U8 Fastest Reading Network () Barcelona in 2003 was arguably in the darkest period of their franchise history. The lack of championships for several consecutive years, the lack of funds in the team, and the poor performance of the team's players - the 2003 presidential election was their last straw.

The two sides of the campaign can be said to be very familiar to the players. On the one hand, there is the media tycoon Bassat, who is known for his prestige in Catalonia. On the other side is Laporta, who is not so prestigious, but who has a special status: he is Cruyff's personal lawyer.

Cruyff, as one of the top five figures in the history of world football and the soul of Dutch all-attacking and all-defensive football, is willing to give up his identity as a Dutch veteran and go to Barcelona to join, and declares in public that he loves Catalonia more than the Netherlands, and even married a Catalan wife, gave birth to a son and gave birth to a Catalan name, which is very popular with Catalans. In the Hall of Honour of FC Barcelona, the only non-Catalan who can have a place here is Cruyff, whose status in Barcelona speaks for itself.

But the problem is that his name cannot be relied upon by Laporta. Laporta's reputation is too small, and he is a lawyer by training, and he has never worked in football-related industries, and despite the strong support of Nike's former South American marketing director, Russell, people still don't trust him. Some people even directly pointed out that the reason why he ran for the president of Barcelona was because he wanted to pave the way for future political participation.

No fan likes politicians.

But at this time, the campaign platform that another candidate, Bassat, came up with at this time, which is also very interesting: he proposed to bring Pep Guardiola, who was purged to Serie A two years ago due to the decline of old age, to return to Barcelona to work in management, and at the same time build a team that belongs to the Catalans themselves based on La Masia.

If this proposal had been made ten years later, it would have been supported by absolutely everyone. But at this time, for Barcelona, who have not won the title for five years and are penniless, this suggestion is a little less appealing.

After all, in 2003, La Masia had no one who was famous enough to make Catalans proud. At this time, there is only one Ramasia child who can really be called a star, but Puyol. Xavi is still just an ordinary player in the team, Iniesta is still struggling in the second team, and the other talents of the class of '87 have not yet entered the senior team. Even the Barcelona fans themselves refuse to believe that Barcelona can rely on the success of the academy, and in their opinion, Barsat's words are more like a prevarication made by not wanting to pay money and not wanting to recruit Barcelona.

By contrast, Laporta's campaign has only one piece of advice, but it is moving enough.

"I'm going to bring David Beckham to everybody."

This promise made everyone favor him. Although Bassat has repeatedly stated that this is a fake, and that Beckham's technical characteristics are incompatible with Barcelona, there is still no one to support him.

Art Football? That's after winning. Now Barcelona is hungry. To be able to bring heartthrobs to Camp Nou is enough to get them excited.

Although Manchester United has also come forward to refute the rumors, how meaningful can this refutation be? Beckham can't even guarantee the main position this season, and it is imperative for Ferguson to purge him, saying that he will definitely stay in the team, which has no credibility at all.

"But you should know very well that we can't get Beckham. Let's not say that we have no way to contact Manchester United, and we can't afford the transfer fee alone. His worth is about 30 million, which is not a price we can afford. ”

In the conference room, Russell questioned the words in the newspaper, the former South American marketing director of Nike, who was one of Laporta's cronies at this time, "And he won't come himself, we don't have the ability to attract stars of that level now." ”

"I didn't think about buying an Englishman. What is the level of England players over the years? We don't need them. Laporta waved his hand disdainfully, "It's just to deceive the voters who only know how to go with the flow." ”

After a pause, Laporta added, "And you always have to remember that we can attract any star. The highest salary that Barcelona gives a player, even when we are in a slump, is in the top three in the world. ”

"Attracting people with money is inherently bad...... And such a lie may ruin your future. Russell shook his head and sighed, "Besides, Beckham is not a low-level player......"

Looking at Laporta's dismissive gods, Rusell knows that Laporta may be a fan, but he doesn't know enough about football. Russell knows that he can't convince him, but this is really an out-and-out fact: even if the Premier League is rough, there have been Ballon d'Or winners over the years, but Spain has not had a Ballon d'Or winner for 50 years. When you laugh at others, can't you look at yourself?

"You still don't understand how to get into politics." Laporta was unimpressed by Rusell's words, "As long as I have enough results by then, these lies now are not a problem at all." ”

"But how do you get results?" Russell smiled wryly, "Have you thought about this question?" ”

This question seems to be asked a little early, after all, the election has not really won, no one knows the final result, although Laporta's slogan is very appealing, but the problem is that Bassat's fame still gives him a big advantage, whether he can win, is still a big question.

However, this was also an internal meeting of the candidates, so when it came to this issue, they did not have too much politeness.

"Mr. Cruyff suggested that we sign Koeman as manager and then buy Aimar, Albelda and Ayala to form the soul of Barcelona......"

"Do you really think we should listen to someone who hasn't touched a ball in years?" Russell interrupted.

"Of course I won't trust him, he's old, and when it comes to athletics, of course the only one I can trust is you." Laporta made his choice without hesitation, as a politician, he has long developed a good ability to see what people say, "but after all, he is my former employer, the fans like him, he has status, it is not bad for us." ”

"But don't let him get involved in the transfer, okay? Barcelona can't afford to toss him. Russell's face was a little better, but he was still afraid that Laporta would not be able to make up his mind, "We can't afford to hire a coach Koeman, and the liquidated damages demanded by Ajax will be millions, where are we going to get the money?" ”

The price also made the muscles on Laporta's face twitch: for Barcelona now, paying millions for a coach is too much.

And there is another reason why Laporta doesn't like Koeman: Bassat also sees Koeman as the next coach of the team, which makes Laporta dissatisfied with Koeman.

"Do you have any plans?" Laporta decided to ask his old friend anyway.

"Buying people from South America. There are a lot of high-level players in South America right now, and we can bring them in for a little bit and for a lot of money. ”

Russell used to be the marketing director of South America, so he naturally also focused on South America.

"My idea was to buy Ronaldinho from Paris Saint-Martín. He can definitely fit our mission to rebuild the team. Speaking of which, Russell came to the god Jīng, "Of course, there are also some other personnel to be added, a good center forward, and some strong players in the midfield and backfield......"

"I've got a crush on Samuel Eto'o, what do you think of his quality?" Laporta interrupted Russell.

This suggestion made Russell frown, "In terms of strength, it is strong enough to meet our requirements, but are you sure you can bring him in?" It's not so easy to let Florentino go, Eto'o is a Real Madrid player, they won't let it go easily. ”

"Then give them a price they can't refuse." Laporta said categorically, "It's not just a matter of recruiting in sports, it's a good opportunity to fight a mortal enemy. ”

"I don't think Real Madrid will take us seriously now...... Okay, I don't care about this matter, but you have to help me explain it to Cruyff about Xiao Luo. He doesn't like Ronaldinho, but you can't let him spoil things – Aimar is not a good fit for Barcelona, so let him stay at Valencia. ”

Ronaldinho is a sign that Cruyff doesn't like – and Cruyff can't deny his quality, but the problem is that his professional attitude is just too bad. Cruyff, who was born as a player, was not satisfied with such a professional attitude.

But Russell felt that it might not be a problem if it was controlled with some control. He was not born as a professional footballer, but as a businessman, which made him look at things differently from Cruyff. Cruyff saw Xiao Luo's various behaviors of wasting talents, but Russell saw more of Xiao Luo's talent and ability, and he had more contact with South Americans in South America, and he also believed that as long as he used some small means, Xiao Luo's career attitude could be greatly improved.

"But doesn't that mean Manchester United have basically finalized his transfer?" Laporta hesitated.

"That's Manchester United overestimating their influence, leave it to me and I promise to give you a satisfactory answer."

Laporta nodded and agreed to Russell's request.

"Actually, there are two other good recruits." Russell remembered something again, "It's all from Monaco, one is Jiuli, who is very strong, but he is older, and there is no room for improvement, so the value will be very cheap." There is another new player on their team, Zhao. A Chinese, although Asian, is more technologically delicate than Europeans. I guess because he's an Asian player, if his country doesn't have a company to sponsor him, he shouldn't be worth much. ”

"If there is a sponsorship, we will not lose money...... China ......" Laporta seemed to remember something, "Didn't Catalonia United play a match against China in winter?" How is he doing? ”

"If you have time, watch the ball more. He didn't come to that game at all. Monaco's task is not easy, Catalonia is not a country after all, and that game is not a national team A-level event, so he did not come. ”

After saying this, something suddenly occurred to Russell, and it didn't seem good to mention in front of Laporta that Catalonia is not a country......

"Don't think about bringing him in." Sure enough, Laporta's words did not surprise Russell, "Chinese players, on some issues will definitely not agree with us. Barcelona is more than just a club and we shouldn't be accommodating people who are completely out of step with our philosophy. ”

It's just not in line with your idea of relying on Barcelona as a springboard for politics, right? Russell wanted to say something, but he held back.

Although this guy does have some bad things about politicians, he is already the best collaborator he can find.

"Well, we'll ignore him." Russell decided, "He can go wherever he likes, anyway, he has nothing to do with Barcelona." ”ω· u(8) Update the fastest reading network