The Greatest Manager of All time

When Oliver Cromwell looked through the peephole and saw two unfamiliar men standing outside, a thoughtful look appeared on his face.

They seemed familiar, as if he had seen them somewhere before.

After thinking carefully for a moment, he slapped his forehead, turned back into the living room, picked up the phone, and called Lynn.

"Boss, good evening."

"Oliver? It's late. Something wrong?"

"Yeah. At the stadium today, were there two men sitting beside you in the stands?"

"There were. Why?"

"I think they've come to my house. I haven't opened the door yet. I wanted to make sure there isn't any danger. You know, it's only me and my sister at home. She usually lives on campus and doesn't come back often, and my house has been burgled a few times."

"Oh, don't worry. They don't mean any harm. Just open the door."

"Oh, okay. That's a relief."

Only after hanging up did Oliver Cromwell gesture an OK sign toward his sister, who was hiding upstairs with only her head poking out from her room.

Outside the door, Baker and Gates had already grown impatient.

They had rung the bell because they saw lights on inside the house, but they had no idea why no one had opened the door after so long.

When Oliver Cromwell finally opened the door, both men were stunned to see him holding a baseball bat as he said, "Hello. Can I help you?"

Seeing their shocked gazes fall on the baseball bat in his hand, Oliver Cromwell gave an awkward laugh.

"We don't get many visitors at home. Since it's so late, I thought it might be someone suspicious, so I grabbed it without thinking and forgot to put it down. Don't mind me."

Baker muttered inwardly, 'Would someone suspicious ring the doorbell?'

George Gates smiled at Cromwell and said, "Hello. I'm George Gates, and this is Lewis Baker. We're from John Lewis, and we've come specifically to visit you, Oliver Cromwell."

Oliver Cromwell looked surprised.

"Are you salesmen? Sorry, we don't need anything."

Baker was starting to feel like he might fall apart.

George Gates, however, laughed heartily.

"We're not salesmen. We're here to discuss a partnership with you. Oliver, may we come in? Standing here chatting like this might make the neighbors misunderstand."

Oliver Cromwell immediately opened the door wide, stepped aside, and said, "Please come in. Jennifer, pour some water for the guests."

Inside her room, Jennifer Cromwell puffed out her cheeks, clearly displeased by Oliver Cromwell making decisions on his own.

Still, she could only force herself to come downstairs, then went silently to the kitchen and brought the two guests two glasses of water.

George Gates and Lewis Baker looked around the Cromwell house in surprise.

The living room itself was nothing special in terms of decoration, but the items on display were strange. Many shelves held all kinds of odd objects, some of which looked like perfectly ordinary stones, along with amber and other things.

Noticing where they were looking, Oliver Cromwell smiled and said, "My parents brought these back from all over the world. They're supposedly priceless, so burglars come to our house pretty often."

Baker almost spat out his water.

Priceless?

Did anyone actually believe that nonsense?

This kid really did not seem reliable.

George Gates, on the other hand, looked delighted after meeting Oliver Cromwell.

He liked this young man. He was straightforward and full of personality, cheerful and open, yet still funny and cautious.

Oliver Cromwell was a typical child whose parents had let go and allowed him to grow naturally beyond their protection.

The reason he had not gone off the rails, however, was largely because he had received strict and solid family education before the age of twelve.

George Gates took out a business card and handed it to Oliver Cromwell.

Oliver picked it up and looked it over.

Beside him, his older sister Jennifer Cromwell discreetly shifted her gaze, trying to sneak a look at the words on the card as well.

After reading it, Oliver simply stuffed the card into his sister's hand, then said to Gates, "I know John Lewis. What do you want with me?"

Gates said, "We'd like to sign an authorization contract with you."

"Authorization? What do you need my permission to do?"

Gates gave Baker a look, and Baker immediately took a contract out of his briefcase and handed it to Oliver Cromwell.

Baker said, "This is an image rights authorization contract. If you agree to sign this two-year contract, John Lewis will be able to use your image to develop products. In return, you will receive £100,000 per year, along with free trial access to many of John Lewis's new products. To put it simply, we'll give you some products you need."

Oliver Cromwell only looked at the contract twice before passing it to his top-student sister.

Naturally, this kind of word-heavy job was better left to someone educated.

Oliver Cromwell asked curiously, "Can we talk about specifics? If I agree to authorize it, what exactly will you use my image for?"

Baker said seriously, "For example, we might print your portrait on T-shirts we design ourselves, or produce toys based on a cartoon version of you. We may also place a life-size doll of you in the snack sales area to attract customers, and so on."

Oliver Cromwell snapped his fingers and nodded.

"Mm, I get it. But I don't know if there are any traps in your contract, so I can't agree right away. I need to find someone to help me make sure this contract won't let you sell me off to Africa."

Gates burst into laughter and clapped his hands.

"You're too interesting. But your concern is perfectly normal. I'll give you time to decide."

"Good. Before that, let's talk about the payment first. I don't understand what the market rate is, but you said you'd give me free products. I want to know what kind of things are included."

Baker had not expected this kid to be so difficult to deal with.

And greedy, too!

But there was no helping it. Oliver Cromwell had been taking care of his own life from a very young age, so of course he had to consider these things.

Baker took out another list and handed it to Oliver Cromwell. It listed the specific categories and items that partners could receive for free from John Lewis.

Of course, they would not offer anything too expensive, such as the latest computers, televisions, home theater systems, or other high-value items. If they did that, the cost would be too great.

After Oliver Cromwell looked through it, he passed the list to his sister.

Once his genius sister finished reading, she suddenly kicked his leg discreetly. Oliver Cromwell lowered his head and only then noticed that one of the major categories on the list was games. Newly released game discs were also included within the free product range.

Oliver Cromwell did not even need to think to know his top-student sister wanted him to ask John Lewis for the newest game discs.

So he stated his demand bluntly.

"I don't want anything else. I just want this. As long as a new game disc is released, send me one copy. Is that okay?"

Baker was a little surprised.

He had thought Oliver Cromwell would ask for everything. If that happened, he would have told Cromwell there were limits to the free product terms, since some of the items listed were quite valuable.

Before he could weigh the value of Oliver Cromwell's condition, Gates made the decision on the spot.

"No problem! Then that's settled."

...

The next morning, Cromwell arrived early at the club's training base.

When Lynn came to the club and headed first to his office, he was surprised to see Cromwell standing outside the door.

"Oh? You're here this early?"

Lynn spoke with curiosity.

Cromwell greeted Lynn with a smile. After Lynn opened the door and entered the office, Cromwell followed him in, took the contract out of his backpack, and handed it over.

"Boss, I'd like you to find someone to look over this contract for me and see if there's anything wrong with it. The two people who came to my house last night want to sign an authorization contract with me. I don't understand this kind of thing, and I'm afraid of getting tricked, so I wanted Boss to help me check it."

Lynn took the contract but did not read it.

He placed it directly on the desk and said, "All right. I'll call a lawyer over later to take a look. Anything else?"

Cromwell scratched his head and said rather sheepishly, "Also, I wanted to ask what level the payment is for someone like me signing this kind of contract right now. Is it low or high? I'm still worried about being taken advantage of."

Lynn did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"I always thought you didn't have much of a concept of money. How about this? Go ask Mo Yuan. He's researched this area. Ask me? I don't know either. Oh, right, how much did they offer you?"

Cromwell replied, "£100,000 a year."

Lynn nodded. "That's not a small amount. After all, it's only a department store. As long as the conditions aren't excessive, like making you attend events for free, then it's quite good. I wouldn't call it free money, but it won't interfere with your proper work."

"Exactly. That's what I thought too, so I agreed for now."

"All right, go get ready for training. You're starting in the match three days from now. If you can let someone else handle money-making matters for you, let them handle it. Don't let it distract you."

"Got it!"

After Cromwell left, Lynn called the law firm that had long served the Lynn family and asked them to send someone over to review the contract.

Then he sat in his office and fell into thought.

Ever since James Cook had been robbed on the street, Lynn had told Erin about his idea of establishing a security company.

Erin could mobilize certain resources through her family, while Lynn could invest through the Lin Investment Company.

Together, they could set up a new security company that provided private security services to players, as well as home defense and alarm system installation.

This company would not only target the player market. It could also operate for the general public. As long as there were clients with needs, they could provide services.

The Taylor family had already sent people to London to look for connections.

They planned to hire retired soldiers as private bodyguards, while for management-level positions, they were trying to contact veterans or professionals from places like special forces units or the security services, people with more experience and real combat ability.

Now that Lynn saw Cromwell had received a sponsorship contract, a new idea came to him.

A player agency.

It would specialize in managing the financial matters that players were not good at handling but still had to face.

Once he had the idea, he stored it away in his mind. When he had the time and a concrete plan, he would put it into action.

...

After morning training ended, James Cook returned home and unexpectedly found guests in the house.

They were Lewis Baker and George Gates.

John Lewis wanted to capture the Welsh market.

In London, the largest department store giant was Marks & Spencer. John Lewis did not have the strength to fight Marks & Spencer for that market.

But in Wales, the senior executives at John Lewis believed that using the influence of rising football stars to open the market was an expansion strategy worth trying.

This kind of method had not been pioneered by John Lewis.

Marks & Spencer's signature football star was Beckham.

They paid Beckham more than £2.5 million every year.

Just from selling image-related Beckham merchandise, they could already recover their costs, not to mention the added returns from other image-based products and advertising.

When James Cook saw his parents sitting happily on the sofa, his older brother Lance Cook was seated closer to George Gates and Lewis Baker.

When they saw James Cook return, his parents happily stood up to greet him.

This ordinary couple had never expected that both of their sons would become people they could be proud of.

Lance Cook had already done well for himself by becoming a lawyer.

They had not expected their younger son, James Cook, to start making a name for himself too, to the point that sponsors were now coming to their door to offer money.

After shaking hands with Baker and Gates, James Cook sat between his parents.

Lance Cook continued reading through the contract. As a lawyer, he was quite experienced in reviewing contracts.

After looking it over, he said firmly, "Increase the compensation by twenty percent. £120,000 a year."

Before Baker could speak, Gates agreed.

"No problem."

This director from John Lewis was fairly generous. He did not want to waste time on trivial details.

"Change the contract term to one year, or reserve the right to renegotiate the second year's treatment."

Lance Cook had the decisiveness and sharpness of a lawyer, which made Baker, the head of the Welsh division, feel very uncomfortable.

George Gates, however, admired this kind of person.

With Cromwell, the matter had been discussed almost as if they were playing around.

At James Cook's house, however, this was a proper negotiation.

James Cook watched his older brother make decisions for him, and out of habit, remained silent.

Gates said, "That is also acceptable. In that case, we will also include the right to terminate the contract after one year. That protects the interests of both parties, which is fair."

Lance Cook frowned and thought for a moment before nodding.

"Fine."

The main terms had basically been settled.

Lance Cook returned the contract to the other side and said, "Please take it back and revise the contract. Then we can arrange a time to sign."

After Baker took the contract back, Gates turned his gaze toward James Cook and asked with a smile.

"At the very least, the actual party involved should give his opinion. James, are you willing to sign with us?"

James Cook turned his head and glanced at his calm older brother.

But when he looked back at Gates, he said, "I need to think about it."

Lance Cook's expression changed slightly.

He was somewhat surprised that his younger brother had not nodded and agreed at this point.

However, with outsiders present, he did not ask why.

After all, doing so would only give others something to laugh at.

Gates stood up with a cheerful smile and shook James Cook's hand again.

"Very well. I'll give you time. If you've made your decision, please contact us. Preferably within two weeks. We'll take our leave now. Goodbye."

After their parents sent Gates and Baker out of the house, Lance Cook called out to James Cook, who was about to return to his room.

"What are you thinking about? I've already fought for the maximum benefit for you. If you sign the contract, you'll earn £120,000 at once, along with some department store products. We can keep what we need, and give away or sell what we don't."

James Cook turned around and looked at his older brother, then voiced his thoughts.

"I need to ask Boss for his opinion."

A strange feeling rose in Lance Cook's heart, making him, for once, want to lose his temper at his younger brother.

But he suppressed the emotion and held himself back.

"Why?"

James Cook said honestly, "I don't know whether doing this is right or wrong. I want Boss's permission and support. Either way, after I talk to Boss this afternoon, I'll make a decision."

Lance Cook remained silent for ten seconds before giving a small nod.

"All right. Then go."

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