Greatest of All Legends

Chapter 227: Deliberations And Future Plans

Jadon Sancho and Jason Bolu were the names that had hit the table of the Manchester United Legend turned manager and he was having a hard time deciding on which of these players to try and bring to the club.

Jadon Sancho was a name that had been brought to his attention from very early in the 2019/20 season after a successful transfer from the noisy neighbors, Manchester City to the German team, Borussia Dortmund.

Jadon Sancho hadn’t been able to get into a stride at Manchester City, but as soon as he arrived at the Borussia Dortmund team, he began displaying performances that almost had the Manchester City manager, Josep Guardiola, regretting his decision… almost.

Needless of Pep Guardiola’s thoughts about the decision, Sancho had gone on to establish himself as one of the best youngsters of his generation as he displayed performance upon performance that kept pointing at that notion.

His dribbling skills were off the charts and his technical skills fit his style of play like a glove and he was almost unstoppable whenever he came charging at a team from the wing, but that was not all there was to Sancho’s skills.

His vision was very impressive, and his passing skills that always helped him find the right person to start an attack, not to mention that he also had quite the eye for goal.

These were all the kind of attributes that Solksjaer was looking for in a winger and it had almost been concluded that Jadon Sancho would be coming to Manchester United the coming summer transfer season.

The club had even gone as far as preparing the necessary funds and had even begun making plans for his arrival at the club… and then all of a sudden Jason appeared.

In a short half season, Jason took the footballing world by storm.

His name wasn’t yet known that much due to the low presence of the Liga NOS on the grand football stages, but even the few performances that Jason had shown on the continental stage of the Europa League had already raised many eyebrows and impressed even more.

As soon as Jason showed up, his name was added to the Manchester United watch list because of the potential he had shown, but the continuous impressive reports from the scouts keeping an eye on the situation had soon elevated Jason’s name to the top of the watchlist, but just when Solksjaer began pushing for Jason to be added to the top priority list for the club, the lockdown had happened.

That had thrown almost all the transfer plans of the club out the window due to the tough financial situation that the club found itself stuck in due to the drastically reduced income caused by the lockdown due to the coronavirus.

That was the cause of the current problems Solksjaer was having.

He had originally planned on bringing both Jadon and Jason to the club because why not?

He couldn’t let such talent go when he knew about them, especially when his club was severely lacking in that department and wouldn’t have a problem taking in the two players, but now that the proposed budget for the transfer season had been drastically reduced, It was going to be hard to get even one of the two players after filling in the other spaces in the team that needed filling.

Especially with the price tag that had been stuck on the two players.

Borussia Dortmund had replied to his inquiries about Jadon and had stuck a price tag of at least 80 million on Sancho.

Jason’s price tag had been even higher with the Porto team claiming that they wouldn’t let him go without at least 100 million.

Of course both teams were just bluffing and would probably settle for lower prices, but the problem was that the initial price tag was way too high.

Even if they renegotiated the prices for the two players, the prices would not be much lower and even that much money was a problem for the current Manchester United transfer budget.

This brought about the situation where Solksjaer decided on taking only one of the two players who had caught his fancy, but choosing between the two of them was just too hard for him.

He didn’t want to let any of the two players go, but the club also didn’t have the budget to acquire both of them… in fact, even signing one of them would be hard for the club at this rate and Solksjaer was almost tearing out his hair in frustration at the thought that he wouldn’t be able to bring those two players to the club.

“How much did you say the club has allocated to us as a budget for the transfer season again?” Solksjaer asked the sporting director who had come along with the team to Germany because some of the club’s transfer targets were also in Germany and he wanted to take the opportunity to further the transfer talks.

“78 million Euros,” the Sporting director responded from his seat as he looked at Solksjaer who was deep in thought.

“But about 60 million has already been allocated to signing Alex Telles and Edinson Cavani,” the Sporting Director continued speaking, knowing that this was Solksjaer’s bone of contention.

Unfortunately, the club needed an extra striker and left-back desperately as they only had a few First-team worthy players capable of playing those positions.

The problem was the budget and not the manager’s intentions.

A team would always have an hole that needed filling, but Manchester United currently had lesser funds than required for the holes they needed to fill which not something that usually happened at a club of its stature, but due to the after effects of the coronavirus, they were already lucky that they hadn’t taken on more debt than they already had.

“What do we do?” Solskjaer muttered while rubbing his forehead tiredly.

“Head manager, if I may…” The sporting director said from the side, an idea brewing in his head.

“What is it you want to say?” Solksjaer asked with a raised eyebrow, wondering what this guy wanted to say.

“Ok… So, its clear that we will have problems bringing any of those two players to the club with the transfer budget we have been allocated, so why don’t we give up on those players,” the sporting director said.

“Give up?” Solksjaer repeated as if he couldn’t believe his ears.

‘What nonsense is this guy spouting?’ he thought as annoyance flashed in his eyes.

“Yes, give up… But only for this transfer window…” The sporting director continued,

“Since we can’t gain anything out of any transfer talks, why not give up and speak to the board to increase our transfer budget for the next season so we can bring in the two players,”

“We can also contact the players and their clubs in advance to ensure that they are sold on coming to the club next season,” the sporting director laid out his idea.

“… Hmmm, it’s not as if we wouldn’t survive as a team without those two players for the next season,” Solksjaer muttered, his mind beginning to create various ideas to ensure that he could acquire those two players.

“For Sancho, let’s make a lot of noise and make it seem like we planned to sign him as soon as possible but we’ll make a behind the scenes agreement with Dortmund about our true intentions and they can help us blow up the matter,” Solksjaer started saying, but the sporting director cut in with a question,

“Why are we making that kind of noise though?” The sporting director asked in confusion.

“… Well first, it gives the fans something to look forward to, second it makes our intentions for Sancho clear so that there wouldn’t be any minor complications from other teams trying to sign him as well…” Solksjaer began explaining,

“Well that wouldn’t stop the big teams from trying, but I suppose this is already the best we can do,”

“As for Jason, contact his agent directly and ask about his availability for a transfer to our club,” Solksjaer began giving another step of instructions,

“From what I know, the kid only has a two year deal with Porto which will be expiring soon enough, and if we can get him to agree to a deal with us, we can get him for cheap, or maybe even for free if he’s willing to let his contract run out,” Solksjaer stated.

“Oh, that’s a good idea,” the sporting director’s face brightened up in surprise and admiration.

“I don’t think it’d be good to let his contract run out however, since it would become a lot harder to sign him if he becomes a free agent,”

“Since his contract ends midway in the upper season, it’d be best to snag him up cheap at the end of next season,” Solksjaer explained.

“Oh, I see, since his contract would be running out, Porto would want to get as much profit as they can from selling him even if it’s a lot below the price they had in mind, and since we’d have already come to an agreement with the player, he can put pressure on the Porto side from within the club!” The sporting director realized the Manchester United head manager’s plan.

“Good that you understand, now get to work on it,” Solksjaer said, laying back into his chair with a complicated expression on his face.

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