Football’s First Defender

The actions of the team in the summer transfer window will not affect some of the main players. For example, Yang Feng stays at home with peace of mind and lives his salty fish life!

However, although most Premier League players are still on vacation, they have not relaxed too much. They all hope that after the start of the new season, they can have an outstanding performance and can reach a new contract option with the team!

Because the second half of the next season, to be precise, will start in April of 2010, the UK will implement a new tax rate system!

In April 2009, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer Darling stated that starting in April 2010, heavy taxes would be imposed on local workers with an annual income of more than 374 million pounds, and the tax rate would increase from the previous 40% to Fifty percent in April of 2010!

In fact, the annual salary of the vast majority of professional players exceeds this tax line!

As for the Premier League players, the salary options in signing professional contracts are generally the so-called pre-tax salary, which means that at the end of the season, when the original contract of the player remains unchanged, the weekly salary , will reduce one-sixth of the after-tax income, and if the team wants to ensure that the players get the same after-tax income, they will have to spend 20% more money!

Not only has the change in tax rates had a huge impact on the players' pockets, but also because Premier League clubs use the British pound as their settlement unit, so when the British pound has continued to depreciate over the past few years, most players have to exchange it for euros or other currencies. , The money in hand has shrunk a lot! The increase in the tax rate and the fluctuation of the British pound may cause as much as one-third of additional losses to the players for the implementation of the original contract!

Therefore, many European players have begun to expect to use the euro instead of the pound as the currency settlement unit in the contract negotiations with the Premier League team, and the part of the depreciation of the pound can be transferred to the team!

This is also the reason for the entire summer window. Although the Premier League clubs have money in their hands, there are really not many foreign players willing to come to the Premier League. The high after-tax wages they demand, for the Premier League clubs, the pre-tax money that needs to be paid is too much. It's too much!

The reason why Real Madrid and Barcelona can still recruit a large number of stars when all clubs are tightening money, or want to guarantee their own team players, has a lot to do with the Spanish tax system!

Unlike the 50% tax rate that is about to be implemented in the Premier League, for non-Spanish citizens, the tax rate for working in Spain in the first five years is only 25%. Playing in Spain, you can earn half the after-tax wages than playing in the UK!

Purely from an economic point of view, it is reasonable for Ronaldo, Harvey Alonso, Arveiroa and other players to join Real Madrid instead of sticking to the Premier League!

But after all, the new tax rate will be implemented in April of 2010. For most of the new season, the players' salaries will not be greatly affected!

However, in response to the impact of the salary in the last one or two months, in order to stabilize the hearts of the players in the new season, the Chelsea Club stated that it will use the form of bonuses to make up the after-tax salary of the players to the previous level!

Although the first round of Chelsea's Premier League will not kick off until August 15th, Chelsea is still preparing to gather training early. They will go to the United States this summer to play a series of warm-up matches. Under the good grass conditions in North America, prepare for the preseason run-in!

Chelsea's first-team players, after enjoying a holiday of more than a month, gathered at the Chelsea training base in London on Monday, July 6, and after two days of training and physical testing, all Chelsea players The team will fly to the United States on Wednesday to start a training trip to North America!

Yang Feng flew to London on Saturday, mainly because he was afraid of the delay of the international flight!

For Monday's physical test, Yang Feng still has nothing to worry about. Although his training volume during the holiday is definitely not as good as during the competition, Yang Feng still has a good grasp of diet control. At least he has definitely not gained weight like some players. , My stomach is almost fat like a swimming ring!

When Yang Feng came to the training ground early on Sunday, he saw that many new faces had already started training ahead of time!

These people are all newly introduced players to the team, as well as some players from Chelsea's own youth training system! Among them, Matic and Sturridge Yang Feng knows their achievements in the future. As for Zhirkov, who also trains hard on the sidelines, in Yang Feng's impression, it seems that he has been proved to be an absolute in Chelsea. Parallel players!

Regardless of the future fate of these people, with Yang Feng's participation in the background, maybe the fate of these people will also change and it is unknown.

Just like many Chelsea players, Yang Feng knew that these old boys, for a Champions League champion in the previous life, forcibly played at Bayern's Allianz home court, destroying Bayern's perfect plan to win the Champions League in their own doorstep!

That year, Drogba was 34 years old, Lampard was 34 years old, Terry was 32 years old, Ashley Cole was 32 years old, and Essien was 30 years old. Overturned Bayern Munich, which was in full swing at the time!

However, having won the UEFA Champions League three years in advance, for these players in their 30s, it is still unknown whether they can strictly demand themselves in order to defend the UEFA Champions League in the new season!

Many players are over 30 years old, their physical function will gradually decline, and their running ability will be insufficient, which will also cause them to be unable to run in a large range as before!

With the development of football to the present, a strong team requires players to meet a lot of running requirements in the overall tactical link. This is because although medical conditions are also improving day by day, players are still not too big after 30 years old. The method can maintain the previous competitive state!

The fundamental reason is that football tactics are becoming more and more detailed, and the requirements for players are getting higher and higher, especially for the top giants in Europe. What they need is excellence in order to ensure that they can surpass their opponents and become the strongest team in Europe!

And the older midfielders may not necessarily have the physical strength and mental will to run like hell and keep up with the young players who are constantly pouring in!

The experience and mentality of the veterans are indeed huge advantages, but after winning enough honors, whether the veterans can maintain their desire for honor and struggle is up to them!

During the physical examination on Monday, most of the players were in good shape. After all, the team has changed to a new head coach in the new season. Everyone will not joke about their careers. Everyone intends to leave a good one for the new head coach. impression!

And for the players who have relaxed for a holiday, before resuming training, it is natural to carry out boring physical training. They have to take back their hearts and return to the game state!

On Wednesday, the Chelsea team packed up and flew to the United States for this season's pre-season training!

After renting the venue of a MLS team, Chelsea officially started their training tour in North America!

Because of the sponsor's contract, going to the United States, apart from training, Chelsea also need to undertake a series of business activities! However, there is no delay in Chelsea's training. After the afternoon training, the team will carry out the planned public activities to promote the Chelsea brand and complete the official sponsor's activities!

In fact, Yang Feng rejected this kind of commercial activity in his heart, but this was an overall sponsorship for the team. As a member of Chelsea, Yang Feng still had to join the team!

Fortunately, because Chelsea has a long training time in the United States, because of the abundant time, the daily activities are not too many, which will not affect the players' rest time after training!

On July 19th, Chelsea played the first friendly match of the new season with the American League team Seattle Sounders!

In the end, Chelsea's main lineup last season took a 2-0 lead at halftime. Drogba and Anelka each scored a goal. In the second half, almost all of them were substituted. Chelsea, a player of the youth team, failed to continue to expand the advantage of the game. Chelsea won the warm-up match of the new season 2-0!

Three days later, Chelsea played against Inter Milan, who were also invited to the United States for pre-season training!

This summer, Inter Milan originally planned to invest huge sums of money to expand the lineup. Moratti's father has already prepared his pockets, but Ibrahimovic, who is not loved by Mourinho, left directly in the summer, and Barcelona spent nearly 70 million euros to take over. Inter Milan suddenly became rich!

Sneijder, Eto'o, Lucio, Milito, Motta and many other powerful players joined Inter Milan, making Mourinho's lineup stronger and the team stronger! The key point is that Inter Milan, which has obviously strengthened, even made several million euros in net profit during the entire transfer window!

However, Inter Milan's problem at this stage is of course the running-in of the lineup, especially Mourinho actually intends to put several new players directly into the starting lineup. Inter Milan is bound to need a long period of running-in in the new season!

Ancelotti, who used to be the coach of AC Milan, would not let go of the opportunity to beat his rival, even if it was just a warm-up match. On the basis of minimal personnel changes, Chelsea team cooperated perfectly. In the second half, Chelsea scored a goal each and defeated Chelsea's meritorious coach, Inter Milan under Mourinho 2-0!

On July 25th, Chelsea met their second opponent in the World Challenge, Ancelotti's old club, AC Milan!

Today's AC Milan no longer has the background of a wealthy family. The 65 million euros sold to Kaka were not used to introduce players. The team management shouted "AC Milan can win the league championship without introducing players" slogan!

But in fact, the entire AC Milan, not only lost Kaka, but also lost Gourcuff, as well as the departure of Beckham and Shevchenko when their loan expired, plus the retirement of the old captain Maldini, eight With the departure of coach Ancelotti in 2010, AC Milan is now suffering from internal and external troubles, and its strength has fallen to the bottom!

Ancelotti was merciful. In this game, many players were rotated, but Chelsea's soldiers still played normally, and they easily defeated AC Milan 2-1!

Three days later, against the Mexican American team, this was the last game before leaving the United States. The attitude of the Chelsea team began to become more correct as the league approached the start time. In the case of Chelsea's offense in the first half, there was no improvement in the second half. Ancelotti directly replaced Drogba, Zhirkov, Lampard and other main attacking players. In the end, Lampard scored two goals in the second half and defeated Mexico America 2-0!

In the World Challenge, Chelsea, who had three matches and three victories, won the first place in this warm-up event!

And counting the previous game against the Seattle Sounders alone, in the four warm-up games, Ancelotti made complex changes and cooperation with the team's central defender position, and no central defender could play the entire game. , mainly in the position of central defender, Chelsea's personnel reserves are too rich!

Terry, Yang Feng, Carvalho, Alex, and Belletti who can play as a center back or a side!

Although the combination of Terry and Yang Feng performed very well in the second half of the team last season, Ancelotti, as the head coach, still wants to give other players more opportunities to ensure that the team's substitute players can play well. It can also be played on the field!

Because of the lack of wing personnel, Belletti was directly placed on the wing bench by Ancelotti, and the four central defenders, after several rounds of training, Ancelotti is still more inclined to Yang Feng Or Carvalho to partner with Terry!

Alex's advantages and disadvantages are too obvious. Although he is qualified for the position of central defender, he is a bit edgy when he is the main force. It is not as safe as Yang Feng and Carvalho!

As for the following games, what kind of central defender combination to use is Ancelotti's own happiness trouble...

After the warm-up match, without too much delay, the Chelsea team flew back to the British Isles. They had to make final preparations for the upcoming new season of the Premier League!