In the 11th round of Serie A, the squad list for Inter's home match against Genoa was announced.
As usual.
In faraway China.
Some die-hard Inter fans also saw the list.
No one noticed that at the end of this 21-man squad list, there was the name Tang Long.
Everyone's attention was focused on the names of key players like Gualin, Icardi, and Kovacic.
The fans, after watching for so long, know.
You only need to pay attention to the first dozen or so players on the list.
The rest are substitutes, many of whom are just making up the numbers, with no chance of playing.
However, a few people still noticed a strange name at the end of the list.
[Tunn]
"Who is this number 99 Tunn?"
In the Inter circle of the famous domestic football app Dong Qiu Di,
someone posted out of curiosity about this surname.
"Ton? Teng? How do you pronounce this…"
"No idea, maybe from some youth training team, never heard of them.
You can tell from the number that they are just filling in from the youth team, don't know him!"
...
Inter Milan's first team office.
The slightly graying head coach Mancini had a bit of a headache.
He repeatedly looked at the previous game on the computer, the 10th round of Serie A, where Inter Milan lost 0-3 away to Sampdoria!
It had deepened the crow's feet at the corner of Mancini's eyes!
"My God, how can they play so badly, and players of this level are fit to serve Inter Milan?"
Mancini's voice of emotion carried a hint of bewilderment.
He had been away from Inter for too long.
The current Inter was no longer the Inter he knew!
2004~2008.
Mancini coached Inter Milan for four whole years, winning three Serie A titles!
In the 2006-2007 season, they set the club's record for a single-season Serie A points tally of 97, a legendary coach of Inter Milan.
But due to poor performances in the Champions League over consecutive years.
In the summer of 2008, he was dismissed by Moratti.
Afterward, the Italian head coach went to the Premier League and joined Manchester City!
Under his reign, the Blue Moon staged the miracle of 9320 in 2012, with a last-second victory over Queens Park Rangers!
They edged out their city rivals, the Red Devils Manchester United, to win their first-ever Premier League title in team history.
And those years.
Inter Milan first, under Mourinho's management, achieved a historic treble.
But then, Benitez, Leonardo, Gasperini, Stramaccioni, Mazzari...
These coaches left only faint traces in Inter Milan's coaching register like a revolving lantern.
In short, the results were dismal!
Since 2012.
Inter Milan had never again reached the Champions League zone.
Before Mancini took over.
Under Mazzari's management, Inter Milan, after the first 9 rounds of the 2014-15 season, were only ranked 9th.
Forget about contending for the title — even securing a Champions League spot for the next season was precarious!
Seeing the former Serie A powerhouse gradually fall to a mid-tier Serie A team.
Inter Milan's owner, Toshihiko, promptly dismissed Mazzari and chose to bring back the former manager Mancini.
As the saying goes, a good horse does not turn back to graze on old grass.
But Mancini was also happy to accept this invitation for a second tenure.
After all, his previous year's coaching experience at Galatasaray in the Turkish Super League was not smooth, and his relationship with the management and staff was quite tense.
At fifty years of age and in his prime, Mancini needed a weighty coaching position to reprove his value.
So, six years later, he returned to the Serie A he was familiar with.
Mancini faced the mess left by Mazzari.
Taking over midway, he was full of ambition and aspiration.
He wanted to bring Inter Milan back to the unbeatable powerhouse in Serie A that he had coached six years ago!
Only, just after accepting the appointment and leading the team for his first match, he got a head-on blow!
Inter Milan suffered a 0-3 defeat to Sampdoria away.
The outcome was that he started smoking again after having quit for two years.
Although puffing out smoke couldn't relieve the depression in his heart, it was a way to divert and discharge, with the smoke perhaps also serving as a cover.
In this match, the scene presented a one-sided trend; the Blue-Black Corps was completely suppressed by the sailors.
This wasn't the worst~
The worse part was that the match also cost Inter Milan two key players — both main strikers Oswaldo and Icardi were injured.
Now the team only had two other forwards left.
One was the 33-year-old Argentinian veteran Palacio.
The other was the mere 17-year-old young forward Bonazzoli.
Looking at these two cards in hand, one old, one young, Mancini felt a headache!
With this lineup returning home, can they take three points from Genoa?
Don't mention three points, even one point might be difficult…
At 6:00 PM local time in Milan.
Inter Milan's bus slowly headed towards the Meazza stadium.
There was still 1 hour 45 minutes before the game started, and the players arrived at the stadium early to begin warming up.
Sitting at the end of the bus, Tang Long excitedly looked out the window; both sides were full of fans wearing Blue-Black jerseys of Inter Milan.
Tang Long had just wanted to wave at the fans through the window when a stinky egg smashed onto the window with a bang.
"Bang bang bang!"
A few more eggs were thrown at them.
"Do you stand up to us? Do you stand up to us fans?"
"Already ranked ninth in Serie A, do you need to aim for nineteenth at the season's end for relegation?"
"Have some decency, if you can't take this match against Genoa, the team might as well be disbanded!"
"You can't score upfront, and you keep conceding at the back. Are you playing football? It's a total eyesore, ruining my ticket money!"
"Toshihiko, get out, Old Mo, please come back to take charge of Inter!"
The fans' curses surged like a tide.
Sitting next to Tang Long, Inter Milan's third substitute goalkeeper Berni, coughed awkwardly.
He leaned over Tang Long and reached out to pull the curtains shut.
"Kid, don't worry about that. What the fans say has nothing to do with you; you just focus on watching the game by the bench.
Here, wear my headphones; listen to the latest rock coming out of America, haha…"
Uncle Berni was quite protective of Tang Long, telling him many things about the first team along the way.
After all, one was the third goalkeeper of the team, with hardly a minute of playing time in a season.
The other came from the youth team to warm the bench, enjoying the privilege of watching the game for free on the spot.
The two naturally warmed up to each other.
"Uncle Berni, how do you think we'll play in this game? It's our home ground, should we focus on offense?"
Tang Long tentatively asked Berni.
But Uncle Berni gave him a dismissive look,
"Oh come on, offense, what offense!"
Berni glanced at the back of head coach Mancini, who was sitting at the front of the bus, and lowered his voice.
"I've been around, young man, let me tell you, what Mancini is worried about now is the team's terrible defense.
It's like the team is jinxed since the start of the season with a continuous stream of injuries.
Gualin, Hernanes, Mvila, Juan have been in and out with injuries, it's really frustrating!
After 10 rounds in the league, just 10 rounds, do you know how many goals we've conceded?"
Tang Long immediately replied:
"Fifteen, I checked the data."
"Yes, fifteen!" Berni slapped his thigh, looking a bit agitated.
"In a league like Serie A that prides itself on defense, if we continue with this rate of conceding goals, the team absolutely cannot achieve the goal of reaching the Champions League set at the beginning of the season.
Bear in mind, because of our Serie A's poor performance in recent European Wars, this season the Serie A league only has three Champions League slots~"
Berni took off the headphones from Tang Long's head and put them on his own, eyes slightly narrowed.
"Ah, the top three, the top three!
Juventus, AC Milan, Naples, Atlanta, Lazio, Florence, who can we really beat?
I've played in professional leagues for over a dozen years, and I've seen it all. In Serie A, if you want to win, you have to rely on resilience; if you can't hold up, you won't get points."