Chapter 67

**Chapter Pre-Thank You**: Thank you to the two book friends, Nanxi Lao Gonggong and 6322046, for your generous rewards. The recent updates have been sparse, and I feel ashamed.

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Ma Jing finally learned his lesson. It has been proven that a big gamble can not only make someone rich overnight but can also leave them with nothing. Exotic delicacies may look delicious, but eating too much can still cause diarrhea. From the start of summer until now, compared to last year, Atletico Madrid's actions in the transfer market have been much more low-key.

Ujfalusi, a Czech central defender, was signed for free from Serie A's Fiorentina.

Assunção, a Brazilian midfielder, was signed for free from Porto in the Portuguese Super League.

Coupé, a former French national goalkeeper, was signed at a low price from Lyon in Ligue 1.

These three low-cost or even zero-cost deals directly changed the image of Atletico Madrid as a club with more money than sense. While Fiorentina is not mentioned, it is worth noting that both Porto and Lyon are well-known "black shops" in European football. The only transfer in the millions, the ten million euros spent on bringing in Heitinga from Ajax, is also considered to be worth the money. It is said that Atletico Madrid is still negotiating with Villarreal to bring in the French forward Pongolle as a supplement to Aguero and Forlan. Considering Villarreal's financial situation, Atletico Madrid is very likely to succeed.

However, even so, Reixino is still dissatisfied because he has not received any news about the winger he wants. What makes him even more frustrated is that Pitaqi, without consulting him, decided on his own to loan Reyes to Benfica. He cannot complain, so he can only put on a show for the media, saying that he is very satisfied with Atletico Madrid's transfer work and that his cooperation with Pitaqi is very pleasant.

Because, he is just a head coach, responsible for training and matches. He can only offer suggestions regarding player transfers, and those suggestions may or may not be taken into account.

However, Atletico Madrid's pre-season performance has been good, with three wins in three matches, including a match against Porto. If Reixino says he is not concerned about the first-round league opponent, Malaga, that would be a lie. Everyone knows that Malaga's head coach is Atletico Madrid's former head coach. Therefore, a win or a loss will give people a very clear impression. However, to say that he is overly concerned is also not true. After all, Atletico Madrid is Atletico Madrid. Even though they had a rough season last year, their focus is still on the future, not on looking back at Malaga.

Therefore, Reixino has been managing Atletico Madrid according to his own methods.

Malaga? There is still time.

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After the team's training camp, Lin Sen's life became exceptionally regular.

He arrives at the training ground half an hour early, then confirms the day's training content with the coaching staff. For the rest of the day, he does not have specific tasks. Tapia oversees the overall operations, and the coaching staff naturally handle their respective responsibilities. There are not many things that require his direct involvement. The only time he needs to pay close attention is during team training sessions, as he must personally ensure that the team is operating in the direction he wants. As he previously mentioned, his most important job, in short, is to recognize and be recognized.

After training, Lin Sen returns to his residence on time, then continues to watch the tedious match videos, and goes to bed on time.

For a head coach, treating all players equally is very important. However, it is not easy to achieve this. On a larger scale, because humans are not machines, it is impossible to set a standard and follow it completely. On a smaller scale, each person has their own standards. Therefore, treating everyone equally can often be simply understood as dealing with things based on their merits. In this regard, it is not difficult for Lin Sen to treat everyone equally, especially since half of the players in Malaga were personally selected by him. Therefore, in the five pre-season friendly matches, except for the first match, which had special circumstances, he gave everyone equal playing time, even if some players did not perform well.

Of course, treating everyone equally is one thing. Football is a team sport, and Lin Sen still needs to determine his starting lineup. As a result, he naturally has a special eye for some players.

Among the current Malaga team, Lin Sen's favorite player is undoubtedly Koke, but the player he values the most is clearly Reus.

As the season approaches, Reus's physical condition still leaves RuiZi at a loss. According to RuiZi, the problem with Reus is not whether he can play, but how long he can play. It's like the old analogy: how much water a bottle can hold. The problem for others is how to fill the bottle, but for Reus, the problem is that the bottle is not big enough.

To address this, RuiZi has specifically formulated a complete dietary plan for Reus, even listing a long blacklist of foods that the German must avoid. In his view, Reus's condition is entirely due to the pressure he faced in his youth, and now strong measures are needed.

Lin Sen smiled at this. Reus's position in his tactical system is indeed unique, but it is not necessary for him to play the entire match. If he has thirty minutes of stamina, then he will use thirty minutes. If he has ten minutes of stamina, then he will use ten minutes. As long as he can play, it is not a problem. After all, from the moment he signed Reus, he was prepared to use him as a tactical weapon in the short term.

In addition to Reus, there are a few other players who have left a deep impression on Lin Sen.

One is Gaby, the "post-Atletico captain," who has been praised by RuiZi. The Spanish midfielder is now the best player in RuiZi's physical condition report, without a doubt. Despite not being "old," Gaby is mature and steady, and he does not act like a big star despite being the highest-paid player on the team. He has readily accepted the new role assigned to him by Lin Sen. It is important to note that there is a difference between a midfield playmaker and a defensive midfielder. One does the technical work, while the other does the dirty work. Not all players can accept this role change, especially Spanish players. This has made Lin Sen look at this seemingly unassuming midfielder with more respect.

Lewandowski, who has been the starting forward in the friendly matches, is as unflashy and quiet as his playing style. However, he has gradually integrated into the team, and he has become familiar with Gündoğan and Reus, who also speak German. The coaching staff is particularly satisfied with his playing style. The Polish player is very smart and can quickly understand the tactical instructions given by the coach.

Rondon, the Venezuelan forward, is a natural team player. Relying on his Spanish, he has become the team's top "translator," often making gestures on the field and explaining them to players who do not speak Spanish. Sometimes, his explanations are not clear, leading to some humorous moments, but Rondon does not care and continues to act as he pleases. The other players also enjoy this, and he has gradually become the team's joker. If it were not for the head coach's authority, Lin Sen suspects that Rondon would dare to put his arm around him. Notably, when he first joined the team, Rondon's physical condition was rated as a D, but after more than a month of training, he has become the player with the fastest physical recovery, showing signs of becoming the beastly striker Lin Sen remembers.

The other players, Bonucci and Ranocchia, the Italian pair, are naturally good friends but need more time to integrate into the team due to the language barrier. Gündoğan's personality is similar to Lewandowski's, being quiet but one of the hardest-working players in training. Isco, the youngest player on the team, clearly needs more development. His technical skills are excellent, but he lacks in other areas. Tapia has tried multiple times to convince Lin Sen to send him to the youth team, but Lin Sen insists on keeping him in the first team to receive first-team training. The young player not only has high football intelligence but also good emotional intelligence, works hard in training, and often seeks advice from the senior players. Gradually, Tapia has also accepted him as a member of the first team.

The end of the pre-season friendly matches brought Lin Sen not all good news. The most troubling issue is the injury to the originally planned starting left-back, Rosatto.

The Brazilian defender, who had the worst physical condition in the team, had been slowly recovering under RuiZi's "torture." However, he was unlucky and twisted his left foot in the team's final pre-season friendly match. Lin Sen initially thought he might be out for a month, but the actual test results were slightly more optimistic, at three weeks.

Three weeks, which means the Brazilian defender will definitely miss the first-round away match against Atletico Madrid.

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August 22.

With less than ten days before the start of the La Liga season, the As newspaper published an article rating and predicting the performance of the twenty La Liga teams for the new season.

The two Spanish Super teams, Real Madrid and Barcelona, unsurprisingly received five-star ratings. The odds set by various betting companies for both teams are between 1.8 and 2.3, with a slight edge given to Real Madrid based on their "stable lineup." It is almost certain that the champion of the new season will come from these two teams. The closest teams to the two five-star teams are Villarreal and Sevilla, both rated at three and a half stars. The odds for these teams are 20. Following them are Atletico Madrid, Valencia...

Malaga's rating was unsurprisingly at the bottom, with less than one star, only half a star. The odds for winning the championship? Over 700! The As newspaper also provided an evaluation of Malaga.

"After Atletico Madrid refused to offer Lin a contract, Malaga brought in Lin to replace Muniz as the head coach. The poorest team in La Liga and the youngest head coach in La Liga, this is truly a perfect match. Malaga clearly needs to fight for survival, but the chances of them staying in the top flight are slim. As one of the teams with the most lineup changes in La Liga, Malaga has almost replaced half of its team. Unbelievably, they not only lost Sitalgo but also let go of their two main forwards, Bahia and Balista, and brought in two unknown forwards. Even more unbelievable is that Malaga's biggest signing this summer was an Italian defender. We do not know if Lin has truly gained transfer authority as rumored, but we still have a word to say: Alan Hansen once told Sir Alex Ferguson that you can't win anything with a bunch of kids, and history proved Alan Hansen wrong. Now, we want to tell Lin that you can never secure survival with a bunch of kids! Can you prove us wrong, Mr. Lin?"

The article was signed by Angel Gonzalez, the young journalist who was once directly criticized by Lin Sen at a press conference, saying that if all As newspaper reporters were like him, he would no longer answer any questions from the As newspaper.

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