Super Marshal

At first, Gao Han and Guardiola were chatting in the office about Bielsa and the selection of Serie A teams.

But not long after, Moratti and Facchetti also came.

They read the news in the morning newspaper that Gao Han returned to Milan yesterday, so they called and learned that Gao Han was in Pinetina. They were also on vacation and came over if they had nothing to do.

Ever since Gao Han coached Inter Milan, he has always been tight for time. It is rare to have such a free opportunity to sit together, drink tea and chat, not to mention how comfortable it is.

As for what Gao Han mentioned, Facchetti also fully agrees with the development trend of Serie A in recent years.

"In fact, although we also paid attention to tactics in the past, we also cultivated many quick and agile midfield and attacking players, such as Rossi, Baggio and Del Piero. At the beginning of the century, there were also Pirlo and Miko. Leigh and Cassano are like this, but the entire environment is indeed becoming increasingly unfavorable to the performance of this type of player."

Needless to say, Baggio and Del Piero basically did not reach the heights expected.

Of course, this is not to say that they are not good enough, but that they could have been better.

Pirlo was born as a forward and attacking midfielder, but he transitioned to playing as a defensive midfielder. Miccoli was not reused at Juventus. Cassano has a perverse personality and may not be able to meet expectations.

Not only in the midfield and frontcourt, but also in the defense, the players trained in Italy are basically like this.

"In the past, people like Cannavaro and Nesta basically practiced their personal skills first, and then when they entered the adult team, they improved their tactical literacy and cultivated their overall defensive awareness. But now they basically practice their skills since childhood. Tactical indoctrination begins.”

When Facchetti said this, he felt quite worried.

Gao Han understood what Facchetti meant and nodded: "Indeed, my understanding is that there is a problem with the player selection standards of the entire Serie A, whether it is a forward, a midfielder, or a defender."

After a pause, Gao Han smiled bitterly and said: "I went to our youth training base to inspect, and I found that since the youth team, we have attached great importance to improving players' physical confrontation and instilling tactical literacy, but have simply ignored the players. Cultivation of one’s own abilities.”

"For example, Martins, he is indeed very fast. Even I think Henry and Ronaldo are not as fast as him, but I dare to say that with his technical ability, he can play in any team, in any kind of game. Under such circumstances, it is impossible to reach the level of Henry and Ronaldo."

Moratti and Facchetti were speechless.

Although there has been speculation from outside about Gao Han's unwillingness to reuse Martins, it has always been clear within Inter Milan.

If nothing else, just compare Martins and Cristiano Ronaldo, everyone can see the gap.

In this case, if Gao Han vigorously reuses Martins and ignores Cristiano Ronaldo, then there is an inside story.

To put it bluntly, Martins is only a threat if his speed allows him room to operate, but Cristiano Ronaldo is able to perform and create a threat on the pitch in any situation.

The reason is the difference in personal abilities between the two players.

"Since the Sacchi era, Italy's youth training has been going further and further down the road of tactical literacy and physical confrontation. The last time I went to the youth training camp to inspect, I even saw our youth training coaches teaching a group of eight The nine-year-old children explained the tactics and told them how to move and how to cooperate."

When Gao Han said this, he smiled helplessly, "Oh my god, do they understand? Even an adult player will find it boring. You talk about a group of eight or nine-year-old children, they have Are you interested in hearing this? Don’t you think this will only further stimulate their boredom with football?”

Facchetti is a professional player and is familiar with youth training camps. He knows that what Gao Han said is the truth.

"This is also the norm in Italian youth training over the past few years."

"That means the whole of Italy, from youth training to talent selection, has problems and has gone astray."

Gao Han's words left Facchetti speechless.

In fact, in the past few years, Italy's youth training has indeed not produced any decent talents. The only one who is relatively good is Cassano, but this player's perverse character is well known to everyone.

Even in the league, the performance of young players is also not very convincing. For example, Florence's Pacini and Montolivo, although they are highly hyped, they also cannot reach the expected level.

"Actually, youth training talents often emerge in batches, with highs and lows. In the past few years, Italy's youth training has indeed been at a low point compared to the 1990s." Facchetti sighed. .

Gao Han shook his head and smiled, "You are right. Youth training not only has ups and downs, but also has serious lags. It serves the professional league, and it can take several years or even more than ten years to train a player. It’s a process, but the skills and tactics of professional football are always improving rapidly, and there will be huge changes every few years.”

"Then, with Italy's youth training method, when the players they train reach the first team, they will find that they are seriously unable to keep up with the development of current mainstream techniques and tactics. Not only are their technical skills not strong enough, but they also have many years of coaching experience in their minds. The tactical concepts they were taught were completely divorced from reality, so how did they perform?"

In Gao Han's view, youth training serves the professional league, and the direction of training players has always been clear.

The so-called talent emergence may be due to the fact that a group of young talents gathered in that wave of youth training, who performed well and led the technical and tactical trend, or it was in line with the technical and tactical characteristics of the time, so it appeared that there was a large number of talents.

But the problem is, with the speed of change in the professional league, which can take as long as three to five years, or as short as one or two years, a team will soon develop a new tactic that restrains your technical and tactical characteristics, and gradually promote it, and soon , the set of techniques and tactics that originally led the trend will no longer work.

If the youth training still trains players according to the original direction and method, then the new batch of players will soon find that it is difficult for them to achieve good results, or even gain a foothold in the professional league.

"To give the simplest example, since the Sacchi era, Italy's youth training has undergone earth-shaking changes. The AC Milan youth team under Capello's training has produced numerous talents, and it reached its peak in the 1990s. Italy's youth training It was highly regarded in those years, but what about now?"

"The pace of competition in the current European mainstream leagues is getting faster and faster. La Liga and the Premier League have this trend, and we all know that the faster the pace of the game, the higher the requirements for players' technical skills. This is why many players in other countries have such a trend. This is why players who seem to have excellent technical skills in the league look rough in La Liga and the Premier League.”

"Don't even talk about other leagues, let's talk about Serie A. With the development of Serie A's technical and tactical level in the past few years, the players trained by the youth training cannot keep up with the requirements of the league, so it seems that local talents are withering."

The topic has gradually spread, from the original selection standards of Inter Milan, to the selection issues of other Serie A teams, and now the issue of Italian youth training, which has long exceeded the original scope of discussion.

But it was difficult for everyone to refute Gao Han's words.

Because what he is talking about is the actual situation in Italian football now.

"Then...what countermeasures do you have?" Moratti asked with concern.

Gao Han nodded and said: "It's very simple. According to the current European youth training concept, which is more advanced, it is difficult first and then easy, first inside and then outside."

"What do you mean?" Moratti and Facchetti were both curious.

"Technology is the most difficult, because it requires long-term and long-term refinement. At the same time, players must be trained from an early age to play freely in the game and skillfully use technology, so that they can strengthen their technical abilities and strengthen themselves from an early age."

"When they are fifteen or sixteen years old, their skills have basically taken shape, and then we start to focus on cultivating their physical confrontation capabilities, instilling current tactical knowledge, and improving their tactical literacy, so that they can enter the professional arena in two or three years."

Blacksmith need its own hardware.

As a professional player, the most difficult thing is his own technical skills.

As long as he is strong enough and has good technical skills, no matter how the techniques and tactics change, no matter how the team's style and characteristics change, he will be able to integrate into the team after a certain period of adaptation.

However, judging from the current youth training system and talent selection standards of Serie A, it is completely putting the cart before the horse. If this continues, let alone talent, it may be difficult to maintain the foundation of the entire Serie A league.

You know, the rise and fall of professional leagues depends largely on one's own hematopoietic ability.

The management of Serie A teams is not as good as that of the Premier League. They don’t even own the stadium. There is very little business on match days. The Italian economy is not particularly good and there is a lack of commercial income. This results in the income of Serie A teams itself being much lower than that of other leagues. cut.

In the past ten years, Serie A has been able to rely on wealthy owners such as Moratti and Berlusconi to burn money behind the scenes. But can this situation last?

The decline of Lazio and Roma, and the fall of teams such as Parma, Sampdoria and Perugia are the most powerful proof.

If the team's finances are not ideal, but the youth training is excellent, then it can barely maintain it. But if the youth training is not good, what else can it rely on?

When it comes to football and youth training, Moratti and Facchetti are not as good as Gao Han, but when it comes to club management, Gao Han is definitely not as good as them, but it is precisely because of this that they understand the prospects described by Gao Han. How serious.

In the past ten years, hasn't Inter Milan been burning money relying on Moratti?

But how long can Moratti keep burning? Three years? Five years? Or ten years?

Guardiola, Moratti and Facchetti originally came here to chat with Gao Han, but they didn't expect that such a big topic would come up during the chat, and they felt scared even thinking about it.

If it really comes to the day described by Gao Han, wouldn't Serie A be worse than the current Bundesliga?

At the very least, the Bundesliga is now vigorously promoting the reform of youth training, and its financial revenue is much better than that of Serie A.

As for La Liga and the Premier League, I'm afraid that's even less important.

Moratti took a breath of air and looked deeply at Gao Han, "What do you think we should do?"

It was obvious that he had really made up his mind.

"In two steps, we will standardize club operations and management and expand financial revenue as much as possible. I think the focus should be on overseas market development and new stadiums."

Gao Han has seen the overseas development of Premier League teams and the huge benefits a stadium can bring, so Arsenal would rather cut back and diet for many years before building a new stadium.

The same is true for Atletico Madrid, and the same should be true for Inter Milan.

As for how to build it, he didn't know. It should be a headache for Moratti and the others.

"Another step is to vigorously promote the reform of youth training, introduce advanced youth training coaches from abroad, or arrange for the club's youth training coaches to receive training in other advanced youth training bases in Europe to improve the level of youth training coaches and at the same time increase their salaries. Treatment, this is not something that can be accomplished overnight, but if you persist, you will definitely get results.”

Moratti understood what Gao Han meant, thought about it again, and nodded heavily.