Chapter 133: Another Gift
Northern Europe, Malmö, on the southern coast of Sweden.
The wind blowing in from the Baltic Sea was refreshing. Although this was Northern Europe, Malmö sat on its southern edge, so even in summer, the air was not cold enough to feel bleak.
Fishing boats leaving the harbor slowly disappeared beyond the horizon. On the long walkway by the pier, Ibrahimović stood in a casual tracksuit, staring blankly out at the Baltic Sea.
He had never imagined things would turn out like this.
He wanted to go to Manchester City.
Even if Manchester City was not Real Madrid, it still represented a step upward.
Football was about fame and money.
Fame came from trophies, while money came from realizing one's own value.
Both required a bigger stage.
Swansea was a better place than Malmö, but in the end, it was only a stepping stone in his career.
From the day Ibrahimović joined Swansea, he had believed that without the slightest hesitation.
Loyalty?
When a person had spent his life drifting from place to place, what was loyalty worth?
When you grew up in the slums, loyalty was just a target painted on your chest, inviting anyone with bad intentions to drive a knife into it.
Ibrahimović raised his head and looked at the sky. Clouds shifted above him, changing shape with the wind.
He had always been full of confidence in himself.
If he did not possess shocking talent, would Lynn have gone to Malmö and brought him away at a high price? Would Lynn have given him such a high salary?
Absolutely not!
He had also repaid Lynn on the pitch. Even if he went to Manchester City, the return Swansea would receive made Ibrahimović feel that he owed Swansea nothing at all.
In fact, he believed he had given Swansea an excellent return.
But now, he could not leave.
The transfer talks with Manchester City had collapsed.
Kevin Keegan had tried to persuade him to join Manchester City in the winter transfer window, but Ibrahimović was so irritated that he no longer wanted to speak to Keegan at all. The man's efficiency was simply pathetic!
"Hey, Zlatan."
Ibrahimović heard someone call his name. He turned toward the voice and saw a young man in casual clothes standing in front of him.
Ibrahimović did not know him. In his current mood, he frowned and said, "Get lost."
He turned and was about to leave, but the young man's voice came from behind him.
"Zlatan, my name is Joseph Levin. I'm a newly hired senior administrator at Swansea. I'm here to bring you back for preseason training.
"Zlatan, stop walking. You're destroying yourself."
Ibrahimović actually stopped.
He turned back and looked at Levin with a disdainful smile. "I'm destroying myself? What kind of joke is that?"
Levin walked toward him, speaking as he moved. His expression was incredibly serious.
"When your name doesn't appear in the newspapers for one week, people will ask, 'Where did Zlatan go?'
"When your name doesn't appear for two weeks, people will ask, 'What happened to Zlatan?'
"But when your name doesn't appear for one month, two months, three months, and you don't appear on the pitch either, people won't ask anything.
"And when you finally appear again, perhaps they'll ask, 'Who is he?'
"Zlatan, you know I'm not lying. This world is that realistic.
"You have a contract with Swansea. You wanted a transfer, but that is no longer possible. Now you need to fulfill your contract. Otherwise, at the most important stage of your development, you will walk straight into the turning point that destroys you."
Ibrahimović stared at Joseph Levin, still wearing that arrogant expression. He shook his head and said, "No. Swansea can't treat me that way. That would be unbelievably stupid! Who leaves a Ferrari in the garage and rides a motorcycle instead?"
Joseph Levin's expression did not change. His voice remained deep and steady.
"You want to leave Swansea because Swansea is not a high-level club. You found yourself a new, bigger stage. But precisely because Swansea is a small club, Swansea can afford to do this.
"Yes, if you judge things by common sense, ninety-nine percent of clubs would never do it.
"But Swansea is the one percent. Special. Unreasonable. Impossible to predict.
"Because the owner and manager of this club is Lynn.
"Your Boss.
"You know him far better than I do.
"How long has it been since you spoke to him? No, how long has it been since he took the initiative to message you? To call you?
"Does he care?
"Of course he cares.
"But after you broke his heart, and after you refused to appear when the club needed you most, do you really think he will still contact you warmly?
"He won't.
"Because he controls a club. He leads a team. You are only one member of that team.
"If you were important before, then now, in his heart, you are no longer important.
"Because when it mattered most, you weren't there!"
Ibrahimović understood what Joseph Levin was saying, and unease rose in his chest.
He suddenly snapped, "Then sell me! Let me transfer! Let me go!"
Levin's expression remained unchanged, his seriousness almost frightening.
"Let you go? Let you leave? And take Lynn's dignity with you?
"Impossible.
"Before, you could have left with dignity. But when the club falls into difficulty, Lynn will not let you leave.
"At a time like this, Swansea's public image matters far more than your personal interests. Swansea's team unity also does not allow you to break it apart.
"It would be easy for you to leave, but what would everyone else think?
"What would your teammates think?
"They would think Swansea is weak. That Swansea bows to reality. That Swansea has no power to change anything and cannot control its own fate.
"No!
"Lynn has two choices.
"Either you return, and he tolerates you once more.
"Or he destroys you, using you to warn every other player and display his authority.
"Because he has already given you enough love.
"If love cannot move you, cannot make you grateful, cannot make you protect the team's interests at a critical moment, then he will use an iron fist and create fear!
"Zlatan, do you want to become the first player Lynn would destroy without regretting it even on his deathbed?
"Do you want your career to die here?
"Do you want to leave on a free transfer four years later with no one interested in you?
"Do you want to sit alone in some dark corner, helplessly watching the teammates who once fought beside you become famous one after another, while you are nothing but a forgotten name?"
When Joseph Levin spoke, his tone never changed. There was no rise or fall, no shouting, no anger. Every word seemed cold enough to freeze the air.
He was not the kind of person who used a loud voice to pressure others, but his cruel words struck straight into the heart, and Ibrahimović could not help being shaken.
Ibrahimović said nothing.
He did not know what to say. More importantly, his arrogance would not allow him to say even a single word that sounded soft.
Joseph Levin stared at him for half a minute and said, "In the end, he is your Boss. Going back and apologizing to him may be difficult for you, but first, you need to return to the club.
"This is my sincere advice.
"Because if you don't report back now, you will only label yourself as someone without professionalism. Every day you delay makes the situation worse for you.
"So move quickly.
"Your Boss is waiting for you. Your teammates are also looking forward to your return.
"Zlatan, don't let a child's tantrum ruin the brilliant, possibly great life you could have. If that happens, you'll be the one who loses big."
Ibrahimović's eyes shifted slightly.
Levin's final sentence hit exactly where it needed to.
A real man knew when to bend and when to stand tall. If he fought Swansea to the bitter end now and his career took a wrong turn because of it, then he really would lose big!
Joseph Levin raised a hand, took the sunglasses hanging from the collar of his T-shirt, turned around, put them on, shoved both hands into his pockets, and walked away.
He looked toward the Baltic Sea, stopping for a moment as the beauty of the harbor caught his eye.
"Zlatan, taking a ship from here back to Swansea must be interesting. Crossing the Skagerrak, admiring the North Sea, then passing through the Strait of Dover and the English Channel before looping around into Swansea Bay. That should be an... S-shaped sea route, I suppose.
"Zlatan, see you in Swansea."
Ibrahimović watched Joseph Levin's back and suddenly shouted, "Hey, what was your name again?"
Joseph Levin did not turn around. He merely raised his right hand and gave him the middle finger.
Ibrahimović laughed at himself.
Under normal circumstances, he would have gone up and beaten the man badly. After all, giving someone the middle finger was an extremely serious insult.
But had his own question not been insulting too?
Still, Ibrahimović really had not remembered Levin's name. He had only wanted to ask again.
...
On July 15th, Ibrahimović returned to Swansea.
He returned to Swansea's squad as if everything had happened naturally, but he and Lynn did not exchange a single word.
He was back, but he still refused to lower his head.
Lynn also ignored him and let Hughes supervise Ibrahimović's training. Since he had reported back five days late, Ibrahimović was assigned individual training, and the intensity was terrifyingly high!
After Ibrahimović returned, the Welsh media celebrated wildly, and the fans also set aside their previous dissatisfaction, supporting Ibrahimović just as they always had.
But Lynn was not as simple as the fans.
He had to be responsible for the team, especially with the coming war in League One!
On the morning of the third day after Ibrahimović returned, before Lynn went to the training ground, he stayed in his office and opened the card system.
Starting from the final stage of last season, Lynn had not used any points. Adding the points from winning the league title, the Football League Trophy, and the final local cup rewards, Lynn currently had 78 points.
Lynn used 60 points in one go to exchange for two P cards!
Target Man and Tracking Back!
Then he exchanged for two S cards: Two-Footed Touch and Outside Foot.
In total, he spent 66 points.
During morning training, he called Charisteas over.
Charisteas stood in front of Lynn, panting heavily. The Greek forward had just finished sprint training and needed some time to recover.
Lynn looked at him seriously and said, "Angelos, the team will be relying on your performances at the beginning of the new season, so I hope you work hard over the next stretch."
Charisteas was extremely surprised.
The team's first-choice center forward was obviously Ibrahimović. Now that Ibrahimović had returned, Lynn was still saying this to him?
Charisteas did not ask anything. He simply nodded hard.
When he turned around, Lynn casually patted him on the back.
Four glowing cards flowed into Charisteas's body with that light pat.
After doing that, Lynn looked toward Ibrahimović, who was being supervised by Hughes in the distance while doing strength training. His gaze suddenly grew distant.
He knew that even if Charisteas had the same cards as Ibrahimović—two style cards and five skill cards—the gap between them would still be huge.
But at the beginning of the season, he had to rely on Charisteas, not Ibrahimović!
That arrogant bastard could not leave when he wanted, return when he wanted, and then act as if nothing had happened without even the slightest initiative to explain himself.
Lynn needed authority.
He also needed to teach Ibrahimović the most important lesson in professional football:
The team's interests always come first.
Don't think a team cannot function just because one player is missing!
...
Swansea did not travel far for their preseason friendlies. They did not even leave Wales.
Lynn did not want the team to waste energy on long journeys.
But there were hardly any decent teams in Wales. Only Wrexham were in League One.
The four friendlies, which were mainly focused on warming up, saw Swansea's first-team players perform decently enough. Match sharpness needed to be built through actual games, and it was hard to judge exactly how strong the team was overall.
As August arrived, the smoke of war began to rise across Europe. England was the first to ignite.
In the preseason previews for League One, Fleet Street looked down on Swansea to an extreme degree.
Ian Clark of The Sun continued his usual habit of writing Swansea off in his column.
"The gap between League Two and League One is too wide for the Swans to cross!"
In the article, Ian Clark focused heavily on the fact that Swansea had not signed a single player during the summer.
Swansea had performed brilliantly in League Two, but what would happen when they reached League One?
His view was extremely pessimistic. He believed Swansea were in danger of relegation!
This also fit common logic. Many promoted teams performed excellently in lower leagues, some even dominating from start to finish, only to be battered after promotion before helplessly going straight back down to the division they had come from.
Swansea's players had proven that the Swans they formed were enough to sweep League Two.
But what about League One?
Although Rona Whelan of the Daily Express cheered Swansea on, arguing that their performances against League One teams in last season's Football League Trophy had already proved Swansea could stand firm in League One—not necessarily at the very top, but certainly with no problem avoiding relegation—Mark Cady of the Daily Star refuted her view.
"If someone treats cup competitions and league football as the same thing, then that is a laughably basic mistake. The Football League Trophy, in particular, is a stage where League One and League Two teams often use second-string players for practice. It is not a trophy with enough weight to serve as proof of true strength.
"Swansea preparing carefully for one match and playing it well is completely different from answering the question of what kind of report card they can hand in across a long 46-round league campaign!
"Over a long season, Swansea will be fighting and crawling among League One teams every week. They will not have chances to catch their breath by playing League Two teams to regain confidence or earn easy wins.
"Right now, the Swans' problems are obvious: young, inexperienced, and somewhat naive!"
Several newspapers that were not exactly mainstream also looked down on Swansea. This made British bookmakers cautious when setting promotion and title odds. They were not especially optimistic about Swansea either.
Based on promotion odds, Swansea were some distance away from the relegation zone.
But odds of 15/1 for promotion and 25/1 for the title proved that the bookmakers were still doubtful about Swansea's strength.
After glancing at the odds offered by the bookmakers, Lynn picked up the phone and called Pete at Lin Investments.
He was going to give the fans another gift!