Millwall are a fantastic club, at least in Aldridge's eyes.

Millwall hate Chelsea, despite being far away in west London.

Aldridge is an East Londoner, but Millwall is based in the south-east of London.

Geographically, West Ham United and Charlton are closer, as are Millwall, but Millwall and West Ham United have become bitter rivals in the East London Derby for the Centennial Derby, which goes back a hundred years ago.

And Millwall has a derby relationship with Crystal Palace in south London, and the south London derby has Millwall's figure, but Charlton in the middle, no matter who he meets, the atmosphere of the derby is only a little bit of a star.

Aldridge has taken his club's transfer team to south London, where Millwall's South London derby rivals Crystal Palace, who won League One last season, will be in the Premier League in two months' time.

However, it was around this time that Millwall submitted a transfer offer to Crystal Palace.

The target is Gareth Southgate.

The first offer was £1 million.

The offer did not receive a response from Crystal Palace, and it was scoffed at it.

Southgate, who is only 23 years old, is an excellent centre-back, although he is now playing in midfield for Crystal Palace, where he has been instrumental in their rush and has a background in Crystal Palace pedigree.

However, when the second offer of £2 million was faxed to Crystal Palace, it was only half an hour before there was a response.

£5,000,000!

Aldridge smiled at such a reply.

I'm not afraid that the other party's lion will open his mouth, but I'm afraid that the other party won't make a counteroffer.

Eventually, after some tug-of-war negotiations, Millwall's £2.8 million offer allowed Crystal Palace to surrender.

£2.8 million, that's even the value of a top scorer!

Is Southgate worth the price?

From a purely competitive point of view, it may not be worth it, Andy Cole, who can score 41 goals in a season, moved to Newcastle United for only £1.75 million, although next spring, he will move to Manchester United for 6 million, a new transfer record.

But the value of the current player has not been speculated, and the real value is, of course, the striker who can score goals.

Aldridge bought Southgate for two reasons, one is that Southgate is young, capable of playing, and a main member of the future England national team, with a homegrown international in the team's dressing room, which Aldridge needs. Second, poaching the stars of sworn enemies is very beneficial to the morale of fans.

In Southgate's small apartment in South London, Aldridge and Andrew came to meet Southgate in person.

Southgate knew Andrew, only acquaintances, and was not enthusiastic about the arrival of the Aldridge brothers, and his wife poured tea for the two of them, and then left the living room to the men.

Aldridge introduced himself and put a contract in front of Southgate.

Southgate didn't look at it, and said in a calm tone: "Please go back, I'm not interested in going to Millwall, a club that doesn't even have a manager, I don't see any future." ”

"Coach, yes, I am."

Aldrich said equally calmly.

Southgate's expression flashed with surprise, followed by a sinister smile.

Naturally, he was joking, if not joking, then foolish.

Aldridge opened the contract, put it in front of Southgate's eyes, and said lightly: "The weekly salary is 6,000 pounds, and the salary rises to 8,000 pounds after the successful renewal of the contract, and then increases by 10% year by year, and the bonus will be paid at the end of the season according to the team's ranking." The contract period is five years. ”

Southgate's expression was stunned, he didn't expect that a contract in front of him could be so generous!

That's a lot more than the money he made at Crystal Palace.

He is a little excited, professional athletes eat youth food, sports life is not only short, but also has the risk of injury and so on.

It's human nature to make more money, and there's nothing to be clear about.

Still a little hesitant, he said, "You're so young, head coach? ”

Aldridge closed the contract documents and put them on the table, looking at Southgate with a distracted look, both of them were men about 1.85 meters tall, but no one was condescending.

"Gareth, I'm not here to ask you to join Millwall, I'm here in person, just to show a sense of sincerity. Crystal Palace received my offer of 2.8 million pounds and allowed you to transfer, if it was me, I will not hypocritically say that the player is priceless, but you, at least 15 million pounds in my eyes, I know your value, this contract I also think you deserve it, I have a coaching certificate, I don't need to show it to you, I don't have time to prove to you here that I will not coach the team, if time permits, I can show you more than 20 corner kick tactics, more set-piece tactics, and the offensive and defensive concepts of sports warfare, butI'm the owner, I'm the coach of the team, I don't need to prove anything to you, my team is called Millwall, the most successful English team in the future, I don't care what you're thinking, the opportunity is in front of you, it's your loss to miss it. ”

Although Andrew kept a smile on his face, he really sweated for Aldridge in his heart.

Listening to Aldrich's tone, there is a sense of superiority, which is in line with the usual arrogance of the British.

Aldridge's indifferent expression was accompanied by a confidence that was by no means a disguise, which made Southgate stare at Aldridge for a long time before he came back to his senses.

In front of him, Aldridge has a temperament, not like the kind of clown who talks about it, this kind of arrogance and self-confidence is sometimes what is most needed on the court, and what a coach needs most.

Southgate pondered for a moment and asked rhetorically: "My place in the team?" ”

The other party was relieved, Aldridge said in a deep voice: "You come to the team to be my captain, but in the future, your position will change, in Crystal Palace you are playing in the midfield, in Millwall, you will be the main central defender, believe me, I have a video of your performance throughout the season, I know your role and strength better than you." ”

Southgate was silent for a long time, then finally nodded in agreement.

As he left south London and got into the car, Andrew said in a trance: "This is the first time I have seen such a negotiation. ”

Aldridge sat in the co-pilot seat and said lightly: "I'm the boss, I'm the head coach, I don't need to look at anyone's face, if I beg the players to come to my team, what authority do I have?" ”

"Hehe, where is the next stop?"

Andrew asked with a smile, feeling that his younger brother was starting to get a little imposing.

Aldridge said casually: "Send me back to the club, then I stay in the club, you just work hard to run around, and your company also takes this opportunity to sign some players, just right, I give a high salary, you match, win-win." ”

Andrew happily accepted the order, although Southgate had also been in contact with him before, but when he came into contact, Southgate was already the main player of Crystal Palace, and the relationship was as light as water.

However, most of the players on Aldridge's list to buy have been contacted by Andrew in the past two years, just taking advantage of the opportunity of Aldridge's recruitment and high salary temptation, and also made him officially take the step of an agent.

Aldridge returned to Millwall FC and began sending faxes of transfer offers to clubs across Europe.

The team is bulldozing to rebuild, so he starts with every position to network talent.

Goalkeeper, the club kept Caselli Keller, a player who has the ability, but to deal with the level of the Premier League, it can't be said that it is not enough at all, but it is certainly not a top goalkeeper.

As a result, Aldridge asked Bundesliga side Oldenburg to buy the opponent's young goalkeeper: Hans-Jörg Bout.

The future German third goalkeeper is only a freshly promoted first-team player and only made two appearances in the Bundesliga last season, not to mention making a name for himself, and perhaps even Oldenburg is still testing his quality.

The offer is £100,000, which is a lot of money for a small team, let alone a goalkeeper who has no reputation and strength test.

Soon, the transfer of 20-year-old goalkeeper Bout was allowed and the final offer was £150,000.

Southgate joined at centre-back, but Southgate's height of 1.8 meters was still a little lacking in air defense, and Aldridge sent a transfer offer directly to Cambuur, who was relegated to the Dutch second division last season: £200,000 for central defender Jaap Stam.

After raising the transfer price to £350,000, Millwall's negotiating team flew to the Netherlands to negotiate a contract deal with Stam.

£100,000 for 18-year-old Patrick Vieira from AS Cannes, France.

Perugia had just been promoted to the Italian second division and just when money was needed, Aldridge took their young player Gattuso for £300,000, which made Perugia's president Shalani mock Aldridge as an idiot in front of the Italian media.

Because Gattuso signed Perugia only a month ago, Perugia earned £300,000 for almost nothing

At just 17 years old and yet under contract as a professional footballer, Michael Ballack was lured to London by Andrew for £3,000 a week.

The £1 million transfer request directly shocked the president of Sparta Prague, and transfers in Eastern European football were naturally not as expensive as those in mainstream Europe, so Aldridge only raised the price to £1.2 million, and Millwall was given the opportunity to negotiate a transfer with Sparta Prague star Pavel Nedved.

If Andrew hadn't been in contact with Nedved before he entered the Sparta Prague first team, I'm afraid this transfer would have been yellow.

But Aldridge's high salary is enough for the stars to weigh the benefits first.

It's not enough for Andrew to portray Aldrich's grand idea to Nedved, Aldridge expressed his sincerity after talking to Nedved on the phone in person, and took the initiative to add an automatic termination clause to the contract that he could not be promoted next season, and Nedved expressed his willingness to join, which can be regarded as an attempt to break through in the UK, if not, it is also cost-effective to leave after earning a year.

Aldridge then offered French club Metz £500,000 for Robert Pires.

£300,000 brought back 20-year-old Bernd Schneider from Jena in the German second division.

£100,000 to take Luca Toney, who is about to turn 18, from Italian third-division side Modena.

£350,000 from Dan Bosch FC in the Netherlands to acquire their academy youngster, 18-year-old king of the penalty area, Ruud van Nistelrooy.

£200,000 brought a 17-year-old Frenchman back to Europe from Platense, Argentina, his name is David Trezeguet.

When Aldrich was about to leave for France to meet a friend, Andrew surprised Aldrich again.

The 17-year-old Zambrotta was abducted to London by Andrew before he was ready to sign for Como.