Hot Prospects
My first week at work was fairly eventful. Monday I flew to Romania with Keizer and over a two day period managed to secure the signings of fledgling stars Bogdan Stancu and Gabriel Torje. These were two players I'd had a "Heads Up" from by a forum based scouts network. Keizer was dubious at first, but after the cup game between Poli 1921 and Urziceni finished 5-4 with a brace from both players and a stunning induvidual performance in particular by Torje, he was convinced.
Negotiations began in earnest, with Poli keen to talk money. An initial bid of £250k+clauses was rejected, but they accepted a deal worth in excess of £1.4million after clauses and a possible sell on fee of 25%. Keizer felt this was steep. I was convinced we had a bargain. We would pay £500k up front then installments to cover the balance. Torje was delighted, and would join his new team mates to be a guest at the final on Sunday.
Unirea Urziceni were a nightmare. At first they refused to even see us. They knew why we were here, and were extremely unhappy that we wanted their star talent. However, Stancu was keen to move. We signed him at the eleventh hour, just before we had to leave for the airport. With negotiations reaching stalemate, it took a final end-of-dealings offer of £1.4m upfront to prise Stancu free. I wasn't happy, though it became clear why his club negotiated so hard. A certain Italian outfit, known as Inter had also been sniffing around the starlet. Stancu would also join his compatriot at the AAA on sunday.
Exhausted, we arrived home to more good news. We had also signed Alex Fernandez on a free transfer from Coslada in Spain. Keizer and I had spent the night after the press conference viewing tapes of his performances and decided to send Gerrie Muhren and Frank deBoer on assignment to scout him for two days. They were more than impressed, and when it came to light he was stalling over a new contract at Coslada, the boys moved in for the kill. Result.
It got better and better. Despite landing at 5am, after 5 hours sleep I hit the training ground office later that day. I sent a fax to Hungarian side Debrecen enquiring as to the availability of Balazs Dzsudzsak, a gifted young midfield playmaker. My best scout Rene Moon rang at stupid o'clock his end, from his hotel in Buenos Aires, he'd bagged signing number four. Ever Banega was now officially going to be an Ajax player, if I could fax contract details there and then. Moons would fly back into Amsterdam the day after next, complete with our new Argentine midfielder. I dreaded asking him how much Boca had wanted, as I had authorised him to offer up to £5m if neccessary. The wily old goat had done so much better than that, securing Banega on a four year deal, Boca accepting just £2.6m for him.
Thursday training however would prove very difficult. This was where my managerial headaches would begin. A training ground accident followed by a mass bust up in the dressing room afterwards...Who would be a manager? | 
