Chapter 284: A new level! The situation is very good! 91 horses! I am willing to give him everything!
“Arsenal has achieved 58 games unbeaten! Successfully tied Milan’s record in the 93 season! Maher scored nearly 40 goals in the Premier League!” – Daily Mail

“The 19-year-old Ballon d’Or is coming? With Arsenal going 58 games unbeaten, Maher undoubtedly has more chips to win the Ballon d’Or. His performance this year is unparalleled!” – The Guardian

“The great invincible team! This victory will go down in history and be immortal! Arsenal won a game they deserved to win the most! This glory belongs not only to them, but also to the entire Premier League!” – The official English Football Association

“European Cup champion + Premier League unbeaten with 100 points + League Cup sweep all the top scorer awards + Community Shield best player and champion, in addition to several other records, Maher may really break history!” – French “L’Equipe”

“On January 1, the 8 Ballon d’Or awards ceremony will be held at the old venue, the Zurich Center in Switzerland. Before that, Arsenal will have a Premier League match and an FA Cup match. Maher is expected to completely break the Milan record before the Ballon d’Or!” – “Football Records”

At the same time, on social media, mainstream media released the news clips they had edited long ago, grabbing the hot topics about Arsenal and Maher at the moment.

It can be noticed that while praising Arsenal, many media have used a lot of ink to focus on Maher.

On the one hand, this is because he is the absolute core captain of the team and has made great contributions to the team’s 58-game unbeaten streak.

On the other hand, with the Ballon d’Or ceremony approaching, the attention paid to him is about the same as that paid to Arsenal.

58 games unbeaten is certainly a rare miracle, but winning the Ballon d’Or at the age of 19 is obviously no less impressive!

And when this 19-year-old Ballon d’Or favorite appears in a team that is unbeaten in 58 games, it is only natural that he attracts the attention and heated discussion of all the fans!

“Four championship trophies + 4 unbeaten games (possibly 58) + Premier League historical goal record holder + Premier League best player + European Cup historical goal record holder + European Cup best player + Community Shield and League Cup final best player, how could he not win?”

“Yes! In my opinion, Messi’s advantage is nothing more than the number of goals and assists. Apart from that, his performance in the past year is all-round behind Maher.”

“And historically, when comparing data, the larger the base number, the smaller the gap.

“一个一年5球的前锋跟一年15球的前锋有很大差距，但一年30与一年40的差距就没那么大，更不说一年90+与一年95+！”

“All signs indicate that Maher will break Ronaldo’s record this year and become the youngest Ballon d’Or winner in history!”

“I think he deserves the title! There has never been such an excellent player in history. He has done so many amazing things. What’s wrong with completing one or two more?”

“Yes, the Golden Globe Award needs such a youngest winner to enhance its value!”

“Everyone knows that Maher will most likely reach a height that no one has ever reached before, and it is the wisdom and honor of the Ballon d’Or to give him a Ballon d’Or at the age of 19 to recognize his achievements and potential.”

“The league is just halfway through and the number of goals is about to break 40. God, is this still the Premier League? Is this still one of the four major leagues? Why does it feel like Maher’s private paradise?”

“A new level of players will definitely achieve a new level of achievements!! Keep it up, Maher!!”

“.”

There was a chorus of applause on major social media platforms, and all the fans who had just watched the Arsenal vs. Southampton game excitedly expressed their support and recognition for Maher.

As one important achievement after another came and one important record after another was broken by Maher, everyone placed Maher at a higher level in their hearts!
This is a subtle improvement. When people see the explosive data and eye-catching performance that exceed their worldview, they will unconsciously be more impressed by Maher in their hearts.

A whole new level!
This statement was made clear for the first time, and given Maher’s situation, there was already a lot of optimism on social media about whether he could win the 2012 Ballon d’Or.

“OleOleOle!!”

At this moment in the Emirates Stadium, in the Arsenal locker room, Arsenal players wearing red and white jerseys surrounded several coaches and started their cheerful dance again.

The people leading the dance have not changed, they are still the old players such as Sagna and Maher.

Although the newcomers were clapping to the beat with smiles on their faces, they were obviously not as outgoing as these people. It was still a bit difficult for the slightly shy Bale and Giroud to follow suit and twist their hips.

After dancing for a while and feeling tired, Maher took a towel to wipe the sweat off his face, then sat aside and watched his teammates’ performances with a smile.

He suddenly raised his head, feeling deeply moved. 58 undefeated games, this was his biggest wish after completing 49 undefeated games. He did not expect to finally accomplish it successfully today.

He also accomplished a goal he had when he first arrived, bringing the team to another peak!
After writing Arsenal’s name at the top of the Premier League’s highest points list, he also wrote Arsenal’s name at the top of the unbeaten record list in the top five leagues!
The sense of accomplishment brought by this conquest is incomparable and irresistible.

He will not stop here, he will strive to write the name of this club at the top of all the lists just like he dreams of winning the Grand Slam and writing his own name at the top of all personal lists.

What will the day be like when you truly achieve all your goals?
Maher’s eyes revealed longing and his heart was filled with fantasies. That should be the most glorious day of his life.

He didn’t notice that Gilbert was sitting next to him, occasionally giving him a smile and a hesitant look.

After a long while, Gilbert’s voice rang out, “Mael, next week, you should really go to receive the Golden Globe Award. I didn’t believe it before, but now, I think it must be you.”

Maher was stunned for a moment, then turned around and laughed, “Haha. You think it’s fast, right? When I told you this more than a year ago, you didn’t believe it and thought I was joking or bragging.”

“Yes.” Gilbert nodded and sighed, “At that time, I couldn’t even say I trusted you to win the Golden Globe. I just felt that it was beyond my understanding.

“It’s like you saying you can shoot down the sun or kick the moon to pieces.”

Maher laughed a few more times, shook his head and said, “But this time it’s not a sure thing, it’s just that the chances are higher.”

“It’s just that the chances are higher?” A voice sounded from the side. Van Persie came over and waved his phone in front of the two of them. “Look at this. The news is out.”

Maher and Gilbert looked at each other, then curiously looked at his mobile phone and saw a report.

“The final candidates for the Ballon d’Or have been confirmed. Maher, Messi and Ronaldo have been selected as the most popular candidates. Their specific rankings and the ranking of the overall candidate list will be announced in Zurich.” – France Football official

Gilbert smiled, glanced at Mahel and patted his good brother on the shoulder.

Mael felt happy and a sense of security surged from inside out, making him more confident.

Regardless of whether he wins the Ballon d’Or in the end, his year is remarkable. Through the improvement of his strength and hard work on the field, he has made amazing progress, turning himself from a bystander of the Ballon d’Or a year ago into a final contender!
“This is the point.” Van Persie saw that the two had finished reading, moved his finger on the screen, pulled the screen down, and opened a voting page.

The voting results are in, probably because Van Persie himself voted.

——”Public voting, 3 finalists have been announced, choose the one you think is most likely to win!”

Maher – 414235 votes – 49.8%
Messi – 326896 votes – 39.3%
Cristiano Ronaldo – 98984 votes – 11.9%
Judging from the green line for ‘Mael’, Van Persie should have voted for him as well but as a single person in such a large voting base, he certainly wouldn’t have had much of an impact.

“Your support rate is half of the three candidates.” Van Persie put away his phone and sat next to the two men. “In fact, if you were a little more arrogant, you could say that you’re going to receive the award next week.”

Maher was naturally in a good mood after seeing this, but he still said: “There should still be a gap between the voting tendency of the fans and the voting tendency of the Ballon d’Or judges.”

“Do not.”

Van Persie shook his head and said: “Although the number of people voting for the Ballon d’Or is not large, the span is still very large, with journalists from all over the world participating.

“Apart from the comparison and selection of professional data, the personal preferences of different judges in different regions are also very important. And the voting organized by the media can also reflect the personal preferences of people in different regions.

“I have observed the predicted voting on the eve of each Ballon d’Or, and the one with the highest voice is basically the final vote winner.

“Even now, some controversial Ballon d’Or winners were still the most controversial in the fan vote that year, but most people still felt that he deserved it.”

Maher looked at Van Persie and said after a long while, “Don’t lie to me, Dutchman.”

“Hahahaha” Van Persie knew that Maher’s heart was getting agitated, and after laughing, he said: “Maer, it can be said that the situation is very good now!”

Maher couldn’t help laughing as he stood up, said goodbye to Gilbert van Persie and headed for the shower room next to the locker room.

2012 passed perfectly, and Arsenal ended the year with 58 games unbeaten.

Maher also increased his annual goal tally to 91 at the last moment. If it weren’t for Messi’s explosive form and 96 goals this year, his achievement would have been historic.

从只踢了半年的10年的15+进球，再到11年的45+进球，再到今年的91+进球。

Every year, he improves his statistics exponentially. And in the process of these numbers improving, he has also won more and more personal and team honors!
Moreover, as he approaches the highest level of human beings, he gets closer to his ultimate goal.

Those achievements that have never been accomplished by players of all generations also appeared before his eyes and became something visible and tangible!

91 horses!
This is his 2012.

As time entered the new year, the opening of the winter transfer window on January 1st plunged all major clubs into a frenzy.

First of all, there were some transfers that were confirmed a long time ago, such as Manchester City selling Balotelli to AC Milan for 2000 million euros, and Liverpool signing Coutinho from Inter Milan for 850 million pounds.

After that, there were some small moves by the mid- and lower-level clubs. However, various transfer rumors about the top clubs are still flying around.

“Chelsea are interested in Newcastle midfielder Demba Ba? According to rumors, the transfer price may reach around 1000 million euros.” – Romano

“Sturridge and Liverpool are close to reaching an agreement. Do the series of big moves represent Liverpool’s determination for next season?” – Romano

“.”

While rumors are constantly emerging, Arsenal, which has been on a strong momentum recently, has been relatively low-key. It has not disclosed any transfer rumors to anyone, and there are few transfer rumors between the team’s stars and other teams.

It is normal that Arsenal, which has more than 33 first-team players, does not want to buy new players, but don’t those who don’t get opportunities in the team want to leave?
This question has arisen in many people’s minds. Fortunately, an editor of The Guardian commented on it in time.

“As they are about to complete their 59-match unbeaten run, Arsenal players are clearly united and even those who can’t play will not have any thoughts of leaving the team.

“Who doesn’t want to follow such a club to accomplish such a miracle? Even if they cannot get more attention at the moment, more than ten years later, when they appear as a member of the invincible team, they will be looked at with new eyes by people.” Look at the Barcelona of Dream Three and the Milan of 91-93, their players are very stable, and some of the substitutes in the team are now players we are very familiar with and respect.

“Everyone must understand that when such team honors are in front of them, any player will be dazzled by its temptation and unable to move.

“Leave the team?
“Even if we chase them away now, they won’t leave, not to mention that Arsenal not only has this unbeaten record, they also have the hope of winning three championships!

“First of all, the Premier League. I think now, no one thinks that this season’s Premier League champion is a club other than Arsenal? They will definitely win this championship.

“Who would complain about having one more Premier League title and one more top-flight medal in their trophy collection?

“The second is the Champions League and the FA Cup. Looking at the current state and situation, I think Arsenal’s chances of winning these two competitions are at least 30%. This is obvious.

“Apart from these, Wenger has used them a lot. The first-team players who played the least in Arsenal this season now have 6-8 appearances and 3-5 starts in the first half of the season.”

“.”

After this report came out, it was forwarded by many people. It is indeed as he said, when people put themselves in the shoes of Arsenal players, they will find that they don’t want to leave either.

Who would voluntarily leave such a rare group?
And the facts were just as they expected. In the next two days, although there were some scattered transfer rumors about Arsenal players, in less than two hours, these rumors were quickly defined as rumors.

Arsenal is in peak form and does not need to buy players to strengthen the team. None of their players will choose to leave!

On the morning of January 1nd, in the head coach’s office at the Kearney training base.

Wenger was preparing for the FA Cup third round match against Swansea the next day. This was the first time Arsenal had entered this battle this season and it had to be taken seriously.

Philip stood beside Hans, looking out the window to see if there were any players practicing extra time on the training ground in the distance, thinking that he could also discover a player like Maher for the club.

Wenger smiled when he saw their appearance. How could it be so easy to come across a rare genius like Maher?
But as he watched, Philip really saw a good seedling. It was a black player wearing the No. 7 jersey. He was about ten years old, thin, but his feet were very fast and his movements were a bit like a star.

“Hit?” He gradually became interested and remembered the man in his mind. Then he looked up and smiled at Wenger: “I saw an interesting young man.”

“Haha.” As soon as he finished speaking, he laughed together with Wenger and Hans. Everyone knew that this was what Wenger said to him when he discovered Maher. Now that he said it out loud, it felt a bit like an imitation.

“gentlemen.”

Philip sat next to Wenger and said, “The transfer window has been open for two days. Are we really not making any moves this time?”

“Not yet.”

Wenger shook his head and replied: “For this year’s transfer plan, I have prepared backup options for all positions to prevent people from leaving the team. If someone leaves the team suddenly, we will react.”

Hans suddenly had an idea and said, “What if Maher leaves the team? Who can take over?”

Wenger: “.”

Philip: “.”

Seeing the two of them looking like they were going to “get out if you can’t chat”, Hans scratched his head. Realizing that the joke was a failure, he immediately shrugged and said, “I’m just kidding. He definitely won’t do that. Haha.”

“To be honest, we didn’t prepare any budget for the winter window, so there was no need for the club to recruit players urgently.”

Wenger changed the subject. As someone who has been involved in the economic affairs of the board for a long time, he explained to the two: “The team has only prepared a salary budget for the subsequent salary increase for the players in this winter window, and there is no transfer budget.

“We are now very healthy in all aspects. Except for the debts incurred when the Kroenke family fully acquired the club, the team’s debts will be paid off in the middle of this year.”

He took a long breath and stood up. “So, don’t worry about anything. Just focus on the competition. Good days are ahead.”

Hans and Philip both laughed, and the former asked curiously, “A lot of money has been left in the salary budget. Are you planning to raise salaries on a large scale again?”

“I think so.” Wenger looked at him with a helpless look, “After all, the winter transfer window is open and a new round of player valuation updates is coming soon.

“According to previous practice, or according to Mendes’s character, he will definitely come back to make trouble and we have to give him the money, right?”

His implication is very clear. With his performance at a new level in the first half of the year, Maher’s value is bound to reach a new high. And his current salary can no longer keep him down!
Philippe smiled and added: “It’s worth it. Without him, we wouldn’t be able to prepare for the FA Cup and Premier League matches in this winter window.

“Look at Chelsea and Liverpool, they are both in a state of panic, trying to figure out how to get a place in the European competition.

“And we don’t have so many worries. What Maher brings to us is worth the transfer fee and value of the player, which we don’t know how much it will be. It is definitely worthwhile to increase his salary.”

“Of course.” Wenger raised his eyebrows and took off his glasses. “I have never felt that he should not get a higher salary. If money is really just a number, I am willing to give him everything.”

“It’s not yours anyway.”

“Hahaha!”

On January 1, the entire Arsenal team came to Swansea’s home ground, the Liberty Stadium, for the third round of the FA Cup that season.

To be honest, it’s a bit of bad luck that we drew a Premier League team for the first time in the FA Cup, but Arsenal players are certainly not afraid, as they are confident that they can beat all opponents.

After losing the League Cup match using a substitute lineup, Wenger was more cautious in his use of players in this game, choosing a combination of half substitutes and half main players.

This is to ensure that the core players can get enough rest, while also ensuring their combat effectiveness, in an effort to steadily advance into the fourth round.

Goalkeeper: Lori

Defense: Gibbs, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Pereira
Midfielders: Guibert, Cazorla, Ramsey
Forwards: Podolski, Giroud, Bale

In addition, on the bench, Maher, Van Persie and other good players are on full alert, ready to take the field if there are any changes.

“Beep!”

The game kicked off at 3.30: p.m. that day, and Arsenal officially launched the last front of the season.

Wenger was walking back and forth on the sidelines with his arms folded, with a serious expression on his face. He was looking in all directions, listening in all directions, using all his energy to observe everything on the field, ready to react at any time.

Maher, Van Persie and others were also observing the game situation carefully, fearing any accidents.

As the saying goes, different times value different things. What Arsenal values ​​this season, apart from the Premier League and the Champions League, is the FA Cup.

Last season, they were eliminated from the FA Cup with some regret and helplessness, and focused on the Premier League and the Carabao Cup, which they could win at the end of February.

So this season, the FA Cup will definitely be their focus!

On the premise of winning the Community Shield, completing a Grand Slam of England’s top tournaments, including two Premier League titles, within two years is the pursuit of all Arsenal players, and even more so Maher.

After all, any goal must be built from small to large. If he wants to complete the career Grand Slam, he must complete the Grand Slam in England.

From a team perspective, all he has left is the FA Cup. And from an individual perspective, all he has left is the FA Cup final’s best player and the Premier League’s assist king.

These are all things that could be accomplished directly this season, so there’s no way he’s going to give any of them up.

At the end of the season, English football has achieved a Grand Slam!
This is his goal for the season. Of course, the Ballon d’Or and other awards are also his goal.

“Oh!”

In the 18th minute of the game, left-back Gibbs scored a diving header, which relieved the pressure on Arsenal players and gave Arsenal a one-to-nil lead.

In the 32nd and 37th minutes of the first half, Giroud and Bale scored successively, giving the team a – score that almost secured the victory!

never mind!
Smiles appeared on everyone’s face. Maher chatted with Van Persie and others, and Wenger sat in the coaching seat and drank water quietly.

At the beginning of the second half, Bale scored twice. Immediately afterwards, Ramsey also blasted the goal open with a powerful left-foot shot, venting his frustration of not being able to play for a long time.

Five to zero!
Arsenal finally advanced to the fourth round of the FA Cup with this score, and the second-line players who had repeatedly encountered setbacks also regained their confidence in this game.

“In fact, you are not much worse than the starters. I think today’s game has proved it.”

After the game, Wenger looked at the substitutes in the locker room and said, “Don’t think this is the result of half the main players and half the rotation players. With your own strength, it is possible to beat Swansea 5-0 even if you rotated all the players.”

He pointed to his heart and said, “What’s important is the mentality, not the skills and tactics or personal ability. Do you understand?

“At the beginning of the season, you played and won all the time, but you started to encounter some setbacks in the middle of the season, and that’s when your mentality started to go wrong, until you lost in the last EFL Cup. There are reasons for this.

“I hope this game can bring you confidence. I will give you more opportunities in the future, also in the Premier League. Come on.”

“Come on!!” There was an encouraging voice in the locker room. Maher was in a good mood when he saw his teammates winning perfectly, and he clapped his hands.

This is a good start to the second half, I hope it will bring them good luck!
After this game, and the next record-breaking 59-game unbeaten streak, he will once again go to the place of his dreams, Zurich.

ps: The situation has not improved. She went to the hospital again today. In fact, the problem is not big, but her constant weakness is really scary. She used to be in good health and has been dancing since she was a child. I don’t know if she became a homebody after being with me.

I am really exhausted from doing it slowly.

(End of this chapter)