Dad was a Genius - Chapter 89



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My Dad Was a Genius Episode 089

For a scout, the most thrilling thing is seeing a player they brought in for a cheap price become a key player for the team and play a big role.

And scouts are like experts in stocks.

Buying a specific item at a low price and selling it at a high price.

This could be called the role of a scout.

Doing so requires incredibly detailed analysis.

How many nights did I stay up analyzing players in my last life?

Well, that time wasn’t bad.

Because it was fun to analyze and understand the players.

But now there is no need for that.

I am a regressor.

He is a person from a long time ago.

Of course, I don’t know much about world history.

But I know which players are going to make big plays and which teams are going to win the championship.

What that means is that I know of superstars who are at their lowest point and who are not getting much attention from people yet.

One of them is Mohamed Salah.

An EPL and Liverpool legend and an Egyptian pharaoh.

Originally, when you think of Liverpool, Gerrard comes to mind first, but later on, Salah comes to mind first.

He became Liverpool’s all-time top scorer, played a huge part in Liverpool’s title wins, and showed outstanding performances in the Champions League, becoming a living legend for Liverpool.

But the present Salah was the complete opposite of the glory of the distant future.

The team Salah currently plays for is Chelsea.

Chelsea had spent a lot of money on him as a promising player, but his form was so bad that Mourinho benched him and did not even start him.

Then, Chelsea wanted to sell Salah to somewhere, so they contacted several teams, but in the end, no one took him, so they let him waste the entire 2014-15 season.

In that way, Salah was gradually forgotten, but in the 15-16 season, he was finally loaned to Serie A and met coach Spalletti at AS Roma, and once again showed signs of a revival.

And with manager Klopp actively recruiting him to Liverpool, the EPL pharaoh was born.

When I see things like this, I really can’t predict what will happen to people even an inch ahead.

Who would have dared to imagine that Salah, who was abandoned by Mourinho, the so-called master, would become a legend of Liverpool? Perhaps even Salah himself did not know.

So, for a soccer player, skill isn’t the only thing that matters.

You have to find a good director and team members with good synergy.

There are countless promising talents coming out every year, but not a single one of them survives for this very reason.

No matter how talented you are, if you don’t meet a coach and colleagues who can bring out 100% of your abilities, you will never be able to spread your wings.

Soccer is such a complex sport.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Cha Seong-eun, the manager of Wolves.”

“Yes. My name is Alex, Mohamed Salah’s manager.”

I came across Mohamed Salah, still young and green at the age of 22.

It was clearly different from the face I remember of the 40-year-old.

He looked at me with a suspicious look and said,

“Before we begin… … there’s one thing I’d like to ask you.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“I heard that you became manager of Wolves without a P-class licence. Is that true?”

“Yes, it’s true. Since we were in the second division, I was given full authority by Richard, who is now the chairman, and although I was a coach, I actually led the team like a manager.”

“So the news was all true.”

“Yes, it’s all true.”

Sala’s face was slightly distorted.

I thought I knew roughly what kind of mindset he had when he came here just by looking at his attitude.

I guess he thinks he’s not the type of talent that a team like Wolves can afford.

But that’s not wrong.

If you think about Salah’s future, he will become a legend in the EPL in the future.

But not now.

Chelsea’s Salah was nothing more than a garbage striker following Torres.

“Player Mohamed. I know how you feel.”

“yes?”

“You must be ignoring Wolves very much. I understand. The sense of shame must be indescribable when you suddenly come down from a strong team like Chelsea to Wolves.”

“… … .”

Silence meant yes.

“That’s why you probably want to lower your sights a little and join a team that is at least in the upper-middle tier, if not Chelsea. But you can’t do that right now. No team will want to take you, Salah.”

Then his manager Alex raised his voice.

“What are you trying to do now? Saying something like that to our players… …!”

“I’m telling you the truth. As a manager, you know that if your player rejects our offer from Wolves, he will have to waste the entire 2014-15 season at Chelsea. It would be a huge blow to the player’s career.”

Of course, if you get through this period well, Sala will gradually come back to life.

But rather than wasting that precious time and coming back a long way, I wanted to give him a chance to spread his wings at Wolves.

“If you want to go to a top-tier team, but no one will accept you, why don’t you come to Wolves instead? Why don’t you take the lead and make our team better than a top-tier team?”

“… … !”

There, Sala’s eyes shook for the first time.

At this point I seized the momentum and pushed even harder.

“I won’t say anything about winning the league or the cup. But I promise you this. If you come to Wolves, I will help you personally destroy Chelsea, which abandoned Salah.”

“!?”

Sala’s eyes shook once more.

“That’s all I have to say. Then I’ll get up first. I’ll wait for your call.”

After saying that, I was the first to get up from my seat.

… … Did I push you too hard?

Rather, I thought that it might cause resentment and make Sala not come.

But what’s done has already been done.

Besides, I believed in Sala’s ambition.

The dream and ambition to definitely stand at the top.

Then you will definitely make the right choice.

No. I wanted to believe that.

* * *

“… … Huh. What a funny guy.”

Alex glanced at Sala.

Cha Sung never expected that that Asian man would speak so directly from the first time they met.

Sure, Salah’s attitude was a bit bad, but it’s strange for someone who just became a manager to act like that.

“Sorry. I arranged a useless meeting. If I offended you, please forgive me.”

“No. It’s okay.”

But Sala’s expression was not good.

It’s a face that looks like it’s been deeply shocked by something.

“Should I… go to Wolves?”

“What, what did you say? Are you serious?”

“You heard what he said. He said no top-tier team would call me anyway. So he said I should come to Wolves and take them to the top-tier.”

Those were certainly encouraging words for the players.

But Sala was shocked by something else besides that.

“I know I’m really being a jerk, but the last thing that director said keeps coming back to my head.”

I will help you destroy Chelsea, who abandoned you.

Salado knows too.

That the director said that to change his mind.

But that really struck Sala’s heart hard.

“I knew after hearing that manager’s words. I didn’t want to run away from Chelsea. I wanted revenge. I wanted to show you guys that I, who you abandoned, actually had this much talent.”

It was a childish and self-deprecating feeling, but Alex thought it was enough.

He patted Sala’s back, who was bowing her head.

“I guess everyone thinks so. Who wouldn’t want revenge on the team that dared to abandon them? Don’t be ashamed of that, Salah.”

“thank you.”

“So… … you really plan on going on an adventure with Wolves?”

“To be honest, at first I absolutely did not want to go.”

But after meeting a man named Cha Seong-eun, my thoughts changed.

Especially after hearing the last words, Salah’s heart was greatly shaken.

Wolves.

Wolves.

Do you really think I can do well there?

But Salah didn’t have much of a choice.

Go to Wolves and see them through to a top-half finish, or just waste a year at Chelsea?

There was only one of the two.

And Cha Seong-eun promised that he would definitely destroy Chelsea.

“… … I don’t think there’s any need to think about it any further.”

Salah made up his mind.

He also joined the Wolves Pack, which had entered the first division.

* * *

Salah gave me the answer that very day.

He decided to join Wolves and I went straight into negotiations with the Chelsea board.

Chelsea bought Salah from FC Basel for 10 million pounds (17 billion won).

But since he didn’t produce any significant results, they kept putting him up for sale, and since he didn’t sell, the price gradually went down.

Then, when our Wolves expressed their interest in signing Salah, they asked for 5 million pounds, half of the original price.

It seemed as if they had slashed the price by half, fearing that we might run away if we heard the high price.

Chelsea rushed to sign the contract, fearing it would fall through, and Salah became a Wolves player just days after we made our intention known.

Five million pounds.

About 8.5 billion in our money.

It was the moment when the EPL legend, who could not be recruited even for hundreds of billions of won, was purchased at an incredibly low price.

I barely suppressed the urge to jump around and scream with joy.

The thrill of buying the best player at the lowest price was indescribable.

“So then what’s next… … .”

However, in order to survive in this jungle-like EPL, recruiting just one player was out of the question.

Moreover, several Wolves players have been sold to other teams, so they need to strengthen their squad quickly.

There are conditions for doing so.

Players who are already known and verified in the EPL are not allowed.

Their transfer fees are so high that they could be in breach of FFP rules.

So who should we recruit?

We need to find players like Salah now whose value people don’t yet know.

And I’ve already set my next targets.

“So you’re saying you’re going to buy all the players here?”

“Yes. Probably most of them are unknown players.”

“That’s right. Except for one or two, these are all names I’ve never heard of before. But is that okay? Aren’t they all prospects with little experience? Still, it would be better to bring in at least one proven mid-level player to make an impact.”

At first, the gentleman was very nervous that I would spend money lavishly, but now he was worried about me, saying that I could only afford to spend this much.

All the players I had on my recruiting list were cheap.

But in a few years, each person will boast a ransom of over a hundred billion won.

I was trying to buy those players for cheap and make this Wolves the best.

“You don’t have to worry about impact. When the season starts, those players will make an impact that will shake the whole of England.”

Then, Chairman Richard burst into laughter.

“If someone else had said something like that, I would have dismissed it as nonsense, but strangely enough, when you say it, I believe it all. Hehe.”

Richard signed every proposal without hesitation.

He handed the proposal back to me and said:

“Okay. Come on, let’s make Britain, no, the whole world, astonished. Director Cha.”

It was Chairman Richard who emphasized the word ‘director’.

“Yes, Chairman.”

As he says, once the season starts, the world will be amazed to see the stars taking flight at Wolves.