Commanding Legends - Chapter 4
“This is the manuscript prepared for you by the PR department.”
As Gao Shen followed Raul to the administrative office of the Bernabeu Stadium, the sports director Floro came to greet him.
Floro coached Real Madrid in 19394, but was fired after being exposed by the media for cursing at players in the locker room. After that, he coached many teams and once went to Japan. His coaching was not successful, but later he got the support of some people in the board of directors and became the sports director of Real Madrid.
Unlike the high-end, classy and star-studded Real Madrid in the eyes of most fans, the real Real Madrid is actually quite chaotic, and there are all kinds of conflicts of interest.
Take the management system for example.
Under the club chairman, there is a general manager and a little-known chairman’s office. The latter is equivalent to the chairman’s private think tank, usually led by the chairman’s most trusted confidant, such as Florentino’s director of the chairman’s office, Manuel Redondo, who has been with him for decades.
The general manager is responsible for the daily operation of the club. There are several different departments under him, including the competitive department, which has a sports director. In theory, the sports director is responsible for all competitive affairs, including the basketball department and the football department.
When Florentino took office as chairman, the sports director was Valdano, a former Real Madrid hero, but later the results were not good, Valdano took the blame and stepped down, Florentino then hired the world-class coach Sacchi to serve as the technical director, who was directly responsible to the chairman.
In this way, the technical director is almost at the same level as the general manager, but because he is only responsible for the affairs of the football department, many competitive affairs need to be handled by someone, so Florentino took the position of sports director.
But soon there was a problem again.
Because the team’s performance was poor, head coach Luxemburg and technical director Sacchi took the blame and stepped down, and the technical director was concurrently served by vice chairman Butragueno. He also served as the head of the public relations department and had no energy to worry about so many things, so he only focused on the first team, and the second team and the youth team were handed over to the sports director Florentino.
This situation lasted only three months, Florentino announced his resignation, and the new chairman Martin took office.
So now the internal management of Real Madrid is a mess.
The team lost 0-1 to Arsenal at home in the first round of the Champions League. The second round at Highbury became crucial; before that, the city derby against Atletico Madrid at the weekend could not be lost, and the league results were also under great pressure.
It happened that at this time, the new chairman Martin fired Carlo and appointed Gao Shen, which made everyone even more anxious.
At this moment, everyone in the Real Madrid office was thinking about one thing, that is, how to resolve the pressure of public opinion from the outside world.
To put it simply, it was to help the new chairman clean up his ass.
In any case, the new chairman also represents the image and interests of Real Madrid.
Therefore, no one would pay attention to Gao Shen.
After Floro handed the manuscript prepared by the public relations department to Gao Shen, he just reminded him, “Don’t be nervous when you go on stage later, just read it according to the manuscript. As for the question-and-answer session, we have arranged it.”
In his opinion, Gao Shen is just a rookie who has just started out.
No one around paid any attention to Gao Shen either. No one from the PR department even came to tell Gao Shen what he could and could not say on stage.
Everyone treated him as a tool to read the script on stage!
Gao Shen knew that he was a nobody and was not taken seriously, but he didn’t take it to heart. He took the script to a corner where no one noticed and looked at it. He found that it was all empty talk without any substance.
With a script of this level, if it had been before he traveled through time, he could have easily improvised for half an hour without repeating himself. It
was the first time for him to face the media as the head coach of Real Madrid. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to speak out. Just reading the script?
You must be kidding!
Gao Shen tore up the script and threw it directly into the trash can next to him.
…………
…………
This press conference attracted many media reporters, but the process was the same as Gao Shen had guessed.
At the meeting, the new chairman Martin repeatedly emphasized that his choice of Gao Shen as the head coach was a well-considered decision. He said that he had observed Gao Shen for a long time and he believed that Gao Shen had the ability and courage to lead Real Madrid out of the predicament.
He emphasized that Gao Shen graduated from Loughborough University, the world’s top sports university. Gao Shen had excellent academic performance during his time at school and performed well during his internship at Real Madrid. He was promoted to the first team as an exception to accumulate experience with the team.
This made Gao Shen, who was sitting upright next to him, feel ashamed. He didn’t know that he was so good and so valued by the leaders.
Thinking about it, he was too low-key.
This is still to blame the Chinese national football team. They played so badly that the Chinese people had a serious lack of confidence in football.
In short, Martin collected a lot of evidence to prove to everyone that he was serious about choosing Gao Shen, and it was by no means a farce. The starting point was that he felt that Real Madrid needed to carry out an impulsive, drastic, and painful reform.
“From 2003 to now, we have not won even one championship. This is unacceptable in any way. We may even be eliminated in the top 16 of the Champions League for two consecutive seasons, which is also unsatisfactory.”
“We all know that our team is sick, very seriously ill, and our team needs surgery, a major surgery.”
Martin then praised Gao Shen again, saying that his youth and drive are exactly what Real Madrid needs most now.
After the chairman and technical director Butragueno, Gao Shen also spoke as the head coach of Real Madrid for the first time.
In fact, it was just reciting a script.
The entire speech expounded Gao Shen’s views on the current situation of Real Madrid and the solutions he envisioned. It was full of empty talk and evasion, and none of them was down-to-earth.
After Gao Shen finished reciting, the reactions of the media reporters on the scene were also very flat.
These people are all well-informed and are good at writing. How could they not know whether there is any dry goods?
After Gao Shen finished reciting the script, he entered the free questioning session.
Although there were many people raising their hands, there was obviously a routine. For example, the first person to be named was a reporter from Real Madrid TV, one of ours. The second was a reporter from AS, also one of ours. The third was a reporter from Marca, also one of ours. The fourth was a reporter from El País, still one of ours…
The reporters asked questions in a serious manner, and the people on the stage answered them in a serious manner.
Gao Shen was not in a hurry and waited patiently for the opportunity.
He believed that with the cunning of the media reporters, they would ask him sooner or later.
Sure enough, the following rounds of questions gradually became more sharp, and some reporters even directly asked Martin about what he said at the board meeting, that more than half of the incompetent players would be fired.
But this time Martin was obviously scared and he played dumb.
The media reporters were of course not satisfied, so they aimed at Gao Shen next to him.
Young people are easily impulsive.
First, there were two light questions in succession, such as how to coach Real Madrid, which were all expected.
But soon, trouble came.
“Gao, I am a reporter from the Catalan Daily Sports. Chairman Martin said at the board meeting that more than half of Real Madrid’s players did not perform well and should be cleared out. As the executor of this policy, you have received great expectations from the chairman and the management. How do you plan to implement this policy? How to lead Real Madrid out of the current predicament?”
As soon as this question came out, there was an uproar at the scene, and the media reporters in the audience became excited as if they had been injected with chicken blood.
Gao Shen is not a rookie who just graduated from school. How could he not hear the trap in the words?
He pretended to be silent and secretly turned his head to look at the press officer. The latter secretly winked at him and shook his head, indicating that he should not answer directly. Even Butragueno on the side smelled something wrong. He thought Gao Shen could not handle such a situation. He was afraid that he would say something wrong and wanted to resolve the dilemma first.
But at this time, Gao Shen spoke up.
“Although I have only been in Real Madrid for seven months, I have deeply felt the historical heritage of this club.”
Gao Shen’s opening was quite standard, but he soon changed the subject.
“I know that the performance of the first team is not ideal now. Some players even make us doubt whether they are qualified to wear the Real Madrid jersey. In our youth team, there is a group of very outstanding, very young and energetic players who are also very loyal to the club. I know them and I hope to give them more opportunities.”
Gao Shen’s words surprised Martin, Butragueno and others sitting on the rostrum. This was not in the speech. What was he trying to do?
Who gave him the courage to do such a reckless thing?
But Gao Shen continued.
“I will use facts to prove that the reason why Real Madrid is Real Madrid is because of unity and the spirit of Juanito who fought to the last breath, not because of one person or some people in the team! I always insist that in Real Madrid, all players are equal, and no one is qualified to be special, no matter who he is!”
Gao Shen’s words were so powerful that they immediately caused an uproar in the press conference hall.
All the media reporters read too much information from these few short sentences.
Is this a declaration of war against the superstars?
Compared with the excitement of the media reporters, the Real Madrid people at the scene, including Raul, Butragueno, and Martin, were all stunned and even a little frightened. Can such words be said? Can they be said in front of so many media reporters?
It’s been six years!
The superstar policy has always been the political correctness of Real Madrid!
Now, the head coach of Real Madrid, although only acting, actually declared war on the superstars in public. Is this an attempt to subvert it?
If the media reporters just wanted to get a bullet out of Gao Shen before, then Gao Shen now directly dropped a missile, blowing everyone up.
The new chairman Martin was even more shocked. He turned his head and looked at Butragueno, as if asking: What’s wrong with your public relations department? Didn’t you reconcile the lines with him before?
Butragueno was also stunned. Gao Shen’s sudden move caught them off guard.
After feeling the anger of the new chairman, Butragueno turned his head and looked at Floro. What did you tell him? Didn’t you say to read from the script? Why did you say so much without a script?
Floro was also confused. He didn’t expect Gao Shen to be so bold and declare war on the superstar in front of so many media reporters. What is he trying to do? Is
this kid crazy?
Martin saw the expressions of Butragueno and Floro, and understood in his heart. When he looked at Gao Shen again, his eyes became different.
Fortunately, this guy was so quiet before. He was just pretending to be a pig and eating the tiger, waiting for this opportunity!
Now, his words have directly pierced a hole in the sky, and everything has been laid out on the table. He even kidnapped me and forced me to endorse him.
Apart from anything else, he now came out to say that Gao Shen’s words were not instructed by me. Who would believe it?
The eagle who has played all his life has now been pecked in the eye by a sparrow.
Miscalculated!