Watching Leeds United announce new player signings every day, Bates has been seething with resentment yet helpless.
Bates knows about Deisler and Berbatov, and he thinks that Li Shiguang would definitely not be able to acquire these two players without spending at least 20 million euros, plus all the other young players.
Although Leeds United have not yet announced their specific transfer spending for the summer window, Bates can probably guess that Lee Shi Guang spent around 40 to 50 million euros this time.
Thinking back to Leeds United's destitute squad and huge debts to banks before the start of the Championship last year, who would have thought that in just one year, the tables would turn completely between him and Li Shiguang, and he would be the one borrowing money from banks and selling players to survive.
However, during this period, there have been fewer and fewer transfer rumors about Tevez. Basically, only Manchester United has occasionally been linked with Tevez, but there has been no new progress. This is good news for Bates.
Because of concerns that Leeds United and Manchester United might reach an agreement.
So during this period, basically every time West Brom sold a player, Bates would make an offer to Leeds United, and each time it would increase by one or two million euros.
In his imagination, given Li Shiguang's greedy nature, if he continued to participate in the competition for Tevez, Li would definitely wait until the highest price before selling Tevez.
A few days ago, West Bromwich Albion completed the clearance of their last player, and the funds arrived today. Bates now has more than 30 million euros at his disposal.
With just over two weeks left in the transfer window, he's already dragged things out with Leeds United for almost a month. Now, while Manchester United is likely still negotiating with Li Shiguang...
So Bates couldn't wait to send a new offer to Leeds United that morning, raising the price to 26 million euros, to see how Li Shiguang would react.
If Leeds United rejects him again, to avoid any unforeseen complications, he will directly trigger Tevez's release clause and take him away.
The summer transfer window has been open for over a month, and most of the players with decent ability have already been snapped up. It's time for me to make my move.
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Upon hearing Bates' latest offer, Li Shiguang instructed Allen to immediately check if West Bromwich Albion had sold all of their listed players. If they had, then he could prepare a surprise for him!
As soon as Li Shiguang returned to his office, Allen called. As soon as he answered, he heard Allen's excited voice on the other end of the line: "Boss, it's confirmed! West Bromwich Albion has finished cleaning up, and Bates should be preparing to make his move. This morning's offer was probably his final test."
Upon hearing Allen's report, Li Shiguang's lips curled into a cold smile, and he calmly instructed, "No need to reply to Bates' offer today. Tomorrow morning, update the official website with the news of Tevez's transfer to Manchester United."
After hanging up with Allen, Li Shiguang also called Ferguson and arranged to update the Tevez transfer news on the official website at 10 a.m. the next day.
After everything was arranged.
Li Shiguang breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Since his rebirth and transmigration, Bates's covetousness for Leeds United has lingered in Li Shiguang's mind.
Although the system tricked him once half a year ago with its help, it didn't cause him any serious harm. But Li Shiguang has always known since he was a child that you have to nip the problem in the bud, especially when dealing with a robber like Bates who takes advantage of your misfortune.
We've been fishing for him for months, and now it's finally time to reel him in.
Li Shiguang was already imagining how furious Bates would be when he saw the news tomorrow.
Most importantly, there are still about 20 days left before the transfer window closes, and there are currently no strong forwards left on the transfer market.
Even if Bates still has tens of millions of dollars at his disposal, with the roster he has already purged most of his key players and replaced them all with young players promoted from the youth team, what makes him think he can attract big-name stars to join him?
With the Premier League resuming next month, Li Shiguang doesn't believe that Blackwell can lead this group of rookies who have never even played in the Championship to achieve any great results in the Premier League with his clumsy counter-attacking tactics.
Bates and Blackwell might both leave before the winter transfer window even opens.
We'll see how Bates repays his bank loan then!
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Bates arrived at the club before 10 a.m. the next day.
Bates was a little uneasy because Leeds United hadn't responded to his offer yesterday, even by the time he got off work that night.
The old man was already quite old, and he had things on his mind, so he didn't sleep well at all last night.
I got up early this morning, had breakfast at home, and rushed to the club to see if Leeds United had responded.
But Bates had just walked into the office and hadn't even had a chance to sit down when there was a knock on the door.
Before he could even speak, the door was pushed open, and Blackwell stormed in angrily.
Bates glanced at his watch, then looked at Blackwell's expression and asked with a puzzled look, "Kevin, what's wrong? Why are you here so early today? Isn't training still a while away?"
Hearing Bates' question, Blackwell plopped down opposite Bates and said irritably, "Boss, I'm really fed up with those idiots in the youth team. They've been practicing zone defense for almost a week, and they were still out of position in yesterday's training! And my tactics emphasize fast counter-attacks! Nobody can run, or the ball is passed over and the forwards can't even stop it. They stop the ball five meters away!"
Bates opened his mouth slightly, wanting to comfort Blackwell, whose face was already flushed with anger, but he didn't know where to begin.
After all, it was his decision to promote youth team players to the first team. Last year, when he poached Blackwell to West Bromwich Albion, Bates originally intended to undermine Li Shiguang's team, not only by taking away his best-performing player, but also by taking away his head coach!
Although Howard ultimately faltered, Blackwell's passable counter-attacking style at least helped West Bromwich Albion avoid relegation.
After a while, seeing that Blackwell's emotions had calmed down a bit, Bates finally spoke up to comfort him: "There's nothing I can do, Kevin. You know the team's situation isn't very optimistic right now. Defensively, we still have about 20 days left, so I can only ask you to work hard and try your best to train these young players. As for the forwards, don't worry. I came so early today to prepare to make another offer to Leeds United to trigger Tevez's release clause and bring him to West Bromwich Albion. He played under you last season, and I believe he can integrate into your tactical system once he arrives."
Seeing that his boss had said so, Blackwell felt embarrassed to keep complaining, so he nodded and got up to leave.
But just as he stood up, the office door behind him was pushed open again.
Bates' assistant rushed in, his face filled with anxiety, and shouted to the two of them, "Boss, something terrible has happened! Leeds United's official website has been updated!"
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