Finding Manchester City's Own Iniesta! Spending €230 Million in the Transfer Market!
That day, Guardiola was in his office looking at his computer, muttering to himself, seemingly lost in thought.
Raymond, the trusted scout, walked straight in.
Without knocking, he went straight to the coffee machine, made a cup of coffee, and sat down on the sofa, emphasizing doing it himself as if he were at home.
If any other member of the coaching staff dared to do that, it would definitely make Guardiola take notice.
However, Raymond possesses his own privileges.
He was also born in La Masia and knew Guardiola from their youth academy days.
After retiring early, he followed Guardiola all the way and was always Guardiola's most trusted scout, especially in scouting young and promising players, where he helped Guardiola a lot.
He walked up behind Guardiola, holding his coffee, and glanced at the computer.
"Watching Don's movies again? You really never get tired of them, huh? Tell me, Pep, what did you see?" Raymond said with a laugh.
"I'm thinking, now that Tang Long's position in Manchester City has been moved up, who will be in charge of supplying him with ammunition? If the logistics aren't handled well, how will the frontline troops fire? Don't you agree, Raymond?"
Guardiola rested his chin on his hands, staring blankly at Tang Long's incredible passes on the screen.
To transform Manchester City, we must start with the midfield!
Guardiola explained his thoughts to Raymond.
He wants to transplant the 4-3-3 formation, with three midfielders, according to Barca's setup.
Ranocchia was converted from center-back to defensive midfielder, and his role model is Busquets;
Gündoğan's technical characteristics are very similar to Xavi's.
Now, the only thing missing is to find Manchester City's own Iniesta!
"The best candidate is Manchester United's De Bruyne," Guardiola sighed. "But don't even think about it, Pellegrini will absolutely not let him go unless he's crazy or insane."
Raymond laughed and said, "Then just say it straight, which Bayern midfielder do you want to bring over?"
"Thiago, it must be Thiago," Guardiola said decisively. "When I left Bayern, Thiago told me he wanted to come to Manchester City with me."
Spain midfielder Thiago is Guardiola's prized protégé.
Born in 1991, he is 174 cm tall and 25 years old this year, which is the prime of his life.
When a head coach leaves a team to coach a new one, he always likes to take his core players with him.
In 2013, Thiago followed Guardiola to Bayern Munich for a transfer fee of €25 million.
Thiago possesses superb passing skills and extremely high accuracy, consistently finding his teammates with precise passes, whether short, medium, or long.
With exquisite footwork and strong ball control, he can shake off defenders in tight spaces when in midfield and keep the ball firmly under his control. Even when facing multiple opponents pressing him, he can calmly protect the ball and find passing lanes.
Raymond nodded and said, "Thiago is a good player. Compared to Gündoğan, his passing is more imaginative and penetrating. He can often deliver a very threatening through ball at the right time, tearing apart the opponent's defense. He is a good at supplying ammunition to the forwards."
In the recently concluded 2015-2016 season.
Thiago made 42 appearances for Bayern in all competitions, contributing 4 goals and 7 assists, and was a key player in Bayern's midfield.
However, due to injury recovery factors, he only started in 28 of those 42 appearances.
"I really like Thiago, but his recurring injuries are still worrying. You know, the season before last, he spent most of his time recovering from injuries and only played 13 games. Injuries have limited his talent, which is really a pity."
A look of regret crossed Guardiola's eyes.
"So you need a player of Thiago's caliber, Pep, Mkhitaryan from Borussia Dortmund, that's someone to watch," Raymond added.
Mkhitaryan
Upon hearing the name, Guardiola's eyes lit up, and he gave Raymond a high five, as if they shared the same vision.
Armenia midfielder Mkhitaryan, born in 1989, is 26 years old this year.
Last season, he made 52 appearances for Borussia Dortmund, starting 48 of them, and contributing 18 goals and 22 assists.
This player shares similar characteristics with Thiago; both are technically sound and possess precise passing skills.
However, Mkhitaryan is more versatile, capable of playing not only in midfield but also as a winger;
What's even more remarkable is that he rarely gets injured, and he made around 45 appearances each season for Dortmund.
Guardiola suddenly laughed.
"Raymond, you know, when I was at Bayern, I poached Lewandowski and Gotze from Dortmund. Now that I'm at Manchester City, I'm trying to poach Mkhitaryan from Dortmund. Dortmund won't hate me, will they?"
Raymond laughed and said, "Why would we hate you? That's perfectly normal. We didn't refuse to pay for Mkhitaryan!"
"Raymond, I think we have a very similar understanding of football. Why don't you become my assistant coach?"
"Assistant coach? No, Pep, I still prefer traveling the world as a scout."
To fully support manager Guardiola, Manchester City's management requested a large transfer budget from the Abu Dhabi United Group.
It is reported that they have a 200 million euro check to squander this summer!
Guariora hopes to complete most of the transfers before the end of July and does not want to drag it out into August.
The management team acted swiftly and decisively, carrying out transfers according to Guardiola's plan.
Soon, two official announcements arrived as scheduled!
Official announcement: Thiago has transferred to Manchester City for a fee of €32 million!
Official announcement: Mkhitaryan has transferred to Manchester City for a fee of €40 million!
Because Guardiola was not confident in goalkeeper Caballero's footwork, and Barca was looking to promote ter Stegen, Bravo was also targeted by Guardiola to be bought by Manchester City for a transfer fee of 18 million euros.
Although Bravo is already 33 years old, Guardiola is very satisfied with this goalkeeper transfer.
He believes Bravo has strong immediate impact and, given the scarcity of possession-based goalkeepers in Europe football, can at least serve as a transitional player for the next year.
In addition, having coached in the Bundesliga for three years, Guardiola is more familiar with the Bundesliga and specifically requested the signing of Germany winger Sane from Schalke 04 for a transfer fee of €52 million!
Manchester City are spending money like water, splashing out €150 million in the transfer market in just a few days!
But the extravagant shopping spree has not stopped.
Given Ranocchia's presence, Manchester City urgently needs to strengthen their squad with a central defender who can play out the ball.
They spent €55 million to acquire Stones, one of the best England center-backs, from Everton!
Although left-footed full-back Andy Robertson is not expensive, Manchester City only spent 5 million euros to buy him from EFL Championship Hull City, the 22-year-old is very powerful on the wing and can complement the experienced but physically weaker Kolarov.
Meanwhile, the internal purge continues.
After Dzeko's loan spell at Roma expired, Roma bought him outright for €11 million, as per the agreed contract.
Joe Hart, who grew up alongside Manchester City, ultimately couldn't stay at his beloved Etihad and joined Turin on a loan with an option to buy.
With this, Manchester City has completed the complete overhaul of its midfield and defense.
Guardiola still needs to bring in a center forward.
During his time at Barca, Guardiola didn't like using tall strikers.
Ibrahimovic left Barca after just one season.
However, after three years of coaching in the Bundesliga, Lewandowski's outstanding performance as a center forward led Guardiola to re-evaluate the tactical strategies for a team with a tall center forward.
Bony's footwork was too rough and did not meet the tactical requirements, so Guardiola originally wanted to keep Dzeko was returning to the team after his loan period ended.
However, Roma insisted on buying out Dzeko in accordance with the previously agreed-upon ancestral purchase agreement.
Guardiola was forced to re-examine the transfer market and look for suitable replacements.
At this point, Tang Long's agent Ronaldo, seized the opportunity to intervene and recommended Tang Long's junior teammate, Inter Milan's center forward Bonazzoli, to Guardiola.
With Ronaldo acting as a go-between, Bonazzoli's attitude became extremely positive!
Firstly, his mother is currently in a nursing home in Manchester receiving treatment for her leg ailment. If he plays for Manchester City, he can be closer to his mother and take better care of her.
Secondly, transferring to Manchester City would not only bring him a higher salary and guidance from world-renowned manager Guardiola, but more importantly, it would allow him to play alongside Tang Long again!
Bonazzoli made an excited phone call to Tang Long:
"Tang, please, help your little brother! You have to convince Guardiola to bring me from Inter Milan to Manchester City, no matter what!"
In fact, there was no need for Tang Long to persuade him; Bonazzoli's performance at Inter Milan had already put him on scout Raymond's shortlist.
This tall striker, who is a year younger than Tang Long, scored 17 goals in the league for Inter Milan in the recently concluded season, making him the team's top scorer.
He is 1.85 meters tall, with a stocky build and well-developed muscles, and is very good at receiving the ball with his back to the goal.
Bonazzoli's footwork is already quite good among strikers of his age;
After receiving the mysterious videotape of Ronaldo from Tang Long, he suddenly had an epiphany, and his dribbling skills improved by leaps and bounds!
"This kid's Step Over are somewhat similar to Ronaldo's back in the day. He's good with his feet, not slow, and his shooting is reliable. He's a promising center forward."
This is Raymond's assessment of Bonazzoli in his scouting notebook after watching Manchester City and Inter Milan's UEFA Champions League Round of 16 match live.
Guardiola believes that Bonazzoli's current level is not enough to make him a regular starter at Manchester City;
However, he has great potential and a promising future.
Having been teammates with Tang Long in both Inter Milan's youth and senior teams, and having a good relationship, it's believed that he will experience considerable growth after joining Manchester City.
Guardiola immediately made the decision to sign him with Manchester City, buying him from Inter Milan for €28 million.
When Bonazzoli's plane landed in Manchester, he stepped off the jet bridge and raised his arms to the sky, shouting:
"Manchester, here I come!"
In just over 10 days, Manchester City completed their transformation of the team, and CEO Begiristain proudly announced that they were the fastest-moving team in the entire Premier League, thus closing Manchester City's transfer window!
Manchester City's 2016 Summer Transfer Window Summary:
Buy: Stones (Everton, €55 million), Sane (Schalke 04, €52 million), Mkhitaryan (Borussia Dortmund, €40 million), Thiago (Bayern, €32 million), Bonazzoli (Inter Milan, €28 million), Bravo (Barca, €18 million), Robertson (Hull City, €5 million)
Total purchases: €230 million
Sold: Bony (Manchester United, €25 million), Dzeko (Roma, €11 million), Sagna (Norwich, €4 million), Clichy (Galatasaray, €3 million), Joe Hart (Turin, €2.3 million loan), Mangala (Valencia, €1 million loan), Toure (Olympiacos, free transfer), Fernando (Sao Paulo, free transfer)
Total sales: €46.3 million
Net expenditure: €184 million