Chapter 296: Goodbye to the 2016-17 Season

After that, there were no big twists and turns, and Crotone, who had a two-goal lead, began to retreat with all his strength, and after withstanding Lazio's strong attack for half an hour, he broke out a big upset 3-1. After acquiring the crucial three points, Pythagoras could declare relegation a success regardless of the outcome of other matches.

Torino, who were also leading by two goals, were more and more courageous, and finally in the 78th minute, Benassi sent a through ball in the midfield, Belotti burst into the penalty area and completed a turning shot with a small angle on the left, and the ball passed under the armpit of Sassuolo No. 2 goalkeeper Pegolo who did not perform well in this game and hit the net. This goal not only completely sealed the victory of the game, but also broke the goal drought of Red Bebe in five consecutive league games, raising his total number of goals to 31, although not as good as Higuain's 36 goals last year, but also equaled Toney in the 05-06 season and became the joint seventh-most record in Serie A history.

As for the other key battle related to relegation, it was only after 75 minutes that there was a wave. Palermo, who were playing at home, scored twice in eight minutes before Empoli caught up with a goal in the 87th minute. But even if he wins, he can't get rid of the tragic fate of relegation, and in the end he can't save some dignity in this final battle. They became the third team to return to the second division after losing to the already relegated Eagles, and a nine-game losing streak in the first half of the second cycle cost them the good form they had and helped Crotone complete a shocking comeback.

When the referees at the five stadiums blew the whistle for the end of the match, this season's Serie A season was officially over, with a total of 380 matches in 38 rounds, allowing fans to enjoy a feast for nine months. With such a dramatic matchup as the end, I believe that everyone will be able to maintain their love for football until the end of August, when the new season is rekindled.

The final standings were also decided, with Juventus topping the table with 91 points, creating an unprecedented sixth consecutive Serie A title. Roma are close behind with 87 points, and in addition to avenging last year's victory behind Napoli, they also secured a place in the Champions League group stage. The White Dolphins finished their fifth top three in the last seven seasons, and their 86 points were the highest number of points in a single season in the club's history since the three-point system was introduced.

The three teams that qualified for the Europa League were Torino with 71 points, Atalanta with 71 points and Lazio with 68 points, with the former two going straight to the group stage, while the latter lost the Coppa Italia final and then the relegation team in the final round of the league and had to assemble for a home-and-away play-off round. It is conceivable how bad Mihajlovich's mood will be, and the Serbs are very angry behind his "sworn enemy" Li Mudi, but they can only accept this ruthless reality, but presumably the Blue Eagle coach at this time should already be planning how to completely destroy the Torino team next season.

The next seven to seventeenth places are AC Milan with 62 points, Inter Milan with 61 points, Fiorentina with 60 points, Sassuolo with 49 points, Cagliari with 47 points, Sampdoria with 45 points, Udinese with 45 points, Chievo with 43 points, Bologna with 39 points, Genoa with 34 points and Crotone with 33 points.

The three relegated teams are: Empoli with 30 points, Palermo with 26 points and Pescara with 14 points.

In Serie B, which ended last week, SPAL and Verona were confirmed for promotion by virtue of their top two results, with the remaining third place to be determined in the promotion play-offs between the third- and eighth-placed teams. As of this weekend, Benevento and Calpi have reached the final, and the results will be known by June 8 at the latest.

In terms of team results, Juventus have won the entire Serie A with 29 wins, Roma with 28 and Napoli with 26 are excellent results, and the other three teams with more than 20 wins are in the fourth to sixth place. The man who lost the most games was Pescara, who avoided defeat in just 10 games, the worst figure in the top five leagues.

In terms of goals scored and conceded, Napoli's 92 goals are the best of the entire 20 teams, second only to the Spanish Super League duo and Monaco this season, and from the perspective of the strength of the opponent, the gold content of the White Dolphins is undoubtedly more convincing. It is normal for Roma to be in second place with 89 goals, but the third team in terms of goals will be Torino, which is much more than everyone expected. The Red Bulls have scored 28 more goals than last season, which is what has been key to their rise to fourth place in the league.

Their attacking prowess made up for their lack in defence, with 53 breaches leaving Torino in eighth place in the goals conceded. The top three are still occupied by the top three teams, with 27, 38 and 39 goals conceded, indicating that the strength of these three strong teams in Serie A is indeed higher than other teams.

In terms of individual honours, Serie A is judged on a calendar year, which is very strange to people from other countries who are accustomed to judging the best at the end of each season. Then the only awards that can be known now are the top scorer and the assist king, Torino's Belotti was crowned the new top scorer with 31 goals, and the title of assist king, which has never paid much attention, Napoli's Spanish winger Callejon, with 13 times this season (assists are not counted by a special agency, so this is not a 100% accurate number) directly assisted his teammates to score, the first time in his career.

For this old acquaintance during his time at Real Madrid, the Torino coach was naturally very good, sent a congratulatory text message to the other party after the game, and received a thank you response soon after, which can be regarded as a friendly interaction between the Real Madrid people who are out.

In second place on the assist list is Roma winger Mohamed Salah, who is only second by one; The players who provided 10 assists were Atalanta winger Gomez, Fiorentina midfielder Valero and Inter Milan winger Candreva; A total of eight players then provided nine assists.

As for the statistics within the Torino team, Belotti has 31 goals and 5 assists, Farke has 12 goals and 7 assists, Rajjdzic has 8 goals and 7 assists, Baseli has 6 goals and 6 assists, Benassi has 5 goals and 6 assists, Jesse has 5 goals and 3 assists, and Zampacosta has 3 goals and 5 assists. In the 26-man squad for the latest edition of the World Preliminary Tournament announced by the Italian Football Federation on Monday morning, Belotti and Zampacosta were once again successfully selected, but the likes of Baseli, Benassi and Ranocchia are still out of reach.

However, to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the "good-neighbourly" alliance between Italy and San Marino, an unofficial friendly will be played in Empoli on Wednesday evening, May 31. In order to prevent unnecessary physical exertion or even injuries to those players who are going to participate in the World Cup qualifiers, the Italian Football Federation has gathered a group of players to form the "national second team", and Baseli finally has the opportunity to wear the blue shirt.

However, because it is not a match that has been declared and recognized by FIFA, it will not be recognized as playing for the national team, so even if he can play, Baseli will still not be able to make his national team debut in the real sense, and I wonder if he will feel like he is wearing a fake jersey.

With the exception of the Italian national team, there is nothing new in the squad of other countries, with Farke and Jesse still not being spotted by Julen Lopetegui, while Rajadzic has been selected for the Serbian team despite his inconsistent playing time for more than a month. It seems that the managers of various countries are picking people based on the qualifications of their players, and it is indeed difficult for newcomers to break the established pattern.

However, compared to the first team, the Torino youth team has exploded into a strong fighting force this season, thanks to the originally good foundation, as well as several new potential youngsters in the winter window, the U20 team and the U18 team have achieved good results in their respective youth leagues. The former became the leader of the league with a wave of eight consecutive wins from late February to mid-April, and although their form fluctuated in the latter stages, they still maintained a slight lead and finally won the Under-20 league after five years.

It should be noted here that the youth leagues of the U20 and U18 are also grouped, corresponding to one group of Serie A teams and one group of Serie B teams. In other words, Torino U20 managed to reach the top after beating the likes of Juventus, Roma and Milan, who have always been very strong in developing young players. Although it cannot be said that their youth system is the best, it can also prove that it has become one of the best, and Li Mudi has basically fulfilled the commitment of strengthening the club's own hematopoietic ability before taking over the team to a certain extent. However, this is only the beginning stage, it is not too difficult to bring out a group of good seedlings, after all, you can poach people everywhere if you have money and vision, but the sustainable development of the youth training system requires long-term operation and continuous output proof, and there is still a long way to go.

Because most of the players introduced by Li Mudi were over 18 years old, or far beyond this age group and were selected by the U20, the results of Torino U18 were far less good than the previous level, but in the end they also won the sixth place in the league, a slight improvement from before. As long as the club and the first-team managers can put more attention here, give these lads more time and more patient and effective guidance, I believe that one day the team will be able to keep the starting team with its own academy players, and then it will not be far from recasting the glory of the "era of Greater Turin".

Officially, because of the team's outstanding results, when the national team squad was announced, more than 15 Torino youth team players were called up by the echelons of various countries, becoming the second team in Serie A after Juventus and tied with Milan and Roma.

Summing up the past season, the results of the Torino club can be described as very impressive, not only in terms of competitive results: the first team has achieved their best results in the last two decades, far exceeding the predictions made last summer. In terms of operation, it has also achieved a large profit for the first time, before Li Mudi took over the team, the budget of the Torino club this season was only a little more than 40 million, which is a figure that includes all expenses, and the team has to sell people first if they want to bring in reinforcements.

However, when the first wave of Celestial Empire enterprises took out a large amount of sponsorship, the overall budget was revised to 68 million, and then it was adjusted to 80 million, setting a new record in the club's history. In the intervening months, the building has undergone a refurbishment, the youth team has received more subsidies, the transfer market has a rare investment, and some money has been set aside to raise salaries for players who need to be replaced with new contracts. But even with this kind of spending, the Red Bulls still made a profit of nearly 35 million euros this season, a figure that made those executives happy to keep their mouths shut.

Of course, the main contributors to these revenues are the Celestial Empire sponsors, who are now completely surrounded by the Celestial Empire elements at the Turin Olympic Stadium and inside and outside the team's training grounds. Due to the need to take care of the cognitive habits of the locals, the billboards and some special display signs are in Italian, otherwise these two positions will really be occupied by the Celestial Empire.

However, there are additional benefits, it is precisely because of the existence of these characters that the atmosphere of learning Celestial Empire culture in Turin has become extremely high, and it is said that it has also triggered two local Celestial Empire dialect classes to be filled on a large scale, which can be regarded as a small contribution made by Li Mudi to the cultural exchange and development of the two countries.

Turning the attention back to the team, since the season's competition has been completely over, and Serie A has already ended a week later than other countries, according to the previously agreed plan, the Torino team will announce its disbandment on Monday, and everyone can go home or go on vacation.

However, before that, Pantario Longo, the director in charge of contract renewals and transfers, as well as Valentino Cairo, the head of the marketing department, and even the head coach Li Mudi, will have a number of players or their agents visiting. The Torino coach can ignore the issue of contract renewal, it is not his scope of work, but if someone wants to leave the team on his own initiative, he must get the consent of the team boss, otherwise the players who are still under contract can only continue to stay.

Because of his excellent grades and bright future, there are not many people who find Li Mudi here and want to communicate, only two. One is the agent of Ghanaian defender Akwa, whose client has felt a lot of competitive pressure after the arrival of Las Diarra, and his playing time has decreased to a certain extent, so he hopes to get a clear main position as the manager, otherwise he will consider switching to a club that can play absolutely main. It should not be difficult for another person to guess that Rajjadzic's agent also came to Li Mudi's office alone, saying that he had something to say.