Coaching legend

While busy with the funeral, the Champions League game continued.

In the first round of the Champions League quarter-finals, Blackburn and Manchester United played before Arsenal.

But in the second round, Arsenal played one day earlier than Blackburn and Manchester United. Arsenal lost 1-2 to Deportivo La Coruna away from home, but this did not affect Arsenal's qualifying situation at all. Arsenal still entered the Champions League semi-finals with a score of 4-2.

This is Arsenal's best Champions League result since Wenger took over Arsenal.

This season's Arsenal is indeed not simple. They broke through the two death groups. And they were able to beat Deportivo La Coruna with such a big score. George admired Wenger a little.

On April 18, at Ewood Park, Blackburn faced Valencia.

Speaking of which, Blackburn defeated Valencia 2-1 in the first round. There is a great hope for promotion. It should be a very happy time. But the atmosphere at Ewood Park is now very solemn. All Blackburn fans wore black cloth to commemorate the deceased Jack Walker.

The various songs in the stadium before the game disappeared.

Many fans held flowers in their hands and silently blessed the deceased Jack Walker.

George stood on the field and remembered the newspaper's comments about Jack Walker.

Many owners of English clubs are fans, and this has been the case throughout history. However, as money has more and more influence on football, there are fewer and fewer pure fan chairmen. Many of them cannot withstand the influence of money on football.

Now there are fewer and fewer complete fan owners like Jack Walker in the English football world.

The Blackburn that Jack Walker took over was an English First Division club. After Jack Walker took over Blackburn, he did a lot of things. Expand the stadium, buy big-name players, and invite Dalglish to become the club's head coach.

Among them, buying Shearer at an English record price of 3.5 million pounds, and later buying Chris Sutton at a record transfer price of 5 million pounds, both caused a sensation in the English football world that year. Jack Walker spent a lot of money to make Blackburn a strong team in the Premier League.

After George took over, Jack Walker was even more generous with money.

There was a big transfer like buying Ferdinand for 12 million pounds.

Although Jack Walker is a rich man, he is definitely not the kind of rich man who can throw out tens of millions of pounds casually without blinking. Rich people like Abramovich who have assets of tens of billions of pounds can throw out hundreds of millions of pounds for fun.

But Jack Walker can't do that.

In the early 1990s, he invested 10 million pounds every season, which was the club with the most investment in the Premier League. But since the Bosman Act, there are many clubs in the Premier League that invest more than 20 million pounds or 30 million pounds a season.

For the development of the club, Jack Walker had to step up investment. After George took over, the annual investment was not small. This is the greatest effort Jack Walker can make.

Therefore, the media affirmed everything Jack Walker did for Blackburn.

And Blackburn fans are grateful for everything Jack Walker has done.

Now Jack Walker has passed away. All Blackburn fans are remembering the old man.

UEFA also agreed that Blackburn fans should mourn for the beloved chairman before the game.

George didn't know what Paul Walker thought, how he would face the Blackburn left by his father. George was a little confused about the future. George did not regret renewing his contract with Blackburn, although he knew that Jack Walker might not survive this season. But George did not regret it at all.

First of all, George was reluctant to leave Blackburn. Blackburn was a team built entirely by George, and all the players in it were carefully selected by George. Now they have been running-in for three years and have begun to show their strength.

George really didn't want to leave at this time.

Another point is that George is not a ruthless and ungrateful person. George knows very well how Jack Walker treats him. Without Jack Walker's support at the time, George would probably leave Blackburn in disgrace.

The first time he coached a Premier League club, it completely became a stain on his coaching career.

Given George's situation at the time, if this happened, all the reputation he had just accumulated would disappear completely. George could only return to the English League One to coach again. It was hard to say when he would be able to return to the Premier League.

But it was precisely because of Jack Walker's unreserved support that George was able to survive. He also achieved the current results.

Therefore, George's gratitude to Jack Walker was absolutely from the heart. George was unwilling to switch to other clubs immediately because of Jack Walker's departure.

Even if he had a bad relationship with Paul in the future, he would eventually have to leave. But at least he did not disappoint Jack Walker's expectations this time.

…………

The referee's whistle also woke George from his contemplation.

It turned out that the game was about to start. George cheered up to watch the game. Reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League was the best consolation for Jack Walker.

Because they defeated Valencia 2-1 away, George did not take the same adventurous approach as in the previous game. Instead, he took a slight retreat to let Valencia play.

Valencia must be very anxious in this game.

Two goals can ensure that they enter the Champions League semi-finals. And the premise is that Blackburn should not score.

Such a requirement is indeed very difficult for Valencia.

However, Cooper does not look at his conservative style of play, but he is a tough person. Although he lost 1-2 at home, and usually plays defensive counterattacks, he is not conservative at all here.

Facing Blackburn, he launched a fierce attack.

Fortunately, Blackburn's defense is very solid and there is no problem. Valencia attacked for more than ten minutes, and Blackburn did not move at all. And every time the attack was organized, the red light would be on the back line of Valencia.

Blackburn's counterattack is just one word, fast.

Deco and Miku are both good passers. After getting the ball, they don't waste time. Three or two kicks passed to the front, especially to the two wingers, and then the two wingers attacked. This counterattack is no worse than Valencia's counterattack, and even better than them.

Because Valencia's two full-backs are too old. The explosive power is seriously insufficient, and it is very difficult to face Pires and Duff.

If the defense does not move forward, it will be out of touch with the midfield. But if the defense moves forward, it will be attacked by two wingers and cannot be defended at all.

Cooper is also considering now. Should we attack aggressively regardless of Blackburn's counterattack? Or should we go back to the old way and play defensive counterattacks. But looking at Blackburn, if Valencia does not attack, they can definitely play a game.

George sat steadily on the bench.

George has already won this game in his heart. Valencia, don't look at you entering the Champions League semi-finals last season, we Blackburn are not afraid of you at all. George glanced at Cooper who was anxiously walking around on the sidelines.

Do you really think Blackburn can only play a midfield suppressive style of play? Blackburn's players are also at ease in counterattacks. Especially Deco, since he went to Brazil, he has been much more active than before. Especially in defense.

Although Deco also assisted in defense before, his defensive skills were too poor and he was not willing to defend, so his help to Makelele was limited.

But since he went to Brazil, Deco has become more active. He also learned how to defend from Makelele.

George felt very aggrieved at the time.

This must be what Luxemburg said to Deco. Perhaps he told him that the Brazilian national team does not lack offensive players, and if he wants to enter the main lineup, he must learn to defend. This is what George thought. Anyway, Deco is much more active in defense now.

George could only sigh. He had said so many times to Deco before, but it was not as useful as Luxemburg's words.

Is his influence just a little bit?

But no matter what, George likes this change of Deco very much. With the active Deco, Blackburn's defense is more stable. And Deco has good physical strength, even if he shoulders both defense and offense, there is no problem at all.

Valencia's Mendieta and Aimar took turns to attack Blackburn, but they were unable to open Blackburn's defense.

The game passed in this state for fifteen minutes.

George was very satisfied with the current situation.

Blackburn's cross from the wing was headed out by Ayala, and Baraja immediately passed it to Mendieta in front. Mendieta played very depressed, but he was not frustrated at all. He believed that Blackburn would definitely make mistakes.

At this time, Aimar suddenly inserted, and Mendieta passed the ball to Aimar very cleverly.

Aimar was very fast. After getting the ball, he could only move a little to the right because of Deco's defense. But he still used his speed to pass Deco, and Blanco came to assist immediately.

Aimar saw that Blanco's position was very stable, so he moved to the right again. After all, Blanco was not fast enough, so he did not follow. Instead, he retreated straight back to prevent Aimar from entering the penalty area. In fact, when Aimar passed Blanco, he had already made a big move.

Cudicini saw that Aimar had made a big move, and immediately stepped forward to get the ball.

But Aimar was faster. Before Cudicini jumped the ball, he moved the ball once, and then faced Cudicini alone.

What we saw at this time was that Cudicini rushed over, and Aimar fell to the ground.

"Beep--"

The referee's whistle sounded. Then the referee pointed to the penalty spot and told that it was a penalty.

Cudicini immediately stood up and said that he did not commit a foul, but the referee did not listen to Cudicini's explanation. Instead, he raised a red card high from his pocket, pointed to the sidelines, and asked Cudicini to leave the court.

George was also stunned on the sidelines.

This instantaneous action was too fast. George could not tell whether Cudicini committed a foul or not.

However, seeing the red card held high by the referee, he couldn't help but kick the court hard.