Football: My AI System Provides Max-Level Predictions

...

The coaching staff meeting only added fuel to the fire.

What really made Pellegrini decide to sell Milner was a private conversation with Sterling after the meeting.

The 21-year-old new signing, Sterling, carried the expectations of all of England. They hoped that this black winger, upon joining Manchester City, would make a qualitative leap and help England's national team achieve good results in next year's European Cup.

If it weren't for Tang Long's 71 million euros, Sterling's 63 million could have broken the club's transfer record, which shows how much Manchester City values him.

Don't be fooled by Sterling scoring Manchester City's first goal of the new season at home; right now, he's feeling the heat!

The reason lies in Tang Long's comments at the post-match press conference, "…Milner has a strong desire to win. Unfortunately, if it weren't for Sterling missing the shot, Milner could have gotten an assist. It's a real shame."

The tabloid media love to create drama and took Tang Long's words as a revelation of a major conflict between Milner and Sterling in the Manchester City dressing room.

[Shocking! National team teammates come to blows after the match, all because of a missed shot?]

[Milner thinks Sterling is dragging the whole team down, "He's not worthy of playing for Manchester City!"]

[From Liverpool to Manchester City, prices have risen, age has increased, but shooting skills are still as poor as ever?]

[63 million down the drain! Liverpool laughs out loud, and Manchester City becomes the big fool who took over!]

[Explosive! Pellegrini planning to replace Sterling with Milner, the former being sidelined!]

These attention-grabbing headlines, along with screenshots of Milner angrily shouting at Sterling during the match, resulted in vivid, dramatic articles that people devoured with interest, unable to stop daydreaming.

The Sun went all out, saying Milner's rage towards Sterling was because his wife was having an affair with Sterling, and the two were often meeting secretly, and so on.

Pellegrini had also heard about these crazy rumors.

He feared that the 21-year-old Sterling couldn't handle it and brought him in for a talk.

When Sterling first entered the head coach's office, he was nervous, but seeing Pellegrini's silver hair and kind face reminded him of his late grandfather. That sense of familiarity, combined with the turmoil with Milner he found himself in, made him burst into tears.

After a few questions from Pellegrini, Sterling opened up.

The conversation repeatedly circled back to how Milner bullied him and engaged in dressing room bullying, that the missed shot was not intentional, and that Tang Long was different, as he often encouraged him. His goals also came from Tang's assists, proving that he could still score. Tang's passes were better than Milner's, and he preferred to play alongside Tang, and so on.

In the end, an emotional Sterling childishly said, "If Milner keeps treating me like this, I'm handing in a transfer request in the winter. I won't play at Manchester City anymore!"

Seeing this rising star of England cry like a schoolboy in front of him, Pellegrini was greatly surprised. He never expected that the usually cheerful young black man was so depressed inside.

Having just joined in the summer and already wanting to leave in the winter, most of it was surely said in anger, but it also wasn't without a touch of Sterling's genuine feelings.

Sterling was only 21, while Milner was already 29.

Whether from the perspective of development potential, tactical contribution, or player value appreciation, if Pellegrini had to choose between the two, he would choose the former without hesitation!

In fact, this further reinforced Pellegrini's original intention to persist in acquiring Tang Long.

The goal was to establish Tang as the absolute core of the front field attack and utilize his advanced passing thinking to get his teammates involved, thereby invigorating the entire game to achieve an effect of 1+1 greater than 2.

Time was never an issue.

After communicating with Manchester City's Chief Operating Officer Belgistan, Milner was quickly put on the club's transfer list. As soon as that happened, teams like Aston Villa, Stoke City, and Norwich submitted offers.

Milner originally wanted to struggle a bit more, attempting to use his influence to rally Joe Hart, Sterling, Delph, and other English Language Gang members to plead with the club.

Joe Hart indeed went and talked with Pellegrini for 20 minutes, but the latter stated that it was the club's decision, and he was powerless.

Delph was ambiguous and it's unclear whether he said anything or not.

As for Sterling? He simply blocked Milner's number!

Milner felt the situation was hopeless.

The final straw that broke the camel's back was a message from Mancini.

[Milner, your performance in the last round was utterly terrible! No one knows Tang better than I do. You can't compete with him at Manchester City. Here's some advice: if you want to participate in next year's European Cup, you must ensure a starting position. Start thinking about your next destination.]

Half an hour before the transfer window closed, Liverpool suddenly announced Milner's signing!

...

Milner being ousted from the team actually didn't cause much of a stir internally at Manchester City.

Aside from the gloomy English Language Gang leader, Joe Hart, the French Language Gang and Spanish Language Gang didn't say much, and some were even happy to see this happen.

The reason was that Milner was just too versatile!

Apart from not playing center forward, he could play almost every position in the front, and he had even occasionally filled in as a full-back.

This kind of all-round player, in reality, posed a significant threat to many.

Even though Milner was now squeezed out of the starting attacking midfielder position by Tang Long, who's to say that one day, my starting wing-back or starting defensive midfielder position won't be taken over by him due to an injury, and when I recover, there's no spot left?

There were already few English players at Manchester City, and even fewer were regular starters.

At the moment, it was only Joe Hart and Sterling.

However, Sterling often got closer to Tang Long during training, even volunteered to practice passing and receiving with him instead of another English newcomer, Delph. This also frustrated Joe Hart.

With Milner gone, Joe Hart was hard-pressed to support the English Language Gang, as its influence greatly diminished, allowing Manchester City to continue being dominated by the Spanish and French Language Gangs.

That day, after training, Tang Long suddenly felt a bit of pain in his waist.

It's a kind of soreness that's hard to pinpoint, but everywhere feels sore.

He remembered that during his onboarding medical check-up, the female team doctor Gracie said he could come for physical therapy anytime, as she was always available.

With a why-not-give-it-a-try attitude, Tang Long was just about to push open the slightly ajar door of Gracie's office when he heard the strange slapping noises inside, as if someone was whipping something...