Pre-season training camp began, and Niang also started to follow up on the transfers of Sissoko and James Rodriguez.

Both of these players were wanted by many teams, so Liverpool would have to spend some money to grab them.

Fortunately, the Liverpool club was not short of money so far.

Although repairing the stadium strained the finances, it was only strained, not a crisis.

Tens of millions of euros could be squeezed out with gritted teeth.

The first to be approached was Sissoko.

Sissoko returned to France, and along with him to Lyon were offers from many wealthy teams.

The battle for this top left-back among European powerhouses finally kicked off completely.

AC Milan was the first wealthy club to make an offer, but their offer was a bit too stingy, not at all befitting their "wealthy club" status.

Because AC Milan's offer was… fifteen million euros…

This offer was indeed too low.

You should know that Lyon spent fifteen million euros to buy Sissoko from Porto in the first place, and this offer was also the money AC Milan initially wanted to buy Sissoko from Porto.

They had the opportunity to buy Sissoko for this price back then. Sissoko even came to Milan for a medical examination, and he was very happy to be able to join a wealthy club like AC Milan.

However, AC Milan refused the transfer deal because they were unwilling to spend fifteen million euros to buy a young left-back who had just emerged, citing dental problems as the reason.

Now they actually want to buy Sissoko for fifteen million euros, I really don't know what they are thinking…

The media ridiculed Berlusconi for pretending to be generous when he has no money, and some Italian media criticized Berlusconi for having money to support mistresses, money to help his lovers enter politics, and money to hold unrestrained orgies, but no money to replenish fresh blood for AC Milan. They didn't think that this Italian media tycoon would really be out of money, but just unwilling to spend any more money on AC Milan.

AC Milan's offer was just a small interlude, and Lyon didn't even bother to refuse it, they just ignored it.

Inter Milan, on the other hand, offered twenty million.

In addition, Juventus' offer was at 21 million euros.

Real Madrid and Barcelona have not yet made offers, but rumors in the media about these two clubs' interest in Sissoko have never stopped.

In the Premier League, the Manchester clubs were the most active.

Manchester United hoped to buy Sissoko to replace Evra.

Manchester City simply had too much money to burn and a pure collecting hobby.

But the prices offered by these two were not high. Manchester United offered twenty million, and Manchester City's 25 million was already the highest.

These wealthy clubs seemed to have discussed it.

No one was willing to offer a sky-high price.

This made Lyon club chairman Aulas very unhappy.

In an interview with reporters, he claimed that Aly Cissokho was not for sale: "No matter how much money, we won't sell him!"

Everyone scoffed. Anyone could say this, but not Aulas.

Everyone knew that in Aulas's eyes, nothing at Lyon was unsellable.

It's just that he always sells at extortionate prices. Even a roll of toilet paper at the Lyon club, he can sell for more than others.

That was also his skill.

Everyone knew that Aulas was only saying this to raise Sissoko's price.

No player sold by Lyon has ever been cheap.

But this time, they were going to break Lyon's black shop myth.

Everyone knew that Sissoko's contract would expire next year. If he didn't leave this year, Lyon would have to let Sissoko go for free. This was even more unacceptable to Aulas than selling at a low price.

So this year was the best opportunity for everyone to push down the price.

These teams all had the same idea – it's not worth spending too much money on a player who is destined to leave the team. It's not that these people are stingy, but there is no need to be extravagant. The pursuit of profit is everyone's nature.

Anyway, if they can't buy him in the end, they can wait until next year. As long as January 1st of next year passes, these teams can directly discuss personal contracts with Sissoko, without having to contact the Lyon club at all, and without having to look at the face of that profiteer, Aulas.

As for whether Sissoko can withstand the pressure and not renew his contract with Lyon… there was simply no suspense about that.

Sissoko's agent had already called a halt to the contract renewal negotiations with Lyon, saying that either Sissoko should be allowed to leave this summer, or they should wait for a season, and lose both the player and the money.

It was precisely because of this tough statement from Sissoko's agent that the major wealthy clubs were able to remain calm.

None of them could be considered to be in urgent need of a top left-back.

If the price was right, they wouldn't mind bringing Sissoko into their fold this summer, but if Lyon insisted on a high price, then they were willing to wait until next summer.

In this way, the wealthy clubs were already in an invincible position.

No matter how Lyon struggled, it would be useless.

But there was one team that was unwilling to wait.

The Seven Crowns King was very much in need of player reserves.

A top left-back was what Liverpool needed, which would help Liverpool go more smoothly on the road to winning the championship…

So this summer, Niang must bring Sissoko to Liverpool.

Of course, he showed a lot of patience.

He didn't immediately and impatiently offer a sky-high price.

In fact, so far, Liverpool has not made an offer yet.

Although there were rumors in the market, to others, Liverpool was still outside this circle of competition.

Niang was using these wealthy clubs as shields.

Let them wear down Lyon's patience, while attracting Aulas's hatred. Then, when the time was right, he would come forward in the image of a "Lyon savior," offering a price that both sides were satisfied with, and take down Sissoko.

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Competing for Sissoko was not something that could be settled in a day or two. Niang also had to take care of James Rodriguez's transfer.

Like Sissoko, Liverpool's pursuit of Rodriguez also faced a lot of competition.

But fortunately, he had already reached a consensus with Rodriguez, and with Liverpool's status as the Four Crowns King, he already occupied an advantage in this competition.

It was just a matter of how to force Atletico Madrid to let him go.

In the contract that Atletico Madrid and James Rodriguez signed, there was a release clause.

Rodriguez and Atletico Madrid's release clause was as high as 68 million euros.

As long as any club could offer this price, Atletico Madrid must let him go.

Although everyone knew that James Rodriguez was very good, he was definitely not worth 68 million. Perhaps even James Rodriguez himself did not think he had such a high value.

Therefore, no one would really spend 68 million euros to take James Rodriguez away.

Although he was known as "Colombia's Cristiano Ronaldo," he was, after all, not the real Cristiano Ronaldo.

In the battle to compete for Sissoko, Niang had Liverpool hide behind everyone. But on the issue of James Rodriguez, he charged to the front.

He asked Atletico Madrid for a price.

Atletico Madrid's reply was as he expected: "James is not for sale."

He did not immediately offer his price.

Instead, he once again launched the public opinion offensive.

Soon, news appeared in the media about James Rodriguez wanting to leave Atletico Madrid.

They analyzed it in a logical and coherent way, and it looked like it was true.

In addition, everyone firmly believed that James Rodriguez could not stay at Atletico Madrid until the end of his contract, so for a time, news about James Rodriguez wanting to leave Atletico Madrid spread like wildfire.

The Atletico Madrid club immediately fell into a relatively passive situation.

They could no longer say that James Rodriguez was not for sale.

Creating public opinion was equivalent to helping them tear off the last fig leaf.

Forcing Atletico Madrid to negotiate with those teams that were interested in James Rodriguez – when everyone knows, and starts discussing this matter, you can no longer avoid talking about it.

After this matter was exposed by the media, Liverpool immediately followed up. This time, they didn't ask for a price, they directly made an offer.

Liverpool offered 15 million euros to buy James Rodriguez.

This offer was certainly not going to pass, because it was really too low…

Atletico Madrid spent 40 million euros to bring him from Porto in the first place.

Wanting them to hand over James Rodriguez for 10 million euros was truly a daydream!

Ten million euros was naturally not going to work, and Niang didn't expect it to work either. If that could work, then something must be wrong with this world.

After being rejected, he offered 13 million euros.

He continued to be rejected. For the third offer, he suddenly raised it to 18 million euros.

At the same time, he knew that Real Madrid, Manchester City and other clubs were competing with him.

It's just that he really didn't know how much those clubs were offering.

He wasn't too worried about Real Madrid. Atletico Madrid would not sell their star player to their city rivals, and then watch their rivals use James Rodriguez to deal with them. Back then, Real Madrid's pursuit of Aguero was so strong, and Aguero himself said that he had to go to Real Madrid, but Atletico Madrid resisted the pressure and sold Aguero to Manchester City. He still hasn't been able to join Real Madrid through a roundabout route.

What he hated the most was Manchester City.

This club relied on having money and was snatching people everywhere. It didn't matter whether they needed them or not, it was always right to snatch them and hoard them. If they didn't need them, they wouldn't let others use them either.

This kind of team was the most hateful.

They disrupted the order of the transfer market, drove up prices, and made the value of players generally inflated now. Looking at the asking prices of those players on the transfer market, who dares to say that the world economy is still sluggish? The football bubble economy was created by clubs like Manchester City – Niang always insisted on this view.

He can only pray now that Atletico Madrid doesn't only agree to Manchester City's offer, otherwise, no matter how well he greets James Rodriguez, it will be useless!

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ps, I've been in the hospital for these three days, occasionally going home to get things and catch up on sleep – after all, I have to drive, and I can't be too tired.

So I didn't write a single word… I relied entirely on the manuscript I had stored. The manuscript is getting less and less, so I have to guarantee these two updates at the bottom, and I ask everyone for your understanding…