When Carter heard these words, a trace of anger appeared on his face. “That greedy fool! He actually wants twice the price from me, and is only willing to sell a portion of the shares!” His right hand clenched into a fist and slammed hard on the table in front of him. The coffee that had just been served spilled out of the cup from the impact, but he paid no attention to it, instead continuing to vent his anger: “Does he think I’m as stupid as he is? That I’d just hand him the money and then stand aside watching him continue his pathetic performance?”

While watching his friend vent in front of him, Leon Thompson was also thinking in his mind about what he remembered regarding Florence. In his previous life, he was a big fan of Batistuta, so he had a special affection for Florence and paid a lot of attention to it. Therefore, he knew a bit about what happened in 2002, the relegation incident of Florence.

He clearly remembered that Florence’s drop to Serie B was not the end of the nightmare for the Viola fans, but rather the beginning of an even greater tragedy. At the time, he was also shocked by what happened next, and felt deep sympathy for Florence’s miserable fate. Back then, he never imagined he would have the chance to witness all of this again, and might even be involved in it.

“Since Cecchi Gori has already rejected your offer, then what did you mean earlier when you said you weren’t joking?”

Perhaps he had vented enough, or maybe he felt now wasn’t the time to condemn that annoying guy, Carter had no choice but to shift his attention back to the conversation with his friend. “I had someone investigate Cecchi Gori and the financial situation of the Florence club, including the movement of funds over the past two months. The results show that this guy’s finances are an absolute mess. If I handed this stuff over to the police, it would be enough to make that bastard spend the rest of his life in prison!”

“Truly an unethical tactic!” Leon Thompson commented on this behavior.

“Hey!” Carter showed not the slightest embarrassment, but rather a bit of pride. “If you had to face that guy head-on and negotiate with him, you wouldn’t think that way!”

He picked up a napkin and cleaned up the mess in front of him—the coffee he had just spilled. “You know what? In the last negotiation, that bastard swore to me: ‘I’ve already raised the first round of funds, which is enough to get Florence through the current crisis. The next round will be in place by June. It will be used for the club’s expenses next season and will be the seed money for Florence’s resurgence.’”

Carter gave a contemptuous laugh, clearly dismissive of Cecchi Gori’s words. “But the truth is, there hasn’t been any significant capital injection into Florence in the past two months, and Cecchi Gori’s own accounts are the same!”

At this point, Carter’s emotions flared up again: “What does this show? It shows that bastard has deceived everyone! Including all the players at Florence and those fans who truly love her!” He took a deep breath to help his oxygen-starved brain recover from the excitement. “Including me!”

After listening to Carter’s speech, Leon Thompson had basically understood the situation, and was quickly organizing this information in his mind to piece it all together. “What do you plan to do?”

“Heh heh! I knew you’d be willing to help me!” Carter picked up on the other meaning in Leon Thompson’s words, realizing his good friend was now interested in the matter. “I’m going to make another offer to Cecchi Gori! I believe if this guy doesn’t want to go completely bankrupt, he’ll accept my offer! And I want full ownership of the Florence club—there’s no way that bastard is keeping any shares.”

“He won’t accept your offer!” Leon Thompson recalled a piece of news from his previous life about Florence. Cecchi Gori had received several offers before Florence was on the verge of bankruptcy, but he rejected every single one. Even when he himself was about to go bankrupt, countless famous people urged him to transfer Florence so the club could be saved, but he declared, “Florence is mine, and I want her to go to hell with me!”

Whether that was true or not, who could say? After all, in his previous life he was just an ordinary Chinese person. No matter how interested he was in Florence, how could he possibly know exactly what happened so far away in Europe?

But what was certain was that Cecchi Gori never did transfer Florence in the end. Maybe the buyers’ offers were too low for him to accept (perhaps not enough to fill the huge financial hole). Or maybe there were other reasons. But none of that mattered to him; all he needed to know was that Cecchi Gori wouldn’t sell Florence.

“Why do you think that?” Carter was puzzled by his friend’s judgment. “Maybe you don’t know just how bad Cecchi Gori’s personal finances are. If you look at the information I found, maybe you’ll change your mind!”