Chapter 52: So What Is Our Standing Exactly?

After Fan Fan Dejiahe left, Ten Hag remained in the office and logged back onto the Royal Dutch Football Association website using his computer.

Seeing the homepage photo of himself in a suit directing players on the field, Ten Hag let out a long sigh.

The selection for Best Coach primarily depended on tactical arrangements; Ten Hag recalled that back in October, he hadn't even studied Utrecht's tactics much.

One could only say that this month's Best Coach trophy was much easier to win than he had imagined!

He just didn't know if he could win another one this month?

Training resumed after one day of holiday.

The first day's training lacked intensity, consisting only of the simplest ball-feeling and coordination drills.

The training was simple, yet the players could not feel happy.

This was because their next league opponent was PSV Eindhoven!

Ramselaar, Di Di Bala, and Tang Ye were practicing passing combinations on the right flank, while Haller was in the middle intercepting balls.

"Tang, you don't seem under any pressure; do you not know how strong Eindhoven is?"

Ramselaar noticed that Tang Ye had the most relaxed expression among all the players participating in training today.

"Eindhoven? Of course I know Eindhoven; they have a player whose tackling is very formidable!"

A player whose tackling is very formidable?

Tang Ye's words completely baffled Ramselaar and the other two: "Did you see that on TV? What is the name of that player with the formidable tackling?"

"Oh, he is from the second team."

Tang Ye suddenly realized: "I'm talking about the second team; that guy is from Eindhoven's second team. If even the second-team players are that strong, the first team must be even stronger!"

"Haha, Tang, were you crushed by Eindhoven's second team last season?"

Haller asked with a smile, but Tang Ye shook his head.

"Oh? Did you draw with them?"

Tang Ye continued to shake his head.

Di Di Bala's eyes lit up: "Wow, don't tell me you crushed Eindhoven's second team?"

"Not that either."

Tang Ye shook his head: "I didn't play; I was sitting on the substitutes' bench. My teammates were the ones who got crushed by them."

"..."

Ramselaar and Di Di Bala hugged their bellies and laughed uproariously, while Tang Ye still didn't understand what exactly they were laughing at.

Soon, Ten Hag blew a long whistle, ending the first phase of the morning training ahead of schedule.

Glancing down at his wristwatch, he said: "I'm letting you end training 15 minutes early because I feel your training effectiveness today hasn't been very good."

Ten Hag's eyes were bright; from the morning assembly until now, every one of these Utrecht players wore a poor expression, clearly feeling pressure regarding this weekend's match.

Maintaining this state was definitely not acceptable; Ten Hag knew he had to step forward and say a few words.

Scanning all the players present, he finally spoke: "I know Eindhoven is strong; they were last season's champions and remain at their peak this season."

"But that does not matter."

Ten Hag's gaze was firm; merely looking at the coach's expression, Tang Ye could feel a strange surge of power.

"Although we are merely a mid-table league team, and might even be a relegation-battling side this season, what I want to say is that we are actually not bad."

"We have excellent players: Sebastian, Di Di Bala, yes, these are all very good players. Moreover, no matter what, I am still in the team."

Ten Hag's words caught Tang Ye's attention; Tang Ye, who had been sitting on the ground, suddenly stood up again.

"To be honest, yesterday afternoon the Dutch Football Association announced the October Best Coach, and I was successfully selected thanks to some luck..."

Hearing only half of this, Tang Ye squatted back down.

Observing carefully, he saw that both Fan Fan Dejiahe and Ten Hag were surrounded by players, so Tang Ye slipped away directly.

According to Tang Ye's experience, when Ten Hag was showing off, his concentration would be extremely high, making it very difficult for him to notice Tang Ye sneaking away!

That afternoon, Ten Hag had originally planned to arrange a tactical session for the players, but club owner Verhoef happened to visit the club at that exact time.

Training was temporarily handed over to Fan Fan Dejiahe to manage, while Ten Hag and Verhoef began chatting in the office.

Verhoef was quite straightforward, proactively bringing up the matter Ten Hag had always requested: purchasing a top-class ball-controlling midfielder!

"I read the report Michel submitted to me; you have your sights on a midfielder from Ajax's second team, an organizing midfielder, with a price tag of around 8.5 million euros."

"And your intention is to get the player in the winter window, is that correct?"

Verhoef looked up into Ten Hag's eyes, and the latter nodded with embarrassment.

Back in July of this year, Utrecht's first team and Ajax's second team had competed for a player named Frenkie de Jong.

In the end, de Jong transferred from Willem II to Ajax's second team for a fee of 7.7 million euros.

This was the first transaction since Ten Hag took charge of Utrecht, ending in direct failure because Utrecht could not raise such a large sum during the summer window.

Ten Hag had repeatedly expressed to the club's senior management his desire to buy de Jong from Ajax during the winter window, but the club had never agreed.

"Yes, sir, listen to me; Frenkie is absolutely a qualified midfielder, he fits our system perfectly, and..."

"I came here specifically to discuss this matter with you."

Verhoef interrupted Ten Hag: "I know you want de Jong, and we can secure some funds through sponsorships and broadcast revenue shares during the winter window, but Eric, you are asking for the player in the winter window."

The European football world divides transfers into summer and winter windows; for the same player, their price in the winter window could very likely be higher than in the summer window.

This is because when buying players in the winter window, everyone knows you have a need for reinforcement, causing some notorious clubs to raise prices on the spot.

Ajax bought de Jong for 7.7 million euros in July; if they were to sell him in January, Utrecht's senior management estimated they would need to spend at least 8.5 to 9 million euros, or perhaps even 10 million euros.

Utrecht could probably scrape together 10 million euros for the winter window if they squeezed hard; the problem was that de Jong was a young wonderkid, meaning Ten Hag was essentially buying a lottery ticket.

If de Jong failed to perform at Utrecht, that 10 million euros would be utterly wasted.

This is 10 million euros!

For over a month now, Verhoeven has been busy negotiating with Nike, aiming to sign a six-year sponsorship deal worth 38 million euros.

Ten Hag spends a quarter of the money just to buy one wonderkid!

"Mr., listen to me."

Ten Hag tried to argue further, but Verhoeven directly raised his hand to refuse: "I know this is difficult, but I can give you 8 million euros to buy other players. Our primary goal this season is avoiding relegation; ideally, we should stay within the top twelve."

"For this goal, you should use the money to buy players aged 25 or 26; they are more stable."

"We have been working hard, and our current results are quite good; avoiding relegation is basically not an issue."

Ten Hag was somewhat anxious.

"You keep saying the results are good. Fine, then what exactly are our current results?"

"Um..."

Ten Hag twitched his nose and said softly:

"L-League, first place."

"Huh?"

(End of Chapter)