Chapter 403: Chapter 88: King of Iduna! Arsenal’s Opportunity to Rise! Battle Atletico Madrid, Seize the Initiative! Wang Shuo’s First Long Shot

This was something very few people knew.

Many in the media often joked about Wenger’s "almost signings," but in reality, Wenger’s greatest regret wasn’t missing out on Ibrahimovic, nor Yaya Toure, or anyone else.

Wenger’s regret was from 2003, when he missed out on Ronaldo!

The truth was, Wenger had already reached an agreement with Sporting Lisbon back then. Ronaldo was scheduled to travel to London to sign with Arsenal right after playing a friendly against Manchester United. His plane ticket had even been bought.

Wenger had even set aside the number 9 shirt specifically for Ronaldo.

But after that match, Ferguson swooped in.

He knew Wenger was about to sign Ronaldo and saw the young player’s potential, so he didn’t even leave Lisbon. Right then and there, he went through the agent, Mendes, reached an agreement with Sporting Lisbon, and signed the player directly, taking him to Manchester.

At the time, the transfer fee Arsenal had agreed upon with Sporting Lisbon was only 8 million euros at most.

But Ferguson offered 19 million euros directly, plus an additional 1.5 million euro commission for the agent.

By the time Wenger got the news, Ronaldo was already wearing a Manchester United shirt and playing matches for them!

From the friendly match to Ronaldo playing for Manchester United, it all happened in just four days.

Goddammit!

Without Ferguson, Ronaldo would have belonged to Arsenal.

Given Arsenal’s strength in 2003, if Ronaldo had joined, they could have certainly built a glorious Arsenal dynasty!

But Ferguson stopped it all from happening.

As for the stories about the Manchester United players persuading Ferguson to sign Ronaldo in the locker room after the friendly—that was all bullshit.

Manchester United players influencing Ferguson’s decisions?

At most, they could offer their opinions or ask for his thoughts.

But Arsenal had completely lost a superstar!

Over the past few years, Wenger had spent a lot of money.

From Reyes to Hleb to Walcott, and then there was Van Persie, who was always injured...

Coupled with the construction of the new stadium, Wenger had no choice but to change the club’s transfer strategy.

Every time he thought about it, Wenger’s heart felt like it was being shot by Ferguson’s pistol, again and again.

It was so damn heart-wrenching!

If Ronaldo had joined Arsenal in ’03, things would have been completely different for Wenger and the Gunners.

But in this world, there are no "what ifs."

Wenger sighed and began flipping through today’s newspapers.

The Independent Newspaper reported on last night’s UEFA Europa League quarter-final, where Dortmund crushed Benfica 6-0.

Wang Shuo...

’What?’

’Wang Shuo scored four goals?’

Wenger’s eyes lit up!

’His goal count for a single UEFA Europa League season has soared to 18?’

Below that, there was another report on Wang Shuo, giving the young Chinese striker extremely high praise.

"He’s scored this many goals in the Bundesliga this season?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Wenger was astonished.

Arsenal had been plagued by disasters recently, so Wenger hadn’t had the mind to pay attention to anything else.

Besides, Germany and the United Kingdom were old rivals, so the British media didn’t report much on the Bundesliga.

Putting down the Independent Newspaper, he picked up The Times next to it, which also had a report on the match.

It also featured a special report on Wang Shuo.

Sun Newspaper, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Times, Guardian Newspaper...

Wenger went through them one by one and found that every British media outlet had a report on the match, and all of them rated Wang Shuo very highly.

"This kid’s improving way too fast!" Wenger hadn’t expected this at all.

...

At almost the same time, over in Carrington in the West Manchester Suburbs, Manchester United manager Ferguson called his brother, Martin Ferguson, into his office.

"The task I gave you before, to keep in touch with Wang Shuo and Thomas Essien. Have you been doing it?"

Ferguson asked bluntly.

"Er..."

Martin Ferguson stammered a bit. "He’s already joined Dortmund, and his agent team has been going through some adjustments recently. They’ve been in talks with Dortmund about a contract extension."

"How are the talks going?"

"I don’t know. They seem to be going smoothly, but nothing’s been signed yet."

A flash of anger crossed Ferguson’s eyes. "Then go find out the details and report back to me."

Martin Ferguson nodded dismissively. "Why the sudden interest in him?"

Ferguson couldn’t very well admit that he’d only remembered the Bundesliga striker after seeing today’s news, could he?

"Listen carefully. Arrange for someone to track him long-term. Get in frequent contact with his agent. I want to know his every move at Dortmund."

"He won’t be cheap now," Martin Ferguson reminded him.

"I know. Just get it done. As long as Dortmund is willing to sell, no matter how broke Manchester United is, we can scrape the money together."

"Alright, I understand."

After a pause, Martin Ferguson added, "By the way, there’s been some movement on Rooney’s end as well."

Ferguson sighed and nodded.

Rooney’s agent was also a restless one, looking to get his player a raise.

The reason being that the top salaries at clubs like Manchester City and Chelsea now exceeded Rooney’s.

As the top star in the Premier League, Rooney deserved to earn more.

This was all just being communicated and discussed privately. The public didn’t know yet.

This was another major headache.

Ferguson had great faith in homegrown players, but he also always followed a team-building strategy of using high-level foreign players to drive the development of local talent.

After Ronaldo and Tevez left, the quality of Manchester United’s foreign players was a bit lacking.

Meanwhile, Manchester City was on the rise, and Chelsea was now aggressively competitive.