"Mr. Tang En, I think we can talk about George Wood's new contract now?"
As soon as he heard this arrogant voice, Tang En felt annoyed in his heart.
"But there are still seven years before the contract expires …"
"Mr. Tang En, you should know how unfair this contract is to George Wood!"
Tang En grinned. Of course, he knew that this contract was too low for Wood. But why was it that the person who requested to amend the contract was not Wood himself or some other agent, but Billy Woox? He had a feeling that Woox was using Wood to threaten him into submission.
Taking a deep breath and calming his emotions, Tang En said, "Give me your terms, Mr. Agent."
"Increase his salary to 40,000 pounds, and shorten the contract to four years."
"That's impossible!" Without any hesitation, Tang En rejected Woox's suggestion as soon as he finished speaking. It was an exorbitant demand. Among the young players, there was no one who could receive a weekly salary of 40,000 pounds. 40,000 was the highest salary in Forest. No matter how outstanding George Wood's performance was, he could not receive such treatment. Otherwise, the balance of Forest's salary would be completely disrupted. "Are you discussing a new contract with Chelsea's manager, Mourinho, Mr. Agent?" Tang En mocked Woox's request, which was completely without any consideration in his brain.
"Of course not, Mr. Tang En. Otherwise, I would have requested a weekly salary of 100,000. "Woox did not back down, hinting to Tang En that he had considered fully for Forest's sake.
Tang En gritted his teeth in anger. "If that's the case, I think there's nothing more to discuss between us. Anyway, there are still seven years left on the contract. Before that, Wood is a member of Forest. You want to discuss a new contract? Come find me again in six years! "Tang En hung up after he finished speaking.
He had fully experienced the power of this agent. But … he believed that Billy Woox, who was holding his phone in a daze, also knew how difficult it was to deal with the manager he would have to face many times in the future.
※ ※ ※
As it neared the end of January, Tang En became busier. Not only did he have to deal with Wood's agent, but he also had to search for targets in the transfer market. The Forest team's midfield lacked a player who could organize, or rather, they lacked a versatile player. After all, Albertini still favored the defensive midfielder position, and Ribéry preferred to move around on the flanks. The Forest team's current main tactic was defensive counterattack, which was very useful when others positioned them as a "weak team." Ribéry and Ashley Young's speed was a guarantee for counterattack, while Albertini's long passes were fundamental.
But as the Forest team's results climbed, not many teams still treated them as a weak team. Many times they had to face the opponent's dense defense. At this time, defensive counterattack became positional warfare. It was indeed a headache to not have a player who was good at organizing in the midfield.
Under such circumstances, Tang En turned his eyes to Spain for reinforcements. He has his eye on Spanish midfielder Mikel Arteta, who he wanted to bring in last summer. Of course, he will face competition from Everton.
Although his relationship with Moyes was not bad, when it came to the competition on the field, Tang En threw all those messy things to the side of the sky. It was precisely because of the matter of Arteta that the Forest team's competitor was Everton that Tang En had to acquire him.
He knew that Everton was able to finish fourth in the Premier League this season and qualify to participate in the Champions League precisely because of Arteta's existence. If he could snatch Arteta from Everton, not only could he increase his own strength, but he could also weaken the strength of his direct competitors. From there, he could lay a solid foundation for the dream of next season's Champions League.
The Champions League was still just a dream to Tang En. But if he could get Arteta, then this dream would very likely become a reality.
Moyes requested a loan from Real Sociedad because he needed half a season to test and examine Arteta's ability to adapt to the English Premier League. In this regard, Tang En had the upper hand. He directly made an offer to Real Sociedad — three million euros.
Arteta had played for the Scottish Premier League team Glasgow Rangers last season and was an important contributor in the team's crowning as the league champion. As a result, after the season ended, Spain's Real Sociedad spent four million euros to bring him back from the cold Scotland to his homeland. Unexpectedly, Arteta, who had drifted outside since he was young, was already completely unable to adapt to the Spanish style of football. In half a season, he represented Real Sociedad and played 15 games, scoring only one goal. Furthermore, he was constantly injured and in a very low state. Real Sociedad now regretted spending four million on a piece of trash.
Originally, there were quite a number of teams that were interested in Arteta last summer. But after watching his performance for half a season, there were only two clubs left that were still interested in him — Everton and Nottingham Forest.
However, Everton's condition was to loan him for half a season and then decide whether to buy him at the end of the season based on his performance. On the other hand, Nottingham Forest directly made an offer of three million euros to bring in Arteta.
From the club's point of view, the Forest team's offer was even more attractive. Was there still a need to choose between cash directly in their hands and a transfer fee that might not even be known how much after half a season?
Real Sociedad rejected Everton's loan request and agreed to the Forest team's offer. What followed was the matter of the Forest team and Arteta's personal contract with the Forest team.
Having progressed to this point, Arteta's arrival at the Forest team was more or less the same. At this point, Arteta and Everton could not be said to have feelings for each other. He would go to whichever side offered a higher offer.
Moyes hoped that Everton's board of directors would give him more funds to intervene in the transfer deal, but the Everton club's board of directors, who had just sold Gravesen, had been slow to react. They were still considering whether it was worth it to spend such a large sum of money to buy a player who was in poor form. Recalling the history that Tang En remembered, Everton had only managed to successfully loan Arteta on January 31st, just before the winter transfer window closed.
Compared to the slow Everton, Tang En had more power. He could directly decide on everything. With his style, he would never drag things that could be negotiated in an afternoon to the next morning.
After Real Sociedad replied that the Forest team could carry out the personal contract negotiations with Arteta, Tang En directly dialed the number of Arteta's agent. After some haggling and both sides made concessions, Arteta agreed to come to England to sign the contract. The Forest team immediately booked plane tickets for Arteta and his agent in Spain for the next morning.
Early the next morning, the two arrived at London Heathrow Airport. Nottingham Forest's special car was already parked at the exit.
Everything had already been discussed through yesterday's phone calls and faxes. What both sides had to do next was very simple: a medical examination and signing the contract.
And all of this was kept under wraps. When Moyes finally convinced the board of directors to give him a large sum of money to prepare to join Nottingham Forest's battle against Arteta, he discovered that his target had already been signed by Tony Twain.
On January 23rd, the Forest team made an offer to Real Sociedad to purchase Arteta. On the afternoon of January 25th, the Forest team's official website announced that a second player had joined during the winter transfer window. His name was Mikel Arteta, a Spanish midfielder. He would wear the number 14 jersey and compete in the English Premier League.
Everton knew that the Forest team had made an offer to Real Sociedad, but they did not know the contents of the private negotiations between the Forest team and Arteta. This left them completely unable to deal with it. Moyes suffered greatly from Tang En's "blitzkrieg," but who asked the two of them to take a fancy to the same player?
At the press conference, Tang En and Arteta stood together. The two of them held a red Forest team jersey with Arteta's name and number printed on it. Facing the reporters, Tang En smiled and said, "I know there will be people who will raise their doubts about this transfer, but I can guarantee that Mikel will be successful here."
In Liverpool, Moyes was expressing his dissatisfaction to the Everton chairman. "If we had spent the time and saliva we wasted in the board meeting on Spain, he would be wearing a blue jersey and standing beside us right now! Mr. Chairman, you should know what kind of outstanding player the board of directors let go! "
That's right. They let go of an outstanding player, and let go of even more. It was just that Moyes did not know it now.
(To be continued, if you wish to know what happened next, please log on to WWW. CMFU. com. More chapters. Support the author. Support original reading!)
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