Chapter 95: Lao Li, do you still want a defensive midfielder?
Palinha is actually a very important midfielder for Li Chen and Newcastle as a whole.

If Palinha had contacted Li Chen to express his struggles during the period of suspending his contract with the club, Li Chen would have wanted to keep him a little longer.

But during this period, Palinya never talked to Li Chen about this matter, which actually meant that he had already made a biased decision in his heart.

It’s going to rain, and my mother is going to get married.

This kind of thing cannot be stopped by just trying to stop it, and Li Chen doesn’t want to get into trouble with Palinya.

After all, it was he who brought Palinha to Newcastle, so he can be considered half-director of his.

So it is better to relax and take advantage of the fact that before Palinha’s agent leaks the matter to the media, to make some fuss and recover some losses.

The contact with the Nan Da Wang uniform team was not smooth at the beginning.

Because Bayern’s management thought that Li Chen had learned the news and came to “hold him accountable.”

It was not until Li Chen repeatedly stated that he was interested in selling Palinha in the summer window on behalf of Newcastle United that the initial contact between the two sides was successfully completed.

Bayern is very interested in the cooperation proposed by Li Chen, but the details still require further contact and modification by the negotiation teams of both sides.

Only after reaching a preliminary cooperation intention with Bayern did Li Chen feel relieved.

However, he did not take the initiative to find Palinya to “question the charges” afterwards.

Take vacation when it’s time to take vacation, and work when it’s time to work, as if nothing had happened.

Most of Newcastle’s main players have no idea that some of their teammates are already looking forward to joining a top club next season.

The atmosphere within the team is still positive and enthusiastic.

Including Palinha, who wants to transfer to Bayern in the summer window, he is now fully devoted to preparation training.

After all, the league championship is in sight, and no one wants something to go wrong at this time and lead to losing the championship.

To put it bluntly, even if we want to break up with the club, we should do so after winning the Premier League title, right?

With a strong desire to fight, Newcastle soon faced the challenge of the 36th round of the league.

Before the start of this league game, Manchester City completed a round of make-up matches in advance.

After the 33rd round of the Premier League, Manchester City won three consecutive games in one go, so their current record is 27 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses.

With one game less, Manchester City has 85 points, 4 points behind Newcastle, which has two games less.

Arsenal has no hope of winning the championship. Now Premier League fans all over the world are watching to see if Manchester City can create a miracle to overthrow Newcastle and regain the Premier League title.

But then, Newcastle, who were away to Leeds United, used a 6-1 massacre to disappoint all the fans who were expecting them to fail.

Leeds United, currently ranked second from the bottom in the Premier League standings, will find it difficult to cause trouble for Newcastle.

After learning the news, Manchester City almost lost on the road, and finally had to rely on De Bruyne’s winning goal in the second half to beat Everton 2-1.

This thrilling way of winning does not actually mean that Manchester City has reached the end of its strength.

This is because Guardiola fielded quite a number of substitute rotation players to start in this round of the league.

Manchester City, which has reached the semi-finals of the Champions League and has drawn 1-1 with Real Madrid in the first leg of the semi-finals, is now very likely to defeat Real Madrid after returning to their home court in the second leg and enter the final!

Faced with the temptation of returning to the Champions League final, Guardiola must make a choice.

In the end, they should continue to fight Newcastle to the end in the league, which will affect the quality of their preparations for the second round of the match against Real Madrid.

Or will he decisively go all-in for the Champions League, lead Manchester City to truly lay the foundation for a top club, and win the Champions League trophy that the whole team dreams of? !

Trying to have the best of both worlds often results in nothing, and Guardiola has learned this lesson more than once.

For Manchester City supporters, they have had enough of the joy of winning the Premier League title over the years.

In comparison, the Champions League title that has caused them so much sadness and pain many times but has been so long awaited is more tempting…

Many British media outlets have published news reports to fan the flames, all supporting Manchester City to represent the Premier League and compete with Real Madrid and subsequent Champions League final opponents to win the Champions League title.

On the evening of May 5, Guardiola, who fielded his entire main lineup to face Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium, seemed to have made his final decision.

Manchester City, who invested all their efforts in this do-or-die battle, finally avenged last season’s defeat, defeating Real Madrid 4-1 at home and advancing to this season’s Champions League final.

The next afternoon, Newcastle, which had attracted much media attention, faced a crucial make-up match with Tottenham.

Tottenham, currently ranked seventh in the league, is only two points behind Brighton, which is ranked sixth.

In order to avoid the embarrassing situation of not having any European games to play next season, Tottenham must now fight desperately and strive to get points at St. James’ Park.

Even if they only get one point, they can still hope that Newcastle will beat Brighton in the subsequent game to help them return to the top six.

Otherwise, even if Newcastle beats Brighton later, they will still be in a passive position in the fight for the top six as they cannot earn points from Newcastle.

Such an embarrassing points situation forced Tottenham to launch a death-like counterattack against Newcastle while playing away.

However, I don’t know if it was a lucky coincidence, but Newcastle, who wanted to play steadily at the beginning of the game that day, was actually deprived of scoring opportunities by Tottenham.

Kane, with his hot feet, did not miss the excellent opportunity created for him by his teammate Kulusevski, and scored a goal early in the 9th minute of the first half of the game!

Kane, who scored his 33rd league goal of the season, looked very excited.

After all, this goal not only gave him hope of further catching up with Haaland, but also helped his team get the possibility of getting points away from home.

But when he had just finished celebrating passionately with his teammates and turned around to see Li Chen standing on the sidelines with a gloomy face, he felt something was wrong from the bottom of his heart.

He was very familiar with Li Chen’s expression and posture.

During the Qatar World Cup, whenever they took it for granted in daily training and did not carry out training matches according to the wishes of the coaching staff, Li Chen would lose his face and scold all the players!
Sure enough, Kane soon saw Li Chen pointing one hand at the field and cursing at all the Newcastle players on the field.

The main players of Newcastle who were criticized either shrank their necks and dared not look Li Chen in the eye, or, like Ronaldo, were also dissatisfied with their team’s opening performance and were vigorously encouraging their teammates to cheer up!
After the game resumed, Newcastle changed its steady and cautious strategy at the beginning of the game and adopted a resolute high-pressure approach against Tottenham, who also took the initiative to attack!

This made it very difficult for Tottenham, who were missing their two midfield generals Bentancur and Bissouma.

Skipp and young player Sarr, who are of average ability, found it difficult to control the ball under Newcastle’s high pressure.

This forced Hojbjerg to take on more organizational responsibilities.

As a result of his retreat, Tottenham’s means of passing the ball forward became even scarcer. Dier tried to pass the ball forward many times, hoping to find his forward teammates directly.

But Palinha and Pepe, who started the game today, made Tottenham’s aerial attack attempt come to nothing.

The Tottenham Hotspur forward trio, who are capable of ranking in the top four of the Premier League, were trapped in a desperate situation with no ball to touch.

What does it matter how strong your personal ability is? If you don’t have the ball, you can’t display your skills.

If you want to get the ball, you have to retreat many times and expend your physical energy to undertake the task of advancing.

This is a multiple-choice question in which a decision must be made.

The Tottenham coaching staff, who still hoped that Kane could continue to score goals, ultimately had to sacrifice the physical fitness of Son Heung-min and Kulusevski.

The situation is almost set to turn in Newcastle’s favor with no chance of reversal.

Tottenham’s midfield, which was not good at holding the ball and intercepting, was almost penetrated by Newcastle.

Maddison, who organized the attack, and Guimaraes, who came in from behind, had their way in Tottenham’s half.

Forced into a corner, young player Sarr wanted to stop Newcastle’s offensive advance through tougher physical confrontation.

But he obviously chose the wrong opponent, and was pushed by Joelinton who took the ball and fell directly to the grass.

The young and energetic Sarr was not discouraged by this and he approached Newcastle’s midfielder many times afterwards.

But the referee then taught the young boy a lesson.

In the 23rd minute of the first half, Sarr received a yellow card for consecutive fouls on Havertz and Maddison who were retreating.

Hojbjerg appealed to the referee immediately, while Skip pulled Sarr away from the scene of the dispute.

The passionate young player at this moment looked like a confused child who had done something wrong.

His instinct told him that in such difficult moments, midfielders were needed to step up and do the dirty work to disrupt Newcastle’s offensive organization.

But the cruel reality warned him that many things are one thing to think about and another thing to do.

If he had more defensive experience and didn’t commit blatant fouls, he might have helped his team.

But now, his good intentions have become a shackle on him, and also the beginning of Tottenham’s further move towards passive rhythm.

After creating a gap in the midfield, Newcastle made a series of forced breakthroughs on Sarr’s side.

Skip had to repeatedly give up his defensive position to help his younger teammates.

He couldn’t stand steadily in the middle, so Hojbjerg, who played as left midfielder today, could only follow him around and put out fires.

Guimarães seized the opportunity and made a beautiful long shot in the 29th minute of the first half!

His decision to shoot directly at the goal without stopping the ball was very sudden, and Lori was not mentally prepared for it, so he could only hurriedly make the save!

The football was finally saved by Lori, but it did not roll out of the baseline, but returned to the penalty area again.

At the critical moment, Ronaldo appeared where he should be again.

But this time, facing Romero’s active blocking, Ronaldo did not choose to risk injury and force a follow-up shot, but quickly swept the ball to the back of the goal.

Joelinton, who was in position to intercept the ball, pushed the ball easily and scored!

After equalizing the score, the Newcastle players did not choose to celebrate passionately, but instead called out to each other and quickly returned to their positions. After Havertz fished the ball out of Tottenham’s goal, he trotted back to the kick-off point.

Seeing this scene, Li Chen finally nodded with satisfaction.

Tottenham, who were still thinking of dragging the suspense of the game into the second half, underestimated Newcastle’s determination to fight back.

After the game resumed, Newcastle’s high-pressure tactical strategy against Tottenham remained unchanged.

Skip, who was holding back and getting the ball, finally made a fatal pass error in the 42nd minute of the first half. In a hurry, he passed the ball to Madison who was blocking the route!
After getting the ball, Madison advanced decisively and went straight into the flank of Tottenham’s half.

Havertz and Ronaldo’s simultaneous forward runs forced Dale and Romero to retreat with no alternative but to bite the bullet.

Madison finally passed the ball to Guimarães again before being double-teamed by the opponent.

Guimarães, who got another chance to shoot, had more time to adjust.

This time, he did not waste the excellent opportunity created by his teammates, and used a world-class long-range shot from a “ten-minute corner” to break through Lori’s defense!
2-1!

After being mercilessly scolded by Li Chen, the Newcastle players in the starting lineup made a concerted effort and successfully reversed the score in the first half of the game!

The Tottenham team, which was overtaken, felt very discouraged.

After the half-time break, the high-spirited Newcastle continued their efforts. In the second half, Wilson, who came on as a substitute, scored two goals in the 56th and 67th minutes to seal the victory!

C Ronaldo also assisted in scoring two goals in this game, successfully pushing his assist data in the league this season to double digits.

A 4-1 victory not only consolidated the high morale of the Newcastle team, but also seemed to completely destroy Tottenham’s hopes of competing for the top six this season.

Maybe it’s just as Conte said before he was fired.

If Tottenham Hotspur does not change its management and management thinking now, it is beyond salvation and they will only continue to be trapped in a vicious cycle of not being able to win the championship.

Li Chen obviously had a bad impression of Tottenham, but after the game, he was the first to give Kane a comforting hug.

This action caused him to be questioned by reporters at the post-match press conference.

However, Li Chen has repeatedly stated that he has no intention of bypassing Tottenham to recruit Kane, and he absolutely “respects” the Tottenham club.

After dealing with the reporters, Li Chen walked towards the team bus humming a tune in a good mood.

It was at this time that he received a call from Mendes.

“Jorge?”

“Li, I have great news for you… Do you still want a defensive midfielder?”

(End of this chapter)