Lin Quan hadn't paid attention to Barcelona's affairs for a long time, but he was still shocked when he learned that Rosell had embezzled as much as 40 million euros in funds by using his position.

"Does the president of the club have so much power?"

Barcelona is a membership-based team, and the authority of the club president is not so great.

"Who knows, eighty percent of the money was misappropriated with the help of transfer operations, and as for whose pocket the money went to, I don't know!"

David Silva shook his head, he is not a player from the La Masia Academy and does not know much about the situation at Barca.

He heard the news from his friends in Spain, and it is reported that when Rosell faced the jury charges, he himself denied the charges and refused to disclose the whereabouts of the money on the grounds of trade secrets.

However, there is speculation that the money is likely to be related to Neymar's transfer this summer.

"The fans on the Barcelona side were very angry, they ran outside the club to protest, demanding that Rosell step down, it is said that Rosell is now afraid to go home, for fear of being caught by the angry fans!"

Lin Quan nodded, this is deserved!

It is a cycle in which he came to power by unfair means, and then he was disgraced and disgraced for the same reasons.

The news of Rosell's alleged duty crimes has clearly had some impact on Barca's record, which had been unbeaten in 14 games, and were beaten away by Athletic Bilbao and ended their unbeaten run.

At this point, there is no unbeaten team in La Liga.

La Liga is very competitive, and after Barcelona lost this game, their points were overtaken by Atletico Madrid.

The old rival Real Madrid is only 3 points behind them, and the championship situation, which was originally very advantageous, suddenly became a little confusing.

If Barcelona don't recover from this negative impact soon, they are likely to be separated by the Madrid duo.

Probably knowing this, the District Court of Catalonia has stepped up its investigation and trial of Russell's case.

Based on reports from informants, they found evidence of alleged tax evasion, running the tournament by falsifying certificates, and bribery to the president of the Brazilian Football Federation and the executive committee of the National Football Federation.

As soon as these news came out, it immediately caused an earthquake in football.

The president of the Brazilian Football Federation and the executive committee of FIFA have resigned and are under investigation by the courts of their own countries.

And Rusell himself has been forced to resign as president of Barcelona and faces a court trial, where he is said to be sentenced to at least three years in prison.

As soon as this news came out, many people sighed.

The position of president of Barcelona, like the president of a certain country, is really a high-level industry.

From Nunez to Laporta to Rosell, none of the Barcelona presidents ended well.

And Bartomeu, who temporarily took over as chairman of Russell's executive committee, does not know if he can escape this curse.

……

Barcelona's unbeaten streak was ended, but it benefited Manchester City.

"Hehe, Barcelona loses, and we and Bayern are left in the five major leagues, two unbeaten teams!"

Navas said with some schadenfreude.

"Hehe, the next game we face West Bromwich Albion, the opponent is not strong, we will win this time!"

Negredo appeared confident and didn't take his opponent seriously in the slightest.

"Now it's up to us and Bayern to make the mistake first!"

The players are still very concerned about their team's unbeaten record and they are keen to beat Bayern Munich and become the only team in the top five leagues to remain unbeaten.

However, Lin Quan is not very optimistic about this, he vaguely remembers that Guardiola's first season in charge of Bayern seems to have created the longest unbeaten record in the history of Bayern.

He can't remember exactly how many games unbeaten it was, but obviously it won't be short, after all, that's Bayern's historical record.

"The winter break in other leagues is coming, but there is no winter break in the Premier League, so we have to be prepared for a dip!"

During the pre-match team training, Pellegrini discussed it with several assistant coaches.

This is Manuel Pellegrini's first time in charge of a Premier League team and he has had to be a little more cautious.

"Is the Premier League's winter break so scary?"

An assistant coach asked curiously.

"Yes, it's scary, players from other leagues get almost a month off after more than three months of play.

In the Premier League, there is no winter break, and in December, due to the increasingly dense schedule of various cup competitions and leagues, the number of matches that players have to participate in will be significantly higher than in previous months.

For example, in November we only have three league games, but in December we have seven league games, three of which are six days before and after Christmas, and the 17th and 18th rounds are even next to each other, and there are league games to play on two consecutive days! ”

"Hey, this schedule is too anti-human, isn't it? Why is the Premier League arranging fixtures the way it does? ”

"Commercialization, in order to pursue the maximum commercial benefits, they deliberately choose to increase the number of games on Christmas when other leagues are closed, and use people's Christmas vacation time to attract fans to watch the game!"

"Hehe, when the time comes, whether the fans are Premier League fans or not, if they want to watch the game, they can only watch the Premier League games, it's really a good calculation!"

"But in this way, it is not a good thing for the players, and the continuous intensive schedule will greatly increase the physical consumption of the players, and even lead to a large number of injuries to the players.

And not being able to return home to spend time with their families during the Christmas season, but instead playing on the pitch, will make the players feel resistant and the form of the game will decline. ”

Manuel Pellegrini has clearly done his homework ahead of time, and although he has not played the Premier League's winter break devil's schedule, he knows a thing or two about the difficulties of the Premier League during Christmas.

"So what should we do now?"

Seeing that the winter break in the Premier League is so terrible, the assistant coach asked with some concern.

"We have to rotate and we have to plan ahead from now on to minimise the physical exertion of the main players, so that by the time the Christmas league starts, the form of the main players will not drop too much."

Manuel Pellegrini was so thoughtful that he even planned to give his players a rotational holiday before Christmas.

Give them time to rest early and spend time with their families.

In this way, when the league is fast at Christmas, they will be less resistant.

It's just that a glance at Manchester City's December schedule gives him a bit of a headache.

After the game against Swansea, City still have eight games to play in December.

Six of them are league games, one Champions League and one Carabao Cup match.

The Champions League group stage against Bayern Munich on December 11 is an away game and involves a battle for the top spot in the group.

On 14 December, they will face the challenge of Arsenal, who are second in the league.

Arsenal are direct rivals for Manchester City on their way to the title, and this game is worth six points, and Manchester City cannot afford to lose.

Both games are important for Manchester City and are directly related to their Champions League and league results this season.

Manuel Pellegrini didn't dare to give up any of them easily, so he had to go for it.

On 5 December, Manchester City travelled to West Bromwich Albion, who finished 12th in the league.

Because Lin Quan had just returned from Italy, Pellegrini did not put him in the starting line-up, but put him on the bench due to his fitness status.

With the Christmas season just around the corner, Lin Quan is the most important player in the Manchester City squad and must ensure his form, otherwise the team is likely to collapse.

In this game, Manchester City arranged Aguero and Negredo to partner in the front, playing in a formation of 442 diamond positions.

Although Lin Quan did not play, Manchester City's offensive firepower is still terrifying.

At the Hawthorn Stadium, Manchester City's players were in high spirits and launched an onslaught on West Bromwich Albion from the start.

Just nine minutes into the game, Sergio Aguero opened the scoring to give City the lead.

The Argentine's goalscoring efficiency has improved dramatically this season, with the goal being his 14th in the league and the second-highest in the Premier League's Golden Boot standings, behind Lin Quan, who has scored 21 goals.

In the 22nd minute, Yaya Toure doubled City's lead with a high-quality direct free-kick.

In Lin's absence, Yaya Toure was City's first penalty taker, taking both free-kicks and penalties.

Just over 20 minutes into the game, City took a two-goal lead.

This made the Manchester City fans who accompanied the team sing happily!

The game has entered the familiar rhythm of Manchester City, who can resist their attack when encountering such a crazy Manchester City?

Seeing this result, Pellegrini was also relieved, and he stood up to applaud the players, telling them to pay attention to controlling the pace of the game and reducing physical exertion.

After City's attack relented, neither team had too many chances, and the score remained 2-0 until half-time.

In the second half, West Bromwich Albion continued to play poorly.

They seemed to be stunned by City's terror in the opening stages, and their minds were full of the tragedy of Tottenham and Norwich being slaughtered by Manchester City.

There is no shame in losing to Manchester City, but it is shameful to be bloodied at home in their own home.

Seeing that his opponent seemed to have lost his fighting spirit, Pellegrini started to make substitutions early.

In the 65th minute of the game, Manchester City made personnel changes, and James Milner came on to replace the goal-scorer Sergio Aguero.

However, what he didn't expect was that just after he made this substitution, the situation on the field suddenly changed.

In the 72nd minute, West Bromwich Albion striker Sean's long-range shot caused chaos in the Manchester City penalty area.

In the scuffle, Manchester City's goalkeeper Pantilimon made a low-level mistake when he blocked a team-mate's clearance into his own goal and gave them an own goal.

Kolarov was speechless, he had obviously cleared the ball successfully, Pantilimon didn't know what he was thinking, he had to stretch out his feet to block it!

Pantilimon quickly apologized to his teammates, saying that the ball was his responsibility.

However, after an unexpected goal, West Bromwich Albion, who already felt that the momentum was gone, suddenly seemed to see hope.

They rekindled their fighting spirit, changed the previous situation of being passively beaten, and actually took the initiative to attack Manchester City.

In the 85th minute, Anichebe, who came on as a substitute in the second half, cut inside from the side with the ball, and Manchester City's defenders made a mistake in coordination and failed to close the door to let the opponent out.

Goalkeeper Pantilimon immediately chose to attack, only to be shaken down by the opponent's smash.

In a panic, he subconsciously grabbed the opponent's ankle and put the opponent down in the penalty area.

Beep!

The referee blew the whistle quickly and trotted all the way with a serious face.

Realizing that he had made a mistake, Pantilimon quickly got up to explain to the referee and tried to pull Anicebe, who was rolling on the ground.

However, the referee directly ignored his explanation, mercilessly took out a red card from his chest pocket, and sent him off the field!

"This idiot!"

Seeing that Pantilimon was shown a red card, Pellegrini, who has always been good-natured, couldn't help but explode.

What if you let the other side burst over and hit the empty goal?

It's just a big deal to be tied up!

Now that the goalkeeper has been sent off, Manchester City not only have to make passive substitutions, but also play one less, and the situation has suddenly become very bad.

The referee awarded a penalty at the same time as the Manchester City goalkeeper.

The fans at the Hawthorn Stadium are crazy, if this penalty is scored, the score will be tied up!

The team actually chased it back after being two goals down!?

And the other side was also sent off, could it be said that Manchester City's unbeaten golden body is going to end in their hands?

The situation of the game took a turn for the worse, and Pellegrini couldn't sit still at all.

He first replaced Joe Hart on the field, and then asked Lin Quan to warm up, preparing to replace him on the field later.

Joe Hart has been on the bench for several games, and he has seen Pantilimon's performance in the team getting better and better, and he is deeply trusted by the manager, but he has already cooled in his heart, and feels that his future at Manchester City is completely finished.

As a result, Pantilimon did not want to turn around, and these two low-level mistakes of Pantilimon will definitely greatly affect his impression in the mind of the head coach.

I might be able to take advantage of this opportunity to regain my starting position!

As soon as he thought of this, Joe Hart was so excited that he was on the field!

Compared to Joe Hart, Lin Quan was not so excited.

The team fell behind inexplicably, giving him a bad premonition.

While it was true that Pantilimon was poor, the City backline was equally poor today.

Especially the captain Kompany, his play is simply different from before, as if he has suddenly become unable to defend.

Lin Quan, as Manchester City's lucky general, has staged many stunners this season.

As long as he is on the pitch, Manchester City can always save the day.

So with only two substitutions left, Pellegrini chose Lin Quan without hesitation.

With him, even if the team plays one less, Manchester City still have hope of winning.

And, what if Joe Hart burst out and saved the opponent's penalty?

……

Miracles didn't happen, Joe Hart couldn't save the penalty.

When Lin Quan came on the field, the score on the field was already 2:2.

In fact, the situation is not bad to that extent, Manchester City are just being equaled, not behind.

It's just that when Lin Quan came on the court, he obviously felt that something was wrong with the mood and state of his teammates.

Lin Quan didn't think much about it at first, he took the initiative to reach out for the ball, and immediately cooperated with Milner, David Silva and others after receiving the ball, wanting to reorganize an effective attack.

He had already observed from the sidelines that City had become a bit chaotic up front after Sergio Aguero's departure, and the threat to West Bromwich Albion had dropped considerably.

This is the reason why the other party dares to come out and fight against them!

Therefore, as long as the team's attack is sorted out again and the opponent's goal is threatened in the front court, they will not dare to be so unscrupulous.

However, soon, Lin Quan discovered a problem:

When he was attacking, his teammates didn't dare to assist.

As if they were afraid of something, except for Navas and David Silva, no one else dared to participate in the attack.

This situation made Lin Quan couldn't help frowning, and he could confirm that there was something wrong with the mentality of his teammates.

Just, what exactly is the problem?

Suddenly, he remembered something, could it be because of that?

(End of chapter)