Chapter 716 - 132: Dribbling Past 7 Players! Arsenal Has Awakened! The Number One Player in World Football! I Want to Play Like Him!

"The houses in London are too expensive. You’d better just rent."

He thought, "Rent?"

"Dad, Mom, the monthly rent for this house is two to three hundred thousand yuan."

"What?"

His parents almost fainted from shock. They wondered what a house that cost two to three hundred thousand yuan a month in rent would even look like. However, they wouldn’t interfere with Wang Shuo’s decisions.

His mom, on the other hand, was particularly superstitious. She firmly believed that Wang Shuo’s smooth career progression had everything to do with her devout superstitious practices. Therefore, buying a house had actually been decided a long time ago. But his mom insisted that the contract signing had to take place on an auspicious date she had carefully selected. For this reason, she called Shen Qinghe every couple of days, instructing her to do this and that.

Despite her young age, Shen Qinghe was surprisingly obedient and handled everything flawlessly. This left Wang Shuo’s mom full of endless praise, constantly complimenting her for being sensible and capable.

Wang Shuo timed his return to London exactly on the auspicious day his mom had chosen, signing the contract with the house’s previous owner. Out of the 4.3 million British Pounds purchase price, aside from a 10% down payment, everything else was funded by a bank loan.

It wasn’t that Wang Shuo couldn’t afford it, but Shen Qinghe had told him that taking out a loan was much more cost-effective. Currently, the mortgage interest rate in the United Kingdom was only 0.5%. She calculated it for Wang Shuo: a loan of 3.87 million British Pounds over ten years would require a monthly repayment of over 30,000 British Pounds. Over the ten years, the total payment would only be 3.97 million British Pounds. This meant the total interest generated over a decade was merely 100,000 British Pounds.

With such a massive sum of money, casually investing it in anything else would yield better returns than buying a house outright. Worst-case scenario, taking that money back to their home country to buy properties would still earn more than doing so in the United Kingdom. Of course, the 10% down payment had to be paid upfront.

Wang Shuo certainly didn’t understand these financial nuances. But since Shen Qinghe laid it out like that, he decided to listen to her. Not only was the house purchase financed by a loan, but the renovations were as well. Shen Qinghe called this "fleecing the capitalist system." And she was entirely unabashed about it.

"They’re actually desperate for us to spend more right now," she said.

Almost everything was managed by Shen Qinghe. In the end, Wang Shuo realized that he barely even managed his own wallet anymore.

"You still need to be careful. I should give you regular reports from now on. Otherwise, you’d be completely clueless even if I embezzled all your assets," Shen Qinghe jokingly threatened.

"I believe you wouldn’t do that!"

Wang Shuo’s simple response left Shen Qinghe in stunned silence.

Wang Shuo’s house purchase in Hampstead couldn’t be kept a secret at all. The contract had just been signed yesterday, and by the next day, it was already reported in the papers. Actually, strictly speaking, it was published on news websites that very same day.

Arsenal fans were thrilled. To them, the fact that Wang Shuo was buying a house in London instead of renting undoubtedly signified his determination to stay at Arsenal long-term. This was definitely a good thing! Especially after that match against Manchester United, almost all Arsenal fans were convinced that Wang Shuo was the core and spiritual leader of the team for the years to come. Having a player like that buy a house in London was nothing but a fantastic sign!

However, fans of other teams were not so pleased. Who wanted to see Arsenal rise to prominence? Consequently, Chelsea fans chimed in online.

"Even if Wang Shuo bought a house, it doesn’t mean he won’t leave."

"Staying at Arsenal means no championships. Those meant to leave won’t stay!"

"I’m optimistic that Arsenal will continue to expand their business of selling team captains."

"The Gunners can’t just lose their fine tradition of selling off their captains."

"As a Manchester City fan, I sincerely thank Arsenal for their careful cultivation of Wang Shuo. We’ll come and buy him in 2013."

"To the guy above, you Manchester City fans have always been so shameless! Wang Shuo belongs to Chelsea. His summer transfer for 2012 is already settled. If he doesn’t transfer, I’ll eat crap on a live stream while doing a handstand!"

The internet was buzzing with discussions, but right after returning to London, Wang Shuo immediately threw himself into training to adjust his condition. Although he had been very busy recently, his training had never stopped.

With three rounds of the Premier League completed, only two teams remained with a three-game winning streak. Manchester City ranked first due to goal difference, while Manchester United ranked second. Following them were Chelsea and Wolves, both with seven points. Arsenal had secured six points, placing them in seventh. However, the league had just begun, so no one was overly concerned with the current standings.

Going forward, Arsenal’s schedule remained quite troublesome. They had to balance the league while simultaneously focusing on the Champions League group stage. Villarreal, Lille, and Naples were not easy teams to play against. Bearing the brunt of this was their opponent for the fourth round of the league: Rodgers’ Swansea.

This team was a newly promoted side this season. In the first round, they suffered a disastrous 4-0 away defeat to Manchester City, followed by a 0-0 home draw against Wigan Athletic. In the third round, they forced another 0-0 draw at home against Sunderland. Judging from their subsequent two matches, the disastrous defeat to Manchester City in the opening round seemed more like a rude awakening for a newly promoted team upon entering the Premier League. Bouncing back from a crushing loss to secure consecutive draws against Sunderland and Wigan Athletic proved that their strength was not to be underestimated.

It was also worth mentioning that all three newly promoted teams this season were currently performing quite well, with none of them in the relegation zone. It felt a bit like they were crashing the party.