Inter Milan's Sporting Director Appears in Manchester Again, Who is His Target This Time?
Inter Milan's sporting director Ausilio recently flew to Manchester.
As soon as he stepped off the plane, he attracted the attention of a large group of keen-nosed paparazzi lurking at Manchester International Airport.
Reporters stared at him intently, surrounding him with questions, trying to get something out of him, especially anything related to transfers, since the season was almost over and the summer transfer window was approaching.
But no matter how the reporters asked, Ausilio maintained a polite business smile and kept saying "thank you, thank you" in Italy, without revealing a single word of informational value.
Manchester Evening News: Inter Milan's sporting director returns to Manchester; who is his next target?
Ausilio has attracted so much attention mainly because of a deal between Inter Milan and Manchester United during the last winter transfer window.
Icardi, the Argentina striker who joined Manchester United from Inter Milan for over €100 million, has been loaned back to Inter Milan on a free transfer.
This transfer caused a huge uproar six months ago, shaking the entire Premier League!
Who could have imagined that Mauro, who was Manchester United's top scorer last season, wouldn't even make the bench this season?
Some consider this deal a disgraceful decision by Manchester United's management, saying that it was a foolish move to loan Icardi for six months for free, especially since they even covered 80% of his wages, which was practically letting Inter Milan get something for free.
Some people say that given Icardi's poor form at the time, even if he went to Inter Milan, it would be difficult for him to regain his form by playing in Serie A matches. It would be better to keep him at Manchester United and allow the Red Devils to have more reserves in the second half of the league season.
Some argue that Manchester United offers a far greater platform than Inter Milan, and that it's better to live a less desirable life than to die prematurely; Icardi's move from Inter Milan to Manchester United was itself a major leap forward in his career.
Now he's regressed again. For a player his age, this decline will seriously affect his future career development and could very well keep him away from the ranks of top Europe strikers.
Some even said sarcastically, "When Icardi left Inter Milan, he even threatened to strike. His conflict with the club was already deep, and he had a considerable rift with the fans. Can he really handle the relationships with the locker room, the coach, and the fans when he goes back? Nobody believes it!"
Despite the various criticisms, Inter Milan's sporting director Ausilio remained calm.
As the sporting director of a top club, he has seen a lot and experienced a great deal in the transfer process.
Ausilio offered only a brief comment on Icardi's return.
"Inter Milan welcomes every player who has ever sweated for them to don the blue and black jersey and fight again."
What happened next was beyond everyone's expectations, even Ausilio was surprised.
The Argentina, donning their blue and black jerseys once again, have become the brightest stars at the Meazza.
With 12 goals in 15 rounds, he surpassed his compatriot Palacio to become the team's top scorer in less than half a season.
With Icardi on the flanks, the two full-backs Perisic and Candreva, thrived, even earning the nickname "Sword and Dagger."
Thanks to Icardi's outstanding performance, Inter Milan recently defeated UEFA Champions League rivals Napoli, moving up to the top 4 in the league and greatly increasing their chances of directly qualifying for next season's UEFA Champions League group stage.
This is a very good result for Inter Milan, which has sold off a large number of key players and is currently in a period of turmoil.
"The invincible king of the forward line is back!"
There's no need to sit in the Messina viewing stand reviewing Manchester City scouts' notes during every match, nor to hear the cheers for Icardi's goals from the Inter Milan North Stand, nor to witness his numerous Serie A Man of the Match awards, nor to see coach Pioli's deliberate efforts to have Icardi attend numerous press conferences.
The sheer number of times Icardi appears on the front page of the newspapers that Milan residents read during their leisure time is enough to tell just how popular he has been in the city over the past six months!
Manchester.
At Ranocchia's home.
"So, Mr. Ausilio, are you here to negotiate with Manchester United to buy Mauro outright at the end of the season?" Ranocchia asked him with a curious look.
Ausilio was playing with Ranocchia's daughter, holding a Doraemon toy in his hand. He then made a face, put his index finger to his lips, exaggeratedly made a "shh" gesture, and turned to Ranocchia, saying:
"Sorry, buddy, this is confidential, I can't tell you."
Tang Long and Bonazzoli were also at Ranocchia's house, and the group chatted with Ausilio with great interest.
Ausilio's trip to Manchester was not a paid vacation; he made a special visit to Manchester United and Manchester City and held secret talks with the club's executives.
Of course, he remained tight-lipped about everything that was discussed.
No matter how much the paparazzi waiting outside the two music venues pressed him for answers, he refused to utter a single word, leaving everyone speculating wildly.
For reasons unknown, Ausilio, after finishing his official duties, actually took the time to make a phone call to Ranocchia, asking him to invite Tang Long, Bonazzoli, and the other two former Inter Milan players to get together.
Ranocchia and Ausilio's relationship wasn't particularly close; it was more like a normal colleague relationship.
Ranocchia harbored resentment over Ausilio's insistence on selling him to Manchester United Manchester City after he refused to leave Milan, even though Ausilio had already landed his plane. He felt Ausilio treated him like a monkey, disrespecting his personality and his status as the former Inter Milan captain.
However, as it turns out, regardless of Ausilio's motives, selling him to Manchester City has always been a very good outcome!
After Ranocchia arrived at Manchester City, he quickly established himself as a key playmaker.
He won the league title that season, and this season, after Guardiola transformed him into a metronome-like defensive midfielder similar to Busquets, he has become increasingly consistent.
At the age of 29, his net worth jumped by 20 million, reaching as much as 60 million euros.
Manchester City have been on a winning streak across all three competitions this season. Having already secured the Premier League title, Ranocchia and his teammates still have the FA Cup and UEFA Champions League trophies to compete for.
Tang Long and Bonazzoli gladly accepted the invitation from Ranocchia and Ausilio.
Although the two men weren't particularly close to Ausilio, after leaving Italy to play football in UK, Tang Long sometimes began to miss his time on the Apennine Peninsula at night.
He prefers speaking Italy to English.
Tang Long and Bonazzoli kept questioning Ausilio about his purpose for coming here. Tang Long even joked about whether they could sell Inter Milan's left-back Dimarco to Manchester City.
What a cunning old fox Ausilio was!
Ranocchia if they couldn't get any information out of him, Tang Long and Bonazzoli had no chance of getting him to talk.
Fortunately, players aren't agents. When it comes to big events like transfers, unless it happens to them personally, they tend to discuss them more as gossip.
So even though Ausilio kept his mouth shut, the group still had a lot to talk about when they reminisced about their time at Inter Milan, and they got along very well.
They even talked about Berni, the locker room clown.
When they talked about Berni's spectacular feat of receiving three red cards on the bench without playing a single game in a single season, a record in Serie A, all four of them burst into laughter.
"This Berni fears no one in Serie A."
"Do you guys remember that game we played against Roma? Totti went berserk and kicked someone, who did he kick again, I think it was Icardi? Every player in Serie A knows that here, you can mess with anyone, but you can't mess with Totti. Icardi didn't even make a sound, he just glanced back, got up and walked away."
"But Berni didn't care about any of that. He jumped up from the bench, pointed at Totti, and started swearing at him. The insults were deafening, like thunder. Totti rushed over and spat back at him. In the end, both of them were sent off with a red card."
Tang Long laughed out loud, and the image of Berni with his big beard popped into his mind again.
"Berni just has this fiery temper." Ausilio blinked mysteriously, deliberately keeping everyone in suspense.
After everyone urged him to continue, Ausilio said in a joking tone, "I signed Berni purely to fill out the youth training quota. Berni even joked with me that if he had originally wanted to train in boxing when he was a child, but his dad insisted on making him train in football, he would have ended up not being able to box and being terrible at football, so he would be stuck as the third-choice goalkeeper for life."
Looking back on the past is always a happy time. Tang Long felt that in just two or three hours, he laughed as much as he had in the previous month.
After finishing dinner, Ranocchia volunteered to drive Ausilio to his hotel so he could get some rest and catch his flight the next morning.
Ausilio politely declined, and the others escorted him to the door.
Ausilio's eyes darted around, and he walked to the corner, beckoning to Tang Long and calling Tang Long over alone.
Tang Long followed Ausilio over, glancing back at Ranocchia and Bonazzoli standing in the doorway. They were also looking at them with curiosity. Tang Long couldn't help but find it amusing; couldn't they say what they wanted to say in the living room?
Ausilio got straight to the point.
He wasn't very tall; he put his hand on Tang Long's shoulder and tiptoed to whisper in Tang Long's ear.
"I know you made a lot more at Manchester City than at Inter Milan, but when it comes to money, the Dodo. Just like beautiful women, every man loves them, right?"
Tang Long was completely bewildered by these nonsensical words and couldn't help but stare intently into Ausilio's eyes, trying to discern his true intentions.
But in the depths of Ausilio's eyes, nothing could be read but a flicker of greed.
Before he could answer, Ausilio chuckled and continued in a low voice:
"I won't hide it anymore. When you transferred from Inter Milan to Manchester City actually made me a promise in private."
"If you win the UEFA Champions League, I'll get an extra 2 million euros in commission—no, I mean a bonus."
Ausilio hesitated when he used this word.
Clearly, this money couldn't be made public, and Tang Long felt a chill run down his spine upon hearing this.
He already knew Ausilio liked to take kickbacks, but he never expected that his UEFA Champions League victory would also be related to Ausilio's kickbacks.
Shouldn't this kind of thing be clearly stated in the transfer contract?
But when he glanced again at the greedy look in Ausilio's eyes, he instantly understood.
When I transferred from Inter Milan, not only Real Madrid, Manchester United, Bayern, Barca and other big clubs were also pursuing me.
At the time, Inter Milan's president Thohir, was in the United States having hamburgers with the owner of the Philadelphia 76ers, leaving Inter Milan's business entirely to Ausilio, who held the real power.
It seems that Manchester City must have given Ausilio a lot of benefits behind the scenes to get him.
Ausilio continued mysteriously:
"I assure you, you are the third person besides myself and Manchester City's Berrada who knew about this clause."
"Now your only rival is Cristiano Ronaldo. If you can beat him in the final, that would be fantastic."
"So you have to keep going, you absolutely have to keep going, you can't let your guard down, you have to beat him in the UEFA Champions League final!"
Ausilio punched Tang Long twice hard in the chest. These two punches were quite forceful, and Tang Long's ribs ached slightly from the blows.
"If we manage to get this done, I certainly won't treat you unfairly." Ausilio shrank his neck and raised his hand to Tang Long as if counting money. "Two million euros, how about we split it 50/50, one million each?"
At that moment, the Uber car that Ausilio had called arrived. He patted Tang Long on the shoulder and made a bicep flexing gesture at him.
"This is our secret, you can't tell anyone, understand?" Ausilio emphasized.
"Yes, I understand," Tang Long said with a serious expression.
Ausilio smiled contentedly, then waved and laughed to Ranocchia and Bonazzoli at the door, picked up his suitcase, got into the car, and drove around the corner and disappeared.
Tang Long then turned around and told Ranocchia and Bonazzoli what Ausilio had said to him.
The two looked shocked, remained silent for three seconds, and then burst into laughter again.
Ranocchia laughed the loudest, leaning against the wall of his villa's yard, pounding on the doorplate with his fist while laughing heartily.
"Haha, this bald guy, I was wondering why he had the energy to come looking for us after a long day? So that's what he meant!"
After laughing, Ranocchia rubbed his stomach, which ached slightly from laughing, and still smiled. He held up two fingers to Tang Long and said thoughtfully:
"I know him too well; there are only two possibilities."
"First, Ausilio placed a bet with the betting companies, a heavy bet that Manchester City will win the UEFA Champions League."
"Secondly, the kickback offered by Manchester City is far more than the 2 million he mentioned; it's at least double!"