Of course, we still have to face our first opponent - Portsmouth.

Over the summer, Portsmouth spent a lot of pounds and ran two major transfers.

The first was former Udinese's Ghana midfielder Muntari, when Portsmouth's official website declared, "This will be the most expensive signing in the club's history." The previous record was the signing of Benjani from AJ Augerre for £4.4 million in the summer of 2006.

Although the official website of Portsmouth did not specify the specific amount of the transfer fee, "Manchester Sport" broke the news that Muntari's transfer fee is around 7 million pounds.

Just half a month later, Portsmouth announced the most expensive signing in the club's history, this time England striker Nugent.

The 22-year-old Nugent is nowhere to be seen, but in fact, he has been playing in the lower leagues.

Last year, Nugent was named in the England squad for his performances at Preston North End in the Championship, becoming the number four striker in addition to Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney and Darren Bent.

With such a good performance, it was clear that Nugent could not stay in the Championship any longer, so the wealthy Portsmouth immediately decided to take him.

In fact, Roy Keane's Sunderland and Harry Redknapp's Portsmouth were both willing to pay £6 million for Nugent, but in the end Portsmouth increased the transfer fee to £8 million and thus finalised the transfer with Preston.

Nugent is a top scorer in the Championship, but when it comes to the Premier League, he's just a newcomer.

What few people know is that he has an idol, or goal, in mind, and that is Darren Bent, who plays for Manchester City.

Nugent and Darren Bent have had very similar experiences – neither of them were young talents from big teams, and both had to start their careers in the lower leagues.

Darren Bent spent four seasons at Ipswich Town, with Nugent starting even lower, making his debut in League Two (then the third tier) Berry before being relegated to the fourth division with Berry.

After four seasons at Berry. He joined Preston North End in the English Championship.

In his three seasons at Preston North End, Nugent's reputation grew with nearly 15 goals in a single season.

He's always had Darren Bent as a target, even though Bent is only a year older than him.

After being selected for the England national team, even helping England score goals, and then joining Portsmouth, Nugent's mind has not changed, because Darren Bent has become Manchester City's regular striker, in the England national team. He has become very solid, and he is only just starting out at Portsmouth.

Nugent was delighted to learn of his chance to start against Manchester City and will be hoping to see how far he can match Darren Bent in the game.

――――

Nugent is still very confident.

He knows that his current fame and ability can't catch up with Darren Bent, but he will not be presumptuous to think that he will be much worse than Darren Bent.

But when it came to the competition, he found that it was not easy to show it.

When the Portsmouth-Manchester City match began, he found that Darren Bent was quickly the star of the game. Because in the 11th minute, Bent helped Manchester City score.

"The ball is in!"

"With only ten minutes to go, City took the lead!"

"Darren Bent!"

"He got up in the box and broke the door from David James's handle, and it was his seventh goal in the Premier League!"

Watch Darren Bent perform. Nugent was very unwilling, because Portsmouth had been suppressed, and he didn't even have a chance to perform.

But maybe his teammate, David James, who was in goal. It's the feeling that's the most complicated.

Due to the competition within the team, David James knew it would be difficult for him to continue as the first-choice goalkeeper, so he chose to leave Manchester City to join Portsmouth. But he didn't think about what it was like to be in Portsmouth.

After more than a dozen rounds of league games, James finally knows why many players would rather serve as substitutes in big clubs than come to small clubs as the main starters.

In the small clubs, you lose one game after another, while in the big clubs, like Manchester City last season, almost every game is a win.

This is the gap in achievement.

With a good group of teammates and a manager with excellent ability to lead the team, the team's results are guaranteed, and as a substitute, even if you don't play, you can enjoy the joy of victory with the team.

It's not the same in Portsmouth.

Portsmouth's results are not bad, but they are much worse than Manchester City, so after many games, he has to feel the frustration of losing.

It doesn't feel bad.

Just like now, in the face of his former teammates enjoying the joy of scoring, he can only stand from a distance and watch, while at the same time chagrining that the save he had just made was a step too slow.

Nugent didn't know about James's depression, but he wasn't in a good mood either, and when facing Manchester City, he hoped that he could perform and show a little, but as a result, the team was suppressed, and he could only watch Darren Bent perform.

As the game proved, this is just the beginning.

City then continued to attack Portsmouth, and all Portsmouth could do was occasionally counter-attack, and Nugent also showed that it was on a counter-attack, he quickly dribbled past Dunn, but that was all, and then he was brought to the ground by Dunn at the edge of the box.

Nugent was annoyed, but knew in their hearts that this was the real top league.

In the top league, technique is important, experience is also very important, and he relied on technical ability to break through Dunn, but Dunn was experienced and decisive to take him to the ground.

Portsmouth won a well-placed free-kick but it didn't mean much to them as they didn't have any players in their squad who were very good at free-kicks.

City continued to press Portsmouth for the rest of the game and scored a goal in the 37th and 71st minutes.

The 71st minute goal belonged to Darren Bent, who took advantage of a quick counter-attack opportunity to break through the Portsmouth defence, use a feint to move out of space, and shoot straight from the edge of the box.

This unexpected shot even left the Portsmouth defenders in action. There was no time for tactical fouls, and James didn't expect Bent to shoot so decisively, he could barely watch the ball fly past him and into the goal behind him.

"3:0, Darren Bent scored his second goal!" There was a lot of praise for Darren Bent in the media.

Nugent didn't know the voices, but she knew that Bent would certainly be the center of the game, and that he himself would be left to be ignored.

He barely showed anything throughout the game.

His only chance was to be brought to the ground by Dunn, and compared to Darren Bent's last goal, he knew the difference between himself and Bent - experience and ...... Team.

Nugent has just entered the Premier League. The experience certainly doesn't compare to Darren Bent, who has been with Manchester City for three seasons.

The second point is the team.

Nugent believes the latter is the most important, Darren Bent has an excellent coach at Manchester City - Wan Sheng, which is the manager that England's young players aspire to, and everyone knows that this young Chinese is very good at developing players, and if he can become the player he values, he is likely to have a bright future.

In addition, there is the difference in the strength of the team.

Darren Bent is a Manchester City player and he has a lot of good team-mates. City have been pressing Portsmouth throughout the game and he has plenty of chances up front.

In contrast, Nugent spent most of the time standing alone in the front court. He hardly stood any chances.

Thinking of this, Nugent was very envious of Darren Bent.

If...... If he is also favored by that young Chinese and can also enter Manchester City to play, then in a year or two. Maybe I'm not worse than Darren Bent!?

Nugent's ideas, in fact, also represent the thoughts of many young players in England.

In the past few years, one after another talented players have appeared under Wansheng.

Burton Reiter, Alfred, Morris, Ivan Crewe, Darren Bent, Lescott, Ziegler, Mesut Ozil, Silva......

A few years ago. These players are not known in Europe at all, but now they have the lowest number of stars, with Morris, Darren Bent and Silva all becoming some of the best stars in the world.

The fame of each of these players is a well-known example, which has become a true example of promoting Wansheng's ability to cultivate players, so Wansheng's ability to cultivate players is also deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

A lot of young players want to join the Wansheng team, which is seen as a shortcut to 'becoming a big star'.

It's a pity that Wan Sheng is the head coach of Manchester City, and Manchester City is just a team that can't accommodate so many players, so they are doomed to be disappointed.

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After the match with Portsmouth, it will be the fifth round of the Champions League group stage, with Manchester City taking on Stuttgart at the Manchester Stadium.

The reigning Bundesliga champions have not been in good shape lately, with Stuttgart losing all four of their games after losing away to Lyon, finishing bottom of the group stage and missing out on the chance to finish third.

Stuttgart's Champions League results have shocked German football, but Stuttgart are not the only team in the Bundesliga who have not done well, they are not the only one.

Germany's other two teams in the Champions League, Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen, are also in a crisis.

Many German footballers are concerned about the Bundesliga's sluggish performance in European competitions, with German national team coach Loew saying: "I have been alerted to find that the Bundesliga teams have only picked up seven points from 12 Champions League games. ”

In an interview with the German newspaper Sport News, Loew said: "The performance of the German team in this kind of international competition is really disappointing. ”

Loew will have to continue to worry because Werder Bremen and Schalke 04 are also very unoptimistic.

"I can't be happy about that, for people like Mario Gomez or Hitzelsperger, and Tuschi and Cadilla, not having enough international games doesn't help them grow."

LOEW'S CONCERNS WERE ECHOED BY OTHER GERMAN LEGENDS, WITH MATEUS TELLING PREMIER TELEVISION, "THIS RESULT IS A WARNING THAT YOU NEED TO BE FULLY COMMITTED AND PASSIONATE ABOUT THE FOOTBALL GAME FOR THE CLUB, AND NOW WE DON'T SEE THAT IN THE CLUB ANYMORE." ”

Kahn said: "Maybe the Bundesliga still looks like it's the highest level of competition, but it's in beautiful packaging, but it's not worth much, we need to show that we have a good league within us." ”

Currently in UEFA's UEFA Europa League rankings, the Bundesliga is now ranked behind Spain, England, Italy, France and Romania, dropping out of the 'Big Five' and sitting sixth in the Europa League.

The Bundesliga ranking also represents the competitiveness of German teams in the Champions League, but Stuttgart itself is more concerned about the club's results and 'face'.

In fact, Stuttgart did not have a good run in the Bundesliga, becoming the worst defending champions in the Bundesliga's 41-year history.

"We have too many injuries."

That's the reason why Stuttgart boss Armin Fei didn't change after the loss.

In the first 10 rounds of the Bundesliga, Stuttgart only achieved 3 wins, 1 draw and 6 losses, and the last defending champion with such a dismal record can only be traced back to Munich 1860 41 years ago.

Now Stuttgart is not only hopeless in defending their title, but they are only one point away from the relegation zone.

Injuries are indeed Stuttgart's biggest problem, and they have so many key players that they have so many young players in the league and Champions League that they are in action.

This had a serious impact on Stuttgart's results.

With a weak league and four defeats in the Champions League, Stuttgart's situation can be imagined.

However, in the face of this game at Manchester Stadium, head coach Amin Fei still wants his team to play better, "Even if we are eliminated, getting a point can boost the morale of the sluggish, so we will not give up the game!" ”

Armin Fei's statement is somewhat sympathetic, but given Stuttgart's results, it is quite good that they were able to not just give up.

Although in theory, Manchester City's 10 points and the relationship between the victory and defeat of Glasgow Rangers have been able to ensure that the team has a qualifying place, but in the case of an advantage, it is also very helpful to compete for the first place in the group and create a better environment for the team to knock out the round of 16, so two days before the start of the game, Wansheng still let the team do some targeted preparation training.

But in this game, Wan Sheng still chose to rotate.

With the current situation in Stuttgart, coupled with home advantage, Manchester City believes that there is no need to send the full main line-up.

Many of Manchester City's regular players also need to rest and recover.

Wan Sheng only sent a few starters, including Mesut Ozil and Torres, and all other positions were used as substitutes, and even in the goalkeeper position, he gave second goalkeeper Joe Hart a chance. (To be continued.) )