It's just past mid-April and the FA Cup final is set to take place in mid-May, with a month in between and Millwall plenty of time to prepare.

The outside media is still reporting on Millwall's early victory.

That's the big news.

The FA Cup final is still a bit far away, and the media will not cover the game that far away, and apart from Millwall's victory, the media focus is on the league table.

Millwall is definitely number one.

Second-placed Chelsea are not much of a suspense, while third-place is Manchester United, who have six points more than Liverpool and have little chance of catching up.

Then the suspense is the battle for the fourth place in the league.

Fourth place in the Premier League is a meaningful position, with the top three in the Premier League automatically qualifying for the UEFA Champions League group stage, and the fourth place also qualifying for the UEFA Champions League play-offs, and if they are eliminated from the play-offs, they will automatically fall into the round of 32 of the UEFA Cup.

So fourth in the Premier League means qualifying for the Champions League.

The UEFA Champions League is very important for any team, so the fourth place in the Premier League has become very important.

Liverpool is currently fourth in the Premier League, followed by Arsenal, who are only two points less than Liverpool, and Tottenham Hotspur have the same points as Arsenal, but the goal difference is the same, ranking sixth behind Arsenal.

Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, the three teams competing for the fourth place in the Premier League, is still very interesting, and the fierce competition has also made the fourth in the Premier League squeeze out the Premier League title the hottest topic.

This is also the helplessness of the British football media.

Who made the top three rankings in the Premier League locked in early? Millwall won the title three rounds ahead of schedule, Chelsea are certainly second, and Manchester United can't even catch up with Chelsea.

In the end of the Premier League, the top three have no highlights, which is really a pity!

Millwall don't have to feel so much, they just go to train and prepare normally, the next three league games are not important, but the next one has to be prepared, because the opponent is Liverpool.

"It's an early rehearsal for the FA Cup clash between Millwall and Liverpool."

That's what the media thinks about the game.

Zhang Yang also let the team prepare for the game seriously, but his views are different from the media, Millwall does not need to fight hard with Liverpool, the next three rounds of games are equivalent to chicken ribs for Millwall, it doesn't matter if you win or lose, Millwall only needs to use the game and know a little more about Liverpool.

That's what Zhang Yang thinks.

The rest of the coaching staff also sees it this way, even if the league loses to Liverpool, it will not affect the FA Cup final between the two teams, the game is not the same, and it is simply asking for trouble to pay attention to an inconsequential league game.

In addition, Liverpool's league game is not easy to deal with.

Liverpool will definitely be determined to fight for this game if they want to hold on to the fourth place in the league, and they will take the league with Millwall more seriously than the FA Cup final with Millwall, and there is no doubt that the FA Cup title is not as good as the top four in the Premier League in terms of influence and economy.

On the first day of Millwall's return to training, members of the coaching staff were watching videos of Liverpool's games, as well as analysing Liverpool's recent situation, having a detailed understanding of their tactics, and the entire coaching staff studied Liverpool's style of play, and the players did some recovery warm-up training.

Zhang Yang went to the training ground.

On the training ground, Zhang Yang constantly uses the newly acquired 'potential identification' to look at the football talent potential of each player, and also gets some useful results.

Darren Bent: Has the shooting potential of the sport of football.

Rating: Nine stars.

Josh Simpson: Has set-piece potential in football.

Rating: Eight stars.

David Livermore: Has the one-on-one defensive potential of the sport of football.

Rating: Nine stars.

Jamie Vardy: Has dribbling potential in football.

Rating: Nine stars.

Wait a minute.

The above are the players who are 'identified by potential', and the players with outstanding ability, and a large number of players, belong to the type of 'no potential'.

Like Kevin Braniff.

When Zhang Yang uses 'potential identification' on Braniff, he gets the sentence, "Target: Kevin Braniff, soccer talent potential: none." ”

"None?"

Zhang Yang first checked the main players, and then checked the substitute players, Braniff is also the main player, but the result is 'none'?

What do you mean?

Soon Zhang Yang will not be entangled, because the vast majority of the players in the team have got the result of 'none', even Jody Morris and Smitchell, "In other words, these players have no outstanding potential in a single event?" Or because their level of ability is average. ”

Zhang Yang is still a little confused, but it is certain that the potential of the players who have been detected in a single event must be quite prominent.

It's like David Livermore, who was detected to have outstanding potential for 'one-on-one defense', and if you think about it carefully, there are really very few players who can face Livermore one-on-one, and most of the opponents who do so are directly cut off.

Maybe Livermore was too strong?

Zhang Yang thought about it carefully, and finally shook his head, no matter what the reason, Livermore's one-on-one defensive ability is not bad, maybe in the future, because he will be more 'decisive and steal', maybe it will have a prominent effect.

Other potential players are similar.

For example, Darren Bent has the talent potential to shoot, and he is the only one in the team who has this talent potential, so Darren Bent is really a natural goalscorer, in the past games, he has always performed well in front of the goal, and he has a good chance to score in all positions.

'Potential identification' is still very reliable.

'Potential identification' also allows Zhang Yang to have a deeper understanding of the abilities of the players in the team, especially the young players who can identify potential, they must all have potential, as long as they can grow normally, maybe they will have the opportunity to become pillars in the future.

But if a team wants to play well, it is definitely not enough to rely on the potential of the players, and the stars that have grown up are the key to supporting the team's good results.

Millwall is now at the top.

If last season, Millwall was still a small club struggling on the verge of relegation, and cultivating young stars is also an important financial route for the club, but after winning the league championship, Millwall will look forward, there are almost no top clubs, and they will take the cultivation of stars as an important economic source, they will only continue to buy stars trained by other clubs, so as to improve the strength of the team, play better results in the league and European competitions, and develop businesses around the world is the real way of development.

Millwall doesn't develop, Zhang Yang doesn't care, that's the job of Ebenezer and Wilkinson, he cares about the strength of the team.

When Millwall's first team was still training, Zhang Yang was already negotiating summer transfer work with Ebenezer, Wilkinson and others.

Ebenezer reported on the club's revenue, which became the focus of several conversations: "This season, we have won the league and reached the final of the FA Cup, and we will definitely get more than £35 million in TV broadcast costs. ”

This is important.

The Premier League's TV share is very high, and it also takes care of small clubs, and the TV broadcast share revenue relies on data such as the league position and the number of viewers of the team's games, that is, the influence of the club.

In terms of influence, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea all have the advantage, but influence is only one factor, the league position is also important, Millwall is in first place, and TV broadcast revenue will definitely be in the top four.

That's a lot of income.

"Plus, there's the league winner's bonus, and the FA Cup, and we're also growing our merchandise business, with Darren Bent selling the most out of 110,000 shirts in the past year."

The last point is a bit pathetic.

For example, some of the world's top superstars, such as David Beckham, after moving to Real Madrid, can sell more than 200,000 jerseys, and Darren Bent is the most popular star in the Millwall team, with a very good performance in a single season, and only 110,000 jerseys have been sold.

In this regard, the club's commercial department needs to continue to work hard.

Then Ebenezer returned a lot of income, Zhang Yang's head was a little bigger, he didn't care about the club's income and expenses, only cared about the funds that could be used for the summer transfer, after Ebenezer's commercial return was over, Zhang Yang asked directly, "How much transfer funds are used to replenish personnel in the summer?" ”

"About 30 million pounds!"

Ebenezer reported a figure, "If the Mossad prince doesn't continue to invest, we can have more than 30 million pounds in transfer funds." ”

Zhang Yang was satisfied.

Wilkinson said, "Don't worry, Prince Mossad didn't think about using the club's money, and when he bought the club, there was still a balance of funds, and our transfer funds could be at least more than 50 million pounds." ”

Zhang Yang was even more satisfied.

50 million pounds is a lot of money, which can allow Millwall to replenish enough personnel and support large transfers, so his transfer targets have more options.

In the summer transfer, Zhang Yang is still looking forward to it.

Millwall's results are good, even if they continue to participate in the league with the original lineup, they are confident of getting good results, but next season the team will participate in the Champions League, and he also wants to get good results in the Champions League.

So Millwall had to get the job done sooner rather than later.

In terms of summer transfer supplements, Zhang Yang is considering strengthening the wings: left and right forwards, left and right full-backs.

These two positions are the most urgent.

At present, the team's wide players can only play a limited number of players such as Josh Simpson, Braniff, Konchesky, and Joey Healy, and Joey Healy's ability can no longer keep up with the team, his position has been replaced by Braniff, and Zhang Yang is also considering putting Joey Healy up for sale.

In addition, other fringe players with extremely limited appearances will also be removed from the team.

It can't be helped.

The competition of professional teams is so cruel, even if you have credit for the team, but you can't keep up, you can't play for the team, no team is a place for 'retirement', players who can't play, they will choose to leave, they will want to keep playing.

Zhang Yang plans to give the team a big change, as soon as the transfer window opens, he will put the players who can't play and take the initiative to apply for transfer for sale, and then buy the players he wants to supplement his strength, with sufficient transfer fee support, the number of players entering and leaving will increase, and the transfer work will be much more complicated than last season.

Now Millwall also has a certain attractiveness.

If you compare it, it must not be compared with Manchester United, Liverpool and other teams, Millwall is only the new champion after all, the outside world does not think that they can continue to maintain good results, just like Blackburn, who won the league championship once, in the second season, the results have dropped significantly, but after all, they have won the league championship, and the new championship is still attractive to some players, and it is much stronger than the average small club.

This is also one of Millwall's important assets in the transfer market competition.

After returning to the head coach's office, Zhang Yang began to check the players of various teams, the internal information of the European transfer market and various materials submitted by the staff, but what he didn't expect was that the transfer of players had not yet begun, and he was poached by others first.

"It's Tottenham! They ask if you're interested in coaching! Andy said to Zhang Yang on the phone, "We haven't signed a contract yet, you can still think about it." ”

Tottenham Hotspur Club, the current head coach is Dutch coach Joel, Jol's coaching results are not bad, but he has confirmed that he will leave Tottenham, Tottenham is eager to find the next manager, when Tottenham knows that Zhang Yang has not renewed his contract with Millwall Club, he decided to ask Zhang Yang's opinion to see if he is interested in taking over Tottenham.

It was also a risky decision.

Zhang Yang led Millwall to win the league championship, which is considered a miracle of the English league, but miracles are often irreproducible.

So Tottenham are only tentatively asking.

Zhang Yang only thought about it for a few seconds, and then immediately said, "Push me." ”

To Tottenham?

Of course not.

Millwall has changed owners, but the new owner is not bad for him, his treatment has improved substantially, the team is basically stable, he has the support of the fans at Millwall, he has absolute control over the dressing room, and changing teams is the stupidest decision.

No matter how high the treatment Tottenham gives, he will not consider leaving, not to mention, will Tottenham give high treatment?

Hard!

On the same day, Andy turned down Tottenham's offer and immediately went to Millwall FC to finalize a new contract for Zhang Yang.

This is also to reduce the pressure of public opinion from the outside world.

As long as Zhang Yang signs a new contract with the club, everyone will know that Zhang Yang will not leave and will continue to coach next season.