Chapter 130: Cancel the Deal!
From Will Taylor and Lynn establishing the new "LT" investment company in one of the offshore financial centers, the Bahamas, to Will Taylor taking his team to Toulouse, France to acquire the club, the whole process only took a week. Their work efficiency was truly impressive.
Lynn completely handed the French affairs over to Will Taylor. However, every quarter, company personnel would go to the club to audit the accounts. Lynn held sixty percent of the shares, which meant he had the power to veto Will Taylor's position within the company with a single vote. Because of that, he could afford to let Will handle the work freely. If the club's operations began to deviate from the right path, Lynn could step in immediately and bring the team back on track.
He handed Will Taylor a list of transfer targets: Tevez, Vidić, Mascherano, Maicon, and Bruno Alves. These five players would cost at most €15 million, but the future returns they would bring would absolutely be worth far more than that.
Since Will Taylor had already decided to work with Lynn, he naturally would not act petty or haggle over every small detail at a time like this. After all, he was someone raised by the Taylor family. He still had the courage and bearing to handle major affairs.
On June 25, Lynn was at the club, holding a meeting with Mo Yuan and his marketing team.
"No. I will not let my players wear shirts that look like clown costumes! This is ridiculous!"
Lynn frowned as he looked at the projection on the large electronic screen in the meeting room. Swansea's new home shirt for the coming season had at least five advertisements printed on it!
There was a chest sponsor, a shoulder sponsor, side sponsors, a back sponsor, and even a sponsor on the shorts!
Lynn scoffed. Not only did it make the kit look messy and colorful, it also drowned out the club crest and Swansea's identity.
Mo Yuan sat with one leg crossed over the other, while the members of his team looked at one another in silence. They had clearly realized that the boss was not satisfied with their design.
At this moment, they were basically working under fire. Many of them were trembling with nerves.
Mo Yuan, still sitting with his legs crossed, said calmly to Lynn, "Most clubs below the Premier League have kits like this. It's normal for one shirt to have more than three sponsors, because it brings in more money. If we endure it for one season, it can bring in £3 million in revenue.
"If we only use a traditional single sponsor, with just the chest sponsor and kit sponsor, our income for the season will only be £800,000. That's a gap of £2.2 million."
Lynn rejected it without the slightest hesitation.
"I care more about the club's image value than how much money we can earn at this exact moment.
"I don't want people to look back at Swansea a few years from now and remember our players wearing colorful kits like a bunch of clowns. No. Think about it. If you were players, would you want to wear shirts covered in advertisements?"
Mo Yuan smiled and said, "Since you disagree, then we'll go with this plan. Cancel the shirt-front sponsorship contract with Lin Investment Company and switch to GMB as the sponsor. Their offer is twice as much as Lin Investment Company's."
As soon as Mo Yuan finished speaking, the meeting room fell silent.
Everyone carefully observed Lynn's reaction.
Everyone present knew that Lin Investment Company was Lynn's family business. Last season, Swansea's shirt-front sponsor had been Lin Investment Company. As for how much Swansea had actually received, no one knew.
But according to the agreement, the number written was £500,000.
Now Mo Yuan wanted Lynn to replace the shirt sponsor. How would Lynn react?
Lynn still did not hesitate at all and said directly, "Then do this. Raise Lin Investment Company's sponsorship fee to £1.5 million and sign with Swansea for another season. But Mo Yuan, I want the kit supplier to increase their payment as well."
Mo Yuan was not surprised by Lynn's answer at all. He nodded and said, "No problem. Right now, plenty of British sports brands are seeking cooperation with us. I believe we'll receive a good final offer before mid-July."
As the meeting neared its end, someone knocked on the door.
Lynn said, "Come in."
The door opened, and Tony Benn leaned in from outside, saying to Lynn, "Boss, Gareth Bale and his family have arrived at the club."
"Hm?"
Lynn was rather surprised. A joyful look immediately appeared on his face as he stood up and said to everyone in the meeting room, "Meeting dismissed."
After walking out of the meeting room, he complained to Tony Benn, "Why didn't anyone notify me in advance?"
"Because Joseph brought them here."
"Joseph?"
"Yes. Apparently, he went to Cardiff and introduced our club to Gareth Bale's family in detail. The Bale family came to the club this time, and from the looks of it, they want Bale to enter our youth system. Joseph deserves a lot of credit."
The corners of Lynn's mouth rose.
"He really is a surprising senior gofer."
After arriving at the reception room, Lynn warmly welcomed the Bale family. Joseph Levin sat quietly to the side, smiling as he watched Lynn talk with Bale's parents.
Lynn and Bale's parents agreed on the basic terms, and both sides reached an agreement.
Bale was wearing his school uniform today and looked well-behaved, like a little adult. Lynn came to him, bent down, and said, "From today onward, you are a member of Swansea Football Club.
"Do you believe that if you work hard here every single day in the future, you will become one of the best footballers on this planet?
"I believe it. What about you?"
Bale looked at Lynn's face so close to his own and could not help nodding.
Lynn brought him to the window, pointed at the training ground outside, and said, "That is where you will take flight. Remember that."
Shy Bale's lips curved into a cute little smile, and then he nodded hard.
Behind the two of them, Joseph Levin, Tony Benn, and Bale's parents all watched the pair with smiles on their faces. The light shining into the room from outside blurred their figures from behind.
...
The next day, Mo Yuan personally traveled to the Birmingham area to visit Aston Villa and negotiate the transfer of Thomas Hitzlsperger.
The two clubs' negotiations over Hitzlsperger's transfer fee had reached the final stage.
Swansea did not want to haggle back and forth over a few hundred thousand pounds. Mo Yuan brought an offer of £3 million, which would be enough to make Aston Villa release him. After that, they would begin negotiating personal terms with Thomas Hitzlsperger. That would be the real key point.
Aston Villa had originally planned to loan Hitzlsperger out. At the moment, the German was not part of Aston Villa's plans for next season. But he was still young, and they did not want to give him up easily.
However, Swansea's £3 million offer was almost pure profit for Aston Villa, because Hitzlsperger had joined from Bayern Munich on a free transfer.
The local Swansea media were still focused on Ibrahimović's transfer.
The fans had pleaded with the club, hoping the club would not sell Ibrahimović.
The club had also issued a public statement, saying it was not the club that wanted to sell him, but Ibrahimović who wanted to leave!
Manchester City could no longer wait.
On the afternoon of June 27, Keegan personally called Lynn.
Lynn was at the cinema with Carter, watching a movie. After receiving the call from Manchester City manager Kevin Keegan, Lynn walked straight out of the screening room and spoke with Keegan in the corridor.
"Lynn, Manchester City's offer is already very sincere. Swansea won't want things to become extremely ugly. Once Ibrahimović's transfer is blocked by the club, keeping him at Swansea will bring Swansea no benefit at all."
"Kevin Keegan, thank you for caring about Swansea, but Swansea's players are not sold casually. Give us a suitable price, and then we can continue talking."
"£5.5 million still isn't sincere enough? You can make £3 million in profit!"
"But from my point of view, I'm losing £30 million!"
"You're insane!"
"Yes, I'm insane. Do you want to join me?"
"Then we have nothing to discuss."
"Of course. You shouldn't have made this stupid call in the first place. Kevin, let me give you a piece of advice. Before Swansea reaches the Premier League, you'd better hurry up and get out of the Manchester City manager's seat.
"Otherwise, for trying to poach my player today, I'll make you suffer every kind of pain on the Premier League stage!
"You were a great player and a failed manager. If you lose to Lynn, you'll become even more of a failure. So listen to my advice. Don't wade into this mess. The Premier League's battlefield isn't suited to you!"
"Lynn, you really are exactly like the newspapers describe. You have a split personality!"
"Yes, plenty of Third Division managers repeated the newspapers' definition of me too. Then all of those managers ended up eating shit in front of me.
"Now I'm telling you seriously, you'll be one of them too.
"You're smart, targeting my player like this. But if you want to take a player away from me, it won't be that easy."
"Bastard. Goodbye!"
"I don't want to see you either. Roll as far away as you can!"
After hanging up, Lynn looked through his phone's inbox again.
There were three messages from Ibrahimović, sent at different times.
The interval between them was one week. Over the past three weeks, Ibrahimović had sent him one message every week.
Boss, I really want to leave. Please don't make this ugly between us.
Boss, accept Manchester City's offer. Swansea have already made money.
Boss, Mo Yuan told me the transfer will be completed around July 1. No matter what happened before, I want to say thank you. Even if you cursed me out, at least you're a real man with real emotions. If I were you, I would be angry too. But we live in the real world. Boss, goodbye. Good luck.
After reading those messages, Lynn put his phone back into his trouser pocket.
He raised his head, closed his eyes, and his face was cold.
Although his conversation with Keegan had been full of hostility, Swansea would agree to Manchester City's offer.
Yes, Swansea would agree.
There were many reasons, but the two most important ones were these.
First, Swansea could not be seen by outsiders as a club that stopped players from seeking a bigger stage.
Otherwise, who would still be willing to come to Swansea?
A player could come to Swansea, perform well, catch the eye of a better club, only for Swansea to refuse to let him go and block his future!
Second, if Ibrahimović was forced to stay, what would the atmosphere inside the team become?
No one could predict it.
The internal atmosphere of the team was the most important thing. It was the foundation of team chemistry. Once the dressing room became unstable, the whole team's fighting strength would plummet.
Lynn would let Ibrahimović leave. The fans outside had already accepted reality too.
It was not the club that wanted to let Ibrahimović go. It was Ibrahimović who wanted to leave!
Naturally, the Swan fans were not too happy with Ibrahimović, but they also had no way to complain about him.
Even the Swan fans believed that Swansea was only a small temple. It could not keep such a great god!
...
Manchester.
Outside Manchester City's club offices, Rona Whelan stood by the roadside, staring at the club's entrance.
She had also been following and reporting on Manchester City's pursuit of Swansea forward Ibrahimović.
Barring any surprises, this would become the biggest transfer deal in English football below the Premier League!
A transfer worth more than £5 million was enough to shake the whole of English football outside the Premier League.
But Rona Whelan had always had one question.
How had Manchester City taken notice of Ibrahimović?
First of all, it was unlikely to be Kevin Keegan himself.
Perhaps because of his brilliant playing career, Kevin Keegan's managerial career tended toward trusting players with reputation!
That was a style of player selection. How could Kevin Keegan possibly pay attention to a striker from the Third Division?
Managers were very busy too!
If you counted the number of Premier League clubs buying players from the fourth tier over the past decade, you would find there had been fewer than twenty such transfers. In other words, fewer than two on average per year.
And now that Manchester City had been relegated from the Premier League, if they wanted to return to the top flight, they would surely buy players whose ability was already guaranteed. Buying a striker from the Third Division—and spending more than £5 million on him?
How much risk would Kevin Keegan have to take?
There had to be something unknown behind this transfer.
Rona Whelan had already been staking out Manchester City's club offices for more than a week.
She felt as if she was about to lose her mind.
She had tried to find clues to prove her guess, but there were no signs that anything unusual was happening at Manchester City.
Standing on the pavement, she suddenly let out a long sigh and was just about to leave when she suddenly saw a car approaching. It slowed down at the entrance to Manchester City's offices. Out of habit, she picked up her camera and photographed the car entering the club.
She even captured the driver's face!
She did not think much of it at the time, only assuming it might be some unfamiliar visitor.
But that night, when she developed the photos, she was biting into a piece of bread when her eyes widened in shock. In that instant, everything clicked.
She immediately pulled out her phone and called Lynn.
When the call connected, Lynn was at home having dinner. He frowned when he heard Rona Whelan's urgent voice.
"Lynn—oh, damn it, my bread! Lynn, cancel the deal! Cancel Ibrahimović's transfer negotiations!"
Lin Jiajie had returned from China today, and the family of three was having dinner together. Lynn originally wanted to end the conversation with Whelan quickly, but he sensed something unusual in her tone!
He walked outside to the fountain and asked in a deep voice, "Why? Give me a reason!"
"Because if you sell Ibrahimović to Manchester City, your enemy will be raising a glass in celebration in the shadows!"
Lynn realized that this transfer might not be so simple after all.
His voice turned cold.
"Who?"
"Gavin Ward! Gavin Ward from SFX Agency. I saw him enter Manchester City's club offices today! Tell me, can you still sell Ibrahimović to Manchester City now? SFX Agency will definitely profit from it!"
Lynn raised his head and looked at the fiery clouds on the horizon.
His gaze was as cold as frost!