The Era of Emerald

The signing of Claudio Ranieri went very smoothly, because of his poor leadership performance, the Naples club did not want to keep this young coach whose contract was about to expire, and did not make any obstacles to Fiorentina's poaching behavior, so Claudio Ranieri has moved to Fiorentina after successfully releasing his work contract with Napoli without paying any liquidated damages.

The chairman's office in Florence has become a place for Zhuang Mingge to handle daily affairs and hold small meetings.

Sitting opposite Zhuang Minge, Ranieri looked at the young and somewhat excessive chairman in front of him, and couldn't help recalling the bits and pieces when he coached various teams in the past.

From 1989 to 1991, he led Cagliari, who was still in the third division at that time, to complete the magical triple jump, and after the end of the 90-91 season, he received an invitation to coach from the then prosperous Naples club .Ranieri, who is full of confidence, came to Naples with a beautiful dream. He believed that he could lead Naples, which has the world champion Maradona, to create brilliance.

but……

Maradona refused to continue playing for Napoli after the ban ended and moved to Sevilla;

Alemão announces his retirement...

Silenzi, who the team has high hopes for, is in an embarrassing task...

Naples began to sink as if it had lost its soul after Maradona left. Ranieri tried his best to bring Naples back on track, but he failed. Naples has spent a lot of time trying to find a helper for Maradona. They tried their best, but the fans and club executives didn't realize this. They just saw that Naples, which had Zola, Ferrara and other stars, only ranked 92th in Serie A after the end of the 93-11 season.

So, naturally, Ranieri was considered the culprit for the team's poor performance and was blamed.

Naturally, Ranieri knew that Naples would not tolerate him continuing to coach the team. He entrusted his agent to secretly ask the Serie A teams if they were interested in inviting him to coach.

However, since Ranieri has only two seasons of top league coaching experience and his performance in leading the team is not very good, no Serie A team is willing to extend an olive branch to him.

Just as Ranieri was disheartened, Fiorentina, who had been relegated from Serie A this season, sent him an invitation, and Ranieri agreed without hesitation.

Since your top league teams look down on me, then I will start again, and I will lead Florence to shock the whole of Italy!

It was the first time for Zhuang Mingge to see Ranieri himself at close range. The famous "Tinker" in later generations is still just an unknown pawn. It looks sad, but it doesn't have the bitter expression that later generations saw in the TV broadcast.

Zhuang Mingge looked at Ranieri, who was obviously much younger than he remembered, and handed Ranieri a folder full of player information that Antonioni handed over to Zhuang Mingge: "This is Fiorentina's expected first-team team this season. player information, do you see if there is any problem?"

Ranieri opened the folder and looked through it carefully. To his surprise, half of Fiorentina's first-team roster were young players who were going to be introduced from other teams.

Almost the entire main lineup was sold, and newcomers were brought in generously. It seemed that the boss really valued these newcomers.

Ranieri thought so, closed the folder at the same time, and asked carefully: "Mr. Chairman, what do you think of this Florentine youth army that you personally built?"

"I think they have unlimited potential. It shouldn't be a problem to be promoted to Serie A at the end of the season." Zhuang Mingge said confidently, and then added, "Claudio, you don't have to call me the boss or Mr. Chairman, just call me Antonio." .”

"Okay, Antonio, what do you mean, on the basis of guaranteeing promotion, we should give these young people as much room to perform as possible?" Ranieri asked. He had to confirm this. On the basis of ensuring the results, it can also meet the boss's ideas as much as possible, which is a must-have skill for local Italian coaches.

"Hehe, Claudio (Ranieri), don't worry that I will command blindly. After all, I also have an international A-level coaching certificate." Zhuang Mingge laughed, took out the certificate and showed it to Ranieri.

After seeing this certificate, Ranieri was a little relieved. As a coach, the most fearful thing is that laymen direct experts. For example, later, Lao Bei forced Ancelotti to arrange two forwards, and did not consider such a tactic at all. Whether it is suitable for the team; and after 06, Abramovich insisted on stuffing a Shevchenko who was not suitable for Chelsea's tactical system into the established team, which caused Mourinho's dissatisfaction .

"I just took a general look at the positions and technical characteristics of these players on the field. I can see that Antonio, you imagine that this Fiorentina team will play a 442 formation, with a small diamond in the midfield and no wingers. The team's defensive strength in the middle, but at the same time it will weaken the offensive and defensive capabilities of the wing." Ranieri boldly put forward his own opinion.

"The wing attack is completed by the full-backs inserting assists and the offensive players in the center and front field. As for the defense, the three midfielders with good defensive capabilities are fully capable of making up for the assisting full-backs."

"Antonio, you mean, don't stick to the division of positions. The full-back can rush up to play as a winger when attacking, and the central midfielder can also play as a full-back when defending." Ranieri raised his eyebrows unconsciously. Tried this tactic, "It's really a bold idea, it reminds me of the Dutchman's total defense."

"This tactical system is indeed born out of Michels' Total Attack and Total Defense thinking." Zhuang Mingge can only admit that, can he still say that European teams will play like this more than ten years later?Then Zhuang Mingge told Ranieri the tactical ideas he had sorted out based on the memories of later generations and the knowledge of his predecessors these days.

"Emphasize the collective running and overall pressing of the players, and focus on training the players' awareness of one kick; in the passing process, focus on triangular passing and pass coordination; what Florence wants to build is a whole, not a certain one. The player's team, this is the tactical policy that Florence will never change in the future." Zhuang Mingge set the tone for the general direction of the team's tactics, "Of course, the specific tactical details need to be arranged by you, Claudio, during training. Don't forget what we do in Italy, chain defense."

"Haha, don't worry, how can a coach from Italy not pay attention to defense." Ranieri laughed and said, chain defense is a compulsory course for every Italian coach.

However, if this improved chain defense based on overall pressing and collective running is fully formed, it may be even more terrifying, Ranieri secretly thought.

"Another point is that currently our team has Batistuta on the front line and Effenberg as the core of the organization. These two players are capable of taking on the heavy responsibility of the team's offense, but in terms of defense, I hope to introduce a team. The best position is the immediate combat power when they are playing. After all, the players to be introduced are too young. Tomasi has not played in the professional league. In the lower leagues for a season, they need to adapt to the rhythm of the second division."

"Okay, I think you've convinced me, Claudio. Do you have any players you can recommend for this tactical system? I will contact the transfer director Hercule (Poirot), who is responsible for bringing the players we need. to the team."

I would like to add that before the end of 95, that is, before the implementation of the Bosman Act, players had no say in where their transfers would go.Generally speaking, if a player wants to transfer to another team, the club that introduces the player must pay a transfer fee that satisfies the other party, otherwise the player cannot leave even if the contract expires (please refer to the Bosman Act for details); And if the club wants to sell a player, and at the same time a team has the ability to introduce, then this player can only transfer away. The more famous case is Dunga (transferred from Fiorentina to Pescara in 92), unless it is Superstars like Roberto Baggio and Baresi, no one would dare to sell them to low-level teams without their consent.

In short, before the implementation of the Bosman Act, the players in European football were in a very bad situation. Most of them could not decide their own destiny. This is Zhuang Mingge's opportunity.

"Turin's midfielder Coyce, or Naples' midfielder Kripa." Ranieri thought for a while and gave his own suggestion.

"Why don't you buy Ferrara? Naples probably won't block this deal." Zhuang Mingge suddenly had a whim and wanted to test Coranieri.

"But Ferrara is a member of the national team and is likely to participate in next year's World Cup. If he is allowed to play in the second division next season, he will not only lose his position in the national team, but also make him hate Fiorentina. , The gain outweighs the loss." Ranieri explained, "But the situation of Coyce and Kripa is different. I still know Sacchi, he is very stubborn, and he also trusts Albertini and Dino. The combination of Baggio, Juventus’ Conte and Inter Milan’s Berti, Coyce, who is just a rookie, and Kripa, who is not at an advantage in age, has no possibility of entering the national team.”

"The analysis is very good. You are welcome to join Florence, Claudio." Zhuang Mingge applauded Ranieri's analysis and said happily.

"I'm also very happy to coach Fiorentina, Antonio."