Chapter 266 The Hammers at the London Bowl

English football is moving forward in a difficult choice between tradition and innovation, and West Ham United is an example.

It is difficult to define whether West Ham United is a big team or a small team. Even many fans outside the UK do not know that it is also a London club. Having been living in the suburbs of London for a hundred years, Charlton and Crystal Palace used to have more important identities than West Ham United, let alone Senchisashi.

West Ham United has always been known as the 'star factory' and 'player academy', but it depends on which angle you interpret it. It can be said that West Ham United's youth training is outstanding, but it can also be understood that they cannot retain their own good talents.

Once you practice it, you will climb to a higher branch, which means that West Ham United itself is a "low branch".

There are small happiness in life, and big vertical and horizontal strategies. A club like West Ham United, which is neither big nor small, seems to be neither trivial nor trivial in terms of the club's development positioning.

After learning from the painful experience, the club's top management decided to step out of their comfort zone and move up the ladder to see if they could become an international club like Mori Kesspur.

For the 2012 London Olympics, the London government spent five years building the London Olympic Stadium as the main venue. Because it is big and round like a bowl, it is nicknamed the 'London Bowl'.

After the Olympics, the London Bowl became idle. West Ham United beat Tottenham Hotspur in the competition and bid farewell to the Upton Park Stadium that has been with them for a century this season. Since then, the London Bowl has been their new home ground.

In fact, the distance between the two places is not that far, four kilometers apart. The main reason is that the London Bowl has nearly 80,000 seats, while Upton Park only has 35,000 seats, and it does not meet the conditions for re-expansion.

However, West Ham United's attendance this season is far from ideal, and it is not as lively as it was back home. This is the pain that reform has to face.

In essence, West Ham United is a community team, and its mass base relies on the community population around Upton Park. Because the glory of the past has gone far away, now the British are the most nostalgic and conservative people in the world. They call it adhering to tradition, and so do the Hammers.

The team's relocation, even just four kilometers away, is seen by fans as a betrayal of tradition, abandonment and betrayal. Therefore, many ancestral fans no longer follow West Ham United and instead support other amateur teams, and some have even become fans since then. Fans of Italian D-division teams have such a strange line of thinking.

Manchester United is a major international football club, so despite the huge protests against the Yankee takeover, the Red Devils can still live and thrive, but West Ham United cannot. Before their influence is fully radiated, they can only endure the pain.

Zhuoyang and Manchester City came to the London Bowl. There were only 10,000 people in the huge stadium, half of whom were Manchester City's Blue Moon.

In the sparsely populated London Bowl, Zhuoyang also met an old teammate, former Real Madrid full-back Alvaro Arbeloa.

After 2 horses, Arbeloa has controlled the team's full-backs for many years, with great merit and hard work, and he is recognized as the most 'Real Madridist', purer than Shui Ye.

However, after the successful Dasha Carvajal returned to Real Madrid in 2013, Arbeloa lost his main position. Later, the Brazilian full-back Danino joined, which completely devoured Arbeloa's opportunities.

At the last second of the transfer window last summer, the 33-year-old Arbeloa came to West Ham United on a free transfer to see if he could have a second spring.

After returning to the Premier League, Arbeloa went from being the main starter to being a half-time substitute.

The process was very fast, and after a few games he became the water fountain manager.

In the 13th round of the Premier League last December, when West Ham United lost 1:5 to Arsenal in the London Bowl, Arbeloa came on as a substitute for Collins. As a result, he not only injured himself in stoppage time while defending Sanchez. , and received a yellow card.

After the game, it was diagnosed that Arbeloa had a severe calf muscle strain and would have to rest at least. Spain's "Daily Sports" listed him as one of the top stars of 2011. Pro-Barcelona media, not unusual.

Arbeloa is still on the injury list today, but that does not prevent him from coming to the London Bowl to catch up with old teammates.

"Lao Zhuo, it's great that you can come back again."

"Thank you. Alvaro, is your leg injury serious?"

"It's not bad. The old injury has recurred. I just need to recuperate."

"That's good."

This kind of sterile greetings is actually the mainstream conversation rhythm between people. It is not common to express one's heart to the heart, and the prerequisites are very strict.

When they were at Real Madrid, Zhuoyang and Arbeloa had a mediocre relationship, not close but not hostile. During those years of fighting with Mourinho, Arbeloa was considered Mourinho's man, but he did not openly oppose Zhuoyang.

Arbeloa once said: Mourinho is the greatest head coach in football history.

Therefore, although he was the most loyal 'Real Madridist', Arbeloa later had a bad relationship with local bosses Casillas and Shui Ye.

In fact, before coming to West Ham United, Arbeloa went to his old clubs Liverpool and Manchester United to recommend himself, but was declined by Uncle Zha and Mourinho. He waited until the last day to meet West Ham United's rock coach and law student Master Bilic got in touch.

1. The dark horse is Croatia, and the Grid Army finally won the third place.

In the semi-final between Croatia and the host France, France relied on defender Thuram's two frontcourt counterattacks and scored twice to win 2:1 and advance to the final. This game also left behind a very interesting and controversial scene, which is also a classic in the World Cup.

In the 74th minute, French center back Laurent Blanc was fighting with Croatian defender Slaven Bilic. Blanc pushed a palm on Bilic's neck. As a result, Bilic turned over and fell down with his face covered. , rolling on the ground in pain.

Blanc was sent off with a red card and lost the chance to participate in the final, which became his lifelong regret. Bilic became famous just like Busquets later, but later he admitted that he was diving.

Bilic is three years younger than Blanc, but he retired six years earlier than Blanc. However, both of them embarked on the road of coaching after retirement, and both served as head coaches of their respective national teams.

Blanc succeeded Ancelotti as PSG head coach in 2013, but he was dismissed last year. Bilic resigned from the national team in 2015 and took the coaching position of Hammers West Ham United. He played for Upton Park for two years as a player.

Last season, West Ham United finished seventh in the Premier League, which was a pretty good result. However, they moved to the London Bowl this season, but their performance was poor. After 20 rounds, they were ranked 14th because of their desire to avoid relegation.

Perfectionist Guardiola is ambitious and doesn't want to let go of any front, so Manchester City, who came to the London Bowl, except for the goalkeeper who was replaced by Caballero as the second goalkeeper and the suspended Fedora, the rest of Manchester City sent out all the main players to play.

However, the passionate coach Bilic, who loves rock and roll, has just lost to Manchester United a few days ago, the relegation situation is grim, and the team is full of injuries. He arranged a mixed lineup with a large number of substitutes today, and his perfunctory attitude is palpable.

Zhuoyang continues to wear the captain's armband and start the game. Hundreds of years ago, he could not play in the Chang'an League, the most primitive football competition, but now there is the FA Cup, the first and oldest competition.

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