The morning sun is shining, and it is rare to have a sunny morning in London in winter.

Aldridge stood on the sidelines of the training pitch in a pair of warm gloves and casually chatted with his fellow coaching staff.

Soon, the players also came to the training ground on time one by one, Aldridge is very grateful for the decision he made half a year ago, let Southgate, Nedved, Larsson as the team's three captains, these three are now the mainstay of Millwall, the strength on the field has nothing to say, and the professional ethics are also obvious to all, there are three people as role models, other players can't afford to play big names, and the matter of being late for training has not happened once in half a year.

"Have you had a good past few days?"

Aldridge is becoming more and more of a leader, and when he asks, most of the young and old players laugh and don't say anything, while the other younger, more cheerful ones gossip.

Compared to other clubs that are still training, Millwall suddenly gave the players a holiday, which makes them very happy.

The team needs to take a breather and have been racing non-stop since October, and the brakes need to be applied when the time is right.

When the players returned to training after a short break of happiness and relaxation, perhaps none of them remembered the previous three games without a win, Aldridge minimised the negative impact on morale.

Because Schneider was injured, Aldridge let him recuperate for a month to be on the safe side, and Beckham temporarily entered the main lineup.

Five days later, they travel north to South Yorkshire to take on Sheffield United at the top of the League One table.

For Millwall's previous three rounds of winlessness, the outside world is paying attention to the outcome of this game, whether Millwall can withstand the pressure and reverse the decline is likely to be the watershed moment of the league title.

After all, if Middlesbrough win, the gap between the two teams will be reduced to two games, and after six rounds, the two teams will face the second leg of the league competition.

In the case of general attention from the outside world, Aldridge led the team to an easy 2-0 away victory, and the soldiers were bloodless.

Middlesbrough, on the other hand, failed to win at home to Grimsby on the same day, extending the gap to 10 points.

Millwall's win to stop the slump continues, and if the momentum continues, the suspense of the League One title is likely to be ended at the end of February, and at the end of February, whether Middlesbrough can beat Millwall's momentum at the lion's den stadium will determine the fate of both teams.

Who, exactly, is going to play the brutal play-offs to get a ticket to the supermajor?!

Returning to London in a happy mood, Aldrich had just returned home when the phone rang in his study.

"After the lawsuit was completed, I found someone who specializes in divorce lawsuits to take over, helped her rent a new apartment, paid rent for three years, hired a nanny, paid her salary automatically from my company, and gave her 30,000 pounds."

Andrew's slightly tired voice came from the receiver of the phone.

Aldrich breathed a sigh of relief and chuckled, "How long has it been since you went to the gym?" I don't think I do any physical work, right? How do you seem to be tired. ”

"Well, it's tiring to run back and forth. Aldrich, I don't get it a little confused. ”

"What do you mean?"

"You know what that means."

"I don't understand."

"Okay, so why are you going to help her? Even if you like mature women, she, with all due respect, I don't see any charm in her. ”

Aldrich laughed dumbly, and only sighed after a while: "Andrew, you have changed. ”

"What does it have to do with me?"

"Why can't you just look at this? Maybe you make a supermodel and give a famous watch and a famous bag fashion to please people, so that women can give you a hug, but it doesn't mean that I am too. Ms. Rowling has a talent that we can't envy, she's just had a hard time in life, that's all, I want nothing more to help her, I just want her to cheer up, and not be distracted by the trivial things in life, and show her unparalleled talent to the world without worry. ”

Andrew fell silent for a long time before sighing: "Aldrich, you're right, I'm changed, it's a very simple question, but I'm a jerk, you don't hate me, right?" ”

Aldrich laughed: "How come? Everyone's lifestyle is different, and I can't guarantee whether I will become a bastard in the future, so why should I criticize others with a clear eye. Let's talk about other things. ”

The two brothers have talked about their careers, with Andrew's agent, in addition to holding contracts with most of Millwall's players, now trying to sign players from several Premier League clubs.

But on the whole, Andrew's company is still inconspicuous, and has not yet set off much of a storm in the agent industry, which needs fame, long-sleeved dancing in the transfer market, and a broad network in the commercial development of players, in fact, the core is to "generate income" for players.

As soon as he talked about football-related topics, Aldrich's mouth couldn't stop the car, under his indoctrination, Andrew's idea of "signing players to Millwall" completely changed, and now his agent company has just started, not to mention that it is a famous star, even ordinary players are probably difficult to sign, but it doesn't matter, at this stage, he only needs to sweep young players on a large scale, even if he can't sign them, establishing a good relationship is also to lay the foundation for the future, and the agent contract is not a lifetime, and a lot of them are signed every three years. After being able to manage the transfer of several stars, Andrew's company also launched its brand.

The next day, Aldrich received a courier from Rowling in Edinburgh.

There was a thick copy of the manuscript in the courier, as well as a letter.

Aldrich opened the letter and read it, in which Rowling expressed her gratitude to him, and the manuscript was a copy of the work she was working on, although it was not yet finished, but she hoped to give Aldrich a sneak peek and some evaluation of her work.

Aldrich was surprised to find that the manuscript in his hand turned out to be the unfinished "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone".

Evaluation or something, Aldridge thinks he is not qualified, he is just a person who watches the excitement, if Rowling is a football player, Aldridge is at best just a fan cheering off the field, let him go on the field to play, then it will be ironclad.

However, Aldrich was overjoyed to be able to read the original Harry Potter manuscript, but he also knew the importance of the manuscript, so he never took the manuscript out of the study, and lay quietly on the sofa in the study at night, listening to soothing soft music, and read page by page with relish.

In the past, he was half-hung in English, and he couldn't read the books in the original English, and even if he could understand it, it was estimated that the words were not up to the realm of meaning.

Now it was different, he could at least comprehend everything depicted in the manuscript without any obstacles, and naturally fantasized about that wonderful world in his mind.

Interestingly, Rowling is not without intersection with football, she finds soccer games boring, but the flying football in the sky gives her creativity, and the Quidditch World Cup in "Harry Potter" is actually the source of football games.

Aldrich wrote a reply to Rowling after reading the manuscript, and from then on, although the two rarely saw each other, they always kept in touch by letter, and this relationship continued until the day of the official publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

At the end of January '95, Millwall had a big game: the FA Cup.

The FA Cup starts in the third round, with Premier League and League One teams joining the team to form a knockout round of 64 teams going head-to-head.

Millwall were extremely unlucky, and the draw went straight to local rivals Arsenal.

If there is anything to be thankful about, it is probably the home game to increase ticket revenue, and the opponent is Arsenal, which also has a lot of broadcast income.

There are many enemies in Millwall's history, including Liverpool, Manchester City, Leeds United, Gillingham, etc., but half of the ways in which these teams have hostility and even grudges with Millwall are due to the intersection of the stadium at a certain time, and the other half is caused by the outbreak of hot conflicts between fans on both sides.

A Premier League giant like Liverpool will not take Millwall in their eyes at all, but more because Millwall is not strong and unilaterally holds a grudge.

In the hatred of these non-derby relationships, football hooligans play a key role in fueling the flames behind the scenes.

Overall, Millwall have three rivals due to their geographical location in London, West Ham United and Crystal Palace, as well as Charlton.

In terms of hatred, West Ham United is at full value, Crystal Palace 80, Charlton Athletic 60.

Not all teams in London are fighting with Millwall, and the difference in strength also makes those strong teams look down on Millwall, and the strong always disdain the weak, just like Tottenham's hatred for Arsenal is 100, but Arsenal is only 80 for Tottenham at best, and Millwall has a tendency to not violate the river with Tottenham and Arsenal.

Apart from West Ham United, a sworn enemy that is likely to remain for generations to come, Millwall's second target is not Crystal Palace, but Chelsea in west London.

This is probably also a factor of fans, Chelsea in West London, as West London has become more expensive in the past few decades, loyal fans of the traditional working class can only move out of West London, where prices and land prices are soaring, and move to places with relatively low consumption levels, London, rich in the east and rich in the west, rich in the south and rich in the north, most of the Chelsea fans have come to the Millwall area, and therefore, the war between fans has naturally risen to the clubs, so there is a strange phenomenon.

The stronger Chelsea hate Millwall more than Millwall hate!

It's conceivable that in Millwall, a region known for football hooliganism, can Chelsea fans bargain here? Therefore, Chelsea hate Millwall even more, but Millwall only hate each other in a counterattack.

Located in Greater London, in a general sense, all clubs have derby relationships with each other, and those teams with no history of hatred have only the purest meaning of the city derby: who is the boss of the city!

Millwall is unlikely to compete for Arsenal's "King of London" because of their strength, so the atmosphere in the derby will not be very strong.

But Arsenal are a nasty club, especially in London.

Because Arsenal moved from south London to north London in the past, in the area of Seven Sisters Street, almost moved to Tottenham's doorstep, grabbing land with others, this kind of behavior is disgusted by any team and fans, similar to Manchester United, an outsider in Manchester, can not get the hearts of a wide range of local fans, Manchester City's fan base is more solid than Manchester United, and Arsenal's fans are more from the adjacent counties in the north, but as London's international diversification has become more open, many neutral fans have in later history, Most became Manchester United or Arsenal fans.

The FA Cup against Arsenal would at best create some sparks in London, but it would not be too exciting, and if Millwall were against West Ham or Chelsea, it would be hilarious.

Aldridge only faced this FA Cup with a normal heart, but unexpectedly, someone was restless and insisted on blocking him.

On the morning of the game, the cover headline of The Times read:

George Graham: Arsenal will teach Millwall to respect football, Aldridge is a cancer in English football!