Chapter 691 - 129: A Winning Start! Super Scorer! Arsenal’s Number One Tough Guy! Wenger: Wang Shuo, You’re a Godsend

Primorac and Pat Rice both looked at Wenger in surprise.

"This incident with Alexandre Song... after the Sun Newspaper broke the story, it’s true that a lot of media outlets fanned the flames. But do you know why the Sun did it in the first place?"

"Why?"

"They want Wang Shuo’s first exclusive interview in the United Kingdom!"

Primorac and Pat Rice were very surprised.

That’s it?

But soon, they both understood.

Normally, Arsenal’s way of handling this kind of thing would be to use PR to suppress the hype as quickly as possible.

That would mean negotiating with the Sun Newspaper, which would give them the chance to make demands, wouldn’t it?

"Recently, many media outlets, including the Sun Newspaper, the BBC, and The Times, have been contacting Will Saunders and Wang Shuo’s team, trying to get his first exclusive interview."

"I heard Sky Sports even went through the Premier League, saying they want to make Wang Shuo the face of the new Premier League season’s promotional campaign. They insisted his first interview had to be with them, and in return, they’d increase the number of our broadcasted matches."

Broadcasted matches?

In the Premier League, that’s money!

"A few days ago, our club re-signed a sponsorship deal with Citroen. The sponsorship fee went up by quite a bit. Originally, Citroen even offered to pay to have Wang Shuo attend an event, but they were turned down."

"Wang Shuo has his own car sponsor."

As Wenger spoke, both Pat Rice and Primorac were astonished.

This was the first time anyone at Arsenal had encountered something like this.

Back when Henry was at his peak, he was also one of the top players in the world, but it was never like this with Wang Shuo now.

Especially in the realm of commercial sponsorships.

"Pat!"

Wenger turned his head and clapped Pat Rice on the shoulder.

"I truly feel now that this team of ours has great promise and a real chance to challenge for the title, so..."

"I want you to reconsider your decision to retire at the end of this season."

Pat Rice’s heart skipped a beat upon hearing this.

Especially watching the group of young players on the field, running with all their might, sweat pouring down like rain, each one full of drive.

Like Wenger, he felt that the team was starting to get on the right track and had a great hope of challenging for the title.

"I’ll reconsider," Pat Rice agreed.

...

「Afternoon of July 30th, London Emirates Stadium.」

In the first match of the 2011 Emirates Cup, Arsenal faced Boca Juniors at home.

This was Arsenal’s first appearance at their home ground after the team’s restructuring.

It was also Wang Shuo’s first time playing in front of the home fans since joining Arsenal, and as the team captain no less.

The Emirates Cup, founded in 2007, is a traditional preseason tournament for Arsenal, with a format very similar to the Amsterdam Invitational.

Besides the host, Arsenal, three other teams are invited to compete. It uses a league-style format where each team plays two matches over two days, for a total of four matches.

A win is worth 3 points, a draw 1 point, and a loss 0 points. Additionally, each goal scored earns an extra point.

However, it’s slightly different from a typical friendly match. To ensure the quality of the competition, each team can name 11 substitutes but can only use a maximum of 6.

Other rules, like red and yellow cards, are the same as in an official match.

For this match, Arsenal lined up in a 4-3-3 formation.

Goalkeeper: Fabianski;

Defense: Kieran Gibbs, Vermaelen, Subotic, and Lichsteiner;

Midfield: Alexandre Song in a holding role, with Arteta and Wilshere in front of him;

Forwards: Hazard, Wang Shuo, and Walcott.

After the previous few friendly matches and repeated team adjustments, Wenger finally settled on this starting lineup.

As the team’s captain, Wang Shuo walked at the very front of the line.

The captain of Boca Juniors was the legendary star, Riquelme.

In the players’ tunnel, Wang Shuo made a point of greeting Riquelme.

But the Argentinian player, just as the rumors said, didn’t seem to like talking much and gave a few cold, perfunctory replies.

Incidentally, during the summer training camp, Wang Shuo had also upgraded his Passive Skills [Eagle Eye] and [Coordination] to the Intercontinental Level.

After winning the Champions League last season, Wang Shuo was rewarded with 250 Passive Value points.

Upgrading the two Passive Skills cost 200 points, leaving him with 74 points remaining.

After possessing four World-level Passive Skills—[Breathing], [Ball Sense], [Swift], and [Foundation]—and unlocking four Domain Skills, Wang Shuo considered taking the opportunity to upgrade his other Passive Skills to the Intercontinental Level.

’How should I put it?’

’Domain Skills are for breaking through my upper limits.’

’What I’m doing now is further solidifying my foundation.’

And when Wang Shuo led his teammates onto the pitch and the Emirates Stadium announcer called out his name, all 60,000 Arsenal fans in the stadium erupted in fervent applause and cheers.

As the red-hot superstar with the best performance in the European Football Scene last season, Wang Shuo’s series of actions after taking charge at Arsenal had earned him praise from the coach, players, and the media alike.

This also made the other Arsenal players very envious.

Especially the few new signings.

In his very first match, his debut appearance, Wang Shuo had already won over the home fans!

...

When the Boca Juniors forward kicked off and passed the ball back to Riquelme, Wang Shuo charged toward Riquelme at top speed.

In this first encounter between the two big-name stars, Riquelme was forced to turn to his right and pass the ball to the right-back, Schiavi.

But Wang Shuo signaled to Hazard and simultaneously closed in on Schiavi.

The Boca Juniors right-back had just controlled the ball when the pressing player was already upon him.

He had no choice but to send a long pass upfield.