Millwall are in the limelight, but they always have a bit of a local snake flavor, they are majestic at home, magnified to the point of invincibility in the London Civil War, but as soon as they get out of London, they are hard to find.

After a clean five-goal slaughter of Chelsea, they turned to Elland Road and played Leeds United 0-0.

Millwall also seem to be used to winning and drawing games, that is, not losing, but you can't be happy.

The club has a Monday night ritual where fellow coaching staff get together for a beer and a chat, which they call 'beer night'.

In the hotel's recreation room, Jenson and Barb are playing billiards, and Craig and Nagy are sitting at the bar drinking and chatting.

In just two months, Najib's Millwall youth team has made rapid progress in the youth league and the FA Youth Cup, putting Millwall's Leo academy in the spotlight.

Players under the age of 21, such as Andrea Pirlo, Capdevilla, Shevchenko, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, etc., will all be able to improve their development through the youth league, which may be overkill for many of them, but it is an essential part of their development, and it is not necessarily good for them to rush them into the fierce physical competition of the Premier League, and foreign players also need a process of adaptation.

Every once in a while, Aldridge will bring some young players to the bench and give them some time to see how they feel when they come off the bench, but will never rush to give them a stable position.

Almost 40 years ago, United's development squad was nicknamed 'Busby Baby' by the British press, and now Millwall's Leo Academy has also been nicknamed 'Hall Baby'.

Aldridge was late, he mainly delayed some time in the medical department, and after walking in, he smiled directly at Nagy on the side of the bar: "If Millwall's youth team continues to be in the limelight like this, our future will be poached by other teams." ”

The stony Najib replied: "I've heard that there are already a lot of scouts from all over the country in the stands watching our players when we play at home. ”

Aldridge took a bottle of beer and opened it, took a sip and sighed: "It's not just domestic, Andrew told me that there are scouts from many teams in Italy and Spain who come to the Lion's Den Stadium to watch the game, no way, Millwall has become the focus, but I can comfort myself that those scouts do not represent the giants, thank God, this is a world where everyone is arrogant, and the top giants now even look down on Manchester United, and they don't care about Millwall's small role at all." ”

Aldridge is telling the truth, the Premier League is in the ascendant, and the competitiveness in European competition has not risen to the point of attracting attention, Mo said that he has not even entered the quarterfinals of the Champions League in the past few years, and this year's new champion Blackburn Rovers is directly out of the bottom of the group stage, and Europe's eyes have not yet been set on England.

said that he was afraid of being dug into the wall, but in fact, Aldrich was quite stable in his heart.

The youth team has attracted the attention of many teams in England, but they can't afford to take away Millwall's players on more favorable terms, and the first team has attracted the attention of other first-tier clubs in Europe, and it may not be able to impress the players.

Jenson walked over and asked, "How's Nedved?" ”

Aldrich looked up and sighed: "Ten days of recuperation!" ”

"Grass!"

Jensen cursed in a low voice.

Tolop said with an embarrassed face: "Makelele is suspended, Nedved is recuperating from an injury, our two main midfielders can't play on the weekend, and Pire was also injured in the last game, Stam was sent off with a red card, by the way, the weekend is to play the top team Newcastle United, but we only have half of the main lineup." ”

In a long league, there will always be times when many accidental factors collide together to form a big problem.

Stam was directly sent off by the referee in the last round of the game at Elland Road Stadium because of the suspected elbow attack when jumping for the top, Makelele was suspended for yellow card accumulation, Pire injured his knee when he fell, which is not a big problem, but he will also be out of action for three weeks, and Nedved felt thigh discomfort in training today, and the doctor recommended a ten-day rest.

The main lineup is incomplete, and it meets Newcastle United, which went crazy in the first half of the league.

As of the 17th round of the league, Millwall has won 9 and drawn 8, ranking third in the league with 35 points, and Newcastle United has 15 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, ranking first with 46 points, not only 11 points ahead of Millwall, but also 10 points ahead of Manchester United.

Ten years later, twenty years later, the name Newcastle United, even fans who like the Premier League, will not feel anything special.

But in this day and age, Newcastle United in these months is simply a magical team, and it is Tyneside's Hollywood.

So subconsciously, the Millwall coaching staff feels that the current Newcastle United team is more difficult to deal with than Manchester United, at least the results are a good proof.

But Aldridge didn't care very much, he lit a cigarette and drank beer, and said with a smile: "The league is a long-distance run, some people are ahead of the first half, some people overtake their opponents after the most, and some people make efforts halfway but fail to hold on to the bottom, Ferguson has begun to declare war on Keegan, after Cantona's comeback, Manchester United's record has improved significantly, they don't care at all in the League Cup, and now they are bent on recovering lost ground in the league, hehe, as a spectator, don't you think Keegan is a little tender?" ”

Jenson put down the club, walked over and took a bottle of beer and frowned: "I think that old Scottish man has signs of going crazy, belittling Newcastle United and attacking Keegan, which is reasonable, but it is a bit puzzling to criticize other teams in the league as well, he said that other teams did not give their best against Newcastle United, which is too irresponsible." ”

Aldridge grinned: "You imagine yourself as Keegan, how would you react when you hear these remarks?" Kevin Keegan has such a brilliant career as a player, he is a figure who lives in applause and flowers, he can't stand the doubts of others at all, as if he just got his MBA certificate and applied for the job with confidence, only to be told that we are looking for technical talents, you can go back to school and learn again. I'll be honest, in the Premier League coaching industry, Ferguson has a lot of enemies, but his peers want his respect and recognition, Keegan seems to be-for-tat with Ferguson, in fact, he wants Ferguson to say: Newcastle United is very strong, Keegan is very capable of coaching. This is what Keegan wants the most, because Manchester United, Ferguson is like a mountain on the heads of all the teams in the Premier League. ”

Jenson understood a little, touched his chin and said softly: "The more Keegan cares, the more he wants to prove himself, which is very bad for the team, and if the coach can't calm down, the consequences will be a disaster." ”

"In fact, if you want to compete for the championship, there will always be only one opponent: yourself. The championship team should not stare at others, especially if you can't pin your hopes of winning the championship on the basis of the mistakes of your competitors, fight back and forth, just fight with yourself, if you can play consistently at the top level, then there is no reason to miss the championship, if you don't win the championship in the end, you can only say that your performance is not as good as the championship team. Ferguson's words made Keegan start to lose his bearings, drawing attention to Newcastle United, but what about Manchester United? They just have to overcome themselves. ”

Aldrich's words prompted frequent nods from his colleagues, who had rarely seen this kind of psychological warfare using media dissemination before, which was an eye-opener, even though it was nothing new in England.

"Then again, what are we going to do when we play Newcastle United at the weekend?"

Tolop asked curiously.

Aldridge said confidently: "I already have a general idea, Newcastle United are known for their gorgeous attack, hehe, then we will meet them with the most popular shield right now." ”

Hearing that Aldrich had a plan, everyone stopped asking questions, talked about other topics in life, played billiards and drank wine, and had a very pleasant beer night.

In addition to Millwall's next weekend against Newcastle United, there is also a League Cup quarter-final with Manchester City in the middle of next week, as long as they win against Manchester City, then Aldridge is 80% sure of advancing to Wembley to play the League Cup final at the end of February next year, because the League Cup semi-final is a home-and-away two-legged two-legged, he is confident that he can beat any opponent in England in 180 minutes, even Manchester United and Newcastle United, he is not afraid, because both teams will be distracted by the league, but Aldridge is more hungry for the title, not only himMillwall has been waiting for the first championship for a hundred and ten years!

In the 18th round of the English Premier League, Millwall's pre-match press conference against Newcastle United was packed.

Aldridge entered the stadium in a suit and leather shoes, and after sitting down, he opened with the words: "Tomorrow is just a normal league game, please don't ask any questions about the league title, no matter what the result of tomorrow, the Premier League title will not be produced immediately." ”

His words left the reporters in the audience a little speechless, their old business is to use this kind of strong dialogue to create championship suspense, Aldrich blocked their mouths with a word.

In desperation, a reporter asked: "Will Millwall send substitutes on the pitch tomorrow?" I mean, with Millwall's style of valuing the cup over the league this season, will Millwall retain their strength in the league for next midweek's Carabao Cup? ”

Aldridge immediately replied: "No, we value every game, I have a lot of young players in my squad who can play in the Premier League, at least in this round, we haven't lost a single game, which is enough to prove that we didn't take it lightly or give up on it. I can announce tomorrow's starting line-up now, goalkeeper: Keller, defenders: Thuram, Elguera, Southgate, Zambrotta, midfielders: Schneider, Vieira, Gattuso, Ballack, forwards: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Larsson. ”

When reporters heard about this starting lineup, they all had a strange look on their faces.

This is a far cry from all the columns in the newspapers today predicting Millwall's start, with at least two wrong at the defenders, one wrong in the midfield, and one wrong up front.

What the hell is Aldrich doing?