Full-level pass, please call me the speaker of the Three Lions

Chapter 488: Acquisition Rumors! The Last Piece of the Midfield Puzzle!
"The ball went in again!"

"hat trick!"

"The one who scored the goal was number seven again, the captain, Ling~~~Feng!!!"

In his first game as Manchester United captain, Ling Feng completed a hat-trick in less than half an hour in the first half.

Although the Los Angeles Galaxy is not a strong team.

However, such a one-sided situation and score still allowed countless American fans at the scene to see the huge gap between the top European giants and the MLS giants!
Especially Ling Feng's personal goal performance made all the fans present intoxicated.

Whether he was leisurely controlling the ball, advancing with big strides, or making visually impactful passes from the wing and using super heavy artillery, Ling Feng let them truly see what the level of a football superstar is!
After watching all those lousy teams in MLS all day long, there is naturally a huge contrast when seeing real European football now.

It turns out that those MLS games they watch every week aren’t real football at all!

It is worth mentioning that in addition to Ling Feng’s personal performance in the first half, new signing Maguire also scored the first goal of his Manchester United career with his head during a corner kick attack.

The one who gave him the assist was naturally Ling Feng!

Such a quick adaptation speed also made Mourinho on the sidelines very satisfied.

After the score was 4-0 in the first half, Mourinho replaced all eleven players in the team at halftime.

After all, it's someone else's home court, and the players' wives and children are watching in the stands, so we have to give them some face.

In the end, the score of Manchester United's first pre-season game in the United States was fixed at 5-3.

After the game, Manchester United players also came to the sidelines to interact with the fans, signing autographs or taking photos.

It is worth mentioning that since the game was held in Los Angeles, many Hollywood stars came to watch the game.

Among them, the most famous is Beckham, the star of the Los Angeles Galaxy, and his good friend and Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise!

"David, how are you?"

Under Beckham's introduction, Ling Feng took photos with the Hollywood stars one by one and gave away several signed jerseys.

There was even a beautiful woman who looked very familiar to Ling Feng, but whose name he couldn't remember, who quietly slipped a note into his palm.

As a Manchester United superstar who has both good looks and popularity, Ling Feng may be the most familiar Manchester United player to Americans besides Beckham, Ronaldo and Rooney.
After winning the pre-season game and his first victory as Manchester United captain, the Manchester United players returned to their hotel.
Ling Feng, who had just returned to the hotel and taken a shower, was about to play Landlord with Kante, Lingard, and Maguire when he received a phone call.

A call from Tesla CEO Musk!

"Hey, Elon!"

"Good evening, Ling, congratulations on becoming the captain of Manchester United!"

"Haha, thank you. I was just wondering if you were in the US. I'd like to invite you to watch the game."

"I just flew from New York to Los Angeles today and didn't have time to talk to you."

After a pause, Musk changed the subject:
"By the way, do you still remember the plan you told me last time?"

Hearing this, Ling Feng was stunned at first, then he understood: "Are you talking about the plan to acquire Manchester United?"

"That's right!"

"I'm also in Los Angeles right now, staying at the Four Seasons Hotel. Do you want to come over and hear about my plans?"

Hearing this, Ling Feng raised his eyebrows and immediately responded:

"Wait for me, I'll be there soon!"

"Ok, I will wait for you!"

Without any hesitation, Ling Feng immediately asked Mourinho for leave and then took a taxi to the Four Seasons Hotel.

In the bar of the Four Seasons Hotel, Ling Feng met Musk, who looked excited.

In the next two hours, Musk excitedly shared his plan to acquire Manchester United with Ling Feng!

For example, in mid-June, we started to buy A-share stocks on the market;
For example, the Glazer family is not willing to sell the Class B shares they hold;
For example, he has found some partners.
After talking about his plans and progress, Musk did not forget to invite Ling Feng to join the acquisition team and the operations team after the successful acquisition.

After all, this idea and plan were first proposed by Ling Feng.

Ling Feng also agreed directly and was prepared to take out 30 million euros as acquisition funds, and then exchange them for corresponding equity after the acquisition was successful.

In just a few years, Ling Feng's salary and business income skyrocketed like a rocket.

His total personal assets have reached an astonishing 70 million euros!
In order to join the great plan of "acquiring Manchester United", Ling Feng directly took out all the liquid funds he could mobilize.

However, there is no airtight wall in the world.

With the development and gradual transparency of the Internet, the fact that Musk met with Manchester United executives in the United States was soon captured by The Sun and other media.

Afterwards, the omnipresent paparazzi obtained more inside details through revelations from "relevant people".

Immediately afterwards, the explosive news that "Musk is acquiring Manchester United" made the front pages of major media!
For a time, the football world was shaken!
You know, Manchester United is the football club with the largest number of fans and the highest value in the world.

Musk is a very famous billionaire and well-known entrepreneur in the United States.

The influence of the two combined is enough to attract the attention of everyone in the sports world!

Red Devils fans were surprised and happy about this rumor.

Although the team has fallen into a trough since Ferguson's retirement, the Glazer family's management style and methods have also been strongly protested by fans.

However, last year's huge success at the competitive level has made fans' impression of the Glazer family much better.

After all, they found Mourinho, bought stars such as Ling Feng, and led the team to a revival!
Moreover, they don't know whether Musk is serious about running Manchester United as a business, or whether he just treats Manchester United as a big toy to play with and then cash out and leave.

However, everyone knows that the greedy Glazer family will not easily let go of Manchester United's cash cow.

In the eyes of the media, even if Musk's personal net worth exceeds 17 billion US dollars, his acquisition plan will not be so easy.
. . .

The news that the club was involved in takeover rumors did not affect the team's preparations for the new season.

On July 7, Manchester United welcomed the first overseas version of the "Manchester Derby" in Houston

As the players signed last season did not perform to their expected level and the team had not yet completed their running-in process, Guardiola only finished fifth in the league in his first season in charge of the Blue Moon.

Fortunately, in the Europa League, Manchester City, with its obvious lineup advantage, won the championship with a devastating momentum, thus "saving the country in a roundabout way" and qualifying for next season's Champions League.

This summer, Guardiola, who has the full support of the club's top management, continues to transform the team's lineup according to his own ideas.

His main recruiting position is the old defense line that was in a terrible situation last season:
40 million euros to sign Benfica goalkeeper Ederson!
57.5 million euros to buy Monaco full-back Benjamin Mendy!

Spend 50 million pounds to sign Tottenham Hotspur winger Kyle Walker, who is known as the "second fastest player in the Premier League"!

30 million euros to sign Real Madrid defender Danilo!

The goalkeeper and defenders alone cost a staggering 1.8 million euros!
Compared with Manchester United's targeted approach, Manchester City's signings give people a feeling:
The rich are so inhumane!
With the addition of Monaco's talented midfielder "B席" Bernardo Silva, who was booked as early as May, Manchester City has become the club that has spent the most money in football so far this summer.

A full 200 million pounds was spent! In the eyes of many people, Manchester City, which has made a lot of signings this season, will inevitably become the biggest enemy threatening Manchester United's title defense after the lineup upgrade.

At the same time, this game was also the debut of new players for both teams.

However, in this somewhat special "Manchester Derby", both sides appeared to be very restrained.

After all, it's just an insignificant preseason game, there's no need to fight to the death.

If it causes injuries to players, it will not be worth it.

What's more, they will meet again in the European Super Cup early next month.

It won’t be too late to have a real fight then!
Therefore, Mourinho and Guardiola tacitly sent out a lineup of half main players and half substitutes, mainly to practice lineups and tactics.

Even though neither side played at full strength, Manchester United, thanks to Ling Feng's personal ability, still managed to win by one goal and defeated Manchester City 3-2.

Although the team won three consecutive games during the preseason trip to the United States.

However, Mourinho is still not satisfied with the depth of the midfield.

Fellaini has good defensive skills, but he can only be regarded as an average rotation player.

Neither Lingard nor Mata can be considered a qualified defensive midfielder.

Young player McTominay has potential, good physical confrontation and excellent running ability.

But his ball control and passing abilities are average, and he still needs a lot of game practice to hone his skills.

Therefore, Mourinho still hopes to introduce a "dealer" with certain passing ability in the midfielder position.

In this way, when partnering with Fellaini, they can complement each other.

One defensive sweep, one pass to pass the ball!
And his target is his old Chelsea player, Serbian midfielder Matic!
Matic not only has the ability to intercept, but also has the ability to pass the ball and advance, which is rare for a tall defensive midfielder. He is one of the best defensive midfielders in the Premier League.

However, when faced with Manchester United's offer, Chelsea owner Abramovich was very willful and responded directly:

You've already cut us off twice in this transfer window!

I am angry!

Don't want to do business with Manchester United!

In addition, Matic is very important to Chelsea, and Chelsea is unwilling to let go of the team's midfield general.

Even if Mourinho used his personal connections to communicate with Abramovich, he was unable to get Chelsea to let Matic go.

In desperation, Mourinho had to give up Matic and look for a more suitable target.

Mendes acted as an agent and immediately made a list of several potential candidates and sent it to Mourinho.

As the saying goes, good things should be kept within the family.
All the players on Mendes' recommendation list are Portuguese, including Moutinho who plays for Monaco, William Carvalho who plays for Sporting CP, and Ruben Neves who plays for Porto!

Among these three options, Mourinho chose the 20-year-old Portuguese talented midfielder, the youngest captain in Porto's history, Ruben Neves!
This choice also surprised Mendes.

Originally, in Mendes' plan, Neves, who became a substitute last season, should first go to Wolves in the Championship to level up before joining a top club.

Because he has a very close relationship with the Wolves owner and basically controls the club's transfer rights.

Mendes not only placed his long-time friend Nuno in Wolves as the team's head coach.

He also brought in several Portuguese players, all of whom were clients of his company.

However, since it was his number one client who wanted it, the Wolves would have to give in.

After all, it goes without saying that playing as a starter in a Championship team is more valuable than playing as a rotation player in a top club like Manchester United.
In Mourinho's view, Neves' playing style is somewhat similar to that of his former Real Madrid players Xabi Alonso and Manchester United's Carrick.

He has a broad vision and excellent passing ability, especially his long pass accuracy, which is amazing.

Although Mourinho has always preferred to recruit players who are already established and whose strength exceeds their fame, they are ready to fight at any time.

Especially some older mature men who have proven themselves.

In addition, there are examples of him making mistakes when coaching various top clubs, such as De Bruyne and Salah.

Therefore, many people have labeled him as someone who "cannot train young players".

In fact, this view is biased!
Because Mourinho always coaches top clubs, the club's top management has very high requirements for results.

He was not given more time to coach and train young players.

In order to achieve results in the short term, Mourinho tends to recruit players who are ready to fight.

But this does not mean that he does not have the ability to coach young players!

The first season at Manchester United is the best proof!

The young players of the Red Devils, whether Rashford, Martial, Lingard or Luke Shaw, have made a qualitative leap under his training.

And Ling Feng played the peak season of his career under him, delivering a terrifying "double 35 in offense and assists" report card!

Of course, he is not as good at training young players as Guardiola, Klopp, Ferguson and Wenger.

Especially offensive players.

However, at Manchester United, he has a good helper.

That’s Ling Feng!
Rather than saying that it is Mourinho who is coaching Rashford, Lingard and others, it is better to say that Ling Feng is coaching them!
Because Mourinho has given this tactical core great freedom!

In order to make his teammates better and thus enhance the team's overall strength, Ling Feng, who has a God's vision, would ask and teach Rashford and others how to run, how to pass the ball, and how to attack both on and off the court!

It is equivalent to having a superstar who is the ceiling of today's football in terms of passing, stopping, dribbling and shooting every day, who will guide you on how to play football for free.

Over time, as long as you are not a brainless pig, improvement in strength is inevitable!
Of course, considering their immediate combat effectiveness, Moutinho and William Carvalho might be better.

The former, as the brain of Monaco's midfield, helped the team break the hegemony of Paris and win the French Ligue 1 championship;
The latter is the iron midfielder of Sporting CP and the main defensive midfielder of the Portugal national team.

However, the former is over 30 years old and has weaker physical confrontation ability, so he may not be able to adapt to the high-intensity rhythm of the Premier League.

The latter's role overlaps somewhat with Fellaini's, and his speed is slower.

The most important thing is that considering Neves' age and ability, he will not demand a starting position and more playing time like the other two.

It just fits Mourinho's positioning of rotation players!

After all, given the form of Kante and Herrera, neither Fellaini, Neves, nor McTominay can shake their main position.

Of course, under the training of Ling Feng and team legend Carrick, the young Neves may become a top dealer in the Premier League in the future!
Of course, no one knows what will happen in the future.

But if Neves can reach Carrick's level, then Manchester United will have found a treasure!
(End of this chapter)