On November 22, the FA Cup final will be held at Wenzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium. Shanghai Port’s head coach, Muscat, stated at the pre-match press conference that he knew Wu Lei would not be able to play in the FA Cup final two weeks ago. In response, blogger Xiao Siji Bradi-Potoleto refuted this on social media.
Xiao Siji Bradi-Potoleto wrote: “Muscat’s pre-FA Cup interview was outrageous! ‘Over the past two weeks, discussions about Wu Lei’s injury have been ongoing.’ So, the period from November 11 to 22 can be referred to as the past two weeks. But then comes the classic line: [Actually, we knew several weeks ago that Wu Lei wouldn’t be able to play in the FA Cup match]. What does this mean? It means that even earlier, before November 11, specifically after the match against Tianjin Jinmen Hu, Muscat couldn’t possibly go back several weeks to October. So, the logic of Wu Lei’s injury is clear: Wu Lei was already injured before the 30th round but insisted on playing to chase the league title and break his personal Chinese Super League goal record (you know, to pad his stats). At that point, he knew he was at the end of his rope and could not participate in any subsequent matches. Therefore, he rested for the AFC Champions League and the World Cup qualifiers but did not issue any official statement because he [still had championships to pursue].'”
“The so-called trip to West Asia, with photos leaked, was a tactic by the PR team to mislead people, telling everyone that Wu Lei tried his best to recover but couldn’t [Pfft, Muscat said he was out several weeks ago]. Unfortunately, in today’s streaming era, such tactics are outdated. The whitewashing articles by Ma Dexing’s team were almost a failure. At this point, the smart thing for Wu Lei would be to hide and recover properly, but he didn’t. Instead, he attended birthday parties, shopped around Shanghai, and flew to Wenzhou to dance.”
“So, to sum it up, everyone knows that Wu Lei pushed himself to the limit for Shanghai Port’s double crown, leading to his season-ending injury. However, he was unwilling to give up on the [Dance at Wenzhou Olympic Sports Center] and hired an unprofessional team to whitewash his image. As a result, when the online public opinion became uncontrollable, Shanghai Port sent Muscat to clarify the situation, but he ended up slipping up. That’s the whole story. Pfft, a laughingstock of the village.”
