Cosmic Milan

Losing to Ascoli cast a shadow over Sampdoria's new season.

The media, which had been hyping up Dejan Lu's news, now uniformly questioned his footballing ability.

There were also questions about Boskov.

After all, Dejan Lu's introduction ceremony performance was stunning, yet he never made the final squad list.

There were many speculations regarding this.

Even Gigi Riva publicly expressed his doubts in an interview, saying to reporters, "I don't know what Boskov is thinking, but I know he must regret it now. If Cagliari hadn't been promoted to Serie A, he wouldn't have had the chance to get Dejan."

Upon seeing this interview, Matthäus scoffed, "An 18-year-old should be shining the boots of the first team, not being hailed as some savior."

Klinsmann said nothing upon hearing this.

The three Germans had only joined Inter Milan for one season, and it was still considered a honeymoon period.

However, he and Brehme had quite a few criticisms about Matthäus's mouth.

Matthäus was indeed a scoundrel; if you were to argue with him, you'd be fighting him every day.

Before being kicked out of Bayern Munich, Matthäus had once shouted at the women's basketball players, "Have you seen what the black guys in the team have, it's that long."

He could offend many people with just a word.

At this time, Matthäus hadn't completely alienated the Inter Milan players yet, which was definitely related to his terrible Italian.

"We should be careful. Sampdoria is not weak; they have many world champions," Zenga reminded them.

"Did ugly defense steal the championship?" Matthäus retorted.

Zenga: ...

Are you kidding me? Do you even know what you're saying in front of the Italian players?

Brehme felt the situation was not right and quickly pushed Matthäus away.

If he said a few more words, the match would be canceled, and this guy would be beaten into the hospital by his teammates.

Giovanni Trapattoni witnessed everything that happened on the training ground. This coach, who had won the most championships in Italy, had a love-hate relationship with Matthäus.

He was such a good player, why did he have to have such a mouth?

Even if his demeanor wasn't very likable.

But Matthäus's skill was too strong.

Even looking back at football history, Trapattoni had never seen a defender stronger than Matthäus. More importantly, this guy was a beast in attack.

Abnormal physical fitness.

Bale passing to himself 3 seconds later and being shocked?

Matthäus dribbled past opponents and flicked the ball over 50 meters, then used his speed to overwhelm his opponents!

Half of his shots were powerful shots.

The creator of the legendary 210 km/h shot.

Carlos's shot speed was over 140 km/h.

Just winding up to shoot was enough to create pressure.

The media of this era liked to compare him with Maradona.

People only criticized his character; no one ever questioned his skills.

Trapattoni was quite interested in Dejan Lu, but he didn't think he could compare to Matthäus.

It was like if football produced Ødegaard, who was very famous and attracted the attention of many giants. Real Madrid signed him at 15 with a high salary of 50,000 euros. Even so, no sane person would think he was as good as the best star at the time.

The growth path of a genius is to first realize their talent, become a team starter, be selected for the national team, transfer to a domestic giant, and then begin their journey in Serie A.

There was a huge gap in between.

Trapattoni was curious if his Yugoslavian counterpart would put the young man on the squad list under such pressure.

If it were him, he definitely wouldn't put Dejan Lu on the squad list.

If you want to cultivate a player well, there's no reason to have him play the most difficult matches right from the start.

Napoli is strong, right?

Inter Milan has players of Maradona's caliber, plus a bunch of big names.

In terms of strength alone, Inter Milan is one of the strongest teams in Serie A, far more so than Napoli.

Both Milan clubs were considered "super teams" during this period.

If an 18-year-old young man were to play, he would likely be reduced to tears and substituted within ten minutes.

Manchester, England.

The British interest in Serie A stemmed from the "Summer of Italy."

Gazza's outstanding performance attracted the attention of Italian teams, and they began broadcasting Serie A.

Even though the Italian league was incredibly strong in those days, the English still had little interest in Serie A; the British Empire was just that proud.

However, Ferguson had been paying close attention to Italian football recently.

This season, he was already in danger of being sacked. Last season, he spent £1.8 million to bring in Mark Hughes but won nothing, with the team only finishing eleventh in the league.

Manchester United's performance at the start of the new season was still not ideal.

This made him question England's traditional 4-4-2 formation and gave rise to the idea of adopting a more continental tactical approach for the team.

Serie A players had very little attraction to the English league.

Therefore, his gaze naturally fell upon players from non-top clubs.

Sampdoria, in his eyes, was like a fairy tale. It was as if Southampton had assembled a world-class squad, something that would never happen in the English First Division, even if they had Alan Shearer.

Most importantly, through information obtained from friends, he felt that Sampdoria was a really good team.

The players mostly just smoked.

Yes, even the fact that the players smoked seemed like a minor issue to him, as there were quite a few who indulged in heavy drinking in the locker room these days. It had taken him a long time at Manchester United, with the help of captain Robson, to barely persuade the players to put down their bottles for a while.

"BOSS, should we keep watching Cerezo? He's too old," Archie Knox asked. Knox had been Ferguson's assistant coach during his time with the Scotland national team.

"Youngsters don't want to come play in England."

Ferguson said somewhat mockingly.

When he coached at Aberdeen, they could still play in European competitions. Now, British teams were completely out of sync with the rest of the world.

"Alright, I'll find a way to get you a videotape after the game,"

Knox said.

As the best league in the world, many coaches were paying attention to Serie A.

And so, on September 8th.

The day before the fourth round of the league.

Just as training was about to end, the assistant coach came over with a paper and read out, "Mancini, Mannini, Vialli, Pari... Dejan."

He called out Dejan Lu's name last, and a wave of teasing erupted on the training ground.

His teammates were all happy for Dejan Lu.

In their opinion, Dejan Lu should have been included in the squad long ago.

Boskov stood on the sidelines, smiling and saying, "This is what everyone wanted, right?"

"Of course!" Pezzotti nodded. "Times have changed. The young ones are growing up too fast. Maybe players from the youth team will attract significant attention in the future."

Boskov shook his head.

Was that not nonsense?

A 15 or 16-year-old kid's body wasn't even fully developed yet. If they started playing with adults that early, they would inevitably be plagued by injuries.

"Dejan, aren't you going to treat us?"

Vialli shouted.

"Yeah, this guy is always eating out everywhere but never paying!" Mancini complained.

Dejan Lu smiled and said, "That's because I'm popular, everyone likes to treat me. But I'll definitely treat you this time. After the game, you guys decide where we eat and what we eat!"

A cheer immediately erupted on the training ground.

Tomorrow was the game, so they couldn't go out feasting today.

That evening at home, Monica finally breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the news.

It was necessary to abstain from sex the day before a match, wasn't it?

The next day, Monica woke up early to do her makeup and cook.

When Dejan Lu woke up, the meal was already laid out on the table, and there was even a bouquet of roses.

"Where did these come from?"

Dejan Lu asked curiously.

"Roberto gave them to Federica, and I took one," Monica said with a charming laugh.

Dejan Lu gave her a thumbs-up.

Mancini bought roses, and they got to enjoy the romance when he was with his family.

With such a thrifty family tradition, if he didn't become the richest man in football after retiring, it would be a disservice to Mancini.