Chapter 41: Despair and Hope
Deegan certainly doesn't look like a nymphomaniac who admires Beckham for some particular reason, and what he admires is Beckham's professionalism and skills.
Beckham spent a season in Zuihou of Real Madrid, and when he had been confirmed to transfer to Major League Soccer and was abandoned by Capello, he still trained diligently, and Zuihou impressed Capello with his professional attitude and regained the main position.
England was out, Beckham's career in the England national team was basically over, and Deegan sprinkled all his grievances on English football.
Degan's words immediately aroused the dissatisfaction of England fans, although they cursed McLaren and slandered the England national team, but it was their own business, their own children scolded themselves, and it was not the turn of others to point fingers.
After becoming the public enemy of Portugal, Digan also became the least persona non grata in England.
England's legendary striker Allan. Shearer refuted Degan's point of view in an interview with reporters: "I don't agree with Degan's statement, England's players are definitely not second-rate in Europe, on the contrary, the English league is the best league on Shijie, and it is definitely not comparable to Serie A, this time we admit defeat, but there is a reason for this, and most importantly, it is not a problem with the players!" β
Newcastle manager Kevin Brown. Keegan also ran out to brush up on his presence: "Failure is not terrible, but when it comes to Degan's mouth, it is like the end of Shijie has come, I believe that England will eventually cheer up, everything will be fine, although we don't need to prove anything to him, but it will still let him see that the day when English football rises again, then he will understand how funny his opinion of English players is!" β
Shearer's and Keegan's rebuttals, while sonorous and forceful, sound more like strong arguments.
For the reality of not being able to participate in the European Cup, England fans can be called full of grief, and they praised the strongest national team in history, but they failed to break through from the qualifiers, which is both a shame for England and a tragedy for England.
Missing this tournament opportunity, the players of this England team can only wait for the South African Shijie Cup in three years, but when the time comes, how many people will remain?
Some veteran players are basically hopeless, even Terry, Frank Lampard and others will be past their prime, and it is unknown whether they can continue to fight for their country.
Underneath the cheers of the Russians hung over the deep despair of the English.
The English never imagined that they would be shut out of the European Championship finals, which disappointed and angered them, so they kept cursing McClaren and cursing the players who didn't give their best on the pitch.
But what's the use of that?
The future of England will depend on those people, and the thought of this makes England fans feel even more desperate.
They also wanted a player like Deegan who could step up and lead them to victory and crown them when it mattered, but they didn't.
Therefore, the English people who were already very desperate, when they were ridiculed by Degan again, their anger can be imagined, they can't eat grapes and say that grapes are sour, and now Deegan is the sour grape that they can never eat, so the target of anger was immediately shifted, and all the anger was added to Degan's body, but Degan didn't care at all, anyway, he was cool, and that was enough.
While the English are licking their wounds, the Belgians are celebrating their successful run to the main draw of the European Championships, and although the Belgians are being unacceptable for a while by being banned for three games, they are lucky compared to Portugal and England.
However, in the celebratory procession, there was one person who was very preoccupied, and that person was Degan.
After returning from Lisbon, Digan couldn't take it anymore and reached out to Antienes, who felt it was necessary to talk to the manager about the future of Belgian football.
Although it successfully broke through, but in the game, the Belgian team exposed a lot of problems, especially the age structure, although there are young people like Digan, Kompany, Vermaelen, Van den Boray, Proto, but there are still too many veterans in the team.
Especially Digan, he doesn't even have a substitute now, although the Mponsa brothers can still play their residual heat, but obviously can not cope with the high-intensity international competition, this European Championship qualifiers, a total of fourteen games, the number of goals scored by two people combined, only one, such a goal efficiency, obviously there is no way to survive in the Belgian national team.
The age structure is aging, and an unavoidable topic is physical fitness, Belgium's current game, the opening is always lively, whether it is the offense starting to let go, it can bring a sense of pressure to the opponent, but once it comes to the second half, especially the half hour of the game, most of the players can only hold on to the field.
It would be a disaster for Belgian football to bring all these issues to the Euros.
Digan didn't want to mention this question before, it was entirely because he missed the old, and now these teammates in the national team are old people who have experienced the 2006 Shijie Cup, and they are very familiar with each other, and Digan also wants to lead them to next year's European Cup, Zuihou crazy.
But now it seems that Digan is a little taken for granted, and enthusiasm and determination cannot change the reality of the aging of Belgian football.
If you want to achieve a breakthrough, you can't just rely on those veterans, you also need young people to step up.
Just like in this game against Portugal, Vermaelen, who replaced the injured Vincent Kompany, was a little nervous at the beginning of the game, which led to the first goal conceded by Belgium, but then he got better and better, and scored the equaliser to make up for it.
Vermaelen's performance proved that Belgian football is not without successors, and the problem that Degan had been worried about before, the lack of experience and the lack of use of young people, seems to be a bit filtered.
As it turns out, Belgian football has a lot of talent, and they can look down on each other compared to the aging Italy.
"Coach! We have to change the situation now, we have almost a year to prepare for next year's European Championships, and we have to seize this time to develop enough young people. β
Antienes has also been thinking about this in the past two days, he has been worried about the fact that young people will not be able to take on such an important task like Degan, and the veteran players have been fully adapted to his tactics, so since he took the position of national team manager, he has rarely changed players.
In the final analysis, Antienes's character is a little conservative, and recruiting Digan to join the Belgian national team is probably the most daring thing he has done in his life.
Stability is what Antienes has always pursued, just look at the current lineup of the Belgian national team, although some young players have been recruited to participate in the training camp, but every time it comes to the game, the main lineup is still the old players who have participated in the German Shijie Cup.
However, with the recent game, there is no way to escape the issue of renewal, and it is time to make some changes to help Belgium continue to improve.
However, Antienes still has some concerns, the renewal of the team, will definitely bring out the interests of the old players, if Belgium fails to qualify for the European Cup, everything will be fine, but now that they have qualified, those old players must want to be able to participate, if because of the change of players, the unity of the team is destroyed, some gains outweigh the losses.
"Rod! You know, now these veteran players have been in the national team since I took office, and some of them have even participated in the Japan-Korea Shijie Cup, if I make adjustments at this time, I think it may cause some difficult problems! β
Antienes's heart still has some concerns, no one does not like to use the descendant troops, especially at the level of the national team, as long as they have the support of the descendant troops, they can sit firmly in the national team.
But now what Deegan suggested he did was to let him drive his descendants out of the national team.
He must have had some apprehension about letting Antienes do these things.
It's the same problem, Di Gan didn't expect it, but since it is necessary to reform and renew, some labor pains must be inevitable, and no one can escape it.
When it comes to relationships with his team-mates, veterans such as the Mponsa brothers are his friends, but compared to Belgium's results at the European Championships, personal relationships are insignificant.
"Of course I know and I would love to play in the Euros with my current team-mates if I could, but, coach! When we think about these issues, the first thing we should think about is the team's results at the European Championships, that's the most important thing, we can't just think about the human account, the necessary turnover is normal, everything is for Belgium's results at the European Championships, and sometimes we have to do something that we don't want to. β
Deegan had already made up his mind, especially after seeing Vermaelen's performance.
If Vermaelen can, the high-quality calvericks in his memory can also be up to the task of playing for the national team, especially those who will become famous in European football.
Seeing that Antienes did not speak, Degan continued to persuade: "Coach! We have less than a year to go, and if we all want to make a breakthrough at this European Championship, we have to do it! β
When he said this, Degan felt a little cruel, but the desire for honor made him still determined, some old players who could not keep up with the pace of the team must leave, and the seriously aging Belgian team must be filled with fresh blood.
For example, Marouane Fellaini, Dembele, Vertungen, De Four, Bailly, Mirallas, Naenging, De Ella, Boledon, Martens, Wilimingk, Lombart and others were all regulars in the Belgian national team in the future.
If we can build on the veteran players who still maintain a high level in the team, and then add these young talents to form a new Belgian national team, the European Championship will definitely be interesting.
In the past two days, when Degan carefully recalled the European Red Devils who shocked Shijie in the future, he was surprised to find that Belgium still has so many forgotten pearls by the national team.
In the past, Belgium's glory undoubtedly began in the 2014 European qualifiers for the Shijie Cup in Brazil, when Wilmoth's Red Devils swept all the teams in their group and successfully qualified for the promotion, when the combined value of all the players in that team even surpassed Spain, who won the European Championship and Shijie Cup.
But now that Digan is here, he can't wait until seven years from now, when everything will change from now on, and Belgium must change its image of the ageing dragon clock, so that the young people can be flooded and everyone can see hope.
Deegan said, handing Antienes a list he had put together over the past two days: "Coach! These are the people I recommend, and I think they can be added to our team as new blood. β
Antienes was stunned, he didn't expect Digan to think so far, and even the list was ready, obviously prepared, but wasn't Digan waiting for the results of UEFA's punishment in the past two days?
How big a heart does it take to put such an important thing aside and make such a list.
However, after reading it, Antienes was more and more shocked, this list not only recorded the information of each player in detail, but even the characteristics and experiences were clearly written.
Where is this the opinion of a player, it is simply a scouting report of an old scout.
After reading it, Antienes smiled bitterly and said, "Rod! Maybe FranΓ§ois is right, if you sit in the position of manager, you will be more suitable than me! β
Degan wasn't interested in discussing this with Antienes right now, and all he could think about was how to convince Antienes to accept his advice.
"Coach! I can guarantee that all the young players in this list are definitely the best young players in Belgium at the moment, and if you give them the opportunity, they will definitely surprise you like Thomas! β
Antienes couldn't help but be a little moved when he saw Digan's sworn assurance, but Belgian football has always given the impression of serious aging, if it weren't for Degan, the title of the European Red Devils would be a big joke now.
Is it true that Belgian football has so many hidden treasures?
Antienes was a little skeptical, but at the same time he had some anticipation in his heart, after all, what manager didn't want his men to be full of talent.