Emails came from all sorts of people and contained all sorts of messages, not just from Tang Guo, but from others as well.
The matter of the head coach was just the tip of the iceberg; there were many more emails about party invitations, celebrations, congratulations, and so on.
After carefully sifting through these emails and reviewing them, he found a total of seven letters related to Tang Guo's selection of a head coach. They all seemed to be in the format of resumes.
Cao Baming's eyes widened in surprise. He was astonished because only ten days had passed, and the number of applicants was unexpectedly high.
He rested his hands on the keyboard, leaned against a pillar by the window, and opened the seven letters one by one as he pondered.
He hadn't expected so many people to apply, but on second thought, it made sense. The news had been released very suddenly, and this period was currently the most exciting time for football in Tang Guo.
Since the first priority wasn't to recruit world-class coaches from the five major European leagues but to find talent within their own country, they would certainly recognize this as a rare opportunity. Even if they might be overshadowed by external candidates later, they had to submit their resumes during this window.
Despite this, these individuals likely had some connections to the Football Association, which might have given them the audacity to compete for such an important position.
Driven by curiosity, Cao Baming carefully read the seven emails. He discovered that they weren't all resumes; four of them were recommendation letters.
As the name suggests, a recommendation letter is not written by the person themselves but by someone else. This "someone else" wasn't just writing down what the applicant said; the need for a recommendation often implied that the recommender had more influence and stature.
Upon closer inspection, these recommendation letters hardly mentioned the individual's honors or statistics, but instead contained many polite and courteous phrases.
Seeing this, Cao Baming unhesitatingly threw all four recommendation letters into the trash and deleted them from his inbox.
There was no need to overthink it. Such an approach violated his original principles. Regardless of who these people were, their method of application alone rendered them severely unqualified.
This left only the last three letters. Just then, a ray of sunset streamed through the window, illuminating the pillar and the white wall opposite, about two meters away.
It looked beautiful, creating a magnificent atmosphere.
The remaining three emails did not contain any further surprises. They were all written straightforwardly. Cao Baming did a simple screening, discarding one applicant who seemed overly arrogant. The remaining two would be considered further.
With that, he sent the results of this initial screening back to the person who had emailed from Tang Guo.
Having finished his task, only a few minutes of daylight remained. Cao Baming didn't do anything else but leaned quietly by the window, savoring the moment.
The entire air was tinged with a pink hue, a rare sight. Usually, the sunset was obscured by clouds, and only under special conditions would the entire atmosphere turn pink.
He also knew that this wouldn't last long.
Opportunities often flash by and are gone forever, much like this sunset.
As expected, after a while, the sky gradually darkened, and the pink ambiance slowly disappeared.
The team continued their training. Compared to the previous two weeks, the intensity had slightly decreased. The initial increase in intensity was to help everyone quickly adapt to the games and emerge from their complacency. Now, a reduction in intensity was also necessary.
The players had to begin preparing for the more important Champions League matches ahead. Sufficient rest was often more crucial than high-intensity training.
No one wanted any key player to have physical issues at such a critical juncture. Even if it wasn't a key player, but an ordinary one, they hoped they wouldn't get injured. After all, every card in hand, whether good or bad, was their own, and each card held its value.
For the head coach, his thoughts now needed to be far-reaching, absolutely not limited to the immediate next match.
While competitions like the Champions League and the FA Cup might not be as significant as the World Cup, they were still highly regarded global tournaments. Their importance was higher than that of the league.
In fact, over a decade ago, the World Cup was probably the most professional and competitive event in football. However, in the last ten to twenty years, the Champions League had already surpassed its status.
Now, it seemed that the economic significance and the strength of the participating teams in the Champions League finals far exceeded those of the World Cup finals.
After all, national teams had very limited choices when selecting players, only being able to pick those who performed exceptionally well in their own country. However, a football club did not have such restrictions. As long as the owner was wealthy enough, and the club had sufficient strength and heritage, they could build a dream team according to their own vision, assembling the world's strongest players.
Furthermore, they could bring together players to fill any gaps in each position, creating a team with no weaknesses, only strengths. This was something national teams could never achieve.
In the World Cup, one would often exploit the weaknesses of a particular team. However, such a strategy was impractical in the Champions League because no club team could have such obvious weaknesses.
If they did, the transfer window, which opened twice a year, would not be left idle. The coaching staff would surely discuss with management during this period to address these weaknesses through recruitment and strategic adjustments, completely sealing them off.
During the training sessions over the past few days, the players had become aware that their next Premier League opponent would be another team not considered particularly strong: Southampton.