Dad was a Genius - Chapter 51
Only Noblemtl
My Dad Was a Genius Episode 051
I looked over the proposals that came to me.
The proposal from Wolverhampton Wanderers, currently in the EPL Second Division, went something like this:
‘You, become our partner.’
But here, being a colleague meant being a coach.
You’re telling someone who’s already a manager at a K-League club to become a low-level coach.
It was a ridiculous suggestion.
But if I dreamed of the world stage, this was a process I had to go through.
It’s impossible to become an EPL manager right now.
Because I don’t have a UEFA coaching licence.
So what are the requirements to obtain a European Football Manager License?
Must have coaching experience in an EPL team for at least 2 years.
That was the ‘minimum’ requirement.
After that, they go through a number of tests and also check one by one whether this person is truly suitable as a coach. If even one of these numerous conditions is not met, UEFA refuses to issue a license.
The outskirts of soccer were a very difficult wall for Asians to overcome.
That’s why I couldn’t overcome that wall in my previous life.
Knowing that high wall, Wolverhampton made me an offer.
First, I will actively support him when he takes the license test after working as a coach at Wolves.
I guess it was because I was young that I made this suggestion.
“Not now.”
The season is still in full swing.
And it was a very important time.
In this situation, it is absurd to suddenly fly to England.
I covered the proposal.
They seemed to want an answer quickly, but I didn’t have an answer I could give them right away.
“Director, I brought the list you mentioned.”
Besides, I’m busy with other things right now.
So much so that I even forgot that I had received an offer from the EPL.
“Is this the scout list for this time?”
“Yes. I have been looking at players from all over Asia and Brazil.”
I have been traveling around several countries for several months, getting to know everyone from prospects to veterans in detail.
Especially since I know well the abilities of scout Kim Soo-han, I trusted the report he gave me.
Also, since I worked as a scout in my past life, there were some players that I recognized.
“If you are considering recruiting, I would recommend a left-back, which is currently lacking in our squad. And sometimes, there are many talented players in the defensive midfield position that the manager is considering.”
“okay.”
“There were quite a few attackers who could be used as short-term mercenaries for one year. Of course, they were a bit more expensive than existing K-League players.”
“yes.”
“So what I recommend is to first hire three mercenaries. One defender, one midfielder, and one striker.”
“… … .”
I nodded silently.
Scout Kim Su-han said after seeing me like that.
“Are you looking to recruit more than three people?”
“Three people is probably not enough. The tactics that Cheonan is currently using are really draining our physical strength. That’s why we’ve been doing special physical training. But that has its limits. We’ve been on the thin side from the beginning.”
The downside of gegenpressing is its physical strength.
It may be good at the beginning of the season, but as time goes on, the tactic itself starts to eat away at the players and lead to injuries.
So this tactic had the disadvantage of requiring players to prepare for a long time and frequently replacing players.
In addition, the problem was that the league started not long after I became the Cheonan manager, so training was a bit lacking, and above all, there were not many players that could be replaced, so it was difficult.
Still, it would be right to say that the game has been miraculously played this far thanks to the players gritting their teeth and holding on.
“So there are four people?”
“hmm…….”
“Five people?”
“… … .”
“W-Wow, there really are 6 of them?!”
I looked at the surprised face of Scout Kim Soo-han and smiled silently.
* * *
The summer transfer market opens in the K League.
It could be said that this was the time to boldly hire new players to fill the lacking depth and compete for starting positions and further enhance their abilities.
There are also occasional players who try to move to rival teams during the transfer market.
Of course, from the club’s standpoint, they cannot send players away, so they deliberately refuse to negotiate, but at that time, there were players who protested by not attending training.
The transfer market has always been noisy and chaotic, but it has always been a lot of fun for third parties.
But on the eve of the summer opener, ominous rumors began to circulate among soccer officials.
-Cheonan is prepared to spend hundreds of billions in this transfer market.
-Cheonan has finished preparing to take all the players from strong teams such as Seoul, Ulsan, and Suwon.
-Cheonan, which has earned a lot of money this season due to the effectiveness of the transfer fee, plans to recruit all the K-League star players and make Cheonan the Real Madrid of Korea!
It was an outrageous thing for club officials.
I don’t know if the season is over.
It’s still the middle of the season, and they’re thinking of bringing in star players for a lot of money!
“There must be something called Cheonan Dori. Could it be that they would do something as crazy as the rumors say?”
“That’s true. It’s not even confirmed yet, but I think we’re just getting excited.”
“Besides, what Cheonan needs is not starting players but backup players. Why would they want to take starting-level players?”
But when you think about it logically, it doesn’t seem like Cheonan would try to forcefully recruit him.
So the people involved also thought it was just a rumor and tried to pass it over lightly.
but,
“Are these guys really crazy?”
“You really submitted a recruitment offer?”
They had forgotten.
Cheonan is originally a team that is not in their right mind.
Wasn’t this a team with a great deal of shamelessness that appointed the chairman’s youngest son as a parachute coach?
True to its team color, Cheonan submitted a proposal to recruit ace players from each team, including Pohang, Ulsan, and Seoul.
“Absolutely not!!”
“That’s nonsense!!”
“Reject them all and hit them all!!”
But there was one problem.
Even though the club can refuse a contract, if the player doesn’t like it, trouble will arise.
“If Lee Hyeong-gon is not sent to Cheonan, we will go on strike.”
“What, what?!”
“Coach. Lee Jae-hyung wants to go to Cheonan, so there’s chaos right now, asking for a contract.”
Cheonan is no longer the team that everyone rejected.
They are currently a strong contender for the title, and are led by the best coach in South Korea, Cha Seong-eun.
Naturally, as a player, you can’t help but want to play under the best coach and on the best team.
Of course, that wasn’t the only reason the players were making such a fuss.
“Ha-. No matter how I look at this, it looks like they’re protesting for a salary increase.”
“Yes. I felt that way too. I guess this is an opportunity to raise my value.”
Football is ultimately a business.
In the end, players do it for the money.
That’s why they don’t hesitate when they get a chance to increase their value.
“What about the other teams?”
“Other teams are in similar situations right now. The players who received offers from Cheonan are all protesting. It seems like they are paying attention to the fans’ feelings, but it would be a shame to just blow this opportunity.”
Are you willing to risk being cursed at by fans and use Cheonan as an excuse to raise your salary?
It was a headache.
But if we didn’t do it, there was a high possibility that the player would really miss training and have a negative impact on the coming season.
In the end, the club had no choice but to listen to the players.
There was a need to appease them by pushing for a new contract, even if it cost a lot of money.
“But no matter how I look at it, it seems like we got beat up by Cheonan… … ?”
“We spent all our time trying to keep our internal people, so in the end we didn’t even get to recruit anyone?”
“Now that I think about it, it feels like we got stabbed in the back of the head.”
Club officials were astonished to see Cheonan only submitting a recruitment proposal and taking no action.
By the time I realized that I had fallen for Cheonan’s scheme and wasted all my money and not being able to recruit the right people, it was already too late.
* * *
“and…….”
“This is truly amazing.”
“How is it that in soccer and the transfer market, everything goes exactly as the manager says?”
The front office staff and coaches burst into cheers as news about the club came in one after another.
As I said, each club was busy renewing contracts to keep players who were struggling internally.
Also, players with little time left on their contracts immediately signed new contracts when they showed signs of moving to Cheonan.
“It would be right to say that all the other strong teams except Cheonan are in chaos right now. Everyone is in chaos trying to sort things out internally. The atmosphere among the players is also tense.”
“Wow. I wonder how the director is so good at this kind of psychological warfare. If someone saw you, they would think you’ve been a director for decades.”
I was just doing what the European powerhouses often do.
To create confusion in the transfer market and to induce internal divisions, strong teams deliberately spread leaflets to the media claiming that they plan to sign players from rival teams.
And by actually submitting a recruitment proposal, he is shaking up both the club and the player at the same time.
Then, the club will have to make every effort to keep the player, and the team’s atmosphere will be murky.
Of course, this also had its drawbacks.
The clubs that were properly treated by us are angry and are submitting retaliatory recruitment offers in the same way.
“But we don’t really need to worry. Everyone’s loyalty to the director is so high.”
“Especially, even though a lot of recruitment offers came in promising Kang Dae-ho an enormous salary, he didn’t even look at it.”
“On the other hand, when we submit a recruitment proposal, everyone signs saying they’re okay with any team… … This is really. Hahaha.”
The front desk staff relieved all the sorrow they had been experiencing.
Even before the season, Cheonan was chosen as a team that absolutely no one wanted to go to, and when I was actually putting together the club’s squad, I had a hard time recruiting players.
But now it’s different.
Now Cheonan has become a team that everyone wants to come to.
“It’s all thanks to the director.”
“That’s right. Everyone comes here just to see the director’s name.”
The reason I’ve been working hard to build my profile by appearing on TV and filming commercials is not simply to make money.
Even though I worked so hard, it was nothing compared to the wealth that the Taesan Group family had accumulated. So why did I work so hard on broadcasting?
It was to make sure that my name and the Cheonan team’s brand were firmly established in the public’s mind.
Cheonan, where the best players in the country gather.
And the director who leads them is Cha Seong-eun.
If we just continuously instill this much through the media, people will naturally come to perceive Cheonan as a strong team.
Of course, there is also the need for appropriate league performance to follow.
However, since league performance alone was not enough, the power of the media was utilized.
Thanks to this, our Cheonan is receiving unprecedented love and is growing into a club that all promising domestic soccer players dream of.
“Then let’s quickly finish up what we have to do.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Let’s get moving right away!”
Now that we’ve succeeded in shaking up the club, all we have to do is pick up the players without any competition.
For the league championship with the highest points total ever.