Li Ang handed Agüero's transfer over to Oriari. During this period of cooperation with Oriari, Li Ang also recognized the ability of Inter Milan's general manager. The two worked together happily.
In order to get Agüero, Inter Milan also used all the power they could. Inter Milan's captain, the Argentinian Javier Zanetti, personally called Agüero and invited him to join.
The newly joined defender, Samuels, also volunteered to be the lobbyist.
Agüero himself was open to leaving the South American continent and joining the Italian powerhouse Inter Milan. The problem lay with the Argentinian Independiente club. This club wanted to make a huge profit from Agüero and demanded an exorbitant price of 25 million euros.
This price tag was unacceptable to Inter Milan.
Of course, the fact that Argentinian Independiente was willing to ask for a price also showed to a certain extent that Agüero was not for sale. As long as the price was right, everything was negotiable.
What was left was a tug-of-war of price negotiations.
Li Ang did not pay any more attention to it. He had already asked for Agüero. If the management could not complete the deal under such circumstances, it could only be said that the work was a failure.
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Li Ang put all his attention on the team's training and matches for the new season.
Inter Milan only finished third in Serie A last season, which meant that Inter Milan needed to play in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers for the new season.
The first round of the qualifiers was on August 10. Now, Inter Milan only had less than two weeks left. Time was tight.
Now, Inter Milan had undergone a major change of blood. More than a dozen players had been purged. So far, there was a new face brought in and promoted from the youth team.
With such a large change of blood, the team's run-in would definitely be slower.
Therefore, Li Ang could not let his guard down in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers. Now, their opponents for the qualifiers had not been drawn. If they were unlucky and met a more difficult opponent, they would fail miserably and fail to enter the UEFA Champions League group stage.
On July 30, 2005, Inter Milan played a friendly match against the Italian Serie B team, Brescia.
This was the first official appearance of Li Ang's Inter Milan in an official match, and it attracted a lot of attention.
Inter Milan was playing in an away game at the Mario Rigamonti Stadium in Brescia. Even though it was only a friendly match, a portion of Inter Milan fans still came to the away game to witness Li Ang's debut for Inter Milan.
Li Ang's starting lineup for this match was the goalkeeper, Toldo, the defenders from right to left were Zanetti, Cordoba, Materazzi, and Favalli. The midfielders were Stankovic, Cambiasso, Figo, and Mata. Adriano and Cruise were the partners on the frontline.
Other than Figo and Mata, the other nine players were Inter Milan players from last season.
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The progress of the match disappointed Li Ang.
Facing Brescia, who had been relegated from Serie A last season, Inter Milan did not show any superior strength.
Li Ang paced on the sidelines, looking at the field and thinking about the crux of the problem.
Inter Milan's rear defensive line was not threatened, so he would not comment for the time being.
The problem arose in the midfield.
Figo and the team lacked tacit understanding, and Mata was the same. This was a cooperation problem that could not be solved for the time being.
The biggest problem was Stankovic. Li Ang arranged for Stankovic to appear in the attacking midfielder position for today's match.
In fact, last season, Stankovic was the starting attacking midfielder for the Inter Milan Team when Juan was injured and had to be rotated.
Li Ang was not interested in Juan, so even though the management had suggested that Li Ang negotiate a buyout of Juan from Chelsea, Li Ang rejected it.
Li Ang continued to let Stankovic play as the starting attacking midfielder, but Stankovic was lacking in organizing the offense. The Serbian did not have a gorgeous dribbling to break through people. He had good stamina, could sweep, and was good at plugging in for long shots. He was nicknamed the "sweeping attacking midfielder" by the fans.
However, Li Ang's request for Stankovic today was to organize Inter Milan's midfield and act as a go-between between the two strikers. However, Stankovic clearly could not meet his requirements.
The only thing that Li Ang approved of was Stankovic's fighting spirit. He did not hesitate to fight for the ball and oppress the opponent on the field. There was nothing to say about his attitude during the match. In fact, this was one of the reasons why many coaches liked Stankovic. He was very courageous and had a lot of fighting spirit.
However, Li Ang needed a technical attacking midfielder who could arrange flowers in the front field. The feeling that Stankovic gave Li Ang was that he was a defensive midfielder no matter which position he played.
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In the first half of the match, both sides played to a score of 0: 0. Based on the strength of both sides, this score was clearly not enough to satisfy the Inter Milan fans.
The commentator of the match also criticized Stankovic when he commented on the first half of the match. Clearly, the Serbian's poor performance was seen by everyone.
In the second half of the match, Li Ang made a large rotation of the team's lineup.
Zanetti was brought off and Mai Kong came on as a substitute.
Favalli was brought off and Evra came on as a substitute.
Figo was brought off by Modric.
Cambiasso was brought off by Carlos.
What surprised everyone was that Stankovic, who did not perform well in the first half of the match, remained on the field.
Then, people noticed the change in Inter Milan's formation. Carlos and Modric formed two defensive midfielders. Mata changed from the side midfielder position to the attacking midfielder position that Li Ang had specially created for this young Spanish player. Stankovic's position was still in the attacking midfielder position.
"I don't understand Manager Li Ang's arrangement. Why didn't he bring off Stankovic?" Commentator Ferrari said.
However, in the subsequent match, people noticed a slight change.
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In the first half of the match, Stankovic always tried to organize and pass the ball. This was also a requirement for an attacking midfielder. However, Stankovic clearly did not meet this requirement and played awkwardly.
In the second half of the match, Stankovic no longer organized the offense. Instead, he pressed harder in the front field.
Inter Milan's first goal came in the 60th minute of the match.
Stankovic pressed hard in the front field, forcing the opponent's players to make mistakes. Inter Milan seized the opportunity. After Mata dribbled the ball along the flank, he pretended to cut inside. Suddenly, he passed the ball into the penalty area with the back of his foot. After Adriano's header was saved by the opponent, Stankovic rushed up and shot forcefully into the net.
Stankovic, who did not perform well in the first half of the match, stubbornly chose to continue trusting him, scored and opened the door to victory for Inter Milan.
PS: Third update. Thank you for the 10086 great rewards.
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