In a hotel in the capital, Gao Shen met Manchester City Chairman Mubarak with a smile on his face.
He had expected that Manchester City would be very sincere, but he really didn't expect that Manchester City's battle this time would be so big.
Chairman Mubarak came in person, which was as it should be, because among the top management of Manchester City, he was the only one who had met Gao Shen.
Chief executive Gary Cook and marketing director Fergal Hakim, these two buddies are one of the most powerful figures in the administrative department of Manchester City's office. The finance is of course in the hands of Mubarak, but the specific operations
, they are all responsible.
Gary Cook and Fergal Harkin both came from Nike.
In Gao Shen's previous life, Gary Cook was sued by Onuoha's mother and son because an email that was originally intended to be sent to consultant Brian Marwood was mistakenly forwarded to player Onuoha's terminally ill mother.
FA, Gary Cook resigns.
According to later news, Onuoha’s mother was Onuoha’s agent. At that time, Onuoha was having an unpleasant dispute with Manchester City over some contracts, so Gary Cook sent such an email to Marwood.
, and ended up sending it to the other party by mistake, which is really dumbfounding.
Fergal Harkin is equally bizarre.
According to Mubarak's introduction, he was originally the manager of Nike's marketing and sponsorship department. After the Abu Dhabi consortium acquired Manchester City, it wanted to build this team into Europe's top giants, so it spent a lot of money to lure him to Manchester City.
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It was just a few days ago.
However, due to Fergal Harkin's contract issues, he is temporarily unable to perform his duties at Manchester City as the director of the marketing department. For the time being, he can only hold the title of scout part-time, but in fact, he is responsible for the entire
Marketing department.
This period will last until his contract with Nike, which is probably mid-August next year.
In other words, he has a full year to hold the title of scout and perform the duties of marketing director.
Consultant Brian Marwood has played for Arsenal, Middlesbrough and Sheffield United during his career.
Technical director Brian Kidd is also a miserable character.
He worked as Ferguson's assistant since 1988 and worked there for ten years until December 1998, when he got an opportunity to put out a fire at Blackburn Rovers, so he chose to leave.
Who would have thought that Manchester United would win the legendary Triple Crown six months after he left, and Kidd's own coaching at Blackburn was not successful.
After that, he worked as an assistant for O'Reilly and others at Leeds United. In 2003, he worked as an assistant for Eriksson in the England national team for a year, and then went to Sheffield United to assist Bryan Robson, and then moved around again.
to Portsmouth.
Now, he is Manchester City's technical director.
In fact, just a few days ago, Manchester City had a director of football, Mike Rigg. He was originally Mark Hughes's assistant when he coached Blackburn. After Mark Hughes came to Manchester City, he recommended him as the director of football.
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With the dismissal of Mark Hughes, Mike Rigg also left Manchester City.
…
There are five people from Manchester City, including almost all the heads of departments. It can be said that the entire Manchester City management team is here.
Gao Shen really felt Manchester City's sincerity.
But Manchester City's sincerity is obviously more than that.
Mubarak took the lead in sending an invitation to Gao Shen on behalf of Mansour, the boss behind Manchester City, hoping that he would go to Dubai in the Middle East in the next few days to shoot commercials for Emirates Airlines and the UAE Tourism Authority, and that he would be able to take time to go to Abu Dhabi when attending events.
"Prince Mansour hopes to have the opportunity to sit down and talk with you and plan the future of Manchester City together."
Mubarak also told Gao Shen that Abu Dhabi is working to promote further in-depth cooperation between the UAE and Chinese oil companies.
"We all sincerely hope that you can serve as a link between China and the UAE."
Gao Shen smiled and nodded, saying that he would seriously consider it.
As a former marketing manager of Nike, Fergal Harkin is working on building a commercial operation system for Manchester City. He believes that the commercial value of Gao Shen has been seriously underestimated. This is related to the fact that he previously coached a Serie A team.
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"You know, the Premier League is the most influential tournament in world football today. With your current influence, we are absolutely confident that you can land in the Premier League and push your personal brand and influence to a whole new level."
Fogel Hajin also came up with a somewhat rough plan. Gao Shen took a quick look at it and found that it was indeed quite informative. No wonder Manchester City could lure him over with such a large deal.
Many people think that the wealthy people in the Middle East are stupid and have too much money, but in fact, they are very smart with their money.
Whether it is Manchester City now or Paris Saint-Germain in the future, they are not stupid at all.
Gao Shen also admitted that he has expectations for coaching in the Premier League.
This made Mubarak and others excited.
In the current Premier League, the Big 4 head coaches are basically quite stable, especially after Gao Shen declined Chelsea personally and Carlo Ancelotti took over at Stamford Bridge, there were actually not many choices left for Gao Shen.
Manchester City is undoubtedly the most powerful and potential among them.
As for how determined Blue Moon is, Gao Shen is still unsure.
Gary Cook told Gao Shen about Manchester City's plan, and Mubarak also said that the Abu Dhabi consortium's investment in Manchester City was by no means a whim, but based on ten years as a starting point, it planned to operate this club for a long time and build it into the European club.
The most powerful wealthy family.
"Gao, we all know that in the past three years, you have achieved great success in Serie A, but your ability and performance have also been severely restricted by Naples. Otherwise, with your ability, you can completely defeat this team.
Take it to a whole new level instead of falling apart like it did this summer."
Mubarak's words spoke deeply to his heart.
If Naples were richer, Gao Shen would even have the confidence to lead this team to defend the Champions League.
But it's a pity that Naples can't hold on anymore.
De Laurentiis can no longer afford the money, and it is impossible for Gao Shen to let him continue to invest, and he has no such ideas or ambitions.
"But we are different. We aim to become a top giants team. We can provide you with the best platform. I can represent the Abu Dhabi Consortium and Manchester City here to make a promise to you. You will have
You have the right to make decisions on Manchester City’s sporting affairs, and what Ferguson did at Manchester United, you can do at Manchester City!”
Gao Shen was really moved when he heard this.
Ferguson's power at Manchester United is what many managers desire and pursue.
"Not only that, I am also here to promise you that we will provide you with the most generous transfer budget, and there will even be no upper limit. You can display your talents and ambitions as much as you want, and introduce the players you want.
To build a team according to your wishes, my colleagues and I will do our best to cooperate with you!"
Gao Shen looked at Mubarak and others in surprise. He really didn't expect that Manchester City would invest so much.
Whether it's power or resources, Manchester City gave him the best.
At this moment, Gao Shen even had the urge to agree on the spot.
But in the end, he resisted the urge, nodded, and said, "Give me some time to think about it."
…
When Gao Shen walked out of the room, he could still feel his heartbeat speeding up.
When he walked out of the hotel, he couldn't help but take several deep breaths.
He needs to calm down.
It must be said that the conditions offered by Mubarak were too generous.
Gao Shen can even say that looking at today's world football, it is difficult to find a second team that can provide the same conditions.
Mubarak almost didn't say anything and directly packaged Manchester City's sports department and gave Gao Shen full responsibility.
Because now in European football, this is actually unrealistic.
Even when Ferguson was at Manchester United, he basically did not participate in the specific transfer negotiations and operations. He mostly chose people by himself and let the club negotiate.
This is not because he has no negotiation ability and skills, but because he avoids suspicion.
Just like the huge black money scandal in the Premier League at the beginning of the century.
To put it bluntly, it is impossible for the Manchester United management to let Ferguson intervene in specific transfer negotiations.
Therefore, the conditions given by Mubarak are already the limit that Manchester City can give.
To paraphrase a famous saying from the future: I have never been moved by money, but...he gave me too much!
This is how Gao Shen feels now.
Although Manchester City's approach may be a bit rich, it can also be seen from the other side that they are really sincere towards Gao Shen.
…
Whether it was with Bayern or Manchester City, Gao Shen did not disclose it to the public, and the outside world did not get any information.
European football still pays more attention to transfer news.
After announcing the signing of Kaka, media close to Real Madrid soon revealed that Real Madrid had signed Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United. The transfer fee is likely to exceed 100 million, which will create the highest record in the history of world football.
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At the same time, Barcelona has also learned from the lessons of the past season and is determined to reorganize the team.
Guardiola wants to bring in Ibrahimovic from Inter Milan and Sanchez, Thiago Motta, Vargas and David Luiz from Naples.
This will undoubtedly be a sky-high price transfer.
According to Catalan media, Barcelona management has communicated with Guardiola and must make trade-offs in several transfers because Barcelona cannot afford so much money at once.
As soon as they made contact, Inter Milan sternly rejected Barcelona's poaching of Ibrahimovic, saying that the Swedish center was not for sale to Inter Milan and could not be sold to Barcelona.
On the other hand, Naples is open to selling Sanchez, but the price tag for the Chilean winger is as high as 60 million euros, which is far beyond the outside world's evaluation of Sanchez.
But while De Laurentiis asked Marino to make an offer for Barcelona in the transfer market, he publicly denied the transfer rumors in the media.
"We don't need to sell people, and selling Sanchez is not within our scope of consideration. His contract has a liquidated damages clause. If someone must buy him, they must pay this price, otherwise don't bother me!"
