"Gao, I thought you'd forgotten about us. You didn't even bother visiting during the league break."
De Laurentiis was clearly overjoyed to hear from Gao Shen.
In truth, they rarely contacted each other directly. It was usually Marino making the calls.
But for this transfer, Gao Shen had to speak with De Laurentiis himself—after all, he was the king of Naples.
"De, you know why I'm calling." Gao Shen was standing at the conference room door, on the phone, while glancing back at the room. Mubarak and the others were waiting inside.
"Lichtsteiner?"
"Mm."
"Tsk, Gao, you know this is very difficult for me to handle..."
"Cut the act. We're both smart people, so let's not waste time." Gao Shen didn't let him continue rambling.
Come on, don't I know what kind of person you are?
Next, he would probably complain harder than a grieving widow, acting like his hand was being forced.
Honestly, these acting skills must've been picked up straight from Hollywood. The man could turn it on anytime.
"Alright, alright, let's get straight to it. Lichtsteiner is one of our key players. We can't do without him…"
"You still have Maggio!" Gao Shen interrupted.
De Laurentiis was momentarily speechless.
Other people might not understand Napoli, but Gao Shen knew them inside and out.
"Besides, Aurelio, think about it. Maggio is being suppressed by Lichtsteiner. If Lichtsteiner doesn't leave, Maggio will eventually go. Think about it."
De Laurentiis gave it some thought and said reluctantly, "But if Lichtsteiner goes, we'll only have Maggio at right-back. Plus, Liverpool are chasing Dossena on the left. I nearly flew to England with a knife to kill that bastard Benítez!"
Gao Shen imagined De Laurentiis charging into battle on horseback with a blade and couldn't help laughing.
"Alright, Aurelio, let's not go around in circles. I'll recommend someone to you, like we used to. How's that sound?"
"Twenty percent?"
"Right."
"Deal!" De Laurentiis agreed without hesitation.
Back when Gao Shen was still at Napoli, De Laurentiis had pained over giving up 20 percent of the profits.
But since Gao Shen's departure, Napoli had signed several other players with disappointing results. Not only did their value not rise, some had even depreciated.
That was when De Laurentiis truly understood what people meant when they said transfers were high-risk.
He never stopped missing Gao Shen after that.
When he received the call today, he was almost in tears.
Gao Shen, I really missed you!
At this point, he would gladly give 30 percent, let alone 20.
"We still have foreign player slots, right?" Gao Shen asked.
De Laurentiis was thrilled to hear Gao Shen say "we." It made him feel like Gao Shen was still part of Napoli. "Yeah, we do."
"There's a young left-back in Brazil, Alex Sandro, currently playing for Santos. He's officially owned by Deportivo Maldonado but on loan to Santos. His performances have been good. Have someone in South America look into him. You could get him for around 3 to 4 million euros."
"Wait, let me grab something to write this down."
On the other end, De Laurentiis scrambled. Marino was clearly nearby. The two of them fumbled for pen and paper and asked Gao Shen to repeat it.
"There's also Danilo at América Mineiro. He's a right-back. Try to bring him in too, but keep the transfer fee under one million euros."
"Got it!" De Laurentiis was fired up.
He didn't care how Gao Shen got this intel. What mattered was whether it made money.
Last summer, he made a fortune.
And because of that, he truly understood how extraordinary Gao Shen was.
A treble had completely transformed Napoli into one of Serie A's top sides.
"Oh, and there's a player named Darmian in AC Milan's youth academy. Keep an eye on him too. He's Italian, and he's worth around one million euros."
"Okay!" De Laurentiis agreed immediately.
Having received the goods, he wouldn't block Lichtsteiner's move anymore.
Gao Shen gave him face as well, with Manchester City signing the Swiss right-back for 30 million euros.
…
When Gao Shen returned to the conference room and told Gary Cook they could begin formal transfer procedures with Napoli and negotiate personal terms with Lichtsteiner, everyone inside was stunned.
Right before hanging up, Gao Shen had called Lichtsteiner directly. Upon hearing that Napoli had agreed, Lichtsteiner accepted without hesitation.
Everyone knew Gao Shen was ambitious, and Manchester City was wealthy. Of course, the club would offer a better deal.
What shocked the Manchester City staff most was how Gao Shen had resolved what they had been working on for nearly a month with just one phone call.
Gary Cook and the others had flown to Italy twice, and still couldn't close the deal.
Who would have thought Gao Shen could wrap it up in ten minutes?
Even more incredible—the transfer fee was only 30 million euros.
Remember, Lichtsteiner was the main right-back of a Serie A treble-winning team and had helped Napoli reach the Champions League semifinals last season. His overall ability was excellent. Getting such a player at that price was a bargain.
But in today's transfer market, what is "reasonable" is often the exception.
Especially when Manchester City was buying. It was basically impossible not to pay a premium.
Of course, Gao Shen didn't mention that he pocketed 6 million euros out of the 30.
And judging by De Laurentiis' tone, once Alex Sandro was signed, he'd likely sell Dossena, bringing in another 20 million euros. Gao Shen would get a cut of that too.
Not to mention, he'd also get future shares from Danilo, Alex Sandro, and Darmian.
…
After settling the Lichtsteiner transfer, Gao Shen began discussing other matters with the management team.
Manchester City still had one major transfer target in the works, but progress was slow.
Mubarak and the others wanted Gao Shen to step in, but he felt the time wasn't right. It would be best to wait until after the World Cup, and to first establish contact with the player's agent.
After all, the player was currently focused on the World Cup. Disturbing him now might cause unnecessary distractions.
They then moved on to Manchester City's youth development system.
As technical director, youth training was under Gao Shen's jurisdiction.
Youth development had always been a challenging issue.
The stronger the club, the harder it became to properly nurture young talent.
Take Real Madrid for example.
In recent years, they'd adopted a model where they sold young players with a buyback clause. It was one approach.
Clubs like Juventus in Serie A preferred joint-ownership deals, which were functionally similar.
In the Premier League, Manchester United hadn't handled this area well. Otherwise, veterans like Giggs and Scholes wouldn't have blocked the path for youngsters like Pogba, who eventually left for Juventus.
Arsenal's youth program looked successful on the surface, but in reality, it relied too heavily on fast-tracking development and had little sustainable output.
Chelsea had invested massively in their academy in recent years.
According to media reports, they'd already spent over 60 million pounds.
Arnesen was in charge of scouting for youth players, but integrating them into the first team was another challenge entirely.
Everyone knew the first team was about results, not development.
Chelsea's approach was to set up satellite clubs and loan out as many players as possible.
But that came with problems.
Chelsea still paid the players' wages, but loan clubs didn't necessarily have any incentive to develop them properly. After all, they were only temporary.
In most cases, Chelsea initiated the loan deals.
This kind of arrangement often led to indifference.
And with so many loaned players, it was nearly impossible to monitor and customize their development in real-time.
How much would that cost?
So this issue was serious.
Another issue was whether the current or future first-team manager would even want to use these young players.
This was where tactical continuity came into play.
Even a club like Barcelona, with a consistent footballing philosophy, couldn't always promote youth players. Let alone clubs that frequently changed managers.
For Gao Shen and Manchester City, the best they could do was to ensure that future managerial hires shared a similar tactical approach.
Gao Shen's current mission was to shape a clear style for Manchester City and lay a foundation for future successors.
As for youth development, he could only try his best to nurture talent. Whether those players could eventually be used by the first team was out of his hands.
Even if a player left but later became valuable, Manchester City could simply buy him back.
For a wealthy club, as long as the problem could be solved with money, it wasn't really a problem.
Manchester City was rich. Naturally, they didn't have to worry.
So at this stage, Gao Shen's only responsibility was developing talent. Everything else could wait.
…
After the meeting at the Etihad, Gao Shen visited Carrington for a facility inspection.
There had been some issues last season, which had since been improved over the summer.
He also checked on the youth academy, which was part of his technical director duties.
Since he was still on vacation, he only stayed busy for one day before returning to his break.
Unexpectedly, the next day, he got a call from Ferguson.
They lived quite close to each other, and Ferguson invited Gao Shen to dinner, bringing with him an explosive piece of news.
(To be continued.)
***
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