At 23:35 on the evening of August 31st, Italian time, after completing the physical examination at the local medical institution in Salzburg, preparing all legal documents and reporting to FIFA and UEFA to complete all procedures for the player transfer, Roma finally officially announced Cesco's transfer!
Roma fans were delighted. They really didn’t expect that there would be a last-minute surprise after they got down from the tree!
The 18-year-old Cesco has the same height and position as Haaland, and plays in a similar style. He also made his mark at Red Bull Salzburg and has been hailed by the media as the next Haaland.
Although a small number of fans said that the club should introduce a plug-and-play central defender rather than a striker, the vast majority of Roma fans have regarded new owner Dan Friedkin as the savior of the team's revival this summer.
Compared to the busy Reese, Chen Xiaoliang has not been recuperating at home these days.
Faced with his injury, Mourinho did not dare to be careless at all. He specifically asked him to come to the club every day to be examined by the team doctor, and then do some targeted rehabilitation training so that the club could keep track of his physical condition at any time and prevent any possibility of worsening the injury.
Another day passed before Cesco made all the preparations and flew to Rome to join the team accompanied by Riise.
The completion of this deal also made Mourinho completely determined to use the 3322 formation in all games this season against strong opponents, especially those with strong or extremely fast strikers. That is, three central defenders, a single defensive midfielder and two wingbacks, two midfielders and two forwards.
This formation can be changed to 532 when retreating, and 352 or even 334 when attacking.
In Mourinho's tactical philosophy, scoring more goals does not necessarily mean winning, but you will never lose if you don't concede goals.
After Cesco joined the team, he immediately joined Chen Xiaoliang's locker room social circle. He always ate and trained with Wu Lei, whose agent is also Riise.
In addition, Abraham is also very enthusiastic about his new partner.
Although he has Nigerian African ancestry and excellent physical fitness, and his height of 190 cm and weight of 80 kg also possess the innate qualities of an excellent center forward, Abraham's playing style is not the traditional center forward's hard charge and hard carry. He is not good at continuous high-intensity physical confrontation. When faced with close pressure, he prefers to use his footwork and speed to quickly shake off the opponent, or simply pass the ball through to his teammates.
This approach can certainly create inspiration through running positions with Mkhitaryan, Zaniolo, Pellegrini and others, but when facing a team like Lazio in the last game that relies on steady defense and counterattacks and needs to use positional warfare to open up the defense, his role as a fulcrum is very limited.
Faced with the opponent's tight double-teaming, his weaknesses in the penalty area, whether it is scoring or heading the ball, can be easily magnified.
Now the arrival of Cesco, who is 194cm tall, weighs 77kg and is more capable of taking on the responsibilities of a traditional center forward, will undoubtedly allow Abraham to better utilize his ability to roam between the offside line and the midfield line.
So he naturally had to get along well with this younger brother. In the future, he would do the hard work of the opponent's central defender, and then he would be able to cleverly get rid of him and receive the wonderful pass from the younger brother to score.
But Abraham's daydream was not over yet, as El Shaarawy also began to get close to Cesco - but in his own way - and invited the newcomer to experience Rome's colorful nightlife.
El Shaarawy, who was already struggling on the edge of whether he could play, is already 30 years old. He has had his highlights and lows in his career, but he was once highly expected, but until now he has only won the FA Cup once with Donghai Shenhua.
In January 2021, after returning to Rome as a free agent, he only played a few games seriously and then once again indulged in Rome's nightlife, and his condition plummeted.
Now with the arrival of Cesco and in the training in recent days, Mourinho has been using a formation of three central defenders and two forwards, letting every player in the team know that this is to train the Slovenian teenager as soon as possible so that he can quickly produce a chemical reaction with Abraham.
El Shaarawy also knew that if this formation was really used in the next official match, he, who could only play as a winger, would basically say goodbye to playing.
If he is allowed to attack, he can still display his talents, but if he is asked to fight, press and intercept with the opponent's full-backs and wingers, it will be more difficult than killing him.
Although his mind is not entirely on the court, this contract is the source of his livelihood and the basis for his fun after all.
Once he is completely reduced to a marginal figure in the team, like Diawara and Santon, then when this contract expires, no professional club in the top league will be willing to spend money to buy a 30-year-old striker who has not played in almost a whole season.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a ball to play with, but you can’t play without money.
He decided to find out about Cesco's background first to see what kind of person this guy was.
Although he was signed by Riise, El Shaarawy has encountered many such young and inexperienced players in his career. He signed a good contract while they were young, and then took him to "open his eyes" after coming to Rome. It was easy for him to be on his side.
After a passionate communication with Cesco, he decisively extended an invitation to the Slovenian teenager.
After the training, we met at Viale Marconi, the most famous street in the new urban center in the south of Rome.
The nights there can no longer be simply described as bright lights, wine and women, and a life of decadence and debauchery.
If you are there after 10 pm, you will find countless girls on both sides of the street, wearing clothes and dressing that excite men, winking at you.
Once you accept their invitation, the next steps will be to play two-person competition, three-person Landlord, four-person 80 points, five-person Big A, or six-person Big Weird Way, all depending on your interests, the number of teammates, and how much money you have in your pocket.
As long as you have money, you can play not only one table of cards, but even ten tables of cards. The eighth district where this road is located can satisfy your appetite again and again without repeating yourself.
Of course, doing something like this is more fun when there are more people involved.
El Shaarawy not only invited Cesco, but also his two fellow captains Pellegrini and Zaniolo who were also injured and absent from training, as well as Thornton, who became famous at a young age like himself, rarely has the opportunity to play, but is also keen on nightclubs, as well as vice-captain Mancini, and two young players born in 2002, Bove and Calafiori.
Except for Cesco, all others are from the social circle of Italian players.
He would never touch Chen Xiaoliang's circle.
It was already 4:30 after the afternoon training.
After showering and changing clothes, those people pretended to drive home first, and some of them even pretended to sign autographs for the waiting fans outside the Trigoria base before leaving.
This is also to avoid arousing suspicion from others when several people go in and out together.
Not to mention his return to Italian football this time, even when Mourinho coached Inter Milan more than ten years ago, he imposed severe penalties on the team's players such as Maicon, Balotelli, Santon and others who were addicted to nightclubs. He even sent several of his assistants to stake out at the entrance of famous nightlife venues in Milan to capture the team's players who appeared there.
This is how Inter Milan achieved the treble.
So they knew the consequences of going to a nightclub together and being discovered by Mourinho.
The group first went to a restaurant in the city center to eat and drink, but the two young players, Bove and Calafiori, left halfway through the meal. As they were youth players, they needed to live in the dormitory of the Trigoria base and therefore could not return late.
In addition, the current salary of the two is not enough to support their eating, drinking and entertainment in the Eighth District, so several veteran players in the team did not care.
But Cesco has not appeared yet, which makes Shalawi feel a little unhappy.
While they were driving away to the restaurant, Cesco and Wu Lei were doing extra training on the training ground. Practicing with them were the young striker Gian and the third goalkeeper Boll from the youth team.
The three players kept passing the ball to each other, then ran around the cones to the designated position according to tactical requirements, and finally took a shot.
As for El Shaarawy's invitation, Cesco turned around and told Riise immediately. On the way from Salzburg to Rome, Riise had already told him all the details of the team.
The Slovenian teenager does not need too much control from others. He came to Rome to realize his football ambition. The temptation of nightlife is not enough to shake his determination.
Mourinho, who was organizing the results of a day's tactical class in the office, saw through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that several people were working hard on the training ground, and he was very satisfied.
But when the chief team doctor told him that Zaniolo and Pellegrini, who were undergoing recovery training with the team due to injury, left the club together, Mourinho had a hint of doubt in his heart.
He immediately picked up the phone: "Joao, do you know where those guys went at night?"
Joao answered the phone confused: "Where did you go?"
"I'm asking you this, this is not a rhetorical question."
"I don't know. Which ones?"
"Niccolò Zaniolo! And our captain Lorenzo Pellegrini! And maybe that El Shaarawy!"
Joao guessed what Mourinho was suspicious about: "I'll ask someone to find out."
"If that fool with no ambition continues to instigate other players around him to indulge in alcohol and sex like him, I will punish him severely this time!"
However, Mourinho also realized that this was just his guess at the moment, but he had faced such players too many times, and his subconscious told him that his judgment was correct.
Just before Joao was about to hang up, Mourinho quickly added: "If that's the case, you have to call Pellegrini back. If Mancini is here, you have to call him back too."
"Okay, I got it."
Although he hates it deeply, Mourinho cannot carry out unlimited attacks, otherwise he knows that the "catching the ghost" plot that would only occur in the second or third year of a club in the past has been staged in Roma in less than three months.
The negative impact of that would far outweigh the players' lack of self-discipline.
Therefore, we should punish the main culprit first and make an example of him, and then see how the situation develops.
About an hour and a half later, Mourinho was still sitting in the office waiting for news.
The four people who had been practicing extra on the training ground have also gone back to their respective homes.
The sky gradually darkened, and his mood gradually became heavy.
Among the new generation of young players today, self-discipline, diligence, strength and pressure resistance, which were common in players in the 1990s, have become increasingly rare.
Not to mention loyalty and dedication, which were once regarded as legendary qualities of one man and one city.
Nowadays, once young players gain some fame, they want to be signed by top clubs as soon as possible.
Once a wealthy club expresses its intention to them, they will not hesitate to use drastic measures such as deliberately being absent, boycotting training, making public statements to the media, etc. to force the club that has nurtured them to let them leave.
He thought of Maicon, the Brazilian who was once called the world's best right-back by the media.
After Inter Milan won the treble and he turned to coach Real Madrid, Maicon, who was no longer under discipline, frequented nightclubs and his form plummeted, which led to the classic scene of him being beaten to a pulp by Bale in two rounds of the Champions League.
Another victim was Balotelli. After leaving Inter Milan, moving to Manchester City and then to AC Milan, he often indulged in Milan's nightlife with El Shaarawy, who was also in AC Milan. After persuasion failed, the then AC Milan vice-president Galliani even said to El Shaarawy, Balotelli plays football based on his innate talent, but what do you rely on?
However, such earnest advice was of no use. Later, Balotelli went to Liverpool, Nice, Marseille and Brescia successively. His condition became worse and worse. Finally, at the age of 30, he had fallen into small teams such as Serie B team Monza and Turkish Super League newly promoted Adana Demirspor.
Mourinho not only feels sorry for these players, he is also trying to prevent the team from developing in a bad direction, because once the results decline, it will directly affect his position as coach.
He wants to declare to the world again in Rome that he is still the Mourinho who was born to win championships.
"Jose, they are together, but they are eating in a restaurant."
"Eat? I've seen this kind of drama many times. Did you drink?"
"drink."
"Where?"
"District 8."
"People have already arrived in District 8. Do we expect them to go home and pray to God after drinking?"
Joao told Mourinho who was there and who had left.
"I have already alerted Pellegrini and Mancini and they should leave soon."
"Okay, I'll see what El Shaarawy has to say tomorrow."
At this time in the city of Rome, when the people who were five percent drunk were about to get up and go to their real destination, Pellegrini and Mancini received calls from Joao one after another.
Then Pellegrini said that he felt some pain in the injured part and he was worried that the injury would get worse, so he had to leave early.
Mancini said that after the training, he lied that he stayed with the team for a meeting, and his wife Alyssa's friend just saw him near the restaurant, so he had to go back quickly to avoid kneeling on the washboard at night.
El Shaarawy was naturally a little disappointed, but looking at Zaniolo and Santon who were still in high spirits, the three of them were still talking and laughing as they headed towards the next stop.
Along the way, Zaniolo was very excited in the car:
"I'll introduce you to a good one tonight. I've been dating this girl for a long time. I'll bring her out today to show you around!"
"There are new actors on Eighth Street? Are you sure I haven't seen them before? What country are they from?"
"I guarantee you haven't seen it!" Zaniolo hummed a little tune while keeping the secret, looking very proud.
Soon, they arrived at their destination and sneaked in through the back door of a noisy building under the cover of security guards.
In the huge private room, more than a dozen beauties with different skin colors and hair colors and countless drinks were already waiting.
"Where is the person you are talking about? Is he in here?" Sharawi asked disdainfully.
Zaniolo picked up the phone and sent a text message, then asked the security guard to go downstairs and pick up a "friend" from the back door.
Not long after, a fashionable girl with long brown hair and carrying a super weapon walked in.
Whether it was the way she walked or the aura she exuded, people around her could tell at a glance that she was completely different from the beauties who had been sitting in the room before.
The brunette was very generous and took the initiative to introduce herself to the three people.
"I am Zaniolo's friend, my name is Portman."
Thornton's eyes widened, and El Shaarawy nudged Zaniolo with his elbow: "Where did this come from?"
Zaniolo replied in a low voice: "That's not my job."
Shalawi glared at him and said, "You're not in this line of work, so you come here? You want to say that you are very charming, right?"
Then nearly twenty people in the room started drinking, chatting, dancing and playing games.
Although Zaniolo's current condition and performance in the team are far better than the other two, he is young after all. When it comes to playing games and drinking, he is far from being a match for El Shaarawy and Santon, who are already in their thirties. After a while, he was drunk and fell asleep in the private room with deafening rhythmic sounds.
El Shaarawy began to approach Portman, flirting with her with words and making hints over drinks that only the two of them understood.
Seeing that Portman did not resist, Salah was overjoyed, thinking that the big fish was about to take the bait.
Unexpectedly, Portman made her own request:
"After this is over, I can go anywhere you want with you, but you have to play a game with me first."
When El Shaarawy heard this, he wanted to leave immediately. He was very worried that Zaniolo, who was sleeping soundly on the sofa next to him, would wake up and ruin his good fortune.
"Whatever game you choose, I'm always available to play."
Portman deliberately leaned close to Shalawi's ear, blew on his ear with his lips and said, "This is the first time we meet today. You have to answer some questions for me to see if you are a sincere person."
"What does it take for me to win?" Shalawi asked, his hands already moving in a disorderly manner.
"If your answer makes me feel that you are sincere, then let's have a drink. You know, we girls can only drink so much. After we drink too much, you can do whatever you want..."
Already seven-tenths drunk, Sharawi quickly poured two glasses of wine and waited for Portman's question with blinking eyes.
Thornton on the side was very tactful. You have your one, I have my dozen, you are in a good mood, and I am in good health.
Portman asked: "Am I beautiful?"
Salah had thought about it a lot, but he didn't expect it to be this kind of question. "Overjoyed" is not enough to describe how he feels right now. It's like 21 cannons are firing in his chest!
"Your beauty makes me say, I will fight for you, my lady."
Portman smiled happily, raised the glass and drank it.
"Well...you're a player, I need to ask you about things on your team."
When El Shaarawy heard that they were asking about football, he thought it was exactly what he wanted and became even more excited.
"Who do you have the best relationship with on the team?"
"Of course it's these two guys!"
Portman drank it.
"Oh, I'm so stupid. Why did I ask you such a simple question?"
Shalawi took the opportunity to touch his shoulder and said, "You are not stupid, you are cute."
When Thornton, who was standing by, heard this, he coughed out the half-sip of wine he had just taken, spilling it all over himself.
Suddenly, more than a dozen jade hands reached out and wiped his body.
Thornton regretted coughing less.
"Then let me ask you again, who do you have the worst relationship with in the team?"
El Shaarawy paused, holding back the answer on his lips: "My relationship with my teammates is pretty good."
Portman smiled and shook her right index finger: "There is no reward for lying~"
How could El Shaarawy withstand such provocation? Fearing that the cooked duck would fly away, he quickly said: "We Italians are quite united, but the newcomers... especially the red countryman, are a little self-righteous."
"Red countryman? Is that Chen Xiaoliang?"
When Portman mentioned Chen Xiaoliang, Shalawi showed a look of contempt on his face: "That's him."
"Oh, my God." Portman drank the whole bottle and hugged Shalawi's arm and said, "I don't know why your head coach would like a red countryman. Is there any interest relationship between them?"
El Shaarawy also had a drink. He was already over 80% drunk at this time. He complained, "Who said it wasn't true? Not only did they buy a Red Country midfielder, but they also rented a useless Red Country striker. And recently, for some reason, the Red Country kid's agent forced a country striker who has never seen the world into the club . Maybe he got kickbacks from all these deals!"
This time, Portman not only drank a glass herself, but also filled Shalawi's glass, then gently helped him drink the wine with his hands touching.
"You mean, the transfer of this country striker was proposed by the Red Country midfielder?"
El Shaarawy was too drunk to care about anything else. He hugged Portman and said with a smile: "I just said you were stupid, but it turns out you are actually smart."
Portman repeated his old trick and held Shalawi's hand and gave him a glass of wine.
"Don't football teams always have a captain? That red guy is not the captain. Why doesn't the head coach listen to the captain's opinion?"
"Oh! Captain? Pellegrini is like a mouse seeing a cat when he sees Mourinho. How could he have the courage to say anything to Mourinho? Now in the team, except for us Italians, the other players see that the situation is not right and almost all regard that red country kid as the leader. What captain or not is bullshit!"
Portman asked a few more questions, and Shalawi became more and more stuttering as he answered.
It was not until Portman whispered that they could go to another place for a deeper discussion that a fleeting light appeared in Shalawi's blurry eyes.
Then, under the escort of the nightclub security, Shalawi went drunkenly to another hotel, where two people were already waiting for him, but Portman was not one of them.
The next morning, when most of the Roma players were eating breakfast, browsing their phones, listening to sports news on TV, and preparing to go to the club for training after breakfast, they were stunned by the news on TV.
"A reporter from Turin Sports secretly interviewed several players from Roma FC and recorded audio clips."
Then, there was a conversation lasting more than a minute accompanied by very loud music rhythm. The Roma players could all recognize that it was El Shaarawy's voice.
Of course, the person who handed over the recording deleted all the ambiguous words used to trick people into believing in him.
After listening to this recording, everyone realized what kind of storm they would face when they arrived at the Trigoria base today.
The ones who are most thankful here are the captain and vice-captain Pellegrini and Mancini. They can't wait to find Joao and thank him for not killing him for informing him in advance!
Even if it wasn't a famous coach like Mourinho, even if the team was led by an unknown acting head coach, the board of directors of a club like Roma would never tolerate such an ugly phenomenon in the team and have it spread by the media!
After the recording was finished, the TV host, based on the report of the unnamed reporter from Turin Sports Daily, vividly described the proceedings of the night, the list of players present, and even the names of several female companions, and also attached several ugly photos.
There are scenes of Zaniolo lying on the sofa and sleeping, and there are scenes of more than a dozen hands doing unknown things on Thornton. What is even more jaw-dropping is a censored video shot in a hotel room, in which El Shaarawy, drunk, is outnumbered and dribbling the ball into two people.
Soon, all the players saw Joao’s urgent notice in the club’s first-team chat group telling everyone that they must arrive at the club before 9 o’clock!
Including all the injured! Even if you have a broken leg, you must rush to the club!
After everyone arrived at the team, they were immediately notified to go to the meeting room.
As soon as 9 o'clock arrived, Mourinho walked in with a murderous look on his face and asked Joao to count the staff.
As a result, El Shaarawy and Santon did not show up, and Zaniolo, who had already taken off his shoulder straps, sat in the corner of the last row with a tired and embarrassed look on his face.
"I have half an hour with you now. I don't care if you have seen this news this morning or not. All of you, f*cking watch it again!"
Mourinho roared, pressing the play button on the huge projection screen that was usually used to play clips and tactics.
The news version that appeared on the more than 300-inch LED screen had many more new images than the one at 8 a.m.
Including footage of Thornton hugging several girls as they leave a nightclub and get into a car, as well as footage of two security guards carrying a drunk Zaniolo into a luxury car.
Everyone's face was tightly tensed, not daring to show the slightest change in expression!
Several players, such as Beauvais and Cesco, had never seen such a scene before! They were so scared that they even seemed to control their breathing to avoid making any sound.
Faced with such a scene of social death, Zaniolo lowered his head and didn't even watch the content of the video.
The news is still going on. Apparently the TV station has caught a big explosive piece of news and is not willing to let it go. And it seems that they are going to dig deeper until the spectators get tired of the news and then create the next hot news.
Mourinho turned off the projection screen and threw the remote control. "Who was with those three idiots yesterday? Stand up!"
Beauvais and Calafiori were sitting together, and when they heard this, they couldn't help but look at each other secretly.
When they came to their senses again, they found that Mourinho's eyes were fixed on them!
"Coach...Coach, we two had dinner with them yesterday...After training yesterday...we went to the restaurant with them...We went to the restaurant to eat later..."
Bove mustered up the courage to stand up, and using all his strength to suppress his fear and trembling, he stammered and said these words incoherently.
"Well, at least you're honest."
Mourinho asked him to sit down and turned to look at Joao: "What time did he return to the base dormitory last night?"
Joao said: "I checked, they both came back on time."
Mourinho asked Calafiori: "He dared to stand up and speak, why didn't you dare?"
Calafiori was stunned and trembling, not knowing how to answer this question at all. He just stared at Mourinho nervously with eyes wide open, then opened his mouth but couldn't utter a word.
"What else? Who else!" Mourinho continued to ask loudly.
Pellegrini and Mancini said nothing.
The meeting room was dead silent, like a morgue.
"Very well, if you don't say anything, I will temporarily pretend that no one else went to that kind of place with these three idiots! But if I find out that anyone else wants to go to that kind of place in the future, you can find a new employer now and beat me up on January 1st next year! Get out!
Now, I am going to answer the board's questioning. They asked me to explain the negative social news that the team generated today.
Before I come out, you guys run laps on the training ground. Until I say stop, no one is allowed to stop today!
Do you understand? "
The players nodded, and no one dared to speak...
Mourinho walked a few steps and turned back, looking at Pellegrini and asked coldly: "Are you healed?"
Pellegrini's Adam's apple moved involuntarily, he swallowed and squeezed out a "hmm".
"Chen Xiaoliang continues to do recovery training, everyone else can go now." After saying that, Mourinho turned and left.
Half an hour later, Mourinho returned to the training ground.
Joao walked up to him and asked, "What did the boss say?"
Mourinho smiled slightly: "The thinking of these capitalists is really different from that of ordinary people. Several other directors, club ambassadors, including Totti, all spoke for me, saying that this phenomenon has always existed in the team and it is just the right time to use this crisis to completely solve it.
However, the board secretary, who is also the boss's eldest son, said that because of today's scandal, the club's stock price plummeted, which could help his father buy back all the stocks at a low price on the open market and complete the full acquisition of the club.
The boss didn't say anything. I saw that he was in a very good mood. He just asked me to pay attention to the fans and win the next few games. The other punishment measures within the team are entirely up to me. "
Joao let out a long sigh: "Damn... I was so nervous for a while. I felt like this reporter was sent by the boss."
Mourinho smiled crookedly: "Who cares who sent him? Isn't this just helping us?"
"How are you going to punish those people?"
"Eshawi was fined one month's salary and demoted to the reserve team for one month, Santon was fined one month's salary and permanently demoted to the reserve team, Zaniolo was fined one week's salary and will sit on the bench for the next two games. This kid's alcohol tolerance saved him.
Beauvais did not impose any punishment, and Calafiori was loaned out to me in the January transfer window. He obviously did nothing wrong, but he was so timid that he didn't even dare to say a word. Such a timid player actually played as a defender in the team? ! Can he play? ! He doesn't have the ability, you know! Even if someone in the Italian League wants him, I will loan him out at that time! "
"Genoa is interested in him..." said Joao.
"That's fine, this kid is lucky, let him go out for half a year and see if he can reflect on himself."
João nodded and wrote them down one by one.
"Then...what about those two people? Are you going to deprive them of their captain's armbands?"
Mourinho shook his head: "Ha! Does it matter who wears the armband? If the rules don't allow it, why can't I wear it on my calf?"
As the two were chatting, fitness coach Lapetti reminded El Shaarawy and Santon that they had also arrived at the club.
Mourinho didn't turn around to look at either of them.
Joao tactfully took them both into the conference room and announced the team's punishment results.
In the afternoon, Roma held a press conference at the Trigoria base. Mourinho did not attend. Instead, the team's press officer announced the team's punishment and did not answer any questions.
Outside the base, dozens of media outlets were already waiting with their cameras ready, and every facial expression change of every player coming in and out would be recorded by them.
Who has a serious expression, who has a relaxed expression, who wears sunglasses to avoid the camera, and who actually smiles, these are all materials that the media can dig up.
From that day on, although the team still insisted that the captain and vice-captain had not changed, the club's internal staff and all the first-team players knew that Chen Xiaoliang and Patricio had become the de facto captain, vice-captain and spiritual leaders of the team.
Although he did not run laps with his teammates, Chen Xiaoliang was still exhausted when he returned home at night. After all, the atmosphere in the team today was too depressing. Everyone was very serious during the entire training process, and no one dared to smile.
However, after returning home, he received a text message.
"Come out and meet me." The sender was Portman.