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Aldridge has to be very patient and sincere with a player like Thierry Henry, who has already won the World Cup, so he personally comes to the door and communicates openly with each other, he never puts himself in a position where he is above the player in a posture, the authority of the manager is one thing, but the communication between the generals is another.

Henry's inquiries about the status of the team, Aldridge is also very frank.

If Millwall plays three strikers in the new season, the only forwards over the age of 20 are Vanney, Larsson, Klose, plus Glen Shire, that is, four people, Ronaldo, Duff, Van der Meyde, all of whom are not yet 20 years old, whether it is from the perspective of physical fitness or player protection, Aldridge will not give them more than 30 appearances, of course, there will be priority and priority, like Ronaldo, Aldridge will let him play in more important games, and Van der Meyde and Duff are still standing players on the bench.

How many games do Millwall have to play this season?

The Champions League, the League, the League Cup, the FA Cup, the four-tier battle, plus the UEFA Super Cup, the Toyota Cup, if the cup is not played at the first time, then the density of games in a season is likely to be close to 60.

And that's not even counting the games that the players themselves have to play for the national team in a season.

Besides, the player's form itself has ups and downs, and when the form is not good, it is time to stop and rest. Wait until you're back in shape before playing.

Aldridge admitted: "If you're worried about the number of appearances. I can at least assure you. You're going to get a fair play, as long as you're in good shape, you're doing well, there's no way I'm going to put you on the bench, sometimes too many games are not good for a player your age, you need to combine work and rest, you need to be calm when your form is up and down. Instead of stubbornly insisting on playing. ”

Henry thought about it in his heart.

Millwall's several forwards, Larsson and Ruud van Nistelrooy should be the main team, Glen Shire's characteristics make him play limited, Van der Meyde, Duff, Ronaldo are all younger than him, and in terms of his own ability, Henry doesn't think he is worse than these people, competing for the main force?

There is competition to be pressure, and there are better competitors. in order to stimulate their own potential to a greater extent.

After three hours of deep talk, Henry nodded and agreed to join Millwall. The rest is the issue of contract details, Millwall is not short of money now, the finances are very loose, the introduction of a player like Henry, it will not be controversial to directly give the second level of the team's salary, Henry is the winner of the World Cup after all, not a nobody.

Aldridge returned to London with Henry, Henry stayed in the hotel first, and the club was looking for a home for him that met his needs, and the small community of Millwall, which was a bit shabby for a player of Henry's level, and of course he needed a bigger home to be able to live more comfortably.

The next day, Henry underwent a physical examination by Millwall's medical department, and the medical department fed back the message to Aldrich: minor injuries, two months soon, three months at a slow, will definitely be healed.

Another day, with less than three days to go before the Premier League opens, Millwall held a press conference to announce the new signings.

Thierry Henry appeared at a press conference with Aldridge in casual attire to show off the new shirt.

Fleet Street was really caught off guard by Millwall.

The day before, they were doing a pre-season tour of the Premier League teams for the new season, and other teams may still have reinforcements in the works, and the media will also use speculation or uncertain remarks to evaluate the outlook.

But in the case of Millwall, Fleet Street is extremely detailed, and the basis of the analysis is based on the fact that Millwall has absolutely no new signings.

As soon as the outlook for various media outlets ended, Millwall announced the signing of new signings, which is indeed a bombshell news.

Thierry Henry, a member of the World Cup winners and a young winger who scored three goals for France, joined Millwall from Monaco for £10 million!

The Sun's Thomson laughed: "Congratulations, Mr Hall, Millwall have set a new record for signings. ”

Aldrich was in a good mood, and Henry sat next to him and smiled.

"Hehe, yes, this is the most expensive signing in the history of the club, but I think it's worth the money, I won't look at Thierry with the eyes of Mr. 10 million, he needs a bigger challenge, a better stage, Millwall can give it to him here, and at the same time, with his joining, Millwall's competitiveness will be even higher, I am full of confidence in the new season."

It actually sounds a little shabby.

The Champions League champion, the single record of transfer expenditure is only 10 million pounds, which is too bad for a strong team.

With the full recovery of the Premier League teams, the competitiveness in Europe has increased rapidly, and last season it won the two most influential cup titles in Europe, and many foreign media have also sent reporters to follow the Premier League and pay attention to the performance of English teams, Giancarlo of "Milan Sport" is one of them.

He doesn't measure Millwall's transfer operations in terms of money, instead he thinks Italian clubs should learn from Millwall's business model.

Don't buy the expensive ones, only the right ones!

Giancarlo, speaking in Italian native English, asked Aldridge: "Millwall have won one league title, one Champions League in the last two seasons, and two major cup competitions in England, and the past two years have undoubtedly been successful, so where is Millwall's pursuit in the future?" What are your realistic goals for this season? Thierry Henry is a good striker, but Millwall's overall strength has declined, which is obvious to all. ”

Aldridge calmly replied: "We lost a couple of very important players in the summer, that's true, the outside world is saying that Millwall has gone down, I don't think it's particularly true, because people overlook the fact that my team is on the rise, Ruud van Nistelrooy scored 11 league goals last season and he can score at least 15 this season. Ronaldinho had seven assists and five goals last season. He will be even better this season. There is also the improvement of players such as Van der Meyde, Duff, Frank Lampard, which has not caused a serious decline in the overall strength of the team, and now that we have Henry, do you want to know what Millwall is pursuing this season? Quite simply, the league title is the number one goal! ”

Aldridge's calm confidence is not a disguise, and that's what he should say: Millwall are the favourites to win the league!

Giancarlo was deep in thought. Aldrich's confidence makes it impossible to assume that he is just hard-mouthed.

Ajax also faced poaching after winning the Champions League, but the team could only sell people little by little, and did not dare to sell the main team directly, in order to remain competitive and left many players, resulting in the players leaving freely, Millwall won the Champions League and sold five important players at once plus a good substitute, in addition to the team's debt, through the transfer market to obtain huge profits, the team's foundation is also one of the important factors.

In the past few years, Millwall has always been said to be young, but no one has ever said that Millwall has a thin squad. They have a large number of young players who are constantly developing and the age structure is very reasonable. There is an obvious step-by-step order, so that even if they sell the star of the year they played, there will be a successor to take the place immediately, and there will be no personnel gap.

The deeper Giancarlo thinks, the more he feels that Aldridge is unfathomable, and it is not difficult to build a pyramid-like team, but the difficulty is that every brick of the pyramid is of excellent quality, and if there are young players who are embarrassed and unable to inherit the mantle left by their predecessors, then the pyramid will collapse in an instant.

"Millwall are aiming to regain the league title, so who do you think are the biggest rivals this season?"

Aldridge's first focus this season is indeed the league, there are too many uncertainties in the Champions Cup, first of all, the time span is very long, the interval between games is also long, no one can say what accidents will happen in the interval, and the team has gone a group of stars, the league is the foundation of the club's survival, Millwall must first let a new generation of wild lions in the league grinding.

One of the most important reasons is: to measure whether a team is dominant, the first thing to look at is the league, Millwall has won the league title, but if they can't win the league title consistently, even if they perform well in Europe, they are not very convincing, improve the team's influence and dominance, the first league, the Premier League champion Blackburn Rovers three years ago, who cares about them now?

If Millwall are unable to regain the league title in the next two years, their success will be greatly undermined.

"The biggest rival is Manchester United and Arsenal second."

Aldrich replied bluntly.

Richard of the Daily Mail asked curiously: "Why is it that last season's league champions Arsenal are not in first place, but Manchester United, who were sniped by Millwall as a substitute in the last moments of last season, are the biggest threat?" ”

Aldridge smiled: "It's very simple, Arsenal are going to play in the Champions League this year, they have been away from the Champions League for many years, but their squad is not thick enough to support a two-front battle, even if they are out of the group stage, it will affect their entire first half of the season. Perhaps many people think that the Champions League group is not only six games? How much of an impact can playing six more games make? In fact, if you were to treat each of the six group stage games as a no-miss-it-lose game, those six games would affect 12 league games before and after! Especially when you go to play away from home in the middle of the group stage, it will be a big test for the team. Last season, a new generation of young Manchester United played in the Champions League, what was the performance in the league in October and November? Millwall's failure to defend their title last season was also due to a number of draws in the first half of the league due to European competition, and I believe the same problem will happen with Arsenal. Manchester United are in first place because their squad is no worse than Millwall, if it wasn't for Keane's injury last season, they could have won the title early, although they also have to play in the Champions League, but the experience of a Champions League semi-final and a Champions League quarter-final in the past two years has allowed them to deal with it calmly, so Millwall's biggest opponent in the league title is Manchester United, not Arsenal. ”

"What about Liverpool and Chelsea?"

"I don't know about Liverpool, but Chelsea, yes, they've spent a lot of money on people, and I don't know how much debt they have, but it doesn't matter, the title game between Millwall and Manchester United and Arsenal, Chelsea is not qualified to play with us."

After Aldridge finished speaking, the reporters in the audience smiled.

This young marshal is really firm and contempts his mortal enemy to the end!

After the press conference, Aldridge took Henry to the training ground to meet the team officially, and asked him to change into a shirt and take a photo with the team.

After the 98/99 season family photo shoot at Millwall, all we had to do was wait for the new season to start.

Attached is a list of Millwall's squad for the new season.

Goalkeepers: Bout, Keller, Wright.

Defenders: Schneider, Ferreira, Mills, Materazzi, Southgate, Ferdinand, Zambrotta, Neil, Cole.

Midfielders: Makelele, Gattuso, Pirlo, Lampard, Nedved, Duff, Van der Meyde.

Forwards: Larsson, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Thierry Henry, Klose, Glen Shial, Ronaldinho.

A total of 25 people. (To be continued......)