Chapter 679: Chapter 678: Czech for 51 Million Euros?
He shouldn’t have said it, but when Deng Kai saw this news, it was a bit hard for him to keep a straight face.
Dong Fangzhuo’s a good kid, he’s just a bit lacking upstairs.
Everything below the neck is world-class, no question about it.
But with this level of articulation... Little bro, I’ve got your back!
Deng Kai felt like he was looking at the next Feng Te.
Feng Te: ???
Feng Te: For a moment, I wasn’t even sure if Kai was praising me or... praising me?
Because it seems Hollywood is in the process of remaking the classic monster movie "King Kong".
Before joining Manchester United, Dong Fangzhuo had some pretty spectacular shots.
And with Deng Kai recently bagging the Golden Ball, proving that Asians, Chinese people, can stand on the highest stage of the football world,
it broke the racial bloodline theory in sports.
So, people’s expectations for Dong Fangzhuo were limitless.
Sky Sports, always fond of exaggerating, simply took out a front-page story to report on Dong Fangzhuo joining Manchester United: "King Dong! Chinese genius joins Manchester United, even if he’s not the next Kai, he will become the next Wu!"
Saying that Dong Fangzhuo could reach Deng Kai’s level was indeed sensational.
But Sky Sports believed that Dong Fangzhuo might attain Wu Xudong’s level.
That is... the standard of a first-team player in a top club.
And after this report got translated in China, it turned into "King Dong"!
Chinese players, if not for how they play, at least their reputation is quite impressive.
With Wu the Great before, and now King Dong behind.
Of course, some believed that Manchester United made the trade for commercial development, not really optimistic about Dong Fangzhuo’s ability.
But soon enough, industry experts came forward to refute this idea.
Because Ferguson led the trade, he personally met with Dong Fangzhuo and praised the lad in front of the media.
Dong Fangzhuo: How come "little Dong" and "little Zhuo" are not to your taste???
Ferguson’s coaching stance is notoriously tough; he has hardly ever picked a player for commercial reasons.
Even in the case of Ronaldo, it was all based on Ronaldo’s ability and potential.
And with Manchester United returning to the top of the Premier League last year, Ferguson’s renown grew even more, and he was unlikely to soften his stance at this point.
So, him choosing Dong Fangzhuo was really based on skill and potential.
With this, everyone was incredibly excited for the upcoming second half of the season, looking forward to the Chinese Derby between Manchester United and Arsenal, and Manchester City!
This threw a wrench in Manchester United’s plans.
Ferguson initially intended to loan out Dong Fangzhuo to Antwerp in Belgium.
After all, Dong Fangzhuo was very young, just nineteen.
What can a nineteen-year-old do?
A nineteen-year-old Ronaldo full of question marks.
A nineteen-year-old Ronaldo utterly lost.
An eighteen-and-a-half-year-old Deng Kai just caressed his Golden Ball trophy.
Well then.
Because of shining examples like Ronaldo, Ferguson dropped the idea of loaning Dong Fangzhuo at the last minute.
Dong Fangzhuo stayed with Manchester United’s reserve team.
And he also trained with the first team.
During the second half of the season, he could very well play in matches for Manchester United!
Since Manchester United was making such bold moves,
Arsenal wouldn’t show any weakness either.
They made a jaw-dropping offer of 35 million euros to bring super winger Jose Antonio Reyes from Sevilla!
This twenty-year-old super striker had scored a total of twenty-four goals for Sevilla in the past two years or so.
Arsenal hoped Reyes could become an excellent substitute for Pires and Ljungberg and wished even more that he could be Henry’s good partner in the Champions League away games where Bergkamp could not fly to.
Wenger thus praised Reyes’s talent, indicating he was even better than Saha and Dong Fangzhuo, whom Manchester United had brought in.
Indeed, Wenger dared not underestimate Dong Fangzhuo at the moment.
Because of Deng Kai, because of Wu Xudong, because of Sporting Lisbon’s Hao Junmin, Chen Tao, Yu Shihao, Shao Jiawei, and other Chinese youngsters.
People no longer dared to look down upon Chinese heritage players.
However, both Manchester United and Arsenal were still far behind the real tycoons in terms of action.
And the only tycoon in the Premier League was...
Chelsea: That’s right, it’s me!
Chelsea forked out fifteen million euros to poach Charlton’s absolute midfield core, Scott Parker!
Perhaps many people do not know who Parker is, basically on par with Grealish before his transfer to Manchester City.
Charlton was very dissatisfied with the transfer.
They accused Chelsea of luring Parker into threatening the club through a training strike, which ultimately forced the club to agree to the transfer.
Chelsea denied it, saying that they simply had money.
Besides giving money, they did nothing.
Parker also expressed that there was nothing wrong with his aspiration for Chelsea, believing that Chelsea was becoming the best team in the Premier League.
He also commented on Saha, Reyes, and Dong Fangzhuo, guided by a journalist.
"Saha is fast, but besides speed, I don’t see other advantages in him," Parker said.
"Reyes scored twenty-four goals in three years? Adriano scored over twenty goals last season and was still called weak by everyone," he added.
"King Dong? That’s the biggest joke I’ve heard this year. Not every Chinese heritage player is Deng Kai. Deng Kai has brought Chinese heritage players to a place they do not belong!" Parker observed.
It was apparent that Parker was full of ambition at this stage.
His goal was to become a midfielder as excellent as Lampard, or even... surpass Lampard.
Besides Parker, Chelsea also set their sights on Manchester City’s up-and-coming goalkeeper, Peter Cech!
In the two rounds of competition against Manchester City, Chelsea was deeply impressed by Cech’s ability.
This was the reliable goalkeeper they needed.
After all, Cudicini was already thirty years old and could play three more years at most.
Buying Cech to compete with him for a year would be about the time for Chelsea to complete the renewal of their goalkeeper position.
Unfortunately, Manchester City flatly rejected Chelsea’s offer.
Deng Kai talked about this matter through "Sky Sports," saying, "Chelsea has good vision; they recognized Cech is an excellent goalkeeper."
"But Chelsea’s vision is limited because they don’t even realize how excellent Cech really is."
"Fifteen million euros?"
"Sorry, if it’s fifty-one million euros, we might consider!" Deng Kai said.
This response was discussed by many media outlets.
Most thought Deng Kai was joking.
Because even though Cech’s performance this season was good, he was only considered a first-rate goalkeeper.
And... he was one of the three worst goalkeepers in the Premier League last season.
Fifty-one million?
Chelsea’s fifteen million was already taking a big risk, wasn’t it?
But Deng Kai’s statement gave Cech tremendous courage.
Cech did not need others to affirm his excellence.
But he would always remember that when he was at his lowest, Deng Kai firmly believed he could play football worth at least fifty-one million euros!
A man dies for those who appreciate him.
No one knew how important this appreciation was for Cech!
