"Barnet chairman Anthony Kleanthous, Leyton Orient chairman Francesco Becchetti, Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston, Hartlepool United chairman Peter Harris, Hull City chairman Assem Allam, Scunthorpe United CEO Andy Reid, and Cardiff City CEO Alan Lange."
Sitting in the owner's chair behind his desk, Lynn quietly listened to Tony Benn's report.
"Besides the chairn and CEOs of those seven clubs personally coming here to discuss player transfers, another eight clubs have sent faxes as well. They also hope to sign the players we no longer intend to use."
After thinking for a mont, Lynn said, "All right. Mo Yuan, you go and receive them."
Without another word, Mo Yuan turned and left the office, heading straight for the conference room to begin negotiations with the seven clubs.
Benn hesitated as if he wanted to say sothing.
In his view, for a eting of this level, Lynn should probably appear in person.
But Lynn clearly had no such intention, so Benn swallowed his words.
"Tony, go and make arrangents for the ten players who ca back. The reassignnt of coaching and scouting duties needs to be completed quickly. All newly promoted coaches will be assigned to the reserves and youth teams. The specific work arrangents can be discussed later, but the coaching courses should begin imdiately. The club will cover the costs."
"As for the new scouts, gather them for training as well. Let the club's original scouts handle that."
After Benn agreed, he asked, "And the students from Liverpool?"
"I'll receive them personally."
After Lynn finished speaking, the small "big three" of Swansea City split up into three directions.
They were not afraid of having too many matters to deal with. Whatever ca at them, they would handle it.
One by one, each issue was dealt with in an orderly manner.
In the conference room, the chairn and CEOs of the seven clubs sat in their seats.
Their tea had already gone a little cold.
The person they had waited for was Mo Yuan, not Lynn as they had expected.
To be honest, Swansea's "hospitality" left them rather dissatisfied.
After all, they were either chairn or powerful CEOs.
In their eyes, the newly appointed young man, Mo Yuan, was nothing more than an unknown junior.
Swansea were clearly slighting them.
But right now, they could only swallow their irritation.
Swansea, who had entered the promotion play-offs last season only to fall short in the end, still possessed a fairly decent squad by the competitive standards of the Third Division.
And Swansea's current turmoil allowed them to see an opportunity for profit.
Especially since the players could leave for free.
That was undoubtedly a huge temptation.
That was why these seven clubs had rushed here impatiently, and why the visitors were all boss-level figures like chairn or CEOs.
In truth, Mo Yuan had very little to negotiate with them.
All he needed to do was tell them that, for any player Swansea had transfer-listed, as long as they went through the formal process and submitted a transfer bid of £0, Swansea would approve it.
After that, they could openly discuss personal terms with the players.
As for whether the transfer could be completed, that would depend on the player's own decision.
Directly dismissing players or negotiating contract terminations with them would instead make the process more complicated and more likely to cause disputes.
It was better to simply transfer-list the players unwilling to change careers and beco coaches or scouts.
They could go wherever they liked.
As long as they found another club, Swansea would also be rid of these burdens.
After the chairn and CEOs of the seven clubs learned the situation, they were overjoyed.
They imdiately had their clubs fax transfer offers to Swansea.
As long as they were first-team players, they would bid for all of them.
Whether the deal could be done, whether the player would join, and whether their own club even truly needed him could be discussed later.
First, they needed to obtain the right to negotiate.
Otherwise, soone else might get there first.
This was simply a pie falling from the sky. It would be foolish not to pick it up.
Mo Yuan sat in the main seat of the conference room, holding the teacup he had only bought yesterday.
With one leg crossed over the other, he smoked leisurely.
He did not take the initiative to chat with the chairn or CEOs in the room.
These people all treated him like a green youngster.
Who knew how much contempt and disdain they felt for him deep down?
Before long, the club's female secretary, Ms. Layla, a slightly plump woman in her thirties, entered the conference room holding a stack of docunts.
The club's fax machine was almost exploding.
She placed the freshly printed faxes on the table in front of Mo Yuan. Mo Yuan smiled and thanked her.
Then he slowly picked up each docunt and read through it.
"Barnet Football Club's transfer application for six players at a bid of zero pounds. Approved."
After saying that, Mo Yuan tossed the fax aside and picked up the next one.
"Leyton Orient Football Club's transfer application for six players at a bid of zero pounds. Approved."
Each ti Mo Yuan picked up a fax, he said almost the sa thing.
That made the chairn and CEOs in the conference room beam with delight.
They were already rubbing their hands together, preparing for a new round of competition!
If every club's offer was approved, then the next battle would be over the players' personal terms.
Everyone thought all the offers would be approved.
But when Mo Yuan picked up the final fax, a strange smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
His eyes playfully glanced at Cardiff City CEO Alan Lange.
That made the previously confident Alan Lange's heart suddenly sink.
"Cardiff City Football Club's transfer application for six players at a bid of one pound. Rejected!"
Mo Yuan casually threw the fax straight onto the floor, then naturally spat on it.
The spit happened to land on the fax paper.
The other five club chairn and Scunthorpe United CEO Andy Reid were all stunned.
Aside from the club representatives present, the transfer faxes sent to Swansea by Third Division clubs and even lower-end Second Division clubs had all been offers of £0.
Swansea City CEO Mo Yuan had publicly announced that all of those bids were approved.
But only Cardiff City's bid was £1 per player.
Of course, £1 was higher than £0.
Yet it had been rejected by Mo Yuan.
And he had even made a gesture in public that carried obvious humiliation.
Alan Lange's expression changed abruptly.
He imdiately stood up and asked, "How is that possible?"
He had told his club that they could obtain the players for free. They only needed to bid £0 as a formality.
He wanted to pick up the fax from the floor and carefully check whether Mo Yuan had truly said the bid was £1.
But Mo Yuan had spat on it.
Mo Yuan was still sitting in the swivel office chair.
The chair turned, and he faced Alan Lange with a calm expression.
"Whether it's possible or not, go and verify it with Cardiff City yourself. What we received was a transfer bid of £1."
"You seem to have misunderstood sothing."
"Today, Swansea City are clearing house. Since you're already getting a bargain, you should at least learn basic respect."
"Was adding an unnecessary £1 bid ant to humiliate Swansea?"
"Take Cardiff City's £1 offer and get back to Cardiff."
After Mo Yuan finished speaking, he stood up and smiled at the others.
"All right. A pleasure doing business with you. What cos next is between you and the players. I still have work to do. Goodbye."
Mo Yuan turned and left.
The five chairn and Scunthorpe CEO Andy Reid secretly laughed to themselves.
Of course they were taking pleasure in Cardiff's misfortune.
Why had Cardiff City done this? One could figure it out with their backside.
They wanted to kick Swansea while they were down.
Cardiff was the capital of Wales.
In the English league system, apart from Swansea City and Cardiff City, other Welsh clubs such as Newport, Wrexham, Colwyn Bay, and rthyr City were all struggling in amateur leagues below the Third Division.
Cardiff City and Swansea City had a competitive relationship over who was the leading Welsh club.
This kind of internal rivalry existed everywhere.
Only, Cardiff City had probably been standing aside with a glass raised in celebration while watching Swansea City fall into "deep water and blazing fire," and at the sa ti wanted to rob them while the house was burning and add insult to injury.
Where in the world was there such a good thing?
The overconfident Cardiff City likely never expected that their attempt to slightly humiliate Swansea with a £1 bid would instead result in their own humiliation.
Most importantly, they had originally held the greatest advantage in recruiting this group of Swansea players.
They were close to Swansea.
It would have been more convenient for the players to transfer to Cardiff City.
Their living habits would not change much, they would still be in Wales, and all these factors would have given Cardiff the upper hand when competing with other clubs.
But they had ruined it themselves.
Alan Lange left Swansea filled with sha and anger.
Even thinking with his backside, he knew it must have been the club owner who had pointlessly added that £1 to the bid.
He could not criticize the owner, and the damage was already done.
He had been mocked by his peers in Swansea and humiliated by Swansea's young new CEO, Mo Yuan.
All he could do was grit his teeth and swallow it himself.
...
Tony Benn was working intensively in the large conference room on the first floor of the office building, handling the players' career transitions.
As for the ten players who had rebelled in the morning and returned in the afternoon, he did not take it to heart at all.
The club was being magnanimous and letting bygones be bygones. As the forr CEO and now director of football, he naturally would not be petty either.
According to Lynn's instructions, most of the players were willing to beco scouts.
That was because the coaching structure itself was already close to saturation.
Even if it expanded, at most another ten to fifteen people could be assigned to the reserves and youth teams.
The remaining thirty or so all switched roles and beca scouts.
The establishnt of the scouting system this month was the top priority.
First, they had to cover all of England.
Including the three scouts the club already had, these thirty-plus people would be enough to help Lynn establish a usable scouting system in the short term.
After that would co expansion across Europe, then Africa, South Arica, North Arica, and even Asia.
That afternoon, Benn completed the professional reassignnt of the players.
He also arranged rapid training over the next three days, after which they would officially begin work.
During the off-season, scouts did not get holidays in the sa way coaches did. Scouts still had to track and observe players.
On top of that, the treatnt Lynn offered the scouts was extrely good.
Not counting allowances and subsidies, their annual salary would be around £20,000.
That was already far more than they had earned in the past.
Precisely because of that, the troublemakers were only a minority.
Most players, who felt that playing football was tiring and also knew their talent was ordinary and their future uncertain, gladly accepted the new career arrangents.
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