Chapter 328: Three Generals in a Row (II)
By recovering loan players from Monaco, George has managed to strengthen the right wing-back position without spending a penny and has found a worthy replacement for Stephen Carr!
Although Tottenham's vice-president is still in good form this season, the Irishman's recurrent knee injury and 29-year-old age, as well as reports from Tottenham's laboratory, have reminded George that Karl is no longer the iron man he used to be when he debuted, and his physical function has begun to decline due to injuries. With Phil Neville no longer fit to continue playing on the wing, and Tottenham will face multi-fronts in the new season, George recalled McCann, a future right-sided talent, not only to ensure Tottenham's bench depth at right-back, but also to avoid Karl from suddenly dipping his competitive form in the middle of the season or lingering on the sickbed for a long time and thus pit the team.
Able to take on the fitness of an entire right flank, excellent big-picture vision and extremely well-rounded ability...... McConn, who is at his peak, can definitely be called the world's No. 1 right-back!
You must know that even Alves was at his peak, and in the Brazilian national team at that time, he could only be pressed by McCone on the bench and waiting for an opportunity. It can be seen from this that Mai Kong's strength at the peak is really strong!
The reason why McConn's form has dropped sharply since 2010 is mainly because the Brazilian was already old at the time and not physically fit enough to take on the right side of the line as he did when he was younger. This, combined with the fact that after winning the treble, McConn's aggressiveness began to wane, and his focus on the game declined, resulting in the Brazilian's performance being much worse than before. Now, just a year after landing in Europe, McCone clearly doesn't have this problem - he is still a hard-working and dedicated young man, and he has not yet developed the stinky habit of cheating or slacking off in competition.
Regarding McConn's return to White Hart Lane, Monaco coach Didier Deschamps can be said to be very unhappy. Although he is well aware that with the club's current business policy, Monaco is destined to become a reserve talent training base for the giants, but an approach like Tottenham Hotspur is really a big blow to Deschamps' work enthusiasm.
After a season of hard work, it was not easy to cultivate a group of players, but they were taken back by Tottenham for free, but they didn't even get any transfer fees and benefits on their side, and anyone would feel unbalanced in their hearts!
Therefore, in order to appease the dissatisfaction in Deschamps' heart, he can develop young players for Tottenham in Monaco with peace of mind. Following the recall of McConn, George sold ownership of Mereles and Luka Modric to the Ligue 1 club for €25 million as compensation for Monaco. Of course, like Kompany and Villa before him, George also set a buy-back clause for the two players, stipulating that Tottenham could buy back the two from Monaco at a negotiated price over the next two years!
Compared to directly loaning a player out for training, setting a buy-back clause is not easy to make the club that accepts the player feel that they are doing someone else's wedding dress for nothing, and is willing to invest more energy and resources in these players - anyway, as long as these players play they will definitely earn at that time, the only question is how many euros can be made from it.
Although this will increase the cost of Tottenham's recruitment a lot, with George's super-rich man behind him, Tottenham can completely ignore this extra part of the financial expenditure. Not to mention, it's not worth the cost compared to the goal of training young players!
Deschamps should be quite satisfied with the compensation given by George, at least judging from the information George has received so far. After that, Deschamps did not ask the Monaco management to end the partnership with Tottenham, nor did he advise the club to look for players in the transfer market who could replace the roles of Luka Modric and Meireles.
Just when Paratici and Marotta were making deals with the transfers of McCone and Larsson respectively, there was good news from Robson Sr. Leeds United, mired in financial crisis, have agreed to sell their young winger Aaron Lennon to Tottenham Hotspur for £1 million!
Frankly, George asked Robson Sr. to handle Lennon's transfer just by hand. Because Robson Sr. was preparing to leave for Southampton to negotiate the transfer of two young players, Gareth Bale and Theo Walcott - because Tottenham Hotspur's youth team has been in excellent form this season, thanks to the joint efforts of Thomas Tuchel and Robson Sr. to win the English Youth Premier League trophy, so as a reward, the Spurs Hotspur youth director Robson Sr. was given the power to use a certain amount of money every year to bring in the young players he was interested in.
As a result, Robson Sr.'s trip to Leeds was far more rewarding than he could have imagined. In addition to George's request for Lennon, the boss also paid an additional £1 million transfer fee to take two youngsters from the Leeds United Academy - Fabian Delphi and Danny Rose - and brought them to London together!
In this way, counting the Walcott and Bale signed by the old Robson from Southampton, as well as Andy Carroll, Joe Hart, Bertrand, Sturridge and others who have already played in the Tottenham youth team, before you know it, the lineup of the Tottenham youth team has been terrifying!
One may wonder why Lennon was brought in from Leeds United when there were three wide players of Arjen Robben, Cristiano Ronaldo and Arshavin, and former England international Darren Anderton on the bench?
In fact, the reason why George chose to buy Lennon at this time is because Anderton has told him that he intends to announce his retirement at the end of the season, although he finally changed his mind and agreed to play for another year under George's persuasion, he still needs to plan ahead and prepare for Anderton's departure in advance, and on the other hand, because Tottenham is indeed lacking a wide attacking player now. Or rather, a stunned young man who can dribble the ball and force an impact on the opponent's defense!
"Sick Cat" was indeed a good player in the full-back position when he was young, otherwise he would not have been able to suppress the famous McManaman in the England national team for a long time, and it was not until Beckham's rise that he gave up the position of the main right midfielder. But now, at the age of thirty-three, Anderton has lost the spirit and vigor of his youth under the erosion of injuries and years. While he can still be a sporadic performer this season, it's obviously impractical to put Anderton on that role.
As for Arjen Robben, Cristiano Ronaldo and Arshavin, although their superb ball intelligence and excellent individual ability and all-round skills have allowed the three to become first-class presences in this position, the problem is that they are too smart and well-rounded to play such a relatively simple role on the field. In contrast, a stunned young man like Lennon is more likely to achieve George's tactical goals and play a surprise role!
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