Chapter 13: Lofty Ideals

After Donn gave Anelka an answer to his departure, Anelka's two brothers became busy again.

Although the threshold of £25 million sounds a bit high, they believe that with their brother's outstanding performance last season, they will definitely find a club that will pay the money.

Tang En ignored their affairs and focused on the team's summer training and other transfers.

First, he called Manchester City coach Stuart Pierce and asked about the possibility of Kasper Schmeichel's transfer.

Manchester City clubs do want to give this generally favored young goalkeeper the opportunity to train, but it is not realistic to get him the main player or even the first substitute in Manchester City's first team.

Pierce prefers to loan Schmeichel Jr. to exercise for a season. After all, the famous Piert Schmeichel son is not yet twenty years old, and the future is limitless.

No matter how good the relationship is, Pierce doesn't want to be so cheap.

Tang Encai didn't do this by renting a goalkeeper to come as a substitute. The Forest team is no longer a processing factory to help others train stars.

He still hopes that Pierce will consider selling Schmeichel Jr. to the Forests. Pierce has a firm attitude this time. After selling Sun Jihai to Nottingham Forest, he does not want to lose the team's future main goalkeeper.

He agreed to loan Schmeichel Jr. to the Forests for one or two seasons, but Donn disagreed.

In this way, the candidate for the substitute goalkeeper was in a deadlock.

Donne originally valued Casper Schmeichel very much, but he was more than the one who valued the young goalkeeper. He knew that this time he had encountered a soft nail and it was impossible for Pierce to let go.

Just when he was upset that the deal was not successful, Tang recommended another player for him. He used to be familiar with the name of this person, but now he has forgotten it.

If Tang hadn't mentioned it again, he would have probably never remembered it at all.

Igor Akinfeyev (igor_akinfeyev), the main goalkeeper of the Russian Super League team CSKA Moscow, was an important contributor to the CSKA winning the League Cup last season.

Tang En's mind suddenly became clear. This was indeed an excellent goalkeeper who could carry the future of the Forest team.

The head coach had no objection, and Nottingham Forest immediately issued a purchase request for Akinfeyev to the CSKA in Russia.

As a Russian team, CSKA is very clear about the fact that outstanding players trained by themselves will definitely leave here and go to a broader stage.

In fact, Nottingham Forest is not the first European club to be interested in the young goalkeeper. Many giants including Manchester United, Arsenal, and AC Milan have more or less reported that they want to buy him.

But the club that made the transfer application clear for the young goalkeeper was Nottingham Forest.

Other teams are still on the sidelines, and Ferguson directly rejected people's expectations that Manchester United will introduce Akinfeyev - he said that the Russian goalkeeper is not in his future plans.

Although the goalkeeper, who is called "ak" in the fm07 that Tang En has played, is a famous demon, but the goalkeeper is a position that values ​​age and experience more, and young goalkeepers often need to be inspected for a longer time.

No wealthy club dares to put all the bets on a goalkeeper who is just 20 years old, and they also want to "observe".

Tang En played this time difference. In people's eyes, he always appears as a "bold gambler".

This time is no exception. While other clubs are still waiting or hesitating, the Forest team filed a transfer application to the CSKA Russian, and their offer was £5 million.

The feedback soon came, and the CSKA was not surprised by Akinfeyev's departure. But they could not accept the price, and they raised the offer to 7.5 million pounds, about 10 million euros.

Buy a goalkeeper who is only twenty years old for 10 million euros!

This is really crazy in the eyes of many people, although Buffon set a world record for goalkeeper worth 20 million euros when he transferred from Parma to Juventus.

But Buffon had proved his ability in domestic leagues and national team competitions, and unlike Akinfeev, Buffon was from a world-class team like Italy, and his national team strength and national league level were completely different from Russia.

"If the Russians wanted to scare us off with this offer, then they had a wrong idea. We are not the Nottingham Forest two years ago.

"Donn's response was to raise the first offer to £6 million, with additional terms allowing Akinfeyev to be rented back to CSKA for one season in the form of zero loan fee.

In other words, Nottingham Forest paid Akinfeev a year's salary and gave it to the CSKA for free for one season. Then the CSKA netted 6 million pounds.

The conditions were very good. The CSKA did not refuse again, but agreed to the Forest Team to discuss a personal contract with Akinfeyev.

A year ago, the Land Forest team may not have this strength, but now Nottingham Forest is very attractive to Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev.

After all, he is the runner-up of the Premier League and the runner-up of the Champions League, and his strength is recognized worldwide, and there is no doubt.

In addition, the joining of world-class scorer Van Nistroy has greatly enhanced the team's appeal.

Akinfeyev knew that the Russian Super League was not the stage he wanted. The European Premier League was his future. Although there have been many rumors about big teams being interested in him this year, none of them became true. Now the opportunity has come.

He doesn't want to miss it.

The negotiations between the two sides went smoothly.

Akinfeyev signed a five-year permanent transfer contract with Nottingham Forest, with an annual salary of 1.5 million pounds after tax. He was rented back to the CSKA Moscow that trained him in the first season.

When both sides announced the news, Tang En smiled in front of the reporters. He could already see that the team's future was becoming clearer day by day.

The media naturally have opinions on this transfer deal. Some people praised the Forest for buying a complete guarantee for future goals, while others claimed to be so rash (the transaction lasted very short, and everything was settled in a total of four days) to buy a young goalkeeper who had no idea whether he could adapt to the Premier League.

It's really not a wise move. They even doubt whether there is any shameful "insider trading" behind this transfer...

Tang Encai ignored the nonsense of these media... If there is no insider trading, he himself disagreed first. In order to make the transfer progress more smoothly, Nottingham Forest gave Akinfeyev's agent a little "red envelope"... However, Tang En himself did not get any benefits from it.

In terms of economic income, Tang En is a contented person. He is not short of this amount of money and is unwilling to make money in this way. The lessons of Brian Clauve's past are still vivid in my mind.

"Okay. We have solved the goalkeepers for the next ten years, which is good news to celebrate.

"After getting the transfer, Tang En said to his subordinates in the office, "But... I found that we went around but still couldn't solve the initial problem - where is our substitute goalkeeper?"

Chris Lark and Donn looked at the goalkeeper coach Andy Beasley (andy_beasley), hoping that he could answer this question.

"Uh, actually...I think Paul is enough to be a substitute goalkeeper." This was Beasley's answer, obviously not satisfying Don Eun, and he frowned.

At this moment, someone spoke for him.

"I think Paul Gerrard is a very qualified substitute goalkeeper." Tang, the Chinese assistant coach, said in fluent English.

Tang En looked at him: "Reason."

"I have a good mentality and don't require a main position. In addition, I have watched the final video of the Champions League many times. I think it is not his responsibility to concede two goals. He suddenly came on the court under such circumstances. His performance is already very outstanding.

"Tang finished speaking his reasons and returned to silence.

Tang En pinched his chin and began to ponder.

He was recalling the final and carefully recalling every detail of it. The game impressed him, it was only two months since he would never forget it.

"If Paul hadn't performed well, we would have been equalized by Barcelona in the first half. I know that his strength is not qualified to be the main goalkeeper, and Paul himself is very clear about this.

So I think it's the most appropriate candidate to let him be our No. 1 substitute goalkeeper." Goalkeeper coach Beasley was also helping out.

Don En withdrew from his memories and shrugged: "Andy, you are the goalkeeper coach, you are more authoritative than me in this regard. If you think he is capable of being a qualified substitute, then we don't have to bother to find a substitute goalkeeper anymore... To be honest.

This position is as hard to find as Wood's substitute."

Everyone laughed. Tang En said it was not bad at all. The goalkeeper had a special position and required stability, so he never changed candidates easily, and he never rotated.

The substitute goalkeeper must have enough patience and peace to face the endless bench career and be ready for the opportunity to play at any time.

Wood's substitute is another special feature - the position of the back midfielder is not unrotated. Wood is really too stable and never gets injured. His condition does not fluctuate. His physical fitness is even more problematic.

For such a player, what reason does the head coach have to rotate him? In this way, his substitute will have no chance to play.

Think about the poor Gunnarson last season... Don't want to leave him behind just in case, but he didn't expect that there would be no such "in case" chance for the whole season.

Now Gunnarson has left the team and turned to the Championship team Wolves.

After laughing, Tang suddenly said: "I don't think we need to deliberately look for Wood's substitute. If Wood's substitute is a full-time midfielder, it's a waste. And Sun is an all-rounder in the backcourt..."

Tang En nodded to show that he understood what he meant.

Instead of finding a back midfielder for Wood as a substitute, it is better to find a backfield panacea, not only to be a substitute on Wood, but also to be a substitute on others, central defenders, fullbacks, midfielders, and midfielders...all are fine.

For example, Pepe and Pique both have experience as midfielders, and Sun Jihai is even more so. In this way, George Wood's substitute problem has been solved.

Just changed the perspective of thinking about the problem. This problem that has troubled the team's coaching staff for more than a year has been solved. The colleagues in the coaching staff have a deeper understanding of the Chinese who was directly promoted from the assistant coach of the youth team to the assistant coach of the first team - he is indeed capable, rather than relying solely on good personal relationships with the head coach to get to the top.

After Bayern Munich failed to buy Van Nistruei, he turned his attention to Frank Ribery, who shined in the World Cup, but Nottingham Forest marked Ribery as "not selling". Not only did he reject the offer from Bayern Munich, but he also rejected all buyers interested in Ribery.

Forest team wants to create better results, Don En hopes that the team will become an important force that cannot be ignored in European football, so now is not the time to sell people.

Not only Ribery, Ashley Young, Allen Lennon, Arteta, George Wood, Pique, Pepe, Barnes, Bell, Zimbonda... etc., the main lineup of the Forest team was almost hollowed out by those buyers last season, and Donne refused.

The most important thing about a team with lofty ideals is the stable lineup.

These players have been working together for one to two seasons, and the tacit understanding between them has been established. Now if they disassemble this combination for a little money, then Tang En is really the biggest fool in the world.

"Nottingham Forest does not survive by betraying the main stars to earn money. We are not such a team, and we are not a star processing base for any wealthy club. Even if someone really takes out two trillion pounds, I won't sell any of my players."

This is the promise Done wrote in his personal column.

Then, in his personal column, Leinker commented on Don Eun’s words: “…He is a head coach with lofty ideals. Note that what I mean is ‘big ideals’. This ideal is not relegation or allowing the team to enter the European arena next year… This ideal is ‘champion’.

With such a head coach, it is not difficult for us to understand why Nottingham Forest will undergo earth-shaking changes under his leadership, with three-year triple jumps and is constantly expanding its strength.

Because this team, like their head coach, also has 'lofty ideals'."

Tang En's rejection of quotations that were about to fill his desk was equivalent to stabilizing the morale of the army. Now the players of the Forest team are very clear that they follow their leaders and have a future (money) path. No one wants to leave this team and choose a new adventure.

Tang En's intention to make that public speech is also here. Only when the morale of the army is stabilized before the season, the generals and generals of the three armies work together to give their lives will there be a good sign in the new season.

After that, he began to continue to take action in the transfer market.

In the words of Don Eun to Don, "How to make money from the club is the job of that guy Alan, and my job is how to spend the money Alan earns."

Although Mikel Arteta performed well last season, Don N was still annoyed that the team did not have a real midfielder, and this midfield combination must have been thoroughly studied by the opponent. It is no different to dream of wanting to conquer the world in the new season.

He must introduce more fresh blood in the midfield, not only to bring more tactical changes, but also to keep this group of kids at the moment of maintaining a sense of crisis, so that they know that there is no main position in the world that they can't sit for a long time.

This time, after comparing multiple candidates, he turned his attention to the Netherlands.
Chapter completed!