Target

"So, what do you think?" Michael asked Simeone.

"I have watched the films of all the players you have recommended, and I have to say Ivan Campo is the player who will fit the best in my team," Simeone said.

Michael and John listened intently but didn't say anything as they felt there was a "but" coming.

"But, I have some concerns regarding him," Simeone said.

"What is it?" Michael asked.

"Ivan Campo is a fine player and will fit our style, but he is already 33 years old, and I don't think he will be able to play all the games in the next season even without accounting for injury," Simeone said.

Championship had 24 teams competing in total as opposed to 20 teams in the Premier League, which meant a total of 46 fixtures had to be played through the season, 6 more than in Premier league. There were FA cup and League cup too, but Leicester was focusing on the league this year.

Players started declining in their 30s. Even if they could continue playing well with their technical ability and experience, their physical capabilities declined. So, it was unrealistic to depend on a 33 year old player to play all of Leicester's league games.

"As backup, we have James Wesolowski, who is 20 years old and lacks experience because he hasn't played many games and Danny Tiatto, who is 34, and isn't in top physical condition either," Simeone said to which Michael and John nodded silently.

"So, if we sign Campo, we will need another midfielder in case he misses games for a long period of time," Simeone said.

"Why don't we look in the Academy for another midfielder?" John finally broke his silence and suggested.

John immediately thought of one of the players from the Leicester academy who could help.

"Academy players are inexperienced and even if they are talented, they will need time to adjust to the level of football in the division," Simeone said, "And we have too many young players already, so we will need to have another midfielder as an insurance."

"That's true," John said.

John and Simeone looked at Michael hoping for a solution to their problem.

"Well, I have a player that we can sign," Michael said.

"You already have someone?" John said.

"Yeah, I was searching for midfielders to sign for a long time," Michael said.

"Then why didn't you recommend him?" John asked.

"That's because he isn't a player that fits our requirements but he is a fine player we should take a chance on," Michael said, "and he is a free agent so we would only have to cover his wages."

That got John interested. Leicester and John both were short on money, so getting a quality player for free would be very desirable for all of them.

"Who is it?" John asked.

"Nuno Morais" Michael said.

John worked his brain but that name didn't ring a bell. He didn't know who Michael was talking about, but he didn't know all the players. His memory of this time was also fuzzy and he couldn't remember every player, so he waited for Michael to continue.

"He is a Chelsea player that Mourinho brought with him when he came to Chelsea from Portugal, but he hasn't featured much due to the midfielders ahead of him, but he is a good player." Michael said.

Michael ran his fingers across the keyboard of the laptop lying on the desk and then turned it towards John and Simeone.

On it was a clip of Chelsea playing against Scunthorpe United in an FA cup fixture. Nuno Morais was playing at the defensive midfielder position in the jersey no. 33.

Simeone and John watched the clip closely. John was watching but it was hard for him to judge a player accurately by watching him play, so he took a break and let Simeone decide whether they should sign the player or not.

"So, what should we do?" Michael asked Simeone.

That brought John out of his reverie and he turned to look towards Simeone.

"It's hard to judge player in such a short time and on the basis of a single match, but he looks like he is a good player," Simeone said, "So, let's trust your judgement and sign him."

"Will do," Michael said while smiling.

Simeone left after that, but John stayed because now their work started.

"So, how much do you think we should offer Bolton for Campo?" John asked.

"I think we should offer 1 million pounds to start the negotiations, I don't think it should take more than 2 millions to convince Bolton to let him go," Michael said.

"Yeah, the hard part is going to convince him to play in Championship," John said.

Even though Championship was officially just a tier below Premier League, but there was a huge difference between them in terms of money, popularity and benefits.

Ivan Campo was a big player for Leicester, he had played for giants such as Valencia and Real Madrid in the past. Even if they could offer a lot of money, it would be hard to convince him to ditch the limelights of Premier League for a Championship side battling relegation.

"Well, he left Madrid for Bolton in the past because he liked it there," said Michael.

That was true. Ivan Campo signed for Madrid in the summer transfer window of 1998 from Mallorca. He then helped Madrid win 1999-00 Champions League and played full 90 minutes in the final against his former side Valencia.

But his career then stalled at Madrid and he was finally loaned to Bolton Wanderers in 2002. He was expected to return at the end of the season but he decided to make his stay at Bolton permanent. The reason he gave was that he liked it there.

"So if we could assure him of our intent to fight for promotion and sell him our project, maybe it would be easy to persuade him to take Leicester up to the Premier League as his final project before retirement," Michael said.

"Let's hope so." John said.

They had to get this deal done because even if they could find someone else, it was likely to take much time and maybe they couldn't find a good fit for their squad.