Chapter 8: On the way to reconstruction

Millwall is a magical club, at least in the eyes of Aldridge.
Millwall hates Chelsea even though Chelsea is far away in West London.
Although Aldridge is from East London, Millwall Club is in southeast London.
Geographically, West Ham United and Charlton are closer, and Millwall is also the same, but Millwall and West Ham United have become the deadly enemy of East London's century-old Derby, which will trace the history of a hundred years ago.
And Millwall has a derby relationship with the Crystal Palace in South London, and there is Millwall in the South London derby. Instead, Charlton, who is in the middle, no matter who he meets, the atmosphere of Derby is only a little bit.
Aldridge took the club’s transfer team to southern London. Here, Millwall’s South London derby rival Crystal Palace won the Premier League title last season and will set foot in the Premier League in two months.
However, at this time, Millwall submitted a transfer offer to Crystal Palace.
The target is Gareth Southgate.
The first quote was £1 million.
This quotation did not get a response from the Crystal Palace, and I sneered at it.
Southgate is only 23 years old this year and is an excellent central defender. Although he is now playing in the midfield of Crystal Palace, he is a hero of the Crystal Palace and has a background in the blood of the Crystal Palace.
However, when the second offer of £2 million was faxed to the Crystal Palace Club, only half an hour later, the other party responded.
£5 million!
Faced with such a reply, Aldridge smiled.
Not afraid of the other party's lion's mouth opening, afraid that the other party will not bargain.
After some tussle negotiations, Millwall's £2.8 million offer made the Crystal Palace club surrender.
2.8 million pounds, which is even worth a top shooter!
Is Southgate worth the price?
From a purely athletic perspective, it may not be worth it. Andy Cole, who can score 41 goals in a season, transfers to Newcastle United for only 1.75 million pounds, although next spring, he transferred to Manchester United at 6 million, setting a new record.
But the value of current players has not been overstated. Of course, the really valuable players are the forwards who can score.
Aldrich bought Southgate for nothing more than two reasons. One is that Southgate is young and able to fight, and is the main member of the future England national team. There is a local international team sitting in the dressing room of the team. Derich needs it. The second reason is that the players who dig in the enemy are very encouraging to the morale of the fans.
In the small apartment where Southgate lived in South London, Aldridge and Andrew came to visit Southgate in person.
Southgate knows Andrew, only people he knows. Southgate is not enthusiastic about the arrival of the two brothers of Audridge. His wife poured tea for the two and left the living room Men.
After introducing himself, Aldridge put a contract in front of Southgate.
Southgate did not look at it, and said calmly: "Please come back, I am not interested in going to Millwall, a club that does not even have a head coach, I don't see any future."
"Head coach, yes, I am."
Aldridge said equally calmly.
Sudsgate's expression flashed with surprise, and then a smile that was nothing but a smile.
He was naturally when Aldridge was joking, if not joking, it would be nonsense.
Aldridge opened the contract and put it in front of Southgate. He said lightly: "The weekly salary is 6,000 pounds, and the contract has been successfully updated. The salary rose to 8,000 pounds, and then increased by 10% year by year. In addition, according to the team Bonuses are awarded at the end of the ranking season. The contract period is five years."
Southgate's expression was stunned, and he unexpectedly had such a generous contract before him!
This is not much more than the money he earned in the Crystal Palace.
He is a little bit emotional. Professional athletes eat youthful meals. The sports life is not only short, but also has the risk of injury and illness.
It's normal for people to make more money, there is nothing to be exalted.
He still hesitated and said: "You are so young, head coach?"
Aldrich closed the contract documents on the table and stared at Southgate in amusement. Both were men about 1.85 meters tall, and no one was condescending.
"Garez, I am not here to beg you to join Millwall. I came in person, just to express my sincerity. Crystal Palace received your offer of 2.8 million pounds and allowed you to transfer. In exchange for me, I don’t I will hypocritically say that players are priceless, but you, in my eyes, at least 15 million pounds, I know your value, I also think that this contract is due to you, I have a coaching qualification certificate, I do not need to show you See, I don’t have time to prove to you here whether I will coach the team. If time permits, I can show you more than 20 corner kick tactics, more positioning ball tactics, and sports warfare offense and defense concepts, but I’m Boss, I’m the team’s coach, I don’t need to prove anything to you, my team is Millwall, the most successful future English team in the future, I don’t care what you’re thinking, the opportunity is in front of you, I missed it It's your loss."
Andrew kept a smile on his face, but his heart really pinched sweat for Aldridge.
Listening to Aldridge's tone, there is quite a sense of supremacy, which is consistent with the British arrogance.
Aldridge's indifferent expression also revealed a self-confidence that was never disguised, which made Southgate stare at Aldridge for a long time before he recovered.
In front of him, Aldridge has a temperament, unlike the clown with a small mouth on his mouth. This kind of arrogance and self-confidence is sometimes the most needed on the court and the most needed by a coach.
Southgate pondered for a moment, then asked: "My position on the team?"
The opponent was relaxed, Aldridge said in a deep voice: "You come to the team is my captain, but in the future, you will have some changes in your position, in the Crystal Palace you play midfielder, come to Millwall , You will be the main defender, believe me, I have a video of your performance throughout the season, I know your role and strength better than you."
Southgate remained silent for a long time, and finally nodded and agreed.
When leaving South London to get on the bus, Andrew said in a trance: "I still saw this negotiation for the first time."
Aldridge said in the co-pilot position: "I am the boss, I am the head coach, I don't need to look at anyone's face, if I ask the players to come to my team, what authority do I have?"
"Oh, where is the next stop?"
Andrew asked with a smile, he felt his brother started to be a little majestic.
Aldrich casually said: "Send me back to the club, then I will stay in the club, you can run around hard, your company will take advantage of this opportunity to sign some players, just, I give you a high salary, you Matchmaking and win-win."
Andrew is pleased to lead the order. Although Southgate has also been in contact with him before, when he contacts, Southgate is already the main player of the Crystal Palace, and the relationship is as light as water.
But on the list of players that Aldridge wants to buy, most of Andrew has had contact in the past two years. It is precisely through the opportunity of Aldridge recruiting high-paying temptations that he has officially taken the pace of an agent.
Aldridge returned to the Millwall Club and began sending faxes of transfer quotations to clubs across Europe.
The team is pushing down and rebuilding, so he starts online talent from every position.
The goalkeeper, the club has left Catherine Keller, this player has the ability, but to deal with the level of the Premier League, it can not be said that the level is not enough, but it is definitely not a top goalkeeper.
So, Aldrich asked the German second team Oldenburg for the other young goalkeeper: Hans Jorge Bout.
This future German third goalkeeper is only the first team that has just been promoted to the team. Last season, he only had two appearances in the German second division. Not to mention fame. Perhaps Oldenburg is still in the stage of testing his strength.
The offer is 100,000 pounds, which is an expensive transfer for the small team, not to mention the goalkeeper who has no reputation and strength test.
Soon, 20-year-old goalkeeper Bout's transfer was allowed, and the final offer was 150,000 pounds.
Southgate has joined in the position of central defender, but the height of Southgate's 1.8 meters is still insufficient for air defense. Aldrich sent a transfer directly to Cambral who fell into the Dutch second league last season. Will quote: 200,000 pounds for central defender Yap Stam.
After raising the transfer price to 350,000 pounds, Millwall's negotiating team flew to the Netherlands to negotiate contract treatment with Stam.
100,000 pounds received 18-year-old Patrick Vieira from AS Cannes, France.
Perugia has just been promoted to the Italian Serie B. It was time when money was needed. Aldrich took away their young player Gattuso with £300,000, which made Perugia's chairman Sharani mocked in front of the Italian media. Aldridge is a fool.
Because Gattuso signed a contract with Perugia only a month ago, Perugia made almost £300,000 without spending a penny...
At just 17 years old, Michael Ballack, who had not signed a formal professional player contract, was tempted by Andrew directly to London with a weekly salary of 3,000 pounds.
The transfer application of 1 million pounds directly shocked the chairman of Sparta Prague. The transfer of Eastern European football is naturally not as expensive as the mainstream of Europe. Therefore, after Aldridge only raised the price to 1.2 million pounds, Millwall Obtained the opportunity to discuss the transfer with Pavel Nedved, a player in Sparta Prague.
If it weren't for Andrew Nedved who had contacted the opponent before entering the first team of Sparta Prague, I'm afraid this transfer will be yellow.
But Aldridge's high salary is enough for the players to consider the gains and losses first.
It is not enough for Andrew to describe Nedved's vision of Aldridge. Aldrich personally expressed his sincerity after talking with Nedved on the phone and offered to include in the contract an automatic termination clause that cannot be promoted next season. Only when Nedved expressed his willingness to join, it was considered to be trying to make a move in England. If it was not successful, it would be very cost-effective to leave after earning a year of money.
Aldridge then offered the French Metz club £500,000 for Robert Belles.
£300,000 brought back 20-year-old Bernd Schneider from Jena in the German second division.
100,000 pounds took away the 18-year-old Luca Tony from the Italian third-class team Modena.
350,000 pounds from the Dutch Dan Bosizhi club received their young teenager, 18-year-old king of the restricted area, Van Nistelrooy.
£200,000 brought a 17-year-old French young man from Plattens, Argentina, back to Europe. His name was David Trezeguet.
When Aldridge was about to leave for France to meet a friend, Andrew gave Aldridge a surprise.
17-year-old Zambrotta was turned to London by Andrew before preparing to sign with Como.