Chapter 270: Chapter 270

Master... Chelsea or Manchester City...

Ronaldo spoke carelessly, but Chiwo listened intently!

Those words, like needles, once again pierced his injured skull.

Chiwo felt a wave of dizziness.

Forcing himself to blink a few times, he steadied himself by holding onto the shoe cabinet at Tang Long’s house.

As Tang Long’s teacher, Tang Long was the carefully nurtured result of Chiwo’s efforts, the best student in his mind.

Now, the best student was about to leave Inter Milan, discussing whether to go to Chelsea or Manchester City.

But he had to face a reality: Tang Long’s departure was inevitable!

This 18-year-old Chinese youngster had already been listed on the transfer list by Ossilio, waiting for the right offer.

Chiwo thought, if Mr. Moratti were still the chairman of Inter Milan, if it weren’t for the global economic crisis of 2008 that significantly weakened the Moratti family’s financial power, Tang Long would surely stay at Inter Milan for a few more seasons!

"Sorry, I didn’t have lunch, a bit of low blood sugar."

Chiwo looked at the surprised Tang Long and Ronaldo, muttered a few words, then took the coffee, and the three of them started chatting.

Though he was reluctant to discuss the topic,

for Tang Long’s long-term development, Chiwo analyzed it from his own perspective.

"If I were you, I would definitely go to Chelsea!"

As a meritorious member of Inter Milan’s treble-winning team, Chiwo respected the Portuguese master coach Mourinho as he would a father.

Chiwo transferred from Rome to Inter Milan in 2007, when the team’s coach was still Mancini during his first tenure.

That season, under Mancini’s leadership, Inter Milan successfully defended the Serie A championship, achieving a three-peat in Serie A.

However, the team’s performance in the Champions League was not satisfactory!

In the round of 16, they faced Liverpool in two legs, losing with a total score of 0:3!

Inter Milan once again stumbled on the Champions League stage.

In the summer of 2008, Mancini was dismissed, and the most special one—the Portuguese coach Mourinho—came from Chelsea to Inter Milan.

Mourinho’s arrival completely changed the character of the Inter Milan team!

The team’s performance in Serie A remained strong, achieving a four-peat in Serie A.

Although in Mourinho’s first season coaching Inter Milan, the team still lost to Premier League’s Manchester United in the round of 16 in the Champions League.

But as the Portuguese became more familiar with Inter, in the 2009–10 season, the entire team performed extraordinarily in the Champions League, becoming the first and so far only treble-winner in Serie A!

The value of Inter Milan’s Champions League victory that season was arguably the best in history!

They defeated the champions of the Russian Super League, Premier League, La Liga, and Bundesliga in the knockout stages!

Stepping over the most powerful teams in the major leagues, they reached the pinnacle of Europe’s hierarchy.

"If you have the chance, make sure to have Mourinho as your coach once!"

Talking about Mourinho, Chiwo was full of energy, instantly forgetting all the unpleasantness that happened earlier in Ossilio’s office. Faced with Tang Long and Ronaldo, Chiwo spoke passionately.

"Mourinho has a magical ability; he can always awaken the supreme desire for honor in your heart as a professional player with just a few words before the game!"

"I remember in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Barça, during halftime, Mourinho kicked the tactics board and we were all stunned!"

"Then Mourinho loosened his belt in front of us, dropped his trousers, and said, if any of you still have any manhood left, then go up there and beat Barça!"

"We were being toyed with by Barça in the first half, like they were toying with monkeys! Motta got fouled out by Busquets in just over 20 minutes, and we were down to ten men with our stamina severely drained by halftime!"

(A fleeting glimpse of Busquets)

"But with Mourinho’s halftime speech, I still remember the atmosphere in the locker room, haha, everyone was fired up, our stamina instantly revived!"

"It’s truly amazing; we managed to hold a 0:1 scoreline at Camp Nou, eliminating Barça 3:2 on aggregate to reach the Champions League final."

"After the match, Barça deliberately watered the pitch to prevent us from celebrating, but we didn’t care; Sneijder, me, Milito, everyone charged under the sprinklers, stripping off and showering, it was exhilarating, hahaha, I’ll remember it for the rest of my life!"

Chiwo’s hearty laughter infected Tang Long and Ronaldo, and their laughter echoed in the living room.

However, Ronaldo offered his own thoughts.

He believes that compared to Chelsea, Manchester City, who prefers ground coordination, is a better choice for Tang Long.

"I know Manchester City’s coach Pellegrini very well, he is a typical South American coach."

"During his two years coaching Manchester City, he made fantastic changes to the team, they played beautiful attacking football."

Ronaldo has obviously done his homework and knows the team configurations of Manchester City and Chelsea better than Chiwo.

"Manchester City is in great need of top attackers in the front."

"At the beginning of the season, they even brought in the 37-year-old veteran Lampard from Chelsea, and he was a mainstay for a while, but that was just a transition."

"Yaya Toure is already 32, and primarily a box-to-box midfielder, often plagued by injuries."

"David Silva prefers to roam the flanks."

"I’ve watched many Manchester City games, with their 4-2-3-1 formation, Tang Long is absolutely the best choice for the attacking midfield, you know, their striker is Agüero, and in terms of positioning and sense inside the penalty area, Agüero is definitely not inferior to Icardi."

"On the other hand, at Chelsea, the attacking midfield position is firmly held by either Fabregas or Oscar."

"Moreover, their big star, the Belgian Hazard, thrives on ball control."

"The Premier League and Serie A are completely different tempos, if Tang Long goes to the Premier League, he might need some time to adapt. The competition in the Premier League is very fierce, four or five teams have a chance to win the championship, the cost of trial and error is high!"

"If Tang cannot immediately become a mainstay, it will be very detrimental to his growth."

On one hand, he thinks if Tang Long insists on going to the Premier League, then he should go to the strongest team, last season’s Premier League champion is Chelsea, Chelsea is now the strongest team in the Premier League.

Not to mention with Mourinho, Chelsea has an added aura in Chiwo’s mind.

Ronaldo believes he must be responsible for his client’s career growth.

Tang Long is only 18 years old, players at this age are very unstable, if he cannot find a mainstay position to temper himself, he could waste years on the bench, delaying growth.

"Manchester City is actually not inferior to Chelsea, two seasons ago, they were the Premier League champions. I think the strength of Manchester City and Chelsea is equal, but if from Tang Long’s personal technical characteristics and age perspective, going to Manchester City will better aid his development!"

"As for Mourinho," Ronaldo paused, "his inspirational pre-match talks are indeed strong, but in terms of tactical literacy, he may not be top-notch in Europe, at least I don’t see how he is stronger than Pellegrini, I think in the new era of football development, Mourinho’s motivational methods will gradually become outdated."

Chiwo was taken aback, disagreeing: "Are you saying Mourinho will be eliminated by the times?"

Their conversation started to go off track, luckily Tang Long stepped in to mediate in time, preventing Chiwo and Ronaldo from arguing.

After Chiwo left Tang Long’s home, his mood became more despondent.

He didn’t know where he should go.

Nor did he understand why he had to argue with Ronaldo.

Tang Long will soon no longer be an Inter player.

He can go wherever he wants!

Moreover, whether it’s Chelsea or Manchester City, both have larger stages than Inter.

No matter where he goes, Tang Long’s career will have reached a higher level, that’s without a doubt.

Thinking of this, Chiwo smiled knowingly, feeling slightly comforted inside.

After wandering around in the streets with his car for a while, he suddenly thought of Mancini.

With Inter Milan in such a dismal state now, Mr. Mancini must also be feeling bad.

He has a two-year contract with Inter, with few soldiers under his command next season, how will he manage, he’s probably also having a headache like Chiwo.

Just as Chiwo was about to call Mancini, the phone rang by itself.

An incoming call from Mancini!

"Hey! Christian, where are you? Happy holidays, are you having fun."

"Boss, I’m not on holiday, I’m in Milan."

"Ah? Why did you return to Milan, aren’t you on holiday?"

"I’ve no mood for a holiday, all our main players are running away, I’m worried about what to do next season, Ossilio, Toshihiko, these are all opportunists, they have no love for Inter, boss, I’m really worried about you this coming season!"

Chiwo went on and on on the phone about his experiences in Ossilio’s office with Mancini.

On the other end, Mancini was silent for a while.

"...Oh, is that so...actually you don’t need to worry about me, here’s some news, I’m going to England’s national team to coach, would you be willing to come as my assistant?"