Chapter 19: Arsene Wenger's Persistence
Descartes' rejection of offers from a number of big clubs was supported not only by the head of athletic division, Mr. Minnigos, but also by the club's owner.
The owner of the club is a true fan, he is really just a local builder and his net worth is only a few million euros, and he can't find any reason to invest half of that money in a small team like Pavia, which he has no name but love for the team.
And it was his love for the team that prompted him to keep his sanity in the face of the huge transfer fee of 10 million pounds.
He eventually agreed to Descartes' decision to stay and personally rewarded him at the club.
This is a true fan, and although the club is not a big club and has never shown signs of becoming a big club, Descartes finds it more welcoming than most clubs, and he has fallen in love with it.
Especially at the home game of the Pavia club, when Descartes represented the club for the first time in the Chengren League, he was greeted by thousands of fans in front of the crowd as much as the superstars, and this time it was really everyone cheering for Descartes, although he had not touched the ball once, but the residents of the small town of Pavia had fully demonstrated their love for the little guy.
Since the Serie C League had already started before the World Junior Championship, Descartes was halfway through, and the match he participated in was the sixth game of the 2005-2006 Serie C season.
The Serie C B League is divided into three groups, each group has 18 teams, the group winner is directly promoted to the Serie C A League, the 2-5 places in the group are determined by the play-offs to determine a promotion place, and finally each group is promoted to 2 teams, and the entire league is promoted to a total of 6 teams.
The quality of the Pavia club can only be considered at the bottom of the middle and lower levels even in Serie C B, and their best player last season, Acerbi, has been bought by Serie B powerhouse "Little Donkey" Chievo, although Acerbi is also Pavia, but he clearly cannot resist the call of the Serie B team.
Unlike Descartes, Acerbi's qualifications were mediocre, and if he missed Chievo, he didn't know when he would get another chance to be called up to a higher league team, so although he loved Pavia no less than Descartes, he never stayed in the small city.
After losing the defender, Pavia's results this season have slipped further, with only one win, one draw and three defeats in the five league games that have ended, and the manager Mr. Donatoni is so anxious that his gray hair has grown.
But with Descartes being promoted to the first team, Mr. Donatoni was comforted, and even though Descartes had not yet proven that he could adapt to the football arena, his presence had brought great popularity to Pavia, as evidenced by the presence of more than 5,000 spectators and dozens of journalists.
Pavia's opponents are Gallipoli, a team that is currently on the rise, having been promoted to Serie B two years later and remained in Serie B until 2013, which is very strong compared to Pavia.
In fact, not many people were optimistic about the Pavia club before the game, and if the club had not suddenly announced that Descartes had been promoted to the first team, I am afraid that the 4,500-seat seat of the Pavia Municipal Stadium would not have been full at all.
Gallipoli don't have any of the biggest names in the game, they play football as a whole, the Italians are very much about the "team tactics", and the whole team has achieved a good ranking in the league thanks to their tenacious defense and tough style, and in the previous five games, they have won 3, drawn 1 and lost 1, and the record is exactly the same as that of Pavia.
So even if it was learned that the little red star of the Pavia club, Descartes, was likely to play in this game, the players of Gallipoli did not feel any fear, football is a team sport after all, and the other players of the Pavia club are all mediocre in qualifications, even if there is one more Descartes?
The game was very fierce from the first minute, the Pavia club had no money and no people, they were able to fight in the Serie C for so long, obviously the style of play is also very hard, two teams with the same tough style of play met together, and there were many scenes of people on the field.
Seeing such a scene, even the head coach of the Pavia club, Mr. Donatoni, was a little worried, you know, now Descartes is worth tens of millions of pounds, in his feeling, this is like a fragile porcelain bottle, put him in such a bloody environment, can he survive?
But Descartes told Monsieur Donatoni with resolute eyes that even if I was a porcelain vase, it was a porcelain vase made of stainless steel, and I would not be afraid of the roughness of the other man's movements.
So in the second half, Mr. Donatoni had to come in with Descartes in the midst of a tsunami of shouts from the fans in the middle of a tsunami.
Descartes, who was on the pitch of professional football for the first time, was very excited, and he had a hard time with the opposing defender with his first touch, and although the opponent's player squeezed him staggered with his physical advantage, he still passed the ball before his body lost his center of gravity.
There was nothing special about this pass, but it still caused thousands of fans to cheer in the air.
Descartes has always been the pride of the small city of Pavia, and when he led the Italian national team to the World Junior Championship and rejected the offer of tens of millions of pounds from the Premier League team, the residents of the small town saw him as a symbol of the small town, and their love for Descartes was as blind and sincere as the love of half of the fans of Rome City for Totti.
Descartes grew stronger and stronger amid such a surging cheer, and in the 66th minute of the game, he received his first assist in professional football.
Descartes, who withdrew to the midfield to get the ball, first dodged an opponent who was bent on squeezing him away with his body, and then used his foot skills to shake off another defender who pounced very fiercely, and before the opponent's third defender caught up, he passed an imaginative crotch ball, although the forward of the Pavia club was not very capable, but he still did not miss such a simple ball, and Descartes made a huge contribution to Pavia's equalizer with his feet as if they were magical.
The pass also made the fans on the sidelines louder, blowing their horns and shaking their hands desperately, making a loud noise that could be made by tens of thousands of people, cheering for Descartes and cheering on his wonderful performance.
Perhaps it had been a long time since the team had experienced such a lively atmosphere, and the rest of the Pavia club also burst into a super-level performance to cheer them on, and in the end they overcame Gallipoli 2-1 to seal their first home win of the season.
Descartes also won the best player of the game with an assist, although his statistics are just ordinary, but his role on the field is obvious to all, because of his threading needle, the entire front court of the Pavia club seems to come alive, the forward line has only scored a total of 3 goals in the first five games, and this game has scored 2 at once, and Descartes's frontcourt scheduling has contributed a lot.
And this game also gave the club's executives and managers a reassurance.
Before, they were worried about whether Descartes' thin body could adapt to a field like Serie C, which was rough in technique but very physically confrontational, but Descartes proved with his performance in this game that he not only has momentum, but also brains. In terms of physical confrontation, he is indeed a disadvantage due to his thin body, but his awareness and technique are obviously not on the same level as these players in the Serie C League, as long as it is not a rough foul, the opposing players usually have no way to keep him.
Gallipoli's loss of momentum in the second half had a lot to do with the fact that they had no players to stop the onslaught of Descartes.
And after this match, Descartes also received a shocking news.
The Arsenal manager will visit him and his family after the game.
Arsenal manager? Mr. Wenger?!
Descartes could hardly believe his ears. He knew that the price quoted by Arsenal for him had reached a maximum of 12 million pounds, which showed that the other party was very sincere to him, but he didn't expect Arsenal's sincerity to be so full, and even Mr. Wenger came in person.
You know, at this time, the Premier League is also in full swing, so far the Premier League has been played 9 rounds, Arsenal's performance in the first 9 rounds of games is not very good, after losing the midfield Iron Gate Vieira, they only achieved 3 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses in the first 9 games, and the consecutive losses to Chelsea and Liverpool made the media comment that Arsenal has no hope of winning the championship this season.
For Arsenal, who were unbeaten in the Premier League two years ago, the pace of such a fall is a little too fast.
And at this time, how did Mr. Wenger, who should be the head coach under heavy pressure, come to an obscure town in Italy?
It is clear that Mr. Wenger is here for Descartes this time.
If you want to talk about Arsene Wenger, the coach, it is really impossible to say that the last day and night, his ten-year confrontation with Lord Frug, opened the mileage of the Premier League's high-level league, he built Graham's iron army into a "gorgeous division", before the Barcelona "Dream II" team was born, Arsenal was recognized as the most beautiful team in the world.
And Arsene Wenger's vision is also talked about by professional football people around the world, and he introduced Bergkamp. Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Ljungberg, Cesc Fabregas, Ashley. Cole, Van Persie, Walcott, Wilshere...... Each one is famous, and has gained a world-renowned reputation at Arsenal.
Compared to Lord Fre's missteps on Veron, the professor hardly made any major mistakes in buying people.
Some fans once joked that Wenger is likely to be the "protagonist" of the novel, who can know 5,000 years in advance and at least 50 years later.
And Wenger's ability to rush to the Italian town of Pavia at a time when the team is under such tremendous pressure also shows that he does not get Descartes' unyielding obsession.
With a hint of emotion and a hint of agitation, Descartes hurried back to the house, and when he entered the living room, he saw at a glance a middle-aged man with a full head of flowers and a gentle temperament sitting in his living room, laughing and talking with his father, Mr. Javier.
Is this Arsene Wenger? Assena. Wenger!
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