Chapter 517: New Fatherhood and "Temporary Workers"
On the penultimate day of 2019, Zidane returned to the coach's position after a year and a half, taking over the coaching whip of Paris Saint-Germain, which made Real Madrid and Juventus, who had been "thieves" to him before, very sad.
And his first big move in charge immediately shocked the whole world, with a €290 million bid for Mbappe, who has become a serious contender for the next football title, which, if completed, would once again break the transfer fee record in world football. However, Lafayette will obviously not agree to let go of this new sign of the Galaxy Battleship, and after threatening that the only way for other teams to poach the French star is to pay a billion liquidated damages, he immediately opened contract renewal negotiations with Mbappe, intending to double the number of liquidated damages.
Fortunately, due to the good relationship between Zizou and Real Madrid, the transfer intention was not transformed into a tug-of-war that was quickly put on hold after a brief exchange between the two sides. Finally, in the winter window, Paris brought in Leon Bailey, a young winger who has been a big player in the Bundesliga in the last two years, from Bayer Leverkusen for 98 million euros, which has significantly strengthened the team's wide impact.
Speaking more carefully, this player was recommended by Li Mudi to his good friend, because in the latest use of scouting tools to scout the player's potential, the Jamaican winger, born in 1997, already has a double value of 147 and 178.
Although in terms of potential, he is still far from the world's top superstars such as Ronaldo, Bale, and Mbappe, but the key is that as a citizen of the world sprinting kingdom, his ability in terms of speed is simply against the sky. The speed and explosiveness of Double 19 allows him to break the vast majority of defenders to the point of doubt without too much other ability, not to mention that the young man's skills have come a long way after several years of polishing in the Bundesliga.
Combined with more than 30 points of room for improvement between his current ability and his future potential, when he really matures, the worst will be a Bell who has strengthened his speed and weakened a little in other aspects, and the most important thing is that he is not as willing to get injured as the Great Sage. So in the eyes of Li Mudi, this deal is still relatively valuable, after all, today's football transfer market is still in a situation where the value of players is inflated, and it cannot be measured by the transfer fees of previous years. If Ronaldo at his peak is in the current environment, Juventus doesn't spend 500 million, do you think Lafayette will take care of it? Just kidding!
With the introduction of Leon Pele, Zizou could integrate him into the team for half a season, and then replace Di Maria, who is getting older and has begun to decline. With Neymar in his prime, the attacking end of the two wings of Paris can stand at the top of the entire world football in the next three or four years, as long as they can do a good job in the center forward position, the French giants still have a chance to attack the Champions League trophy.
And in this winter transfer window, aside from the big deal mentioned above, it has been a little quiet overall. Because the first real European Cup will be held in the summer (there is no clear host country, the finals will be held in 12 countries), followed by the Olympic Games, so many giants have adopted a conservative strategy for the recruitment before the competition, resulting in some small fights and rare big moves in the transfer market.
Another thing that deserves Li Mudi's attention is how the Torino team has performed in the six months since he left.
After Gasperini took charge of the Red Bulls, he did not make any major changes to the original squad as expected, only selling a few players who were not in his plans, such as Canneman and Silvestri, and then adding Alejandro Gomez, a former disciple of Atalanta coach, and signing Antonio Conte on loan from AC Milan.
But tactically, the Italian boss has resisted the pressure of his predecessor's great achievements and has embedded some of his ideas in the team. Also a preferencer of the back three, the coach has more changes in the frontcourt, 3-4-1-2, 3-4-2-1, 3-5-2, 3-4-3 are all common weapons in his reserve, so it will naturally put forward higher requirements for the adaptability of the frontcourt players.
In this regard, the youngster Pellegri has not been able to integrate himself well into the manager's system, and his playing time has plummeted compared to last season, so his performance is naturally unsatisfactory. As a result, throughout the season, there have been rumors in the media in Italy and abroad that the Italian superstar is likely to choose to leave the club in the last two transfer windows in order to get more real opportunities.
Finally, just before the winter window closed, Monaco paid a whopping 50 million euros to bring him into the roster to add one last exciting topic to an otherwise quiet winter in European football.
As we all know, when Li Mudi coached the Torino team, he saw how much Pellegri's development potential was, and in order to develop this center forward, who he believed would be the strongest center forward of Italy's new generation, he did not hesitate to sacrifice a lot of playing time for Belotti and Immobile. So after the youngster's transfer deal was finalised, there were many reporters who wanted to hear the dissatisfaction from Li Mudi, who was "in seclusion" in Mallorca, but they couldn't find a target because the other party was too homely.
However, for Li Mudi himself, he really didn't say that there was any small emotion, in fact, Pellegri made a special phone call before agreeing to the transfer, asking for advice from his mentor. And it was after receiving the latter's support and affirmation that he made up his mind to go abroad. Because he is now at a stage where he needs a lot of game time to grow rapidly, if he can't get the approval of the current Torino manager, then a move to Monaco, which promises to provide him with ample opportunities, is also a good option.
The Ligue 1 runners-up have been given a promising prospect of becoming a top centre-forward in the future, while the reigning Serie A champions have been given the ideal funding to complete their fundraising for next season ahead of schedule when the chairman has already started plans for a new stadium and is unable to invest more transfers for the manager. Of course, the only ones who are sad about this are the Torino fans.
But the transfer aside, Gasperini's first season in charge of his new club has been so impressive that it's hard for anyone too critical to jump out and point fingers.
Before the start of the season, Juventus vowed to regain dominance in the country, so after a massive recruitment operation, they strengthened the team to historic levels; And Conte's AC Milan also found the style of the top European giants in the past after experiencing the run-in in the second half of last season; Coupled with the stability of teams such as Inter Milan and Roma, the Red Bulls can be said to be facing the most brutal title defense environment in history.
However, it is under such extremely harsh conditions that the Torino team under the leadership of the coach still held the top three positions in the league in the first half of the league, although it could not achieve a long-term lead in the same period last year, but at least it was able to control the point difference with the top team within two or three points of chase, laying a good foundation for the continued sprint after the winter break.
Entering the second round, the Torino players finally mastered the tactical thinking of the new manager, which gave them a certain improvement in their form in the game, and finally reached the top position at the end of March, and also reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time in history, almost making Limdoudi's name disappear from the somewhat forgotten fans.
Unfortunately, Ranocchia and Belotti suffered serious injuries and were directly reimbursed for the season, coupled with various physical and psychological problems among other players, which led to the Red Bulls finally falling in the closing stages and not replicating last year's miracle.
In the end, the Torino team won the third place in Serie A, the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia, the quarterfinals of the Champions League, and the runner-up of the Italian Super Cup, which is still quite good. The only regret is that there is no championship honor, otherwise it would be even more perfect.
And the other team related to Li Moodi, Real Madrid, has a little less of a good time. Galeries Lafayette couldn't wait for the rise of Julen Lopetegui's youth guard to sweep the world, and the Galacticos were able to squeeze into the top four of the table after the halfway point of the league, the Copa del Rey quarter-finals, and the Champions League group stage fell to second place again, all of which made the self-proclaimed president of Real Madrid unable to maintain his demeanor anymore, and he decisively sacked the former Spanish national team coach in mid-January to correct Guti.
The performance of "Fourteen Masters" is not worthy of the super high ability of the FM system to evaluate him, and he led the team to make great progress in the second half of the season, almost completing the miracle of Qi Zu ascending to the position of Real Madrid at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, in the end, it was also because of the more points in the early stage, and it was relegated to the runner-up of La Liga, and the Champions League was lost on penalties in the semi-finals, but this result was enough to give the club's senior management and fans hope for the future.
However, this information is just an occasional spice for Li Mudi in his spare time, and the focus of his life has been on his family's side since the summer of 2019. And for a long time to come, home and family will be the place where he invests the most energy.
On March 16, 2020, the twenty-third day of the second lunar month, in the international hospital in Madrid, Lin Yuner gave birth to a daughter naturally, the baby weighed 6 pounds and 3 taels, very healthy, and seemed to be more beautiful than other newborns (purely Li Mudi's personal opinion), and immediately became a common treasure of Lin and Li.
The birth of the child also made Li Mudi's identity have a major change, and since then, he has finally grown up, and he must be strict with himself according to the standards of a good father.
To this end, he abandoned the "lazy terminal cancer symptoms" that he had been unable to get rid of, and began an arduous exercise program while doing his best to take care of his wife and angelic daughter, who were recovering from his body. In his own words, he hopes to bring his wife and children a strong arm and make them safe for life.
However, in the painful days of sweating like rain every day, Li Mudi's mood is like living in heaven all the time, every time he holds his daughter with extremely unskilled movements and looks at her extremely cute sleeping face, his heart will completely turn into a puddle of water, and he wants to sprinkle all his love on the baby's body.
And Li Mudi has also developed a habit of always whispering her nickname in her daughter's ear, hoping that the baby can give her a response. And when the baby turns his newly opened eyes to himself, he will have an indescribable excitement in his heart, thinking that he is the happiest man in the world.
Oh, by the way, his daughter's name is given by him, called Li Xiyin, nicknamed Xixi, taken from the "Tao Te Ching" "Dayin Xisheng, the elephant is invisible".
The literal translation of the original text means "the biggest voice is silent, and the biggest image is shapeless", but it can be extended to mean that "the greater the achievement, the more penetrating and far-reaching, the more magnificent, the more inclusive of all things" (excerpt from the encyclopedia), which is Lao Tzu's description of the essence of the "Tao" in the heart of the realm of non-action.
Therefore, to understand it in layman's terms, "the sound of the voice, the elephant is invisible" can be used to describe the highest state of beauty that people think is in their minds, which is the blessing and expectation that Li Mudi gave to his daughter, hoping that she can have the most perfect life.
Of course, these two words are also taken because there are really few suitable words for naming girls in the "Tao Te Ching", this book has been on the road of "Xuan" to the extreme of the strange book, compared to the "Book of Songs" that every word is so beautiful, it is indeed willing to bow down in terms of naming. However, who let the child's father be one of the "metaphysical masters" recognized in the West, so he had to go through the entire "Tao Te Ching", but fortunately, the final result was still satisfactory to everyone.
It's just that this kind of relaxed and carefree good life finally came to an end, and it was so sudden.
On May 29, with only 14 days left before the start of the 2020 European Cup, the Russian Football Association suddenly announced that Cherchesov, the meritorious head coach who has coached the country's men's senior national team since 2016, had to resign from all positions due to physical reasons, and was replaced by Li Mudi, who had been at home for a whole year.
As soon as the news was announced, it immediately became the focus of sports circles around the world. And when the media broke the news in depth, the contract is only due to July 13, that is, the second day of the European Cup finals, and it will only be 45 days when it is full, the football world is completely fried, is this the situation of Shenma?