The strongest blade in football

Chapter 37 Boloni's Choice
In the twinkling of an eye, it was already late November, and the autumn went to the winter solstice. Pedestrians on the street were wrapped in thick coats, but they still couldn't resist the raging cold wind.

Liege has a temperate maritime climate, with mild and cool summers. Except for the hottest few days in early August, there is no need to turn on the air conditioner at other times. This pleasant weather lasts until the end of October.

At this time, the continuous rain and the cold air blowing from the sea will quickly lower the temperature, and the short autumn will be gone in a blink of an eye.

As we move into November and the beginning of winter arrives, the cold, wet weather makes being outside a harsh punishment.

Compared with the wet and cold outside, the standard Liege club base building is like another world.

The hot air coming in from the air supply makes every office warm like spring, and people can't help feeling sleepy in the room.

The head coach of Standard Liege, Laszlo Boloni, sat at his desk, picked up his coffee and took a sip to refresh himself. He was nearly [-] years old and his energy was not as good as before. Sometimes he still felt tired even though he hadn’t done anything.

Boloni is a Romanian, a former Romanian international footballer, a midfielder, has played hundreds of games for the Romanian national team, and was elected Romanian Footballer of the Year twice.

He played for many clubs in his career, including the famous Steaua Bucharest, and won three league titles and one Champions League title with the team.

After retiring, as a football coach, Boloni still won many honors.

He coached Nancy to win the Ligue [-] championship, and coached Sporting Lisbon to win the Portuguese Super League, Cup and Super Cup triple crowns in one season.

He came to Standard Liege last year and helped the club win the League One and two Super Cups.

However, the glory of the past can hardly cover up the current problems. Bologna is sad, and the situation of Standard Liege is very bad recently.

In the league, halfway through the schedule, Standard Liege is in third place, a full nine points behind Anderlecht, the leader, and the gap is getting bigger and bigger.

The third-line battle has greatly affected Bologna's lineup arrangement. They lost to the sixth-ranked Gent in yesterday's game.

Compared with the league, Standard Liege's Champions League situation is more serious.

Due to the gap in strength, after the first four rounds of the group stage, the team only achieved one win, one draw and two losses, ranking third in Group H with four points.

The team will leave for London tomorrow afternoon, preparing for the battle of life and death with Arsenal.

If the fifth round is lost, Standard Liege will become very passive, and the chances of qualifying are slim.

What worries Boloni even more is the injury situation. A small half of the team's main lineup is injured. This is undoubtedly a disaster for Standard Liege who is fighting on the third line.

Especially in the midfield, there is an urgent need for fresh blood.

For a coach, losses can be summed up, tactics can be adjusted, styles of play can be changed, and players can be appeased when they are upset. Only injuries are unsolvable.

It's useless to think too much, there can be no mistakes in the game, and there is only half a year left on the contract with the team. If he wants to continue coaching next season, he must work hard.

So Boloni put aside the distracting thoughts in his mind, closed his eyes and pinched the center of his brows, the headache seemed to be relieved a bit.

He grudgingly pulled himself together, put on his glasses, and got back to work.

There are two player reports in front of him, and he has already read one, about the team's abandoned son Kabamba.

He flipped open the copy below—

Name: Wang Nuo

Age: 18 years and 8 months
Height 185 cm, weight 80 kg, bust 108 cm, step length 170 cm, 11.2 meters in 25 seconds, 3.6 meters in 9 seconds, body fat 82%, [-] cm in the air, left and right feet balanced, no reverse foot.

Field position: RW, RWB, RF, RM, SS
Good position: RW, SS
Advantages: strong body, first-class speed and explosive power, excellent dribbling, breakthrough and ball protection ability, good at advancing with the ball, sharp inside cut when kicking the wing, accurate passing, excellent physical fitness, can run tirelessly throughout the court, willpower Strong, dare to confront opponents, strong ability to seize opportunities in front of goal.

Disadvantages: Not good at heading, weak organizational skills, poor defensive attributes.

Past experience: Played football since the age of 9, trained in the Ghent local echelon and Brussels local echelon, the most valuable player of the U15 and U17 cups in Brussels, and just joined the Standard Liege U19 echelon in the first half of the year.

Youth League data: As of the 15th round, played 14 times, a total of 1120 minutes, scored 11 goals for the team, sent 8 assists, ranked third in the Youth League scoring list, and third in the assist list.

Echelon coach's comment: A frontcourt player with great potential, extremely self-disciplined, with an unlimited future, it is recommended to provide a professional contract.

Current contract situation: two-year youth contract, weekly subsidy of 180 euros, with bonuses.

Boloni carefully read the entire report. He started paying attention to this little guy a month ago and is no stranger to it.

Wang Nuo is currently one of the core players of the U19 echelon. It was recommended by coach Witt Ante and video analyst Del Rio. Boloni has to pay attention to it.

Half a month ago, he also heard that a league team in Wallonia was interested in Wang Nuo, but it seemed that they were rejected.

Although he has been very busy recently, Boloni still took the time to watch the training of the U19 echelon, focusing on Wang Nuo's performance.

Boloni was very satisfied with Wang Nuo's performance. He saw the shadow of the Madeira boy from Wang Nuo!

Similar heights, similar technical characteristics, and even the same attitude towards training and competition.

That was the most glorious moment of Bologni's coaching career seven years ago. He won the Portuguese Super Cup, Cup and Super Cup, and defeated Mourinho, who had just entered Porto.

At that time, Quaresma and Ronaldo were fledglings in the team, and he brought Ronaldo to the first team and began to emerge.

Later, Sir Alex Ferguson took away Ronaldo, who had a great success at Old Trafford!
Boloni thought of these past experiences, and looked at the player reports on the table, and suddenly felt much more pleasing to the eye.

Ronaldo always wants to be the best. In training, he always wants to challenge himself. When he loses, he wants to keep going. He has all the talent, from the beginning.

Even when he won the Golden Globe, he specially invited Boloni to participate in the award ceremony and thanked him specially.

He unearthed a great player, which is enough to make Boloni proud for a lifetime.

Ronaldo's precedent made Boloni also have a little interest in this Asian child.

a Chinese.

Boloni doesn't know much about Chinese players.

In his impression, it was a football desert. For a while, he remembered three people, Dong, who was loaned to Antwerp by Manchester United, Sun, a backcourt player from Manchester City, and a Chinese kid from Bruges.

The Chinese player Wang Nuo in the report was trained by the Belgian youth training, and he cannot be compared with a "Chinese player" in the ordinary sense, so Boloni chose to believe in the vision of Witten and Del Rio.

He also urgently needs a wing assaulter. The frontcourt players in the team are stretched. Sign this young player and try his quality first.

If it's not bad, then you can come off the bench to share some pressure for the team.

If he can't gain a foothold in the first team, let him train with the adult team and play with the youth team.

This is more conducive to the progress of young people.

There is still one month to enter the winter break. If there is no collapse before the winter break, then after two weeks of adjustments, the team's combat effectiveness will be greatly improved after the injured return to the team.

Maybe grab enough points in the second half, and hope to wrestle with Anderlecht in the playoffs.

As for the Champions League, Boloni has no idea, Olympiacos and Arsenal have greater chances, and Standard Liege only has about [-]% hope.

The question now is whether Standard Liege can last until the winter break.

If the team has not survived the third-line battle and the wave of injuries this month, all good ideas will be useless.

Therefore, these days, we must act as soon as possible to help the team survive this difficult time.

Boloni did not hesitate. He called Standard Liege's sports director De Sartre, ready to talk to him about Wang Nuo's new contract.

He has to add a little fresh blood as soon as possible and inject it into the team for rotation.

Even if it is the cup match at the beginning of next month, Standard Liege can't give up.

(End of this chapter)