Carter guaranteed the mayor that at least £20 million would be provided annually to the new club, and that additional investment might be made depending on the team’s performance, so that the new Florence club could regain its former glory as soon as possible.

After getting the result he wanted, the mayor also promised that the new Florence club would have the young Carter as its president, and hoped he could lead the new club to appear in Serie A as soon as possible.

“That’s exactly what I hope to see most right now, Mr. Mayor!” With this promise, Carter immediately signed a check worth £10 million as the startup capital for the new club.

Of course, this check was not for the mayor personally, but would be fully invested in the construction of the new Florence. Because apart from a team name, the newly established Florence had nothing! Including the club’s headquarters building, training base, stadium for matches—these hard assets—as well as the even more important players, coaches, team doctors, and so on. As for scouts? At the moment, Florence didn’t even have time to consider such a luxury.

Everything was still at the planning stage; even the most basic recruitment ads hadn’t been printed yet. All of this required a large amount of funding. And currently, Florence was still attached to the municipal government, at least until the press conference was held, so all these matters could only be handled by people from the municipal government. That’s why Carter signed a check to ‘hand over’ to the mayor to manage.

“Do you have any requirements for this money, future president?” After receiving the check, the mayor finally became completely convinced that the young man before him truly wanted to save Florence, and his attitude unconsciously became a bit warmer. Although his attitude had been fairly warm before, Carter could keenly detect a trace of doubt.

Actually, this was quite normal. After all, Carter was really too young. If he weren’t wearing the hat of a Carter family member, perhaps the mayor would have taken him for a fraud, or someone trying to seize the opportunity for fame. Even so, at the very beginning, the mayor still didn’t believe Carter had the ability to bring Florence back to the top. He personally preferred someone like Dale, who already had considerable fame and a lot of capital, to be the new club’s president.

These issues were only resolved after Carter brought in legal and financial advisors and other relevant people to present proof of his personal assets. In this way, the mayor felt that since someone had already come to the ‘door’ and proved they had enough funds to operate the club, it would be unreasonable to refuse. Moreover, the reputation of the Carter family had to be considered. If this young man really couldn’t handle it, his family surely wouldn’t stand by and do nothing. If the Carter family really took over Florence completely, then the days of Florence being able to compete with the northern three giants wouldn’t be far off. This was something Dale didn’t have—he didn’t possess such a powerful background to rival the northern three.

Leaving aside the mayor’s calculations, after hearing those words, Carter didn’t hesitate to state his own requirements: “I want everything that originally belonged to the Florence club! Including the training base, office building, and stadium! If possible, I want all the original club staff, coaches, team doctors, and players!”

The mayor felt a bit troubled when he heard Carter’s words: “Mr. Carter, the office building and stadium are easy to handle. Although the new Florence club is a newly established club, in our hearts it is still that Florence, so the new club will continue to use the original office building. As for the stadium… the Artemio Franchi Stadium will continue to serve as the new team’s home ground, there will be no problem with that.”

After assuring that there would be no issues with the office building and stadium, the mayor finally brought up the more difficult matters. “As for the training base… actually, the Florence club never had a fixed training base; they always rented suitable nearby venues as training bases, so we’ll need to make separate arrangements for that. As for the others…”

Seeing Carter frown, the mayor also felt a bit awkward. Because this so-called club was just an empty shell—anyone who ‘spent’ money only to see an empty shell wouldn’t be happy. “As for the staff, the original staff all became free agents after the club went bankrupt. I believe that in such a short time, most of them probably haven’t found new jobs yet, so if we reach out again, we can get most of them back. But as for the players and coaches…” The mayor spread his hands: “There’s nothing I can do! Other clubs have been keeping a close eye on these players and coaches. As soon as Florence’s bankruptcy was announced, those guys poached everyone. Even those who haven’t left yet are just waiting for the right contract.”