Football: Salary System - Chapter 151: Reinforcement Plan (Patreon)

Although the win at the Opel Arena allowed Dortmund to set a new club record for the longest unbeaten start to a league season, the fans didn't consider it anything worth making a fuss over.

After all, Zayn had led the team to another record. They were used to that by now.

Most of the attention was instead drawn to news off the pitch.

The Times, one of Britain's oldest newspapers and a former winner of the UK's Sports Newspaper of the Year award, was the first to break the story.

Chelsea were prepared to spend heavily in the winter transfer window to bring Zayn back to England.

According to the report, Blues chief executive Marina had personally called Raiola to sound him out about the possibility of a transfer.

Chelsea fans immediately got excited.

After all, a respected London newspaper wasn't the same as The Sun, which lived off sensational stories. The Times had long been regarded as one of the more reliable British sources for football transfer news.

More importantly, Chelsea had a history of spending big in January.

Anelka and Ivanović, both brought in by Abramovich during the 2008 winter transfer window, went on to become important pieces of that hard-nosed Chelsea side.

And when the club ran into trouble during the 2010-11 season, Abramovich splashed out €80 million on Torres and David Luiz.

Although El Niño struggled badly at Stamford Bridge and his Chelsea career was difficult to call a success, full of frustration and controversy to the point that fans once jokingly called him an "Iron Defender," he still collected plenty of team honors.

He won the Champions League, Europa League, and FA Cup with the club, and also scored a crucial late goal against Barcelona in the 2012 Champions League semifinal.

David Luiz, meanwhile, developed into one of Chelsea's defensive leaders. Across two spells with the club, he became a player whose contribution to Chelsea history could not simply be erased.

Outside the Chelsea fanbase, however, most supporters dismissed the report.

The reason was simple.

Zayn had been at Westfalen for less than half a year. Dortmund were still fighting on three fronts, flying high in the Bundesliga, and had already secured qualification from their Champions League group.

How could Dortmund possibly sell the absolute centerpiece of their team in January?

Even when Tom, the Sun photographer who had been following Zayn around, released candid pictures of Zayn and Raiola walking together toward the Brackel Training Center, most fans still weren't convinced.

It was The Sun, after all.

And a handful of photographs couldn't possibly reveal what the two of them were actually there to do.

What the fans didn't know was that the story about Chelsea's interest in Zayn had been deliberately leaked by Raiola to The Times as a way to put pressure on Dortmund.

Even Raiola hadn't expected, however, that one match against Mainz would be enough for Watzke to make up his mind and stop dragging out the details.

None of those off-field rumors or negotiating-table games had any effect on the rhythm inside Dortmund's dressing room.

Zayn trained as usual every day, stayed behind for extra work, then went home, ate, and slept like normal.

The schedule leading up to the winter break was already packed. Nobody had the spare time to care what kind of story the newspapers were inventing next.

Three days later, on November 28, Dortmund hosted the fifth matchday of their Champions League group at Westfalen.

Their opponent was Belgian powerhouse Club Brugge.

Since Dortmund had already secured qualification from the group, and most of the starters had looked sluggish in the previous league match after returning from international duty, Favre opted for heavy rotation.

Achraf, Delaney, Sancho, Reus, Zayn, and several other regular starters all began on the bench.

The match itself offered little excitement.

Dortmund dominated possession but couldn't find a way past the opposition goalkeeper.

Club Brugge, meanwhile, with starting striker Wesley having been "poached early" by Aston Villa, managed only a handful of speculative long-range efforts that troubled Hitz in goal.

After ninety minutes, the scoreboard at Westfalen still read 0-0.

Dortmund had only managed a draw, and Atlético Madrid had beaten Monaco away from home, but the Black and Yellows still held first place in the group by a single point.

The following afternoon, after training ended, Zayn and Sancho stayed behind for extra work as usual.

Zayn had developed the habit of extra training back at Villa.

With the Realization Rate bonus from the [Squad Weekly Wage Ranking], and with every bit of progress clearly visible, he naturally had no objection to putting in more work.

In fact, no matter the field, if people had an accurate, visible progress bar, at least half of those who would normally quit halfway probably wouldn't.

Well...

Except for a certain app that made you slash prices one cut at a time.

Sancho, meanwhile, had gradually picked up the same habit by following in the footsteps of his older teammate.

By late November, Dortmund was already slipping into early winter, and the temperature had dropped sharply compared with the beginning of the month.

Their breath now condensed into a thin mist in front of their faces.

"Jadon, you first, or me?"

Today's extra session involved dribbling through cones before shooting.

Normally, club staff would voluntarily stay behind to help collect balls, allowing the two of them to train at the same time.

But the weather was simply too cold today. Even Hitz, the second-choice goalkeeper who had agreed to help, had slipped away.

Zayn didn't feel right asking anyone else to stay late just to retrieve balls for them.

So they had no choice but to take turns. One would shoot while the other collected, then they'd switch after twenty balls.

"You go first," Sancho said, rubbing his hands together. "You shoot, I'll collect."

Zayn didn't argue.

He dragged a basket of balls to just outside the penalty arc, loosened up his ankles, and began.

Since the regular starters hadn't played the previous day, Favre had put them through a fairly intense team session.

Zayn had already burned through quite a bit of energy, so his dribbling and shooting mechanics were slightly off, and his accuracy naturally suffered.

Quite a few shots struck the post and rebounded a long way away.

Sancho ran back and forth across the pitch, panting as he chased down every ball that went wide, every shot on target, and every effort that bounced off the woodwork, then kicked them all back toward the center circle.

After collecting the twentieth ball, he was just about to call for Zayn to switch when he looked up and noticed Favre standing beside him.

He had no idea when the coach had arrived.

Favre looked toward Sancho.

"Jadon, you can head back."

"Boss..."

Sancho wanted to finish his own round first. He was still waiting for Zayn to collect balls for him.

Favre checked his watch and cut him off.

"Train tomorrow. It's late, and it's too cold. Catching a cold now would do more harm than good."

Sancho opened his mouth, then turned to look at Zayn.

The frustration in his eyes was almost overflowing.

With a defeated expression, he stuffed the ball he'd just collected back into the basket and headed toward the dressing room.

The Swiss coach patted Zayn, who was trying not to laugh.

"Let's talk in my office. It's windy out here."

Favre's office was at the far end of the second floor of the Brackel Training Center.

The room wasn't large, but the heating was turned up high.

"Sit."

Favre gestured toward the visitor's chair, then walked around his desk and sat down.

"The club has approved your salary adjustment. The formal contract should be ready within the next couple of days. You'll just need to sign it."

"Thanks, boss."

Zayn nodded.

Raiola had already told him.

The agent had negotiated his weekly wage up to €240,000. It was only an increase of €50,000, but the club had also agreed to make a serious effort to strengthen the squad in the winter transfer window.

Zayn hadn't really cared how large the raise was.

He only needed it to complete the quest.

Still, he couldn't quite figure out why Favre had called him in.

Was he about to tell Zayn not to be so greedy?

"The contract is already settled. I called you in because I wanted to talk about something else."

Favre had never seen a player ask for a raise after only half a season either, but as long as Dortmund could keep Zayn, that was what mattered.

His performances certainly justified higher wages.

Besides, the Swiss was only the Coach at Dortmund, not the Manager. How much the club spent wasn't really his problem.

Zayn relaxed slightly.

As long as Favre wasn't about to lecture him, that was fine.

In such a warm room, he was genuinely worried he might fall asleep if the conversation turned into a sermon.

So he quietly waited for Favre to continue.

"The winter reinforcement plan," Favre said. "First, I need to make the club's current situation clear to you."

"According to the board's original plan, we weren't going to sign anyone this winter. We already strengthened the squad significantly during the summer window, and the new arrivals have all been performing well.

"So far this season, we're top of the league and have already qualified from our Champions League group. Everything points to the same conclusion. There is no urgent need for reinforcements."

Zayn nodded, while silently complaining to himself.

Raiola had told him after the negotiations that winter reinforcements had always been part of Dortmund's plans.

Zayn had assumed his arrival had changed the club's thinking.

After all, in his previous life, Dortmund had signed only one player that winter, nineteen-year-old Argentine center back Leonardo Balerdi.

So it turned out Watzke had even managed to fool a schemer like Raiola.

"However, since the club made a promise to you, they've decided to allocate some money for reinforcements in January.

"But I won't lie to you. The budget won't be large. Most of the money has already been spent on you, and what's left for the rest of this season is genuinely limited."

"I understand."

Zayn nodded.

That was about what he'd expected.

"Zorc will lead the winter transfer business, but he'll mainly take my recommendations into account."

Favre's results this season had been excellent, and his reputation was strong.

Naturally, Zorc wasn't going to make every decision on his own.

"But I want to hear your thoughts first. Since you were the one who asked the club to strengthen the squad, which positions do you think need reinforcing the most?"

That genuinely surprised Zayn.

He hadn't expected Favre to discuss this with him today.

Zayn didn't answer immediately.

His mind began racing.

From the perspective of someone who had lived through what came next, the problems with this Dortmund squad were actually obvious.

The squad was too thin.

If a key player got injured or needed to be rotated, the replacement simply couldn't maintain the same technical level.

In Zayn's memory, Dortmund had suffered a major injury crisis almost immediately after returning from the winter break.

The defense had been hit hardest.

Diallo, Akanji, Zagadou, and Achraf had all taken turns in the treatment room.

Long-term absences among several starting center backs and fullbacks forced Favre to repeatedly patch together makeshift defenses, even using midfielders Weigl and Guerreiro as emergency defenders.

The two defensive midfielders, Witsel and Delaney, also went down one after another.

Captain Reus hadn't managed to stay healthy for the entire season either.

All Dortmund could do was watch as their league lead was gradually eaten away by a resurgent Bayern until everything eventually slipped through their fingers.

And for a team known as a "Youth Storm," there was another obvious problem.

They were simply too young.

That was especially true in defense, where they lacked a leader who could steady the line and organize everyone around him.

A couple of years earlier, that role had belonged to Hummels.

"The defense," Zayn said. "Once we reach the critical late-season stretch and we're fighting on multiple fronts, with the squad we have now, if even one starting center back goes down, we can't maintain the same defensive level.

"And the fullback positions need strengthening too."

Favre nodded.

He agreed with Zayn.

The frequent injuries at left back had already forced him to move Achraf over to that side.

Zayn continued.

"Schmelzer and Piszczek are both veteran fullbacks, and they keep getting injured. We need someone at the back who can rotate in and also organize the defense. The more experienced, the better.

"We could even look at someone older."

Zayn thought back to his time playing alongside Terry at Villa.

Terry's physical ability had been nowhere near his prime anymore, but he had organized the entire defensive line perfectly.

Positioning, timing the offside trap, setting up for defensive corners.

He had directed everything clearly.

An experienced veteran was worth his weight in gold.

After thinking for a moment, Zayn added,

"Our midfield bench is too thin as well. If there's someone suitable available in January, we could bring one in, even if it's only on loan."

Zayn said everything that came to mind.

Only after he finished did he realize he might have gotten a little too invested.

He scratched his head.

"Those are just my personal impressions and opinions."

Favre was already thoroughly surprised.

Every direction Zayn had mentioned matched his own thinking almost perfectly.

In fact, Zayn had organized the issues even more clearly than he had.

Of course, Favre had no way of knowing that Zayn was working backward from Dortmund's eventual collapse.

Zayn had also read plenty of professional analysis about it in his previous life.

Naturally, he could see the problems more clearly than Favre, who was currently riding a long run of victories with the team.

Once the initial surprise passed, a thought flashed through Favre's mind.

Watzke had been right after all.

From beginning to end, what Zayn had really wanted was for the club to strengthen the squad.

The pay raise had most likely been an extra condition that damned Italian fat man had forced into the negotiations.

Zayn had broken the issue down point by point.

Center backs.

Fullback rotation.

Veteran leadership.

His logic was clear and his priorities precise.

He had obviously thought seriously about the squad.

An eighteen-year-old, in brilliant form with his market value soaring, was spending his time thinking about the structure of the team...

Favre's thoughts drifted back to that summer.

At Bad Ragaz, at the foot of the Alps, when he and Zorc had first realized that Zayn was quietly improving the weaknesses in his own game, Zorc had repeatedly marveled at the boy's mentality.

Now, hearing Zayn analyze the squad, Favre became even more convinced.

Zayn didn't just have an excellent mentality.

He also possessed exceptional football intelligence and an outstanding understanding of the bigger picture.

That was precisely why he could identify his own weaknesses so accurately and analyze the squad just as clearly.

At this rate, he might even have a brilliant coaching career after retirement.

"What you've said is pretty much what I've been thinking lately."

After regaining his composure, Favre continued,

"Do you have any specific players in mind?"

Zayn opened his mouth, but for once, he genuinely couldn't answer.

His mind was full of names that would become famous in later years.

But putting those names into the context of the 2018-19 winter transfer window, while also accounting for Dortmund's budget and whether the players themselves would be willing to come, was an entirely different matter.

He really couldn't remember anyone suitable and realistically available at that exact point in time.

"I haven't thought that far yet," Zayn admitted. "Right now I just have a general direction.

"If I think of anyone suitable, I'll discuss it with you, boss."

Favre smiled.

"All right. I'll look forward to hearing your ideas. I'll also have Zorc put together a list from the scouting department, and then we can go through it together."