The 2003-2004 League One season is over.

Derby County won the league title with Norwich City in second place, with the two teams qualifying directly for next season's Premier League, while West Bromwich Albion, Sunderland, West Ham United and Ipswich Town finished third through sixth place will play in the promotion league play-offs to determine the final promotion places.

Three days before the end of League One, the Premier League also came to an end, with Arsenal winning the league title and Manchester United in third place, while Russia's richest man Roman Abramovich settled in second place by one point, while Leicester City, Leeds United and Wulfhampton were relegated.

The league is over, and the rest of the competition is the cup final and the European final.

In European competitions this season, England's teams have achieved nothing.

The UEFA Champions League final, staged a big battle between the French dark horse and the Portuguese dark horse, Monaco and Porto two teams competing for the Champions League title in Germany, is really a bit uninteresting; In addition, in the Europa League, it is also a duel between Valencia and Marseille, which has nothing to do with the English.

So at this stage, in addition to the summer transfer and the upcoming European Championship preparations, the rest of the English media is the only cup final in the country - Manchester United and Derby County.

All of England is watching this game.

Many media outlets who have never covered Derby County have come to the town of Greater Derby to do interviews, mainly because at this time, many people are concerned about the match between Manchester United and Derby County. Although most fans don't think Derby County have a chance to pull off an upset win over Manchester United, after all, Derby County are also one of the finalists, and Derby County in particular have been quite good this season. Next season they will be one of the 20 teams in the Premier League.

In fact, in the eyes of fans, there is another reason why it is difficult for Derby County to break out an upset, and that is that Manchester United have achieved nothing so far this season.

Manchester United are known to be the dominant players in England, even if some clubs are reluctant to admit that they are inferior to Manchester United, but Manchester United have dominated the Premier League for a full decade, and their domestic league and cup results are quite impressive. This season has also been the only time since Manchester United's '99 Treble that has gone nowhere. So even for the sake of face, Manchester United will do their best in this FA Cup final and try to ensure that there are no surprises, in this case. It's still very difficult for Derby County to pull off an upset.

Even so, there were quite a few media outlets wanting to cover Derby County, as there were no other events to cover at this time.

It's just a pity that they can't interview anything.

With just over a week left before the game, Wan Sheng would not let the team appear in the public eye of the media, and the team only did closed training and refused to be interviewed, which made those media who came to interview very angry.

'Derby don't want us to know what they're doing,' some media outlets interpreted, 'but what they do is useless, no one expects them to beat Manchester United. ”

This may be a media outlet that wants Derby County to win.

In fact. In England, there are a lot of such media, as long as they don't support Manchester United. They will hope that Manchester United's opponents will win, and it is true that Manchester United have dominated English football for so many years, and some people still hope that Derby County can win.

However, Derby County actually has a problem, and that is that they have a bit of a hostile media

Media at Murdoch News Corporation. They don't expect anything from Derby County at all, they don't say anything like that. At most, it is to cover the game from a neutral point of view, so a third of the sports media is gone, plus the media that support Manchester United, and other media that have little relationship with Derby, in short, it would be good to have a third of the media that support Derby, and most of them are biased towards Derby, not pure support.

Sayings like "Nobody expects them to beat Manchester United" may sound unpleasant, but in the midst of a lot of reports that don't favour Derby County, it's a good one.

The only thing that annoyed the media reporters was that, no matter what they reported, the Derby County club said, "The team is training behind closed doors and there will be no interviews before the game." ”

None of them could be interviewed, so they had to go sarcastically about Derbyshire.

"Derby County still do secret training? Haha"

"Are they going to train how to lose?"

"Could it be that the Chinese is going to use mysterious Chinese spells to turn his players into Superman, and then go to the field to finish the abuse of Manchester United" is imaginative, but a little close.

Of course, the reporters were simply sarcastic about Derbyshire.

They think that it is meaningless to do anything with Wan Sheng and his team, the opponent is Manchester United, it is better to stand up and fight generously, after all, no one will say anything if they lose, Derby County lost to Manchester United? It's just so normal.

And what is the use of Derby County doing closed training?

Their tactics are nothing more than attacking football, and after this all season, what else can they change?

It is worth mentioning that many fans are looking forward to Derby's attacking football, after all, offensive football is still very attractive, especially the media report on Derby County is that Derby County has maintained this tactic throughout the season, so that even if the final is decided, it will definitely become very good.

Perhaps in the eyes of the hostile media in Derbyshire, 'the winner is decided' that matters most.

They also described it as a 'lesson' for young people.

"He (Wan Sheng) won the whole season and should have been taught a lesson, tell him not to be arrogant in the Premier League, in League One his team can sweep the league, but in the Premier League he is nothing, just an underdog fighting for relegation"

'So losing to Manchester United at this time is a good thing for him'

It is not known what Derby is training for, but there has been no shortage of media coverage about Derby. In a situation where the game is all there is to it, they are happy to talk about both sides of the game.

Wansheng's outstanding leadership results have been unearthed again.

The previous few times, Wansheng's fame was a bit 'negative'. It was all done by the hostile media to satirize Wan Sheng, so in the minds of many fans, the manager of Derby County is a 'arrogant', 'arrogant', young man from distant Chinese, nothing more.

But now they know that this young Chinese man has led the team really well.

The league finished first four rounds ahead of schedule, and the FA Cup also reached the final. This kind of result can be called very good for any coach, for any League One team. Especially Derby County was only a team fighting for relegation last season, and there was little investment in the summer, so it can bring such a team to the current Cheng dù in one season. The ability of this young Chinese is still certain.

So the fans had a new impression, "This guy is a bit arrogant." ”

The media is more willing to describe Wan Sheng as a 'young man who doesn't know what he does if he has some achievements', the media can influence fans, and naturally many fans will think so, especially now that Derby County is about to start the decisive battle with Manchester United, they also think, "Let Manchester United teach him a lesson, he will not be so arrogant." ”

That's what a lot of fans outside of Derby have to think of Wansheng.

However, these fans belong to the crowd, and they will not carefully read the reports about Wansheng. It's just what the media says, they think, but many fans will still read the report carefully. One of the reasons why fans don't understand Wansheng is that Derby County is a League One team, and many fans don't care about how the League One is, and naturally they don't care about how the manager of Derby County is.

But this is the FA Cup final, which has long gone beyond the level of League One, and has even attracted more attention than the Premier League. Many media have reported Wansheng's information in detail, and Wansheng is definitely a trust at this level. So they took the trouble to introduce Wansheng to the fans.

Looking carefully at Wansheng's information, many people were dumbfounded.

Their impression is that "this guy really has a character, no wonder the media says he is arrogant", and many fans think that this young Chinese is very interesting, and the emergence of such a character in English football is really something to look forward to.

As a result, fans' perceptions of Wansheng are divided into two kinds - one is disgust, and the other is expectation.

However, for Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, it doesn't matter what the media reports or what the fans think, because he was already very impressed with Wansheng.

The first time I saw Wan Sheng, it was at the junior team training ground at the Carrington training base, Ferguson didn't know Wan Sheng at that time, he only felt that the young coach had a very loud voice and felt a little disliked, but in fact, his impression of Wan Sheng was not very bad, after all, the two didn't know each other at all.

Later, Manchester United broke the news of the 'McGuinness incident', which had a very bad impact, and naturally Ferguson had no good impression of the 'likely mastermind' Wan Sheng.

It's like McGuinness said, "This guy is a sinister, despicable villain with no skills!" ”

Then there was a quarrel at the cocktail party and the FA Cup semi-finals, and the young man could even confront himself in a sneering face-to-face confrontation, coupled with his leading results, in Ferguson's impression, naturally 'no ability' was ruled out.

"This is a very capable young man." Ferguson was under the impression of this, but at the same time he had to add, "It's annoying." ”

But no matter how capable he is, Ferguson doesn't think Derby County can beat Manchester United.

However, in football, anything can happen, a strong team will not necessarily win, the key is a question of whether to pay attention to it or not, as England's most famous champion coach, Ferguson naturally will not underestimate any opponent, before the FA Cup final, he also let the team prepare well, and carefully studied the lower Derby County.

Tactics and players are two aspects of research.

It's good not to study, but with such research, Ferguson really discovered something new.

The first is tactics, Derby's attacking football tactics are indeed very interesting, such offensive football is very good-looking, and the main thing is that it can still win, the latter doesn't matter, after all, the level of League One is limited, and the former must admit even if it is Ferguson, Manchester United's tactics are not as good as Derby's.

The second and main ones are the Derby players.

Ribery, Cahill, Morris and several players who have played well have come into view, but in Ferguson's eyes, these players who shine are not favored by him, after all, there are many players with excellent skills, and it is difficult for Cheng Dù of the English League One to detect how outstanding the skills are, but there is a player who has entered Ferguson's field of vision, that is, Derby County's goalkeeper Oakes.

Manchester United have always had goalkeeper problems, and last summer, they spent $4 million to buy Howard to replace Butters, but Howard's appearance is not very satisfactory, and his 'nerve knife' is always a concern.

Manchester United were eliminated by Porto in the Champions League this season, which also had a lot to do with Howard's 'low-level mistakes', and in the final moments, Howard saved the ball and made the opponent's follow-up shot, and Manchester United were eliminated.

This made Ferguson quite unhappy with Howard.

Manchester United's second goalkeeper Carroll also often makes 'low-level mistakes', which is why he can only be the second goalkeeper, the 28-year-old Carroll is the best age for a goalkeeper, but he can only watch Howard play again and again, and he has been sitting on the bench.

So Ferguson has been thinking about finding an excellent goalkeeper, when studying Derby County, goalkeeper Oakes came into view, this goalkeeper is not famous, but in 46 League One games, only 26 goals have been conceded, such a number is very gorgeous, especially Derby County has been using offensive tactics all season, Oakes must face a lot of pressure, so this number is also extremely precious.

But how it will be, we still have to watch in the real game, but it would be good to cause some problems for Derby County before the game.

So a week before the match between the two teams, Manchester United Club broke the news that Ferguson was very optimistic about Oakes, and soon Oakes was linked with Manchester United, and some media even said conclusively, "Oakes will transfer to Manchester United after the FA Cup to replace Howard's position!" ”

In this regard, Wan Sheng felt that he couldn't cry or laugh.

He knew that the old guy must have done something before the game, otherwise he wouldn't be Ferguson, but he didn't expect that the players involved in this matter were not Ribery, not Cahill, not Morris, but Oakes?

Oaks is very stable, but it's just stable, his number is very gorgeous, but 46 league games conceded 26 goals, it's really not good, the key is that the team conceded fewer goals is that many games The team almost crushed the opponent, and the full-court tight defense made it difficult for the opponent to enter the penalty area, and the number of natural threats to the ball was not much.

In this case, any goalkeeper will not be too bad.

Of course, Oakes' ability is still certain, especially after a season of training, he is no less than those top league goalkeepers, but that's all, if there is anything special about Oakes, there is really nothing.

Ferguson has his eye on Oakes?

Is this a smoke bomb, or is it true?

Wan Sheng was quite incomprehensible.

If you want to make smoke bombs, wouldn't it be better to take Ribery, Morris and others, why do you want to find Oakes, which really doesn't have much impact on the team (to be continued)