Chapter 989: Another Misfortune?! Schalke’s Transfer Window!

Once again, Frohling found himself sitting in his office with a gloomy expression a day after the game was over.

At this point, he couldn’t even feel any joy from forcing a draw against RB Leipzig, the team that was currently in third place in the standings.

The reason? Still the same as last week, after the game against Werder Bremen was over. Another piece of paper, telling him that another one of his players had to be sidelined for the time being.

Omar Mascarell – 27 y.o. – 187cm/78kg

AC joint sprain – the collarbone is pulled away from the shoulder blade.

Recommendation: 2 to 6 weeks of recovery. Can be more if stabilization is required.

"FUCK IT!" The man roared, slamming the table in fury. "Another player is out for six weeks?! I don’t even have any midfielder other than Morita anymore, for fuck’s sake!"

Right now, all he wanted to do was curse the whole world, finding everything to be against him.

His breath was ragged as he stared at the piece of paper with anger, finding his emotions starting to cloud his brain. Hell, Waldoch was so afraid that the coach would pass out from high blood pressure, what with how red the man’s face was right now.

It took a while for the man to calm down his emotions, but in the end, he finally managed to get his mind back on track as he asked, "How is the progress of our transfer?"

"It is successful, Boss." Waldoch straightened his back immediately, reporting it like he was a soldier.

"Kawasaki Frontale has agreed to loan Ao Tanaka to us with the option to buy. We still have to cover his salary for the next six months, and some transfer fee has to be paid as well, but that is still better than spending all of our money in one go."

Frohling took a deep breath with relief after he heard that. After all, Ao Tanaka, another Japanese midfielder, was one that he had his eyes on after the idea of diving deep into the Asian Market emerged.

The midfielder excelled in receiving the ball under pressure, recycling possession cleanly, and even building up an attack from the bottom with him as the center of it.

More than that, even though Ao Tanaka had never played abroad, his maturity could be seen in his game, and with Morita and Higo on the team, he felt like the boy would definitely be able to adapt quickly.

It also helped that they found a better way to deal with the transfer.

Instead of paying to sign the midfielder fully, they loaned Ao Tanaka from his original team, Kawasaki Frontale, with the option to buy six months later. That way, they didn’t need to touch their limited transfer budget for now.

This allowed them to use it for another player, which gave them another option to bring more players.

"So, how long do we need to wait until he is here?" Frohling asked.

"He has already taken a flight today, so if we calculated it right, he will be here tomorrow morning. Shall we ask Morita and Higo to greet him?"

Frohling pondered for a second before nodding quickly. "Yeah, we need to get him adapted to the team as quickly as possible. Let’s not wait too long and get him comfortable immediately."

Waldoch nodded while taking a note on his phone, intending to call the two Japanese boys after this.

"Also, the other transfer matter is about to be done. Arsenal agrees to allow us to get Sead for free, as long as we take Mustafi with the price that they want this winter session."

Frohling narrowed his eyes immediately, finding this deal to be suspicious.

"Why would they want that?"

"We still don’t know what they want, but if I have to guess, Mustafi’s contract ends next summer, so they don’t want to let him go for free. Not only that, his salary is quite high on that team, so Arsenal wants to free up some space to sign Martin Odegaard permanently."

Well, that made it easier to understand.

Yeah, Arsenal was desperate right now, as so many of their players had already been at the end of their contracts. They didn’t want to let them leave without losing too much money, but they also wanted them to leave to make room for the team to sign younger players.

As a result, Arsenal was willing to offer this kind of deal, as even though Sead Kolasinac’s contract with them still ended in two years, they were willing to let the Bosnian defender go for free right now.

Schalke also didn’t have any reason to refuse that deal. If anything, they had to jump on the boat, as this was way too profitable for them.

After all, they got Sead Kolasinac in a loan deal for a year, and so far, the man’s contribution to the team was significant enough for Frohling to be unable to brush it off easily.

No, before Sead Kolasinac had to go back to London, they had to make another deal to get him here next year, and this was the deal that would help them get that.

"So, what is Mustafi’s price?" Frohling finally asked.

"Around 2.5 to 3.5 million Euros. It should be around 8 million Euros, but with his contract only lasting until next summer, Arsenal is so desperate to sell him right now."

Frohling hummed while tapping the corner of the table with his finger, calculating everything inside his head.

While the discount was quite massive, it was still expensive for the team’s budget, as that meant they had to spend everything to sign a player that they didn’t really need in the first place.

Yeah, Skhodran Mustafi was a center back, a position that was the most stable in the team with Malick Thiaw, Benjamin Stambouli, Bastian Ozcipka, and Timo Becker fighting for them.

Still, the thought of getting an experienced player like Mustafi on a free deal for Sead Kolasinac was enough to make him droll, as in the end, Frohling finally made his decision.

"Just sign him to the team! Even if our defense is loaded, having another experienced player on the team will be better for us!"