On the evening of May 18, 97, the Treble-winning Millwall Club celebrated with a bus parade in East London, and Millwall fans gathered on both sides of the road to cheer.

The players are feeling the glory of the championship in their suits, and for them, the season is over and the celebration is part of enjoying life.

But for another protagonist who doesn't show up, the work continues.

Millwall Club Community, Aldrich Residence Apartments.

Ronaldinho, with a tissue stuffed in his nostrils, sat cross-legged on the sofa with half a watermelon, scooped a watermelon pulp into his mouth with a spoon, and stared intently at the football news on TV.

On this afternoon, compared to the sensation of Millwall's celebration of the treble, there was also a news in English football circles that came into focus.

Old Trafford King Eric Cantona officially announced his retirement this afternoon!

The soccer superstar, who will turn 31 in a week, surprisingly chose to say goodbye to the pitch at this time, causing not only an uproar on Fleet Street, but also a shock to the United dressing room and all Manchester United fans.

Aldrich came downstairs and was followed by two young men in overalls, carrying a malfunctioning treadmill.

"We will take this treadmill back for inspection, and if it is for quality reasons, we will replace it with a new one for you."

After the two young men finished speaking, they left Aldrich's apartment with the treadmill on their shoulders.

Aldridge closed the door and walked back to Ronaldinho and complained: "You're not heavy, why did you break my treadmill, then again." The team is on vacation. You don't go to celebrate with the first team. If you want to exercise by yourself, just go to the youth training base. ”

Ronaldinho didn't reply: "It's a bit far, and I don't know if there is anyone on the other side of the road." Boss, your treadmill is too fragile, I ran for three minutes, and then the machine suddenly stopped, causing me to hit the wall directly, and my nose still hurts. ”

Aldrich patted his head with a little helplessness. Ronaldinho suddenly turned his head, pointed to the TV and said: "They say Cantona is a superstar, why do I think he's not good at all?" He played in England for six and a half years and didn't score as many goals as Henrik did in his three years at Millwall. ”

Aldridge scratched his head and was silent for a moment, then said: "Because you can't just think of him as a striker, he's not only the core player of Manchester United, but also the spiritual leader of Manchester United, and his role is not only to score goals or assists, but also to affect the morale of the whole team, uh." This invisible effect is difficult to detect through data. Why is he a superstar? Because he's not just a star himself. It can also help teammates become stars. ”

For a superstar like Cantona, goal efficiency is not a reflection of his value, and the value of this kind of player in the team is more intuitively reflected in the fact that he is not on the field, and the team's record is up and down.

Millwall also has such players, Nedved is the one whose fighting spirit infects his teammates, so that his teammates will not give up in the face of adversity, and give others the belief in tenacious fighting, this invisible spirit is the most valuable.

Therefore, there are not many stars in Manchester United's history who have scored more goals and are more efficient than Cantona, and there are also a lot of players who have been with the club for a long time.

Ronaldinho put down the watermelon in his arms and stood up to stretch, he understood the literal meaning of Aldrich, but he didn't understand the meaning.

What does it mean to be a star yourself, but also help your teammates become stars? ”

Ronaldinho didn't think much about it, it wasn't something he should worry about, he just asked casually.

He picked up his duffel bag on the other side of the couch and waved at Aldrich, "Boss, I'm leaving, don't think about me." ”

Aldridge gave him a thumbs up and encouraged: "Go to the national team and do well." ”

Ronaldinho walked out of the door, waved his hand without looking back, and said: "Don't worry, you won't disgrace Millwall." ”

Aldrich laughed dumbly, embarrassed? To lose it is to lose Brazil's face.

Ronaldinho was called up by the Brazilian national team to compete in the World Junior Championships in the summer.

There is also the World Youth Championships in the summer, and Aldrich's colleagues have already taken action to prepare to watch the game and collect good seedlings, but he does not plan to watch the game, because it is too far away, one will be held in Africa, the other will be held in Asia, and even the Confederations Cup will be held in Saudi Arabia, Aldrich's plan for this summer is to be in Europe.

Go back to the gym to tidy up, especially the nosebleed from Xiao Luo's face hitting the wall, Aldrich was busy for a long time to clean up, and when it was time for dinner, he went downstairs to open the refrigerator, his eyes searched around, and he reluctantly closed the refrigerator door and sighed with a smile: "Xiao Luo, you thief!" ”

The juice pressed at noon was refrigerated in the refrigerator, but when it was ready to be enjoyed, the juice bottle was missing.

Ronaldinho, who threw the juice bottle into the trash at the airport, sneezed, and then started boarding with his travel bag, still thinking that the juice made by the boss was so delicious, and he would go back to his house to taste it.

Aldrich rested at home for two days before quickly getting into a working mood.

Although the door to the transfer market has not yet opened, as long as the club has no personnel changes, it has begun to work intensively to recruit them.

Following last season's glorious treble, Millwall's official website updates a player's contract extension news every day, a means of keeping the team in the news spotted.

In fact, the contracts of the players in the team have been renewed, some players are five-year contracts, such as Southgate, Larsson, Nedved, Schneider and other players, some players are three to four years of contracts, as for two-year contracts, there are also players who want to sign like this, such as Shevchenko, but Aldridge directly refused, and after negotiations, the contract period was set at three years.

The two-year contract is almost non-binding, and after a year, the player becomes a semi-free agent, and Aldridge will never wait for the player's contract to be left for one year before considering renewing or selling. The contract is guaranteed for at least two years. Because he looks at the big picture. The focus is on the team's construction over the next five years.

If a player offers a contract extension of less than three years and is adamant, Aldridge will immediately think about the player's replacement.

The manager's authority is that he has to be above the players, but the players are the manager's role in achieving the goals, so the players are actually above the manager.

Millwall FC is singing and dancing, but Aldridge's worries about the future and the current situation can only be hidden in the bottom of his heart. For example, he is already thinking about future replacements for Trezeguet and Shevchenko.

Trezeguet was so ambitious that he was hesitant to renew his contract in the summer, as was Andriy Shevchenko, who had already expressed his desire to land in Serie A when Aldridge brought him in.

In this era, the best players are concentrated in Italy, and the appeal of Serie A is difficult to shake in a short period of time, which has nothing to do with Millwall's strength. It's the league's influence.

By contrast, Larsson happily signed his name on a five-year contract. The soon-to-be-26-year-old Swede is not without dreams, but he is more mature, he understands the power of the team better than the fledgling newcomers, and his goal rate in the Netherlands was mediocre, but he arrived at Millwall with a huge leap in goalscoring efficiency and started the peak of his career this season, knowing that it is far better to be in a good team that suits him than to be in a big club.

Stam left with Millwall £15 million and the other players confirmed to leave in the summer are two, as well as two strikers, Phillips and Toney.

Phillips' transfer, Aldridge reached an agreement with Peter Reid over the phone on the night of the FA Cup triumph on the 17th.

Sunderland have been relegated, but Reid's position is still solid, so he has plenty of room to rebuild the team.

Sunderland are not the only teams interested in Phillips, there are also many who are bidding higher than Sunderland.

However, Aldridge eventually persuaded Phillips to join Sunderland.

And explained the reason to him, Sunderland will use him as the tactical core to build the team, his status is guaranteed, secondly, with his strength to play in the Premier League, however, because he is not the main force in Millwall, and he has made few appearances this season, first go to League One to integrate into the team, Sunderland will give him time, while other Premier League teams may not have the same patience, don't look at their higher bids than Sunderland, but the degree of attention is completely different.

Eventually, Phillips joined Sunderland for £3 million.

Toney is on loan at Martin O'Neill's Leicester City, and the deal was announced early on, allowing Toney to report to Leicester City in the summer.

At this point, Martin O'Neill admires Aldridge very much, either he doesn't make a deal, and if he does, he will be happy.

The managers are most disgusted by the procrastination of the summer trades, which not only affect the preparation, but also make people feel irritated: the players are coming or not coming!

At the end of May, Aldridge listened to management's financial report from last season within the club.

Millwall earned a lot of money last season through the treble, but because of the small stadium, the ticket income was a weakness, but the broadcast income and prize money made their financial situation much better than last summer, and they earned 18 million pounds from Stam and Phillips, which directly made them earn more than 50 million pounds for the season.

However, last season, Manchester United's operating income was the highest in the world, with an operating income of nearly £60 million.

And that's without counting the income and expenditure of the transfer market.

In terms of pure management, even if Millwall won the treble and Manchester United did not receive anything, its income was not even half of Manchester United's!

Millwall will earn more for the new season as they secure Champions League qualification and a new Premier League contract comes into effect.

The last broadcast contract was £191 million over five years.

The new contract, which began in the summer of '97, was £670 million over four years.

The average club earns more than £8 million per season, and Millwall can get the second best broadcast share after Manchester United because of the record and team influence and the number of live broadcasts, Manchester United has a higher income than Millwall, because Manchester United has more fans and more influence, and the other two, record and live broadcasts, Millwall is not lagging behind.

In Aldridge's view, the team's most difficult financial moment is over, and he has no problem living a stable life except for not being able to bring in big stars in the transfer market.

There are many reasons why he can't bring in stars, the transfer fee is only one aspect, the salary is also one of the costs, such as buying a first-class star, the transfer fee may be between 5 million and 10 million pounds, which is a one-time payment, but what about the salary? According to the highest weekly salary of 25,000 pounds in the Millwall team, only three players can get this salary, so the introduced stars are in the second tier, with a weekly salary of 20,000 pounds, if the contract is signed for five years, in these five years, the salary alone will be paid more than 5 million, and if you count the bonus, it may exceed 6.5 million.

Aldridge believes that rather than spending more than £10 million on first-class stars, and there is no guarantee that the stars will be able to play when they come to the team, he would rather put the money into the academy and spend it on the cost of developing stars.

This summer, the club's transfer budget is £15 million, and Aldridge intends to spend all of it on the academy, and his European online talent journey has begun. (To be continued......)