I'm 1.9 meters tall and weigh 200 pounds, can I pull the hem?

St. James' Park Stadium, away team locker room.

A scene filled with laughter and joy.

Although there were previous reports that the atmosphere in the Villa dressing room was tense, from another perspective, a team that has lost more than ten games in a row would have problems even if there were none in the dressing room.

Conversely, as long as the desired results are achieved, any problems in the locker room can be suppressed.

When Gard announced that tomorrow's training was canceled and that everyone would have a day off, the atmosphere in the locker room reached a fever pitch.

Grealish took the initiative to create a lively atmosphere, leading everyone to jump around in the locker room.

"Hey Liu, come join the fun! You were the hero who scored the goal!"

Grealish grabbed Liu Yang, who was sitting to the side, and tried to pull him up.

It couldn't be moved.

Liu Yang stood up on his own, feeling a little awkward.

Since my transfer, I've been training with the youth team. I was only recently promoted to the first team, so I'm not really familiar with these older guys yet.

However, Grealish, this social butterfly, doesn't care about any of that.

He grabbed Liu Yang's arm and jumped up with him.

"Don't be shy, Liu, you'll score even more goals."

"Those idiots at Arsenal will definitely regret selling you then!"

Liu Yang smiled.

Indeed, Arsenal's midfield and attack were full of talent at the time.

I rarely get enough playing time.

So when Aston Villa made an offer and the management accepted it, he ultimately agreed to the transfer.

He left the team he had played for for ten years.

……

Let's rewind to a few hours earlier.

"December 5, 2015, Evening News."

"Arsenal player Alexis Sanchez's injury test results are worse than expected. The Chilean striker was forced off injured in Arsenal's 3-1 home win against Sunderland yesterday, and it is understood that he may be out for more than two months..."

"Although the German midfielder number 11 was forced to retire at the beginning of the season due to a traffic accident, Arsenal's performance was still commendable."

"After this round, Arsenal will be unbeaten in nine consecutive Premier League matches, overtaking Manchester City to become second in the league, second only to the dark horse Leicester City at the top."

"But Welbeck has been sidelined with injury and his return is far off, while key midfielder Cazorla has been confirmed to undergo surgery and will be out for a long time. Now Sanchez has also been added to the injury list. With so many players missing, it remains a big question mark whether coach Wenger can lead the team to continue their previous strong performance..."

"Bloody hell!"

The old man in front of the TV cursed, startling the old woman next to him who was half asleep on the sofa.

"My God, John, what's wrong now? You scared me half to death!"

The old man named John picked up the half-empty sherry bottle from the coffee table and poured it into a glass.

"This year is our best chance to win the championship in many years, but it looks like there are going to be problems again, as the team's key players will be absent again..."

"I remember you said that a few months ago."

"That German? He's certainly important, but Cazorla, that Spaniard, is the team's midfield maestro."

"To be honest, I've always felt he wasn't a good person, and that he'd cause a lot of trouble sooner or later..."

John downed a large glass of sherry in one gulp, his face visibly turning red, and he began to slur his words.

"I've heard some interesting things about his car accident."

"You know, Bob works as a caregiver at the hospital, and his neighbor's nephew, Stephen, is a surgeon there. That's what Bob told me when we were drinking last time."

"After that German guy was in a car accident and was put in an ambulance, the first thing he said after waking up in the ambulance was that he was a football player and asked how badly his leg was injured."

"The doctor said it's not serious, just some abrasions."

"He said he wanted to see because his lower body was in pain and he was covered by a blanket."

"The doctor said they can't treat you; your leg is in another ambulance."

"For God's sake..."

The old woman made the sign of the cross on her chest, while silently muttering something to herself.

"Okay, Mary, I just don't like Germans."

"Especially since that guy looks like a Turk, he racked up the assist title in Madrid, cost Arsenal a lot of money, occupied the most comfortable position, and stole most of the praise and reputation."

"Cazorla abandoned his well-performing attacking midfield role and was forced to drop back. Although he remained as consistent as ever, he's too small for his age, yet he had to fight against a bunch of muscular players. I think this serious injury is also due to overwork..."

"Come on, John," the old woman interrupted the old man's seemingly endless rambling. "Thirty years ago, you didn't like the French either. Later, you kept talking about that Frenchman Wenger, and then you even bought another Frenchman's jersey and framed it..."

Mary pointed to the red and white jersey hanging on the living room wall, with the number 14 printed on it.

"You must know, Mary, he's different; he's Thierry Henry..."

"Stop drinking, you've already had enough." Mary reached out and snatched the bottle from John's hand as he tried to add more wine to his glass.

Having been married to her football-loving husband for so many years, she has come to know a fair bit about football.

"I remember you said that the team could make players in January."

"Oh, Mary, don't worry, they won't buy any players." John's ruddy old face suddenly showed a wry smile. "At most, they'll promote a few from the youth academy or recall a few loaned-out young players to make some minor adjustments."

"Really? Won't the fans have a problem with that?"

"I've been watching Arsenal for decades, and no one knows their transfers better than me."

"Especially after the new stadium was built, and those annoying Americans joined..."

"Of course they won't openly say they won't strengthen the team."

"In the first stage, they will claim that there are no problems with the team and that the strongest player is already in the squad."

"In the second phase, we began to express interest in some players, but indicated that we should not take any action at this time."

"In the third phase, we said that perhaps we should take action, but due to funding issues or player interest issues, we couldn't do anything."

"In the fourth phase, we said that maybe we should have done something to facilitate the transfers, but it's too late now, so the list of 'players Wenger almost signed' has grown a bit longer..."

……

"The team has no problems."

On December 9th, at the post-match press conference following Arsenal's 3-0 away victory over Olympiacos in the 6th round of the Champions League group stage, Wenger made the following remarks.

"We were missing Danny, we were missing Santi, and Alexis was injured in the last game, but we still have many excellent players, and we still managed to win this game."

"Olivier played exceptionally well in this match. Although he was bumped during the game, he seemed to be doing well and ultimately scored three goals. I'm very happy for him..."

Wenger's tone remained as calm as ever.

But after the press conference, Arsenal's team doctor spoke with Wenger.

Giroud's injury wasn't serious to begin with, but he played the entire game with it, which aggravated the injury.

The exact duration of his injury is still uncertain, but it certainly won't be short.

Wenger is losing his composure.

Welbeck is injured, Cazorla is injured, Sanchez is injured, and now Giroud is injured too.

If this continues, the team will have very few usable players left in the midfield and forward positions.

……

Regardless, the team had secured a resounding victory, so Wenger announced the cancellation of training the following day, giving the boys a day off.

Wenger and his coaching team spent the entire afternoon in his office.

Analyze the data on youth team players and young players on loan.

Teaching assistant Boulder held the remote control and projected the scouting report onto the big screen.

"Zegh Gnabry, 20 years old, mainly plays as a winger, is equally adept with both feet, and has excellent off-the-ball and finishing abilities. However, a serious injury last season sidelined him for the rest of the season. He was loaned to West Bromwich Albion this season and hasn't had many opportunities to play..."

"Only 12 minutes of playing time in four months?" Wenger frowned slightly.

West Bromwich Albion's manager, Tony Pulis, is an old rival of Arsène Wenger.

In 2010, during a match against Stoke City, Arsenal player Aaron Ramsey suffered a flying tackle that broke his right lower leg.

Years later, a player revealed that it was then-manager Pulis who encouraged them to take action against Arsenal players.

Of course, a gentle and refined person like a professor wouldn't show his emotions too much on his face.

He was just angry inside, and regretted whether he was getting senile for agreeing to rent the person to that guy.

"Alex Iwobi, 19 years old, mainly plays as a winger, and has performed very well in the youth team this season."

Wenger immediately thought of the young man from Nigeria, who had good potential but needed to improve his attacking options.

"Liu Yang, 19 years old, of Chinese descent, primarily plays as an attacking midfielder. He transferred to Aston Villa in the summer transfer window for a fee of 2 million euros, and we have a buy-back option of 20 million euros..."

"Ah, it's that descendant of the Chinese."

Wenger remembers it very clearly.

Ten years ago, an orphan from London caught the attention of Arsenal scouts with his agile dribbling and incredible speed, showcasing his football talent.

After much coordination, Arsenal's youth academy successfully retained Liu Yang.

"This is a video of him in Aston Villa's youth team, and also his goal against Newcastle in the last round, where he came on as a substitute and scored the equalizer..."

Wenger and his coaching team watched the match video in silence.

"So, he moved to the far post ahead of time, while the ball was still in the air after his teammate crossed it?"

The experienced Wenger was the first to raise the question.

"That's the instinct of a top-tier marksman!"

"Look at that volley, it's of very high quality."

"In a very tight angle, the defender has already shut down most of the space."

"But he could find the only line to put the ball in the net, and it was a volley."

"That's the footwork of a top-tier shooter!"

"If I remember correctly, this kid started out as a winger in the youth team?"

"Yes, sir, but he's developing too fast, so we had to move him to the mid lane..."

"That's right," Wenger's voice was tinged with delight. "At the time, his position was fluctuating between center forward and attacking midfielder. Later, it was found that his positioning and finishing ability in the youth team were not good enough, and he scored more goals from late runs into the box."

"However, he showed a certain level of passing ability at that time, so we started to train him as an attacking midfielder."

"If he continues to display such marksmanship, we might witness a genius without a template."

"But sir, twenty million euros..."

Silence, silence is the Arsenal office today.

Wenger's smile vanished.

This kid is a diamond in the rough, but he's too young to be a contender for the championship.

Not every 19-year-old midfielder is Fabregas.

But the transfer...

Wenger frowned slightly again.

In fact, Wenger was opposed when the management pushed for the transfer.

His proposal was a loan, but the management believed that the attacking line was already overcrowded, especially the attacking midfield position, which already had the German midfielder as a regular starter, as well as Cazorla, who could play that position.

Given that Villa's offer was quite good, they accepted it.

Only after the professor's repeated insistence was a buy-back clause added to the transfer.

Who could have imagined that the German midfielder's injury would trigger a chain reaction?

With one key player missing, the workload for the others naturally increases, indirectly leading to a wave of injuries.

Before the season is even halfway through, Arsenal has already fallen into a situation where their attacking options are stretched thin.

Wenger knew that the management would never agree to spend 20 million euros in the winter transfer window to buy a young player who had only played a few Premier League games.

Moreover, this was someone Xia Chuang and his team had just sent away, and they bought them back not long after.

Isn't this just contradicting yourself?

"By the way, sir, our next league opponent in three days is Aston Villa..."

Wenger took off his glasses and gently shook his head.

"Let's put this kid on the watchlist and keep an eye on his performance in every game."

"If he gets to play in the next game, I'll personally observe his performance..."