Coaching legend

"George, don't we need to add a striker?"

This season, Kevin Gallagher retired, so Blackburn's forward line only has three people. Klose is Blackburn's first choice, needless to say. Davor Suker is very strong, but he is old. He is already 33 years old this year, and he is about to retire.

As for Drogba, his age is just right. He is 23 years old, but unfortunately he is not strong enough. Although he has been trained in the Premier League for two seasons, he needs to continue to hone his skills to replace Klose.

That's why Evan suggested that Blackburn should introduce a substitute player.

But George shook his head. Blackburn is more of a single striker tactic, and three strikers are enough.

With Kaka's joining, George actually thinks there is no problem with the forward line. Kaka is not completely a midfielder at this time. When he just debuted, he can still play the striker position.

Kaka's application for the "special talent clause" went very smoothly. After one experience, Blackburn is already at ease in this regard.

"Also, George. Look at this transfer application."

George frowned and took it. Although some players were introduced, George did not think about selling players this season. The current Blackburn lineup is very mature, and George is unwilling to make major changes.

And Blackburn's current substitute lineup is also very perfect. George hopes to keep these substitutes, and the contribution of substitutes cannot be ignored. Unfortunately, it seems that his ideas and the players' ideas are not necessarily the same.

"David Dunn? Carlo Cudicini?"

There are two people who proposed the transfer. One is David Dunn in the midfield, and the other is Cudicini.

George did not think about selling these two. But since they both submitted transfer applications, it means that they have almost thought about it. Generally, after players submit transfer applications, if the head coach wants them to stay, he will persuade them.

However, although George does not want them to leave, he does not have the idea of ​​forcing them to stay.

David Dunn is a youth training player of Blackburn and a player of Blackburn. Since he was promoted to the first team by George at the age of eighteen, his performance has been very good. After three seasons, he scored 27 goals for Blackburn.

As a midfielder, his performance is still very good.

The most important thing is that David Dunn is one of his own. English clubs value this kind of people the most. If possible, George is unwilling to sell him. Even if he is not strong enough, he must keep him. What's more, Dunn's strength is enough to serve as a substitute for Blackburn.

But Dunn doesn't think so. It's nothing to be a substitute before, why is he always the first substitute in the midfield. But after George bought Kaka, Dunn knew that he would soon become the second or third substitute.

Dunn, who is only 21 years old, doesn't want to stay on the bench. So he submitted a transfer application.

As for Cudicini, it is even more so. Cudicini is no longer an unknown goalkeeper who just came to Blackburn from the Italian Serie B. He is the player who won the Premier League's best goalkeeper last season, and he doesn't want to be a substitute.

As soon as the news of the club buying Van der Sar came out, Cudicini knew George's idea.

Although Cudicini was the best goalkeeper in the Premier League last season, he also knows his own limitations. Who is Van der Sar? He is the main goalkeeper of the Dutch national team. He was also the main goalkeeper of Juventus before. George's intention to buy this kind of person is very obvious. He definitely does not want Van der Sar to come as a substitute.

Cudicini is also very ambitious now.

As the best goalkeeper in the Premier League last season, he is absolutely unwilling to be a substitute. That's why this happened now.

Seeing Cudicini, George smiled bitterly. At that time, he also imagined what it felt like to have two top goalkeepers. I didn't expect that Cudicini would not give you this face at all.

"You go and talk. I have no opinion, but the value of these two players cannot be less than five million pounds."

David Dunn scored nearly 30 goals in three seasons as a substitute and a midfielder. And Cudicini was the best goalkeeper in the Premier League last season. No matter what, the transfer fee for these two players cannot be too low.

"Well, I understand."

…………

When David Dunn and Cudicini entered the transfer market, there were still many teams interested in them. Of course, many Blackburn fans were somewhat dissatisfied.

One is a young talent who is only 21 years old, and the other is the best goalkeeper in the Premier League last season.

Among them, David Dunn is a person trained by himself.

Such two players were launched in the transfer market, and many fans did not understand. However, because George is currently very popular among Blackburn fans. So they did not make any other moves.

If it was George three years ago, Blackburn fans might have been restless.

Soon a club contacted Blackburn.

The newly promoted Fulham seemed to really want to make a big move. They failed to compete with Blackburn for Van der Sar, but this time they set their sights on Blackburn's David Dunn. If it was George, he would have refused directly.

But George is not David Dunn.

I don’t know how Fulham deceived David Dunn. Anyway, David Dunn is willing to go to Fulham. Don't look at Fulham as a newly promoted team. People throw money at them without blinking an eye. A transfer price of 6.2 million pounds was offered to David Dunn.

For 6.2 million pounds, even if George wants to buy players, he may need to think about it. But Fulham doesn't look like a newly promoted team at all.

With such a good price, George certainly wouldn’t stop it. Grandma is such a bear, she immediately earned back the money she spent on Kaka.

Cudicini has no shortage of buyers. Whether it is Chelsea, Serie A, or La Liga, many clubs are interested in him. George was unwilling to sell Cudicini to a Premier League club, so he sold him to Fiorentina for £7.7 million.

In fact, George did not want to sell Cudicini to Florence. They are already a club with a lot of debt and will soon collapse. Florence also wanted to pay in installments, but George did not agree at all. Cash or get out.

In the end, Florence didn't know how she got the money, but she paid in cash anyway. After Toldo left, a new goalkeeper was found.

George shook his head. Florence is really ruining itself.

I didn't expect that my players were so valuable. Just selling two of them was enough for George to buy Kaká and Van der Sar. The 20 million pounds Paul gave George was not used up at all.

After Dunn and Cudicini were released, it was already the end of July. At this time, Blackburn has already started the team's training for the new season.

Goalkeepers: Edwin van der Sar (1); Bobby Mims (12); Tariq (25).

Defenders: Laurent Blanc (4); Rio Ferdinand (5); Henning Berg (15); Willy Sagnol (2); William Gallas (3); John .Reese (23); Sol Campbell (24); Sun Jihai (32).

Midfielder: Damien Duff (11); Robert Pires (7); John Miku (10); Anderson Deco (6); Claude Makelele (24); Gary. McAllister (19); Cragg Bellamy (39); Owen Hargreaves (13); Kaka (8); Alexander Pavlovich Hleb (16) .

Forwards: Miroslav Klose (18); Didier Drogba (9); Davor Suker (12).

The team as a whole doesn't seem to have changed much. The biggest change belongs to the goalkeeper position.

George is very satisfied with the current lineup. Blackburn is now at its peak, and it is the time when results should be achieved.

On August 13, Blackburn went to Cardiff's Millennium Stadium to face Liverpool.

This is a Community Shield match. The Community Shield is a competition of the same nature as those in other leagues, such as the Italian Super Cup in Italy and the Spanish Super Cup in Spain. That is the game between the league champion and cup champion each season.

Blackburn were the Premier League champions last season and Liverpool were the FA Cup champions last season.

The Community Shield is England's Super Cup.

The English League Cup has a low gold content, and the Renren Community Shield has an even lower gold content.

George doesn't take the Community Shield seriously at all. But it is still a champion, so most of the main players are still sent. However, during the game, George even replaced Miku with Kaka. Just to see the effect.

But the effect is average. Kaka is still not able to adapt to Blackburn's playing system. Of course, I have not fully adapted to the rhythm of the Premier League.

But George was in no hurry. George didn't buy Kaka just to make him the main player this season. Not to mention this season, even next season, Kaka may not be able to play the main role. But Kaka can bring a new style of play to Blackburn.

George doesn't take it very seriously, but Houllier takes it very seriously.

An FA Cup champion finally saved Houllier. Houllier has only won one FA Cup in his three seasons at Liverpool. If it weren't for the FA Cup championship in the final stage, Houllier himself doesn't know if he could stay at Liverpool.

Therefore, Houllier attaches great importance to any championship now.

For the Community Shield Cup, Houllier played all the main players.

One is careless, the other is going all out. Blackburn lost 2-1 in the Community Shield at the start of the season.

But George was not depressed at all. On the contrary, when facing the media, he smiled all over his face. "This is a good sign. It shows how wonderful it is that we can continue to win the league title this season and defend the league title. Of course, we will continue to make breakthroughs in the Champions League."

The Community Shield has always had a curse. If you win the Community Shield, you will lose the Premier League championship that season. Especially since the 1997 season, it has been like this until last season.

That's why George said it was a good sign.

"Coach Levi, when you said you will continue to make breakthroughs in the Champions League, do you mean you want to enter the semi-finals and the Champions League finals?"

Last season, Blackburn was already in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, so they can only continue to break through to the semi-finals.

George shrugged and said with a smile: "Of course. If possible, of course I hope to enter the semi-finals, or even the Champions League final. And my team is already capable of entering the Champions League semi-finals, and even the Champions League final."