Football: The Journey of a Coach

30. The January Transfer Exchange

     The January transfer market is there to help teams that are bad at the start of the season, at this time the teams will hunt for players to strengthen again. It is also not uncommon for January transfers to be important determinants in the championship.

It can also be taken advantage of by Crsytal Palace, the shortcomings and weaknesses of the team can be closed by buying players in January transfers.

There are also shortcomings for Crsytal Palace, because players who play well at the beginning of the season will be sought by a better team than Crsytal Palace itself.

As of now, Wayne Collins, who is currently serving as interim manager of Crsytal Palace, informed that there are players from the team who are hunted by several clubs.

" Let me give you a list of anyone on the other club's list. " Wayne said while handing over some players list.

" All right, anybody." Daniel received the paper that his uncle had handed him.

Apparently there are also many Palace players who are targeted by other clubs. As he had expected, Victor Moses was the target of Sunderland, Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Wigan Athletics.

Second, N'golo Kante who played well at the beginning of the season. There are Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur, the Manchester duo and Bolton Wanderers.

Third, Ryan Shawcross for playing well here. Stoke City want to bring him back, then Everton and Blackburn Rovers

Fourth, Nathan Clyne. Liverpool and Newcastle United.

Fifth, Alan Lee. The main striker Palace was targeted by West Bromwich Albion.

Reading the list his uncle gave Daniel a dumbfounded look. Most of the teams that were eyeing at Palace were all teams from the premier league, this was something he did not expect at all.

" Is this list true uncle?, almost all of the premier league teams. Only Alan is in the pursuit of the championship division team. " Ask Daniel.

" Let's see this, N'golo Kante. It's not an exaggeration, he only played half a season in the English league. How can a top English team go after him. " Continue Daniel.

" For N'golo Kante, it was only at the stage of observing Daniel. Maybe you can't watch closely, because you focus on being a coach. But there's been a lot of Scouting from those big teams here, every time Crsytal Palace plays they'll come to Selhurst park." Obviously Uncle.

Daniel really doesn't know about this, he's too busy coaching the team. Because of his busyness, Daniel did not know that the big teams had begun to sniff the mainstay of Crsytal Palace.

" Well, just calm down for now, Daniel. N'golo Kante and Nathan Clyne are young, and that big team is still in the supervising stage and hasn't really made a move yet." Wayne said calmly, seeing Daniel a little worried.

"What you need to focus on now is Victor Moses, Ryan Shawcross and Alan Lee. It seems like the club that is after the three of them is really serious. You must prepare. " Advanced uncle.

" Can we keep them?. Then, does Crsytal Palace prepare funds on this January transfer? ". Daniel asked after knowing his team would be hollow if he kept quiet.

" Hmmm!. It will be difficult for Palace to keep players who want to leave, let alone who want is a premier league team. It's a little difficult to admit, but I think it's impossible for a player to refuse to play in a better team. ". Wayne Collins was honest with Daniel.

He didn't want his nephew to be too focused on keeping players who wanted to leave, just let them go. Crsytal Palace can look for new players, Wayne has also heard that Daniel has a good vision in signing players.

" Huh...., then what about the transfer funds, is there? ". Daniel actually already knew about this, in the future he had seen real evidence of it. It is difficult for small teams to defend their players from the money pursuit of rich teams.

But feeling this bitter experience firsthand itself, made his heart feel bad. This sense of being unable to accept injustice frustrated him.

" The transfer fund.....".

Seeing his uncle dragging in answers made Daniel's feelings even more uneasy.

" I'm sorry Daniel, nothing. " Answer his uncle.

" fuckin ". Only this word can come out of his mouth.

" How else, the Palace is currently in the change of owner. Simon Jordan certainly does not want to spend any more money on the team, it's good he did not immediately sell all the team's mainstay players before leaving. "

" And, because the approval document is expected to be completed in March or April. The new owner can't directly invest the money for Crsytal Palace." Wayne Collins said helplessly, he himself knows the difficulties of Palace at the moment.

" But Daniel, William and I will try to prevent Simon Jordan from getting all of the player's money into his pocket. Either way, Crsytal Palace will get a share of the player's sale. " Wayne could only do this to help his nephew train career.

" Until then why don't you go to the youth team training base, I heard from Joey you brought a talented little player to the team. " This is Wayne's way of distracting Daniel a little bit from this complicated issue.

Whether Joey has succeeded in carrying out his duties, Daniel previously said if he managed to directly bring players to the youth camp first.

Calming his mind, Daniel said to his uncle, "Alright, I'll see him later in the afternoon after team practice. Currently the account will return to the training field first".

***

In the afternoon, Daniel went to the youth training academy to watch the youth team match with Joey and Lawrence. The three men came secretly without telling anyone.

Crystal Palace Youth Academy are not at Beckenham's training base, but near Selhurst Park Stadium, they moved out of the first team after a renovation in 2007.

There are many league levels in England at the moment, and many teams also have reserve teams and junior teams. The reserve team and the junior team also have their own league, but only the big and rich teams have excess reserve teams. Like the U-18, U-20, and U-23, for Crsytal Palace, they only have one team, the U-18.

U-18 Crystal Palace are now in fifth group alongside Queens Park Rangers, Southampton, Milton Keynes and other teams.

The Crystal Palace junior team has not performed well in recent years. This was why Daniel did not pay much attention to this area.

The three of them walked to the junior team stadium together, already many people had come to support both teams. Many of the spectators are parents of the young players and it just so happens that this is the weekend, they get to watch their kids play football and cheer to support their son's dream.

“You, you're Daniel Ward not!”. A big fat white man with a beard on his face blocked the path of the three of them.

Daniel actually did not really want to talk to many people at this time, his mood was bad thinking about the Crsytal Palace problem. So he just nodded, fortunately that person seemed to be able to sense Daniel's mood as well. The man simply smiled and shook hands with her, then returned to the crowd of onlookers.

The other spectators saw the arrival of the three of them, and there were some who exclaimed.

" Good work Daniel. "

" It's good to see Barnsley slaughtered. "

" Continue Palace's good performance ".

Daniel Ward was a little flattered to hear the supporters who supported him. During Crsytal Palace's two games, he actually faced a lot of pressure. Now that he heard the fans praising the results of his hard work, Daniel smiled and slightly bowed showing respect.

Joey and Lawrence were so staring at Daniel smiling, some days it was so hard to see him smile. The two of them also found out from Daniel Crsytal Palace's difficult situation, so seeing him relax slightly lightened their hearts.

After the three of them sat down in the somewhat few sections of people, the referee blew the whistle signifying the start of the match. Daniel calmly observed the course of the first half of the game, seeing which players had the potential to play at Crsytal Palace.

While watching the match, Daniel listened to Joey tell him how he managed to bring one player to Crsytal Palace, from the three candidates Daniel was looking for.

Joe Allen, 19, from Swansea City. His cousin said it was not difficult to bring Joe Allen to Crsytal Palace, because the player himself will be expelled by Swansea.

" Why get expelled? ". Lawrence asked who also listened to Joey's story.

" Oh, I heard the kid fighting with his teammate. And the boy who became his opponent is a direct descendant of Swansea's young coach, so you know for yourself the continuation. " Said Joey, who had already investigated the situation there.

Daniel recalls Joe Allen's initial situation, whether there was anything like this early in his career. But after a moment of thought, he can only remember that Liverpool paid a lot for this player. The rest he really doesn't know.

" How about the other two. Andy Carroll and Danny Rose ". Daniel asked after stopping to think about Joe Allen's situation.

" Huh.., for both of them Daniel's hard. After searching and observing for the past three days, they were both very famous among their respective clubs. Andy Carroll, he was touted by Newcastle fans as the second Alan Shearer." Answer Joey Collins.

" At least Palace had to spend money to get them both, I think getting Joe Allen for free was already a big fortune." Reciprocity.

After Joey told me, Daniel's attention was drawn to young black player Crsytal Palace. The player nimbly passed the guard of the opponent, Daniel could see the talent in this boy.

There were many black immigrants in the Croydon area, and their descendants would naturally enter the local youth training camp. At the moment, the biggest team in the city of Croydon is Crsytal Palace. So it is no wonder that many of these children will come to realize their dreams.

Daniel had noticed the young player, then asked Lawrence to observe further. While he asks Joey to temporarily stop investigating Andy Carroll and Danny Rose.