverpool signed Mascherano on loan for £5 million, £3 million of which was left on West Ham's loan for the remaining 18 months of his contract, and the other £2 million was transferred to Horabuchin through Corinthians. In the end, when the loan contract expired, Mascherano was bought on the terms of £12 million plus a floating clause of £2.5 million.

Now Sheffield Wednesday naturally don't have £5 million to loan Mascherano on, but Sheffield Wednesday has someone. Now that West Ham United are deep in the relegation zone, the attack and defense are in shambles, the number of goals conceded is the highest in the Premier League, and the relegation situation is in jeopardy, and they can't wait to bring in players to help them stay in relegation. Historically, they have spent £6 million on defender Matthew Upson during this winter break.

Tall, physical, and capable of aerial dueling and heading, Upson is a quality player if he can stay fit, but his injury-prone physique limits his development. Historically, he suffered a serious injury in his first game after moving to West Ham United this winter, and only played two games for West Ham United in the second half of the season.

When West Ham knew that Sheffield Wednesday were willing to offer Cahill, they did not hesitate to accede to Sheffield Wednesday's request. This is the main player of the UEFA Cup winner, although he has been reduced to rotation this season, he has performed well when he plays, he has good scoring ability as a defender, and he is only in his early 21s, so the future can be said to be bright. If it weren't for Sheffield Wednesday's desire to get Mascherano, the £3 million price tag wouldn't have gotten to Cahill, maybe that price would have risen to £5 million, but that would have been even more celebrated, and West Ham would have forgotten about Upson as a man right away.

With West Ham United, it will be even simpler for Horabuchin, a mercenary businessman who can sell anything as long as the money is in place. Moreover, Li Chengfeng's conditions do not contain any floating clauses, and the real buyout price of 15 million pounds makes Khorabchin even more excited. Although Mascherano himself prefers the traditional giants of Liverpool, he prefers to play and has agreed to join Sheffield Wednesday after Liverpool were unable to raise their offer.

However, while all aspects of the deal were agreed early on, waiting for the winter transfer window to open, FIFA refused to approve it because FIFA's constitution clearly states that "a player cannot play for more than two teams in a season", and Mascherano had already played for Brazilian Corinthians before moving to West Ham.

Sheffield Wednesday and the Argentine Football Federation sent an email to FIFA asking them to open up on the transfer, but they ignored it, and Sheffield Wednesday really has little place in international football. Li Chengfeng is unwilling to give up this world-class defender, let alone be obtained by Liverpool, so he threatened to sue them in the European court if FIFA insists on rejecting the transfer, "The rules are the rules, but the rules cannot be above the law, Mascherano can't play at West Ham, and not letting him transfer is tantamount to depriving him of the right to work, which is against European law." ”

FIFA finally compromised, they were not sure of winning the lawsuit, and they didn't want outsiders to meddle in FIFA's troubled waters, which would affect their interests. The impact of the Boseman incident shook world football before, and if there is another earthquake, I don't know what the uncontrollable outcome will be. FIFA eventually approved Mascherano's transfer on the grounds that he was only a substitute at West Ham United and that he had played too many games and too little time, stressing that it was an exception and was intended to allow the player to develop better.

Sheffield Wednesday finally got Mascherano as he wished, but it took a long time, and Mascherano, who could have joined when the winter transfer window opened, waited until the day the transfer window closed to get FIFA's consent to successfully transfer. Regardless, Sheffield Wednesday finally got the world-class defensive midfielder, and with Mascherano and Toure, Lee believes their combination will be no less than any midfielder in the future. As for the need to pay another £15 million to buy the ownership of Mascherano in a year and a half, that will be a matter for later, but Lee believes the money is not a problem, as long as he can lead Sheffield Wednesday forward.

In addition, this transfer has also hit the direct rivals Liverpool in the league, without the iron triangle of midfield, I wonder if their future results can be guaranteed? However, Benitez is also unable to do anything about it, and Liverpool are on the verge of being bought by foreign investors and do not have much energy to compete with Sheffield Wednesday for Mascherano.

As for Gary Cahill, the passion to win the UEFA Cup last year was still simmering in his heart, but this season he was a bit disappointed to be relegated, and he is hungry for a chance to perform, even if it is against a relegation team. The two sides hit it off, with Sheffield Wednesday buying out Mascherano on loan at West Ham United for £3 million for Gary Cahill, and a further £2 million to Sheffield Wednesday if the season ends and West Ham United are relegated. Then Sheffield Wednesday made a £2 million bid to sign Mascherano on loan from Corinthians, and as for whether the money went to Corinthians or Horabuchin, Lee Seungfeng didn't care.

Sheffield Wednesday did not face any strong opponents in the next game and remained unbeaten in the league until the Champions League knockout round. Since losing to Manchester United in the 11th round of the league, Sheffield Wednesday have gone 16 games unbeaten in the league. The gap to Chelsea, who have drawn three and lost one of their last eight games, has also widened to four points, but this season has been exceptionally strong and they are now four points ahead of Sheffield Wednesday. After losing to Sheffield Wednesday, Arsenal have won eight and drawn one of their nine games, and are now just one point behind Chelsea with 57 points. Without the drag of the Champions League, Arsenal's performance in the league is better than in the real world, but it is still a little worse to compete for the title, this is a world of money, and it is a miracle that Arsenal can maintain their current performance without money.

Sheffield Wednesday also made it to the last eight of the FA Cup, being knocked out by Chelsea in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup, with both sides winning at their own home stadiums, although Sheffield Wednesday were eliminated due to one less goal difference. Li Chengfeng is not sorry for this, being able to maintain the level of entering the top 4 in the domestic cup competition every year is already a super standard performance, Sheffield Wednesday is far from being a giant, and can maintain strong competitiveness in multiple fronts, the league and the Champions League are the most important games.

The next game is the Champions League knockout tie against Valencia, Sheffield Wednesday's home game. Valencia is strong, and there are many star players in the team, such as Villa, who later played for Barcelona, Silva of Manchester City, and former Real Madrid star Morientes, plus Milito, Ayala, Marchena and other powerful players, and the strength is above Sheffield Wednesday. Their strength on all lines is balanced, there are no obvious flaws, the biggest weakness may be their goalkeeper Canizares, he is too old at 37 years old, Li Chengfeng's deepest impression of him is that on the eve of the 2002 World Cup, he was hit by a perfume bottle and injured his foot, as a result, the substitute goalkeeper Casinhas shined in the World Cup, and since then he has been reduced to a substitute for the national team. And he's shorter and has flawed saves on shots from the top two corners of the goal, which is something that can be exploited. In addition, the core of Valencia is Silva, who has excellent organizational skills, but the speed and escape ability are not enough, and Lee Seungfeng arranged for Mascherano, who has strong defensive ability, to focus on defending the Spaniard.

Sheffield Wednesday started with a wave of attack, with Valencia having to defend passively and almost making a mistake when Canizares kicked off the ball on Toney's back and almost bounced straight into the back of the net, allowing Valencia to escape. Sheffield Wednesday soon organised again and Lennon's cross from the right was well placed but it was a shame that Toney's header bounced off the post.