Chapter 1 The Eve of Battle

After two national team match days, the players returned to their respective clubs one after another.

Liverpool also restarted their training camp. This time, their preparation was for the first group stage match at home against Sporting Lisbon.

It was Liverpool's first Europa League group match of the new season, and their first European match after a year's absence, so the club attached great importance to it.

Playing at home, they had to win!

If they couldn't even win against Sporting Lisbon at home, Liverpool might as well go back to sleep and stop dreaming of a revival.

In fact, the Europa League was just the UEFA Cup, but with a changed format and a new name, though the trophy remained the same. So Chen Hero was definitely not participating for the first time. But strictly speaking, the Europa League and the UEFA Cup were still two different events. After all, the name had been changed, so it couldn't be called the "UEFA Cup" anymore.

The Europa League was UEFA President Platini's attempt to fulfill his promises to the smaller football associations when he was campaigning for votes, and it was a policy to strongly support second and third-tier league teams. The original UEFA Cup and Intertoto Cup were merged to form a brand new cup competition called the Europa League.

The group stage alone was expanded to include forty-eight clubs. Like the Champions League, each team would play six matches in the group stage, competing against the other three opponents in the group both home and away, instead of the previous UEFA Cup format where there were no home and away group stage matches, and each team only played each other once in the group stage.

The scale of the qualifying rounds was also expanded to three rounds, not including the play-offs. The number of teams participating in the qualifying rounds naturally increased as well, from the original one hundred and one teams to one hundred and thirty-three, a full thirty-two more teams.

As a result, many teams from lower-ranked leagues were able to participate in the competition and show their faces on the European stage. But the main reason was not to let them show their faces, but to get money after showing their faces. In the 2010-2011 season, just entering the Europa League group stage guaranteed each of the forty-eight teams a participation bonus of 640,000 euros. In the same season, the teams participating in the Champions League group stage received 3.9 million euros, which was a completely different level of prize money.

But for those smaller teams, 640,000 euros was attractive enough. After that, for each match, regardless of winning or losing, the club could receive 60,000 euros in appearance fees. Winning a match earned the team 140,000 euros, while a draw only earned half that amount, 70,000 euros, and there was no bonus for losing. According to this calculation, if a team could win all six matches in the group stage, they could earn a maximum of 1.84 million euros in prize money. Teams that reached the round of 32 received an automatic qualification bonus of 200,000 euros, and teams that reached the round of 16 received 300,000 euros. Reaching the quarter-finals earned 400,000 euros. Reaching the semi-finals increased the bonus to 700,000 euros. As for the two teams that reached the final, the champion would receive a winning bonus of 3 million euros, while the runner-up would only receive 2 million euros.

So, if a team could win the championship with an all-win record, they could earn a maximum of 7.08 million euros. This amount of money was nothing to the big clubs.

But for teams in Eastern European and Northern European leagues, this prize money was even more than their entire annual financial budget.

So the Europa League was still very attractive to small teams.

※※※

Many teams participated in the Europa League for the prize money. Perhaps participating in a season of the Europa League could save the club's financial crisis.

As for the championship glory, not all teams valued it or were interested in it.

However, the reason why Liverpool attached so much importance to this competition was indeed because of the championship glory.

The seven million plus euros in prize money for winning the championship was something that the Liverpool club couldn't completely ignore, as it could alleviate financial pressure, but it wouldn't plunge them into a quagmire if they didn't get it.

But if the team could win the Europa League, then they could announce Liverpool's strong return. It would be a shot in the arm to boost Liverpool's morale.

It was a championship with symbolic significance greater than practical significance.

Liverpool's ultimate pursuit was still the Champions League, but the Europa League could be a stepping stone to send Liverpool to the top.

So Liverpool had to strive to achieve results in this Europa League.

Martin O'Neill didn't hold any special mobilization meetings or anything like that. He felt that everyone was a professional player, and some of these players had even won the Champions League. Besides, they were playing at home, so there was no reason not to win.

The only thing he was worried about was Chen Hero. After all, Chen Hero's starting point was too high, and he was afraid that Chen Hero wouldn't be interested in this Europa League.

To be honest, Chen Hero's current ability was already at the Champions League level, and he should be participating in the Champions League.

And the Europa League, such a tasteless competition, no matter how important it was to Liverpool, was tasteless to Chen Hero.

Not to mention that the Europa League was actually the UEFA Cup, and Chen Hero had not only won the UEFA Cup championship, but also won the top scorer award after the UEFA Cup was renamed.

What he could pursue was really limited...

O'Neill couldn't be blamed for having such thoughts, because this phenomenon was very common in football. There were many players who, after achieving success and fame, lost their motivation and were no longer interested in championships and victories. Such examples were numerous.

The most recent example was Mourinho's Inter Milan. That team had won the treble in the 2009-2010 season, fulfilling a dream of club president Moratti. Countless players achieved success and fame. What happened after that? Mourinho left Inter Milan and went to Real Madrid to meet his new challenges, while the Inter Milan players fell into laziness and emptiness after achieving success and fame.

The team's performance plummeted, and everyone's energy was clearly not focused on pursuing victory, but on infighting and seeking benefits. For their own interests, they could get rid of coaches they didn't like. In order to get rid of the head coach, they could slack off in matches and allow the team to lose again and again. Even when Inter Milan fans displayed banners in the stands during games like "Can you still win? Otherwise, I'll be laughed at at school!" to encourage them, it didn't change their attitude. Inter Milan lost 0:1 to Marseille in the Champions League away game, and then lost 0:1 to Napoli in the league without Chen Hero. The Nerazzurri not only failed to comfort the fans with victory, but instead fell into an even deeper trough.

It all stemmed from the fact that after this group of players had won all the honors they could win, they fell into a huge emptiness and lost their goals for a while.

Martin O'Neill was worried that the team's top scorer and attacking core would also develop such a mentality—he performed well in the Premier League because the Premier League was still a league that he had not yet conquered.

He had already won the Europa League championship and the top scorer award, and he was also a record-breaking top scorer.

He planned to have a good talk with Chen Hero.

※※※

Chen Hero smiled after understanding O'Neill's intention.

He was in the process of frantically grabbing honors and championships, so how could he look down on the Europa League? Not to mention the Europa League, if Liverpool were eligible to participate in the Community Shield Cup, he wouldn't let even the Community Shield Cup go! The Europa League was, after all, the second-highest cup competition in Europe, second only to the European Champions League. Such an honor was naturally worth striving for with all his might. Moreover, he could kill two birds with one stone, winning both the Europa League championship and the top scorer award, which would be two honors.

Of course, he wouldn't say it so directly. There was an art to speaking. The same sentence, said in a different way, would make people feel that his image had suddenly become taller.

What's more, Chen Hero couldn't tell others about the inside story, so he had to find some reasons.

"No, boss. I'm always in a state of insatiable hunger for victory and championships!" Chen Hero raised his head, wishing that his face could emit a bright light along with his words.

Seeing O'Neill's surprised look, Chen Hero added, "Actually... I do have an idea, which is to strive for the Europa League championship. But I'm afraid the boss doesn't have that intention, after all, the league is... um..."

Chen Hero's fighting spirit was something that made O'Neill happy, but the Europa League championship...

The club's senior management had vaguely hinted to him that they hoped to win a championship if possible. But he had his own considerations. Qualifying for the Champions League was the most important thing. If the Europa League and Champions League qualification clashed, he would not hesitate to give up the Europa League.

But now what he wanted was for Chen Hero to have such motivation. Chen Hero finally showed a strong fighting spirit as he wished. How could he dampen Chen Hero's enthusiasm at this time?

He smiled and nodded, looking very gratified.

"Okay, I happen to have the same idea. Liverpool really needs a significant championship!"

Compared to the Europa League, the English League Cup was indeed not significant...

Chen Hero didn't know what the head coach was thinking. He only thought that Martin O'Neill supported his idea. He was immediately relieved—before, he was worried that Martin O'Neill didn't value the Europa League, and if that was the case, he wouldn't be able to compete for the championship.

After all, you can't twist your arm against your thigh. He was a player and couldn't decide the team's strategic goals.

What if the head coach didn't value the Europa League? Could he quarrel with the head coach over this and then bring out Chen Xing to drive O'Neill away?

Even willfulness has its limits.