Sotis, professional football is full of tricks and narratives.
For example, the dia and fans often like to label a player as "the next so-and-so."
Or, they create couple-style nicknas like the "Gemini pairing."
A more recent example is Bayern Munich's German duo, Toni Kroos and Thomas Müller—one a midfielder, the other a forward.
Going back further, there's Argentina's twin stars, Higuaín and Gago—one a striker, the other a midfielder.
This ti, the two River Plate players Borrell had his eyes on were also a forward and midfielder pair.
Aside from Álvarez, he was also targeting a young midfielder from River Plate's youth academy nad Enzo Fernández.
Interestingly, this player had yet to make a first-team appearance. He was only nad on the bench for a league match on January 27, without playing.
More notably, he had never been called up to any level of the Argentine national team.
Because of this, his transfer fee was very low.
According to Borrell's assessnt, he planned to negotiate with River Plate for a package deal for both Argentine players, totaling around ten million euros, and he didn't expect any major issues.
In the scouting report, Borrell and Leeds United's scouting departnt described Enzo Fernández as having excellent passing ability, particularly in delivering threatening through balls. But as a deep-lying midfielder, his defensive attributes were relatively average.
As a South Arican player, Enzo wasn't particularly strong in ball control and lacked dribbling explosiveness. His range was also sowhat limited. However, his passing range was broad and his distribution ability stood out.
Borrell believed that he already had the capacity to play in a deeper midfield role, distributing the ball across the pitch and delivering dangerous passes between the lines.
How should one describe it?
When Gao Shen read that evaluation, the first na that ca to mind was Gago.
Quite interestingly, Álvarez reminded him of Higuaín—just a little shorter—while Enzo Fernández reminded him of Gago.
"They're different," Borrell shook his head. "Gago had more delicate and refined technique back then. He was a typical South Arican midfielder, great at dribbling, but his passing vision and movent off the ball were relatively weak."
Gago was once highly regarded and was even nicknad "Redondo II." Not only did Maradona praise him as the future best number five for Argentina, even Redondo himself acknowledged him as the most similar player to his own style.
When Gago joined Real Madrid, he and Higuaín were touted as the twin stars. But in reality, Gago was the more favored one.
Yet, what happened next caught everyone by surprise.
Who could have predicted that Higuaín would achieve great success, while Gago would struggle in Europe and return to Argentina early?
Sotis, it really does co down to timing and fate.
To Gao Shen's surprise, he actually rembered hearing of Enzo Fernández before.
Not in his past life, but on social dia.
Back in 2016, when ssi announced his retirent from the national team, a then-15-year-old Enzo Fernández wrote a heartfelt letter to ssi on social dia, pleading with him not to leave and to continue leading the Argentine national team.
That letter had been recomnded to Gao Shen by netizens at the ti, but he hadn't paid attention to who wrote it.
There were so many fans. How could he possibly rember all their nas?
But now, seeing Borrell reference the letter in the scouting report, Gao Shen imdiately realized, "Damn, it's an old acquaintance."
They absolutely had to sign him!
"This kid's a die-hard ssi fan. Would he be willing to co to Leeds United?" Gao Shen suddenly raised a valid concern.
Borrell gave Gao Shen a look. "Do you have so kind of misunderstanding about yourself and about Leeds United?"
Lucas burst out laughing. "Exactly! Right now, we're the best club in Europe—no, in the world—when it cos to developing young players. Not just Europe, even in South Arica, tons of youngsters dream of joining our club. You think they'd turn us down?"
Thinking about it, that made sense.
Even Mbappé, a die-hard Ronaldo fan, still played for Leeds United.
...
After visiting Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, Gao Shen had held talks with the core leadership of both clubs and gained a general understanding of their transfer plans.
At the mont, Paris Saint-Germain seed inclined to focus on localization and adapting within France.
If Neymar stayed, PSG would likely target Ousmane Dembélé. This was because Gao Shen's suggestion had been adopted by the club: Neymar and Mbappé are incompatible.
That would give PSG a powerful attacking trio of Neymar, Cavani, and Dembélé, along with Draxler, Choupo-Moting, and Nkunku—a star-studded frontline.
In midfield, it would depend on whether a deal for Pogba could be finalized.
If Pogba joined, the core midfield would be Pogba, Kanté, and Jorginho, with Rabiot, Lo Celso, and Paredes providing depth. This lineup would be enough to compete toe-to-toe with any European giant.
Defensively, things looked even more solid: Bernat, Benatia, Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, and Real Madrid's Varane. If Mazraoui was brought in as well, the squad would be complete.
This ant that the signings of Varane, Pogba, and Dembélé would take up a significant portion of the budget. However, by selling so surplus players, the investnt would remain within a projected 400 million euros.
This perfectly aligned with PSG's strategic positioning and budget.
After this transformation, PSG's overall strength would improve significantly, and Tuchel would have all the tactical pieces he needed.
Real Madrid's situation was a bit more complicated.
After selling Varane, they'd need to sign a new center-back. Zidane had specifically asked for either De Ligt or Rúben Dias.
Gao Shen personally preferred to sell De Ligt and keep Rúben Dias at Leeds United.
Because the Portuguese defender was the backbone of Leeds United's defense, though De Ligt currently had the bigger na.
This phenonon was quite common in football.
Over the years, no one had tried to poach José Fonte, yet countless young center-backs had been snapped up, one after another, from this "center-back incubator" at Leeds United.
Bringing in Mbappé was also part of Florentino's grand plan.
If Pogba left, Real Madrid would need a new midfielder, preferably soone who could take over from Modric.
Gao Shen wanted to recomnd Bernardo Silva.
The Portuguese midfielder was currently valued at 100 million euros, but if Leeds United made a deep Champions League run this season, his value would certainly rise further.
Plus, he had never fully adapted to life in England and was likely keen to return to the Iberian Peninsula.
Sell Varane, buy De Ligt. Sell Pogba, buy Bernardo Silva...
These two swaps wouldn't cost Real Madrid too much, and the incoming players were younger.
If these transfers were completed, Real Madrid's squad would be completely refreshed.
The attack would feature Mbappé, Benzema, and Di María, supported by Asensio, Jesé, Džeko, and Vázquez.
The midfield would include the iconic trio, along with Bernardo Silva, Isco, Verratti, Illarrandi, Ceballos, and Marcos Llorente.
In defense: Marcelo, Carvajal, Ramos, Van Dijk, De Ligt, Nacho, plus Reguilón, Odriozola, Theo Hernández, and Marcos Alonso.
Real Madrid's squad would be stacked, enough to command attention across Europe.
At present, these were just advanced plans. Whether they would materialize or whether Real Madrid and PSG would seek to go even further would depend on the execution of these deals.
But one thing was certain: both teams would be extrely strong.
As for Leeds United, their goal at this stage was not to win the Champions League, but to secure a top-four finish in the Premier League and reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League, while continuing to invest heavily in youth developnt.
Gao Shen, Lucas, and Borrell all understood clearly.
If Leeds United wanted results, they would have to wait for the generation born in the 2000s to fully mature—especially Haaland and Vinícius.
Once this group of players reached their peak, and Leeds United used these few years to expand their comrcial capabilities and improve their financial strength, making it easier to retain talent, then the team would be ready to dominate European football.
By then, let's see who can challenge Leeds United!
...
No one knows what the future holds, but for now, Leeds United were still holding Ajax firmly in check.
After the break in the second half, Ajax launched another fierce offensive.
The need to score three goals pushed the Eredivisie side to go all out, launching a full-on assault to break Leeds United's defensive line.
But the central defensive duo of Rúben Dias and De Ligt were rock solid, and with Rodri sitting in front of the defense, Ajax struggled to pose any serious threat.
Instead, in the 53rd minute, Leeds United hit them with a quick counterattack from the right.
Alexander-Arnold surged down the wing, received a pass from Bernardo Silva, exchanged a one-two with Dembélé, then sent in a low cross from the byline.
Vardy rushed to the near post and slotted it in.
2-0!
The Amazon Stadium erupted in celebration!
From then on, the two teams continued to battle, but Leeds United maintained their composure while Ajax completely lost theirs.
The burden of having to score four goals completely broke the confidence of this young team.
Leeds United played with a relaxed mindset, and Pochettino began to rotate the squad.
In the 70th minute, 18-year-old Haaland ca on for Vardy.
Just ten minutes later, Mbappé and Robertson launched an attack from the left flank. Although Ajax's defense held firm and forced them to retreat, the ball was recycled.
Rodri delivered a diagonal pass to Bernardo Silva, who controlled it, turned sharply to shake off a defender, and lofted a pass into the penalty area.
Haaland, who had just dropped near the edge of the box, saw the turn and imdiately started his run, cutting diagonally to the right of the penalty spot.
The pass arrived instantly. Haaland got there first and, before the Ajax center-back could slide in, struck it first-ti with his right foot.
The ball rocketed into the bottom-right corner of the Ajax goal!
The entire sequence was lightning-fast and exhilarating.
3-0!
This was also Haaland's first-ever goal in the Champions League!
And it ca in the quarterfinals!
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)
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