Chapter 743 Summer Window Closed
Hasenhüttl arranged for Hojbjerg to defend Bruno today. He had high hopes for the Danish midfielder.
Hojbjerg saw Bruno running out of the penalty area, and he quickly followed him. His idea was very direct. He took advantage of the opportunity when Bruno just got the ball and tried to steal the ball.
However, Hojbjerg soon realized that he was taking it for granted.
Although Hojbjerg's physical confrontation ability was also very good, when facing Bruno, Hojbjerg felt like he was facing a wall.
Hojbjerg wanted to poke the ball from behind. Once, twice... He tried his best but couldn't reach the football.
At this time, Hojbjerg could only settle for the second best, because Bruno was facing the goal with his back. As long as he didn't let the opponent turn his body around, he could complete a successful defense.
Bruno controlled the football under his feet, and his body tilted to the right. This was a subconscious action to turn to this side. Hojbjerg immediately made a judgment, so Hojbjerg immediately moved his body to strongly resist Bruno's turn.
But he just rushed back and felt a huge pressure!
His first feeling was that the guy in front of him was like a wall, hitting him directly.
Heibel staggered.
It was this stagger that gave Bruno a chance. He immediately took another step and squeezed Heibel behind him. At the same time, with Heibel as the support axis, he turned his body completely around and faced the goal.
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Heibel was shocked, but he was powerless at this time. He could only watch Bruno turn around with him as the axis and succeed!
At this time, Heibel could foul and use a tactical foul to stop Bruno from continuing to break through.
However, when Heibel stretched out his hand and was about to pull Bruno down, he hesitated. Because he got a yellow card for a tactical foul against Rashford just ten minutes into the game. If he dared to commit a foul this time, the referee would definitely not be stingy with a yellow card, and that would be a red card instead of two yellow cards.
Should he commit a decisive foul and prevent Manchester United from having a great chance to score, but he would be sent off with a red card; or should he let Bruno go and keep him alive to continue playing the game?
Just as Hojbjerg hesitated, Bruno had already entered the penalty area with the ball. Then facing the attacking goalkeeper Gann, Bruno easily shot the ball into the net.
1:0!
"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!"
"Bruno! Bruno!! Bruno!!! 1:0, Manchester United leads Southampton 1:0, Bruno scored for the team, this is Bruno's fourth league goal this season!"
"Manchester United had a good start today, Bruno scored the first goal for Manchester United in the 32nd minute of the game."
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Mourinho stood up on the sidelines, he applauded and cheered for the goal.
After Bruno scored, Harry Kane's goal before the end of the first half extended Manchester United's score to 2:0.
In the second half, Rashford scored for Manchester United, and Mata, who came off the bench, assisted Mbappe to score a goal.
For Southampton, Vestergaard helped Southampton get back a goal with a header in a corner attack.
In the end, in the first game of the fourth round of the Premier League, Manchester United defeated Southampton 4:1 at St. Mary's Stadium, won four consecutive league victories, and continued to lead the Premier League standings.
However, in other subsequent matches, Liverpool and Manchester City both won big victories, with Manchester City sweeping Brighton 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium and Liverpool beating Burnley 3-0 away.
The other three teams in the BIG6, Chelsea, were tied 2-2 by Sheffield United at home. In a North London derby, Arsenal shook hands with Tottenham 2-2 at home.
Only four rounds of the league have been played, and the pattern of the Premier League has returned to the situation of last season. Manchester United and Liverpool have won four consecutive games, with Manchester United ranking first with a goal difference advantage; Manchester City has remained unbeaten with 3 wins and 1 draw and ranked third. Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham have already shown signs of falling behind.
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At 0:00 on September 3, 2019, Central European Time, the La Liga and Ligue 1 transfer windows, which were the last to close in the five major leagues, have closed, and the 2019 summer window of the five major leagues has officially ended!
In this summer transfer market, Manchester United did not sign any players. In terms of outbound transfers, only Herrera joined the French Ligue 1 champion Paris Saint-Germain, Damian transferred to the Serie A team Parma for 10 million pounds, and Smalling transferred to another Serie A team Roma for 20 million pounds.
Manchester United, which was very active in every transfer market in previous years, was very quiet this summer.
However, everyone knows that keeping stars such as Gundogan and Rashford and maintaining the stability of the team is the best performance of this Premier League champion in the transfer market.
……………… The Premier League is still the most expensive league, and its position as the commercial champion is still unshakable, leading the way for 7 consecutive years.
Since the 2014-2015 season, the Premier League summer transfer expenditure exceeded 1 billion euros for the first time and has increased year by year, finally breaking the 1.5 billion euro mark in this summer window, including Chelsea, which was constrained by the transfer ban. They only spent 45 million euros to buy out Kovacic this summer.
La Liga set a record high in this summer window with multiple heavyweight transfers of over 100 million euros, breaking the 1 billion euro mark for the first time, surpassing Serie A again and sitting firmly in the second place.
Serie A continued the catfish effect brought by Ronaldo's joining, and exceeded 1 billion euros in total investment for the second consecutive year.
The investment in the Bundesliga is not as crazy as the above three leagues, with a total investment of less than 750 million euros, even less than half of the Premier League.
Ligue 1, which has the lowest attention, ranks last in investment.
In terms of net investment, the Premier League's nearly 737 million euros far surpassed other leagues, more than twice the second place, and even close to the total investment of the Bundesliga. The net investment of the three major leagues, Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga, combined is barely higher than that of the Premier League.
Serie A surpassed La Liga in net investment and became the second most expensive league.
It is worth mentioning that Ligue 1 is the only league among the five major leagues where transfer income is greater than transfer expenditure.
Although there is a certain gap between the total investment and net investment and the Premier League, in terms of single expenditure, the "Three Giants of the Western Super League" are undisputed, not only taking up the three most expensive signings in La Liga, but also the three most expensive signings in this summer window: Atletico Madrid spent 126 million euros to introduce young player Felix, Barcelona spent 120 million euros to get Griezmann from Atletico Madrid, and Real Madrid was not idle either, using 100 million euros to pry Belgian midfielder Hazard from the Blues. The three signings of over 100 million euros have made La Liga earn enough gimmicks and eyeballs in this year's transfer market.
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Among the Premier League teams, Manchester City replaced Manchester United as the team with the largest total investment. They spent 170 million euros and became the only Premier League team to invest more than 160 million euros in this summer window.
Arsenal changed its image of frugality in the past and invested more than 150 million euros. Many netizens also said that "the budget of 40 million euros has achieved the effect of 400 million euros".
Of course, most of the transfer fees were paid in installments.
In terms of net investment, Aston Villa, a veteran giant that returned to the Premier League, won the championship in one fell swoop. 20 signings cost a total of nearly 149 million euros, and there was no transfer income. The players who left the team were either on loan or free transfer.
Manchester City and the Gunners ranked second and third.
Manchester United, which had been the first in this list for the past two years, suddenly fell to the second to last in this list.
Manchester United seems to have lost the "money power" of the previous two years. Not only has it changed its previous strong style of spending money, it has even made a profit of 65 million pounds, second only to Chelsea, which sold two superstars, Hazard and Lukaku, and made a profit of 120 million pounds.
In the entire Premier League, only four teams are profitable. In addition to Chelsea and Manchester United, the other two teams are Liverpool and Crystal Palace. Liverpool made 30 million pounds, and Crystal Palace made 40 million pounds.
La Liga presents a three-legged situation. Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid not only monopolize the top three in the La Liga investment list, but also have no rivals in the whole of Europe in this summer window. Each team has an earthquake-level transaction of over 100 million. Real Madrid even spent 300 million euros soon after the window opened, including Belgium's top player Hazard.
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Manchester United sold three players, but the money they made was not 70 million pounds, but 65 million pounds, because they still bought people in this summer window, but not the first team, but the youth team.
On September 2, there was an announcement in the corner of Manchester United's official website. Manchester United's U18 youth team signed Bellingham, who is about to turn 18, from the English Championship team Birmingham City Youth Team. Manchester United paid Birmingham City Club a one-time training fee of 5 million pounds and obtained the ownership of this young player.
This news still caused some waves in the British football world. On the one hand, it was because Bellingham, a young player, had shown some talent in the England U16 and Birmingham Youth Team, and on the other hand, Manchester United spent 5 million pounds to sign this player.
Although for top giants like Manchester United, a signing of 5 million pounds is not worth mentioning, but that is only for Manchester United.
For ordinary Premier League teams, 5 million pounds is not a small number, let alone for a Championship team, or a youth team.
But the noise caused was just some British media reporting this transfer in a less conspicuous position, but it was soon drowned in the vast sea of big-name transfer reports and did not cause much response.
Also on September 2, FIFA officially announced the final three candidates for the 2019 World Footballer of the Year, with Messi, Ronaldo and Bruno being the top three favorites.
The previously announced 10-man list also includes Harry Kane, Rashford, Van Dijk, Kante, Mane, Mbappe and Salah.
The 2019 Footballer of the Year selection is based on the players' performance from July 16, 2018 to July 19, 2019. The candidate list is selected by FIFA experts, and the final winner will be voted by fans, experts, national team coaches and captains. The award ceremony will be held in Milan on the 23rd of this month.