Chapter Ninety-Seven: The Curtain Rises
In the opening game of the new season, Tottenham Hotspur comfortably beat Real Sociedad from Spain on home soil, and then the Premier League is about to kick off at the weekend.
Because of the arrival of Degan, Tottenham's fan base shouted the slogan of winning the championship early on: "We have Rhodes, we can beat all opponents, whether it is bastard Arsenal or other guys, the only thing you can do now is prepare the coffin, because Rod and his brothers will tear you apart!" Bastards! Listen, our time has come, and no one can stop it! ”
Arsenal fans immediately retorted: "That's right! You have Degan, but you only have Degan, he can't do anything alone, don't expect him to bring you the championship alone, in the new season, you still only have the life of prostrate under our bodies, this can't be changed, never change! ”
Before the fire of the Premier League ignited, the fans of Tottenham and Arsenal couldn't wait to play a warm-up game, but fortunately, the two sides were quite restrained, only verbally stimulating each other, and there was no large-scale physical conflict.
But it will be interesting to see what happens when the two die-hard enemies meet on the court.
The north London derby is the highlight of every season, the Premier League, and the FA will not release such an important game so early.
Before that, it will take some time to warm up, and Tottenham's first opponent in the new league season has been released, which is Newcastle United, known as the Magpies.
Newcastle United is one of England's most prestigious and established football clubs, not only in the UK, but across continental Europe.
In 1881, Newcastle's West End and East End football teams, located in the north-east of England, merged to form Newcastle United, which is now famous in world football.
However, at that time, Newcastle was still an amateur team of football enthusiasts, and it was not until 1889 that Newcastle United became a professional team, joined the English FA in 1893, and played in the English Second Division that year, and after five years of training in the second division, Newcastle United reached the first division.
In the fiercely competitive First Division, the young Newcastle United fought hard, not only did not suffer from relegation in the first few years of promotion to the First Division, but also achieved quite good results, and won the league title in 1905, then the league title in 1907 and 1909, the FA Cup in 1910, plus the third place in the league in 1902, the fourth place in the league in 1904, 1906 and 1908, and the Four FA Cup runners-up in 1908 and 1911 made Newcastle United a feared superforce in English football at the time, and that period can also be called the first heyday of Newcastle United's dominance in English football since its inception, and it was unrivalled at the time.
After reaching the top, Newcastle inevitably experienced a period of low ebb before returning to glory in 1924 when the team tasted the FA Cup for the second time.
Three years later, the team reached the podium of the league championship for the fourth and last time so far, and in the 30s, Newcastle United went downhill, except for winning the FA Cup in 1932, Newcastle United were in a state of slump, and the level fell sharply, falling to the second division in 1934, and lasted until the end of the 40s, during which time people almost forgot about Newcastle United.
However, in the 50s, Newcastle United began to wake up, winning the FA Cup in 1951, 1952 and 1955, which were the team's last three FA Cup titles so far.
In the early 60s, Newcastle United hit the back of the slump again, returning to the first division after three years of fighting in the second division.
Newcastle United's surprise win of the UEFA Cup in 1969 shocked European football and marked the resurgence of Newcastle United.
In the 70s, Newcastle United did well, notably finishing runners-up in both the 1974 English FA Cup and the 1976 UEFA Cup.
But in 1979, bad luck befell the team again, it was once again squeezed out of the ranks of the first division team, this time the sinking time was long, although the team went through several hardships in 1984 and 1989 twice to reach the first division, but finally due to limited strength became a flash in the pan, Newcastle United most of the time on the edge of the first and second division, and the team deteriorated.
At this critical moment, in early 1992, billionaire John . Hall took over the team and became the team's new chairman, giving Newcastle's century-old team a new lease of life.
Hall's first big move in charge was to hire the famous star Keegan as head coach, and it now appears that this is the success of Newcastle United's meteoric rise.
In the first season, Newcastle United managed to be promoted to the top flight, and in the following seasons, Newcastle United were at the top of the list, and Newcastle United finally revived.
In the 1993/1994 season, Newcastle United won the third place in the league as the "promotion horse", and in the next two seasons, Newcastle United was like a descending tiger, winning consecutive games in the early stage of the league, unstoppable, and topping the high-distance standings.
It's a pity that at the end of the Premier League, which is the most critical time in the Premier League, the team made a series of mistakes with insufficient stamina and lack of experience, and the momentum gradually weakened, and finally gave up the Premier League championship, which is no wonder, Newcastle United, which has just been promoted to the Premier League, is still relatively young after all.
In the 1996/1997 season, Keegan resigned as head coach due to unsatisfactory results, and Keegan was replaced by another legend of English football, Dalglish, and in the end, Newcastle were runners-up again, as they were last season.
Since the 1997/1998 season, Newcastle have been disappointing, finishing only in the middle of the table, and Dalglish and subsequent manager Ruud Gullitt have led the team to two consecutive FA Cup finals, only to lose on both occasions.
Knowing that in the 2008/2009 season, due to serious injury problems in the team, they were finally relegated, but this relegation also gave Newcastle a wake-up call. Pardew returned to the top flight after just one season.
After a season of training, the Flower Magpies suddenly broke out last season and moved to fifth place in the league in one fell swoop, only three points behind Tottenham Hotspur, who are fourth in the standings.
In the face of this opponent, although the media was unanimously optimistic that Tottenham would win away from home, Degan, as the team's new leader, did not think so.
In an interview before the game, Deegan said: "Newcastle is a strong team, the game will not be as easy to play as people think, they have home advantage, and there are excellent players in every position, we can't underestimate the enemy, we must be completely prepared to get the desired result!" ”
The two years in Barcelona seem to have matured a lot for Degan, at this time he has learned to restrain his edge, although some fans will think that such a Degan does not feel as attractive as before, but more fans still feel that Degan is really mature.
After two seasons of setbacks, the explosion at the European Championship, getting married, and having a family of his own, Deegan has learned to look at everything more rationally.
Degan's low profile is not unfounded, according to the historical record of the two teams, in the last seven meetings, Newcastle has maintained an absolute advantage of five wins and two draws, and Tottenham is a famous away bug in the Premier League, with only one win in the last ten away games.
Of course, the historical record does not say anything, at least after Degan joined Tottenham, the previous records seem to be all gone.
And most importantly, before this game, Newcastle also faced very serious injury problems, as many as six players were injured, Ben Arfa will definitely miss this game because of knee problems, Coloccini's injury can play, it is still unknown, the same situation is Cisse, Demba Ba, Tiot, they are all injured, and Cabaye, his problem is a little more troublesome, he has been recovering from injuries all summer, and he also missed the team's pre-match preparations. The biggest problem at the moment is the lack of physical fitness required for the game.
Newcastle boss and Premier League coach of the year last season. Pardew was also a little unoptimistic about the game: "The first game of the new season is against a strong opponent like Brescia, for us, there are a lot of problems, but now that the time has come, we can only face it positively, the team is now facing injury problems, this is very crucial, Ben Arfa and Cabaye are absent from this game, it will have a big impact on us, but Amelfitano is ready, which is good news for us." The key to this game, and I think the whole world knows, is how to limit Degan's play, and even though I know it's going to be difficult, we're going to do our best! ”
The Premier League campaign is about to begin, and whether Deegan can finally succeed in a completely unfamiliar environment, Newcastle will be the first test waiting for him.