Translator:
Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor:
Nyoi-Bo Studio
When the final was over, the city of Lisbon was silent for a few seconds. Tang En stood in the stands and applauded the Greek national football team. Everything had happened exactly as he had known it would, and there was no change in the course of events. In this tournament, it could be said that only Otto Rehhagel’s Greek national football team could completely restrain the official host team.
Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Portuguese national football team not only wanted to win the championship, but also wanted to win beautifully on their home ground. But their offense did not work in the face of the Greeks’ well-fortified defense. It was as if a beautiful crystal dagger was used to stab a boulder; the final result was only a white scratch was left on the boulder, and the crystal dagger was smashed into countless pieces.
The score was 1:0. The low-key Greeks defeated their overly confident hosts. They achieved the greatest victory in the history of their national team.
Watching the ecstatic Greek players, Tang En was not as excited as he had been when he had seen this scene for the first time. While he was clapping, he said to Dunn beside him,
I can already imagine what the major media’s headlines will be for tomorrow. They may be the most unconvincing champions in the history of the European Cup; even the Denmark national football team was more credible than they are.
Because of Peter Schmeichel and Michael Laudrup?
Dunn asked.
Tang En nodded.
The Portuguese must be upset by the loss. They lost to a team with no star players. The total value of the entire team might not even be higher than the value of Luís Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo… It really is ironic. Dunn, we’re not going back to England tomorrow. We’re going somewhere else first.
Where?
Spain. Barcelona.
Tang En glanced back at the lively scene in the middle of the field and turned to leave the stands.
Let’s go, the game is over.
Whether it was the ecstatic Greeks or the frustrated Portuguese, or those people with views on and understanding of the Greece national team taking the European championship and going as far as the FIFA World Cup, none of these things had anything to do with Tang En and his assistant manager, Dunn.
Their busy summer had officially kicked off.
※※※
The next day, while the two men were on the plane flying from Lisbon to Barcelona, Dunn was reading the latest published newspapers; the European Championship final that had ended last night was naturally the focus of the media. Tang En was right. The media reaction to the Greeks winning the championship was fascinating. The local media in Portugal was almost unanimous in thinking that the Greeks had stolen the championship. They thought that the tactic of having ten defensive players and only one attacking player was despicable.
And other European media, such as that of Spain, also thought that the Greeks’ revelry was not a good thing for the future of European football.
Utilitarian football would sweep across Europe again, and the viewing pleasure of football would be greatly reduced. This might make the already shrinking football market more challenging. No one enjoyed dull and boring games, so the fans would not like it, and neither would the sponsors.
Tang En glanced at it a few times; he could not understand Portuguese at all. But he was not surprised that Dunn could understand it. Dunn was very keen to learn; he spent all his spare time on his studies, so it was not surprising that he knew Portuguese.
What does it say?
Tang En asked casually.
It was the same as what you said yesterday.
After living with Tang En for a while, Dunn had begun to talk more. When living with someone who was constantly chattering, one would gradually get more talkative.
Nothing new.
Tang En smiled.
The losers always have all sorts of excuses to justify their mistakes. Is the whole world going to start talking about defense now?
Dunn put aside the newspaper and looked at Tang En’s smug face.
I don’t think defense will become a mainstream tactic for many teams in the future. But all the managers will start studying how to break this type of defense.
Tang En shrugged.
No matter what they think or do, defense is the foundation of all tactics. When we reach Barcelona, there’s a young man there whom I’m very interested in. And our rival this time is powerful.
Looking at the confused Dunn, he chuckled.
Very, very powerful.
Only when the two men had found a hotel in Barcelona to put their bags down, and then rushed to Barcelona’s youth training camp, did Dunn know who the target was this time, and who the Forest team was going to compete against. It was, just like he had said, a very powerful rival.
Tony Twain had his eye on the Barcelona youth team’s center back, Gerard Piqué. At this point, Piqué was not famous yet. However, in the hearts of the Barcelona fans, he was the future successor of the team captain, Carles Puyol.
When they were standing at sidelines of the training ground watching their target train, Tang En even found Lionel Messi there. But he did not get excited or plan anything with regards to this discovery at all, because he knew that Messi had become the focus of Barcelona’s First Team’s scrutiny.
As for Piqué, he knew that there was a loophole which he could use.
Spanish law was special because it stipulated that a juvenile under the age of 18 would not be allowed to sign any professional contract. This was a common law put in place for any company in Spain, and it naturally included the football clubs as well. Therefore, when Spanish clubs took great pains to cultivate a new star player and watched him become the main force of the Spanish youth team, they could not help being wary, for fear of visits and harassment from the foreign clubs.
Because they could not sign a career contract with the young players, they could not restrict the player’s situation at all. If the player felt some loyalty towards the club that trained him, and the club made a commitment to his future, he would obviously be happy to stay on. But if the club was unable to promise a future to the young player due to some of its own difficulties, and another club which could make the commitment took advantage of this, then it was completely conceivable for the talent to leave.
One example was Cesc Fàbregas. He loved Barcelona deeply and his entire family was made up of diehard, loyal Barcelona supporters. He did not receive the conscription of the Barcelona First Team because for a long period of time Barcelona could not make a promise to the young man for him to become a main force in the future due to the strength of Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and other players.
Consequently, the Golden Player of the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Championship, the captain of the Spanish youth team, left Barcelona, who had trained him, and went to North London.
Arsène Wenger was a very cunning man. He had a keen sense of judgement and a unique way of looking for loopholes.
Spanish law did not allow their professional clubs to offer professional contracts to young players under the age of 18, while English law allowed clubs to offer professional contracts to young men over the age of 16. This two-year difference resulted in English clubs rushing to Spain in succession to search for players that they could rely on: Young man, the club that trains you cannot provide you with a career contract, or promise you a future. But we can!
Arsenal’s Wenger was like Christopher Columbus in the era of the great voyages. He opened up a whole new continent for the English clubs. All the English managers knew that Spain had a large number of outstanding young players, and that they were free to sign without any signing fees, and were ready to play! Especially to Barcelona, Cesc Fàbregas’ success at Arsenal had proved the strength of their youth training, somewhat to the embarrassment of the Catalans.
Hence, Tony Twain was not surprised to see English-speaking people at the training ground. He knew that, among the incognito crowd, there would be scouts from Arsenal, Manchester United, and Chelsea. And the object of their investigation was also the purpose of his visit: Gerard Piqué.
Standing at the training ground and watching the Barcelona youth training for a while, Tang En asked Dunn beside him,
What do you think?
His physique is excellent. As a center back, his skills are much better than an English center back’s,
Dunn commented. This was his conclusion after half an hour of observation. He did not evaluate his other qualities, as he did not see.
Physically, I don’t think he’d have any problem adapting to the English league championship. Who are our competitors?
As far as I know… Arsenal, Manchester United, and Chelsea.
Tang En stated the names of the three most influential clubs in England at the time.
Dunn was not surprised. He nodded.
Of course.
An outstanding player would naturally attract favorable attention from the best clubs. What interested him more was how Tang En planned to compete against these three clubs for the player.
In terms of financial strength, Nottingham Forest could not compete with Chelsea’s deep pockets. As for the glory, the declining Forest team was inferior to Manchester United, which had been the top team of the Premier League for ten years. On the training of young players, they were not as good as Arsenal, and the Arsenal team currently had Piqué’s good friend, Cesc Fàbregas.
In fact, before Tang En’s arrival, Piqué had already been infinitely closer to Manchester United. Ferguson’s trust and cultivation of young players touched Piqué. Chelsea had the least advantage of the three clubs, and their First Team was already stocked with too many star players. Piqué knew clearly that there would not be much of a difference between going to Stamford Bridge and staying at the Camp Nou.
It was out of Tang En’s control that he was later than the others to act. A few months ago, his future and that of his team were uncertain. If the Forest team could not succeed in its promotion, they would have been a laughing stock for coming to Barcelona to compete against the three major clubs for a player.
