Of course, we still have to face our first opponent, Portsmouth.

In the summer, Portsmouth invested a lot of pounds and operated two heavyweight transfers.

The first was former Udinese Garner midfielder Montari, who at the time Portsmouth's official website declared, "This will be the most expensive signing in club history." The previous record was £4.4 million from Ausselle in the summer of 2006.

Although the official website of Portsmouth did not disclose the specific amount of the transfer fee, Manchester Sports News reported that Montari's transfer fee was around 7 million pounds.

Just half a month later, Portsmouth once again announced the operation of the most expensive signing in club history, this time with England striker Nugent.

The 22-year-old Nugent has lost his name, but in fact, he has been playing in the low league.

Last year, Nugent was selected for the England national team with his outstanding performance in the Championship team Preston, becoming the No. 4 striker for Michael Irving, Rooney and Darren Bente.

With such excellence, Nugent obviously could not continue to stay in the Championship, so the wealthy Portsmouth immediately decided to take action to take him down.

In fact, Roy Keane's Sunderland and Harry Redknapp's Portsmouth were willing to pay £6 million for Nugent, but in the end, Portsmouth raised the transfer fee to £8 million, thus finalizing the transfer with Preston.

Nugent is the top scorer in the English Championship, but when he is in the Premier League, he is just a newcomer.

What few people know is that he has an idol, or goal, in his heart, that is, Darren Bent, who plays for Manchester City.

Nugent and Darren Bent have very similar experiences - neither of them are geniuses from the Youth Army of the Big Team, and their careers can only start from the low-level league.

Darren Bent played for four seasons at Ipswich, and Nugent started at a lower start. He debuted in the League Two (at the time Division III) Berry, and then relegated to the Division IV with Berry.

He only joined Preston after playing for four seasons at Berry and competed in the Champions League in England.

In Preston's three seasons, Nugent's fame gradually grew with nearly 15 goals in a single season.

He always regarded Darren Bent as his target, although Bent was only one year older than him.

After being selected for the England national team and even helping England to score goals, Nugent's idea has not changed, because Darren Bent has become Manchester City's regular striker and his position in the England national team has become very stable. He is just starting out in Portsmouth.

Nugent was very happy to get the chance in this match with Manchester City. He hoped to see the difference between himself and Darren Bent in the game.

Nugent is still very confident.

He knew that his current fame and ability could not keep up with Darren Bent, but he would not underestimate himself that he would be much worse than Darren Bent.

But in the game, he found that it was not easy to show it.

When Portsmouth's match with Manchester City began, he found that Darren Bent quickly became the protagonist of the game, because in the 11th minute, Bent helped Manchester City score.

"The ball has entered!"

"The game started just ten minutes. Manchester City took the lead!"

"Darren Bent!"

"He kicked the ball in the penalty area and broke through the goal of Park David James, which was his seventh goal in the Premier League!"

Looking at Darren Bent's performance, Nugent was very unwilling to accept it. Because Portsmouth has been suppressed, he didn't even have a chance to perform.

But perhaps his teammate, David James, who guards the goal, feels that the most complicated one.

Due to competition within the team, David James knew it would be difficult for him to continue as the main goalkeeper. He chose to leave Manchester City to join Portsmouth, but he never thought about the feeling of being in Portsmouth.

After more than ten rounds of the league, James finally knew why many players would rather serve as a substitute in a big club than to be a small club as the main player.

In a small club, you face losing games one after another. In a big club, it is like Manchester City last season. Almost every game is a victory.

This is the difference in grades.

With a group of good teammates and a head coach with excellent team-leading skills, the team's performance can be guaranteed. As a substitute, even if you don't play, you can enjoy the joy of victory with the team.

It's different in Portsmouth.

Portsmouth's results are not bad, but they are much worse than Manchester City, so after many games, he has to feel the depression of losing.

That feeling is not bad.

Just like now, facing his former teammates enjoying the joy of scoring, he could only stand from a distance and watch, while being upset that he had just saved one step slower.

Nugent didn't know James' depressed, but he was not in a good mood. When facing Manchester City, he hoped that he could perform and also perform, but the team was suppressed and he could only watch Darren Bent perform.

The competition proved that this was just the beginning.

Next, Manchester City continued to attack Portsmouth. All Portsmouth could do was to fight back occasionally, and Nugent also performed. In a counterattack, he quickly dribbled the ball and broke through Dunn, but that was all. Later, at the front of the penalty area, he was knocked to the ground by Dunn.

Nugent felt very annoyed, but knew in his heart that this was the real top league.

In the top league, technology is important and experience is also very important. He relied on his technical ability to break through Dunn, but Dunn was experienced and decisively put him on the ground.

Portsmouth got a good free kick, but it didn't make much sense to them, and there were no players on their team who were very good at free kicks.

In the following time, Manchester City kept suppressing Portsmouth and scored one goal in the 37th and 71st minutes of the game.

The goal in the 71st minute belonged to Darren Bent. Taking advantage of a quick counterattack opportunity, he broke through Portsmouth's defense and used fake moves to move out of space. He directly shot the ball at the front of the penalty area.

This unexpected shot even left the Portsmouth defensive player without time to perform a tactical foul. James did not expect that Bente would be so decisive in the shooting. He could hardly watch the football flew past the goal behind him.

"3:0, Darren Bent scored his second goal!" The media praised Darren Bent.

Nugent didn't know these voices, but he also knew that Bente would definitely become the focus of the game, and he himself could only become an overlooked supporting role.

He had almost no performance throughout the game.

His only chance was to be knocked to the ground by Dunn. Compared with Darren Bent's last goal, he knew the gap between him and Bent - experience and... the team.

Nugent has just entered the Premier League and his experience is definitely not as good as Darren Bent, who has played for Manchester City for three seasons.

The second point is the team.

Nugent believes that the latter is the most important. Darren Bent has an excellent coach at Manchester City - Wan Sheng, who is the head coach that young English players yearn for. Everyone knows that this young Chinese is very good at cultivating players. If he can become a player he values, he will likely have a bright future.

In addition, it is the difference in the team's strength.

Darren Bent is a Manchester City player. He has a lot of good teammates. Manchester City has been suppressing Portsmouth throughout the game. He has many opportunities in the front.

In comparison, Nugent stood alone in the frontcourt most of the time, and he had almost no chance.

Thinking of this, Nugent envies Darren Bent.

If... if... if I was also attracted by that young Chinese and could also play in Manchester City, then in one or two years, maybe I would not be worse than Darren Bent!?

Nugent's ideas actually represent the ideas of many young English players.

Over the past few years, talented players appeared under Wan Sheng.

Botton Reit, Alfred, Morris, Ivan Cru, Darren Bent, Lescott, Ziegler, Ozil, Silva...

A few years ago, these players were simply out of name in Europe, but now they are the lowest number of stars, Morris, Darren Bent and Silva have also become the world's top stars.

The fame of each player is a well-known example and has become a real example of promoting Wan Sheng's ability to cultivate players. Therefore, Wan Sheng's ability to cultivate players is also deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Many young players hope to join Wansheng's team, which is seen as a shortcut to "becoming a big star".

It’s a pity that Wan Sheng is Manchester City’s head coach. Manchester City is just a team and cannot accommodate so many players, so they are destined to be disappointed.

After playing against Portsmouth, it is the fifth round of the Champions League group stage, and Manchester City will face Stuttgart at Manchester Stadium.

The defending Bundesliga champion has not been very good recently. After losing to Lyon away, Stuttgart lost all four games, ranking last in the group stage, completely losing the right to qualify in the group and even missed the third place.

Stuttgart's Champions League results shocked German football, but Stuttgart is not the only team with poor performance in the Bundesliga, they are not the special one.

The other two German teams participating in the Champions League - Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen, the group situation is also very dangerous.

Many German football players are worried about the sluggish performance of the Bundesliga team in the European game. German national team coach Loew said, "I have been alert to discover that the Bundesliga team has only won 7 points in 12 European Champions League games."

In an interview with German Sports News Agency, Loeff said, "The German team's performance in such international competitions is really disappointing."

Loeve still has to continue to worry because the promotion situation of Werder Bremen and Schalke 04 is also very unoptimistic.

"I can't be happy about this phenomenon. For Mario Gomez or Hitzelsperg, Taschi and Cadillac, not getting enough international games will not help them grow."

Löw's concerns were also approved by other German celebrities. Mattus told German prefans that "this result is a warning. You need to devote yourself and be passionate about the club's football game. Now we can't see these in the club."

Kahn believes that "maybe the Bundesliga looks like the highest level, but this is under exquisite packaging. However, this embellishment is not valuable. We need to prove that our inner league level is equally excellent."

Currently in UEFA's European Football League rankings, the Bundesliga is now ranked in Spain, England, Italy, France and Romania, falling out of the "Big5 Leagues" and ranking sixth in the European League.

The ranking of the Bundesliga also represents the competitiveness of German teams in the Champions League, but for Stuttgart itself, they value the club's performance and "face".

In fact, Stuttgart's performance in the Bundesliga was not good, and they became the worst defending champion in the Bundesliga in 41 years.

“We have too many injuries.”

This is the reason why Stuttgart coach Amin Fei remains unchanged after losing.

In the first 10 rounds of the Bundesliga, Stuttgart only achieved a record of 3 wins, 1 draw and 6 losses. The last defending champion with such a bleak record can only be traced back to Munich 1860 41 years ago.

Stuttgart is not only hopeless to defend his title, but also only 1 point away from the relegation zone.

Injuries are indeed Stuttgart's biggest problem. They already have many main players unable to play, so many young players in the league and the Champions League have participated.

This seriously affected Stuttgart's performance.

The league is powerless and the Champions League is defeated in all four games. You can imagine the situation of Stuttgart.

However, when facing this game to Manchester Stadium, head coach Amin Fei still hopes that the team will play better. "Even if we have been eliminated, we can increase the morale of the sluggishness, so we will not give up on the game!"

Amin Fei’s statement is a bit sympathetic, but considering Stuttgart’s results, it would be quite good if they could not give up the game directly.

Wan Sheng still attaches great importance to this game. Although theoretically, Manchester City's 10 points and the winning and losing relationship with Glasgow Rangers can ensure that the team gets a qualifying place, it is also very helpful to compete for the first place in the group and create a better knockout environment for the team in the quarterfinals. Therefore, two days before the start of the game, Wan Sheng still asked the team to do some targeted preparation training.

However, in this game, Wan Sheng chose to rotate.

With the current situation in Stuttgart and the home advantage, Manchester City all believe that there is no need to send out all the main lineups.

Many Manchester City players are choosing, and they also need to rest and restore their physical fitness.

Wan Sheng only sent a few, including Ozil and Torres, and all other positions were substitutes. Even the goalkeeper position, he gave the second goalkeeper Joe Hart a chance. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!