If You're Worried About Something, It Will Likely Happen
After the afternoon training session, Gao Bo was left speechless by the bald, middle-aged man standing before him.
Damn Murphy's Law...
"Mr.Gao bo, I'm Adam White's agent. My name is Neil Jenkins. You can call me Neil."
The greasy, middle-aged man extended his chubby hand. Gao Bo forced himself to suppress his discomfort, briefly shaking the hand that repulsed him.
Pulling his hand back, Gao Bo sat down at his desk.
"When did Adam get an agent?" Gao Bo asked, leaning back in his chair.
Neil Jenkins, unfazed by Gao Bo's indifferent attitude, grabbed a chair and sat down across from him.
"Just yesterday, but that's not important." Neil placed a thick stack of documents on the desk and slid them toward Gao Bo.
"With Adam's talent, he shouldn't be on his current salary at Luton."
"We're already planning to give him a raise," Gao Bo replied, not denying the point as he opened the document.
"This is the contract my client deserves," Neil said confidently, leaning back in his chair. He looked like he wanted to cross his legs but seemed unable to manage the move due to his size. Undeterred, Neil maintained a smug demeanor, as though he had already secured the upper hand.
Gao Bo kept his expression neutral. Negotiation wasn't his forte, but he wouldn't allow the other party to detect any weakness.
Flipping through the contract, Gao Bo stopped when he saw one particular figure.
Weekly salary: £20,000.
He didn't bother reading further. It was clear the man sitting before him wasn't serious about negotiating.
A weekly salary of £20,000?
To put it in perspective, many Premier League starters didn't earn much more than that. For a second-division team like Luton, this was entirely unrealistic.
It wasn't that the club couldn't afford it. David Morton, the team owner, came from a wealthy background. Gao Bo wasn't shy about spending money, either. But such a salary would completely disrupt Luton's wage structure. Without significant outside funding, the club couldn't sustain these levels of expenditure.
Gao Bo calmly closed the document and locked it in his desk drawer.
"Mr. Neil, regarding Adam's contract, I think this discussion is premature. He still has four years left on his current deal. We'll revisit this when the time is right." Gao Bo wore a professional smile.
Neil Jenkins, however, smiled even wider.
Rejection was expected, and Jenkins hadn't seriously intended for Luton to accept the offer. In truth, Adam's agent wanted to push for a transfer, and this contract was just a formality to satisfy his client.
---
That evening, Neil Jenkins was already planting seeds of doubt in Adam White's mind.
"Adam, you're wasting your talent at Luton," Neil said, sitting across from Adam in the player's small rented apartment in downtown Luton. Despite his modest salary by football standards, Adam earned far more than the average Englishman.
"Look at the newspapers!" Neil exclaimed, holding up clippings.
"They're calling you England's next Rooney! Do you know how much Rooney earns? More than you could imagine!"
Adam sat silently, his face betraying his inner conflict.
As a young man from a tough neighborhood, neither Adam nor his brother Alan had much experience dealing with agents or the complexities of professional football. Adam wasn't sure whether to trust Neil. While the agent seemed to have his best interests at heart, something about his words left Adam uneasy.
---
Gao Bo, on the other hand, didn't let Adam's new agent derail his plans. Training and match preparations continued as scheduled.
On January 14, Luton played away at Chester in a league match. After a week of rest, the team was in excellent shape. Chester set up defensively from the start, but in the 21st minute, Vardy broke through with a clinical finish to give Luton the lead.
Despite dominating the game, Luton couldn't find another goal in the first half. A single-goal lead was precarious, and a counterattack could cost them two valuable points.
In the second half, Gao Bo brought Adam White off the bench.
"Play on the right wing. Let Kevin take the left. When you get the ball, drive into the penalty area—whether horizontally or vertically. Pay attention to Jamie and Charlie's positioning, and pass to them if you see an opening. Got it?" Gao Bo instructed, putting an arm around Adam's shoulders.
Adam nodded, but his thoughts were muddled.
Neil Jenkins' words echoed in his mind.
"You need to score more goals! Scoring goals is how you get noticed by the media!"
But Gao Bo's instructions lingered as well. He wanted Adam to create opportunities for the forwards rather than taking the spotlight himself.
As Adam stepped onto the pitch, his indecision showed. His first touch ended in disaster.
Drinkwater passed the ball out wide to Adam, who prepared to drive down the flank. But then he hesitated, tempted to cut inside and shoot instead.
That brief moment of indecision was all it took for the opposing defender to steal the ball.
On the sidelines, Gao Bo frowned. This was not the Adam White he knew.