Niang offered Mendes a commission of two million pounds, requesting Mendes's help in transferring Pepe to Liverpool. This commission would be paid to Mendes during the personal contract negotiations between the two parties. Moreover, this commission was not included in the normal transfer fee commission, so it would not affect Mendes from taking another cut.

However, Mendes didn't quite agree, feeling that with his status, Pepe's status, and the difficulty of the transfer, the commission was too low.

"Jose likes Pepe very much. Pepe is Jose's main center-back, and he's useful not only in the center-back position, but he can also play as a defensive midfielder to contain Messi… So if you want Pepe to leave Real Madrid, you can't get around Jose, and you know, Mr. Jose is a very stubborn person…"

The address changed from "Mr. Lu" to "Lu," showing that Mendes's attitude changed as soon as the key issue was mentioned.

However, his cunning businessman traits still made him continue to haggle.

Niang sneered inwardly. If Mourinho couldn't be bypassed, would you be discussing this with me? Clearly, you just want to raise the price.

A commission of two million pounds wasn't exactly low. The agent for Chamakh was able to get a two million pound commission mainly because Chamakh was a free transfer. Arsenal saved on the transfer fee, so naturally, they had to compensate more in other areas.

However, he also knew Mendes's status, and it wouldn't be easy to get rid of him with just two million pounds.

"But I know you have a very close private relationship with Mourinho, Mr. Mendes. Your good personal relationship may help solve this problem…"

He didn't mention the price, just kept chatting with Mendes like this.

One old fox and one little fox, the two of them just went back and forth like this. If outsiders heard their conversation, they would think a lot of it was nonsense, unrelated to the topic.

But both of them didn't dare to be careless. Even the nonsense was said with full concentration, fearing that they would be led astray by the other if they weren't careful.

Just like that, the two of them finally reached an agreement.

Liverpool would pay Mendes a commission of three million pounds, and Mendes promised to bring Pepe, whom they admired, to Anfield for Liverpool.

The two parties didn't sign any agreement, not even a written memorandum, leaving no evidence. It was a verbal promise, and no one else knew the content of the conversation except the two of them.

Neither party was worried about the other going back on their word. Mendes had to bring Pepe from Real Madrid. The commission to Mendes would only be paid when both parties could sign a personal contract. By this time, Pepe joining Liverpool would be a sure thing.

And Mendes wasn't worried about Liverpool breaching the contract. If Liverpool didn't pay, Mendes wouldn't mind losing three million pounds, but Liverpool would have to wait and bear even greater losses, such as Pepe, who had finally transferred, not training properly, not playing well, always clamoring for a transfer, turning the locker room into a mess… and that wasn't the worst of it. The worst thing was that Liverpool might run into obstacles everywhere in the transfer market in the future, and they would be blocked, making it difficult for them to move forward.

Because of this, neither party was worried about the other going back on their word.

In the end, Mendes shook Niang's hand and said to him, "For your age, Lu, you are a headache for me."

Niang smiled, "You are even more remarkable, Mr. Mendes."

Mendes nodded, "I hope this is the beginning of our good cooperation."

"This is also my hope."

The two of them smiled at each other.

※※※

After finishing the matters that needed to be discussed with Mendes, Niang didn't stay in Brazil. He had no interest in the World Cup. The player information in the World Cup would naturally be collected and summarized by Liverpool's dedicated scouts for him. He only needed to log in to his email to see the player reports sent by the scouts every day.

He also didn't stay in the charming Rio de Janeiro for a few more days to feel the enthusiasm of the beautiful women here.

He had to fly back to England, this time for another key signing for another position.

On Liverpool's left flank, guarding the left back position was Spanish defender Jose Enrique.

He was an excellent full-back, but not well-known because he was too low-key and had never been selected for the Spanish national team. This might be because he always played in the Premier League, and his skills were rough and not delicate enough. The Spanish national team requires full-backs to have the delicate skills of wingers, which is their style of football.

But Enrique was a strong, fast, and tough full-back, but his skills were not delicate enough.

Enrique was excellent, but Liverpool only had him as a true left-back. On the right, there were Glen Johnson and Van der Wiel, so there was a substitute if something happened.

But on the left, there was only Enrique. Enrique couldn't get injured, couldn't be in poor form, and couldn't even be tired.

Last season, the only people who were almost always present with Chen Hero were goalkeeper Reina and left-back Enrique.

Reina was because of his special position, Chen Hero was because he wanted to score goals, and Enrique was really because he was irreplaceable in the team.

Fortunately, Enrique wasn't injured last season, otherwise Martin O'Neill would have had to let Gareth Bale play his left-back position again, but Bale didn't like or was good at playing this position anymore.

At first, Niang and O'Neill planned to find a first-class left-back in one step, or even a world-class left-back would be even better.

But later, the two of them were distressed to find that the whole world was short of excellent left-backs, let alone world-class ones.

The two of them could only take a step back and hope to find a left-back with about the same level as Enrique.

But that didn't work either.

Enrique was already a world-class left-back, but he was too low-key, his skills were not delicate enough, and his assists were not as good as his defense, so he wasn't well-known. Regardless of his lack of fame, his strength was still excellent. Therefore, in the eyes of two people familiar with Enrique, even just wanting to find a left-back who was similar to him was difficult.

In the end, they had to surrender completely and find a left-back who was passable and could be a rotation player.

Even then, there weren't many options to choose from.

The two most suitable ones were both in England, so he flew back to England.

Martin O'Neill's list for Niang had two left-backs, but this wasn't to have Niang bring both of them back. Even if he had such ability, Martin O'Neill didn't want it. Stockpiling three left-backs would not benefit Liverpool, but would affect the stability of the locker room.

The two left-backs on the candidate list were currently Taiwo, who played for Queens Park Rangers, and Santon, who played for Newcastle United.

Taiwo was physically outstanding, fast, had good stamina, and had a stronger ability to assist. His weakness was that his defense was too poor and his tactical discipline was very poor. He was an African player… everyone understood.

Santon's characteristic was that he was balanced in attack and defense, and Santon, who was from Italy, was more skilled technically than English players, and his defensive awareness and tactical level were higher. The weakness was that he was prone to injuries. He had never reached people's previous expectations of him at Newcastle, mainly because of frequent injuries.

Niang hesitated for a long time between the two and decided to go to Santon first.

Santon's personal ability was not as prominent as Taiwo's, but his awareness was stronger than Taiwo's.

Niang himself was an Italian Chinese, and he was more familiar with Italian football. When Santon was at Inter Milan, he had observed Santon and thought Santon was a good seed, but he didn't make it for various reasons.

Later, he transferred to Newcastle United and was frequently injured. He transferred with an injury in the first place. However, he gradually seized the opportunity and slowly played games at Newcastle United, and began to have assists, and his performance got better and better. Now, if he's not injured, he is basically Newcastle United's main full-back.

Out of familiarity with Santon and trust in Italian football, Niang still chose Santon.

However, Santon is now Newcastle United's main full-back, and it is not easy to let him transfer to Liverpool.

He had to find another way…

※※※

Niang had just returned to Liverpool when he called Chen Hero, who was busy with various business activities.

"How is your relationship with Balotelli?" he asked directly.

"It's pretty good." Chen Hero didn't understand why Niang was asking this, but he honestly replied.

"How good is it? Is it a nodding acquaintance, or are you friends? Are you ordinary friends or relatively good friends, or are you buddies?" Niang continued to ask, asking very carefully. Because this was related to whether his next strategy would work.

"Uh… I wouldn't say we're buddies, but we're a little better than ordinary friends."

Niang nodded, "Very good, do you have Balotelli's contact information?"

"I do have that."

"Help me give him a call…"

"Wait, Lu Niang, are you planning to buy Balotelli? It's not that I'm saying anything… Although my relationship with him is okay, that's because we're not on the same team. If we were on the same team, I can't guarantee that I could still tolerate him…"

Niang smiled, "Don't worry, Hero, I'm not interested in gods that mortals can't understand. I just want him to help talk to Santon, we're interested in Santon, see if he can help connect us."

After Chen Hero understood, he breathed a sigh of relief, but then he felt puzzled: "Balotelli and Santon are on good terms?"

"Of course, didn't you know? They used to play 'wife swapping'!"

"What?!" Chen Hero's voice rose eight degrees. He didn't expect these two to play so much… For a moment, he felt a sense of inferiority – what is the Eat, Drink, and Play Group compared to them? At least we've never played wife swapping!

"Uh, that's a bit of an exaggeration… Actually, Balotelli's girlfriend was later introduced to Santon by himself. Santon didn't mind that he was eating leftovers, so he got together with Balotelli's ex-girlfriend…" After Niang explained, Chen Hero understood that it wasn't the "wife swapping" that he understood. It seemed that these two still had some integrity…

"But you can see from this incident how good their relationship is, right? When they were at Inter Milan, they were good friends, both of whom were the kind of people who gave Mourinho a headache. Even their girlfriends are the same, so I think Santon should listen to Balotelli."

After listening to Niang's explanation, Chen Hero agreed, "Okay, I'll give him a call, but I don't know if it will work…"

"It's good enough that you're willing to help, Hero!"

Niang was still very happy to get Chen Hero's promise.

Although Chen Hero always said that his words might not work, the fact proved that his words were quite effective.

He called Sanchez, and Sanchez ran over to play for him happily. Niang felt that if Chen Hero was willing to take action on Santon's matter, it would be twice the result with half the effort.