"Hey!
Ajaccio, you losers!
4-0, the sea is ours!
You wail, we sail—
BASTIA! Banner of iron!"
The song pierced through Ajaccio's night, fading into the distance.
Those shouts from the north disappeared from their ears but took root in their hearts.
Ajaccio fans knew clearly, this season they couldn't even see Bastia's tail.
It was a complete defeat.
On the bus heading to Bastia, the players sang all the way, just as the Bastia saying goes: "A vittoria hè un cantu."
Victory is a song. So, they sang it joyfully.
The next day, Bastia plunged into celebration. Newspapers sold particularly well that day.
Fans bought copies of Corsica Daily, Bastia Sports, and other papers, constantly reading and savoring them.
"4-0! When Ajaccio fans waved the Moorish head flag, our goals had already painted Corsica's sky entirely blue."
"Bastia's blood flows with the courage of ocean conquerors, while Ajaccio can only write surrender letters in French."
"De Rocca's brace: the unstoppable genius is writing a legendary epic in Corsica!"
There was so much praise.
During Bastia's training that day, players still had smiles in their eyes. A derby victory was more memorable than other wins.
Julien was equally happy.
Because last night, perhaps due to the derby, perhaps due to the element of mortal enemies, this big win earned him 20 victory points.
20 points was quite large.
After training ended, Hadzibegic didn't let the players leave but distributed materials to everyone.
The materials contained information about Atlético's starting players this season and important substitutes.
Julien held it in his hands, seeing many familiar names.
Falcao, Diego Costa, Arda Turan, Gabi, Godín, Courtois, and so on.
This Atlético team was strong.
Of course, the most important was still that man: Diego Simeone.
Creator of Iron Atlético; Ultimate practitioner of football pragmatism; David Beckham's lifelong nemesis; Lifetime spokesman for bandit tactics.
Julien remembered it was this season when Atlético would end their twelve-year winless record against Real Madrid under Simeone's leadership.
And give Mourinho a tragic season with nothing to show.
Last December, just before Christmas, Simeone took over from veteran coach Manzano an Atlético whose locker room had completely lost control.
Despite Manzano's great prestige in Spain, he couldn't control Atlético.
At that time, Atlético's points had them mid-table in La Liga, and they had just been eliminated from the Copa del Rey by a third-division team.
It was under these circumstances that Atlético's management had no choice and they brought in club legend Simeone to take over.
Simeone was a newcomer in La Liga, but he was a championship coach in Argentina.
When coaching Gimnasia La Plata and River Plate, Simeone had won Argentine Primera División titles.
After Simeone took charge, he transformed Atlético bit by bit.
Their mental state immediately improved dramatically, and Los Colchoneros' results skyrocketed.
Due to too much debt from the first half of the season, Atlético ultimately finished fifth in the 11/12 season. Los Colchoneros didn't get a Champions League ticket.
But in the Europa League, Atlético won the championship with a 12-game winning streak.
In the final, Atlético easily defeated Athletic Bilbao 3-0. Young coach Simeone taught a lesson to Argentine veteran coach Bielsa.
In summer 2012, Simeone won his second trophy managing Atlético.
In the UEFA Super Cup, Atlético beat Champions League winners Chelsea senseless. Los Colchoneros slaughtered the Blues 4-1, with Falcao scoring a hat-trick.
Not even one full season coaching Atlético, but Simeone already had two trophies in hand.
This would be his first complete season.
Honestly, facing such an opponent, especially away, was genuinely concerning regarding the final result.
"Today, everyone should familiarize themselves with this Atlético team. Tomorrow we'll focus on tactical drills. If you have time tonight, you can watch Atlético's matches."
After Hadzibegic finished speaking, he dismissed the players.
Julien walked together with De Bruyne, Lukaku, and Kanté.
Lukaku, fearless and bold, said proudly, "Don't worry, little Atlético is no problem. We'll take them down. Who are we? We're the invincible Bastia!"
"Haha!"
The others all laughed.
De Bruyne couldn't help teasing him. "You're the most confident, but you also waste the most chances."
Lukaku raised his hands in denial. "Hey, that's not right."
He looked at Julien and asked, "Julien, what was that thing you said before, the opportunities I create by running?"
Julien responded, "World-class positioning."
Lukaku nodded eagerly. "Right, right, exactly that."
Then he said to De Bruyne, "See, Julien understands me. Only I can waste those chances. If it were someone else, they wouldn't even have chances to waste."
De Bruyne just smiled. Who would argue seriously with a big fool?
And Julien mentally added the second half of the sentence: "World-class positioning, Sunday league finishing."
That was currently the most accurate description of Lukaku.
He could score in consecutive matches and sit second on Ligue 1's scoring chart purely because he really had enough opportunities.
While Bastia was researching how to deal with Atlético, fans were both immersed in the big win over Ajaccio and anticipating the Europa League match against Atlético.
This match was particularly important in the fans' eyes.
"Atlético were last season's champions. If we beat them, doesn't that mean we're already a championship-level team?!"
At the bar, Martin proposed the football theory of "beat the champions, become the champions."
A bunch of people resonated with him.
"Of course! With our current starting lineup so complete, we're not worried about Atlético at all!"
"With Julien, we can easily handle them."
"De Bruyne is definitely going to explode. We all know about his heartbreak situation. When they meet, his rage meter will be maxed out."
"Beat them!"
England, London.
At Colney Training Centre, Chataigner smiled and shook hands with Wenger, who was about his height.
Wenger smiled. "I hope you can honor your promise and give Martinez more opportunities."
Chataigner patted his chest in assurance. "Of course. We came specifically looking for a number one goalkeeper. We all rate Dibu's talent highly."
Wenger nodded. Both had no issues with the loan, and after chatting briefly, Wenger still couldn't resist.
He said, "If Julien leaves in the summer window, we can continue talking."
Chataigner heard this and thought: good grief, we're only here to loan a goalkeeper who isn't even third choice, and you've got your eyes on our core player.
But he certainly wouldn't say his true thoughts. He nodded and replied, "Of course. As long as Julien is willing to join Arsenal, we won't stand in his way. Everything is negotiable. We have a gentleman's agreement with Julien: his wishes come first."
"Good."
Wenger naturally knew that to get Julien, they first had to get Julien to choose Arsenal.
He thought perhaps it was time to find an opportunity to meet Julien.
As Julien's abilities continued to grow, scouts from major clubs across Europe were all watching him.
For Julien, teams lacking offensive firepower had stars in their eyes.
Arsenal didn't have much of an advantage. So, they had to leverage their French compatriot status.
After leaving Colney Training Centre, Chataigner didn't stay in London that day, nor did he return directly to France.
Instead, he flew straight to the Netherlands. He needed to find a reliable center-back for the team.
Meanwhile, in Manchester, Begiristain and Soriano once again reviewed their plans for Manchester City.
The two exchanged glances and smiled looking at each other.
"It's good to have money."
Soriano shook his head. "It's good to spend money without restrictions."
At Barcelona, wanting transfer authority meant pulling strings from multiple sides, with success only possible sometimes.
Most of the time it was failure. But after coming to Manchester City, all the frustrations from their previous work completely disappeared.
This was the good thing about the white headscarf: lots of money, doesn't interfere.
"Too bad, Pep isn't willing to come to City yet. Otherwise, I think Pep would be the best choice."
Begiristain nodded in strong agreement.
Manchester City's current head coach, Mancini, was clearly not their ideal manager.
He deserved credit, of course—the club's first top-league title. Countless local City fans considered Mancini a legendary manager.
But objectively speaking, Mancini had quite a few deficiencies in coaching ability.
Compared to Mark Hughes, Mancini also only became competitive in the Premier League in his second year after spending money on heavyweight midfield players like Silva and Yaya Touré.
In reality, with the same squad, Mancini wasn't much better than Mark Hughes.
Mancini's performance this season was enough to prove his coaching ability hadn't changed much from a few years ago—
The game had to go according to his own plan. Once something changed, with his weak adaptability, he absolutely had no Plan B.
Despite years of experience at Inter Milan, paying so much tuition, he still hadn't changed.
He was easily restricted and targeted by opponents.
Moreover, Soriano, who had been immersed in political and business circles for years, knew after watching Mancini a few times that this man's emotional intelligence wasn't good.
Management would easily have problems.
In fact, there were already some dissenting voices within the City squad.
So, the newly arrived Begiristain and Soriano wouldn't keep him on the team just because Mancini had won the club's first league title.
They wanted Pep more. After all, they had worked together for years, and his achievements far exceeded Mancini's.
The two continued talking. They finally discussed the team's offensive core issue.
"Nasri's contract doesn't expire until 2015."
When Soriano said this, Begiristain immediately understood.
"If we can get Julien in the summer window, we must clear out Nasri."
When learning about Julien's past, they knew Nasri and Julien had bad blood.
And the French national team had already provided an example: abandoning Nasri, favoring Julien.
With a ready-made answer, they had to copy it.
"£180,000 per week will be hard to move."
After Soriano said this, he immediately laughed and added, "I'm thinking with Barcelona's mentality.
Haha, City doesn't care about that little loss. As long as we compromise on the transfer fee, there's definitely a way to handle it."
Begiristain agreed with Soriano's view.
He said, "Julien is the future worth betting on. At least 17-year-old Nasri was nowhere near Julien."
Soriano smiled. "Blanc and Deschamps both made the same choice. Why would we change it?"
"Good. I'll contact Julien. The winter window has no possibility, but in the summer, I think Julien must leave. Bastia's financial situation can't accommodate so many players currently."
Soriano nodded. "Any other useful players should also be brought over."
At Bastia.
For the past two days, Hadzibegic had been drilling defense.
This young coach Simeone had greatly impacted Spanish football, emphasizing high-intensity defense, physical confrontation, and quick counterattacks.
He really drove the technique-worshipping La Liga crazy.
Hadzibegic himself had an underdog mentality. After all, after so many years fighting relegation, suddenly having him play in European competition, he really had no experience.
So doing good defense became the first choice.
Low-block compact defense, reducing depth, relying on Kanté, Rothen and others' defense to restrict opponents' midfield.
Offense would depend on the players' individual abilities.
This was Hadzibegic's approach to facing Atlético.
October 24th.
The entire Bastia squad flew to Madrid, Spain.
After landing in Madrid and turning on his phone, Julien saw messages from Zidane, Mbappé and others, all about tomorrow's match.
What surprised Julien was that Mbappé was also in Madrid.
"My family and Wilfried bought tickets for tomorrow. We'll all be there watching you play. Originally it was just me and Wilfried, but we didn't have enough money. Wilfried asked Walker to borrow money, my dad found out, and then it became like this—my whole family is coming."
Julien didn't know about this. He replied, "Next time you need tickets, you can ask me directly."
Mbappé replied, "Wouldn't that be inappropriate?"
Julien continued typing and sent, "We're friends, and we'll be teammates in the future."
In a Madrid hotel, Mbappé's smile grew even wider seeing this message.
Ethan was a bit confused. "Kylian, are you reading jokes? Why so happy?"
Mbappé put away his phone and didn't answer Ethan's question. Instead, he said, "I need to train hard! I must make the national team!"
"I believe in you, Kylian!"
Ethan naturally believed unconditionally in his brother.
That afternoon, both Bastia and Atlético held pre-match press conferences.
Hadzibegic poured lavish praise on Atlético. "They're the defending champions and have shown an incomparable side. We haven't been in European competition for many, many years.
So, we won't set any goals for ourselves, only give our all in every match."
The reporter's next question immediately made Hadzibegic freeze:
"What's your view on fans calling this match the 'Cuckold Derby' between De Bruyne and Courtois?"
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