Chapter 39

Lin Sen didn't know if any team was interested in him; at least, he hadn't received any calls or faxes. However, he did need to seriously consider his next move.

Obviously, at this moment, it was inappropriate to make grand statements like "My journey is the vast universe." There was a reason for his bet with Dina. His experience as the former head coach of Atlético Madrid was not something many teams would buy into. Not to mention the well-known teams in the top leagues, even mid-to-lower tier teams would likely hesitate. Therefore, the most realistic goal should be a relegation-threatened team or even a second-tier team.

Of course, not having the qualifications to choose a team doesn't mean he has no right to choose a direction.

Among the top five leagues, the "coaches' paradise" of the Premier League was undoubtedly not an option for now. Precisely because it is a paradise for coaches, the role of head coach has transcended that of a mere coach. The evaluation of head coaches there is not simply based on their ability to lead a team. The same logic applies to the "tactical nation" of Serie A, where the xenophobia towards head coaches is arguably the highest in Europe. Just thinking about how even fans there would point at you and tell you how to line up the team made Lin Sen's scalp tingle.

Relatively speaking, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 were not bad options. Both leagues currently have a similar situation, with one dominant team. Lyon in Ligue 1 had just completed an unprecedented seven consecutive championships, and a new era was about to begin. In the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich, after a brief stumble last season, quickly corrected their course this season. However, both leagues would see significant changes in the coming years. Ligue 1 would welcome the era of Paris Saint-Germain in three years, followed by the rise of Monaco. The Bundesliga would see the resurgence of Borussia Dortmund...

Of course, the most realistic direction was still in Spain.

Objectively, Lin Sen had served as the interim head coach of Atlético Madrid for nearly two months. No matter what, this experience was undoubtedly the heaviest in his resume compared to other top leagues. Subjectively, Lin Sen also hoped to stay in Spain. A more elegant way to put it would be to get back up where he fell, while a more narrow-minded way would be that Lin Sen still wanted to stand there and point at some people, telling them the words he never said.

"You will regret this!"

After determining his direction, Lin Sen began to look for a target.

So far in La Liga, three teams had announced a change in head coach. Besides Atlético Madrid, one was Valencia, which had been plagued by internal strife and finished tenth last season. The other was Zaragoza, which had been relegated. In the Segunda División, Numancia, the champion, and Real Sociedad, which failed to gain promotion, also announced a change in head coach, with one resigning and the other being fired.

Lin Sen's plan was to cast a wide net and catch as many fish as possible. After all, his current capital didn't allow him to be overly proud. Among the teams, Valencia was undoubtedly the one that made Lin Sen both drool and feel uneasy. The reason for drooling was that the "Bat Team" was almost talent-rich, with players like David Silva, Villa, and Juan Mata, and the youth team had Isco, who was not yet well-known. If he could take over Valencia, Lin Sen was confident he could play a "Mission Impossible" with Guardiola, as this team was one of the few in La Liga that had the conditions for Lin Sen to "steal" Guardiola's Tiki-Taka. What made Lin Sen uneasy was that, in his memory, Valencia's coach, Flores, who would later coach Atlético Madrid, should have been fired in the first half of the season, not at the end. This made Lin Sen a bit uncertain. Of course, the bigger reason was that Valencia, deep in financial crisis, was no less ambitious than Atlético Madrid.

However, all doubts vanished as soon as Lin Sen pressed "send." He did his best and left the rest to fate. In this aspect, Lin Sen had always been very open-minded.

After closing his email, Lin Sen immediately opened the website of the famous European betting company, William Hill. The reason? The European Championship was approaching, and for the current Lin Sen, it was time to earn some extra money.

The reason he said it was earning extra money rather than making a fortune was twofold. First, Lin Sen's memory of the 2008 European Championship was not very clear. After all, it was a memory from ten years ago, and he didn't even know the final score. What he could remember was that Spain won the championship, with Germany as the opponent, and Russia and Turkey made impressive impressions by reaching the semi-finals. In terms of players, Lin Sen only remembered one: Andrei Arshavin. Many people probably only recognized Arshavin at this time. As for the top scorer, Lin Sen remembered clearly: Villa.

The second reason was that Lin Sen didn't dare to trust his memory too much. The current season's experience with Atlético Madrid made Lin Sen realize that his memory wasn't entirely reliable. Whether he was the butterfly that caused the tsunami or not, the world would still have some waves beyond his control. Lin Sen, who had never had much luck, didn't dare to bet his fortune on this.

These two reasons made Lin Sen cautious.

Lin Sen only looked at three odds: the championship, the semi-finals, and the top scorer. These were the three points he was most certain about. The championship odds were the least interesting because Spain was already a favorite, and the odds weren't high. The top scorer was slightly more interesting, as Villa, despite his excellent performance, wasn't highly favored due to the presence of Torres. The most interesting was the semi-finals, as both Russia and Turkey could be considered underdogs.

Lin Sen bet half of his fortune, focusing on the semi-finals and supplementing with the top scorer. He didn't plan to take any risks with the other bets. For the betting points, Lin Sen intended to use a dispersed method to avoid drawing too much attention when claiming the prize.

After doing all this, Lin Sen opened the familiar document on his computer and began to organize his list. The list for a top team and a relegation-threatened team was vastly different. Lin Sen didn't plan to delay his summer plans until he found a job. Although the appointment of a head coach is usually determined before the transfer window opens, everyone knows that any transfer is not just about signing a contract. It involves initial contact, further discussions, and then the formal proposal. The most important part is never the grand wedding.

The 2008 summer transfer window was a rollercoaster, to put it nicely, it was lively, but in reality, it was all talk. Other leagues aside, La Liga's blood transfusion was far from its blood loss. The transfer rumors about Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid persisted throughout the summer, with both parties showing mutual interest, but the transfer never happened. Not only that, but Robinho, who was very unhappy about potentially being a part of the deal, left Real Madrid for Manchester City at the last moment.

The club, which had always aimed for the most expensive players rather than the best, unexpectedly made a profit, which was a "disgrace" for the Galácticos. Fans were outraged, and this laid the groundwork for the resignation of Real Madrid's president, Calderón, the following year.

Compared to Real Madrid, Barcelona was even more ambitious. Guardiola, upon taking over, made sweeping changes in all three lines. Now, perhaps only Lin Sen knew how terrifying Barcelona would be in the coming years.

Although he might be helpless with some established players who required significant financial investment, if he could stay at Atlético Madrid, Lin Sen would aim to sign some rising stars, such as Thiago Silva, who was signed by AC Milan in the winter, and Pablo Zabaleta, who was snapped up by Manchester City in the summer. These players, if missed this summer, might be unattainable in the future, but for now, Lin Sen had to focus on less prominent players.

Willing to join a second-tier team, with a low budget and low salary requirements.

After setting these keywords, the list of potential targets was already quite short. Looking at the remaining feasible names, Lin Sen shook his head. If he was willing to consider loans, many of these targets might be worth a try, but this was not what Lin Sen wanted.

Loans, in essence, were about cultivating players for others, helping them level up. This was completely contrary to Lin Sen's original intention. If he was just getting players for the sake of getting them, he might as well focus on players with immediate impact. At Atlético Madrid, promoting players like Koke was partly due to a lingering hope of staying, and partly due to his unique situation there. In other words, if Lin Sen could truly control Atlético Madrid, he wouldn't need to rely on players like Koke to sell hope, and he would be more cautious in their usage.

On the positive side, transfers are always transfers, and La Liga is not the Premier League. Even if he took over a second-tier team, completely rebuilding from scratch would be a difficult and unwise move from a competitive standpoint. Despite his desire to change the entire lineup, patching and fixing was more likely and practical.

While Lin Sen was racking his brain, he didn't know that a team he had just ruled out had officially announced on its website that the former head coach had left, and the new head coach was yet to be determined.

And this team had already considered him as one of the primary candidates for the head coach position.

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