Chapter 680: Chapter 679: Manchester City’s Only Winter Window Reinforcement, He Wasn’t Up for It Then
Chelsea’s spending power made the whole Premier League tremble.
Many teams, in order to maintain their competitiveness, brought in reinforcements.
Spurs, for instance, brought in English forward prodigy Jermain Defoe from West Ham for a price of twelve million euros.
The entire Premier League had spent a total of ninety-one million six hundred thousand pounds in this rather unremarkable winter window, becoming the winter spending champions of world football!
Serie A was second, with only eighteen million seven hundred thousand pounds.
The Bundesliga spent seven million three hundred thousand pounds.
La Liga spent nine million three hundred thousand pounds.
Ligue 1 spent nine million pounds.
All combined didn’t even amount to half of the Premier League’s spendings.
However, not every club in the Premier League was a "big spender".
There was one team that didn’t spend a dime!
Not selling Cech could be overlooked, given that your other goalkeepers seem to be not up to par.
Either too young or too below average.
Neuer: I’m young.
Caballero: I’m twenty-two and a half, that qualifies as young, too.
But being the Premier League’s mid-season champions and yet having no signings during the winter window, isn’t that a bit excessive?
Sky Sports criticized Manchester City’s inaction for this reason, "Among the Premier League’s top four, other than Manchester City, everyone has made significant signings!"
"Manchester City’s attitude is destined to lead them to a Waterloo in the second half of the season!"
"They are not showing enough respect to their rivals!"
In response, Deng Kai replied on "Understanding Football": "I remember at the beginning of the season, everyone was cursing Chelsea’s money for being a blasphemy to football!"
"Everyone thought Chelsea’s high-priced signings were filthy."
"How come so quickly, you are demanding that we, Manchester City, stoop to their level?"
"Or is it that you’ve been so quickly defeated by money-driven football?"
What a takedown, right!?
Not only that, but Deng Kai also corrected the media: "In fact, we did make a signing during the winter window. Your ignorance of our signing actions really displeases me!"
"Similarly, your behavior has caused significant psychological harm to our signing!"
"So, I want to formally announce here that Manchester City has signed a very outstanding player during this winter window!"
All the media outlets were suddenly confused.
What...
Manchester City signed someone?
Was our information not up to date?
Every outlet was racking their brains, searching high and low, until a small media outlet in Southampton tentatively published an article: "Perhaps, we’ve found the player that Manchester City signed?"
On their newspaper, a photo of a young child was published.
It’s inaccurate to call him a child; he was at an age that could be considered a young teen.
He looked to be about... thirteen or fourteen years old?
"Gareth Fran Bale! An outstanding student from some academy in Southampton, thirteen years old this year."
Soon, someone mentioned the child’s name.
The kid was half a celebrity in the local youth football circles.
He had quite impressive talent.
If things went as expected, he would join the Southampton youth academy.
But now, this was an unexpected turn!
The terrifying Blue Moon was becoming a phenomenon.
Starting this season, they began capturing the hearts of England’s younger generation of football fans.
Lately, there have been suggestions that Gareth Bale’s uncle, Christopher Pike, had entered Manchester City’s youth coaching ranks a few days earlier as an assistant coach.
Simply put, they believed that this had a lot to do with Bale joining Manchester City’s youth academy.
Christopher Pike then also gave an interview.
He had been a professional football player, a forward, and retired in 2001.
Previously, he had played for Premier League teams like Cardiff and Fulham.
However, his presence in the team wasn’t particularly strong, and some encyclopedias claimed he was a leading scorer for Cardiff, but in reality, his goal tally didn’t even make the top hundred in Cardiff’s history.
His stints at Cardiff and Fulham were also brief.
Late in his career, he mostly played for teams within Wales.
That’s why he so treasured the employment opportunity provided by Manchester City.
After all, Manchester City is currently the most domineering team in the Premier League.
This job on his resume is seriously gold-plated.
Pike: "Bale is an extremely outstanding player, his speed is very fast, much faster than me when I was young. I think that after he matures, his speed won’t be slower than the current best fullbacks in the Premier League, like Ashley Cole or Wu Xudong!"
"I think he could become a Premier League starting level fullback! He’s worth Manchester City’s investment!"
But Pike was quickly proved wrong.
The one to prove him wrong wasn’t anyone else, it was Deng Kai.
Deng Kai: "I’ve heard someone thinks Bale could become a Premier League starting level fullback... Seriously, stop joking... Bale is going to be a historic level fullback, okay!"
"And it’s not just as a fullback. Manchester City has a complete plan for Bale’s development. We’ve arranged for him to learn more skills, and once he reaches the top level as a fullback, we’ll help him transition to a winger."
"We think he could also leave a significant mark in history as a winger!"
"He’s one of the rare players who can reach a historic level in both positions! He’s shown such physical conditions!"
Deng Kai’s assessment of Bale sparked people’s curiosity.
But after learning about Bale’s speed, many people thought it really could be possible.
Because Bale is really fast.
However, it was said that initially Bale did not want to leave his familiar environment to go to Manchester.
It was only after meeting Deng Kai that he agreed to transfer to Manchester City.
People speculated wildly about what conditions Deng Kai could have offered Bale.
Sky Sports then chastised Manchester City’s handling: "Manchester City must have promised Bale something like a first-team slot in three years with a worthless IOU."
"I need to tell Bale, you’ve been tricked!"
"Although Manchester City is indeed a club willing to give young players opportunities, they absolutely can’t guarantee what you will be like in three years!"
"In three years, you could very well be waiting in vain for a Manchester City contract, discarded by the club!"
"Kid, Southampton is a better place for you! It’s still not too late to go back!"
You know what, Sky Sports really has a knack for guessing.
They got it completely wrong!
In the official video released by Manchester City, Bale responded directly to these doubts: "At first, I really didn’t want to leave, but Deng Kai came in person."
"Do you know, this is the Golden Ball winner! He’s my idol! I’ve liked him since he was at Sporting Lisbon! All the kids at our school liked him and Ronaldo!"
"We all swore to become players like Deng Kai and Ronaldo!"
"But what moved me the most was the promise Deng Kai made to me!"
"He promised to help me with my studies!"
"My God! High school curriculum is absolutely the deadliest thing! I simply can’t handle them, but Coach Kai... yes, I’m not yet a player for Manchester City’s first team, but allow me to call him that."
"Coach Kai is amazing; he can do all the problems! All of them! Do you know how terrifying that is?"
Watching Bale’s exaggerated expressions, the Manchester City players eating lunch together all turned to look at Deng Kai.
Feng Te asked doubtfully: "Really? You’re going to help him with his lessons?"
Deng Kai nodded: "Sort of, functions, geometry, world geography, they’re all quite simple stuff. But he was still hesitating when I mentioned these things, until I offered the next condition."
Everyone watched with bated breath.
What condition could truly entice a talented young man to walk into the net on his own?
Deng Kai smiled faintly: "I said I would play golf!"
"He was done for at that point, set on going nowhere but Manchester City!"
