"Before that, I need to understand the club's financial situation!" Turning to business, Leon Thompson also stopped joking and put on a serious expression. "Or rather, your personal financial situation!"

"All of it?"

"All of it!"

Carter just smiled, as if he had already anticipated Leon Thompson's request. He took a document out of the briefcase beside him and placed it in front of Leon Thompson. "This contains my current funds and some other assets, including stocks and so on. After you look it over, you should have a good understanding of my financial status."

Upon hearing this, Leon Thompson didn't say much more. He simply reached for the document. It wasn't thick, only a few pages. He sat there and began to read it slowly. For a while, the office became unusually quiet, with only the occasional rustle of turning pages breaking the silence.

With his head down, looking at the not-so-thick document in his hands, he saw a large amount of numbers listed inside. He knew these numbers would become the solid backing for the Florence club—or rather, for himself—so he had to make sure everything was crystal clear, not allowing even the slightest carelessness.

Looking at the first line, Leon Thompson couldn't help but feel pleased, because it clearly stated: Liquid assets—£170 million. That's roughly equivalent to $350 million. To be honest, he hadn't expected Carter to have made so much money in just four years. Just this nearly £200 million in liquid assets was enough to guarantee Florence's return to Serie A.

However, when he thought about the situation in Serie A, Leon Thompson couldn't feel happy at all. For an ordinary person or a lower-tier football club, £200 million was already a huge amount, enough to let that person or club live very comfortably. But Florence's ambitions were much greater than that. In that case, this amount of money was far from enough.

Fortunately, Carter had other assets. Hopefully, these assets could bring in more funds. With this in mind, he moved his gaze downward and saw rows and rows of stock figures. The document listed which company's stock it was, its market value, how many shares Carter owned, how much those shares were worth, how much annual dividend could be earned from them, and finally, how much cash could be obtained if those stocks were sold.

This needs to be explained: just because a shareholder owns stocks worth a certain amount doesn't mean they can definitely get that amount in cash. For example, Carter owns 30% of a company's shares, and those shares are worth three million. If Carter wants to sell these shares, he has two options.

First, sell the shares to other individuals or shareholders, that is, a direct face-to-face transaction. In this case, the cash received is roughly equivalent to the stock's value, or possibly even more. This depends on whether the company's prospects are considered promising.

Second, sell the shares on the trading market, but only if the company is publicly listed. Moreover, dumping such a large amount of stock onto the market would cause the stock price to fall, resulting in much less cash received, and this method requires a long period of operation. At the same time, such actions would also attract interference from the company's board of directors.

As for most of the shares currently held by Carter, the first method will be used: contacting other shareholders of the company to see if they are interested in buying, and thus transferring his own shares in exchange for a large amount of cash.

This document consolidates the assets that are already being negotiated or have been confirmed for transfer, and at the end, it notes approximately how much cash these assets can be converted into. Leon Thompson only skimmed over the stock details; what he really cared about was the final amount of cash to be obtained—£60 million.

A huge sum, isn't it? Some people might think it's too little, especially compared to the £170 million in liquid assets listed at the beginning of the document—this money is just a fraction of that.

But there's a reason for this: most of the shares that have already been confirmed or negotiated for sale are from small and medium-sized companies, whose total market value is nowhere near as astronomical as that of super companies like Microsoft. Plus, Carter only holds a small portion of the shares, which is why they can be transferred so easily. If it were a large amount of shares in a big company, just the negotiations alone could take months.

"Alright! What we can confirm now is that before the season starts, we'll have at least over £200 million in liquid assets available. That's really good news!"

£230 million in liquid assets—if spent carefully, most of it would still be left after getting promoted to the top division. So even if Florence spends tens of millions of pounds in that year's market, it can handle it. "With my familiarity with future football stars, these tens of millions of pounds are enough for me to build a super battleship."

"In this way, both funds and players are not a problem. As long as we find a suitable coach, achieving results is almost inevitable. And for a football club, results are the most important thing—once you have results, the money will naturally come knocking at your door." With this calculation in mind, Leon Thompson was filled with confidence about Florence's future prospects.