Chapter 147 Community Shield Cup (3/155)

Chapter 147 Community Shield Cup

For Sir Alex Ferguson, the mention of Drinkwater in the media was really just a passing incident. What really matters to him is United's plans for the new season.

For Ferguson, who has led this team for 23 years, last season they once again completed the great cause of three consecutive Premier League championships. This is Manchester United's second dynasty period. All the opponents in the Premier League seem to have returned to being red. In the era of empire domination, whether it was Abramovich's Chelsea, Wenger's Arsenal, or Benitez's Liverpool, they were all overwhelmed by Manchester United.

However, this season is quite a challenge for Manchester United. The loss of Tevez this summer and the departure of world footballer Ronaldo hurt the Red Devils. Abandoning Tevez, Manchester United pinned their hopes on veteran Michael Owen, but now Owen is no longer as brave as he used to be, and the haze of injuries often looms over him. Whether Irving can maintain a high level of stable play, this question always exists. Even if he can play steadily, whether Antonio Valencia can fill the vacancy of Ronaldo, plus the aging of Ryan Giggs and Scholes, Manchester United's strength is bound to decline.

Therefore, the media generally believe that this season is quite a challenge for Manchester United.

But Ferguson doesn't think so, he thinks his team's lineup is still quite strong in the Premier League.

Rooney and Berbatov's strike partner is enough to threaten the defense of all teams in the Premier League, and they have such strength. Even if Cristiano Ronaldo is lost, Ferguson believes that Valencia brought in from Wigan is enough to replace Cristiano Ronaldo. In order to restore the confidence of players and fans, he even carried the No. 7 jersey to Valencia.

Gao Bo is naturally the later development of Valencia. Valencia is an excellent winger, but to be honest, it is a bit too much to reach the height of Ronaldo, and the pressure of the No. 7 jersey makes it difficult for Valencia to support, So later Valencia took the initiative not to use this jersey and it turned out that Valencia's performance after changing the jersey number did return to normal.

But now Ferguson does not know this, he still has high hopes for Valencia. And Ferguson didn't want to lose the Community Shield game.

Now the English media are generally watching the excitement of Manchester United. Luton has defeated Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool one after another. This is a member of the Premier League's big4, and now Manchester United has not played against Luton in the Premier League semi-finals. Therefore, the media Still looking forward to it.

"If Luton can beat Manchester United in the Community Shield, Coach Gao Bo may be the only manager to lead a former team from the lower leagues to the Premier League semi-finals in a single season."

Even Sky Sports started making fun of it in the newspapers.

This is actually related to the nature of the Community Shield. The Community Shield, formerly known as the Charity Shield, is an annual tournament hosted by the English Football Association between the Premier League champions and the FA Cup champions. If the team wins the double championship (both the Premier League and the FA Cup), the opposing team becomes the Premier League runner-up. The game is traditionally played at Wembley Stadium as the opener before the start of the season each year. This kind of cup game with a warm-up nature, the media did not take the victory or defeat very seriously. As the opener of the season, this is more like a festival, because after this game, the Premier League games have started one after another. .

However, this year's Community Shield is a bit special.

Because it is difficult for the FA to imagine that the teams in the English First Division will actually participate in this Community Shield game - usually the Community Shield is a confrontation between Premier League teams. So in terms of schedule, Luton had to postpone their first round of the league because of the collision between the first round of the First Division and the Community Shield.

There is not much to say about Luton. To say how much Gao Bo thinks about Community Shield, he actually doesn't.

For Gao Bo, he regarded this game as a high-quality warm-up game. When facing a team like Manchester United, what kind of performance can the team show after an offseason? How is the integration of the players, especially this game will definitely encounter some difficulties, Gao Bo wants to see how tough this team is.

But before that, Gao Bo wanted to solve the labor certificate problem of Alex Sandro first, Gao Bo has decided to use the special genius clause!

At this point in time, the special talent clause is still very loose, and prior to England's disastrous performance at the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, the labor certification was not very strict.

So in general, as long as the team uses this clause, the FA will generally pass it. Gao Bo, who didn't know much about labor certification, didn't know this at first, but John reminded him.

"We need to find a person with enough weight to attend the hearing?" Gao Bo was actually still not too relieved.

"No! You can do it!" John said firmly.

"I?!!"

"Yes, think about it, who dug up Vardy? And Charlie, Kanter, Adam!" John said, "This fully shows that you are a very discerning head coach! As long as you have a letter of recommendation, The FA will pass it!"

Gao Bo thought about it, and it seems that this is the truth.

Proving who is a genius is actually a very subjective thing, which requires someone with weight to speak.

Gao Bo didn't expect that he would have some weight in the football world.

Gao Bo got a letter of recommendation, and then handed it over to Morris, the team's legal counsel, to deal with this aspect.

But before the Community Shield competition began, Alex Sandro's labor certification was still pending. The team has thought about everything, the only thing they didn't expect is the work efficiency of the FA!

The team sent a letter to the FA in mid-July to apply for a labor certification to Alex Sandro.

The FA did not reply until the end of July. Of course, the application was rejected, and then Luton appealed, using the "special genius clause" in the defense of the appeal.

However, the FA has not responded to this appeal until now.

This made Gao Bo extremely dissatisfied with the work efficiency of the FA.

This program is taking too long.

Until August 8th, Alex Sandro's application for a labor certificate has not come down, so he is doomed to not play in this FA Cup.

So Sandro had to be a spectator in the stands.

Speaking of which, Luton's players are still very familiar with Wembley. They played at Wembley twice last season, and at the beginning of this season, they came to Wembley again.

Most players are not new to this, instead new players such as Griezmann are very interested in England's national stadium.

The weather on the day of the game was not bad. As the opener of the new season, Wembley attracted the attention of many fans.

Even the Luton fans didn't feel much new to Wembley. They've already been here twice last season, but that doesn't mean

They lose enthusiasm.

At Wembley, there are still a lot of Luton fans.

In the Wembley dressing room, Gao Bo is making the final mobilization for the team.

"This game is the first game of the new season. What effect can we achieve after more than a month of training? This game will be a total test!" Gao Bo said.

"I repeat, the game against Manchester United is a brand new game, Manchester United is an opponent we have never faced, even if we met Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool last season, that doesn't give us any experience in that regard. The only thing we can do is to stabilize the defense first, and then look for opportunities to counterattack!!”

After Gao Bo finished speaking, the players walked out of the locker room.

The Community Shield is about to begin, and this new season is about to begin.