I Am Scouted by Real Madrid

Chapter 243: Chapter 2: Transfer (Part 2)

Real Madrid is like a volcano that could erupt at any moment, with problems arising from the coach, players, and executives, causing the whole club to feel somewhat fearful.

Compared to last season’s successful preseason, everything this season seems to have become difficult.

They missed the preseason trophy and even lost the Spanish Super Cup.

The opponent was Valencia, where Juan Mata plays.

Last season, Juan Mata and David Silva were known as Valencia’s twin stars, leading the team to win the Spanish King’s Cup.

Perhaps because he saw the potential success at Valencia, Juan Mata chose to stay at Valencia rather than return to Real Madrid.

”Everything feels terrible this season.”

In Chen Zhong’s dormitory, Negredo, Granero, Callejon, Parejo, Torres, and other Castilla players gathered. The La Liga season opener was about to take place, and Real Madrid was the last to play in this round.

Their first-round opponent would be Deportivo La Coruña.

Three months have passed, and now Real Madrid’s team roster is stable.

Robinho transferred to Manchester City at a record price of 42 million euros, which can be broken down to 40 million euros plus a 2 million euro add-on clause.

The 40 million euros were paid upfront, while the 2 million euros were contingent upon Manchester City qualifying for next season’s Champions League.

Robinho didn’t go to his desired Chelsea, and Real Madrid could never satisfy that wish. In fact, once he revealed everything publicly before the media.

Joining Chelsea became an illusory dream, to preserve the club’s dignity.

Whether it’s 40 million euros or 42 million euros, it’s already an impressive price. Even Chelsea stated Robinho wasn’t worth that amount, yet Robinho became the highest-priced player sold in Real Madrid’s history.

There was also an incident where Manchester City, upon completing the Robinho transaction, sought the transfer of Van Nistelrooy, which was even reported by Marca.

Manchester City expressed willingness for Real Madrid to name any price on a blank check.

Such an offer was reluctantly rejected by Calderon.

He understood what Manchester City was trying to do—they wanted to replicate Real Madrid’s past feat by poaching top players from rival teams to humiliate them.

Actually, Real Madrid was already prepared for this season’s transition. They planned for Van Nistelrooy and Negredo to rotate, followed by a smooth handover in the second season.

On these matters, Real Madrid seemed relatively stable, but once you looked at the final results in the transfer market.

Real Madrid not only made no significant investments but also profited considerably, selling more players than they brought in.

And the team’s top signing cost merely 15 million euros.

You would sense something was amiss, to the point where newspapers from the Catalonia Region began reviving past grudges from the previous season.

In a recent interview, Schuster exacerbated internal conflicts by stating: Negredo, when transferring to Real Madrid, was informed by Mijatovic’s side, following talks with the coach, that he would gradually become the team’s main center forward.

Whether to appease Van Nistelrooy or for other reasons.

Accustomed to interviews, Schuster directly expressed his appreciation for Van Nistelrooy, stating: ”Van Nistelrooy is an incredibly talented striker, and we saw his outstanding performance last season.”

”No one can replace his role at Real Madrid.”

This was unprofessional.

This season, Real Madrid even sold Soldado to Getafe, with Negredo taking on the number 9 jersey.

Negredo came to Real Madrid because he was promised he would gradually replace Van Nistelrooy.

They even instructed Chen Zhong to communicate with Negredo in the final stages of the transfer to ensure a positive response, before Chen Zhong gave Negredo his assurance.

However, upon his arrival at Real Madrid, before he’d fully settled.

The situation suddenly changed?

Schuster’s remarks immediately disrupted the previously calm atmosphere in the locker room.

The Spanish faction, Dutch faction, and Youth Training Faction.

The Youth Training Faction was relatively okay; Chen Zhong, Negredo, Granero, Callejon, Parejo, Torres, these youthful trainees were seen as mere kids by the veterans of the Spanish faction.

Their feuds did not take these kids into consideration.

But the conflicts between Spanish players like Raul, Guti, Casillas and Dutch players like Van Nistelrooy, Van der Vaart, Sneijder have begun affecting locker room stability.

Especially with Schuster subtly siding with the Dutch faction, the locker room’s struggles intensified further.

After all, most of the Dutch players were brought in with Schuster’s approval, and it seemed Schuster was not satisfied with his previous season’s status in the locker room. He was eager to cultivate his own loyal supporters.