Chapter 57: United against Manchester United

Roger Moses sat in the office of the Director of Sports at BBC headquarters, looking down at his mobile phone.

He was one of the first users to register for WeChat. Three days before Ibrahimovic's press conference, he learned about the application from a text message from a journalist friend and downloaded it to his mobile phone.

Once he started playing, he couldn’t let it go.

He found that a lot of information spreads very quickly on WeChat and the app never crashes.

In the past two days, rumors have been circulating throughout the UK that Southampton will hold another press conference tomorrow.

Just like the previous match involving Ibrahimovic, it will still be posted on the WeChat platform.

The difference is that this time they didn't even say who the star player they were going to bring in was.

As the director of BBC Sports, Roger Moses had to admit that this was a premeditated news hype.

And it is something that has never happened before in the football world.

Southampton brings the internet to football!

Knock knock~

"Come in!" Roger Moses shouted after hearing the knock on the door.

In came Barbara Slater, the program director of the sports department.

"We just received news that Ferguson is bombarding Southampton in Manchester." Barbara Slater said as she entered the door.

"Bombarding Southampton? Why?" Roger Moses put down his phone with a puzzled look on his face.

Barbara Slater smiled and said, "I heard that Southampton used 2.5 million pounds to poach two talented rookies from Manchester United, Paul Pogba and Ravel Morrison."

"That troublemaker?" Roger Moses was a little surprised.

Ravel Morrison has an extraordinary talent. Everyone who sees him play football can't help but marvel and praise him as a genius. But the problem is that this kid has a complicated background and a weird personality. He has gone astray and is a troublemaker.

"Yes, didn't Ferguson demote them to the youth team before? This time the management agreed to Southampton's transfer deal of 2.5 million pounds, and it is said that Ferguson was bypassed, but who knows?"

Roger Moses clapped his hands on the desk excitedly and laughed with gloating. "Wow, that old Scottish guy must be mad now. What qualifications does he have to criticize others? Didn't he use the same method to poach Paul Pogba from Le Havre a year ago?"

Barbara Slater also smiled and nodded. "You should know that he has always been like this."

To use an old Chinese saying, the officials are allowed to set fires, but the common people are not allowed to light lamps.

The relationship between the BBC, Ferguson and Manchester United has always been bad. This happened because the BBC filmed a documentary that exposed the inside story that Ferguson's third son, as an agent, embezzled some of Manchester United's transfer operations, which aroused the indignation of Manchester United fans and was subsequently banned by Ferguson.

Since then, the BBC has never been able to obtain any first-hand information related to Manchester United. Even in some official occasions, Ferguson would only arrange for assistant coaches to go abroad in order to avoid BBC TV.

"My goodness, as soon as we arrived in England, we got into trouble with Ferguson. It seems Southampton is determined to do something big!" Roger Moses was a little excited when he thought about it.

In recent years, English football has become more and more lively, especially with the massive influx of international capital into English football, which has made those who work in the news and media feel very excited.

At the very least, there is no need to worry about not having topics or themes that can boost sales.

"Since Ferguson is unhappy, we don't mind making him even angrier!"

Roger Moses stood up with a chuckle. "For tonight's news, extend the coverage of this transfer a little bit, and also introduce more about Paul Pogba's transfers last year and this year, as well as Southampton."

After a pause, he looked at this capable assistant who had been working in the media industry for 20 to 30 years and said, "You should know what to do, right?"

"Understood!" Barbara Slater agreed with a smile.

Since we are not on good terms with Ferguson, then the enemy of my enemy is my comrade, and we must point our guns at the same point!

The BBC doesn't mind doing anything that might upset Ferguson.

"By the way, go make the contact. Southampton is going to hold another press conference on the WeChat platform tomorrow. It attracted quite a lot of attention last time, so we should pay more attention to it this time. Send an application to Southampton, saying that you hope to cooperate with us and let us accompany them to film and report."

"Also inform Gary that we will be adding a special daily match program tomorrow night, focusing on Southampton!"

Roger Moses clearly realized that Southampton's press conference on the WeChat platform immediately attracted considerable attention and response among young people in the UK and even Europe, and it was necessary for the BBC to respond to this.

"Director, why do you attach so much importance to Southampton?" Barbara Slater was a little puzzled.

There are so many teams in English League One. Even if Southampton was once a strong team in the Premier League, that was many years ago.

If we really want to talk about influence, it was caused by Southampton's series of new operations and big moves in the transfer market after the Chinese owner acquired the team this summer.

Match of the Day is the BBC's flagship programme and holds a very important place in the hearts of football fans. Its hosts include former English football legends such as Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Alan Hansen. It is usually broadcast on match days such as the Premier League and the Champions League, with high ratings.

Although there are occasional special programs, they are usually after major events.

It is unprecedented for someone like Roger Moses to record a program specifically for a League One team.

Roger Moses was also aware of Barbara Slater's doubts. She was the program director and was responsible for the program arrangements, so he smiled and explained, "I just received news that ITV has decided to increase the live broadcast of Southampton's games. Not only that, China, Europe and even other countries in the world have expressed strong interest in broadcasting Southampton's games."

At this point, Roger Moses smiled and said, "Although Southampton is now in a low-level league, it is a star team in the low-level league. It was eliminated from the League Cup, but we have the FA Cup."

"Director, do you mean that we should focus on broadcasting Southampton's FA Cup matches?" Barbara Slater was even more surprised.

After the broadcasting rights of the Premier League were taken over by Sky TV, the BBC's most valuable event resources are currently the FA Cup and Premier League highlights.

"Don't you think it's interesting that a team from the English League One, but with a superstar like Ibrahimovic, faces a Premier League team?"

Barbara Slater understood as soon as she heard it.

The FA Cup has always been seen as a hotbed of upsets, but over the years, there have been fewer and fewer upsets in the FA Cup.

Without an FA Cup upset, no fans would be interested.

Roger Moses wants to support Southampton and further promote the importance of the FA Cup.

"I understand!" Barbara Slater really understood.

…………

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"We were kept in the dark and I believe they had reached an agreement long ago. This is very disappointing and in my opinion, they have shown no respect for Manchester United!"

"This is a betrayal of Manchester United!"

After Manchester United officially announced that Paul Pogba and Ravelle Morrison had moved to Southampton for a package price of 2.5 million pounds, Ferguson was very angry about the possible private contact between Southampton and the two former Manchester United players, and said he did not rule out an appeal.

"This is not an isolated incident. I want to say that this has had a very bad impact on our youth training system and caused panic among our members. Their defection not only caused us to lose two very valuable players, but also had an extremely bad impact."

Southampton immediately held a press conference. Sun Yue, the team's head of marketing and public relations, stated very seriously at St. Mary's Stadium that Ferguson's accusations were groundless speculation without any basis.

"I don't think Ferguson has any reason to blame others because he has been doing what he said. Do I need to give you examples one by one?"

"Southampton brought in Paul Pogba and Ravelle Morrison without signing any private agreements before signing them, and even in the terms of our contracts, we did not give the players any unrealistic promises."

"We contacted Manchester United and expressed interest in two players who had made written transfer requests because they were demoted to the youth team. We offered the right price and they agreed. It was as simple as that."

“I don’t think we have any violations.”

Paul Pogba also confirmed this when he was interviewed by Southern Echo reporter Charlene Lahri.

"Southampton didn't promise me a first-team start. They just told me that here I can play a lot of games, play with Ibrahimovic and other top players, compete together and improve together."

“That made me want to join Southampton, and not just for the money.”

As for what Ferguson said, that Pogba defected this time and showed lack of respect for Manchester United, Pogba also responded.

"When I came to Manchester from Le Havre a year ago, he promised to let me play more games, but when the first team was short of people, he didn't trust me at all and didn't consider giving me a chance. When I expressed my hope to make more contributions to the team, he told me to go back to the youth team!"

"I don't understand why he thinks I don't respect Manchester United because I came from Le Havre on a free transfer and now I'm paying Manchester United a seven-figure transfer fee? Or maybe he thinks I didn't admit my mistake and that's offended his authority and that's disrespectful."

"But I want to say that if I were given another chance to choose, I would still say no to him!"

Regarding Southampton's introduction of Paul Pogba and Ravelle Morrison from Manchester United, after Ferguson's criticism and Southampton's strong counterattack, it immediately became a major event in the entire English football world and even attracted the attention of the European football world.

Pogba and Morrison, two talented new stars who are only seventeen years old, appeared on the pages of major European media for the first time.

Raiola also came out and accepted an interview with the Italian media, accusing Ferguson of being too domineering and lacking respect for the players.

For a time, the transfer between Manchester United, Ferguson, and Southampton quickly caused huge discussion and controversy on the Internet and in the media. Most fans were divided into two factions, arguing endlessly on the Internet and in newspapers.

Some people believe that there must be something wrong with Southampton, and that they must have contacted the players privately and instigated them, causing Manchester United to fall into a passive position.

But soon someone hit back, saying it was a conspiracy theory and there was no evidence at all.

Moreover, Manchester United itself is not clean enough. They poached Pique from Barcelona and later poached Pogba from Le Havre. Such things have happened countless times. What qualifications do they have to criticize others?

BBC TV also gave it prominent coverage in its sports news, and subtly led viewers to believe that this was a case of the thief crying thief, something Ferguson often did.

This is the BBC, whose influence in the UK is equivalent to that of China's CCTV.

So, when the BBC made the announcement, the whole of Britain was in an uproar, and major newspapers took sides and opened fire.

The Sun is a die-hard Red Devils newspaper, but the Manchester Evening News, a local newspaper in Manchester, firmly supports Southampton and attacks Manchester United.

The Times, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Independent, Mirror and other media also have their own positions.

This caused a huge uproar across the UK over a transfer worth only 2.5 million pounds.

In this situation, Southampton, as the center of the storm and the instigator of the incident, once again held a press conference.

And at this press conference, the team's latest talented Brazilian rookie was grandly introduced.

Neymar!

Football Giants