Alai Russell can still clearly remember the day on May 21, 2011.

On that day, Wimbledon defeated Luton in Manchester's penalty kick, won the game to advance to the playoff final and also qualified to enter the English League Two.

Since then, Wimbledon Athletics has gone from a team working hard in the England amateur league to a member of the England professional league, and they have officially stepped into the threshold of the professional league.

That day, the whole Wimbledon was empty, and everyone gathered at Kings Ranch Stadium to celebrate the team's successful upgrade.

Just nine years ago, Wimbledon Athletics was established in the Wimbledon community. At the founding conference, the club's first chairman, Chris Stewart, shouted the slogan "Let Wimbledon go where he should go, go to the top league, and return to the southwest London."

Wimbledon has been working hard for this goal.

So when they finally entered the professional league, you can imagine how excited everyone was.

Now there are only two divisions left before Wimbledon completes his final goal and returns to the top league. As long as they can pass the League One and the Championship, they can achieve this goal.

However, things were not always smooth sailing. Wimbledon was lucky enough. Wimbledon finally stayed in the League Two in the 2011-2012 season and completed the plan to relegate.

In the 2012-2013 season, Wimbledon Athletics made a move to the League One this time.

Wimbledon has celebrated another big show. In addition to bringing them one step closer to the top league, it also has a very important significance - their archenemy Milton Keynes is also in the English League One, and now they can win and lose with Milton Keynes in the League One.

Every time the collision between the two teams is a Mars shot. Although Wimbledon has not really returned to the top league, they have a mortal enemy that can be entangled for a hundred years.

After being promoted to the League One, Wimbledon Athletics' pace of progress slowed down slightly. Their main goal in the 2013-2014 season was to relegate and ensure that they could stay in the League One, and not be kicked back to the League Two in the first season. Wimbledon Athletics has always adhered to this strategy. When they are promoted to the new League One, their goal is to relegate, and they will not be arrogant and want to continue to upgrade and complete the "feat" of consecutive jumps.

After a season to adapt to this new league, then make progress.

In the 2014-2015 season, Wimbledon Athletics relied on this steady strategy to enter the upgraded playoffs. If they can defeat their opponents in the playoffs and win, they can advance to the English Championship.

Wimbledon lost to his opponent in the final upgrade playoffs and regretfully continued to stay in the League One.

But hard work pays off. After a season, Wimbledon Athletics finally upgraded to the English Championship through the playoffs!

They are only one last step away from the top league!

The 2016-2017 season was Wimbledon Athletic's first season in the Championship, and this season has been very difficult for Wimbledon.

Although they have received a lot of new sponsorships, including big-name manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz and Umbro, their financial situation is indeed the worst among all 24 teams in the Championship. It is not that Wimbledon has reached the brink of bankruptcy. It is just that they insist on prioritizing the development of training grounds, training facilities and echelons, and invest more funds in it. Naturally, they lack more money to buy players and attract famous and powerful stars with high salaries.

Since being promoted to the League One, Wimbledon Athletics has used bank loans and sponsors to find a vacant area in the Wimbledon community and began to build their training bases - the team can't always train at Kings Ranch, right? It's their playing field.

Even Kings Ranch has been expanded twice so that this stadium can meet the requirements of different leagues at all levels - some leagues have requirements for the number of seats at the participating teams at home, which is the same as Hoffenheim is participating in the Bundesliga.

Spending a lot of money on these hardware has resulted in Wimbledon no longer having extra money to build a team. Now Wimbledon can only work hard to use young players in their own ladder teams and loans from other teams or looking for free players to join to expand its strength.

As a result, Wimbledon Athletics was almost relegated in the 2016-2017 season. In the middle of the league, the club fired the meritorious coach Terry Brown who led the team to the English Championship, allowing his assistant coach Alay Russell to take over temporarily. Terry Brown is really the team's meritorious head coach. When he coached the team, he led Wimbledon Athletics to successfully upgrade continuously. It can be said that Wimbledon Athletics' path to upgrading was almost created by Terry Brown.

However, after being promoted to the English Championship, due to conflicts with the club's senior management, he had different opinions on the club's management, and the conflict between the two sides became irreconcilable. In addition, the team led by Brown did have a very bad performance in the English Championship, so he was fired.

Alai Russell is the interim head coach. No one was optimistic about him before. After all, he is very young and has never had the experience of being a first-team head coach before.

Unexpectedly, Russell led the young team to successfully relegate in the Championship. It was very, very thrilling. It was not until the last game that Wimbledon Athletics completed the relegation career.

This result also allowed Russell to stay on the team, from interim head coach to formal head coach.

After successfully relegated in the English Champions League, Russell began to try to stay in the league of this level - upgrading or something. Russell has not thought about it recently. He is relatively sober. Until the team was led by Terry Brown, it was already very impressive. If they continue to advance to the Premier League, let alone whether they can rush up. Even if they rush up, the only result will be re-stripped. Russell does not want his team to become a lift. He plans to lay a solid foundation in the English Champions League and then plan for the Premier League.

Now the 2017-2018 season has scored one-third, and the team's performance has always been in turmoil. The situation has not improved fundamentally. Originally, Russell hoped that his team would be able to stabilize in the middle of the game at least, but he did not expect that this season, like last season, would have to fight for relegation from beginning to end... The English Champions League is completely different from any league they have experienced before. This league is basically close to the level of the Premier League, and it is even more difficult to deal with than the Premier League in some places. For example, in the English Champions League, the players' movements are very large and the chance of injury has been greatly improved. The players' physical fitness is much better than the players in the previous leagues. In terms of physical confrontation, Wimbledon no longer has any advantage.

The team needs fresh blood and those stars who can change the situation alone. But unfortunately, the team's transfer budget and salary budget are very low, which is really unattractive. Many players who can play in the English Championship, even stars who come from the Premier League, look down on Wimbledon, the newly promoted team.

Russell felt that Brown had felt that the club had been invested in hardware construction, because the Premier League had requirements for the hardware facilities of participating clubs. If the standards were not met, even if you were promoted to the Super League, you would not be able to pass the league registration and still have to be relegated to the Championship. Kings Ranch Stadium has been expanded twice, and it can only accommodate 4,600 fans at the beginning, and many of them are still standing seats. After the two expansions, the team barely reached the standard of 8,000 seats, but so small

The stadium is obviously not suitable for the requirements of the Premier League. However, Kings Ranch has no room for expansion. Wimbledon now has to consider building a stadium itself or buying a live... The Wimbledon had moved home once before - because their original Praud Lane stadium was too few seats and could not meet the requirements of the English Premier League, Wimbledon moved to Sheikhist Park Stadium, sharing a stadium with Crystal Palace, and paying rent to the Crystal Palace Club every year.

If Wimbledon still uses Kings Ranch Stadium, it is obvious that they have to move again. It must be said that Wimbledon led by Terry Brown has been upgraded too crazy. The team's upgrade speed far exceeds the team's development speed, which has caused them to lack a large enough stadium now... This problem once appeared in Hoffenheim. However, Hoffenheim has a rich boss who paid for the self-built a new stadium for the club. Wimbledon does not have such a rich boss, and the questions about the stadium will continue to bother them.

The team's brand new training base is almost completed, and now the club's operation is about how to make money to build a new stadium. But money is not that easy to come. The funds spent on building a stadium are no less than the training base - the training base only requires a few flat grounds, laying on turf, and then building a few two-story houses.

※※※Alai Russell came to this team he once played for in the 2009-2010 season.

Since he left the UK with injuries, people have basically forgotten him, so when he returned to the team, those who still knew him were surprised.

He started from an ordinary teenager to coach here, and slowly grew into the head of the entire Wimbledon Athletic youth training camp, Wimbledon Athletic first-team assistant coach. By last season, he replaced the team's meritorious coach Terry Brown and became Wimbledon Athletic's head coach.

In his first season, or "half season", he finally led the team to relegate successfully without being favored, proving his coaching ability.

His next goal is to keep the team stable in the Champions League. However, this step is even more difficult than all previous processes combined, and now he has clearly felt it.

In the last season, his goal was to relegate and use any means to do his best to keep the team in the Championship.

He has decided to talk to the club's chairman Mr. Eric Samuelson about the development path of the team. He must reduce investment in hardware and divide it into the first team. Let's not talk about the promotion to the Premier League. If they want to stay in the English Championship, they must buy enough players, and cannot rely on the young people from the youth training camp and those free agents who are cheap and have very cheap free agents, and are loan players who are not on the way to compete with Wimbledon. Although if they don't upgrade the stadium, they are not eligible to participate in the Premier League, but now it is not whether they are qualified to stay in the Premier League, but whether they can stay in the Premier League... But now, he has to lead the team to play the weekend league with Comcast. This team has been hovering between the English League One and the English League One for several seasons and is a regular visitor to the English League One.

When he thinks about the future of the team, he, as the head coach, feels that there is a lot of pressure on his shoulders.

But he enjoyed it and was able to do what he liked in the team he liked, and he was a happy person. When he said goodbye to football due to serious injury, he did not expect that he would one day return to Wimbledon and become the head coach of the team.

At the beginning, he was unable to contribute to the team's upgrade as a player, but now he can lead the team to complete his unfinished career as the head coach.

He enjoyed the process, and it didn't matter how stressed he was.

※※While Russell was still feeling pain and enjoying his coaching years at Wimbledon, there was a crowd of people in the Bernabeu Stadium, which was far away in Madrid, the Spanish capital, and a match of the Spanish Football League 2017-2018 season was being held.

Real Madrid faces Villarreal at home.

"Chu got the ball in the midfield...he tried to break forward...oh! This was a fierce tackle!!" The commentator suddenly screamed.

The Villarreal player who committed a foul was immediately surrounded by Real Madrid players. This was a bad foul and they wanted to ask the other party for an explanation.

Villarreal's players were afraid that their teammates would suffer, so they rushed up to help. The two sides were entangled next to Chu Zhongtian.

The referee quickly blew a whistle to tell everyone to calm down.

Chu Zhongtian collapsed on the ground, holding his right foot toes tightly with his hands. There was a place where he was shoveled. His face turned pale and obviously in great pain.

"Hehe! Team Doctor! Team Doctor!" c. Ronaldo did not participate in the conflict. He rushed up and saw Chu Zhongtian's appearance. He knew that he was injured and hurriedly made gestures and shouted off the court.

"Chu seems to be injured... the team doctor went up and the stretcher also went up... but he refused to be carried off..."

Chu Zhongtian looked up and saw the team doctor and the stretcher standing behind him, and struggled to get up from the ground: "I...I'm fine."

"No, you must be in trouble." The team doctor shook his head and did not agree with Chu Zhongtian's statement.

"I can still run, jump..." Chu Zhongtian defended.

"Chu..." The team doctor sighed helplessly, "You are almost thirty-four years old. Do you think you are a strong guy of twenty-seven or eight?"

Chu Zhongtian also knew that he might not be able to hold on to the game, and he would have to be substituted. But... "Okay, I'll go down with you, but let this thing go first, I don't need to be carried off." Chu Zhongtian pointed to the stretcher staff following the team doctor. "I have never been carried off that time in my career, even when I was injured and unconscious."

Chu Zhongtian looked very proud when he said this, which was something he could be proud of. No matter how serious the injury a player suffered, he was never carried off the court by a stretcher, and was indeed amazing. Compared with those who did not suffer any injuries but pretended to be in pain and just got carried off the court by a stretcher and jumped back to the court, he was simply a model for tough guys.

The team doctor looked at the stretcher, then looked at the stubborn and proud Chu Zhongtian, and nodded in agreement. He stepped forward, pulled Chu Zhongtian's arm up, and let him clamp it on his shoulder.

"Help me, I'll help you down."

Chu Zhongtian limped and walked off the field with the team doctor, then sat on the sidelines and asked the team doctor to take off his shoes and take off his socks for examination.

After a while of busyness, the team doctor raised his head: "I think I might have to go to the hospital to take a video. The situation is not very good, Chu..."

"Has the bone been broken?" Chu Zhongtian asked.

"I don't know, I'm not sure, I have to go to the hospital to take pictures..."

Chu Zhongtian nodded: "I'll listen to you."

Then Real Madrid made a substitution, and Nuri Shahin replaced Chu Zhongtian.

"It seems that Chu can't hold on to the game anymore, he must be very injured. You must know that ordinary minor injuries will not end at all. Injuries are not a problem for him at all! But that was indeed a very serious foul! I think the referee only gave one yellow card, which is too light!"

Chu Zhongtian didn't stay on the sidelines for long before he was taken to the hospital by an ambulance to take a photo.

He finished the next game in the hospital. Real Madrid defeated Villarreal 2-0 at home with goals from Nori Shahin and Ozil, maintaining the first place in the league.

Not long after the game, the team's head coach Hiddink and the team doctor came to the hospital. They came to visit Chu Zhongtian and saw the results of the filming.

"The metatarsal fracture is more than one place." The doctor who took the film pointed to several x-ray pictures and said to the group. "Here, here, here, and here. In addition, we checked his ankles and knees and found that there were also wear and tear there, and the ligaments on his ankles and knees had been worn and deformed."

Looking at this x-ray picture, the group was speechless.

The situation is more serious than they thought. Since joining Real Madrid, Chu Zhongtian has suffered some minor injuries, but those injuries are not serious. At most, they need to rest for a week or two before returning. Unlike now, there are fractures of phalanx on three toes. In fact, phalanx fractures are very common and easier to cure. What everyone is most worried about is the wear and tear of the ankle and knee ligaments. I have never heard of Chu Zhongtian’s ankle and knee problems, but now these x-ray pictures tell them that Chu Zhongtian’s ankle has serious hidden dangers, which is enough to end his career at the age of 34.

He has been fighting on the court like an iron man for so many years, and no matter what difficulties he is, he can't defeat him. He is still as thirty-four as a young man on the court, facing the young players without fear on the court. No one has ever seen him frown because of injuries, just like he insists that he will never be carried off the court by a stretcher. This is his pride. He is the best portrayal of Real Madrid's never giving up his spirit. Some Real Madrid fans even call him "Vanito of the 21st century", which is a very high courtesy for him.

But now everyone understands that behind his desperate efforts is his already scarred body. Everyone has always believed that Chu Zhongtian is a monster from an alien planet and his body will never degenerate. However, now the facts are in front of everyone, the veil of myth has been removed. He is still an ordinary earthling. He is called a "monster" not because of his physical quality, but because his spirit is as strong as iron.

In fact, he discovered these hidden dangers only at the age of 34, which is already very amazing. Many players were frequently injured in their twenties, especially players like Chu Zhongtian who need to constantly have physical contact with their opponents on the court and were interrupted and violated, their career is almost a history of injury... Head coach Hiddink sighed: "Okay, let's tell him this news now..."
Chapter completed!