"Ranieri has something, he quietly broke into the top three of the standings with a mid-range team!"

"Otherwise, how can you call a tinker?"

"Ranieri's strength still has nothing to say, he is most criticized for not being good at using stars, but he is very good at discovering and training newcomers, bringing that kind of team with average record to new heights, and then being kicked by the team owner because he can't follow the next step!"

"Haha, it's too true, if you think about it, isn't Ranieri's past experience like this cycle?"

The news that Leicester City rushed to second place in the Premier League standings has attracted attention and heated discussions after the end of this round of Premier League matches.

For Premier League fans, they have long been accustomed to the scene of the top few places being dominated by giants like BIG5, and suddenly rushing into an unfamiliar team, which makes them a little uncomfortable.

What's more, Leicester City are not traditional Premier League teams, they have been in the Championship for a long time, and it was only last year that they were promoted from the Championship to the Premier League.

It is really surprising that such a second-year freshman can burst out with such combat power this season.

However, what they didn't know was that if it weren't for Lin Quan's butterfly fanning its wings, this season's champion would ultimately be Ranieri and his Fox City!

It's just that under the comprehensive strengthening of Manchester City with Lin Quan and Pep Guardiola, it is a bit difficult for Leicester City to snatch the league title from them.

After all, Pep Guardiola's team has always had a solid record in the league, with very little fluctuation in results.

After the first five rounds, BBC Sport brought in a number of football experts to rate the performance of the teams in the first month of the Premier League and rate their quality.

All of these experts rank Manchester City as an S-tier team, which is the only S-tier team in the entire Premier League.

"City's attacking firepower has been terrifying this season, and the most intimidating thing is their defensive ability!"

Among the guests invited to the event was Manchester United's legendary coach Alex Ferguson.

He commented on Pep Guardiola's achievements at Manchester City with an appreciative attitude:

'Pep spent a long time regrouping the Reds back line after coming to Manchester City, which now consists of Vincent Kompany, Virgil van Dijk, Zabaleta and Toni Rudiger, with Kroos and N'Golo Kante intercepting and protecting in front.

If necessary, Pep Guardiola will even play in a back three and bring Fernandinho on the pitch to further enhance the midfield's interception ability and build an airtight wall in front of his own penalty area.

Such a defensive combination is almost invincible in the entire Premier League. ”

Ferguson's claims are not exaggerating, as City have kept clean sheets in their last five league games since the start of the season and have not conceded a goal so far.

This is the only team in the top five leagues that has not conceded a goal so far.

The strength of Manchester City's defence this season is evident.

"So, is Manchester City really invincible?"

Hearing Ferguson say this, the faces of all the guests and the host became serious.

It's not a good thing for a family to be dominant, just look at the Bundesliga next door.

Manchester City are not yet de facto dominating the Premier League, but they have already developed such a trend.

If Manchester City win the title again this season, they will have achieved a third consecutive Premier League title.

It has been 15 years since United achieved this feat in 2001 that no one has achieved this level.

"Of course not!"

Ferguson said with a smile: "There is no invincible team in the world, and the same is true for Manchester City!" ”

"As long as you find City's weaknesses, work out the tactics to restrain them, and with some luck, it's not impossible to beat Manchester City!"

This is equivalent to not saying it, but Ferguson can only say this, after all, he has not found any tactics to restrain Manchester City.

Even if it does, it will take a team that can play this tactical effect and has a lot of strength to challenge Manchester City.

And none of the current giants in the Premier League have reached this point.

So Ferguson can only say some correct nonsense.

……

However, just because Premier League teams can't do it doesn't mean teams in other leagues can't.

After the end of this round of the league, this season's Champions League group stage has officially kicked off.

On 16 September, Manchester City will host Serie A giants Juventus.

Juventus have won four Serie A titles in a row and are even better than Manchester City when it comes to league dominance.

However, the old lady's record in European competition has not improved much, and last season finally reached the quarterfinals, but unfortunately met the defending champion Manchester City, and was eliminated by Manchester City in two legs, and was beaten with little power.

This season, they were unlucky to draw with Manchester City again, and their first game was a visit to Manchester City.

This made Old Lady fans very pessimistic about the outcome of this game, and few people thought that Juventus could win away from Manchester City.

The best result is nothing more than a tie and a whole body out!

If you really lose, you can only count on your own team to withstand, don't lose too much, and in the future, you may have to rely on goal difference to fight for the right to qualify for the group, if you are beaten out of the tragedy as soon as you come up, it will not only easily affect the mentality of the players, but also make them fall behind a lot in goal difference.

With such a pessimistic attitude, the old woman's whole team arrived in Manchester.

Like many other teams visiting Manchester, the Old Lady opted to rent Manchester United's Carrington training complex.

Of course, if it is a team that comes to Manchester to challenge Manchester United, it is likely that they will also rent Manchester City's training base.

As sworn rivals in the same city, Manchester City is probably the team in the world who wants each other to lose, right?

Manchester City and Manchester United's training bases are very close to each other, but on weekdays Manchester City and Manchester United players do not visit each other.

The grudge between the two teams is very deep, and this kind of behavior is easy to cause bad effects.

So even though the national team-mates De Gea, Juan Mata and others were training on another field across the wall, Lin Quan and David Silva and others never visited them.

The reverse is true for David De Gea.

But Juventus is different, they don't have that much of a grudge against Manchester City.

So, after arriving at the Carrington training base, Buffon and Morata visited Manchester City's training base.

"Is this your new base? Looks pretty good! ”

After the two arrived at Manchester City's new base, their eyes suddenly lit up and they couldn't help but admire.

Manchester City invested £260 million in 2014 to rebuild a new training base.

Compared with the previous training base, the new base is more luxurious, and the supporting facilities are more comprehensive, which has completely surpassed the Carrington training base next door.

If in the past City's players would have envied the facilities at Carrington's training base, now, with better equipment, they have nothing but deep sympathy for United.

It's really unlucky to meet a vampire boss of a family, Manchester United doesn't know how much money has been made for the Glazer family over the years, but the Glazer family is reluctant to spend money to renovate the training base, and now Carrington is simply broken and rotten, and it is no longer worthy of the identity of Manchester United's giants.

"It's okay, it's no different from other training bases!"

"Is this called okay? Are you still talking about human words? ”

Morata has an expression of "I don't read much, don't lie to me".

Buffon on the side also nodded repeatedly, and his eyes were attracted by the two brand-new buildings in the Manchester City training base.

"That's?"

"A stadium and a multi-service center with a gym, recovery center, well, yes, a pool where you can relax after training!"

"Damn!"

Hearing that there was still a pool in Manchester City's training base, Morata scolded directly.

Damn oil guy, this is too good to enjoy!

"The devil believes you, unless you take me to the pool to see for yourself!"

"Yes!"

It just so happened that Lin Quan was also going back to take a bath, so he took the two of them back together.

After walking into the comprehensive service center, the two were stunned by the dazzling array of equipment inside.

These devices are not cheap from the outside, but the point is that Manchester City has a very complete range of types, almost everything.

As they walked by Manchester City's recovery centre, they saw several players inside undergoing muscle relaxation and rehabilitation.

Some of these people have just finished training and come here to let the therapist relax their muscles to reduce fatigue.

Others are injured and sick who have sustained injuries in the past and are currently in rehabilitation.

The Italian side also attaches great importance to the team's health care work, such as Milan, which has the famous Milan laboratory.

But in terms of scale and professionalism, I'm afraid it's still not as good as Manchester City's.

Not only did they buy a lot of expensive medical equipment, but they also spent a lot of money to hire a large number of experts in kinesiology and rehabilitation.

No wonder Lin Quan said that Manchester City's new base cost 260 million pounds, and the two were curious about where the money was spent.

Now it seems that in addition to the stadium and various buildings in the base, the rest of the money may be spent on these supporting facilities and human resources.

From this point alone, it can be confirmed that the owner behind Manchester City is not investing in football in the nature of playing tickets, as the outside world thinks.

The capital of playing tickets is not willing to spend so much money in these places that cannot be seen!

It can be seen that the ambition of the city group is not small.

After taking a bath, the two heard cheers coming from the stadium next door.

Buffon took a curious look at the stadium and asked:

"Is there a game in there? How can there still be cheers? ”

"Well, the game over there in the academy, it seems that there is an Under-15 game during the day today!"

"Let's go, take a look?"

As soon as he heard that there was a game to watch, Buffon became interested.

First, he was very interested in the stadium in Manchester City's training base and wanted to go in and have a look.

Second, he is also very interested in Manchester City's current youth training strength, and wants to see how far Manchester City's own academy has got.

"Okay!"

Lin Quan occasionally goes to this stadium to watch football, which is supposed to relax.

Morata had little interest in watching the game, so he stayed and continued to take a bath.

Lin Quan walked into the stadium with Buffon and sat down at random.

Although the stadium is small in size, it has all the supporting facilities.

A third of the more than 7,000 seats at the site were empty, and almost 4,500 people were seated.

The Under-15 game has not received much attention, and with it still a working day, it is not easy to have so many fans in the absence of big stars to attract them.

Manchester City's Under-15s face Chelsea Under-15s today, who are impressive and have won the league in this age group.

Compared to them, Manchester City's youth team is much younger, and their strength is weaker.

Sure enough, the score on the field was also 1-0 for Chelsea.

However, the game was not as one-sided as one might think, with Manchester City at the back of the pack but their counter-attacks were sharp and often left Chelsea's side scrambling.

After watching for a while, the two were attracted by several young players on the court.

"That number 7 feels a lot better than his teammate, what's his name?"

Lin Quan glanced at the player Buffon was referring to, and said: "Well, his name is Sancho, he is a very talented seedling in the U15, and he has been noticed by the head coach of the first team!" ”

The head coach of the first team is Pep Guardiola, and being able to be followed by Guardiola proves that this kid's talent and strength are really good.

"What about the other one?"

"That guy's name is Foden, he's from the same year as Sancho, and he's got a lot of talent!"

Lin Quan did not mention Guardiola, which proves that Foden did not attract Guardiola's attention.

Xu is limited by his age and has not fully demonstrated his talent.

However, from Buffon's point of view, he believes that in time, Foden will be able to play.

After all, for a veteran player like them who has played football for many years, it is not too difficult to judge whether a person has the talent to play, not to mention that it is easier to distinguish when there are so many young players on the pitch to accompany the comparison.

"How does it feel?"

Manchester City still lost the game in the end, but Foden and Sancho both scored, but the quality of their teammates could not keep up, dragging the two back.

However, in the game of the youth team, the important thing is the process, the result or something, but not many people care.

After all, what they have to do now is to train hard and improve their strength, win or lose, and when they come to the top arenas such as the Premier League and the five major leagues, it is not too late to compete.

"It's not bad, the quality of your team's youth training is much higher than I expected!"

Buffon nodded.

Manchester City used to be just a little-known mid-table team, and it was only after the Abu Dhabi consortium took over that they had the money to develop their youth academy.

After all, this time is too short, and it is definitely not as good as other giants in terms of heritage.

Like Barcelona's La Masia training camp, which Cruyff set up in 1989, it took more than a decade to produce stars like Xavi, Messi and Iniesta.

Manchester City are just getting started, and if they want to produce results, I'm afraid they will have to wait until 10 years from now.

There are no shortcuts to these, you can only stay up slowly.

However, with Manchester City's growing popularity and influence, coupled with their emphasis on youth training.

It will also be easier for them to attract more young players to try out, and maybe the results will come sooner.

(End of chapter)