Chapter 1 While on Vacation

While Chen Hero was on vacation, Advocaat was busy building the team. He took over midway through last season, and with limited players to choose from, there was only so much he could change. Even so, he led the team to fourth place in the league despite being ranked in the middle, which speaks volumes about his ability.

Of course, Chen Hero's ten goals played a crucial role in this. But Advocaat, who dared to give Chen Hero a starting opportunity in the first team despite the great risk, was also remarkable.

This season, he didn't have to step in halfway through; he could build a team that met his requirements from the very beginning.

First, he bought out the right-back Fernando Ricksen, who had been on loan from Scotland last season, for 200,000 euros.

This strengthened the team's defense. Then he bought twenty-one-year-old Belgian young right-back Nicolas Lombaerts from AA Gent in Belgium, a transfer that cost the team 4.2 million euros.

Zenit St. Petersburg was spending money like crazy in the transfer market, expanding its strength. Some signings weren't even to strengthen the main lineup, but to strengthen the bench.

Advocaat knew very well that the team would not only be competing in the domestic league in the 2007 season, but also in the UEFA Cup. If they fought on two fronts, they might collapse on both. So bench depth was very important. It wouldn't work to rely on just one set of players.

The team also got Russian midfielder Konstantin Zyryanov from Moscow Torpedo for free. His arrival was mainly to enhance the bench strength.

Next, Advocaat began to take action to strengthen the main lineup.

He first brought in Argentine attacking midfielder Alejandro Dominguez from Rubin Kazan for 7 million euros, a transfer fee that set a Russian domestic transfer record.

Dominguez had been famous for a long time; he became famous at the 2001 World Youth Championship. However, it was also at that World Youth Championship that he had his leg broken in a match against France, and he even had to say goodbye to professional football for a while.

In the end, he survived, and in 2004 he joined the Russian team Rubin Kazan from River Plate. At Rubin Kazan, he was the absolute main core player. He played seventy-six times in three seasons, scoring twenty-five goals, especially last season, when he played thirty times and scored seventeen goals.

According to Advocaat's vision, as long as Chen Hero could maintain the momentum of the last stage of last season, there would be no problem for him to become the main center forward.

But such a center forward is very dependent on the support from the midfield and backcourt, so there must be someone who can deliver shells to him. Now there is Arshavin, but it is far from enough. Radimov is old after all, and his form is declining rapidly, so fresh blood needs to be added. Dominguez is a good choice. In fact, before the start of last season, Rubin Kazan had wanted to sell this player. Rubin Kazan's idea was really strange—they actually wanted to sell such an absolute main core player.

If they hadn't received a suitable offer, Dominguez would have left Rubin Kazan long ago.

After a season of delay, Rubin Kazan finally received a suitable offer and sold Dominguez to a competitor for a price that broke the Russian domestic league transfer fee record.

With Dominguez, Zenit's frontcourt attack will be even stronger. In Advocaat's mind, he, Arshavin, and Chen Hero will form an indestructible offensive triangle, conquering cities and plundering fortresses for the team.

After strengthening the offensive strength, it is natural to strengthen the defensive strength.

Advocaat set his sights on Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, the captain of Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk, as a defensive midfielder.

This Ukrainian defensive midfielder has been famous for a long time. As the captain of Shakhtar Donetsk, he led the team to win the Ukrainian league three times, the Ukrainian Cup three times, and the Ukrainian Super Cup once. Due to his outstanding performance at the World Cup in Germany last summer, he attracted the attention of many giants. It was rumored that Juventus, Feyenoord, Celtic, and Roma all wanted to get him.

But in the end, he stayed with Shakhtar.

Advocaat believes that Tymoshchuk is a very good defensive midfielder. At the World Cup in Germany last summer, he was considered a key figure in Ukraine's ability to finally reach the top eight. Shevchenko is the captain of the team, and he is the vice-captain.

The arrival of such an excellent defensive midfielder will definitely greatly enhance the team's ability in midfield defense.

Last season, Advocaat had just taken office and brought three players from South Korea in one go, wanting to establish his own direct line, but he found that these three Koreans were not very competitive. While last season was still in progress, Hyun Young-min was the first to fall behind. Due to his inability to adapt to the Russian climate and his own lack of strength, he was like sleepwalking on the field. He was sent to the reserve team after playing a few games.

Then Advocaat was not very satisfied with Lee Ho's performance last season. He didn't do a good enough job in midfield defense, and he contributed even less to the offense. It seemed like he was out of sync with the whole team.

It's just that he hadn't been able to find a better candidate to replace him before. Now that Advocaat plans to bring in Tymoshchuk, there will naturally be no place for Lee Ho.

In the end, Zenit St. Petersburg spent more than 15 million euros to buy Tymoshchuk, their captain, from Shakhtar Donetsk.

Tymoshchuk's arrival can greatly strengthen the team's defensive ability in midfield.

On the front line, there's nothing to introduce.

Sevilla once wanted to buy Kerzhakov from Zenit, but Advocaat refused. Panov has been sent to the reserve team by him, and the manpower on the front line is relatively tight. He can't let Kerzhakov go.

With the current reserves, he feels it's just right.

There are only three real strikers: Kerzhakov, Tekke, and Chen Hero.

Among them, Tekke is the most tragic. He was originally transferred from Trabzonspor in Turkey for 10 million euros last season and quickly became the main player, making frequent gains. Who would have thought that an accidental injury would lead to the sudden emergence of a guy named Chen Hero.

He scored five goals in three games like a madman, including a hat-trick, and was so radiant for a time that he almost made others forget him.

He finally recovered, but after only playing one league game, he injured himself again in training due to being too impatient...

Now it's all over. When he saw Chen Hero blasting a beautiful long shot into the goal of CSKA Moscow in front of the TV, he knew that his main position for this season was gone...

This Chen Hero was simply like he fell from the sky, and he just snatched his main position like that.

After the start of the new season, Tekke was full of energy to snatch the main position back from Chen Hero.

He had analyzed it. Chen Hero was only good at headers, had excellent physical fitness, and also had the ability to shoot from long range, but his accuracy was average. He had no other advantages. His technique was very rough, and his passing was very average. He seemed to be a center forward who was nailed to the penalty area. Such a person is the easiest to be seen to death by the opponent's defenders...

But things didn't go as smoothly as he thought...

"Huh? Hero, I think you've gained weight?"

"That's not fat! It's strong! Strong with a 'g'!"

This conversation happened many times in the training before the new season. Almost every teammate who saw Chen Hero would ask this question, and then Chen Hero would repeat it with the same answer.

Advocaat was very satisfied with Chen Hero's physical fitness. During the whole vacation, he was the only player who gained weight, but his fat content decreased.

In the training before the start of the season, the initial arrangements were for physical recovery training, which Chen Hero completed very easily. Even a fool could see that he had not relaxed his physical exercise during the vacation.

Advocaat was very satisfied with this.

Don't look at Chen Hero who likes to go to nightclubs and loves to play. But when it comes to the critical moment, he can still hold on and know what he should do.

He didn't ask Chen Hero to do physical training during the vacation, but he did it, which shows that his professional quality is still okay.

Chen Hero also felt the benefits of insisting on physical training during the vacation—he felt very relaxed from the beginning of the preseason training, and he was able to cope with it with ease.

He has stored enough physical energy for the start of the new season.

Next, during the combined ball training, Chen Hero showed everyone the power of his two talent points this holiday.

After the "Heavy Cannon" talent point was full, Chen Hero often used his long shots in the team's training matches. He wanted to see what it would be like after the talent point was full...

At least it performed really well in training.

If there is no interference and he is allowed to shoot directly, he can score six out of ten shots! This is a very amazing goal rate.

Of course, in actual games, if he encounters confrontation and other various complex situations, the goal rate will definitely not be so high, but even so, it is already very remarkable.

In addition, Chen Hero's shooting power is already very strong. Once his long shot hits the goal frame, it is a severe test for the goalkeeper.

What is the concept of a center forward who can shoot so well from long range?

It's like O'Neal frequently pulls out to the three-point line to shoot three-pointers, and the hit rate is still very high!

Of course, because of his position, Chen Hero certainly can't often pull out of the penalty area to shoot from long range like this. Most of the time, he has to face away from the opponent's goal, so he can't shoot from long range.

But having such a scoring method always benefits the team and him a lot.

Think about it. When the penalty area is full of the opponent's dense defense, Chen Hero suddenly retreats, receives a pass from his teammate, and then shoots from long range! The football flies straight into the opponent's goal like a cannonball, while the opponent's goalkeeper stares blankly as the football enters the goal, without making any saves...

What a refreshing thing this is!

For Chen Hero, this gives him one more weapon and one more insurance in the team's internal forward competition.

A center forward who can both rush to the front to smash open the opponent's goal with his head and use long-range shots to launch a surprise attack can definitely enrich the team's offensive tactics and routines. For the coach, this means that he has one more weapon...

Tekke now feels that he can't compete for the main position this season either...