Chapter 102 Old Stories

The Dortmund-Hertha Berlin match kicked off around the time Mark was discharged from the hospital.

Whether it was Mark's serious injury affecting the players' mentality, or the players' fatigue from consecutive national team matches, or because Dortmund was about to face Arsenal, the seeded team in their Champions League group…

In any case, Dortmund lost 1-2 to Hertha Berlin at home.

Zhou Yi didn't start in this game and only came on as a substitute in the eightieth minute. He was unable to help Dortmund equalize at home, let alone defeat the opponent.

At this time, everyone's focus of attention was no longer on the league, but on the Champions League.

Three days later, Dortmund would face Arsenal at home, in the first game of the group stage.

Due to their outstanding performance in the Champions League last season, Dortmund was placed in the third tier of teams this season. And facing the seeded team in the first round of the group stage was a special privilege for third-tier teams.

In addition to Dortmund and Arsenal, this group also included Marseille from France and Olympiacos from Greece.

Olympiacos was the weakest team and would be the target for the other three teams to rack up goal difference.

In order to gain an advantage in qualifying from the group, they would definitely try to score enough goals against Olympiacos.

As Dortmund was about to play Arsenal, an old story was dug up by the media.

This incident was about Zhou Yi and Arsenal.

Everyone knew the story of how Zhou Yi stood out from a talent show and attracted the attention of Dortmund. Zhou Yi had never tried to hide this experience when interviewed, nor had he hidden his past as an amateur player.

But probably not many people knew that Zhou Yi, who participated in the reality show, was not only valued by Dortmund, but also by Arsenal and Barcelona.

But why didn't Zhou Yi choose these two clubs in the end?

This was not a pleasant memory for either club…

The media revealed that Zhou Yi was not opposed to joining Arsenal at first. He simply wanted Arsenal to give him a promise of first-team appearances. However, Arsenal could not meet his request and were unwilling to make such a promise—of course, given the situation at the time, Arsenal's decision was definitely justified.

At that time, Zhou Yi was an amateur player who had never received professional training and had never proven himself in any professional field, only having performed well in a few reality show matches. It was arrogant for such a person to ask for a first-team promise.

But justified as it may be, any club has to take some risks with young talents. There is no such thing as absolutely no risk in this world, and there is no young player whose future can be seen through at a glance.

So, in fact, the matter of scouts searching the world for young talents and bringing them to their clubs is similar to gambling. It depends on whether you dare to gamble.

Obviously, Arsenal didn't dare to gamble on Zhou Yi.

So they missed out on Zhou Yi.

And what did Dortmund do at the time? Dortmund's coach, Klopp, flew to Barcelona to negotiate with Zhou Yi, prompting Zhou Yi to decide to join Dortmund's youth training camp, which ultimately led to the current Dortmund.

Klopp bet right, and Dortmund benefited greatly.

The media that exposed the matter asked, "...Seeing Zhou Yi's outstanding performance in Dortmund today, I wonder if Wenger regrets it even a little bit?"

After this matter was revealed by the media, it quickly aroused everyone's interest, because the story was so legendary…

Who would have thought that Zhou Yi had almost joined Arsenal?

As a result, more media joined the team digging for stories.

Some went to ask Zhou Yi, and some went to ask Wenger.

Zhou Yi: "There was such a thing."

"Was it really because Arsenal was unwilling to give a first-team promise at the time?" the reporter asked.

"It's just one of the reasons..." Zhou Yi said, unwilling to say too much about this topic. If he kept talking, someone would say he was blackening Arsenal, wouldn't that be unfair to him? "I had my considerations, and Arsenal must have had their considerations at the time. It's normal that we couldn't come together in the end. The key is that I'm very happy in Dortmund now, so I won't think about Arsenal."

So what did Arsenal say?

Wenger frowned and thought for a while when faced with reporters' questions, and then nodded and said, "Yes. We almost signed him at the time, but we couldn't succeed in the end."

"Do you regret it now?" the reporter asked.

Wenger shook his head: "No. We also have very good players."

Wenger's attitude was very firm on this. He did not regret that Zhou Yi had not been able to join Arsenal, and he had more confidence in his own players.

A reporter followed up and asked, "Then do you know what reason Arsenal ultimately failed to sign Zhou Yi?"

"I don't know about this..." Wenger shook his head with a smile.

Wenger didn't know?

Then keep digging.

Reporters were very resourceful. According to the situation at the time, if Zhou Yi really wanted to come to Arsenal, then the person responsible for this matter should definitely not be the first-team coach Wenger, so it was normal that Wenger didn't know the specific situation. It was a special case for Klopp to personally go to Barcelona to dig up Zhou Yi.

The person specifically responsible for this matter should be Arsenal's youth training director.

So they found Liam Brady, Arsenal's youth training director.

Brady still had a very deep impression of Zhou Yi, because a seventeen-year-old amateur player actually dared to ask Arsenal to use a special talent clause to sign him… There were too few such people, and it was bound to leave a very deep impression on Brady.

For a long time after they failed to grab Zhou Yi in Barcelona, this Chinese teenager occupied a place in his mind, and occasionally he would think about it and feel that this kid was stupidly cute and arrogantly cute. He wondered if he would regret missing the great opportunity to join Arsenal because of his arrogance when he recalled this past event in the future?

He originally thought that this teenager would only exist in his memory and then slowly disappear.

But when he heard this person's name again, he realized that he was already an absolute main player in Dortmund's first team!

This really surprised him—this kid actually made it in Dortmund? And Dortmund actually gave him a chance to play in the first team so quickly!

He felt like he was watching a fairy tale, it was too unrealistic…

But when he was found by reporters who wanted him to talk about Zhou Yi, he was unwilling to talk too much.

"Zhou Yi made his request, but we couldn't meet his request, so he didn't come... Isn't this very normal?"

For some reason, there was a voice deep in his heart telling him not to talk about the past in too much detail.

So he stopped accepting interviews on the Zhou Yi issue. His reason was that this belonged to the past, and bringing it up now was malicious hype.

Wenger didn't know, and Brady knew but was unwilling to say.

What to do?

There will always be someone who knows and is willing to say…

The English tabloids are still very capable of digging up news.

Soon they revealed the specific situation at the time.

In short, Arsenal took the initiative to find Zhou Yi, expressed their appreciation for his talent and their optimism about his future, and hoped that Zhou Yi would join Arsenal. As a result, Zhou Yi proposed a first-team promise, but this involved a work permit, so Zhou Yi hoped that Arsenal would use a special talent clause to sign him. This request was rejected by Arsenal.

Then there was no then…

After this inside story was revealed, everyone could have their own judgment.

Was Zhou Yi's request excessive, or was Arsenal too stingy?

Everyone would have their own interpretation. Some would think that Zhou Yi was arrogant and only asked for things and made exorbitant demands before proving his ability. However, those who supported Zhou Yi would think that this was a genius player's due confidence and respect for his own strength, while Arsenal seemed too petty and missed out on a genius player like Zhou Yi.

But who is right and who is wrong is actually not important anymore.

It's just that when reporters asked Brady if he would regret not signing Zhou Yi, Brady's answer was exactly the same as Wenger's.

He said: "No regrets. Why regret?"

He also left a rhetorical question for the reporters.

Yes, what is the need for Arsenal, which has a large number of geniuses as dense as forests, to regret missing a single tree?