Once a replacement came to mind, Li Shiguang didn't hesitate and directly confronted Calderon with a sarcastic retort.

“Mr. Calderon, I don’t care. If Maicon doesn’t renew his contract this winter, I guarantee he won’t even be able to sit on the bench for the next year and a half. At that time, you can get a top right-back who hasn’t played a competitive match in a year and a half for free. I believe you’re looking forward to that experience, right?”

As soon as Li Shiguang finished speaking, before Calderon on the other end of the phone could say anything, Allen, who was standing next to him, stared at Li Shiguang with wide eyes.

Perhaps in his eyes, Li Shiguang must be crazy. Wouldn't doing this be like hurting the enemy eight hundred while losing a thousand of your own?

However, Calderon seemed to be well aware of Leeds United's current situation. Even though Li Shiguang had adopted a "what's the use" attitude, he still seemed confident: "Come on, Mr. Li, don't scare me. With Leeds United's current reserves at right-back, I don't believe you would dare to demote Maicon to the reserve team."

After talking for a while, Li Shiguang had already recalled most of Real Madrid's situation this season.

Calderon had a pretty good idea of ​​why he wanted to poach Maicon.

After Calderón took over as president of Real Madrid this year, he poached Capello from Juventus.

In Capello's 4-2-3-1 system, it is an ironclad rule that the two full-backs do not cross the halfway line. However, their right-back Cicinhos is a full-back with a strong desire to attack, often running across the halfway line to participate in the attack. This already displeased Capello. Moreover, he has a significant weakness: he is not the kind of player with particularly abundant stamina, and often he cannot return after going up the field.

This led Capello, who favors defense, to suggest to Calderon more than once that he should replace the right-back, and Maicon was the player Capello wanted most!

If it were merely Capello's personal request, Calderón, as the club president, wouldn't necessarily say he would immediately grant it.

For the past three months, however, Capello has abandoned Real Madrid's original beautiful style of play, keeping world-class stars like Ronaldo and Beckham firmly on the bench and insisting on his defensive football, which has made Real Madrid fans deeply resentful, and more and more fans are calling for Capello to be sacked.

In addition, former club president Florentino Pérez was also lurking in the shadows, putting considerable pressure on Calderón, who had been in charge of the club for less than a year. Therefore, from his perspective, he had to try to make some changes to the team to secure his position!

Having roughly guessed the details of the matter, Li Shiguang was not flustered at all, and his tone sounded even more confident than Calderon's.

"Hehe, Mr. Calderon, actually I know a little about your Real Madrid. I believe that Cicinho, who goes up on the right wing and never comes back, is giving Capello a lot of headaches! Otherwise, you wouldn't have been in such a hurry to bring in Maicon in the winter transfer window."

"No..." Calderon was about to explain after hearing Li Shiguang's analysis when Li Shiguang interrupted him.

“Mr. Calderon, you don’t need to explain. Actually, I’m not interested in why you want to buy Maicon. My stance is this: if you want to buy, I can sell, but I only accept offers of 35 million euros or more. If it’s lower than that, you can wait a year and a half to sign him for free! I have other matters to attend to, so I won’t say any more. Goodbye!”

As soon as he finished speaking, without giving Calderon any chance to explain, Li Shiguang hung up the phone and handed it back to Allen, then plopped down in front of the computer and opened a webpage.

Allen, who was standing next to him, seemed to still be in shock. After taking the phone from Li Shiguang, he asked, "Boss, are you really going to demote Maicon to the reserve team?"

Li Shiguang nodded, his eyes fixed on the computer screen, but he began giving instructions to Allen.

“Alan, there are three things I need you to do right away. First, contact Antonio immediately to discuss Maicon’s contract extension, a 2.5 times pay increase, for four years! Tell him that if he’s willing to extend, everything will proceed as usual, and I’ll pretend today’s events never happened. Maicon will remain Leeds United’s starting right-back.”

"What if he doesn't want to?"

"If he doesn't want to, I need an answer by the end of the winter transfer window. If the contract extension isn't finalized in the winter, Maicon will be relegated to the reserve team for the second half of the season, and he'll never have a place in the first team!"

"Huh? Boss, are you serious? But Sun's injuries won't heal for a while. Where are we going to find someone to replace Maicon in such a short time?"

Li Shiguang's emotionless tone startled Allen; it was the first time he had ever seen Li Shiguang treat his players so ruthlessly.

"This is the second thing I need you to do. Contact Sevilla immediately, preferably directly to Del Nido, and tell them that I'm very interested in Alves from their team. I'll go there next week to arrange a meeting with him."

Alan knows Dani Alves; he was the best player in last season's UEFA Cup. I heard that Liverpool wanted to buy him during the summer transfer window, but it seems they couldn't agree on the price and the deal fell through.

So he hesitated for a moment, then decided he should still remind Li Shiguang.

"Boss, I have to remind you, Alves has been quite popular in the last two years. It will probably cost you some money to get him."

"Pfft!" Allen's kind reminder amused Li Shiguang, who was still searching for something on the webpage. He thought to himself that Allen was indeed the man who had gone through the hard times with him. But Leeds United was no longer the poor Leeds United of the past. Now, with more than 120 million euros lying in the club's account, Li Shiguang was worried about where to spend it.

So he replied with a smile: "Allen, free your mind. It's 2006 now. We're not the Leeds United we were two years ago!"

"Ah! Right! Hahaha, I forgot we're one of the great powers now!" Allen nodded awkwardly, then continued, "And the third thing?"

Li Shiguang didn't rush to answer Allen's question; instead, he sped up his scrolling through the webpage.

Sudden.

He paused his middle finger as he scrolled the mouse, fixing his gaze on the young man on the computer screen—a man with an afro, a bright white smile, and a wide grin—and spoke excitedly.

"That's the third thing. Notify Ron to contact Fluminense in Brazil and use money to bring this kid to Leeds United, then send him to Real Sociedad to level up!"

"I'm going to cut off Calderon's entire escape route. As for Maicon, I'll make sure he buys him whether he wants to or not!"