Chapter 321: The Roma captain requested a transfer?
On the morning of March 21, Vice Chairman Ryan Friedkin, General Manager Pinto, Sports Director Alberto De Rossi, Head Coach Mourinho, Assistant Coach Forti, Captain Chen Xiaoliang, Vice Captain Mancini, and important player Dybala appeared in Trigoria's conference room. At one end of the oval conference table was a large screen with a video link of owner Dan Friedkin on it.
As we have entered the national team match cycle, the club's next game will not be until April 1, so there is plenty of time to deal with the red card incident that happened last night.
Four red cards in one game. If the club does not appeal, Cristante, who was punished for the conflict, may be given an additional suspension. But if the appeal is rejected, he may face the possibility of additional punishment due to "more serious circumstances" found after reinvestigation. Even if the appeal is successful and the referee is suspended, it may only be the starting point of a new round of retaliation.
Mourinho and Chen Xiaoliang, or the coaching staff and the locker room, had very clear opinions: they must appeal and issue an announcement to the public, because the fuse of all the controversy was the goal that Chen Xiaoliang was called offside. The relevant video replay has been watched tens of millions of times on the Internet around the world. Not offside means not offside, and neither the coach nor the players are willing to swallow their anger.
However, compared to the anger in the locker room, the attitudes of the coaching staff except Mourinho were relatively mild.
The board of directors and management had completely opposite ideas. Although they lost the game, since these players received red cards and were suspended for the first time this season, they would not be able to play in the next round of the league. The next opponent would be Sampdoria, the second-to-last team, the weakest of the weakest, and they would still be playing at home. Even if three players were fined and unable to play, the team would not have any problem winning the game.
The board of directors and management do not want to confront Serie A and the referee committee head-on at this critical moment in the championship race. On the one hand, the network of relationships behind Serie A is intricate. Roma has emerged as a dark horse in the past two seasons. Even with the help of Napoli to share the firepower, it has also endured continuous smear attacks from media such as Turin Sports Daily. Once the handle is exposed to the outside world, it is likely to be used by the three northern powers to concentrate momentum and put the team in a situation of internal and external difficulties.
Secondly, they are still 6 points ahead, and they are worried that if they openly challenge the Serie A now, it will definitely provoke an active response from Roma fans, causing the situation to escalate and even lead to official retaliation.
Mourinho didn't let Chen Xiaoliang speak, he expressed his own opinion first.
As a head coach, he should stand in front of the players when there are internal disagreements and act as a mediator between the management and the locker room.
He said that since he came to Rome last year, the team has always encountered problems with wrong penalties. However, after becoming the defending champions this year and performing well in the Champions League, it is obvious that the Serie A League and the Referee Committee have put more thought into arranging the referee team than last year. This is a manifestation of the influence of strength on status.
If they swallow their anger now, the outside world will think Roma is weak, and the team's hard-earned status will be lost. In the future, any referee facing Roma will not have to worry about the punishment and external pressure after a wrong judgment.
Pinto expressed his concern that it would be impossible for the Serie A League and the Referee Committee to exclude all referees who had made wrong judgments from Roma's future games as Roma wishes. Once this loophole is opened, all clubs will make the same request when faced with the same situation in the future. It is very likely that after a few seasons, the official will have no referees to arrange.
Chen Xiaoliang finally spoke up because he was the captain and the representative of the locker room, and players were the most important assets for a football club and the most valued element by all investors and shareholders.
He told everyone present that the locker room firmly demanded that the club speak out, appeal resolutely, safeguard the interests of the players, and stand with the players who were treated unfairly.
His reasons were very sufficient. When encountering such a humiliating thing, the morale of the locker room was seriously damaged. If the management chose to swallow their anger, the locker room would be in chaos before the outside world came to harass them.
How can you achieve results if the locker room is in chaos? Players are essentially workers, not ruthless machines. They usually train and play games in wind and rain based on their passion for work.
Dan Friedkin first expressed his understanding and consideration for the locker room, but still tactfully expressed the hope that the locker room could consider the long-term interests of the club and overcome their inner emotions.
With a try-it attitude, Pinto asked Mancini and Dybala to express their opinions, but it was obvious that the two men's firm support for Chen Xiaoliang's statement did not go as he wished.
Forti, who is usually cautious, resolutely chose to maintain the same tone as Mourinho because he became a party to this incident. What's more, as one of Mourinho's six-member team, his job and salary were given by Mourinho.
Now the situation is very clear. The board of directors and management want to deal with it calmly, while the coaching staff and locker room support a firm appeal and an external announcement to protect the players.
The only exception is De Rossi's father, Alberto De Rossi. The 64-year-old has worked in Rome for 30 years. From coaching the lower-age teams to the youth teams to the reserve teams, and now as one of the management, he knows Serie A and Rome better than anyone here.
In his heart, he strongly supports the opinion of the locker room. If it were 20 years ago, when his son was sent off like this, he would definitely be the first one to jump up and argue with the referee.
But now as a member of the management, he knows very well why the current American owner acquired Roma and how much he knows about football.
He is not a fan, but just a businessman. The club is a point of profit for him and also a springboard for him to expand his business to Italy and even Europe.
So he didn't express his opinion. When it was his turn to speak, he said something like "everyone's opinions should be fully considered" in a smooth talk.
Dan Friedkin did not want to have a direct conflict with the locker room. He first hypocritically stated that he would actively consider the players' opinions, and then used the need to discuss summer recruitment as an excuse to send most people away, leaving only his son Ryan Friedkin, Pinto and Mourinho.
But when everyone was about to reach the door of the meeting room, Dan Friedkin thought that everyone had left the locker room because they were out of the camera's range. Then he said two things that made Chen Xiaoliang and the other two angry: "First, before the club has made a final decision, no coach, player, or staff member is allowed to express any opinion on this matter on social media."
"Second, Pinto, you should immediately mobilize those players you discovered and signed to play a role in the locker room, like Cesco, Dybala... the Croatian... oh, and the Georgian kid. They are all brought in by you and should speak for you. You can't let only one voice control the locker room."
Chen Xiaoliang stopped, and Dybala and Mancini looked at each other in shock.
The three of them turned around, walked back in from the conference room door, and looked at Pinto.
Pinto's face was stiff. He saw the three players returning from the corner of his eye and tried not to meet Chen Xiaoliang's gaze. However, the swallowing in his throat and the stiffness of his facial muscles revealed his guilty conscience at the moment.
Mourinho also turned and looked at him.
There is no doubt that Pinto lied about transfers and took all the credit for discovering and signing Cesco, Kva and other players, but this is not important. What is important is that from Dan Friedkin's words, it can be seen that Pinto may never have told the truth about the team's daily information in his daily communications with the board of directors.
Mourinho did not point it out. It is true that he is a madman, but he is not a fool with low emotional intelligence. When a problem has already been solved, he does not want to ignite another powder keg. He immediately turned around and gave Chen Xiaoliang a look, meaning that I will handle this matter.
Because of Mourinho's look, Chen Xiaoliang held back a lot of words, but still turned back to the camera and said the last sentence: "Mr. Chairman, true or false, I don't want to interfere with the management of the club, nor do I want to suggest that you spend more time to understand the real situation of the team. But there is one thing I must tell you. As the captain, I can unite the locker room and get their support because I consider them and the team's game results. We also firmly believe that only when the team is united and the morale of the locker room is high can the team achieve good results, the club will have honor and bring more benefits."
"If someone asks me to put the cart before the horse, to put money before the honor of the game, to put external image before internal unity, then I'm sorry, I won't accompany you."
After that, Dybala and Mancini patted Chen Xiaoliang on the back to show their support, and then the three of them left the meeting room completely, leaving Friedkin and his son with a look of surprise.
After the door was closed, there was an predictable quarrel.
Dan Friedkin asked Pinto and Mourinho to "fix" the locker room, but Mourinho firmly disagreed.
Perhaps in European football, there is no other famous coach who has won the Champions League who knows better than him how the team's performance will plummet after the collapse of the locker room.
Pinto had no choice at this time. He could only jump out to ease the conflict between the two sides, because he knew that all the boasting he had made in the past had exploded today.
In the eyes of the board of directors, Mourinho is just a coach who is responsible for training and tactics. The rest of the salary structure, scout dispatch, transfer target tracking, and youth training system establishment are all the results achieved under Pinto's "strong" leadership.
Although it seems stupid, this is also a manifestation of Pinto's genius. He understood the reality that his American boss had only a superficial understanding of the European football system, and portrayed the football club as a company, in which the coach was just a department manager and the players were just a group of employees with higher salaries.
Under this idea, as long as the general manager's ideas are correct, other employees can be replaced.
So this is why Dan Friedkin dares to put pressure on Mourinho at this moment. Although he knows that Mourinho is very good and has good results in leading the team, can't Tuchel do it? Can't Pochettino do it? Can't Zidane do it? He can even invite Capello back from retirement.
It's just money.
The father is in the United States, repairing his car business, while the son has been in Rome. Although he often goes to the brothels in the 8th district of Rome for feasting and drinking, he still knows the club better than his father.
With his easing of pressure and Pinto's efforts to appease him in order to cover up his deception, Mourinho finally said:
"Without those players who fight hard on the field, you guys are nothing in the field of football"
Then he walked away.
Dan Friedkin was very angry. He scolded Pinto and his son. He was the boss and he spent a huge amount of money to support these people, but now these people didn't listen to him?
His relatively rational son told him that this is European professional football, not the North American auto retail industry. In the United States, you can hire the industry's top sales manager with an annual salary of $1 million, but in European football, $1 million can't even buy the toes of the top players. These people are definitely not employees in the ordinary sense. They are traffic, symbols, cash cows, and even the spiritual totems of a city. Look at Barcelona after losing Messi. Although salary expenses have been reduced a lot, revenue has dropped even more.
Finally, with the strong support of his son and the persuasion of Pinto, Dan Friedkin agreed to make a vague announcement and let Mourinho coach the team until the end of the season. By then, his contract would have only one year left, and it would be time to discuss renewal.
After the morning talk, Roma Club issued an announcement on its official website and social media in the afternoon:
"Given that the penalty suffered by the club's first team in the last round of the league may affect the fairness of the game results, and the club has also observed the fans' heated comments on the incident, the club will reserve all possibilities for taking follow-up measures."
Mourinho asked all the main players to go home and rest for a day so that he could calm down.
Today's meeting reminded him of the scene when he was in Manchester United. It was as if he was not talking to the Friedkin family and Pinto, but the Glazer family and the club's then executive vice chairman Ed Woodward. They were more concerned about how many instant noodles, bottled water, and puffed food endorsements they could sign in the next quarter, where to warm up in the summer to attract the most traffic, and how to set season tickets and ticket prices to maximize revenue...
The question is how to adjust the club's structure to better serve the first team.
To put it in a positive way, this means that the team has never been able to get out of the prosperous era created by Sir Alex Ferguson. To put it in a negative way, this means that the team knows everything except football.
When Chen Xiaoliang returned home, Riise came to visit him and brought him good news. Riise had spent 3.5 million euros to snatch the agency rights of Vitor Roque, an 18-year-old Brazilian genius player he had designated, from Giuliano Bertolucci, a famous agent who specialized in bringing Brazilians to Europe.
The method was still the old routine, inviting him and his family out. Riise talked about how Chen Xiaoliang signed a professional contract at the age of 16, practiced for 2 and a half years, and became the top 10 in the world in both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA, and that game was the one in which Roma beat Dortmund 7-1.
Compared with Bertolucci's EEAP agency, which is slow and has nearly 200 players under its management, Riise's advantage is not only that Chen Xiaoliang, Cesco, Kva and others have almost always signed successful operation cases, but also one-on-one direct service. Unlike those big agencies, small players cannot get direct service from the boss at all. Instead, they let interns and young managers of the agency act as agents first, until their value rises to the point where the boss thinks they need to take action personally. This is the case for both Mendes and Bertolucci.
Moreover, money is always a factor that comes to the forefront for South American players. The 3.5 million euro penalty for the existing agency contract is an astronomical figure for the Roque family, but it also means that Riise has helped them break a shackle.
As for Riise, if Chen Xiaoliang had asked him to do this two years ago, he would definitely say that Chen Xiaoliang was crazy. But after the value of Cesco, Kva and especially Enzo increased by 100 million euros in half a season and the commission for the transfer to Chelsea alone was 20 million euros, Chen Xiaoliang has become the Warren Buffett of football in Riise's mind.
But Chen Xiaoliang couldn't be happy at this moment. Rock was the winger he wanted to recommend to Mourinho next season. He, like another genius Enderique who has been signed by Real Madrid, is a masterpiece of Brazil's next generation of youth training. But in this situation, how could he still think about Roma next season?
Chen Xiaoliang: "You... ask Steven what his next plan is?"
Of course, Riise saw the report of 6 red cards in the last game, but in his impression, Chen Xiaoliang is definitely not a person who cannot accept such a blow, but will become more and more courageous. It’s just that he doesn’t know what happened in the Trigoria base in the morning.
Riise: "What's wrong? He is with his wife and children every day now. He doesn't want to go to a league like the Scottish Premier League anymore. Even if it's not one of the top five leagues, at least it has to be a famous team like PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord in the Eredivisie. But this is difficult, after all, his coaching experience is too short."
Chen Xiaoliang told Reese what happened in the morning, and Reese now understood.
He is also an experienced former professional player who has played in many places. It is extremely absurd and ridiculous for him to encounter such a weird boss, not to mention that a core player like Chen Xiaoliang who has made great achievements for the team encounters such a situation.
Reese: "He sells Toyota? Maybe in his eyes, others are Corollas and you are GTR."
Chen Xiaoliang was amused by Reese and didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "GTR is not Toyota's, brother, you are teasing me on purpose."
Riise: "Make up your mind. As long as you nod your head, there is no place in this world that you can't go. I don't have to deliberately ignore the calls from the transfer directors of those big clubs every day."
"It's just a pity for those girls in District 8... I'll have to take a plane over next time..."
Reese smacked his lips, and suddenly his eyes lit up:
"Wait...you just asked me Steven, you wouldn't be?"
Chen Xiaoliang was silent for a long time before he said, "You can first collect the transfer offers from those interested teams. It may be useful or not. You can also ask the boss about his recent situation. Anyway, I still want to see what the attitude of the board of directors here will be in the end."
"Let me think about it. We are actually very close to success this season..."
Riise patted him on the shoulder: "This is very normal in the football world. Think about Steven, who has devoted almost all of his youth to Liverpool, but because of a slip, there are still fans who want him to get out of Anfield."
"Don't worry, I will make sure this matter is foolproof."
While the two were chatting, Chen Xiaoliang and Reese's phones kept receiving text messages and emails, and the pace seemed to be getting more and more frequent. They both became curious and picked up their phones to check.
After a while, Chen Xiaoliang sneered "Haha", muted his phone and cancelled the vibration, then asked Reese not to look at the unread text messages but to read the sports news instead.
Almost all the mainstream sports media in Europe put a big line of Breaking News on their homepage:
"According to sources quoted by Turin Sports Daily, the Roma club board of directors broke with first-team captain Chen Xiaoliang this morning because Chen Xiaoliang's conditions were not met. Chen Xiaoliang applied for a transfer on the spot, and the club's head coach Mourinho is likely to completely lose the support of the dressing room because of this."
The last sentence is obviously to distance oneself from the relationship:
"According to the analysis of Turin Sports Daily, Roma may collapse this season and the dream of winning the treble will come to an end."
Reese: "Is there a traitor in the club?"
Chen Xiaoliang laughed again, turned to Riise and said, "Someone is forcing me to do this. If this news gets out, the fans and the media will come to me. There is a confidentiality clause in our contract. We cannot disclose the club's internal information to the outside during the contract period. So I can't tell the media any part of the meeting this morning."
"They want the media and the fans to come to me and force me to make a statement, to say I will stay with the team and to defend the club. Then at the end of the season, if anything happens that is not good for them, all the responsibility will naturally be on me."
Riise: "Just like when Barcelona forced Messi to leave? They said they would definitely renew the contract, and then they said Messi ignored the club's current situation and demanded unreasonable salary?"
Chen Xiaoliang: "It's about the same... a routine..."
Reese: "Who do you think leaked the news?"
Chen Xiaoliang: "Who else do you think there are? There were only those few people at the meeting this morning. Who would benefit the most if I express my intention to stay?"
Reese: "That's the father and son..."
"How can we get along with such a boss for a long time? Chen, make up your mind. Think about how Michael Jordan was forced by Jerry Krause to choose to retire for the second time. You are so young, what are you worried about?"
Chen Xiaoliang sighed and said, "Just do your thing first. I still have to stabilize the locker room tomorrow."
In his heart, no matter what happens in the outside world, the team's success today is the result of the hard work and blood and sweat of more than 20 players in the locker room.
Although these people may not all be friends outside of the game, and many of them may have different personalities and values in private, they are a united whole on the court.
Not for the people on the board of directors, not for the media that edit the news, but only for the fans of this city and themselves, Chen Xiaoliang has to lead this group of teammates to finish this season well.
No matter whether he stays or leaves in the end, he must hold his head high and end everything as a winner.
