Chapter 136: Three wins in one go

In a cafe on the streets of Turin, Xiao Ming met Attico Lombardo.

This "Poplar" who once dominated the Serie A arena and followed Sampdoria to China is 31 years old. He is a famous good-looking man in Italian football and has a very good temper. However, he has never been the main player in the Italian national team. Although he has been selected for the Italian national team for 19 times, he has always had excellent players such as Donadoni, Rentini, and Di Rivio on the wings of the same time. It is difficult for him to be reused. He rarely gets the opportunity to play after transferring to Juventus. To be precise, he has begun to decline now.

However, although it has begun to decline, Lombardo is still famous. In this era when Italian second-rate players or ball players can call for wind and rain in the Premier League (this time is indeed the case. Italian players who are average in their own way can become the main players in the Premier League, while the top Premier League players such as Gascoin and Pratt did not live well after they came to Italy. It was not until the late 1990s that this situation gradually reversed). If he could be signed, it would definitely make Leiden Oriental more famous in Europe.

In fact, Xiao Ming does not have any other choice in this position. Like Yongbery and Jorgensen are both cheap and potential newcomers. However, if they sell the main players in the team for two consecutive years, if there is no big acquisition, it may make fans dissatisfied. At the same time, it may also make Leiden Oriental leave the impression that "cannot keep its main players" in the eyes of others, which is more serious than the losses of personnel.

If Xiao Ming was just a head coach, he might only buy people from the perspective of a coach, but he is still the chairman of the club, so he has to consider the image of the club, etc.

Speaking of a club, the head coach and the chairman must work closely together, but sometimes conflicts arise. The head coach always feels that the more players the better, while the chairman must consider the balance of finances. In this case, conflicts will arise between the two sides, and this contradiction can often destroy an originally powerful club in an instant.

Fortunately, Xiao Ming did not have such troubles, but it meant that he would have more things to do and he had to consider everything more thoroughly.

This time, Lombardo, who is famous, is considering the fact that it is to enhance the team's reputation and reduce the negative impact of Hackby and Bolling's departure. On the competitive level, Lombardo also meets Xiao Ming's requirements, has abundant physical fitness, active running, and has good breakthroughs and passing skills on the wing. Although he doesn't get many opportunities to play at Juventus, it's just because his competitors are better.

At this stage, famous players on the wing who are better than Lombardo are not affordable by Leiden Oriental. Lombardo is the best choice.

Moreover, from last season, what the young Leiden Oriental lacks now is experience. Jin Kraze and Stam, the oldest in the main lineup, have no experience in the top league. After Hilton and Wilkins retired, Leiden Oriental's experience is almost blank. Young geniuses are important, but the calm and rich experience of veterans is also a wealth that the team urgently needs. In reality, coaching the team is not playing cm. The younger the players, the better. If you sell them at 30, it is absolutely not possible to rely on young people alone. After all, they lack experience, and it is not possible to rely on veterans alone. They lack continuity and physical fitness. Only by organically combining the two can they play a good role.

At the same time, Xiao Ming chose Lombardo for another reason. From an interview in his previous life, he learned that Lombardo is a person with a good temper. Such a veteran will not cause any trouble in the locker room. People with such a personality must be happy to bring young players and introduce their experience to them, such as Simon Davis. Maybe they can learn Lombardo's skills...

Of course, these good things have to be discussed after Lombardo is settled. If Lombardo cannot be persuaded to join Leiden Oriental, everything will be useless.

While Xiao Ming was looking at Lombardo, Lombardo was also looking at Xiao Ming. Looking at this young man four years younger than him, Lombardo felt it was interesting. He was originally unwilling to transfer to a League One team. After all, he was a famous player in the Serie A arena. Even if he was old, he would not have to go to the second-level England league to retire. However, he already knew that Juventus had no position and no other team was moved by him yet. After all, the transfer market has not yet been opened, and Juventus has not put him in the transfer market.

So under the persuasion of the agent, Lombardo decided to meet with the other party's chairman - the chairman personally ran to Turin to find him, which also showed the other party's sincerity. Besides, there would be no loss when he met.

"Mr. Lombardo, I am Xiao Ming, the chairman of Leiden Oriental Club." Xiao Ming reached out to Lombardo. Lombardo smiled and held Xiao Ming's hand: "I'm very happy to see you, Mr. Xiao Ming, I am Atelio Lombardo."

Lombardo's voice was a little sharp, and there was almost no beard on his face. Xiao Ming remembered that he had read a report about him before, saying that there seemed to be something wrong with his reproductive organs. Now, listening to his voice sounds, it seems that it is not a rumor.

Of course, Xiao Ming would not show anything on his face. After letting go of his hand, he asked Lombardo to sit down.

Xiao Ming had already figured out what to say. Before the start of this season in history, Lombardo transferred to Crystal Palace and had excellent performance. At that time, it seemed that Chelsea had also looked for him, but he did not choose Chelsea, which had three Italian fellow villagers, Viali, Zora and Di Matteo. Instead, he chose Crystal Palace, a weak Premier League team. Xiao Ming believed that his Leiden Oriental's outstanding performance in the UEFA Cup last season was no worse than Crystal Palace. It was still very confident to talk about Lombardo.

"I think you already know my purpose...Atilio... doesn't mind if I call you like that, do you?" Xiao Ming took the initiative to get close.

Lombardo smiled and shook his head, saying that he didn't mind.

"I want to invite you to join our Leiden Oriental. Now we are the League One team. We won third place in the League One last season and lost in the play-offs. We will make a comeback this season. So now we need veterans like you to join us to help us, because my team is mainly young people, and the oldest is only twenty-five years old. I believe that with your experience, we will definitely be able to perform better." Xiao Ming looked sincere.

Of course, this would not impress a veteran like Lombardo. He shook his head: "Sorry, Mr. Xiao Ming, I'm not ready to play football in an English League One team..."

"It is undeniable that we are now the League One team, but do you know what team we are three years ago, that is, when the 94-95 season began?" Xiao Ming kept it a secret.

Lombardo continued to shake his head. Of course he didn't know. Serie A is the number one in the world. The Premier League has only gradually begun to recover in recent years. According to the overall level, Serie A is one level higher than the Premier League. Many players who play in Serie A choose to go to the Premier League either with the idea of ​​retirement or shoulder the heavy responsibility of preachers. Lombardo certainly won't pay attention to Leiden Oriental, the English League One team.

"Three years ago we were just a team of English-Class, that is, the fourth-level team. In the past three seasons, except for last season, we have risen one level each season. Even in the previous season, we also won the League Cup in England, setting a record of participating in European competitions with the second-level team... Do you still think we must be an English-Class team? If we hadn't been involved in too much energy in the FA Cup and the League Cup last season, we would never have missed the qualifications of the Premier League." Xiao Ming said confidently.

"Ah... Last season, an English League One team entered the quarterfinals of the League Cup. Is it Leiden East?" Last season, Juventus, where Lombardo was in the championship, did not pay much attention to the League One team, but he still vaguely heard about the feat of the League One team entering the quarterfinals of the League Cup. After all, this is a big news. Now that Xiao Ming said this, Lombardo immediately reacted.

"That's right, it's us." Xiao Ming nodded: "Just because we scored one away goal, we were eliminated by Monaco, and Monaco was eliminated by Inter in the semi-finals and only lost one goal... In addition, to put it bluntly, I personally think that the League Cup champion last season should be Inter Milan, not Schalke Zero Four, but Schalke Zero Four's goalkeeper performed too well."

Lombardo laughed. As an Italian, he was still very happy to hear such words...

Now he is starting to have some interest in Leiden Oriental. After all, the teams that are capable of reaching the quarterfinals of the League Cup will obviously not stay in the League One forever. He does not doubt whether Leiden Oriental is the League One team that reached the quarterfinals of the League Cup last season. There is no need for Xiao Ming to lie to him in this kind of thing, because this kind of lie is too easy to expose. He only needs to find a newspaper that costs several months to know everything.

"If you agree to join our club, then your salary and benefits at Juventus remain unchanged. I will give you a contract of what you get at Juventus. The three-year contract will be renewed after it expires. If you retire in the club, you can also work in the club as long as you want." Xiao Ming began to enter substantial content negotiations - if you want to buy Lombardo, it is inevitable to spend money. At least like his current weekly salary of 12,000 pounds is a huge burden. Now the highest salary of Leiden Oriental Club is captain Jin Claze, with a weekly salary of 8,000 pounds. The others in the first level are Phillips, Jankoler, Lennon, Barack and Stam, with weekly salary ranging from 5,000 pounds to 7,000 pounds.

However, with Lombardo's current reputation, it's nothing to get the highest salary in the team. After all, he has a reputation. Besides, the high salary is not too much, so others will not have any objections - Leiden Oriental's salary is considered high in the League One.

The conditions offered by Xiao Ming made Lombardo a little moved. He is now quite paid for Juventus, but he was only 29 years old when he signed with Juventus and was in his golden period. Two years later, he has begun to decline. It is difficult to get such a generous contract, not to mention that it is quite challenging to go to an ambitious and promising team... Aren't Viali, Gulit, Zora, Di Matteo and others all doing well in England?

"Can you give me a few days to consider? I still need to think about it." Lombardo said cautiously. After all, he had never thought about joining Leiden East before meeting with Xiao Ming. Although he had been a little moved by Xiao Ming just now, he still needed time to think about it.

"Of course." Xiao Ming smiled. He could see that Lombardo was already moved. After all, the contract he gave was quite good, and Lombardo was rarely able to find such a satisfactory contract. Besides, at the age of 31, he has passed his peak period, and a good pension contract is what he needs most.

After happily saying goodbye to Lombardo, Xiao Ming planned to stay in Italy for a few days. First, let's take a good tour of several famous attractions in Italy, and second, to see if he could dig out some good and cheap seedlings - but he didn't have any hope for the latter. In the 21st century, Italian football talents also appeared like Germany in the late 1990s. The players who won the World Cup in 2006 have basically begun to show their talents. Nesta, Cannavaro, Toti, Inzagi, Piero and others are already the Greeks in Italian football.

Vieri, who was a little earlier, has gradually become the main player in Juventus and is about to go to La Liga to win the best scorer. Grosso may be a good choice, but he is a late-achieving player, and his slow style of playing football may not be able to adapt to English football. Tony is also good, but there is Jankoler in the team. Another Tony with similar characteristics is a waste. Besides, Xiao Ming can't wait until Tony is twenty-seven or eight before he can get to know his skills, and scored thirty league goals in one season.

But he is not completely aimless. This time he came to Italy and found the evil man Matrazi, who was born in the future, which was not bad. He was brave and fierce in fighting. Although he liked to eat cards, his actions were nothing in the Premier League. It just so happened that Bolling left, so it was good to ask Matrazi to fill his vacancy.

Within the few days of waiting for Lombardo's call, Xiao Ming ran to Perugia, intending to ask about the possibility of Matrazi's transfer. As a result, Gao Qi, who was smiling, directly quoted him a price of 3 million pounds, so angry that Xiao Ming wanted to punch the fat man in the nose with one punch.

After several bargaining, Gao Qi refused to give in. After thinking about it, Xiao Ming gave up the idea of ​​bringing Matrazi to Leiden East. Although he admired the tough guys and villains on the court in his previous life, if he really agreed to Gao Qi's 2.5 million pounds, Xiao Ming felt that he was really 250%. He remembered that the transfer fee for Matrazi's transfer to Premier League Everton next season is only three million euros, almost one.5 million pounds. Instead of being killed by Gao Qi at this time, it would be better to snatch people from Everton next year. Anyway, Leiden East will be more attractive at that time.

In addition to Xiao Ming's unwillingness to be killed by Gao Qi like a fool, there is another reason that Stam is already a brave and powerful central defender. If you have an evil guy like Matrazi, the two central defenders look quite similar, and the speed of both of them turns is only average. Such a central defender combination will easily be directly inserted and beaten by the opponent's fast forward.

I am not afraid of spending money, but I can't be regarded as a sucker. I'm not feeling sorry for spending one million pounds more. Xiao Ming can still take out this amount of money now, but if other teams know that a chairman of a League One team is taking money everywhere to buy people like a fool, I'm afraid that anyone he wants to buy will automatically increase by 50% in the future - just look at how much Abu will spend later on buying people.

After leaving Perugia, Xiao Ming was depressed for several days. He had known that he would have come to dig Matrazi two years ago. At that time, it seemed that Matrazi was still playing football in an amateur team. However, with Leiden Oriental's English-Central status, even Matrazi might not have been able to dig him away in the amateur league.

After a few days of depression, Xiao Ming finally got good news. Lombardo called him: "I agree to join Leiden East."

Xiao Ming smiled: "A wise choice. Attico, I promise you that you will not spend the end of your career in disgrace. In addition to being able to feel another football that is completely different from Italian football, you will definitely be able to win one or two championship trophys before you retire."

"I believe this." Lombardo answered quite politely.

After hanging up the phone, Xiao Ming laughed happily.

Being able to poach Lombardo can be regarded as a three-point victory. Introducing such a player who is well-known in Italy and Europe is enough to offset the negative impact of the poaching of the main players for two consecutive years, and at the same time, it also expands the club's fame in the European arena. This is a club level; Lombardo's rich experience and excellent wing ability are exactly what Leiden Oriental needs. With him, Leiden Oriental's experience and wing competitiveness will increase a lot. This is a competition.
Chapter completed!