Chapter 195: The Future Of Youth Players Part 1
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The last sentence was the determining factor. Pique lightly nodded his head and said, “Mr. Canales, you are right. But currently, on Manchester United’s side… Mr. Ferguson has very high hopes for me.”
Canales shook his head and said, “You don’t have to worry about that. I’ll be the villain. We only have to ask him if Manchester United is willing to give you a position on the first team next season. And we all know the answer to that question. If that’s the case, why is there a need for you to go to his club and become a player for the youth team, when Nottingham Forest is willing to give you a position on their first team? Did Manchester United give us any promises or guarantees? Have they paid us in advance? They have given us nothing. Remember Gerard, your future is the most important thing for us to consider. You don’t want to see yourself remain unheard-of after leaving Barcelona, right?
Pique shook his head.
“In that case, do as I say: wait. Don’t answer him right now. Tell that manager that you have to go back and talk with your parents, and that you will give him a reply after one day. Don’t appear too anxious, I want to get you the best contract you can get.”
The two of them finished their discussion. Pique told Tang En, “Mr. Twain, the conditions you’ve offered are very good. However, I have to go back and talk with my parents. I’ll give you a reply in a day.”
“Alright, I’ll be waiting for your call in Barcelona.” Tang En stood up and shook Pique’s hand, showing that he agreed. Afterwards, when Canales and Tang En shook hands, Tang En winked; both parties had a tacit understanding of the situation.
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For the rest of the day, Tang En and Dunn were at Barcelona’s youth training grounds, La Masia, watching Barcelona’s youth team train. He found a few familiar figures in there. There was Giovani dos Santos, who resembled Ronaldinho in terms of hairstyle, skin tone, and skill. As a result, he had been nicknamed “the young Mexican Ronaldinho.” Francisco Merida, the midfielder passer of Spain’s national youth team and Barcelona’s youth team, was also there. Then there was Bojan Krkic, the “child prodigy” whom Barcelona had high hopes for… and then the famous Messi. He had already been transferred to the main team by Rijkaard, and would be commencing his training with top-tier stars such as Ronaldinho, Puyol, Giuly and Xavi, once the summer started. As such, he would hardly appear at La Masia once summer came.
Looking at those prodigious players, Tang En really had the impulse to poach them all at once. But he knew that that was impossible, and there was only a slight possibility with Merida… But his play style did not seem to fit in with that of the English Premier League. If Tang En’s memories served him right, Merida would later fall out with the upper echelons of the club when he was fifteen years-old, and would refuse to sign the contract with Barcelona. Afterwards, he left Barcelona and went to Liverpool for trials. However, Tang En did not know the in-depth details of the situation, only having heard that Mereda did not stay on with Liverpool. One year later, Merida would go on to join Arsenal’s youth team.
On one hand, the main teams spent lots of money purchasing famous football stars; on the other hand, there was an increasing backlog of talents nurtured by the youth teams. This contradiction seemed irreconcilable. The main team’s manager had a tendency to distrust young players, because the pressure placed on these managers was much greater than the pressure on the youth team managers. When Tang En was playing Football Manager, he had experienced this same dilemma.
As a player, Tang En liked young prodigies who had a lot of potential. However, whenever he discovered famous football stars on the transfer market, he would be unable to resist the desire to buy them.
There was also another powerhouse which faced the same issue as Barcelona: Real Madrid.
As the football club which had the most number of La Liga championship titles to their name, Real Madrid also had a fine tradition of placing emphasis on youth training. Real Madrid’s “Vulture’s Cohort” during the 1980s was the most classic example of their emphasis on youth training. However, entering into the twenty-first century, along with Florentino’s implementation of the “one football star every year” policy, the number of players that were transferred to the main team from the Real Madrid Youth Team gradually decreased. The policy of “Zidane + Pavon”, which was spoiled with excessive enthusiasm, was a joke. Despite Real Madrid’s youth team always obtaining good results in La Liga 2 every year, despite the fact that the media and fans were always able to discover prodigies or rookies every year, in the end, almost none of the players from the youth team managed to make it to Real Madrid’s main team. Portillo, for example, was the forward that was named to be Raul’s successor, but his talent was later depleted during the time when he was repeatedly being loaned out to other teams. Mejia was once the team captain of Real Madrid B team, and was the team’s core center-back player. However, once he had transferred to Real Madrid’s main team, he became the definition of a worrywart. There was someone else in the same situation as him, and that person was Raul Bravo. He had once been deemed Roberto Carlos’s successor, and had even been selected to be part of Spain’s national team. However, he could only be sidelined when he was on Real Madrid’s main team. Additionally, after Portillo, Soldado appeared out of nowhere; and despite him breaking the records that Raul had set in Real Madrid’s youth team, there was no place for him in Real Madrid’s main team.
Aside from those mentioned, there were countless other “future stars” from Real Madrid that had already been forgotten completely. Where are they, and what are they doing now?
The greatest irony was that even though Real Madrid had the grandest training grounds in all of Spain, the talents nurtured by the youth training camp had all ended up leaving to play for other Spanish football clubs aside from Real Madrid.
Currently, Tang En did not have to worry about the younger Nottingham Forest players being unable to play in matches. The only thing he worried about was not being able to find players to play in the match.
Small teams always worried about the abilities of their substitute players on the bench, while the powerhouses were instead always in a dilemma over who they should send up onto the field.
One day later, Pique met up with Tang En again. This time, the reply that they gave Tang En was well within Tang En’s expectations: Pique agreed to join Nottingham Forest and reject Manchester United. He hoped that Manager Tony Twain could honor his promise of giving him sufficient playing time on the field.
Tang En smiled and said, “Of course, Gerard. I didn’t travel all the way from England to Barcelona just to search for talents to join the youth team. Soon, you will realize that your decision to join Nottingham Forest was very wise.”
Afterwards, Tang En represented Nottingham Forest and signed a four-year professional contract with Gerard Pique Bernabeu in the restaurant. From that moment onwards, Pique, the pure-Barcelonan player born in Catalonia, became Nottingham Forest’s player.
And Nottingham Forest only had to pay a sum of two hundred and twenty thousand pounds. To Barcelona, that amount of money was almost nothing compared to the amount that the club had spent on nurturing a player like Pique. However, they had no choice but to watch helplessly as the Englishman took him away, snatching away the team’s future core backline defender.
Of course, the Barcelonans had reasons to be angry about this. After all, they had nurtured Pique, and Pique’s grandfather had been Barcelona FC vice-chairman in the past. That added layer of relationship would make the Barcelonans view Pique’s leaving as a form of betrayal. However, the most angry person was not a Barcelonan, but a Scottish man.
Pique signed his name on the contract, finally putting an end to his worries for his future, which had plagued him for half a year. He revealed a relaxed smile to Tang En and said, “Should I learn from those English players and address you as Boss? Mister?”
“Hmm, not necessarily… Welcome to the Nottingham Forest’s big family. You’ll have a lot of freedom here, including how you choose to address me. There are a few ways you may choose to address me: A, boss; B, mister; C, chief; D, manager. Which do you like?” Tang En said to Pique, mimicking the voice of a robot.
Pique smiled and replied, “C.”
“Very good, kid! You’ll love this team, I guarantee it!” Tang En said, laughing loudly and patting Pique’s shoulder. That was the person who would become the future pillar of the team!
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When Pique and Tang En were signing the contract in the restaurant, Manchester United’s manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, who was preparing for the next season in Manchester, received a call from Barcelona.
“Boss, bad news. Pique no longer belongs to us.”
“What?” Ferguson thought he had misheard. Half a month ago, his assistant had still been telling him that Pique was very willing to sign a contract with Manchester United. The Scottish manager was feeling extremely triumphant for being able to defeat Arsenal in terms of the competition for talents. Little did he know that after a mere two weeks…”Is it the French guy?” The first person Ferguson thought of was Wenger. As the two of them were arch rivals, Wenger was naturally the first person that came to mind whenever his plans were foiled.
“No, boss. It’s not Arsenal. They’ve already given up. It’s another Englishman… Tony Twain.”
Ferguson was momentarily stumped. This name sounded somewhat familiar, but he could not recall who it was. He asked, “Who is that?”
“Nottingham Forest’s manager, boss. They just got promoted to the Premier League this season.
After hearing that, Ferguson remembered fully who it was. It was that young man who had made Mark Lawrenson disgrace himself and shave his moustache on a television program!
“What reason did he give? I want to know what the newly-promoted team did to snatch away our player!” Ferguson’s face started to flush. That usually foreshadowed an outburst of anger.
“He did not divulge any specific details. He only said that while Manchester United can only promise him his future, Nottingham Forest is able to promise him the present.”
Those words struck at the Achilles’ heel of Manchester United, causing Ferguson’s anger to stick in his throat, unable to be released. Manchester United could not refute that reasoning for snatching away his player. Ferguson suddenly became extremely interested in the “youngest manager of the English Premier League,” whom he had not had much knowledge of prior to this.
Who is he? And what abilities does he have?
Most importantly… Can he pose a threat to Manchester United?
