Chapter 65: The Devil's Schedule
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On the afternoon of February 28th, Valencia FC held a grand signing ceremony for Ello, and team president Soler and head coach Ranieri expressed their love and affirmation for Ello, hoping that Ello could help Valencia rise and contribute his own strength.
Just as Iroh signed his name on the contract, the media's cameras began to be busy, shooting between Chairman Soler and Iroh one after another. Especially when the two shook hands, the sound of the camera shot reached its peak.
The next day, the editor-in-chief of the Valencia Sport newspaper, Enrique Brown. Wayne reported the news in the column, the picture on the main page is the team chairman Soler smiling and shaking hands with Iro, the lower right corner of the picture is written in the table of Iro's last few games, and the text is, "When everyone sees this report, I guess they will be as happy and excited as me, right?" Our Ai has finally signed a professional contract with the team! We don't have to worry about Ai leaving us and moving to another team in the short term, and we will see him in the orange shirt every game in the future."
On the other page of the column, Enrique. Wayne was relieved that he had finally released the article on Elo's exclusive interview with Elo when he was still on the youth team. The picture on the layout is the scene of Iroh racing against Messi in the youth team, and below the picture is the interview with Iro.
The next page is David. The picture of the scene where Silva shook hands with Iello before being substituted also included in the picture, "After Vicente returns from injury, he will always sacrifice one of them in the current starting lineup, and Ranieri has chosen to sacrifice David between the two. Silva, but here, I hope he's not angry, David is still young. No matter who died before, in my heart you are the future of the Bat Legion, and you are the eternal Gemini of Valencia"
On this day, the Valencia Sports newspaper was once again a big hit. Wayne is even more proud, and it is even more logical to get a salary increase and bonuses, and all kinds of money are abundant.
In addition to the "Valencia Sport" focused on reporting that Ailo signed a formal work contract with the team, such as the local Spanish "Marca", "As", "ABC" and other influential newspapers have expressed their congratulations to Valencia, and are full of expectations for Ello's future table, among which a page of "Marca" said, "Such an excellent young man has officially become a part of Valencia, starting today and ending the year after tomorrow, His ownership is completely Valencia and here I feel sorry for the loss of the teams that did not get hold of him before Valencia"
Spain's best-selling Chinese newspapers, "Ouhua Daily", "Huaxin Daily" and "China Daily", devoted two full pages to reporting on this matter, after all, since the professionalization of Chinese football, no player has entered the Spanish first division team. This time is even more incredible, because of Ailo's excellent performance, he also obtained a valuable main position in the Valencia team, as a Chinese newspaper in Europe, of course, to publicize it.
These three newspapers were the newspapers of the Chinese in Europe, which directly led to the sharp increase in the weight of the Valencia Club in the hearts of the Chinese in Europe. Another thing that has to be said is that the signing of Arlo directly made many Chinese in Europe become members of the Valencia Club, but it was unexpected.
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After four consecutive wins, the team's current record is 13 wins, 9 draws and 6 losses, accumulating 48 points and continuing to rank third in the league.
After this round of league play, the fourth place in the league quietly changed hands, with Atletico Madrid losing at home to Deportivo La Coruna and Villarreal playing away to Diego. Goals from Forlan and Riquelme helped the team win the Mallorca match and put the team in fourth place ahead of Atletico Madrid.
Other mid-table teams have also had their places change hands.
With the victory in this match, Villarreal moved up to fourth place in the league, and if they follow this ranking, Villarreal will set a record for the ZĂ o team since its inception and can qualify for the Champions League next season.
As a traditional European powerhouse, it is normal to participate in European competitions, as long as fans with a little common sense know that European competitions start in the middle of the week, which also indicates that the teams participating in European competitions are about to enter a devilish schedule again.
Ranieri took out the two-week matchup table and looked at it, and he really didn't know it, and he was shocked when he saw it.
Away to Parma on March 3 means the team will have to travel to the Apennines, and the team will only have a strong La Liga connection yesterday, which also means that the team will not be able to guarantee fitness and form when it comes to the game.
Then three days later, that is, on March 7, he will go to Catalonia to challenge Barcelona, who is now at the top of the league standings, thinking of Barcelona's recent form, Ranieri has a headache again, this is a game that cannot be given up, because if you give up, it will be difficult to catch up with Real Madrid, who are ranked second, and will be shortened by Villarreal, who is ranked fourth.
Then on March 10, we host the second leg of the UEFA Cup quarter-finals against Parma, and this game is also a game not to be lost. Of course, if the premise is to win Parma away from home, then the pressure on this game will drop in a straight line.
Four days later, on March 14th, the slightly better news is that you don't have to travel around again, just wait in Valencia for another opponent from Madrid, Atletico Madrid, but this opponent is also a headache for Ranieri, Atletico Madrid has a good squad and now has a player like Torres who is eye-catching and in great form.
In short, none of these four games are easy to play against, and if you are not careful, you will lose here for the rest of the season.
However, the slightly better news is that Vicente is now back from injury, with Aimar and Angulo ready to train together in a week's time, and if they are lucky, they could be in time for the quarter-final match at home to Parr in the second leg of the UEFA Cup in a week's time.
Thinking of this, Ranieri had a happy expression on his face.
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Just a day later, the Spanish media, like sharks smelling blood, returned to the Valencia training base.
After the training in the afternoon, the 'villain' dominated by Catalonia's "El Monde Sport" blocked the door of the training base, and after seeing the players, they kept interviewing the players what they thought of the next devil's schedule.
This made Ranieri, who was discussing with Benetti in the office building to deal with the devil's schedule, feel extremely annoyed, and now the team is still full of injuries, only two or three are about to return, with this kind of dense schedule, the team's fitness is completely unable to keep up, this is not - Ranieri's eyes have to be on the youth team again.
The next morning, Ranieri brought two of Elo's best friends from the youth team, Andy and Pissen, from the youth team.
The appearance of the two made Arlo, David. Silva and Albiol couldn't be happier, which made their Valencian 'youth gang' even stronger!
Now that two-thirds of the league has passed, Ranieri has to focus more on the next games, because if he misses the slightest mistake and drops points, it will directly lead to all the team's efforts this season being in vain, which is not what the manager, the players, the club and the fans want to see.
So the next two days of training were completed under the leadership of physical coach Olnes, and in order to cope with the next four tough games, Ranieri had to let the players do physical training and prepare for physical reserves.
With the addition of Andy and Pissen, as well as Iroh and David. The positive expressions of Silva and Albiol are now several years younger in the entire Valencia first team, making several veteran players over 30 feel more energetic.
Although the mentality during training is relaxed, it is undeniable that after the team training, there will always be some things that the players can't control their feelings.
At this moment, the role of the psychological counselor of Valencia Club began to become obvious, and every day after the end of the day, the players would be taken to the conference room by assistant coach Benetti and talked to the psychological counseling room one by one.
It is worth mentioning that the Valencia fans also feel that the team has entered an atmosphere of active preparation for the devil's schedule, and they will have fans 'head' take them to the periphery of the first team's training ground every day to cheer up the players, and they want the team to know that they are with the team!
So during these two days of training, there are always fans at the Valencia first team's training ground singing their team anthem "Hymn to Valencia" nearby
Get up, Valencia! Hooray, Valencia!
She is the best
Get up, Valencia! Hooray, Valencia!
She lives in our hearts
Her fans will always follow her
in all the courts
She's going to win the game
We cheer each other on in the capital of Turia
Valencia is the defender in white robes
Full of courage to win
We will always continue to win at Mestalla!
One more thing that has to be mentioned, Valencia, the third largest club in Spain after Real Madrid and Barcelona, certainly will not lack avid fans.
Joe. Pooh is an ordinary construction worker in Valencia, but he has another extraordinary identity, the leader of the Bat Guard, the most ardent follower of the Valencian North Stand. Anyone who knows him knows that he is an avid Valencia fan, and it can be seen from his clothes, tattoos, and the decoration of his home that he seems to have existed for Valencia.
He has a big Valencia emblem tattooed on his chest, and his back, thighs, arms, and even his neck are tattooed with players who have played for Valencia, if you look at it from the eyes of the Chinese, he is a madman, a living madman!
It didn't take long for him to prove to the world that he was really a madman. He took all the members of the 'Bat Guard', one of the most ardent followers of the Valencian North Stand, through the streets, only stopping when he reached the periphery of the Mestalla Stadium.
By the time they stopped, the crowd was already around them, and then their leader, Joe. Pooh has unveiled something absolutely crazy - if the team wins all of the next devil's fixtures, it will represent the 'Batguards' in the Valencia zone - naked!
He hopes to motivate the team to win through his own efforts.