Whether it's among fans or in the media, the title most often associated with Gao Shen is Manchester City's head coach.
If you were a bit more humorous, you might call him the leader of a mercenary group.
But in fact, Gao Shen holds another very important though lesser-known title: Manchester City's technical director.
This isn't a formal appointment, as Manchester City doesn't currently have an official technical director.
However, within the club, everyone knows Gao Shen fills that role. All football-related matters, whether internal or external, must be discussed with him, and his opinion takes precedence.
To some extent, Gao Shen's power at Manchester City even surpasses that of Ferguson at Manchester United and Wenger at Arsenal.
As a picky Virgo, Gao Shen sets high standards for others but even higher ones for himself.
Either don't take the position at all, or do it to the best of your ability.
When Gao Shen first took over at Manchester City, he sent a fax to Mansour in Abu Dhabi and Mubarak in Manchester. In addition to clearly outlining his plans to reorganize and transform Manchester City, the fax also introduced a youth development reform initiative, which he named the Spark Plan.
The name was inspired by a famous saying: "A single spark can start a prairie fire."
The youth development reform involved not only personnel changes but also the establishment and expansion of the scouting network. More importantly, it focused on player selection.
Since the Abu Dhabi consortium acquired Manchester City in 2008, it had steadily increased investment in youth development. But Gao Shen believed this was still far from enough, as the club continued to underperform in several areas.
In the plan, he informed Mansour and Mubarak that Manchester City's rapid rise would inevitably provoke fierce resistance from traditional Premier League powerhouses and even major European clubs, possibly even prompting UEFA to implement regulations to limit it.
It was clear that relying solely on deep-pocketed backers to spend money wouldn't be sustainable in the long run.
Gao Shen believed that, while Manchester City needed to quickly strengthen its first team, it also had to place greater emphasis on youth development, recruiting talented youngsters from around the world, enriching the youth academy, and providing a constant pipeline of talent for the first team.
Both Mansour and Mubarak accepted Gao Shen's proposal and gave him full authority to implement the Spark Plan.
A few months later, as Platini pushed for the introduction of Financial Fair Play regulations, both Mansour and Mubarak were relieved that they had supported Gao Shen early on.
Just yesterday, Mansour even called Gao Shen personally to ask about his response strategy.
Gao Shen's reply was: "Build high walls, store up food, and become king quickly."
This, in fact, had been Gao Shen's approach since day one.
As for building high walls, Manchester City had spared no expense in upgrading the club's infrastructure. They had even begun acquiring land near the Etihad Stadium to construct a new training base and youth academy.
At the same time, the commercial marketing team led by Ha Jin was rapidly expanding and aggressively exploring overseas markets in a bid to increase Manchester City's commercial revenue as quickly as possible.
All of this was laying a solid foundation for Manchester City to become a top-tier club.
As for storing up food, the most crucial element was ensuring a steady supply of youth talent.
That was exactly why Gao Shen was visiting the Youth Training Academy today.
…
Gao Shen had always believed that in the world of professional football, there was nothing that couldn't be solved with a check.
And if one check wasn't enough, then two would do.
Since taking over as Manchester City's head coach, he hadn't just brought in a large number of players for the first team—the youth setup had also been operating at full throttle.
Raheem Sterling was recruited from Queens Park Rangers' youth academy in London, John Stones from Barnsley's youth setup in Yorkshire, Jadon Sancho from Watford's youth academy, Trent Alexander-Arnold from Liverpool's youth system, and Jack Grealish was brought in from Aston Villa's academy...
Manchester City waved their checkbooks and scoured England for promising young talent.
Some of these players were fourteen or fifteen years old, while others were only ten or so—no one was overlooked.
Any other club conducting such aggressive poaching would have faced serious backlash and protests from rival clubs. But Manchester City didn't because they usually solved these problems with money.
On top of that, Gao Shen drastically revised Manchester City's youth scouting and selection standards. The previous focus on physical attributes was replaced by an emphasis on technical ability and creativity. Gao Shen's reforms were evident across the board in the youth development process.
…
"How's the transfer of Marcus Rashford going?"
After touring the youth training academy, Gao Shen and his two companions, accompanied by Cox and others, headed to the conference room. As soon as they sat down, Gao Shen asked about the progress.
Marcus Rashford, 11 years old, plays for Fletcher Moss Rovers.
He and his family live in Withington, just south of the Youth Training Academy, very close by. He comes from a single-parent household with five children, so you can imagine his family situation.
The young player had impressed at the Fletcher Moss Rovers youth camp. Because of the cooperation between clubs, he also trained with both Manchester City and Manchester United's youth teams. He initially wanted to join Manchester City, but was rejected because he was too thin.
After Gao Shen took over and heard about this, he could only smile bitterly.
The future star was turned down due to his physique.
But no matter what happened in a past life, now that they've crossed paths, Gao Shen had no reason to let him slip away.
He always believed in one thing: dig out your opponent's strengths before they have the chance to.
"He hopes to sign a youth contract, and the family is requesting housing and a job for his mother. We're still considering it," Cox said.
Gao Shen had already looked into Rashford's family background and felt the request was reasonable. However, the club might hesitate, as investing so much in such a young player carries significant risk.
But no one knows Rashford's potential better than Gao Shen.
"Promise him!" Gao Shen made a decisive call.
Cox and the others were clearly surprised, was it really that easy to agree?
This was a big commitment. Manchester City would have to invest nearly seven figures in Rashford over the next few years.
"Yes, promise him." Seeing their confusion, Gao Shen repeated himself.
Cox thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright, I'll call right away."
"If Rashford is in Withington, invite him to Pratt Lane. I'll meet with him," Gao Shen continued.
This surprised everyone present.
Gao Shen wanted to meet him in person?
Was he really that optimistic about Rashford?
"Okay, I'll arrange it immediately."
With that, Cox stood up and left the room, presumably to make the call. He returned shortly after and informed Gao Shen that Rashford and his mother would arrive at Pratt Lane—the site of Manchester City's youth academy—in about an hour.
"Alright, next one," Gao Shen said, flipping to the next page of the documents. "Have you contacted Adrien Rabiot?"
"We've already reached out," Cox quickly replied.
Adrien Rabiot, fourteen years old, currently unattached.
The young French midfielder was discovered by Manchester City scouts in the summer of 2008 and brought to Manchester. The two parties signed a six-year agreement, and his whole family relocated to Manchester.
At the time, Manchester City was aggressively recruiting global talent, and Rabiot was one of their targets.
Unfortunately, just half a year after arriving in Manchester, things fell apart.
Gao Shen, Cox, Brian Kidd, and others weren't involved at the time, but after digging into the situation, they discovered it was quite complicated.
On one hand, Rabiot's family chose to terminate the contract after his father suffered a stroke and became paralyzed. His mother accused the club of deception and failing to pay for English lessons, rent, utilities, and so on.
However, according to Manchester City scout Gary Payton, the club hadn't done enough, but technically, Rabiot wasn't officially a City player due to only having signed a pre-professional agreement. He wouldn't be considered a full club member until his seventeenth birthday.
Gary Payton's point was that Rabiot's mother didn't leave because of football but because of their difficult living conditions.
Gao Shen understood exactly what he meant.
Judging from all the complaints Rabiot's mother had against Manchester City, it all boiled down to one thing: money.
His father was paralyzed, his mother had to care for three children alone their life situation was tough.
So Gao Shen had instructed the scouts to reach out again. They found that after returning to France, Rabiot hadn't joined any team. Instead, he went back to school and maintained his form through PE classes and after-school training.
That's why Gao Shen wanted to bring this future French international back.
Since they were trying to bring him back, they would need to renegotiate the terms, and offer him proper treatment. This time, Gao Shen planned to give him a semi-professional contract, including a monthly salary subsidy so Rabiot could focus fully on his training.
"What did they say after receiving the offer?" Gao Shen asked.
Cox shrugged and smiled. "We made them an offer the family couldn't refuse."
In addition to Rabiot's salary, the club had arranged a job for his mother—vital support for the whole family.
After hearing that, Gao Shen nodded and laughed to himself.
Now that he had helped Manchester City recruit so many young prospects and reformed the youth academy, would these future stars grow even better than they did in their previous lives?
And when that time comes, how high can they take Manchester City?
"In the future, we need to revise some of the youth academy policies. We should provide more care and support to young players with exceptional potential in difficult life situations, to avoid cases like Rashford and Rabiot," Gao Shen instructed.
Cox and the others all nodded in agreement and took notes.
Gao Shen now oversaw all of Manchester City's competitive affairs. His word essentially represented the club's decisions.
Not only Cox, Lopetegui, and Wilcox but even Brian Kidd had to follow his lead.
After that, Gao Shen asked many more questions, made a series of decisions, and gave out several instructions.
Time flew by in the midst of work.
A staff member walked in to report: Rashford had arrived.
"Let's go meet this future British emperor!" Gao Shen said with a smile.
(To be continued.)