In Hydward's eyes, the manager's aura weighed heavily on his head, and while he buried his fear under a mask of composure, he was still present and growing as the transfer window opened. During the day, Ward was immersed in his work, preparing for the middle of summer, and at night he tossed and turned, and the sound of dripping water in the bathroom made him sleepless all night.

Ward is fearful of Enyeama, and the club's reticence has been puzzling since Portsmouth offered to buy him out on loan. He's scared of Icardi, the club has received at least two dozen tentative offers in the past two days, and his damn agent is getting more ambiguous by the day. Fearful of Riyad Mahrez, Rudiger and others, he did not announce the players' holidays because Campbell still has a retirement ceremony, but several have been "missing" and replaced by agents who say "I and my players need to negotiate XXX with your club". Hydward hated agents, or rather disgusted, but he couldn't do anything about each of them, so he forced himself to put those thoughts behind him. You have to leave the power to the rest and then convince those who want to go, Hyde? Ward, he must be as strong as steel now, because the war has just begun.

………………

The atmosphere in the office was relatively congenial at first.

Until we talk about our plans for this summer...

"We can't win the final, we can't lose the transfer," Sensibile said.

"Can I ask where these agents came from, half a year ago I remember most of them were the parents or brothers of the players." Campbell, who had just been promoted to coach, was clearly not ready to face such a headache.

"You have to ask Hydeward, if we were just a promotion team, we would spend two months buying four or five people to get ready for the Premier League, and then stay home and figure out how much money we're going to get next season, and we can pay off the club's debt in the first few seasons and keep our finances healthy. This guy did a good job," Sensibile pointed at Ward, "we eliminated Manchester United, Sunderland, Arsenal in the FA Cup, and we played Liverpool for 90 minutes, and the whole of England recognises our players. Vultures smell carrion, sharks smell blood. More than half of Portsmouth's players have changed agents during the FA Cup, with Mendes, Raiola, Hobrachin, Jonathan and Volcker ......"

"What a familiar name, it's in the nature of a coach to chase wins." Campbell began to rummage through the player contracts on the table, "three years" he recited, "this is five years", a little annoyed and confused, and flipped through a few more copies, "The years are not short, this kind of transfer is not easy, obviously they will still join us, these are good guys." ”

"Really?" Sensibile asked rhetorically, throwing a few of those contracts on the table casually, "I don't dare to say, don't expect anything from someone, you won't be surprised." ”

"Sensibilai, they were all my comrades in the past, and I don't allow you to speculate so maliciously about my past teammates." Campbell stood up, and the office smelled of gunpowder. Heidward sat on the sidelines but didn't say a word, holding an official Arsenal commemorative pen from Arsene Wenger in his hand, flipping back and forth.

"Saul, not everyone takes the contract and the commitment they make seriously, according to international practice, the agent usually takes 10% of the contract amount of the player, sometimes it is 10% of the transfer transaction plus 5% of the player's salary, a very conscientious price, of course this is nothing, but you must not treat these guys as your own."

"So you think there's a question mark over everyone's loyalty? "Sir," Campbell said in a heavy tone.

"Thor, are you sure you want to talk to me about loyalty?" Sencibile spoke sharply, and deliberately poked at Saul's pain points, everyone knew about "Judas", "Didn't you notice that there seem to be a few fewer people on the team?" ”

……

"Okay, that's enough." Ward finally intervened, "Maybe the players are good guys, but I'm not sure if their agents are the same, maybe some of them are cautious, some are ambitious, but the first priority is that we can't let the crows dismember the team" His tone was a little rushed, "Portsmouth is not a place for banquets. ”

Sensibile shrugged at Thor, but spoke to Ward, "That's right, and rest assured, Raiola knows that too." ”

Campbell's first working meeting was unpleasant, and after seeing this guy's attitude, he suddenly felt that he didn't like the Italian who worked for the team, no wonder there was never any member of the coaching staff in the place where there was Sensibile!

He took out his mobile phone and called Rudiger, who was "missing", and the call was quickly connected, and Rudiger, nicknamed the orangutan on the other end of the phone, first apologized and apologized again for not attending the captain's retirement ceremony, and when the sensationalism was over, Saul then asked, "Where are you?" At first, he explained that he was training in the training camp of the German U20 national team.

"The national team? I never know! ”

Rudiger on the other end of the phone looked excited, but pretended to be modest, "I also recently learned that the national team is still early, but it is a training camp, and the German Football Association has recruited nearly 40 players to investigate." ”

"That's amazing, too!"

The two talked for a while, until they hung up the phone, and Ward's face was as calm as ever, obviously knowing about it, and so did the damn Mr. Director.

After recalling who hadn't shown up at the retirement ceremony, Campbell asked, "Ward, what about Mahrez?" I didn't see him either. ”

Hydward didn't speak, Sensibile pushed his glasses to pick up, "I didn't get any mention of Mahrez, and I didn't say why he wasn't at the club" He looked annoyed, "I sent at least a dozen calls to his agent, and sent countless emails, I think Eighty percent of Raiola is too lazy to reply, he often does this, and he has a good reputation in the circle, I believe this is not the last time." Saul, to these big predators, we're nothing, they just tell them what they want us to know, and it's often very little, because we're in the Premier League and we're a small club. ”

You're only telling me what you want me to know, and even less! Campbell looked at the sincere face and felt the urge to throw a punch at it.

In just a few minutes, he was a little tired, the player and the coach really have a completely different look, when you are a player, your enemy is in front of you, all you have to do is to knock down, when you coach, is your enemy still in front of you? It's not the same at all.