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"A holding midfielder is just fine, though he has to be experienced." Simeone said to John, "If you still have money left for transfers, I would prefer to have an experienced center back to lead the squad. I would prefer a left footed centre back because we have a lack of backup for Patrick Kisnorbo. But finding a quality holding midfielder is still a priority over a centre back."

John was talking to Simeone if he still needed improvements somewhere else if he still had money left from the transfer budget. Although he signed many players, the transfers for young players were cheap and the older players joining were mostly on the free.

"Most of our team is exceptionally young." said Simeone.

"That's true" John said as he thought about the players he brought to Leicester. He was sure that Leicester will have the youngest squad next year in the Championship.

"We will need someone experienced in the middle of the pitch who can provide stability to let our other players play freely." Simeone explained further.

"Alright we will take care of it. Michael's already looking for players and after we've identified the players that fit our criteria and are willing to come here." John said, " We can decide which player to sign."

Although John alongwith Michael had the authority to make the decisions over player recruitement, John made sure to consult Simeone about every player they wanted to sign.

John called Michael and Sean to his office to complete the final part of the transfer process.

"Michael, have you identified any holding midfielders we could target?" John asked Michael as he sat down alongside Sean.

Michael was already trying to find veteran players that Leicester could still sign to bolster their squad for the upcoming season.

"Yes, boss I've shortlisted 3 players in their prime that fit our style and can be prised away from their current clubs and won't take too much money." Michael replied as he opened the laptop.

"Well, I see you've come prepared." John said with a smile on his face.

Michael was working hard ever since he came to Leicester. Even if he was still inexperienced, he tried his hardest to make the best of his ability. He reaffirmed John's judgement that he would grow into a top executive Leicester needed.

"It's my job to be prepared, isn't it?" Michael replied.

"The first player is Salif Diao." Michael started to introduce the players he had shortlisted to John.

"Well, he is 30 years old and is a very hard working player with the ability to slow games down and control them from the midfield and has good positioning and tackling." Michael said.

John couldn't remember the name but he felt he had heard of it. Though he didn't interrupt as Michael continued.

"He was a Liverpool player once but he has been injury prone all his career which has led to decline. He even failed a medical at Charlton last year before he was picked up by Stoke."

John remembered now, he was a Liverpool player once but didn't feature much for them.

"Last year he showed to still be a capable player at Stoke but I don't know about his fitness levels and his ability to hold up for a whole season, though we can sign him for a bargain and still have money left for other signings." Michael finished.

John listened intently but he wasn't very keen to sign players whose fitness levels were doubtful because of Simeone's rigorous demands. Add to his injury proneness and John put him in on the bottom of his list even without knowing about other players. He would only consider him in the worst case scenario.

John turned to look towards Simeone and he could see he wasn't particularly excited either.

"The second player is Shaun Derry from Leeds united." Michael said.

"He is a physical player with a height of 6 feet 1 inch. He has a hard tackling and aggressive game in the midfield. He's also the vice-captain at Leeds so we can expect him to lead the young players." Michael continued.

"Though he injured his achilles tendon back in January and hasn't featured since but we can expect him to be fit by the time the season starts."

John nodded as Michael continued. He felt that the player was suitable for the needs of Leicester but his injury was a concern. Achilles injuries are tricky and its hard to predict his performance after he returns. He also wouldn't be present at training sessions before the season and it would take him even longer to fit in the system.

"He's also 30 years old so we have to expects some decline eventually and it might be sooner rather than later after this injury, so there's a risk associated with signing him." Michael cautioned.

"Well, don't you have any sturdy players to recommend, Michael?" John asked, "Physical capabilities are a must for players to fit in our system."

"Boss it is hard to find a specific kind of player at a certain level when we don't have a large amount of money and are in second division and can't offer Premier League football." Michael said while giving a wry smile, "And players at this stage of their career also put greater emphasis on financial aspect of contract as it is likely it will be their last chance to make big money."

John knew those things but he wanted the best squad possible that he could give to Simeone to work with. His standards were also skewed because of the players he signed. Even though those players were young and probably worse right now than the players Michael was recommending, John was comparing names in his mind rather than the performance they will give on the pitch for the next season.

"Well how much can we afford to spend?" John directed the conversation to Sean.

"We decided to invest 9 millions in the transfers this season. You have already spent 3.5 millions in transfer fee upto now. We also have to invest 7 million pounds in club facilities and and hire better coaches, revamp our medical and nutrition team, modernizing the club and if possible invest some money in the Academy." Sean described it in a calm manner.

"Add to that the difference in wage bill we will have this season, we could probably invest a maximum of 4,000,000 pounds plus what we've made from outgoing transfers to sign players if you don't want to change your initial plan to invest in club facilites." Sean said.

"How much have we made from selling players?" John asked.

4,000,000 pounds was a lot of money for a player in the championship division but it wasn't enough to attract Premier league division player which Leicester needed as a fallback mechanism due to their team being so young.

Although John wanted the best players for the team he knew the importance of the club facilities and staff played in the success of the club on the pitch. John knew that one of the heavyweights of Spanish football will suffer very much in the future due to investing too much in the players and ignoring the other factors such as a better medical team.

Even world class players and one of the greatest player ever to play football can't take you out of the hole if the whole club is in malfunction. So he didn't want to take that route even if he couldn't get the players he wanted.

Meanwhile Sean took out some papers and after looking at them turned to John, "Most of our outgoing transfers have been done and some are being negotiated right now."

"Let me take a look." John said to Sean.

Sean handed the papers to John who started reading them while Michael and Simeone waited for him to finish reading.