Chapter Twenty-Eight: Perfect Barcelona

Someone who is sleepy sends a pillow!

Simon? Grayson was thinking about finding a successor for Fabregas, and there was a lot of news in the transfer market, and the Austrian international Alaba, who only switched to Mourinho this season, had a conflict with the "madman".

Alaba went to Manchester United on a free transfer from Bayern Munich a year ago, signing a five-year contract with Manchester United with an annual salary of 4 million euros, but his contract had a self-buyout clause. Bale, Van de Wiel, Jose? Angel and others left one after another, and Alaba also had the heart to run away, Chelsea took advantage of this to hook up with the Austrian midfielder with an annual salary of 5.5 million euros, who thought that it was only half a season, Alaba fell out with Mourinho, and then ......

Alaba's agent inadvertently told reporters about the so-called "semi-free body", and only after the reporters dug up did they know that when Alaba signed with Chelsea, there was also a clause to buy out his contract, as long as he personally paid Chelsea 50% of his salary for the next four years, he could transfer freely, but the "Blues" are not stupid, they learned the lessons of Manchester United, and some restrictions were written in the contract, and Alaba could not transfer to other teams in the Premier League.

Simon? Grayson smiled when he saw the news, and directly asked his assistant Mike Andrew to contact Alaba in person, didn't he just ask for money, this is still a thing!?

In the latest club value ranking released by Forbes, Barcelona has become the richest club in the world with a value of 1.42 billion euros, they surpass Real Madrid's 1.32 billion by 100 million, and 660 million more than the third-ranked Manchester United 760 million.

Real Madrid has depreciated itself in recent years because of performance problems. But the "Red Devils" Manchester United is because of Ferguson's retirement? Moyes's disgrace caused its brand value to shrink by almost two-thirds, from the previous value of 1.87 billion to 600 million. Grayson led the team to soar, but "Brutal Simon" spent no less money in order to win the record, Manchester United's own income was not very high, and the next two years experienced Giggs and then now Fran. Both of them made a few loss-making transactions, and the market value was only 760 million.

Since the club is not short of money, and Alaba happens to be a person who is more greedy for money and needs the team, and there are Shaq, Ganso, Rivero, Krisetig and others hooking up, then this thing is really easy to do!

Here Michael Andrew returned to England to contact Alaba here, and here Simon? Grayson has not been idle, and he has continued the team's unbeaten record this season, or rather a "winning streak", with Barcelona continuing the team's unbeaten record this season, if not for the 2-2 draw with Real Madrid in between. Barcelona really won all this season.

On January 16, Barcelona defeated La Liga side Granada 2-0 at home thanks to Shaq's brace to win the first leg of the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey 2-0.

On January 20, Barcelona beat Manusia 5-0 at home in the 19th Lunar Middle School of La Liga, and Shaq scored a brace in the game.

On January 23, when Barcelona relied on Shaq's "Big Four Happiness", Ganso, and Montoya's goals away from home, they beat Granada 6:1. After beating their opponents 8-1 on aggregate over two legs to reach the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey with their heads held high, a piece of good news came out......

The 26-year-old Austrian midfielder Alaba, who has officially moved to Barcelona. And the nature of this transfer turned out to be surprising...... Free transfers!

Alaba played the same trick again, paying the Blues €11 million for half of his salary for the next four years and €2.75 million for half this season, before signing Barcelona on a free transfer.

As for the contract that Barcelona offered to Alaba for the time being, it is still confidential, but the fact is that Barcelona gave Alaba a five-year contract with an annual salary of 10 million yuan, and there is a huge signing fee. The amount of this signing fee is just ...... 13.75 million euros!

Naturally, there are more than a dozen other bonus clauses in Alaba's contract, such as appearance fees, goal bonuses, selection bonuses for being named to the league Team of the Year, team winning bonuses, etc., but only the 10 million euros loyalty bonus at the end of the five-year contract is the majority.

With the lessons of Manchester United and Chelsea, Barcelona will certainly not make similar mistakes again, and Alaba does have a release clause, but the amount is more scary. At 256 million, it means that Alaba will be unlikely to jump ship to other teams.

But in any case, Alabaa still came to Barcelona happily, and in the next half season, his salary will be 5 million euros, and he will be able to get a total of 45 million euros in salary and 10 million euros in loyalty bonuses in the next four and a half years.

What's more, today's Barcelona is no longer in a half-dead state in the past few years, with "Brutal Simon" and Shaq, today's Barcelona is definitely the strongest team in Europe, and then they must win the championship and get soft, can hug this thigh, where can this kind of good thing be found!?

Alaba is personally satisfied, Simon? Grayson and the Barcelona management and fans are also very satisfied......

The Austrian midfielder is not weak defensively, but he is even better at organising attacks, and has developed an excellent steel body in the Bundesliga, coupled with his extraordinary talent, Alaba is now an all-round midfielder with physical and defensive ability, but he can contribute more to the team's attack.

After coming to Barcelona, Alaba has no problem integrating into the team, first of all, he belongs to Simon? The lineage introduced by Grayson is basically the same as the "Top Ten Stars", and with the help of former teammates such as Shaq, Rivero, Krissettig, and Ganso, it is almost seamless to integrate into the team.

Alaba, who formed a midfield triangle with Ganso and Krissettig when he was at Manchester United, did not feel unfamiliar at all after arriving in Barcelona, he was still his old partner by his side, and Shaq was still familiar to him in front. Even if the two wingers are replaced, the ball will be no different from when it was at Manchester United!

After two days of training with the team, Alaba wore the number 23 shirt for Barcelona on January 27 at home to Hercules.

At the beginning of the season, when the Hercules played Barcelona at home, they were crushed by Shaq's solo five-goal goal, and finally lost the game 0-7 at home, and now they are at the Camp Nou. This team is even less aggressive, anyway, they have performed very well this season, sitting 13th in the standings, 11 points more than third-from-bottom Osasuna, and the relegation situation is not so serious, and they are struggling with a team like Barcelona on the road...... Dreaming, right!?

Naturally, after the game started, the Hercules team did not give up the game as soon as they came up, they still focused on defense. The 4-5-1 formation is also quite tight, and Barcelona, who are playing at home, have failed to create a threat on many occasions.

In the space of 30 minutes, Barcelona had seven shots on goal, but only two were on target, and the score was still ...... 0：0！

But just when the Hercules team was hopeful and thought they had a chance to take away a draw from the Camp Nou, Shaq, Ganso, and Alaba suddenly played a wonderful combination.

Ganso dribbled forward on the right and crossed Shaq in front of the arc of the penalty area. Shaq, who had his back to the goal, stopped the ball on his chest and swept it with his left foot without waiting for the ball to hit the ground. Kicked the ball to the left.

Alaba, who seemed to have a close relationship with Shaq, rushed up, leaned on the Hercules defenders with his strong body, and controlled the ball with his left foot and broke into the big penalty area!

Then it was simple, Alaba swung his leg from a tight angle and fired low into the near corner...... Ball in!

Scoring on his first appearance for Barcelona made Alaba's excitement so much that he forgot to thank his old team-mate Shaq for giving him the assist. A man yelled and ran to the corner flag to enjoy the cheers of the Barcelona fans...... Shaq, Ganso, and the others didn't care, and they all ran up to chase Alaba to celebrate.

Off the pitch, Cesc Fabregas nodded with a smile on his face, he was not at all worried about Alaba's excellent performance, because the manager Simon? Grayson had already spoken to him early in the morning. Given his age and fitness, some games that are not very important are left to others, but he is still the midfield commander of Barcelona and this will not change, unless he is not physically fit enough to support it.

Cesc Fabregas himself is full of love for the Barcelona team, and he is very relieved to see a midfield star like Alaba replace him, even if next season or next season, or if he has a serious injury, he does not feel jealous or worried, because ...... Cesc Fabregas's affection for Barcelona is too deep.

Towards the end of the first half, Shaarawy sent a cross from the right, Shaq stopped the ball with his left foot, and volleyed with his right foot into the bottom left corner of the Hercules goal, and the score became 2:0.

With 61 minutes into the second half, Ben? Parker suddenly stepped in from behind the left to assist with the ball, and in front of the cross on the left side of the penalty area, Shaq rushed out under the attack of two Hercules central defenders, and was torn by the two central defenders, but he couldn't stop him from poking the ball into the ...... 3:0！

Shaq, who had changed his clothes, received a pass from Rinaldi in an offside position in the 82nd minute, and after stopping the ball with his right foot, he didn't wait for the ball to land with his left foot, and the ball flew in from the right goal of the Hercules...... 4:0！

Simon? Grayson couldn't stop nodding his head off the field, and a satisfied smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, until now, he was really satisfied with this Barcelona team, and the last weak link was also made up by Alaba, this Barcelona team is perfect!

At the press conference after the game, Simon? Grayson looked at the full-court technical statistics in his hand and couldn't help but be confused, the "best on the spot" of course was given to Shaq, who completed a hat-trick and assisted a goal, but Simon? Grayson found out that this guy Alaba also handed in a perfect answer!

Although he only scored a goal and did not assist, Alaba as a midfielder gave people an idea of his role on the field through statistics...... 55 of 58 passes were successful, with a pass completion rate of 94%!

All 5 crosses failed...... Well, forget about this, Alaba is not a winger or a full-back after all!

Six successful tackles out of seven, four successful aerial duels, five interceptions, one dribble, three fouls......

See these, Simon? Grayson couldn't help but praise in his heart: Fuck! Sure enough, it's an all-round midfielder! This manifests itself ...... It's almost as good as Shaq's performance as an all-round midfielder in Leeds! (To be continued......)