Chapter 681: Arms Race
With the release of Bayern’s financial report, the entire German football world, and even the European football world, was abuzz with news.
It was only at this time that many people truly realized the value of Su Dong.
On the court, conquering cities for the team is only part of Su Dong's value. As a professional player, his commercial value and global influence outside the court are in no way inferior to his performance on the court.
Far away in Manchester, Mubarak, Soriano, Begiristain and Guardiola were discussing the transfer progress of the new season, but the topic was involuntarily attracted by this report from Germany.
"If Su Dong could come to Manchester City, our global strategy would proceed more smoothly and with greater certainty," Soriano said with emotion.
As a finance major, Soriano was genuinely envious when he saw Bayern's financial report.
Whether in terms of revenue, cash flow, or debt, Bayern is a model for European professional clubs.
What’s more frightening is that this team is still very strong.
When Su Dong joined, Bayern was already strong and had a solid financial foundation. Otherwise, they would not have spent so much money to introduce Su Dong. But now, the wealth has increased several times. It is no exaggeration to describe Bayern as wealthy and powerful now.
"What Hoeness said is absolutely right. If Bayern wants, they have the financial resources to bring in any superstar in the world, including Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi. They have a cash flow of more than 100 million euros. My God, what are the Germans' brains structured for? Why do they save so much money?" Soriano felt very puzzled.
With so much money, we should find ways to spend it or invest it.
"It is probably related to the predicament of the Bundesliga after the bankruptcy of the Kirch Group. After all, the Bundesliga teams were having a very hard time at that time, and Bayern was also tightening its belt. Now that they have some money, they are naturally unwilling to spend lavishly."
When Begiristain said this, he shook his head and smiled, "I've heard before that Hoeness is just a housekeeper. Bayern's superstar strategy was fully promoted by Beckenbauer and Rummenigge."
Although the Big Three have a good relationship, in fact, their philosophies are still very different.
When it comes to making money, Bayern is very high-profile, but when it comes to spending money, the Bundesliga giants try to be as low-key as possible.
Except for the year when Su Dong was introduced, Bayern basically did not make any big moves in transfers.
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Manchester City's actions in the transfer market this summer have not been smooth.
Despite having stars like Robinho in the team, its appeal to top players is still quite weak.
To put it bluntly, last season's performance was really lame.
The original transfer fee for the former target player Robinho was 49 million euros, but now it is less than 30 million euros and is even out of stock because of his disappearance during the winter break, which deterred many teams.
Similarly, he lost Guardiola's trust because of this incident.
Guardiola himself has strict standards for players. For example, players like Adebayor and Kolo Toure are not within his consideration. He wants to bring in Pepe or Lucio, but both players are difficult to poach.
Not only that, in the defensive midfielder position, Guardiola actually wanted Liverpool's Xabi Alonso the most. He even went to Liverpool in person and had a long talk with Xabi Alonso, but Xabi Alonso clearly told Guardiola that it would be difficult for him to refuse the invitation from Real Madrid, so Guardiola was forced to buy Busquets, his old player from Barcelona's second team.
He recognizes Busquets' ability, but he is too young and not as experienced as Xabi Alonso.
With the team's poor performance and the need for reorganization, many players including Joe, Elano, Bojinov and Sturridge have chosen to leave the team, which has forced Manchester City to recruit players in midfield.
Guardiola also has very high requirements for midfielders. After the failure of introducing Iniesta, he gave the three major midfielders, David Silva, Modric, Fabregas and others as his targets. Any one of them is a very popular target. Even the alternative players Aquilani and Gareth Barry are not easy to operate.
Not to mention the forward line, it is basically impossible for Guardiola to get Sudon, the alternative Dzeko has also renewed his contract with Wolfsburg, Tevez and Adebayor are not favored by Guardiola, and the more likely one is Blackburn's Santa Cruz.
There are also two flanks, whether it is the wingers in the frontcourt or the full-backs in the back line, both need to introduce strong reinforcements.
Among them, the left back is the most urgent. Guardiola really wants to get Marcelo, but Bayern has no intention of negotiating on Marcelo's transfer.
The Abu Dhabi consortium does not set too many restrictions on Manchester City's transfers, giving the technical team and Guardiola enough authority, but affected by the club's performance, it is basically impossible to really introduce outstanding players.
Even Robinho was clamoring to leave the team.
Therefore, Soriano and Begiristain now have money on hand but cannot spend it! …………
…………
Summer transfers always feature the big clubs as the main players.
Florentino's Real Madrid is the protagonist among protagonists.
It started with Kakara, followed by head coach Pellegrini, and then local players such as Xabi Alonso and Arbeloa, all of which greatly improved Real Madrid's strength.
After entering July, Real Madrid quickly officially announced that it had successfully signed Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United for a record-breaking price of 94 million euros. This transfer will break the historical record set by Su Dong that year and become the historical transfer king of world football.
Due to the failure in attracting Su Dong, Real Madrid quickly announced that it would introduce Benzema from Lyon with a transfer fee of 35 million euros.
It can be said that Florentino showed a skill and courage that was completely different from his predecessor Calderon. He made everyone marvel at his operational ability and made Real Madrid rise again overnight and become the focus of attention of media and fans around the world.
Many media even assert that Real Madrid will be a strong contender for the Champions League in the new season.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Benzema, the top stars of the three major leagues gathered in Real Madrid. Is there anything more exciting and anticipated than this?
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As Real Madrid's arch-rival, Barcelona is also not idle.
While Real Madrid was aggressively recruiting players, Rosell poached Ibrahimovic from Inter Milan for a whopping 70 million euros, completing the trident combination of Ibrahimovic, Eto'o and Messi that Mourinho had expected.
On the defensive line, after failing to sign Lucio and Pepe, Barcelona brought in Zielinski from Shakhtar Donetsk.
The central defender performed well in the Champions League last season. He is tall and strong and has amazing potential.
Mourinho hopes that Zielinski's joining will be able to fill the weak points in Barcelona's defense, especially in defending high balls.
The two transfers cost over 100 million euros, and Barcelona also showed its aggressiveness this summer.
The arms race between the two Spanish Super League giants has also successfully attracted the attention of the world.
…
After a period of operation, the transfer of the wealthy Manchester City has also made some progress.
After Su Dong and Dzeko suffered setbacks, Manchester City introduced Paraguayan center forward Santa Cruz from Blackburn at a high price of 17 million euros. Guardiola is full of expectations for him and believes that he can win the game for Manchester City in the new season.
Robinho eventually transferred to AC Milan for a high price of 20 million euros. Players such as Elano, Jo and Bojinov also left the team one after another. Manchester City wanted to introduce Aquilani in the midfield, but the Roma midfielder went to Liverpool.
After several twists and turns, Begiristain set his sights on Valencia's David Silva as the midfielder and repeatedly raised his offer, hoping to poach this close friend of Su Dong from the Bats.
But the first person to be finalized was Benfica's winger Di Maria, whose agent is Mendes. Over the past period of time, Begiristain had been in contact with Mendes regarding Sudong's transfer, so he signed Di Maria for a transfer fee of 15 million euros.
In addition, Manchester City also signed Sanchez from Udinese in Serie A for a transfer fee of 15 million euros.
Manchester City has also launched a pursuit of Navas, who plays for Sevilla, hoping to recruit the Spanish winger.
In mid-July, Valencia finally gave in under Manchester City's financial offensive.
For 28 million euros, Manchester City beat Real Madrid and successfully signed the young Spanish international from Valencia.
Guardiola is very excited about the successful signing of David Silva. In the press release announcing David Silva's joining, Guardiola said that Manchester City has found the core of the midfield and he firmly believes that David Silva will succeed in his team and his tactics.
Subsequently, Manchester City announced that they had signed Gareth Barry from Aston Villa for 12 million euros and brought in Sylvinho from Barcelona on a free transfer.
Through a series of operations, Manchester City has been completely renewed and its overall strength has improved compared to before.
But both the British and European media are worried about Guardiola's coaching. They don't know how far this Barcelona star, who has never coached a first-team team, can take this rich team? In just one year, the Abu Dhabi consortium invested 200 million euros in transfer fees. If we take into account salaries, club expenses and other aspects of investment, the conservative estimate is about 500 million euros.
It is unacceptable that Manchester City is still struggling in the middle of the table after investing so much.
…
In late July, Bayern will usher in the German Super Cup.
Before that, Bayern officially announced that it had successfully signed Brazilian right-back Rafinha from Schalke 04.
Hoeness finally made his move and signed the right-back that Heynckes was quite optimistic about, hoping that he could strengthen the team's bench depth on the right.
This will be Bayern's only signing this season.
With the contract renewals of players such as Ribery, Robben, Schweinsteiger and Lahm, Bayern also ushered in the first official game of the new season.
German Super Cup.
(End of this chapter)
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