On the outskirts of London, in the evening, Aldrich leaned against the fence of the riverbank and smoked, Andrew came back from buying some fast food, and two young rich men with a net worth of more than 100 million yuan passed the dinner with cheap fast food.

Andrew cleaned up the garbage, lit a cigarette, turned around and leaned his back against the fence, and smiled: "Why are you suddenly interested in the national team again?" ”

Aldridge turned his head and stared at Andrew with an indifferent expression, and said softly: "I am now a Premier League champion coach and a Champions League champion coach, if I can lead the national team to achieve good results in the competition, do you think my achievements and personal influence as a football coach will be greatly improved?" ”

Andrew stared at him for ten seconds, then suddenly pointed at Aldrich's nose and scolded with a smile: "I thought you were thinking about the England national team and trying to turn the tide and save our national team, but it turns out that you are a complete selfish ghost!" ”

Aldrich raised the corners of his mouth slightly, and chuckled, "That's right. ”

He doesn't have the consciousness of worrying about the country and the people, and whether the England national team lives or dies has nothing to do with him.

The idea of wanting to be a coach is completely selfish, it is related to the height of personal coaching career achievement, and to create a stronger football influence, so that his "famous coach" aura will become more dazzling, so that it will be more beneficial to Millwall, the greater his fame, the higher his achievements, the easier it is to attract players to serve, and the more he can convince players.

Andrew reminisced for a while and said: "I seem to remember you saying that you can't be the manager of the national team. ”

"Yes, I said it a long time ago because I was a constraint on me when I coached Millwall. Even a second-rate national team would not allow me to be the coach of the national team. A third-rate national team may allow it. But I'm certainly not interested. But at that time, there was one factor that I overlooked. ”

Andrew blinked and asked, "What?" ”

"I am an English citizen."

"Nonsense! But will the England national team allow you to work part-time? ”

"Normally, it wouldn't be allowed, but now if you look at the reaction from the outside world, I'm not talking about the voices of the people calling for me to be on the national team, but Fleet Street until now. It seems that there is no second national team coach other than me! ”

Andrew thought about it.

Yes, it's weird.

Fleet Street has finished firing Aldrich without results, and no matter who is fired next, it will not be able to cause a strong reaction.

Hodgson? Redknapp? Wilkinson? Keegan?

Aldrich also discovered this phenomenon after paying attention to today's news.

He believes that Fleet Street has made a fatal mistake in hype.

They shouldn't have put Aldrich first in the first place, because Aldrich is too shiny!

After Aldridge made a public statement, the other names listed would be automatically brought into the comparison with Aldrich by the viewers.

Other homegrown coaches in England are either idle at home and have unconvincing coaching resumes, or they are not coaching top teams at all. Grades? Don't be funny, there's not even a champion who can get it. What kind of achievements to talk about!

In other words, in the list of local coaches, because of Aldrich's existence, others have been opened up due to the recognition of coaching ability, which has led to a strong gap in external reactions.

Andrew stretched out his hands and asked, "So what?" If you don't resign as club manager to coach the national team, the FA will definitely choose someone else. ”

"You're right, at least for now. First of all, because I couldn't give up my role as manager of the club, I had only one option, which was to be the manager of the national team, and due to the constraints, only the England team was left. Secondly, Who decides the manager of the England national team? The FA, from the FA's point of view, they are on the list of homegrown coach candidates, and now that I've been left out, what's next? Pick someone they think is the best, but what does the FA do if the person they pick the best doesn't do well? Do you want to choose a coach who is worse than your predecessor? ”

Andrew pondered for a moment and shook his head and said, "No, Aldrich, you think about this matter too simply, it's not like this, it's definitely not that simple!" Thompson won't risk being slammed by hostile forces within the FA to make you manager of the national team, and the Premier League won't say yes! There will be no unanimity within the FA! Thompson wants to balance interests and let you, the manager of Millwall FC, go and coach the national team at the same time, you are crazy, you want the whole of English football to do international publicity for Millwall! ”

Aldridge had a serious expression and said in a deep voice: "Of course there will be difficulties, there will be great difficulties, but I also have advantages, as I said before, I am an English nationality, if the next England national team manager still can't achieve a satisfactory result for the people, Thompson and the entire FA will fall into a crisis of confidence, is in a dilemma, either they choose a worse local coach to take office, or, they choose an excellent foreign coach, which will break the century-old tradition of England!" Since then, it has been even more difficult for England to raise its head in front of Brazil, Germany, Italy, and other football powers that will never use foreign coaches! ”

No matter what the outside world says about the England national team, at least the English people and the media have always had unreasonable expectations for the England national team, as well as the consciousness of a football power.

It's not hard to understand that England won the World Cup, England's clubs have dominated Europe, and they have contributed greatly to tactical changes in the history of football, and there are many invisible factors that have contributed to the formation of this mentality and have developed over the long term.

England may not be able to export as many coaches as Italy, but at least for now it is still adhering to the tradition of a "football powerhouse": not using foreign coaches.

And countries like France and Spain, either because of the openness of the country and the nation, or the last foreign coach has a long history and a very short coaching period, in modern times, but any country with developed football. Basically, they use local coaches. The biggest reason is the popularity of the people.

Original history. After 2000, England ushered in the first foreign coach in history, Eriksen, more than 40% of England fans strongly protested, and the support rate did not exceed 35%.

Andrew thought about it carefully and said, "What you said also has some truth. If the next England manager fails to do so, the FA will have little choice between hiring a foreign coach or hiring a third or fourth place among the current candidates. None of them can satisfy the public. Especially when hiring a foreign coach, it is unimaginable that there is such a good coach in England, but to invite a foreign coach, if it still fails, it will be a disaster for the FA. ”

Syllable.

Aldrich snapped his fingers and said, "Yes, please me, please have a worse local coach, please have a foreign coach." All three options are difficult for the FA and have their own dangers. But what's the smartest thing to do in this situation? Weighing the pros and cons and choosing the option that does the least damage, and having me as England coach happen to be, because I can bring the least positive impact that no one else can bring, such as the smallest public protests, the national team's image will be improved, and maybe more sponsors will knock on the FA's door. ”

At this point, Aldridge is very confident, not to mention the local coach, there are few coaches in Europe who can beat him in these years, and in terms of personal influence, his reputation is skyrocketing, and the popularity accumulated by one championship after another is not available to everyone.

Andrew still frowned and said: "Your assumption is premised on the premise that the next England manager will fail, and it will be a failure that the people cannot accept. ”

Aldridge shrugged his shoulders and suddenly smiled: "Christmas is coming, my Christmas wish has been thought of, I hope that the England national team will lose badly in the European Championship next year!" ”

Andrew was dumbfounded, and couldn't say a word when he pointed at Aldrich for a long time, which really made people angry and laughed!

In the end, he could only stroke his head and bow his head and smile bitterly.

Yes, only the England national team suffered a heavy defeat in the European Championship, then the incompetence of the successor can be proven, otherwise, even if the England national team fails to reach the final or semi-final, as long as the results are not too embarrassing, the successor has an excuse, and the FA also has an excuse: to take over the team in a hurry, there is not enough time!

Then, the successor will definitely lead the team to compete in the next major tournament cycle, the 02 World Cup!

The longer the time, the greater the variables.

Whether it succeeds or not depends on the performance of the England national team at next year's European Championship.

Andrew understood Aldrich's thoughts, and he didn't need Aldridge to say it, he was conscious of it.

Aldridge didn't specifically call him out to confide, let Andrew understand his full thoughts, Andrew will help him next, use the established network on the FA's side to start activities, it's not a bad thing to lay a good foundation in advance, Aldridge likes to prepare early, even if he doesn't get the opportunity in the future, he will not be disappointed, and if the opportunity arises, he misses it because he is not ready to be ready to do it well, that is the biggest regret!

After separating from Andrew, Aldridge kept the matter deep in his heart and put all his thoughts on the club.

As Millwall will face Manchester United at home in the 17th round of the Premier League, Aldridge simply used all substitutes for the fifth round of the Champions Cup group stage in Germany to visit Hertha Berlin.

This time, he offended the Italian media, at least the newspaper "Milan Sport", and attracted a storm of criticism.

AC Milan was brave and defeated Galatasaray in this round, which raised the theoretical possibility of promotion.

However, Millwall came off the bench against Hertha Berlin, who finished second in the standings, and Galatasaray lost, so they were united and finally fought for a draw at home, extending the advantage of second place over third place Galatasaray, and at the same time completely erasing the theoretical possibility of AC Milan qualifying!

The Italian media slammed Millwall for lacking respect for the Champions Cup, being too utilitarian, and going on the bench early to qualify, which is a contempt for their opponents in the same group.

The English media ridiculed each other, believing that AC Milan itself was eliminated due to its own lack of competition, and Millwall could get a draw in all substitute away games, which reflected Millwall's strength from the side, if AC Milan qualified ahead of schedule, three days later there would be a Milan derby or a match with Juventus, I wonder if AC Milan will be the main force!

Aldridge has no intention of fighting with words, and in his opinion, it may also be a blessing in disguise for AC Milan to be able to focus on the league.

Since the beginning of the new season, Aldridge has lived a very quiet life, and few people on the field will take the initiative to provoke a war with him.

This quietness has become more and more eerie. (To be continued......)