No matter how happy and sad there are in this quadrennial football feast, the moment the whistle blows at the end of the final, it has become a thing of the past.

While reminiscing about the joy, pain or other deep feelings brought to them by this World Cup in Russia, fans naturally began to look forward to the next global football party to be held in Qatar in 2022; The focus of the media is more on the new world champions, who want to dig out almost every private information they have; But the focus of other players and coaches has shifted back to the leagues of various countries very early, because that is the basis for their survival.

Due to the impact of the World Cup, most European countries have humanely postponed the schedule of the new season by a week to 10 days compared to last year, giving players who have not been able to get much rest a little respite. However, there are exceptions, and the Premier League, which has a heavier schedule than other countries, has not found a more suitable way to arrange the fixtures, and still maintains the timing of the opening round of the league at the same time as last year, which will bring great injury risks to the big stars who play there.

However, in early June, the FA announced that it would implement the first winter break in its history for the 2019/20 season, which is believed to create an ideal room for clubs and players to adjust, but they will still have to suffer from an extremely intensive schedule in the new season.

Serie A is one of the other five major leagues that have not been postponed, and according to a meeting of the Football Association and the Union held in June, the 2018-19 Serie A season will kick off on Sunday 19 August and end on 26 May next year. In addition, the winter break will continue to take place two weeks after the New Year's holiday, with a midweek round scheduled in September, December and April, with little difference from last season.

It's just that for some reason, the specific bracket has not been released for a long time, which has attracted a lot of suspicion from conspiracy theorists. In fact, almost all Serie A clubs want to know as quickly as possible how their league opponents are distributed so that they can plan accordingly. Finally, it was not until the afternoon of July 26 that the long-awaited schedule was announced through a live sports program, which instantly attracted the attention of the entire Apennine Peninsula, and for a time there was a phenomenon of media scrambling to report and analyze.

As the third seed player in the eyes of the outside world, the opponents encountered by the Red Bulls in the 38 rounds of the league in the new season showed a state of alternating strength and weakness, and there was no hellish schedule of playing against multiple strong teams in a period of time as in the previous two seasons, which is more beneficial to the team to adjust its state.

Not to mention the rest of the games, just look at the two Torino derbies that have become particularly eye-catching because of Ronaldo's joining, which were arranged by the Football Association in the 17th and 36th rounds. In particular, the second meeting is almost the end of the season, and the result is likely to have a huge impact on the final ownership of the league title, and it seems that the judgment that Torino will become the biggest challenger for the seventh consecutive league title in the new season has become the consensus of the entire Italian football community, which is both an affirmation and a lot of pressure for Li Mudi and his team.

Now that the focus is back on the league, let's take a look at what's happening in Torino's main rivals this summer through mid-July.

On June 13, the day of Li Mudi's engagement ceremony, UEFA officially announced the results of the investigation into the financial fair play bills of a number of clubs that were previously in a "high-pressure monitoring period". Among them, teams such as Roma, Zenit, and Monaco have fully met the requirements and been able to get rid of scrutiny after their own adjustments. While teams such as Inter Milan, Fenerbahce, and Trabzonspor partially meet the requirements, they will face a series of penalties.

The penalties for the Nerazzurri are also fresh at the same time, with only 22 registrations in the Europa League for the new season, which is a big blow to Inter Milan who want to make a difference in European competition, given that the first team already lacks enough academy players. In addition, the high-pressure monitoring period against them will be extended by one season, which means that Inter will not be able to splurge in the transfer market in the upcoming 2018-19 season.

Last summer, although with the entry of Su Ning Group, the club's financial situation began to develop in a good direction, but limited by the big hole left by the predecessor, Inter Milan has not been very strong in recruitment, and finally passed because of the slight gap in strength and the Champions League seat. This time they were once again "targeted" by UEFA, and their club management must have had a headache.

However, it seems that the fine did not interfere too much with the Nerazzurri's squad changes, and after spending 24 million euros plus Santon and youth team player Zaniolo to acquire Nainggran, they signed 20-year-old striker Lautaro Martinez from Atlético Argentina for 20.7 million euros, and Italy's new international striker Politano also joined from Sassuolo on loan with a buyout clause. Coupled with the signing of former Juventus midfielder/left-back Asamoah and Dutch centre-back De Vrij as free agents, Inter Milan has at least improved their strength by one step while retaining most of their main players from last season, and is considered by the media to be the top seed to challenge the hegemony of the Old Lady.

In contrast to the Nerazzurri's comfort, their city rivals had a hard time, and despite successive settlements, AC Milan could not escape a heavy penalty from UEFA.

On June 27, UEFA officially announced that the Rossoneri would be banned from European competition for the new season. This means that the last Europa League place they have worked so hard to earn will have to be ceded to Atalanta, who are behind them, which is a bit big. (PS: It's just that everyone didn't expect that this sentence would be revoked a month later, which caused a lot of controversy.) ）

According to UEFA's official statement at the time, clubs that suffered the penalty would be disqualified from European competition once in the next two seasons. That is, for AC Milan, who have already qualified for the 2018-19 Europa League season, if they can enter European competition again in the 2019-20 season, then they will theoretically be able to retain that qualification. Just a one-year ban is not acceptable to this established club, and for this, they are likely to lose at least 50 million euros in earnings, which makes the conservative financial crisis "Brother Li" and the management feel what is called what is called worse.

Previously, in order to avoid this worst-case scenario, the news that "Brother Li" would sell the club's equity had been full of turmoil, but now it seems that it is all nonsense with thunder and rain, not only did not solve even the slightest problem, but also seriously delayed the team's recruitment work. As of late July, in addition to buying out Kalinic and Borini, who should not be in Gattuso's plan due to mandatory clauses, they only signed veteran goalkeeper Reina and Croatian full-back Ivan Strinić for free, which made all Roseneri very anxious.

Although the Rossoneri still did not give up hope of appealing, and continued to try to persuade UEFA to withdraw the penalty, it seemed unlikely to succeed at the time. Once it is confirmed that they will not be able to participate in the new European season, it will be a huge blow to the club's already frilling financial situation, and it is very likely that they will have to sell their existing players. From this point of view, AC Milan will become seriously uncompetitive in the next two seasons, let alone compete for the title, and if they can maintain the mid-table ranking, even if Gattuso's coaching ability is excellent.

Among the rest of the teams, Lazio, Fiorentina and Napoli, who have just changed coaches, have not shown any signs of making any big moves in the transfer market for the time being, but Gasperini, who had previously intended to leave Atalanta, has made a series of adjustments after receiving the guarantee of the club's increased investment. Inter Milan academy center back Betella, midfielder Carraro, Roma center Tuminero, Aston Villa goalkeeper Grini and many other young talents have joined the son of Poseidon, so that Atalanta, who is very likely to unexpectedly qualify for Europe, sees a bright future of development, which is a potential opponent that should not be underestimated.

Juventus and Roma, who are ranked first and tied for third place in the Serie A odds rankings in the new season, are also very active after the transfer window opens. The situation of the former has been introduced before, not mentioned for the time being, and the latter has also made a lot of changes and adjustments to the team's lineup after narrowly avoiding UEFA's financial fair share penalty. Despite selling Nainggolan for non-technical reasons, the Red Wolves have not opted for the same conservative approach as last season and have increased their investment in the transfer market.

They first made a decisive move while other clubs were still on the sidelines, buying the widely favored Kluivert Jr. from Ajax for less than 16 million euros, followed by quietly bringing in new signings in various positions such as goalkeeper, centre-back, central midfielder and central striker, and finally snatched Argentine striker Pastore from Torino to become the most active Serie A team in the transfer market in July.

Given Roma's original strength and prospective giants, it's no surprise that the Italian media ranked it as the third favourite to win the title after Juventus and Inter Milan, along with the Red Bulls. If Napoli can't make some big moves before the summer transfer window closes, the vast majority now believe that the new Serie A title will be won by all four teams.

As for the Torino team led by the protagonist of this article, after the official announcement of a number of squad adjustments at the end of May, they returned to silence, and it was not until after the end of the World Cup that the news about them was exposed again intensively, attracting a certain amount of attention.

First of all, there is a change in the staff staff, British assistant coach Kevin Summerfield, who has been with the team for two years, has returned to the British Isles at the end of May to take over the reins of Sunderland, who have just been relegated to League One, and challenge the role of professional manager for the first time in his life.

After bidding farewell to this good partner who brought him a lot of help, Li Mudi quickly found a replacement, and he was also a helper who was better than the former in terms of ability.

Javi Prats, born in 1976 in the Spanish town of Castellfort and now based on Mallorca, is a neighbour of the Turin boss in the broadest sense of the word. As a player, Platz was not unrecognizable as a midfielder, but he also failed to impress others, having come through the Valencia Academy before leaving his parent club as an adult to play for a number of teams that were relegated from La Liga and La Liga promotions. But in the end, he didn't make a name for himself, and announced that he would hang up his boots early at the age of 28.

After a few years of leisure, he started working as a staff member for young players in amateur teams in a number of places, and also spent five seasons with Villarreal's Under-19s for five seasons, both in attack and defence. However, due to the change of the team's head coach, he returned to the local small team in 2013 to work part-time.

When Li Mudi used scouting tools at the end of last year, he accidentally found this super coach with full value in personnel management, tactical knowledge, player ability, motivation and willpower, etc., and was shocked for a while, so he immediately entrusted Genes to come forward and pull him into his private team.

However, due to Platz's low level of coaching qualifications and lack of experience in the first team, the Torino coach temporarily arranged him to the former PBTV football commentator Tang Hui and Li Xiang's stake in the West Liga B team Jumilia for half a season, and after obtaining the continental C-level coaching certificate, he happened to take over the assistant coach position left by Samfield in the new season.

With such an excellent assistant, Li Mudi has more confidence in the team's performance in the new season, and if the run-in is relatively fast, he even feels that he can be liberated from the dull and boring training ground, and the dream of truly being a hands-off manager is likely to come true in the near future.

In addition to the key position of assistant coach being "upgraded", the Red Bulls also made changes in the first-team coaching staff, with the original defensive coach, Englishman Paul McGouinis, poached by Premier League upstart Tottenham, but the team manager quickly finalized the new man. Rui Jorge, a left-back who was once the mainstay of Portugal's golden generation, expires in the summer after seven years in charge of his country's Under-21 captainship. Feeling more suitable to become a special defensive coach, he decided to come to Italy, where the defensive concept is most important, under the persuasion of Li Mudi, hoping to gain a new experience.

Academy training and defence20, personnel management and judgment ability18, potential, offense, physical tactics 16, these extremely dazzling attributes will bring great help to the Red Bulls, especially in terms of improving the stability of the backline, Li Mudi has high hopes for this new member.

In addition, Torino has also gained a lot from the scouting team, with the addition of former Tottenham chief scout Paul Mitchell (18 in the FM system), Spaniard Carlos Vegas (18 in both skills) and former Chievo scout Fabio D'Amico (18 in both cases) to give the team a more reliable guarantee in its intelligence work.

With the support of this strong team, Li Mudi can finally confidently and boldly devote all his energy to his long-planned plan to win the league crown.