I Am Scouted by Real Madrid

Chapter 321: Chapter 17: Reinforcements and Homecoming

Barcelona is recently in the limelight.

Lately, Spanish media has found a new ”hot topic,” which is Luis Suárez of Dutch club Ajax expressed his strong desire to transfer to Barcelona when interviewed by reporters.

Barcelona’s mouthpiece ”World Sports” reprinted this news.

Currently playing for Dutch club Ajax, front-line player Luis Suárez has scored 10 goals in the 7 games he played for the team recently, including four goals against Fenlo last Sunday, topping the Eredivisie scoring chart.

And he unequivocally expressed his love for Barcelona in front of the media, openly saying during a television interview: ”Barcelona is the best club today, and I have always dreamed of wearing the Barcelona jersey one day. My wife’s relatives have lived in Barcelona for six years, and I often vacation there. It’s a city worth aspiring to. If I can keep my good form, I believe a join will come one day. Of course, I’m still young now, I need to keep striving, I’m not in a hurry.”

The 22-year-old Ajax striker’s bold words made many Real Madrid fans unhappy.

Especially since last season there were once rumors of Real Madrid wanting to sign Luis Suárez, and Luis Suárez also stated his hope to play in La Liga’s top league and go to Real Madrid with his club teammate Huntelaar.

It’s surprising he said such words now.

This inevitably gives fans the impression that Luis Suárez is being opportunistic.

However, Guardiola hasn’t made any statements, making it seem like a one-sided overture by Luis Suárez.

Of course, nothing is absolute.

Though Barcelona spent a fortune this summer window introducing Ibrahimovic, apart from the Henry, Ibrahimovic, Messi trident, and Bojan as a substitute, there are only Pedri and Hefron, two youth trainers, in their front line.

After this news broke out, Pellegrini received unprecedented notice from the club higher-ups, asking if he wanted to sign Luis Suárez in the winter window.

This is an ”aggressively” full purchase, prematurely intercepting the player Barcelona wanted, which is the greatest pleasure for Real Madrid.

But Pellegrini, seeing the available center forwards as Negredo, Higuain, Benzema, chose to shake his head and refuse the goodwill from the club higher-ups.

His refusal was very blunt, instantly making the originally smooth relations tense again.

But this is understandable. After all, Pellegrini, who focuses most of his energy on the league, only has one thing in mind, how to get points, more points.

Real Madrid and Barcelona’s battle for the top spot has entered a white-hot phase right now.

Both teams have three wins and three victories in the league, maintaining a very terrifying stability, and in this round, Barcelona will play away against Santander Athletic a day earlier, while Real Madrid faces Villarreal.

Pellegrini watched Barcelona’s game in his office.

Under Guardiola’s coaching, Barcelona has completely shaken off the former away weakness, leading Santander Athletic by 3 goals in the first half, and though the opponent pulled one back in the second half, it was harmless.

The final score was fixed at 4:1, temporarily surpassing Real Madrid, occupying the top of the team standings.

Pellegrini has a very strong feeling.

That is, once Barcelona completely surpasses Real Madrid.

Real Madrid will eventually have no chance to overtake again.

And in this round, if Real Madrid wants to return to the top, not only must they win Villarreal, but they must also win by more than two goals.

Though Villarreal has not performed well at the start of the new season in the league.

They have talented players like Rossi, Cazorla, Godin, Capdevila in the team, not to be underestimated.

Their poor performance now is just because of the team’s coach, newcomer Ernesto Valverde, who does not understand the team enough and needs time to fuse and adjust.

This Spanish native coach has rich coaching experience.

Valverde started his coaching career as an assistant coach at Athletic Bilbao in 2001.

In the 2002-03 season, Valverde was the head coach of Athletic Bilbao B team.

In 2003, he was promoted to head coach of Athletic Bilbao, leading the team to the fifth place in La Liga as a rookie, while helping the team qualify for the UEFA Cup and advance to the semifinals of the Spanish King’s Cup.

From 2006 to 2008, Valverde took the helm of Spanish Team, showing his commanding capability, adept at merging average players into a team with strong combat power. In 2006-07 season, he led the Spanish Team into the UEFA Cup finals, and only lost to Sevilla in the penalty shootout.

In 2008, Valverde went to Greece to coach, achieving domestic league and cup double titles at Olympiacos.

```