Every league has its own unique characteristics.
For example, Premier League teams tend to have poorly located training facilities, often situated in remote villages. Even Arsenal and Chelsea, despite their newly built training grounds, are still far from the city.
Manchester United is no exception. Their Carrington training complex sits right next to Manchester City's.
Well, if I'm ever in a bad mood in the future, I'll just kick a ball and smash United's windows—that'll teach them!
Serie A clubs are also quite unique. Since they don't own their stadiums, their club offices, match venues, training grounds, and even youth academies are often scattered across different locations.
Take Napoli, for example. Gao Shen coached there for three years but barely visited the youth academy.
This setup creates a major problem, first-team coaches often have little connection with the youth setup, making player development and promotion much harder.
The Bundesliga, on the other hand, follows a different model. Many German clubs centralize everything, their stadiums, offices, training facilities, and youth academies are all clustered together in one place.
This is highly convenient, but not every club can do it, as it requires a massive amount of land.
For instance, Bayern Munich's training complex, youth academy, and headquarters are all located on Säbener Strasse. Their former home, the Olympic Stadium, was eventually replaced by the Allianz Arena, situated on the opposite side of the city.
Meanwhile, Schalke 04 follows the traditional German model.
Their stadium, formerly known as the AufSchalke Arena—now called the Veltins Arena due to naming rights—sits just south of the club's headquarters, training ground, and youth academy.
Gelsenkirchen itself isn't a particularly large city, and Schalke 04's facilities are located in its northern suburbs.
…
Gao Shen's team scheduled their visit in advance.
Upon arriving at Schalke 04's headquarters, they were personally greeted by executive assistant Markus Cohen.
"Welcome to Gelsenkirchen, Gao!"
"Thank you, Mr. Cohen!"
After shaking hands, Cohen immediately led Gao Shen and his team into the club's administrative offices.
By now, Gao Shen's status in European football was undeniable. At just 30 years old, he had become one of the most respected young managers in the game. No club would dare treat him with anything less than full respect.
After all, no one could predict when they might need to work with him in the future.
Schalke 04's management structure had undergone major changes in recent years.
In January 2006, the club's entire executive team was replaced, except for Supervisory Board Chairman Clemens Tönnies.
Former club captain Andreas Müller became General Manager, while Peter Peters joined the Board of Directors. Former Vice Chairman and Financial Manager Josef Schnusenberg took over as Chairman.
But in March 2009, Andreas Müller left for Hoffenheim, leaving Schalke 04 under the control of Tönnies, Peters, and Schnusenberg.
Essentially, as long as these three agreed on something, it would get done.
Meanwhile, Schalke had struggled on the pitch.
Last season, the club had two different head coaches, Fred Rutten and Mike Büskens before eventually hiring former Bayern Munich manager Felix Magath for the upcoming season.
With Gao Shen's imminent move to Manchester City, his visit to Gelsenkirchen could mean only one thing, a transfer pursuit.
Although there was no official announcement yet, the European football world wasn't big. Reports had already linked Gao Shen's assistant to Manchester, and the consensus was clear, Gao Shen was about to take charge of City.
Schalke 04's management team knew exactly why he was here.
In the 2008-09 Bundesliga season, Schalke had finished eighth in real history. But in this timeline, they had fallen to tenth, a sign that something was off.
Before coming to Schalke, Gao Shen had done his homework.
He suspected that their struggles were linked to Rakitic's absence.
In Gao Shen's previous timeline, Rakitic had been the heart of Schalke's midfield. But now, with him gone, the team lacked stability.
Still, Schalke boasted a wealth of talented players.
Up front, they had Kevin Kurányi and Jefferson Farfán.
In midfield, they had Altıntop Jr. and Zé Roberto.
Their defense featured Bundesliga stars like Rafinha, Benedikt Höwedes, and Heiko Westermann.
And in goal, they had one of the brightest young talents in Germany—Manuel Neuer.
Tönnies and his colleagues assumed that Gao Shen's target was Rafinha.
The Brazilian right-back had been Schalke 04's best player last season and was currently their most valuable asset.
It was no secret that Gao Shen preferred attacking full-backs, so Schalke's board was bracing for an offer.
To them, selling players was just part of business.
If they could cash in on Rafinha, they could reinvest those funds to strengthen other areas of the squad.
…
Once everyone was seated, the meeting began with some cordial introductions and small talk.
Gao Shen wasn't in a hurry to get to the point.
Instead, it was Schalke 04's executive Peter Peters who lost patience first.
"So, Mr. Gao, what brings you here today?"
Gao Shen smiled and got straight to the point.
"To be honest, I came to discuss the transfer of Manuel Neuer."
As soon as he said this, the expressions of Schalke 04's three top executives shifted.
How could they describe it?
A mix of relief, disappointment, and surprise.
At least it wasn't Rafinha.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Gao," Schnusenberg replied politely. "Neuer is a homegrown talent from our youth academy. He's very important to us and not for sale."
Not for sale?
Gao Shen didn't believe that for a second.
In football, "not for sale" usually just meant "only for sale at the right price."
"That's a good line for the media," Gao Shen said with a smile. "But we're behind closed doors here, let's be honest with each other."
The three Schalke executives exchanged glances.
After a brief pause, Tönnies gave a small nod.
Gao Shen caught that detail immediately.
It was clear that Tönnies, Schalke's longtime Supervisory Board Chairman, held the most influence in the room.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Gao," Schnusenberg said again, this time hesitating slightly. "It's not that we don't want to sell, but… we already have an agreement with Bayern."
"I figured as much," Gao Shen replied with a knowing smile.
"You knew?" The three Schalke executives were visibly surprised.
Even Brian Kidd and Lucas looked at Gao Shen in shock.
They worked alongside him every day, when had he figured this out?
"This wasn't hard to guess," Gao Shen said, reading their expressions.
The truth was, Neuer wasn't a standout name just yet.
At this point, he wasn't too old or too young, and his performances had been inconsistent. He had won Bundesliga's Best Goalkeeper, but he had also had poor outings.
Typical for a young goalkeeper.
But that wasn't the key issue.
Right now, German football was undergoing a transition.
With Kahn and Lehmann retiring, Germany's next generation of goalkeepers had emerged:
Michael Rensing (Bayern Munich) – Kahn's direct successor, playing for the biggest club with the highest expectations.
René Adler (Bayer Leverkusen) – Consistently strong performances, already a backup for the national team.
Manuel Neuer (Schalke 04) – Talented, but not as highly regarded as the other two.
There had even been reports that Sir Alex Ferguson was eyeing Adler as Van der Sar's replacement.
By comparison, Neuer's trajectory didn't seem as promising.
But Bayern saw something others didn't.
Uli Hoeneß had always believed that Neuer had more potential than Adler, primarily due to his exceptional athleticism.
And in one year's time, everything would change.
Rensing would lose his place at Bayern.
Adler would miss the World Cup due to injury.
Neuer would rise from third choice to Germany's No. 1, lead them to World Cup glory, and begin his legendary career.
Looking back, Neuer's story was almost mythical.
But here in 2009, nobody knew that yet.
Neuer had barely made Germany's national team roster.
He had only appeared in a few meaningless friendlies and had zero minutes in World Cup qualifiers.
This summer, instead of training with the senior squad, he had joined Germany's U21 team for the European Youth Championship in Sweden.
You could call that a sign of his youth but it also showed he wasn't considered a top-tier option yet.
"I believe you," Gao Shen continued. "Bayern probably has an agreement in place. But I don't believe it's legally binding."
The Schalke executives didn't respond but their expressions gave it away.
"Bayern is still uncertain about Rensing," Gao Shen pointed out. "And they're not entirely convinced about Neuer's long-term potential."
Bayern had a long-standing tradition:
Bayern's goalkeeper should also be Germany's national goalkeeper.
The question was should Neuer join Bayern first and then become Germany's No. 1?
Or should he establish himself in the national team first before moving to Bayern?
Right now, Bayern was still in a wait-and-see mode.
Which meant Schalke had no real guarantee that Bayern would commit to Neuer anytime soon.
"If I had to guess," Gao Shen continued, "Schalke has probably given Bayern a verbal promise—if you sell Neuer, Bayern gets first refusal at a matching price. That's about as far as it goes, right?"
Because anything more than that would be terrible business.
Would Schalke really sign a formal agreement locking themselves into selling only to Bayern?
That would be absurd.
Besides, Bayern was still heavily invested in Rensing.
They weren't going to suddenly give up on him.
"So the reality is," Gao Shen summed up, "Schalke isn't in a rush to sell, and Bayern isn't in a rush to buy."
The Schalke executives remained silent.
"Then there's another issue," Gao Shen added. "Neuer's future isn't guaranteed either. What if he gets injured again?"
"At the start of last season, he fractured his tibia and was out for months. What if something similar happens again?"
Gao Shen leaned forward slightly, delivering the punchline.
"Neuer's current market value is €8.5 million. Manchester City is willing to offer €10 million, right now.
What do you think?"
After finishing his pitch, Gao Shen calmly sat back and waited.
Now, it was Schalke's turn to make a move.
(To be continued.)