Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 131

131: The Last Day of the Winter Transfer Market

“…30 million pounds?!”

“Yeah. It’s a hard amount to refuse.”

Burnley’s Football Director, Jonathan Landris, sighed deeply.

There were only a few hours left until the transfer market closed.

On the last day of the transfer market, they received offers for players managed by the same agent, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, both for the same amount.

Only the targets were different.

“If we sell Wout, can we sign a replacement?”

“Well, all the central striker candidates we were considering have already been rejected. They’re all in a state where they don’t have alternatives either…”

Because they always had to extract maximum efficiency with a small budget, Burnley’s shortlist for central striker signings was only three names long.

Adam Hložek, the 20-year-old striker from Sparta Prague who had given Burnley all sorts of worries and pains in the Europa League.

Andrea Pinamonti, a 23-year-old striker from Inter Milan’s youth team who, like Tommaso Pobega, hadn’t secured a place in the first team and was constantly on loan.

Sebastiano Esposito, a 20-year-old striker from the same Inter Milan youth team who hadn’t properly broken into the first team and was also on loan.

The problem was that Andrea Pinamonti and Sebastiano Esposito were both under loan contracts until the end of the season, and Sparta Prague, who had topped their Europa League group ahead of Burnley, had no intention of selling their starting striker on the last day of the winter transfer market.

“Can’t we bring Andre Andersson earlier?”

Hyungmin brought up the Lazio striker who was scheduled to join in the summer on a free transfer, but Jonathan shook his head.

“Lazio also refused. Well, they probably weren’t too happy about us taking Andre.”

From Lazio’s perspective, they’d rather use one of their key players, even if he was a substitute, for the second half of the season and release him on a free transfer in the summer, rather than let him go for cheap at the last moment of the winter transfer market.

There was also the unstated fact that they were taking petty revenge for Burnley poaching a promising player they had nurtured.

“But it’s not easy for an offer like this to come again. You know Dortmund is in crisis, so they made this offer.”

Hyungmin sighed at Jonathan’s words.

BVB Dortmund.

Although they were always overshadowed by Bayern Munich, the absolute powerhouse of the German Bundesliga, they were still a renowned club, considered one of the giants in Europe.

They were famous for nurturing young talents and selling them on, as much as for the atmosphere of their home games created by their enthusiastic fans, but this season, they suddenly had a void in the central striker position.

After selling their main striker, Erling Haaland, to Manchester City in the previous summer transfer market, they signed Ajax striker Sebastien Haller as a replacement.

Originally, Sebastien Haller had performed brilliantly for Eintracht Frankfurt in the German Bundesliga, and before the 2019/20 season, he moved to West Ham in the English Premier League for a hefty sum of £36.5 million.

However, he was considered a failure after scoring only 10 goals in 48 games over two seasons.

Then, Ajax, the renowned Dutch club, signed Sebastien Haller for £19.25 million, where he properly revived under the guidance of coach Erik ten Hag.

In the 2020/21 season, he scored 13 goals in 23 games, warming up, and in the 2021/22 season, he scored a whopping 34 goals in 43 games, devastating the Eredivisie, the Dutch top league [the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands].

Dortmund signed Sebastien Haller for £26 million, but before the season even started, a malignant tumor was discovered, and he underwent surgery.

Fortunately, the treatment is progressing well, but it is difficult to estimate when he will be able to return to full strength.

Dortmund, who spent the first half of the season without a starting-caliber central striker while waiting for the return of their striker, finally decided to make reinforcements at the last minute of the winter transfer market after much hesitation.

A player who wouldn’t block the return of young prospects, youth players, and Sebastien Haller in the long term.

But someone who could immediately contribute to the Bundesliga title race in the short term.

After much deliberation, they decided on veteran striker Wout Weghorst, who was competing with Benjamin Šeško for a starting position at Burnley.

It was a very large sum to pay for signing an aging striker who was now 31 years old, but they seemed to have judged that age wouldn’t be a big problem because Wout Weghorst’s style didn’t rely heavily on speed.

Of course, the fact that there weren’t many clubs willing to sell a starting-caliber striker who could help Dortmund without alternatives at a time when the winter transfer market was only a few hours away also played a role.

However, from Burnley’s perspective, who had signed Wout Weghorst for £14 million in the 2021/22 winter transfer market, it was hard to refuse the opportunity to sell a veteran striker who was over 30 years old and make a profit of £16 million in just one year, and Dortmund sent the offer with that in mind.

The amount and the target were all appropriate.

The only inappropriate thing was the timing, with only a few hours left in the transfer market.

Jonathan, who had already received a phone call from BVB Dortmund’s sporting director, Sebastian Kehl, filled with apologies and pleas, couldn’t bring himself to blame them.

Therefore, while he could immediately reject Manchester United’s arrogant offer to sign Karim Adeyemi, he couldn’t reject this offer so easily.

“Haa… Honestly, it’s hard to let Wout go if we don’t have an alternative.”

Jonathan Landris nodded at Hyungmin’s words.

“That’s right. It’s hard to let him go if we don’t have an alternative. But you know…”

Hyungmin had a bad feeling about Jonathan’s strange expression.

“…After thinking about it carefully, it’s not that we don’t have an alternative.”

“…What is it?”

Hyungmin, wearing an expression that said he didn’t want to ask but had to because it was the last day of the transfer market where every minute was important, Jonathan gestured towards the outdoor training ground of the Banfield Training Center, where youth team training was taking place after the first team training in the morning.

“There’s a veteran striker there who doesn’t belong to any team, right?”

“Taejin?!”

“…Me?!”

Jung Taejin was summoned to the football director’s office in the middle of youth training.

While Hyungmin, wearing a displeased expression, was only looking at the ceiling, Jonathan briefly summarized the situation for Taejin.

“So, we want you to join the first team as a player-coach on a short-term contract until the end of this season. The position is as a backup for Benjamin Šeško.”

“Haa…”

Hyungmin sighed deeply next to Taejin, whose expression was a mixture of bewilderment, absurdity, curiosity, and interest.

“Uh… um…”

Taejin, who had been pondering for a moment, tilted his head.

“In broad terms, I am interested. But there’s the position of the Korea Football Association [governing body of football in South Korea], who sent me here, and more importantly, the position of FC Seoul, who released me as a free agent when I declared my retirement, that seems important?”

“Well, that’s true. Then, is there anything else you’re worried about?”

“Um… my friend’s thoughts?”

Jung Taejin, pointing at his friend next to him who was sighing at the thought of commanding his longtime high school classmate, chuckled, and Jonathan Landris responded with the same smile.

“I’ll take care of Kim, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Well, in that case, I’m in.”

Even though he had retired from his playing career, it didn’t seem bad to burn his last flame in the English Premier League one more time.

In fact, it’s natural that a player who retired just the day before yesterday would find it hard to suppress the boiling blood when seeing the players preparing for the game right next to him.

Moreover, this time, there was also the appropriate justification that it was due to the club’s situation, not his own request.

As Taejin readily agreed, having planned to stay at Burnley under the guise of coaching training until the end of the season anyway, Jonathan sighed in relief and checked his watch.

“Okay, then the transfer market closes in 8 hours, so you two can go about your business, and I’ll take care of the Korean side of things.”

At the polite expulsion order to leave so that he could proceed with rapid negotiations going back and forth between Korea and Germany, Hyungmin dropped his shoulders and left Jonathan Landris’s office, and Taejin, who followed behind, put his arm around his friend’s drooping shoulders.

Jonathan, who had picked up his phone to find the contact information for the Korea Football Association, heard the conversation between the manager and the player-coach as they walked down the hallway.

“Put me in the starting lineup for the next game!”

“Ugh! Get lost!”

***

“So, how exactly did you persuade the Korean side?”

Late at night.

Wout Weghorst’s medical test, who had urgently chartered a plane and flown to Germany, was successfully completed, and the transfer documents and player registration were all completed with the football associations of both countries and FIFA [Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the international governing body of association football].

Of course, the data on Jung Taejin received through the Korea Football Association and FC Seoul was also registered with the English Football Association and the Premier League Secretariat.

Helena, who had come to Jonathan Landris’s office to report on the finally concluded situation, asked with curiosity.

She was aware of the broad outline of the rapidly progressing situation, but she hadn’t asked what measures Jonathan had taken to persuade the Korea Football Association and FC Seoul, so as not to disturb Jonathan, who was running around busily.

“It’s simple.”

“So, what’s that simple thing?”

“We’ve decided to spend the pre-season in Korea this summer.”

“Hoo?”

Helena raised one eyebrow.

“We’ve always discussed it in management meetings, but we were planning to do a lot of marketing activities in East Asia while Hyungmin is at Burnley, right? Even if we reduce long-term dependence… There’s nothing that has a better marketing effect than doing a tour.”

Jonathan smiled.

“Usually, we travel around China, Korea, and Japan, so we play one game, or at most two games, in one country and then leave…”

“We?”

“We’ve decided to play a total of 4 games in Korea alone. One game against the K-League All-Stars [team composed of the best players from the K League, South Korea’s professional football league]. One game against FC Seoul. The other 2 games will be at the home stadiums of teams selected by the Korea Football Association.”

“Oho.”

FC Seoul has no reason to miss out on such a huge box office opportunity, and the Korea Football Association can not only generate box office revenue through the All-Star game but also choose two teams that want to play friendly matches with Burnley, so their influence over their affiliated clubs will inevitably be greatly strengthened in the short term.

“And FC Seoul has especially agreed to open their training center to us. So, we can stay comfortably in terms of training facilities and such.”

Usually, if you spend the pre-season in another country, you have to pay various incidental expenses directly, but if you bring in such box office success, most of the expenses are covered by the revenue.

And if you form good partnerships with local businesses or sign short-term marketing contracts, you can get very good terms for things like accommodation.

In particular, it is common practice to split the ticket revenue in half for friendly matches, and you can also earn a decent income by selling Burnley club merchandise.

“I need to talk to Mike and John. Tell them to prepare.”

“I’ve already told them. They were very excited.”

“Hehehe.”

Helena and Jonathan exchanged smiles at the sound of money flowing in.