Although Li Mudi thinks that this Torino team has the strength to wrestle with the top European teams, the outside world, especially the Italian media, does not seem to think so, and there are always so-called experts who are not optimistic about them in newspapers or on the Internet these days. Everyone generally feels that the structure of this year's Red Bulls players is unreasonable, it can be described as old and small, and there are too few people who should be the backbone of the team and are at the peak of their careers, and they are likely to drop the chain at critical moments.

Another part of the media and netizens are questioning the team's transfer strategy this summer, although the international player Immobile was poached from Lazio, but it was also a premium fee to catch up with three young talents whose future prospects are widely promising, this deal is considered by most people to be a bit of a loss. The people who were still praising the Torino club for attaching importance to their own youth training before thought that this was exchanging the future for the current results, and it was a kind of gambling-style overdraft behavior, and expressed disappointment with Li Mudi's quick success.

However, none of these comments have dampened the Torino manager's mood, as he simply does not have the time to pay attention to these things, and the run-in of the new tactical system is an important training task before the start of the season. He can't wait to extend his practice time to ten hours a day, and the rest of the time he has to constantly meet with his colleagues to discuss and discuss transfers, and he is too busy to be busy. And because of the tight working hours, and Lin Yuner has also entered the critical period of album release and promotion, the video connection that the two of them have maintained once a day has been changed to once every three days.

And Torino's first warm-up game of the new season also indirectly refuted the view that they have not gotten stronger, although Reggina is no longer the team with good quality that can establish itself in Serie A, but it is still a third-tier professional team, but after this 90-minute matchup, the scoreboard score of 9-0 still surprised everyone. This score was also ridiculed by many fans as the "reason for friendship" between the two sides, because the Torino players bombarded 37 shots on goal in this game, and 17 of them hit the target, and if it wasn't for Reggina goalkeeper Tommaso Cucchietti (Tommaso Cucchietti) to defuse half of the danger, the game would have really gone from a massacre to a late one.

It is worth mentioning that Cuchetti is a Turin academy and is currently the second goalkeeper of the Italian Under-19 national team, a young player who has just been loaned to Serie C this season, and the Red Bulls currently have world-class goalkeeping reserves.

However, even if the first warm-up game was won by a big score, there were still some people who used the opponent to deny the strength of the Torino team because the opponent was too weak, and when Li Mudi led the team again to 11-0 bloodbath against the "friendly team" Renate four days later, this temporarily suppressed the smear momentum of these people. Just a year ago, the first game he commanded after joining the team was against this opponent, and the 2-0 score made his debut very ugly. However, after a season, the strength of the two sides has reached this level of difference, and aside from the on-the-spot performance, the growth of the Torino team is still very obvious, which makes the number of people who are optimistic about them gradually increase.

However, in the warm-up match at the Blue Italy Stadium on the 24th, when the two teams that were evenly divided in the league last year only gave everyone a blank result after an hour and a half of fierce confrontation, the direction of the media changed again. A number of newspapers and sports websites published articles after the game or the next day, expressing their disappointment with the two teams that emerged as big dark horses last season. In the last week, there have been a lot of jaw-dropping transfer deals in European football, with some amounts setting records and sending everyone into a frenzy.

The reigning Premier League champions paid more than 140 million euros to buy three players in 10 days, kicking off the show. After 35 million to get Roma central defender Rudiger, 40 million to buy Monaco defender Bakayoko, Conte finally got a super goalscorer, although the desired Lukaku was cut off by Manchester United, but Chelsea also reached a revenge, 70 million euros (this price has always been controversial, the figures exposed by several media are different, between 62 million and 80 million there are several price codes, here is an average) to buy Morata, who vows to leave Real Madrid. This transfer not only broke the transaction record of a Spanish player, but also basically announced the fact that Diego Costa will definitely leave the team, and the plan to return to Atletico Madrid has already begun.

In addition, Barcelona is still chasing Verratti, it is said that the offer of 65 million euros plus Rakitic has been placed on the desk of Paris Saint-Germain club, just waiting for the other party's senior management and manager to nod and agree, and the player himself and his agent have long been privately dealt with by the La Liga giants. However, according to the speculation of the French media, this price will not impress the chairman of the local tyrant in Paris, and Nasser Halaifi does not plan to let go of the Italians at present, and the two sides still have time to argue.

The domestic transfer market is also very lively, after spending a quiet early July, Spalletti finally made a move, Inter first bought Sampdoria's Slovak central defender Milan Skriniar for 23 million, and then only spent 5.5 million to get Fiorentina's Spanish midfielder Borja Valero, perfectly filling the vacancy left by the departure of Banega and others.

Defending champions Juventus have also made a wave of signings, giving all the opponents who are looking to pull them down in the new season their determination to defend their league title for the sixth time in a row. On loan from Bayern Brazilian winger Douglas Costa, and twice spent about 12 million to buy Arsenal goalkeeper Szczesny and AC Milan right-back Desiglio, and on the 24th, another bombshell was announced: 40 million to get the purple bebe - Benardski, the young man is afraid that he will officially change his name to "black and white bebei".

But the movement they made was not as big as the Rossoneri, and after "Brother Li's tiger body was shocked and he was mighty", Montella finally enjoyed a once-in-a-century local tyrant treatment, and the money was like a strong wind, and it was spent casually! After spending 130 million to buy five new signings, AC Milan, which missed the European competition last season, spent another 42 million to persuade the old woman to let go of defensive stalwart Bonucci, which shocked the eyeballs. Two days later, Lazio captain Biglia also arrived at San Siro at 17 million, increasing the team's recruitment expenses to 190 million at once, and if you add the buyout fees of loan players such as Kessie, it has reached nearly 220 million, which is too much!

And at a time when rivals are going crazy, Torino and Atalanta, who finished fourth and fifth in the league last season, look too different. The former has a lot of squad replacement, but the reliable reinforcements seem to be only a deal for the former Lazio goalscorer, and the rest are old, weak, sick or unknown, seriously lacking competitiveness. Compared with the red bull, the son of the sea god is even worse, and the new reinforcements are more than a step worse in terms of quantity and quality. After selling Conte Jr. for 25 million, Gasperini used the funds to buy ten players in one go, but the most famous of them are Lazio goalkeeper Berisha and Fiorentina forward Ilicic, who are at most second-rate or even third-rate players in Serie A, and it is difficult to bring immediate results to the team.

In this warm-up match, the two sides combined for seven attempts, and only Torino youngster Pieto Pellegri hit the woodwork once, which is indeed a very unexciting encounter from this statistic, but the sunspots did not find any other shining points hidden in the boredom and tedium.

In this matchup, the coach still used the 3-4-3 formation that helped the team achieve good results last season, and after the change in the lineup, there were not many changes in specific techniques and tactics. However, the Red Bulls played differently, Li Muddy did not continue to use the 4-3-3 formation of the previous two warm-up games, but arranged the 3-4-1-2 position that was focused on the start of the new season in the first half, and after a big wave in the second half, the players changed to a 4-4-2 style of play, which made the Atlanta coach a little confused.

Although the team's attacking power did not play as well as it should due to the strength of the opponent and the use of these two sets of tactics for the first time in an official match, the defense of the Torino team, whether it was a back three or a four, has always ensured a high quality, without giving the opponent any chance, and the improvement is very obvious compared to last season. The poor performance on the offensive end is forgivable at this time, and as the training intensifies, the level of cooperation between the players in the front court will gradually improve, and it may soon be possible to find a consistent step.

The reason why Li Mudi arranged seven official warm-up games before the season is that he hopes to speed up the feeling of matching between new and old players through a large number of games, that is, the so-called competition training. What is not clear to the outside world at this time is that in weekday training, he will also spend the last half hour of the day mixing the first team and the U20 youth team, divided into four teams and paired up for a 30-minute battle. It also shows the Torino boss's determination to give his young players more opportunities in the new season, but until the league officially starts and before they play their opponents, no one knows if he will have a chance to realise this plan, and it will have to wait until the time comes.

On July 25, the club's official website once again had an important news release, the core of the team Benassi officially signed his name on a new contract, and his annual salary has also increased from the original pre-tax 1.3 million to 1.8 million, until June 30, 2022, the playmaker midfielder will wear a crimson jersey.

In an interview with reporters that evening, Benassi responded with a smile on his face: "The reason why I choose to stay in the club for a long time is because I had a very happy year last season, Coach Lee gave me the highest level of respect and has been patiently helping me to improve further. Florence? Yes, they approached my agent the other day and wanted to take me to the Frankie Stadium to take over the place left by Valero. Although I felt very honoured to be on a par with a great player like Borja, I turned down the offer without much thought, and I was very happy in Turin and had no intention of leaving for the time being. ”

Benasi's contract was originally not due to return until 2021, so there was no need to renew it in a hurry, but when Li Mudi found out through the FM system that Purple Lily was poaching, he immediately realized his negligence. Due to the large number of sponsorships from the Celestial Empire, the salary index of the Red Bulls in the new season has increased a lot, and the 2.8 million pre-tax annual salary signed by Belotti last winter can only rank second in the team. Aside from Cassie who has special reasons, the pre-tax salary of the new signing Immobile has reached 3.5 million euros, and Benassi and others, who are also the main players, are naturally unwilling to get only one-third of the former's money, even if no team proposes to buy, they will express dissatisfaction with this income gap.

Therefore, the Torino coach immediately contacted the club's top management, signaling that this mood that may lead to civil unrest must be resolved in time, except for Ranocchia, who has just signed a contract and the salary is not too low, the other main players will start new contract negotiations. Even Belotti, who has just signed a new contract for more than half a year, must start discussing a salary increase this winter, and cannot cause the player to be in a bad mood because of the money saved.

Although the president of the club is used to being stingy, he is also a very powerful businessman, knows how to make great trade-offs, and knows what is the key to his ability to get such a beautiful financial today, that is, Li Mudi, the coach of the Celestial Empire, and the team's good results. Spending more money to keep the best players in the team can ensure the team's performance in the new season, so that you can get more money from sponsors, and it is still clear which is more important. So before mid-August, the club completed contract extensions with Bareka and Falke one after another, the former doubling his annual salary to 1.2 million before tax, and the latter became the highest earner with a salary tied with Ranocchia.

In fact, Li Mudi has always been quite hesitant on the issue of renewing the Spanish winger's contract, and Falke's performance last season did far exceed outside expectations, becoming the top of the list of best recruits. However, his inconsistent form has always been a big problem, which is not conducive to the team's head coach's appearance plan. When Valencia FC was interested in buying him in the first half of the year, the Torino coach had the idea of agreeing to release him if the price was right, but unfortunately he did not receive an offer from the La Liga team in the end, so he was gone.

After that, Li Mudi thought about it again, and the Torino team may have to use a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 formation in some games in the new season, so as the most powerful winger in the team, Falke still has a lot of use value, so he still approved the renewal of this player's contract. There is really only one person who really bothers him: Rajjadzic.