Chapter 96: Winning the Championship
Li Chen’s tactical system places extremely high demands on the personal abilities of the starting defensive midfielder.

The offensive desire and offensive talent may not be so outstanding, but he must be able to hold the ball, stand in the defensive position, and protect the defensive bottom line for the core of the frontcourt organization.

Although Newcastle will lose Palinha next season, they still have two high-quality defensive midfielders, Longstaff and Guimaraes, remaining in the team.

But considering that Guimarães is now playing more as an all-around midfielder, Newcastle, which is likely to fight on four fronts next season, will need to recruit at least one high-quality defensive midfielder.

Originally, Li Chen planned to wait until the end of the season to see if there were any suitable signings in the transfer market.

These days, a good defensive midfielder is as hard to find as a good center forward.

Li Chen was even prepared to be blackmailed by other teams in the summer window and planned to spend 600 to 700 million to recruit a defensive midfielder.

Unexpectedly, Mendes actually took the initiative to recommend him a candidate for a defensive midfielder. This was really like sending him a pillow when he was sleepy.

“Of course, I need a quality defensive midfielder… What do you mean, Halch? Do you have any recommendations?”

“Hey, this is really a coincidence. You know I’ve been busy organizing a group of European players to go to the Saudi Arabian League recently. An agency found us and wanted to arrange a star midfielder to go to Saudi Arabia to earn a huge commission. Can you guess who this midfielder is?”

Li Chen touched his chin and joked to Mendes.

“Could it be Pogba? I heard that this guy is not very happy in Juventus recently. Could it be that he wants to retire in Saudi Arabia and make a lot of money?”

“Come on, I’m not kidding you. It’s Kante. The contract renewal negotiations between Chelsea and Kante have ended. You know this, right?”

“I’ve heard of it.”

“I have understood clearly that Kante is not satisfied with the two-year contract offered to him by the new Chelsea management. He wants to get the same contract extension treatment as Koulibaly. On the other hand, Kante is not satisfied with the exploitative way Chelsea has used him in recent seasons.

Now that his departure is a foregone conclusion, if you want to get this world champion midfielder, you must hurry up and convince him to give up the idea of ​​going to the Saudi Arabian League…”

Mendes’ reminder made Li Chen very interested.

To be honest, Kante has faded out of the public eye for a long time this season due to serious injuries.

So much so that Li Chen subconsciously ignored this superstar midfielder when he was looking for a defensive midfielder.

If Kante can be signed for free – even if his physical fitness is a little weaker than before, it will be a perfect reinforcement for Li Chen.

Not to mention that in Li Chen’s memory, Kante was selected for the French national team after transferring to the Saudi League and put in a top-level performance on the field.

This is enough to show that Kanter will not experience a cliff decline in the next few seasons.

He is just getting older and needs more rotation and rest, but his personal ability and rich game experience can still enable him to gain a foothold in a top club.

Thinking of this, Li Chen no longer hesitated. After returning home that night, he sent a work email to the team’s uniform team.

He asked to contact Kante’s agency team as soon as possible. At this stage, it was not considered a violation of regulations to bypass Chelsea to contact Kante.

Of course, it would be best if he could have a direct dialogue with Kante.

The incredibly efficient Newcastle uniform team did not disappoint Li Chen’s trust.

Before the start of the 37th round of the Premier League, they had initially convinced Kante’s agency team and him, and the two sides agreed to hold preliminary negotiations in London.

Because he was going to lead his team to play against Leicester City the next afternoon, Li Chen only rushed to London in the middle of the negotiations between the two sides and had a brief but sincere meeting with Kante.

This surprised Kante a little. He really didn’t expect that Li Chen would take the time to come and persuade him to join Newcastle during such a critical preparation period.

Later, Li Chen’s invitation promise to Kante on behalf of Newcastle Club made Kante feel the sincerity of the Magpies.

A 3+1 “retirement” contract with a weekly salary of 30 pounds (1 pounds higher than his weekly salary at Chelsea), and Li Chen promised that he would definitely arrange reasonable playing time for him based on his physical condition.

The conditions have been set to this point, what else is there to say?

Perhaps if he chooses to go to the Saudi League now, he can indeed get a higher annual salary, and he may be able to earn a sky-high salary of 1 million euros after the next contract expires.

But that is also based on the premise that no big teams in European football are interested in him.

He has already won the top league title and the Champions League at Chelsea. If he transfers to a mid-level team, it would be better to leave the mainstream league early to make money.

But now there is an opportunity to switch from the chaotic Chelsea to Newcastle, which is moving towards the top level of football.

The contract is long enough and the salary level is no worse than before. More importantly, the new coach is particularly good at making good use of veterans.

Almost all the problems that Kante had previously worried about had been considered and resolved by Li Chen.

If Kante hadn’t been stopped by his own agent, he really wanted to sign a new contract with Newcastle’s negotiation team right away.

The thoughts of honest people are so simple and plain.

Li Chen didn’t expect that he would receive such a big surprise by making a personal trip.

After completing the negotiations for Kante’s joining in just one trip, Li Chen rushed back to Newcastle on his boss’s private plane with peace of mind.

The Newcastle main players who were participating in the pre-match training in the afternoon soon discovered that their boss was in an extremely happy mood.

But they didn’t know that Li Chen was happy because he had completed an important recruitment deal in advance.

I thought Li Chen was as happy as they were because the next one or two rounds of games would end the suspense of this season’s championship.

Now every Newcastle player firmly believes that Manchester City’s continued winning in the league has only delayed Newcastle’s pace of winning the championship early.

With only three rounds left in the league (Newcastle and Manchester City both have one make-up round to play), Newcastle is still seven points ahead of Manchester City.

Next, as long as Newcastle does not let down and beats Leicester City, no matter what the result of Manchester City is, Newcastle will be able to win the Premier League championship this season in advance!

Of course, because Manchester City will play first in the 37th round of the league, the Newcastle team can still sit back and wait for Manchester City to make mistakes.

As relaxed as Newcastle’s players are now, the pressure on Manchester City’s starting players who are about to play in the next round of the league will be enormous.

Under the eager anticipation of Premier League fans around the world, on the afternoon of May 5, Manchester City welcomed the challenge of Chelsea at home.

After the tough match against Real Madrid, the main players of Manchester City are in urgent need of time to rest. So even though this round of the league is crucial for Manchester City, Guardiola can only start half of the substitutes.

Fortunately, Chelsea, who are facing them, are also full of injuries, so Lampard has to field a strange forward duo like Sterling and Mudrick.

In comparison, neutral fans still believe that Manchester City has a much greater chance of winning.

Then no matter what Guardiola does, at least the players he fields are normal.

You guys like Mudrick and Sterling are playing as double strikers, can he play?
I can’t kick it. I don’t have the ability to do it, you know!

The game scene was similar to what fans had guessed when they saw the starting rosters of both teams.

Chelsea, who played in a 352 formation away from home, directly deployed a luxury bus. Lampard’s tactical intention was also very clear, which was to build a solid fence in the midfield and then use the speed of the two forwards to steal the ball.

It was a very simple and pragmatic tactic. The chaos between Jurgen Klopp and Gallagher in the middle made it very uncomfortable for the young midfielders of Manchester City.

But Chelsea only did a good job in defense.

Whenever the ball rotates and the offense and defense change, these two “smart guys” Sterling and Mudrick always succeed in making Chelsea fans complain.

Sterling may be a little better. After all, his positioning ability is still there, but he is too happy in front of the goal and seems to waste opportunities easily.

Mudrick was just messing around on the field, like a headless fly, making it impossible for fans of both Chelsea and Manchester City to guess what he was going to do next.

The Blues fans are blessed to have such a pair of talented players playing as double strikers.

However, although the scene was ugly, at least Lampard’s tactical intention was achieved.

In the end, Chelsea held on for halftime and entered the halftime break with a 0-0 draw with Manchester City.

But good luck will not always favor a team.

Lampard’s xjbt tactics obviously did not grasp the essence of Allegri.

Just when he wanted to continue to stay and develop in the second half of the game, Guardiola taught him a lesson with timely substitutions.

Rodri’s appearance freed Foden, allowing him to move forward and establish a more direct passing connection with Alvarez.

With the help of Mahrez, who was obviously more active in the second half, the Little Spider, who is good at seizing instant opportunities, quickly found an opportunity in the Chelsea penalty area and shot into the goal!

Lampard couldn’t sit still anymore.

However, in a hurry, he chose to adjust the midfield and backcourt first, replacing Koulibaly and Chukuemeka successively.

This also made the Chelsea fans at the scene unable to bear it anymore and booed in doubt!
It was not until the 75th minute of the second half that Lampard replaced forwards Madueke and Pulisic.

At this time, most fans no longer believed that Chelsea could successfully equalize the score.

Their tactical thinking was not clear, and Lampard replaced the new forwards too late.

Compared to Manchester City, who are playing more and more steadily at the moment, it would be really unfair if Chelsea could take away points from the Etihad Stadium today.

As the game time went on, Guardiola changed from pacing on the sidelines to sitting firmly in the coaching seat.

After the regular time of the game was over, the Manchester City fans at the scene celebrated a little in advance.

It was not until the third minute of stoppage time that Pulisic, who came on as a substitute in the second half, made an unusually determined breakthrough with the ball, forcing Ruben Dias to risk a physical confrontation in his own penalty area!
Unsurprisingly, Captain America, who was much smaller than Ruben Dias, fell to the ground.

The referee hesitated for a moment, then blew the whistle and pointed to the penalty spot in Manchester City’s penalty area!
At the last minute, Manchester City was sentenced to death, and fans around the world who watched the game were also stunned!

The Manchester City players on the field suddenly became emotional and rushed towards the referee to appeal.

Ruben Dias also put his hands behind his back and excitedly explained to the referee that he had not committed a foul just now.

But the big screen on the scene quickly replayed everything that had just happened in the penalty area.

When Ruben Dias was pulling Pulisic, his foot unconsciously tripped over Pulisic’s right ankle in the struggle!

There is nothing to say now. Even if Diaz’s kick was unconscious, it is an ironclad fact that he tripped Pulisic without the ball in the penalty area!

And then, Pulisic scored the penalty he created himself!
1-1 draw!
Chelsea relied on a penalty kick to dramatically equalize the score in the final moments and took away a point from the Etihad Stadium!
This means that Newcastle, who will play against Leicester City later, also only needs to get a draw to win the Premier League championship this season two rounds in advance!

All of a sudden, all the famous sports journalists in England rushed from Manchester to Newcastle!

The English Football Association also directly sent a working team to St. James’ Park with the Premier League championship trophy and the referee team!
As long as Newcastle gets points in the match against Leicester City, today will be the celebration day for Newcastle to win the Premier League championship for the first time!

The local Newcastle fans were excited.

In addition to the fans who entered St. James’ Park early to wait for the kick-off, other local die-hard fans who were unable to enter the stadium also gathered outside the stadium wearing jerseys.

Manchester City once again gave the entire Newcastle team a big surprise.

While the club was urgently preparing various materials for the championship celebration, Li Chen was calmly watching his players’ pre-war mobilization in the home dressing room.

Some of the young players still seemed a little nervous. After all, they had never experienced such a championship moment.

Li Chen didn’t say much to them at this time, but just patted their shoulders vigorously, indicating that they should relax as much as possible before the game officially started.

Ramos and Joelinton quickly finished their mobilization speeches.

At the last moment, the Newcastle players in the locker room also turned their eyes to Li Chen, who was slightly silent.

They hope that their boss can say something at this time to give them more encouragement and confidence.

But Li Chen just glanced at them carefully, then waved his hand and rudely kicked open the door of the locker room.

“Let’s go and win that damn Premier League trophy!”

(End of this chapter)