Chapter 28 Media Coverage

The media on the second day after the game mainly reported on Manchester United's title defense, while some also focused on the pitiful Manchester City.

Falling at the finish line in the final moments for two consecutive seasons was indeed quite pitiful.

Immediately after the game, rumors began to circulate that Manchester City's senior management was brewing another coaching change.

Previously, they brought in Mancini, who helped Manchester City take a step forward and become a strong contender for the league title.

But now, it seemed that Manchester City had encountered a bottleneck.

It was difficult for Mancini to instill more useful things into this team, and if he continued to lead Manchester City, perhaps his greatest achievement would be limited to this.

So they felt that Mancini had exhausted his bag of tricks, and it would be better to directly change the coach and bring Manchester City to a new level...

In fact, this was a muddleheaded decision by Manchester City's senior management.

Under Mancini's leadership, Manchester City had made considerable progress, which none of the previous coaches had been able to bring to Manchester City. Mancini was indeed a famous coach. After all, Inter Milan's revival also started from his hands.

So in terms of ability, there were not many coaches in world football who were stronger than him. Among the coaches Manchester City could hire, he was perhaps the best.

Manchester City had fallen at the finish line for two consecutive seasons, and it would be very unfair to put all the blame on Mancini.

The first season could be said to be the first time this group of Manchester City players had been so close to the league title. They lacked experience and didn't hold on in the end, which was understandable. Even top teams had experienced similar things. Back then, Real Madrid was so badly suppressed by Barcelona that they brought in Capello just for a league title. But when it came to the final round, when they could win the league title by defeating their opponent, Real Madrid's own players performed very poorly. If it weren't for Diarra and Reyes' goals, perhaps they wouldn't have won their thirtieth league title in the end.

Real Madrid had almost made such a mistake, so it was normal for Manchester City to make it as well.

This season, Manchester City's performance truly reflected Mancini's level. After being thrashed 5:1 by Liverpool away from home, Mancini was still able to maintain the team and rank first in the second half of the season.

However, the team's luck was not very good, or rather... they met Chen Hero at the most critical moment.

Perhaps Manchester City players would never admit it, but they were indeed affected by the news that their next opponent was Liverpool, which affected their performance in this game...

Who asked Chen Hero to score nine goals in their home stadium before and after!

This performance had left too deep an impression on them.

Many people, as soon as they thought of Chen Hero, would think of those two games, one 4:3 and one 5:1. It was fake to say that it had no effect on them at all.

So in fact, it was not a sin of war. Manchester City lost the league title, and they really couldn't blame Mancini for his lack of skill. His level was already very good... It was not easy to bring Manchester City, this international mercenary, to this state.

At this critical moment, Richards jumped out to cause trouble for Mancini. The media revealed that Richards was dissatisfied with coach Mancini because he did not go to Liverpool. He threatened that if he did not get a chance to play again, he would seek a transfer!

Not only that, Richards also said that Mancini had actually lost control of the locker room. Now the Manchester City locker room was a mess, with all kinds of small groups emerging one after another. He used himself as an example, saying that when he was fighting against Chen Hero and Liverpool, he lacked support from his teammates...

Now Mancini had something to worry about...

※※※

Martin O'Neill didn't care what Manchester City was doing, he was in a very relaxed mood now.

After the game against Manchester City, he gave the team two days off—knowing that there was still one round of the league left!

He gave two days off at this time, so you can imagine how relaxed he was.

The remaining round of the league could basically be abandoned. O'Neill planned to use the second team to play against Tottenham. Even if they lost to Tottenham and were overtaken by Manchester City again, they would still be third in the league and still directly qualify for the Champions League next season.

Now Martin O'Neill just wanted to focus all his attention on the Europa League final.

After fighting for a season, these players really should rest, so he gave the team two days off.

It couldn't be blamed on Martin O'Neill for deliberately giving up this game, because after playing the game against Tottenham, they only had four days before they had to face Inter Milan in the Europa League final.

In order to prevent accidents, Martin O'Neill had to be careful.

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On May 11th, Liverpool ushered in the last round of the league this season.

They challenged Tottenham Hotspur away.

Tottenham's performance this season was not very stable. They had already said goodbye to the Champions League and Europa League next season, which meant that they had no other games to play next season except for domestic competitions.

After two amazing seasons, Tottenham began to decline. This season, they could only play in the Europa League, but they didn't even qualify for the group stage. Next season, they won't even be able to play in the Europa League.

For a team like Tottenham that invests a lot of money every year, such a performance was of course not satisfactory to their investors.

It was said that Tottenham, like Manchester City, was brewing a change of coach.

However, unlike the situation in Manchester City, Tottenham's Harry Redknapp had really reached his limit. Tottenham had undergone earth-shattering changes in his hands, but his ability could only bring Tottenham to this point. If they wanted to move forward, Tottenham had to find a higher-level coach.

Tottenham's performance this season was very unstable, which had something to do with Harry Redknapp's coaching level.

Of course, there was another reason—Tottenham's main player, Gareth Bale, was injured in the middle of the season, which also affected the team's performance.

Bale's ankle was injured again, and he was forced to undergo surgery and rest for six months. He only returned to the game when the league was about to end, but he couldn't help the team much.

These two reasons led to Tottenham's unstable performance this season, and they ended up empty-handed, gaining nothing.

So they didn't really want anything from this last game.

Although Martin O'Neill sent out second-team players, relatively speaking, Liverpool's second-team players were the most motivated and had the strongest desire to win.

As a result, the result was self-evident.

Liverpool defeated Tottenham 3:1 away and ended this pretty good season with a victory.

Chen Hero didn't even make the eighteen-man roster for this game. He rested well at home.

The same was true for Suarez, Sanchez, Gerrard and others.

These people were all starting players in the Europa League final.

In fact, before the game against Tottenham, Liverpool had already been practicing tactics against Inter Milan in the Europa League.

O'Neill really didn't treat Tottenham as an opponent.

※※※

The day after the English Premier League ended, the Italian Serie A also ended completely.

Inter Milan, after knowing their shame, bravely caught up in the second half of the season, and finally caught up to fourth place in the league, winning a spot to participate in the Champions League qualifiers. In this way, at least they can participate in the Champions League next season, and they won't really be reduced to playing in the Europa League.

After winning the Champions League qualification, Inter Milan had the mind to consider the Europa League final.

Their attitude was very cautious. From the club chairman to the players, they all expressed their respect for their final opponent.

After all, Liverpool's performance this season had been reborn and was completely different from last season. If Inter Milan had faced Liverpool last season in the final, they might have really looked down on this opponent and thought that the championship must belong to them.

Now this Liverpool had a very good coach, and Chen Hero was in very good form, which was what they were most worried about.

Chen Hero had a lot of experience in playing against Inter Milan. In the three seasons he played for Napoli, he played six league games and two Champions League knockout games against Inter Milan, winning more than losing. It could be said that he also had an absolute psychological advantage in dealing with Inter Milan.

Inter Milan had been tossing around all these years, and it was already very good that they could win the Champions League qualification for next season.

In fact, after Mourinho led Inter Milan to win the Triple Crown, there were voices saying that Inter Milan should be replaced. However, Moratti always hesitated to take action. He would rather change the coach than the players.

Although it was a proud thing to have a very humane chairman, sometimes humanity may not be a good thing for the team itself...

For example, the current Inter Milan...

Of course, some people said that it was not that Moratti didn't want to clean up, but that the old guys in Inter Milan's locker room had formed a climate and formed their own faction. Moratti couldn't get rid of them even if he wanted to.

Anyway, the Argentine barbecue gang's power in Inter Milan was very strong now, which was a fact. It was a fact that they could confront the coach, show no effort on the field if they didn't like which coach, and squeeze the coach away.

Could such a team defeat Liverpool in the final?

It was really a very difficult thing...

However, Inter Milan's fans were still full of hope for such a team. They said that if Inter Milan could bring back a Europa League champion, then this season would not be a failure.

Some Inter Milan fans also took it for granted that Inter Milan came from the Champions League to the Europa League, and their strength must be better than Liverpool, who had always been playing in the Europa League, so it was a matter of course for them to win the championship.

How little did these people know about the Premier League...

Even the Italian media didn't dare to be so optimistic.

Because they all knew Chen Hero's ability very well.

They believed that if Inter Milan wanted to win the final, they must contain Chen Hero. At the same time, they called on the old guys not to have infighting this time, to unite and fight for their honor and dignity!