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Mainz, Germany.

John was finally going to meet the top manager candidate for Leicester City alongside Michael Edwards. The search for manager was ongoing for two weeks after the league ended for Leicester on May 5.

The League championship was still ongoing with final game of the play-offs to be played between Derby County and West Bromwich Albion arranged on 28th May. The final promotion spot will be on the line in that match. Sunderland, as champions and Birmingham City after placing 2nd had already been promoted. But it had nothing to do with Leicester.

The Premier League had also ended with Manchester United dethroning Chelsea as the champions under Sir Alex Ferguson. On the other side of the table, misery was piled on Sheffield United, Charlton Athletic and Watford as they were relegated to EFL Championship.

The deep research on a manager candidate was necessary even with John's previous life's memories because John didn't know the circumstances of every manager right now. The first candidate to pop up in John's mind was Mauricio Pochettino, but after gathering information, John found out that he didn't even have his coaching license yet. It was an embarassing moment for John. Thankfully, no one other than Sean knew what happened. After that incident, John began gathering information on the managers he knew would be successful.

That search led him here. Although he knew Jurgen Klopp and remembered his achievements, he didn't have very high hopes of convincing him to leave a Bundesliga club to manage a division 2 team. But after Mainz were relegated on the 19th May, last day of Bundesliga season, John was handed a new hope.

So, the next day, John flew alongside Michael Edwards to Germany with haste to try and invite one of the best managers of the future and pairing him and Michael would be a dream. John was really concerned about this meeting as neither him nor Michael were very good at negotiating. But they had to try because if they waited for too long they won't have time left for players transfers.

He wanted to bring Sean along with them but Sean refused. As the new Financial Director, he was swamped with work. Like most Championship clubs, Leicester has been overspending over the last few years which had led the to club finances being in a mess.

Championship clubs only received 1 million pounds from the TV broadcasting deal and a further 1 million pounds from Premier League to what is dubbed as "solidarity" payments. The only other income is from tickets, sponsorship and transfer fee. But Championship clubs always overspend due to lure of Premier league and it's huge financial prospects.

Leicester's deal with kit suppliers JJB Sports had ended on 9 May, 2007 and there was no sponsor for the new season either. So, while John and Michael were searching for a manager, Sean was trying to find a kit supplier and sponsor for the next season.

*****

John took his seat opposite the German Manager in the cafe the meeting was arranged. He looked quite different than John remembered. He had silky blonde hair and was sporting a beard that didn't have any signs of grey. He was wearing the black rimmed glasses. But there was no sign of his trademark smile on his face. It looked like he just got here as John was on time and there was no coffee on the table.

"Hello, Mr. Klopp" John greeted the manager who would go on to collect several accolades throughout his career.

"Hello, Mr. Baker" Jurgen Klopp replied in English. John wasn't worried about language barriers as Michael knew how to speak German but it was better to be able to speak in English.

"I'm really sorry to hear about Mainz relegation" John said in a concerned voice. John knew the pain when the club you loved was relegated. John still remembered the scene when fans hurled beer mugs on the gate of manager Ian Holloway after Leicester were relegated to third division under him.

"It's okay, you have to deal with these things in football" Jurgen said with a voice that told a different story.

But John wasn't here for that though. He had a different agenda on his mind to poach him from Mainz. Talking about Mainz wasn't the way to go

"You probably already know that, but we are here to invite you to Leicester. Mr. Klopp." John finally said.