The last sentence was decisive. Piqué nodded gently. "Mr. Canaris, you're right. It's just that Mr. Ferguson has high hopes for me at Manchester United. "
Canaris shook his head. "You don't have to worry about that. Let me be the bad guy. We just need to ask him if Manchester United will give you a place in the First Team next season. We all know the answer. Since the Forest team is willing to give you a place in the First Team, why should we go to his team to be youth players? Did Manchester United give us any promises or guarantees? Did they give us an advance? Nothing at all. Remember, Hrad, your future is the most important. You don't want to leave Barcelona and go on in obscurity, do you? "
Piqué shook his head.
"Then listen to me. Wait … Don't promise him now. Tell the coach that you have to go back and ask your parents for their opinion and give him an answer a day later. Don't show any eagerness. I want to fight for the best contract for you. "
After the two men finished discussing, Piqué said to Tang En, "Mr. Tang, your conditions are very good. But I need to go back and discuss it with my parents. I'll give you an answer the day after tomorrow. "
"Okay, I'll wait for your call in Barcelona." Tang En stood up and shook hands with Piqué, expressing his agreement. Then, when he shook hands with Canaris, he blinked, and both of them understood in their hearts.
※ ※ ※
The next day, Tang En and Dunn went to Barcelona's youth training base, La Masia, to watch the Barcelona youth team train. He found a few familiar figures there — Giovani dos Santos, who resembled Ronaldinho in terms of hairstyle, skin color, and technical characteristics, and was known as the "Mexican Ronaldinho"; Bojan Bojan's midfield passer in the Spanish national youth team and Barcelona youth team; Bojan Krkic, the "child prodigy" whom the Barcelona people had high hopes for. There was also the slightly more famous Messi, who had now been transferred to the First Team by Rijkaard. Starting in the summer, he would train with first-class star players such as Ronaldinho, Puyol, Giuly, and Xavi. He would basically not be seen in La Masia.
Looking at these talented players, Tang En really had the urge to poach them all. But he knew it was impossible. Maybe it was possible for Merida … But he did not seem to fit the style of the Premier League. In Tang En's memory, Merida had a conflict with the Barcelona Football Club's upper echelons and refused to sign a contract with the Barcelona Football Club at the age of 15. He also left the team to train at Liverpool. However, he did not know the specifics. He only heard that Merida did not stay at Liverpool. A year later, he went to Arsenal's youth team.
On one hand, the First Team was desperately spending money to buy famous star players, and on the other hand, there was a large backlog of talents cultivated by the youth team. This conflict seemed to be really irreconcilable. The First Team manager always did not trust the youngsters because the pressure on them was far greater than that of the youth team manager. Tang En had also experienced this contradiction when he was playing Football Manager.
As a player, he loved those young talents with potential, but when he found famous star players in the transfer market, he couldn't help but want to buy them.
Another powerhouse club in Spain, Real Madrid, had the same problem as Barcelona.
As the team with the most titles in La Liga, they also had a good tradition of attaching importance to youth training. Real Madrid's "Five Eagles Era" in the 1980s was the most typical example of attaching importance to youth training. But in the 21st century, with the implementation of Florentino Perez's "One Superstar a Year" policy, fewer and fewer people from Real Madrid's youth training base walked to the First Team — the "Zidane + Pavin" policy that spoiled seedlings through excessive enthusiasm was a joke. Even though Real Madrid's youth team performed well in Spain's Segunda División every year, and even though the media and fans could discover this genius or that rookie in Real Madrid's youth team every year, there were almost none who could play in Real Madrid's First Team. Do you still remember Portillo? The striker, who was known as Raúl's successor, later exhausted his talent in repeated loans. Messia was once the captain of Real Madrid's B team and the main center back. When he came to Real Madrid's First Team, he became synonymous with "worry." Like him, there was Raúl Bravo, who was once seen as Roberto Carlos's successor and was once selected for the Spanish national team, but could only be a peripheral player in Real Madrid's First Team. In addition, Soldado, who emerged after Portillo and broke Raúl's scoring record in Real Madrid's youth team, could not find a place for him in Real Madrid's First Team forward line.
There were also countless of Real Madrid's future stars whose names had already been forgotten. Were they still there?
Real Madrid had the most luxurious training base in all of Spain, but the talents nurtured by the youth training camp nourished the other Spanish clubs besides them. This was a great irony.
At present, Tang En did not have to worry about the Forest team's young players not being able to play in the game. He only had to worry about not being able to find them during the game.
The problem for a small team was always that the bench was not thick enough, and the problem for a powerhouse team was always who to put on the field.
A day later, Piqué met with Tang En again. This time, the answer they gave was not what Tang En expected: Piqué agreed to join Nottingham Forest and rejected Manchester United. He hoped that Manager Tony Twain could fulfill his promise — to give him enough playing time.
Tang En smiled and said, "Of course, Hrad. I didn't come all the way from England to Barcelona to find talents for the youth team. Soon, you'll find out how wise it was to choose Nottingham Forest. "
Then, in this restaurant, Tang En represented Nottingham Forest and signed a four-year professional contract with Barcelona's youth team's main center back, Hrad Piqué Bernabéu. From then on, Piqué, who was born in Catalonia and had pure Barcelona blood, became a member of Nottingham Forest.
And Nottingham Forest only had to pay a symbolic 220,000 pounds to Barcelona. This amount of money was almost negligible to Barcelona's expenditure on nurturing a player like Piqué. But they had no other choice. They could only watch as the Englishman interfered and snatched away the team's future defensive player.
Of course, the people of Barcelona had reason to be angry. After all, Piqué was nurtured by them. Moreover, Piqué's grandfather was the former deputy chairman of the Barcelona Football Club. This relationship made the people of Barcelona feel that Piqué's departure was a betrayal. However, the person who was the most angry was not the people of Barcelona, but a Scotsman.
Piqué signed his name on the contract. His future fate, which had been entangled for half a year, was finally revealed. He showed a relaxed smile to Tang En. "Should I learn from those English players and call you boss? Sir? "
"Hmm, not necessarily … Welcome to the Nottingham Forest family. You have a lot of freedom here, including the way you address me. There are a few things you can choose from: A, Boss; B, Mister; C, Chief; D, Coach. Which one do you like? "Tang En imitated the robot's voice and said to Piqué.
Piqué laughed. "C."
"Very good, lad! You'll like this team, I promise! "Tang En laughed heartily and patted Piqué on the shoulder. This was the future pillar of his team!
※ ※ ※
While Piqué and Tang En were signing the contract in the restaurant, Manchester United's old manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, who was preparing for the next season in Manchester, England, received a call from Barcelona.
"Boss, bad news. Piqué doesn't belong to us anymore. "
"What?" Ferguson thought he had heard wrong. Half a month ago, his assistant had told him that Piqué was happy to sign with Manchester United. The Scottish manager was very proud of being able to beat Arsenal in the fight for talent. He did not expect that it would only be half a month … "Was it that Frenchman?" The first person he thought of was Wenger. The two of them were arch-enemies. If he was unlucky, the first thing he would think of was whether it was the other party.
"No, boss. It's not Arsenal. They've already given up. It's another Englishman … Tony Twain. "
Ferguson froze for a moment. The name sounded familiar, but he could not recall it at the moment. "Who's that?"
"Nottingham Forest's manager, boss. They've just been promoted to the Premier League this season. "
Now Ferguson completely remembered. It was the young man who made Mark Lawrenson lose face by shaving his beard in front of everyone on the show!
"What did that kid say? I want to know what ability a newly promoted team has to steal our man! "Ferguson's face turned red, which was a precursor to his anger.
"He did not reveal the specific details. He just said that Manchester United can only promise his future, but Nottingham Forest can promise his present …"
These words hit Manchester United's soft spot. Ferguson's anger was stuck in his throat and could not come out. He really had nothing to say about using this reason to steal his man. He suddenly had a strong interest in the "Premier League's youngest manager" that he did not know much about before. Who was he? What ability did he have?
Most importantly … could he pose a threat to Manchester United?
(To be continued. If you want to know what happened next, please log on to WWW. CMFU. COM. More chapters. Support the author. Support original reading!)
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