Indeed, Tang En did not expect Juventus to suddenly rush in to fight for Anelka. He remembered that there had been no news of Juventus' interest in Anelka, and Anelka's two elder agents did not seem to have any contact with Juventus.
Of course, if Juventus really intended to spend so much money to buy Anelka, Tang En would gladly accept it. On the one hand, it was higher than the price he had paid for Anelka. On the other hand, this was Juventus. Anelka would have no excuse not to go, right?
He did not hesitate to approve the transfer and let Juventus discuss the details of the personal contract with Anelka's agent.
As for the other transfer request …
Tang En wondered why Manchester City would come knocking on his door. Could it be that they felt that with three players on the right, they could take advantage of the situation? Twain was not surprised that Thaksin Shinawatra had taken over Manchester City. That was because one would hear all kinds of rumors every day in this circle. It was not like the Thais' interest in the English Premier League was just a matter of a day or two. The English Premier League had a huge influence in Southeast Asia. It was not shocking news for a rich and powerful former Thai president to buy an English Premier League club.
The invasion of foreign investment in the English Premier League had become a common phenomenon.
Thaksin Shinawatra became the owner of Manchester City, and another Premier League club, Birmingham City, also recently changed owners. Its owner is a Chinese – Hong Kong tycoon, Superman Yeung.
At the same time, the powerhouse Arsenal Football Club was also divided into two factions. They quarreled all day long over whether to accept the injection of funds from the wealthy American businessmen. It even caused a personnel earthquake within the club — the vice chairman, David Dein, resigned in anger due to a disagreement with the chairman. One must know that Dunn had an extremely high reputation within the Arsenal team. The current manager, Wenger, was brought back by Dunn from Japan. Furthermore, Dunn was now the current chairman of the European G14. His departure was a huge blow to the Arsenal Football Club.
The full invasion of foreign investment had caused many English clubs to fall into a state of anxiety, excitement, and confusion.
Earlier, in March this year, Liverpool Football Limited issued a statement. The statement confirmed what everyone had long suspected. Two American tycoons, George Gillett and Tom Hicks, had completed the purchase of Liverpool's shares. The two of them received 98.6% of Liverpool's shares and had become Liverpool's well-deserved major shareholders. After that, the two American owners re-registered Liverpool as a club and made Liverpool a private limited company.
It was exactly the same as when Evan Doughty first came to Nottingham Forest.
In today's English football, there were fewer and fewer clubs that still maintained a pure pedigree. Most of the teams in the Premier League were involved with foreign investors.
Manchester United's big boss was the American Glazer, Chelsea's owner was the Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich, Liverpool's owners were the Americans Hicks and Gillett, Nottingham Forest's owner was the Englishman Evan Doughty, Manchester City's owner was the Thai Thaksin, Birmingham City's owner was the Chinese Yang Jiacheng, West Ham United's owner was the Icelander Magnusson, Portsmouth's owner was the French-Jew Gaydamak, Aston Villa's owner was the American Lerner … The forerunner of foreign investment in the English Premier League was Fulham's current owner, the Egyptian Fayed. He became the big boss of the Fulham Football Club as early as 1997 ten years ago. At that time, Fulham was just an obscure Division Two team. Four years later, in 2001, they were promoted to the English Premier League and had stayed there ever since.
Now Arsenal was divided over whether to accept foreign investment or not. If Arsenal eventually decided to accept the American investment, then there would no longer be a true English club in the top five of the English Premier League. In fact, Arsenal was often not regarded as an English club because there were too many foreign players in it … The Gunners were often hated in China because of the strong French flavor.
In a country that was particular about tradition and pedigree, this situation was a great irony …
And the summer of 2007 was the most lively summer for foreign investment in the English Premier League. Understanding this background, one would understand that this summer would not be peaceful.
In order to please the Manchester City fans, Thaksin was quite generous and bought players everywhere, vowing to follow in the footsteps of Abramovich.
The Brazilian Elano and the Italian Bianchi both entered Manchester City's door. This time, they took a fancy to the right midfielder, Ashley Young, who had been glorious with the Forest team in the English Premier League and European competitions for the past two seasons.
For the past two seasons, Ashley Young had firmly occupied the throne of the "King of Assists" in the English Premier League. Although this had something to do with the Forest team's tactics of flying on both wings and attaching importance to the flanks, it was also inseparable from Ashley Young's own strength.
Lennon was a very talented player. There was no doubt about that. Even he could not easily push Ashley Young onto the bench. That showed Young's ability. He was different from Ribéry on the left. Although both of them were fast and good at breaking through, unlike Ribéry who liked to cut inside to shoot, Young preferred to pass, which was one of the reasons why he had more assists than Ribéry.
In the first half of this year, a well-known sports media company and the famous statistics company OPTA jointly released a statistical report with an imposing name: "Premier League's Top Ten Flying Players List." As the name suggested, it was the ten fastest players.
Once the list was released, Nottingham Forest became the most eye-catching club. Because in the column of teams behind the names of those flying players, Nottingham Forest's name was the team that appeared the most — a total of four times.
From fifth to eighth place, they were all Forest players. In fifth place was Ashley Young. His running time without the ball was 11.02 seconds, but his running time while chasing the ball was even faster — 10.97 seconds.
The other four were Aaron Lennon, George Wood, and Franck Ribéry, who were in sixth place.
Because of his name on the list, it indirectly increased Ashley Young's value.
Thaksin's offer reached a price of 15 million pounds at the beginning. How much did Nottingham Forest spend to buy this right-sided attacking genius from Watford?
700,000 pounds!
Three years later, the price had become 15 million pounds.
Twain should be satisfied, right?
No.
Twain thought it was too little.
How could a main player who won the UEFA Champions League, a player who was named in last season's Champions League Best XI, and the Premier League's King of Assists for two consecutive years be worth only 15 million?
The Nottingham Forest Football Club quickly responded to Manchester City with an official tone, "Ashley Young is not for sale. He contributed a lot to the team's right flank and was an important contributor to the Forest team's Champions League title. Manager Tony Twain will not sell a meritorious player. "
This might have been very convincing a week ago, but now it only made people feel that there was more to it than meets the eye.
Arteta was gone. Were there any meritorious players in the Forest team that could not be sold?
This was how Manchester City understood it — the Forest team thought it was too little. Otherwise, why would they emphasize Ashley Young's importance to the Forest team? There was no need for them to say these things again. Everyone on Earth knew.
Twain also hoped they understood it this way.
He wanted to keep Arteta, but he did not think of Ashley Young.
Out of his fondness for Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon, Twain did not have a good impression of Ashley Young, who had brought them to visit prostitutes.
Although Ashley Young was the first choice for the right midfielder position in the team, in Twain's words, "it's just a job." Outside of work, Twain did not interact much with the young man he had personally headhunted from Watford. He could chat with Bale's father, talk to Lennon about his ideals in life, joke with Eastwood as he warmed up on horseback, lecture George Wood, whom he valued the most, with a straight face, and even chat with van Nistelrooy about Ferguson. He just did not have any contact with Ashley Young outside of work.
In fact, it was not like this in the past. It was only after that incident that his relationship with Ashley Young rapidly cooled down. Tang En was still brooding over that matter until now.
Ashley Young had brought Bale and Lennon to visit prostitutes. He was a hundred percent sure that Bale and Lennon had not really slept with the prostitutes, but when he asked Young, Young answered without hesitation that he had not.
It was from that moment onwards that Twain lost interest in the young man. He knew Young was lying, and he did it with a clear conscience and composure. It made people believe that it was not the first time he had told such a lie.
Compared to the old man, Ferguson, Twain was not a manager who strictly interfered with his players' private lives. He did not mind young people taking some detours in their private lives, nor did he mind young people spending money to find women to satisfy their physical needs. As long as it did not affect their performance on the field, they could do whatever they wanted.
But he could not allow his own players to deceive him and treat him like an ignorant three-year-old child. That was the thing he could not accept the most.
Why did he not immediately fall out with him back then? Because Twain believed that Lennon was still young and still needed to continue training. It was a little too hasty to let him directly play as the main force. Lennon was the same as Bale. Twain had a complete set of training plans for them. He did not want to spoil things through excessive enthusiasm. There were too many young geniuses in this world who were exaggerated. Twain did not want such a situation to happen to his men. Another reason was that Ashley Young's performance in matches was still very stable. He was still useful to the team. So, Twain suppressed the matter deep in his heart. He only expressed his dissatisfaction to Dunn at home and did not mention it to anyone else. It was as if he had already forgotten about the matter.
When Twain announced that Forest had signed Beckham, everyone was worried about Forest's congested right flank next season. Only Dunn knew that this man had not really worried about it at all. Even without Boss Thaksin's generous spending this time, Twain would still find a way to sell Ashley Young. Nowadays, in the English football world, there were many people interested in the right flank's assist king.
However, since Boss Thaksin was determined to be this rich and foolish rich man, Twain did not mind fishing for more profits.
You want to buy the European champion Nottingham Forest's right flank main force, the England national team's new right flank genius, and the English Premier League's assist king for two consecutive years, for 15 million pounds? Are you trying to send a beggar away, Prime Minister Thaksin?
Twain and Allan carefully analyzed the background of the player's acquisition and thought there was a show to be done.
They were not afraid of forcing a buyer away because Ashley Young did not lack buyers. It was just a matter of price.
Going back to the background at the beginning of this chapter, although it was now a general trend for foreign investors to enter the English Premier League clubs, the vast majority of English fans still had strong feelings of resistance to such behavior. Not to mention the Russian tycoons or the American tycoons, Thaksin, as a person from a small Southeast Asian country, had even stronger feelings of resistance.
Thaksin was well aware of this, so he could not wait to announce the signing of the team and the former England manager, Eriksson, in order to calm the hearts of the people. At the same time, he promised in the media that he would spend at least 50 million pounds to buy strong players and increase the strength of the team.
So far, the team was short of players, including the Brazilian midfielder Elano and the Italian striker Bianchi.
To be honest, these two men had no influence at all in the hearts of the English fans. If Thaksin intended to rely on these two men to appease the hearts of the people, he would certainly suffer a big loss. Thaksin was not a fool. He certainly knew this. Therefore, after the two deals were settled, Manchester City began to chase in the transfer market without stopping.
This time, after his meeting with Eriksson, he set the key breakthrough target on Ashley Young, the right midfielder of the Forest and England representative team. Eriksson was once the England manager, and Ashley Young had played in the World Cup in Germany. Eriksson understood Ashley Young's ability.
Another reason was that Ashley Young was a local player. His reputation and appeal in England was much higher than that of Elano and Bianchi. To increase his position in the hearts of the city's fans, it was not enough to rely on just two foreign players. It was also not enough to rely on paying off Manchester City's debt of 60 million pounds. The fans only wanted to see a star player with enough weight to join them.
As a result, Ashley Young, who had just won the Champions League title and won the league's assist king for two consecutive years in England, became an important chess piece for Thaksin to win over the hearts of the people.
With such an analysis, Twain and Allan were firm on the idea of swallowing the rich man.
If 15 million was not enough, then bring more!
※ ※ ※
Manchester City's second offer was raised to 18 million pounds.
This time, Nottingham Forest seemed to hesitate for a moment, and then still refused. The reason was still the same: "… Ashley Young is an important member of the team, and Tony Twain has no intention of selling the team's meritorious player …"
During this period, Twain went to find Ashley Young for a face-to-face talk. Of course, he would not say that the team wanted to sell him. He was just asking if the rumors about his transfer were true or not.
Because during this period, the media said that Eriksson had already been in contact with Ashley Young's agent. After the former Thai prime minister took over Manchester City, Manchester City also had the confidence to offer the player they fancied a treatment that would please the other party.
So, Twain went to find Ashley Young with a straight face, with the intention of denouncing him.
Young, of course, denied that his agent had any contact with Manchester City in private. He also said that he enjoyed playing in Nottingham Forest. He had just won an honor, so how could he leave? No matter how high the other party's treatment was, it would not shake his determination to be loyal …
After saying so, both sides bid farewell "satisfactorily."
The next day, Ashley Young's agent found the Forest Football Club, hoping to give his player a raise. The agent's reason was simple: Look, my player has been so popular recently, and there are countless clubs pursuing him. Since you all say he is a meritorious player for the team, then wouldn't it be unreasonable not to give him a higher salary? Moreover, my player's loyalty to the team is absolutely indescribable! You see, he was not moved at all under the pursuit of so many clubs, even Manchester City. So should the team give Ashley Young a higher salary and treatment to reward his loyalty?
The person who received the agent was Twain. He smiled and affirmed Ashley Young's contribution to the team, and thanked him for still being loyal to the team despite the "rumors" flying around. When it came to this aspect, everyone had smiles on their faces. The atmosphere of the conversation was very friendly and harmonious.
But when it came to the topic of money, although Twain's smile was boundless, the words he said were not what the agent wanted to hear.
"… Salary … As you know, the club has recently been planning to build a new stadium, and the funds are not too abundant …"
His words were tactful. After the agent repeatedly requested that his player should receive a salary commensurate with his contribution, Tang En bluntly told him that the club would not discuss the issue of Ashley Young's salary with him right now.
"Young still has three years left on his contract with the club. We can wait until the last year to talk again."
This was like an eviction order. When the agent heard Twain say so, he got up to leave.
Although everyone still had smiles on their faces, both sides knew in their hearts that they had shed all pretense of cordiality.
A day after the agent left, Manchester City made a third offer. This time, they looked determined to win, because in this offer, the Manchester City Football Club told the Forest Football Club that if they did not agree, this would be the final offer. Manchester City would not raise the offer for Ashley Young.
Ever since Stuart Pearce stepped down as Manchester City's manager, the good relationship between the two clubs had ended. Otherwise, Manchester City would never have used such a harsh tone to discuss business with the Forest Team. When Pearce was around, the problem would be solved with just a phone call between the managers of both sides.
This time, Thaksin looked like he had made up his mind — 25 million pounds!
Twain took the fax to Allan. Both sides looked at each other and burst out laughing.
That afternoon, Manchester City received a response from the Forest Team: agreeing to the offer, Manchester City could proceed with the negotiation of a personal contract with Ashley Young.
※ ※ ※
In fact, Ashley Young did not want to leave the Forest Team at first. What he said to Twain was from the bottom of his heart. But he hoped to use the recent media hype to fight for a higher salary in the team. The rash Manchester City player was very much in line with the requirements of a supporting role.
But Ashley Young and his agent did not expect that the manager, Tony Twain, who had always thought highly of him on the football field, had plans to sell him since a season ago.
Twain took advantage of the situation and let Ashley Young leave on his own.
Ashley Young was not a foolishly loyal person. Since he could not get a higher salary in the Forest Team, there was nothing wrong with taking advantage of the Champions League title and the rise in his value to change to a club that could offer a higher salary. He was a professional player. He trained hard, worked hard on the field, and won the championship. What was the point of tormenting himself with injuries? Was it really to take the gold medal home and put it in the cabinet? Was it really for the glory? If not for the money, who would choose to play football as a lifelong career?
Tang En understood this deeply, so he did not stop Ashley Young from pursuing the happiness he wanted at all.
The Forest Team's second heavyweight transfer of the new season was finalized. At the same time, it was the most eye-catching transfer so far.
If Arteta's departure was said to be a substitute player who could not play in matches and wanted to pursue a team that could let him play in the main position, then Arteta's departure was something that many people found hard to understand. Many people found it hard to understand Ashley Young's decision to leave. From the field, Ashley Young's importance to the Forest Team was self-evident. For the Forest Team to be able to win the Champions League title, Ashley Young's performance was also very important.
Could it really be as some of the media said, that this was to make room for Beckham? Was it because Beckham's sponsors were exerting a lot of pressure on the Forest Team? If that was the case, then did it not indirectly create many enemies for Beckham in the Forest Team's locker room? Twain had always said that he did not look at the reputation of the main players, only their ability and state. If they were really selling Ashley Young to make room for Beckham's main position, then … the media all expressed that they were not optimistic about David Beckham's prospects in the Forest Team's locker room.
Their reasons seemed to be sufficient: Beckham was a star player who had been famous for a long time, but he was, after all, an outsider in the Forest Team. How was he going to get along with the people in the Forest Team's locker room? Moreover, it was hard to guarantee that there would not be people who were jealous of everything Beckham had obtained and thus had prejudice. There were many such people in the football world. Would there also be such people in the Forest Team's locker room? Would Ashley Young's departure make the rest of the Forest Team grieve for the loss of a rabbit and feel that everyone was in danger? Then, would there be some "common hatred for a common enemy"?
Then, with the arrival of this world-class superstar, would there be any waves in the Forest Team's locker room, which had always had a harmonious atmosphere and never had any negative news?
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