Millwall flew to Amsterdam in the morning, played a friendly match with Ajax at the Arena in the afternoon, flew back to London after the game, and the team disbanded at 8pm.

The friendly ended in a big win for Millwall, who swept Ajax 5-2 away from home without giving the Dutch giants a face.

Originally, Aldridge was to let the players play freely with a relaxed attitude, but Ajax was too serious, and their posture was to win this friendly match, Olsen had just taken office and was eager to prove himself, completely ignoring his control of the team and the defects in the tactical system caused by the departure of many core members of the team, plus Ajax has always been used to playing 433 offensive football, this kind of opponent Millwall is the least afraid, hitting you counterattack and hitting one accurately, playing like pouring five goals into the rebuilding Ajax.

The Dutch media lamented the sadness of the rapid fall of the former giants, who were the kings of Europe just two years ago, but now at home even the Champions League newcomers Millwall, who have not played a game, can humiliate them.

Fleet Street applauded Millwall, some people think that this is a milestone for Millwall to tear off the label of "England's Ajax", Millwall's first-team coaching team, except for coach Aldridge and Benitez, other coaches are from Ajax, and Millwall's style of play has also become its own, beginning to make "Millwall" a special synonym, mentioning this word, not only will think of this team, but also think of a passionate style of football.

Five days later, Millwall will take part in the last warm-up game before the Premier League kicks off: the Community Shield.

Aldridge, who returned to London after beating Ajax, was not in a hurry to return home and instead came to the training base. Here he has his own office. The rest of the coaching staff share a room.

Craig did not travel with the team to the Netherlands. Instead, he stayed in the club to study the materials sent by Andrew's agency.

There will be a forgotten young player coming to the tryout tomorrow.

Aldridge was in the coaching staff's office with his arms folded over his chest, his head tilted into the television footage.

Craig was right next to him with a remote control, fast-forwarding the video from time to time, and only slowed down when the player they were going to try out tomorrow showed up in the camera, and in slow motion for them to analyze the player's performance.

"Judging by his movement, he still reads the game very well, though. As a striker, he consciously avoided physical contact with opposing defenders and fought for the ball landing point, and in half a season, he succeeded only 7 times in more than 100 equal chances! That's why he was abandoned, but I don't think he should have been used that way in the first place. ”

Aldrich listened to Craig's explanation, nodding from time to time.

Through the long shot footage in the game footage, plus slow play. Coaches can more accurately analyze every movement and individual performance of a player in the game, which is a visual indication of the player's ability. It is different from the "excellent performance highlight video" that many agents send to the club when they promote the player.

Aldridge shook his head and said: "Liverpool has nothing to say. David Lamore received a biased technique in the youth team, and the Liverpool youth team also played continental-style tactics, and it is reasonable for Lamore to avoid physical confrontation after a serious injury, even if he leaves a shadow in his heart, it can be improved through the guidance of a psychiatrist, and it is a disastrous decision to loan him to Doncaster, when the player needs the club's care the most, he is allowed to go out alone to exercise, and Doncaster plays the most traditional English football, in this tactical system of playing long passes and hanging, Ramour's role as a pillar centre-forward is not that he is bad, but that the team is too low, and he has no teammates around him who can play at the same rhythm as him, obviously he plays the piano, but he asks him to clean the toilet"

Liverpool's youth training philosophy is different from that of traditional England, and the rookies that emerged during this period, such as Owen, Gerrard, Carragher, Thompson, etc., although they are not outstanding in the ranks of the top players, but in English football, they are better than more than 99% of their peers in the same period, and in special training, they also have outstanding advantages, such as the combination of Owen's speed and archery, Carragher's body and balance.

In such an academy environment, David Lamore can press Irving, although age is a very important factor, but it cannot deny his potential and the level of ability he has reached.

In May last year, Owen played as a substitute for Ramour, and then Ramour was seriously injured in training, and after recovering from the injury, Owen has entered the first team, Ramore went to Doncaster on loan in the second half of the season, and did not score a goal in 20 games, while Owen scored on his debut, rewriting the record for the youngest goalscorer in the Premier League.

Before Irving's goal became famous, Ramour was an even brighter prodigy than Irving, and a year later, the fortunes of the two took a turn for the worse.

Perhaps it was Ramour's poor performance of failing to score a goal in half a season at Doncaster that finally made Liverpool decide to give up the once highly anticipated "superstar of tomorrow".

To put it in the most superficial way: he couldn't score in the lower leagues of Doncaster, so can he be expected to make a difference at Liverpool?

But Aldridge didn't see it that way, and Ramour was in trouble, and the physical and psychological impact of the serious injury must have taken a toll on his career.

But his technical ability is still there, especially the invisible quality "game reading ability", which is particularly crucial, there are many players with excellent individual ability who are very poor in this area, and they show a kind of "I play my own gorgeous game" effect on the field, but they do not contribute to the team, or even damage the interests of the team.

Aldridge decided to give Lamor a chance, and the soon-to-be 20-year-old striker is no longer playing in England.

The big teams are not interested in him, and even the smaller teams of Doncaster's level seem to have little interest in him, after all, the statistics of zero goals in half a season are too miserable.

Lower-level clubs sent him an offer, and Ramour himself couldn't accept it. He joined Liverpool at the age of 16 and got a contract that was higher than the offer price of these smaller clubs.

Millwall are not stingy with their young players. Even if you give a contract with a weekly salary of 500. With a salary budget of less than £30,000 a year, a million salary budget can produce close to 40 rookies, while Aldridge's annual budget for the youth team is $4 million, which includes salary and daily expenses.

Millwall is the only one in England that dares to spend more than 10% of its operating income on youth training.

The next day, Aldridge did not personally preside over Ramour's trial, leaving it to the youth team.

A youngster with more talent than Ramour, Millwall's youth team has taken a big hit. It's just that Ramour left an impression on Aldridge last year, so he paid special attention to whether Ramour could play in Millwall in the future, and Aldridge's expectations would not be too high, so let's see.

The new season is about to kick off, the players are gradually improving their form at the training ground, and everyone has very high expectations for the new season, and they are eager to step on the stage of the Champions League as soon as possible.

Even though the Champions League has undergone a new round of expansion, with the number of participating teams rising from 16 to 24, the level of competition has not decreased. On the contrary, competitiveness has increased, as the champions and runners-up of the league of the powerful countries have the opportunity to participate. It can also allow some of the more competitive runners-up teams to step on this stage, such as Serie A, and Barcelona, who scored 100 league goals last season but had no choice but to settle behind Real Madrid.

Stimulated by stepping onto the Champions League stage, the players' fighting spirit is even stronger than last season.

At the end of the day, Aldridge and his coaches went to pick up the balls scattered around the pitch.

At this moment, a Mercedes-Benz drove into the training base, stopped in front of the office building, and Andrew, who had not been seen for a long time, got out of the car and appeared, and then, he opened the rear door, smiled and brought out two short teenagers about ten years old.

The three of them came to the training ground, and the two teenagers looked at their surroundings curiously, while Andrew gently stroked the top of their heads with one hand on each side.

After Aldridge finished picking up the ball, he looked back and saw Andrew, and at the same time saw the two teenagers looking around, and a wave of excitement rose in his heart.

With a smile on his face getting thicker and thicker, Aldridge walked up to Andrew, first bent down to greet the boy on his left very formally, and stretched out his right hand to shake his hand.

"HI, YOU LIKE PEOPLE TO CALL YOU KUN, RIGHT? Hello, my name is Aldridge Hall, if you like it, you can play here, there are a lot of teenagers here who play very well. ”

Aldrich spoke Spanish, which was different from the Spanish on the Argentine side, but there were no problems with communication in general.

The young man stared at Aldrich with his head held high, and said solemnly: "Boss, I will play well here." ”

After saying that, he reached out to shake Aldrich's hand, but he couldn't hold Aldrich's hand with one hand, so he used both hands.

Aldridge looked surprised, he glared at Andrew, and knew that this must have been taught by the other party.

Moving to the other side, Aldridge looked at the young man with a somewhat delicate face and smiled: "Leo, I know you are sick, but don't be depressed, everyone gets sick, you will recover soon here, I hope you enjoy football here." ”

Andrew stroked his head with both hands, the former was 9-year-old Sergio Aguero, and now Aldridge is facing 10-year-old Messi.

Messi has been diagnosed with a developmental hormone deficiency, treatment is only the most basic aspect, more important is his future growth, Aldridge will let him get the best medical care here, and in order to help him grow, there is also a special team of coaches to make special plans for his situation.

The 10-year-old Messi's eyes are now shrouded in gray and he can't see any brilliance.

Unlike Ronaldo, who has shouldered the hope of his family since he was a child, Messi's pressure in growing up comes more from mental and physical.

Even in the original history, when the 11-year-old Messi was diagnosed with a disease, underwent years of treatment and daily special training, and looked thin among his peers because of his short stature, his road to success is also an admirable and inspirational history.

When he met Aldridge for the first time, Messi just nodded lightly and didn't say a word.

Aldridge is not surprising, his personality dictates it, and even when Messi becomes a superstar in football in the future, he still shows an introverted side.

personally took the two teenagers to report to the youth team, and Aldrich gave them the same dormitory.

Millwall's dormitory for young players is a family-style apartment, with a large shared living and dining room, two people in a room, and an indoor court and gymnasium, swimming pool and other facilities on the first floor of the dormitory.

As he walked into the dormitory building, it was almost time to eat, but Aldridge stopped, and Messi and Sergio Aguero looked like him in the open indoor court, where there was only a teenager with a sinking face, facing the wall three meters away, repeatedly kicking the ball with his left foot against the wall.

Kicking, receiving, kicking, and catching the ball are all done with the left foot.

Seeing that there was someone at the door, the teenager stepped on the ball and turned his head to look, greeted Aldridge, and then swept his eyes over Aguero and Messi, his expression did not fluctuate, and then continued to kick the ball against the wall with his left foot.

Aldridge said to Messi and Aguero: "His name is Cristiano Ronaldo, 12 years old, you will be teammates. (To be continued......)