After Chelsea lured Ancelotti to the Premier League, AC Milan moved quickly to respond. Unfortunately for them, most of Europe's proven elite managers were already committed elsewhere. Milan considered several candidates but eventually chose Mauro Tassotti, one of the club's great former defenders, promoting him from within.
Tassotti had once been regarded as one of the finest right-backs in world football. After retiring, he remained at Milan and became heavily involved in youth development, helping bring through a number of talented players. His appointment after Ancelotti's departure was therefore seen as another sign that Milan intended to place greater emphasis on developing from within.
The problem was that their squad still needed immediate reinforcement. Ancelotti and Shevchenko had both left, while Rivaldo and Borriello also appeared likely to move on. Milan desperately needed more quality in attack, particularly someone capable of playing between the lines and drifting into wide areas.
That was when Rodrigo Palacio became one of Berlusconi and Galliani's main targets.
Berlusconi liked almost everything about the Argentine. He was young, technically gifted, marketable, and charismatic on the pitch. Anyone who had watched his Copa América performances would have struggled not to be impressed. More importantly, his football seemed to fit exactly what Milan now needed.
At New Manchester United, Palacio usually began from the right because Kaká occupied the central attacking role and Cristiano Ronaldo or Robben attacked from the opposite flank. He was still given freedom to interchange, but he remained part of a structured front four.
Milan were promising something different.
Tassotti told Palacio that he could play centrally behind Inzaghi, with the freedom to roam across the attacking third much as he had done for Argentina. Milan's midfield of Gattuso, Seedorf, Rui Costa, and Pirlo could provide the platform behind him, allowing Palacio to concentrate on creating and scoring.
Berlusconi became convinced that this was the right moment to make a serious attempt.
He had originally wanted Kaká as well. The Brazilian remained one of his favourite young players in Europe, but Bosco rejected Milan's approach immediately and made it clear that his son had no intention of leaving Manchester.
Berlusconi did not push any further. However much he admired Kaká, he was not prepared to damage his relationship with Ethan over one transfer.
Palacio was another matter.
Galliani and Tassotti travelled personally to Argentina to meet him. Tassotti went further than simply discussing money. He promised Palacio that Milan would build part of their tactical system around him and give him a central status New Manchester United could not guarantee.
For any professional footballer, that was a serious temptation.
Palacio listened.
But he gave them no answer.
Instead, when his international commitments ended, he returned to Manchester and reported to Newton Heath exactly when the club expected him.
By then, speculation around his future had become relentless. Several newspapers claimed AC Milan had offered €35 million for him, hoping to make the twenty-two-year-old the centrepiece of their new attack.
Given Palacio's Copa América, the figure did not even sound outrageous. Chelsea had recently been linked with an offer closer to €40 million, yet New Manchester United's position had never changed.
Not for sale.
Some journalists questioned whether Milan's bid was even real. The club had not exactly developed a reputation for reckless spending in recent years.
Ethan knew better.
The €35 million offer existed.
His reply to Berlusconi was equally real.
New Manchester United would not discuss the sale of any first-team player until after the inauguration of the new stadium.
...
For the moment, almost everyone at the club was occupied with July 25.
The stadium opening had grown far beyond a simple friendly match. The entire entertainment and retail district surrounding the ground was preparing to launch at the same time, and every department at New Manchester United was working towards the same date.
The inaugural match itself, featuring the current first team against a side of former players and club favourites, was technically only a friendly. Supporters treated it very differently.
Every ticket sold.
All 150 executive boxes for the coming season had already been taken, as had the premium corporate seating. By late July, the club had also sold approximately 35,000 season tickets.
The commercial department had deliberately resisted using the move into a new stadium as an excuse to raise ordinary prices sharply. After two years at Old Trafford, supporters were accustomed to the existing structure, and the club wanted to preserve that relationship.
The average standard ticket remained around £25, placing New Manchester United somewhere in the middle of the Premier League rather than at the expensive end.
That did not mean the club expected weak matchday income.
The enormous revenue from executive boxes, hospitality packages, premium seating, retail, and commercial partnerships more than compensated for keeping general admission affordable. Even if ordinary ticket revenue was slightly lower than it could have been, the overall stadium income was projected to be extremely strong.
There was another reason Ethan resisted aggressive ticket pricing.
Every season, New Manchester United spent considerable amounts on community projects, supporter programmes, and charitable work. Giving something back to the people who had supported the club from the beginning was no longer treated as a marketing exercise. It had become part of the club's identity.
The same philosophy could be seen in the stadium's underground car park.
It could hold around 10,000 vehicles and was one of the largest facilities of its kind attached to a football ground in Europe. Operating it would cost a substantial amount each year, something supporters had already debated online.
Season-ticket holders and match-ticket holders, however, would be able to use it without paying an additional parking fee.
Retailers across the entertainment district had also agreed to offer discounts and benefits to club members. Audi, Apple, Vodafone, Adidas, and numerous other partners had negotiated special supporter packages with the commercial department as part of their contracts.
By the time July 25 approached, the stadium opening had become a national story.
In fact, interest stretched well beyond Britain.
Audi planned to use its flagship location at the complex to unveil a new range of saloons and sports cars during the opening week. Several of the original concepts had begun with sketches and ideas Ethan had contributed before being refined by Audi's professional design teams.
Volkswagen and Lamborghini were also discussing whether one of the associated performance lines could eventually be spun off into a more independent automotive brand. As New Manchester United's global profile grew, the commercial value of anything associated with the club grew with it.
Volkswagen regarded the possibility seriously enough to begin formal studies with the club.
Apple had equally ambitious plans.
Its location beneath the central plaza would become one of its most important European flagship stores and would host the international launch of several new products. The store had been designed to fit seamlessly into the architecture of the surrounding complex rather than appearing as an ordinary retail unit dropped beneath a football stadium.
Like much of the project, the design had been overseen by Herzog's team.
At night, the effect was spectacular.
When the stadium and surrounding buildings were illuminated, the entire district appeared to glow red against the Manchester skyline. From above, the layout was even more striking, with the stadium, plaza, retail spaces, pedestrian routes, and surrounding developments arranged as parts of one coherent design.
Architectural magazines had already begun describing the project as one of the most ambitious football developments of its generation.
The commercial department intended to make full use of that attention.
Several retailers were promoting July 25 as though it were a product launch rather than a football event. Apple enthusiasts had even begun queuing days in advance, hoping to be among the first customers through the doors.
Early purchasers could receive additional benefits such as stadium tours, match tickets, scarves, club publications, or other limited-edition merchandise.
Other sponsors followed with similar offers.
None of it happened by accident. The promotions had been coordinated months in advance by New Manchester United's commercial department so that every event reinforced the others.
The result was exactly what Gardner had hoped for.
Before the doors had even opened, the stadium district had become one of the most discussed commercial projects in European football.
Several analysts described it as an unprecedented fusion of sport, retail, entertainment, and sponsorship. Instead of holding a stadium-opening ceremony and then allowing sponsors to run separate promotions, New Manchester United had deliberately woven everything together into one week-long event.
The football drove attention towards the commercial partners.
The commercial partners drove attention back towards the football.
Even the increase in surrounding land values was expected to be enormous. Some analysts believed the appreciation alone could eventually equal a significant proportion of the stadium's construction cost.
Then there was the rental income.
The club expected close to £20 million a year from leases across the wider development once everything was fully occupied. That was before matchday income, hospitality, ticket sales, merchandise, food and drink, museum admissions, sponsorship, and the other commercial activities attached to the ground.
For the first time, analysts began seriously suggesting that New Manchester United's annual revenue could eventually challenge Manchester United's.
The club's ambitions extended beyond conventional football business.
Within the stadium district, New Manchester United itself controlled a large number of bars and supporter venues. There were also cafés, high-end restaurants, and hospitality spaces designed for customers who wanted to spend time around the stadium even when no match was being played.
The commercial department had already begun studying whether some of those concepts could later be expanded into standalone café or restaurant brands elsewhere.
Granada Television had also discussed creating a subscription football channel in partnership with the club.
Ethan was interested.
Over the previous few years, he and the commercial department had deliberately shaped New Manchester United into something broader than a successful football team. The Red Rebels name had become closely associated with community work, supporters, and charity, and that identity carried commercial value precisely because it did not feel manufactured overnight.
Volkswagen's interest in attaching an automotive project to the Red Rebels brand was only one example.
Other industries were beginning to approach the club for the same reason.
Behind the branding, however, there was real charitable infrastructure. The Red Rebels Charity Foundation had grown into one of the better-known sports-linked charitable organisations in Britain and was developing a strong international reputation as well.
That was one reason Vodafone, which wanted to expand more aggressively into African telecommunications markets, had chosen to work with the foundation on projects connected to local communities.
The relationship benefited everyone involved.
Charitable work strengthened New Manchester United's reputation.
That reputation made sponsors more willing to associate with the club.
Greater sponsorship revenue then gave New Manchester United more money to reinvest in football, infrastructure, commercial expansion, and charity.
The cycle had become self-reinforcing.
Several business analysts were beginning to make remarkably bold predictions. If New Manchester United's revenue continued growing at its current pace, they argued, the club would not need to win the Premier League every season to become one of the richest teams in the world. Regular Champions League qualification might be enough.
Some believed that within three years the Red Rebels could surpass both Manchester United and Real Madrid in annual commercial profitability.
The stadium district was the central reason.
A club receiving nearly £20 million a year in rent before counting traditional football income possessed an advantage most rivals simply could not reproduce without enormous new development projects of their own.
Real Madrid and Manchester United could generate extraordinary money through their global support, sponsorships, and matchday operations.
But neither could simply create another £20 million in property income overnight.
That was why more and more people were beginning to admire Ethan's original decision to acquire the land while it was still relatively cheap. The site itself had cost only a fraction of what the completed development was now expected to generate every year.
One prominent investment analyst summed it up in a newspaper column.
"Ethan Yu has already built a reputation as an exceptional investor. His early stakes in technology companies created enormous personal wealth. But the most important investment of his career may eventually prove to be much closer to home. If this stadium district develops as projected, the original land purchase could become one of the most profitable decisions ever made by a football-club owner."
And the gates had not even opened yet.
(To be continued.)