Super Marshal

Things turned out as Gao Han expected.

When ESPN's selection list was released, it immediately caused an uproar around the world. Countless fans who supported Gao Han and countless fans who opposed Gao Han began to have a war of words, and there was also a large wave of silent neutral parties in the middle.

The media reporters were like sharks that smelled the smell of blood. They immediately took notice and expressed their stance one after another, either supporting Gao Han or opposing Gao Han, and started a news war in major newspapers.

Even soon, some media magazines followed the trend and launched their own lists.

For example, European professional sports magazine also selected the fifty most influential people in European football. As a result, they directly pushed Gao Han to the top of the list, beating out FIFA President Sepp Blatter and UEFA President Platini. Win the championship.

Soon, other media and newspapers followed suit and launched similar selections. Gao Han's ranking was high or low, basically within the top 20, on par with Berlusconi, Moratti and other club bosses, far ahead of Beckham. Players such as , Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are left behind, let alone the head coach.

For a time, the selection of the most influential figures in world football caused a huge controversy around the world. As a result, Gao Han appeared again and again in the pages of media and newspapers around the world, and even on the front pages. He once again stood in the spotlight. On top of the storm.

Although various lists have different criteria for judging Gao Han's ranking, one thing is recognized by everyone, and that is that Gao Han is already one of the most influential figures in world football today.

But when the ranking incident was rapidly fermenting around the world, Gao Han was quietly in Madrid handling the contract renewals of several Chinatown players, and at the same time studying the team's tactics, the arrangement of training programs, and the team's tactics with Pochettino. Boost the morale of the team and hope that the Chinatown team can get out of the three-game winless decline as soon as possible.

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London, Hyde Park South, high-end conference room at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Both sides of the oval conference table were filled with professional elites in neat suits. They represented the top talents of two of the most famous financial investment institutions in London's Financial Street. At this moment, they were preparing for a project involving more than one billion pounds. Buy and sell transactions.

Next to the conference room, in a luxuriously furnished lounge, several people dressed in traditional Middle Eastern costumes were chatting and laughing. It was completely different from the tense negotiation atmosphere next door. The place seemed very comfortable.

Mansour, the boss behind Manchester City, stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass window, looking at the beautiful Hyde Park in the distance, looking a little crazy.

It wasn't until someone approached that he was awakened and looked over.

The person who came was fatter than him, and he was also from the Middle East, but from a different country, Qatar.

Tamim is the Crown Prince of Qatar and the future Emir. He is also the chairman of the Qatar Investment Authority and manages more than 100 billion US dollars in assets. This time he came to London in person to handle an asset worth more than 1 billion pounds.

Barclays, main sponsor of the Premier League.

A year ago, when Mansour acquired Manchester City, Barclays Bank was affected by the US subprime mortgage crisis and the situation was very bad. Many consortiums including those from the Middle East and Asia provided them with 5 billion pounds. Financing and acquisition of shares in Barclays Bank.

As a result, Mansour’s Abu Dhabi consortium and Tamim’s Qatar Investment Authority became the two largest shareholders of Barclays.

Barclays Bank received this 5 billion pound financing, which enriched the bank's capital. Not only did it smoothly survive the subprime mortgage crisis, it also used half of the financing to develop business. Its strength began to recover steadily, profits recovered, and the stock price It is also gradually recovering.

Now that last year's investment had made them a lot of money, it was time to consider exiting and selling their stake in Barclays, while the actuaries in the next conference room were doing the math.

"This time you can cash out at least 1.3 billion pounds, and I heard the news, Tamim, the Qatar Investment Authority plans to use this money to acquire Manchester United. Is it true?" Mansour asked with concern.

Manchester United is the mortal enemy of Manchester City. If the Qatari consortium takes over Manchester United, it will have a great impact on Manchester City.

Now that Manchester City has Gao Han in charge, Mansour is not worried at all, but Gao Han is only willing to sign a two-year contract. Once Gao Han leaves in two years, can Manchester City beat Manchester United, which is supported by the Qatari consortium?

But Tamim shook his head angrily, "The talks have collapsed."

"Collapsed?" Mansour smiled, his mood improved a lot, "Why?"

"The Yankees are a bunch of vampires. They are asking for three billion pounds. Do you think we can accept it?" Tamim still looked very indignant when talking about this.

Mansour nodded, which was indeed a bit loud.

How much did the Glazer family pay to buy Manchester United?

The outside world has always estimated that about 1.5 billion pounds can satisfy the appetite of the Glazer family. This has already made them at least double their income. It can be said that they have made a fortune. However, they did not expect that their appetite was so big that they actually asked for 30 Billion pounds, do you really think that all Middle Easterners are gay?

"Now that the talks have collapsed, are you still selling your shares in Barclays Bank?" Mansour asked curiously.

Tamim nodded, "I won't sell out everything. I plan to use some funds to buy Harrods department store and buy a few shops in Knightsbridge. You know, the rent in this area is still quite considerable. "

Mansour was noncommittal. Everyone has different interests and preferences when it comes to investing.

At the very least, he has no interest in this type of assets.

"However, we will definitely look for a suitable team again. You know, we are determined to win the right to host the World Cup." Tamim said with a serious face.

Qatar is striving to host the 2022 World Cup, but its competitors are also very strong, including the United Kingdom and the United States. It will not be easy for Qatar to win. The most important thing is to increase its popularity and influence in the world and in the football world as soon as possible. force.

Therefore, the Qatari consortium wants to acquire Manchester United.

"By the way, how reliable is this list?" Tamim handed over a magazine.

The American version of ESPN Magazine, one of the most authoritative sports magazines in the world.

The magazine happened to turn to a page, and there was a list of the fifty most powerful people in world football.

This piece of news has been making a lot of noise recently. Mansour has naturally heard of it and read it, so he just smiled and said, "As far as I know, this magazine is quite authoritative and has high credibility."

"What about Gao Han?" Tamim asked with concern.

In this list, Gao Han only ranks below FIFA President Blatter, and even higher than Danny Jordan, Chairman of the South Africa World Cup Organizing Committee, which makes Tamim have to pay attention.

"It's hard to say, but judging from the many people in the football industry that I have interacted with, Gao Han is undoubtedly the most influential and appealing figure in world football today. You know, he has never lost since his debut. , has been winning, which is unique in the more than 100-year history of world football."

From Mansour's tone and expression, it is not difficult for Tamim to see his admiration for Gao Han.

And based on his understanding of Mansour, not many people can get this evaluation, which shows that Gao Han is definitely the real deal.

"Wait, what do you want to do?" Mansour suddenly became wary.

Although they are all from the Middle East, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are neighbors, and they often cooperate when they come to Europe, but they are still two groups of people at heart, and they still have to be wary of each other.

"Don't be nervous, I have nothing now and won't threaten you." Tamim laughed and said, "However, I heard people say that Gao Han has a football team in Spain, and it has been promoted to La Liga step by step in nine years. Very legendary.”

"You want to buy this team?"

"Of course." Tamim nodded unabashedly, "Chinatown, the name of this team is very interesting."

What he values ​​​​is not just the Chinatown team, but also Gao Han who stands behind this team.

"But Gao Han may not be able to sell." Mansour knew the Chinatown team to some extent.

"Then I will convince him with the most sincere price." Tamim smiled confidently.

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Gao Han didn't know that someone was planning to acquire his team behind the scenes. After he finished handling the Chinatown team's affairs, he returned to Manchester without stopping and returned to his position as Manchester City head coach.

During the national team competition, Gao Han took other players to participate in training.

Because of a foot injury, Kaka was not called up by the Brazilian national team coach Dunga and continued to train with the team, but he still failed to train with the team and trained alone.

After two weeks of national team games, the international players returned to the team one after another.

In the cold weather, Manchester City and other teams chartered a special plane to transport the players, including the South American international players, all returned to Manchester on time in accordance with the regulations of the coaching staff.

After a day of rest and training, Manchester City went to the away game to challenge Wigan Athletic without stopping.

Affected by the national team game and playing away from home, the performance of Manchester City players in the first half was not ideal, especially at the beginning. They were hit by the home team Wigan Athletic with several long-range shots, but they failed to threaten Cech.

Manchester City did not make its first threatening offensive until the 29th minute.

After that, Manchester City gradually took control of the situation on the field, but they were never able to create a threat. Instead, before the end of the first half, Wigan Athletic seized an opportunity and launched a counterattack. N'Zogbia was close to A shot from distance opened the scoring for Wigan Athletic.

During the halftime break, Gao Han severely reprimanded the players for their poor performance in the first half, believing that the players were a little too negligent.

After changing sides in the second half, Manchester City launched a counterattack in accordance with the strategy formulated by Gao Han midfielder.

With the blessing of the assault card, Sanchez formed consecutive assaults on the right at the beginning of the second half, and in the 46th minute, after continuous breakthroughs, the low ball was passed to the middle. Benzema, who inserted behind, ran a little too far and used his body Blocking the defensive player and letting the ball pass by him.

Cristiano Ronaldo stepped in and volleyed home with his right foot to tie the score.

Just five minutes later, Benzema retreated to receive a pass from midfield, and passed behind Wigan Athletic's defense. Cristiano Ronaldo dribbled the ball into the penalty area, but his volley was blocked by the opponent's defender Bramble. , the ball fell to the right.

At this time, Sanchez caught up and easily succeeded in pushing the ball into the empty goal, reversing the score.

In the end, Manchester City, who were in poor form, reversed Wigan Athletic 2-1 and won their ninth consecutive victory.

In other games this round, Manchester United defeated Bolton Wanderers 2-1 at home, Arsenal defeated Birmingham City 3-1 at home, and Liverpool lost to Sunderland 0-1 away from home.

In another game played a day later, Chelsea was beaten by Aston Villa by two goals in an away game with Drogba scoring first, and eventually lost to Aston Villa 1-2.

This is also Chelsea's first defeat of the new season.