Like how it always felt in the football world, the days passed much more quickly.

After the talk with Dawson, Carlo and his agent immediately began working on the Manchester City side of things while Wigan reached out to inquire about Carlos’s services.

The reaction from Manchester City wasn’t so bad as it seemed the club, after having its most successful season in football, was looking to replicate that same success again, and with that was going to come changes.

Carlo was a good player for them, but with the players that were guaranteed to come in and the already present competition, they weren’t sure they could guarantee him a lot of game time.

And so, Wigan reaching out to inquire about a possible loan worked out for them since that meant Carlo could get some game time to prove his worth, but also, that game time was going to mean an increase in his worth should they decide to sell later on at the end of the new season that was about to begin.

Soon, the enquiry entered the final stage and found itself on the table of Pep.

He read it once, then set it down on the desk before sitting with it for a moment.

Then something crossed his face that wasn’t quite a smile but was in the neighbourhood of one.

"Leo Calderon," he said, mostly to himself, but his assistant caught it still.

.

"The boy from the final," the assistant said, causing Pep to raise his head.

"Carlo knows him. That’s where this is coming from. I think I heard something from one of the other kids, Palmer, about Carlo and Leo playing for the Italy U21S."

"Oh," Pep muttered as his eye widened at the piece of information.

He picked the paper back up and looked at it again briefly before setting it down.

"You don’t stop a kid who’s brave enough to go and find game time. That’s not how you develop players."

"Approve the loan," Pep said, and reached for his coffee.

His assistant nodded before grabbing the documents and then stepping out.

"I am very interested," Pep continued once he was all alone in the room, "in what their manager does with him."

After that, he shook his head slightly.

"Had he not been coaching at Wigan, I would have tried to bring him in here."

After the approval by Manchester City’s manager, the contract between the two clubs came together quickly, which was unusual for these things, but reflected the fact that neither side had much to argue about once the structure was agreed upon. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Manchester City would cover seventy per cent of Carlo’s fifty-five thousand pound weekly wage, and Wigan would carry the remaining thirty per cent.

The deal was for a year with no permanent option written in, one which City had been firm about.

Wigan had also pushed for a clause preventing Carlo from being recalled midseason without significant cause, which City had accepted on the condition that Carlo made at least fifty per cent of Wigan’s appearances across the campaign.

After that, both sides signed it within a day of the draft being circulated, and following that, not much went on for Wigan, save for the players who had started returning from their respective breaks and vacations.

Then an announcement went out on the twenty-third of June announcing Wigab’s first signing of the window.

Wigan Athletic are pleased to confirm the loan signing of Carlo Regutti from Manchester City for the 2023/24 Premier League season.

The reaction was warm without being overwhelming, which was probably accurate given the context.

The Wigan faithful were pleased, particularly those who had watched Carlo in the FA Cup final and understood what he could offer at this level.

But elsewhere, the conversation was harder to ignore.

For some fans, they were asking of Wigan the same urgency that the other recently promoted clubs were working with.

Burnley had already brought in names.

Some were established players from other leagues, while most were players, main ones that they had poached from the recently relegated teams from the Premier League.

Sheffield United, too, were moving and were showing no signs of stopping as they closed deal after deal.

The newly promoted trio were entering the Premier League from very different starting points, and Wigan’s window had so far produced one loan signing of a player who hadn’t yet established himself at his parent club.

Some of the fans felt that, and in a usual split, others were patient.

The fans who had been complaining didn’t have to wait too long, though, because after Carlo’s announcement, it was almost like a chain reaction had been set off.

A deal for Dara O’Shea was one of the very first to come through as media houses reported a deal soon to be closed for around seven million pounds, which, for a proven Premier League centre back with O’Shea’s physical profile and reading of the game, felt like a bargain.

He’d been at West Brom long enough to know the Championship inside out and had shown at international level with Ireland that the step up didn’t reduce him.

The Wigan fans received it well, the general consensus being that it was exactly the kind of signing a newly promoted club should be making.

Something experienced, unfussy and available at a sensible price.

Femi Seriki followed a few days later, a right back by trade but versatile enough to cover the left side when needed, which was primarily what Dawson wanted him for.

The fee was modest, closer to two million, and the announcement generated less noise than O’Shea’s, but the people who paid attention to squad depth understood why he was there.

Both deals were described as close to completion and then sat in that specific purgatory that transfer announcements tend to occupy for slightly longer than anyone would like.

Yes, it was close to completion, but without it going over the line the Wigan fans knew it was as real as the brains at a flat earth convention!

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So to adress what some of you might be thinking, yes they are all real players! So see you soon or tomorrow or something. I don’t know. Have fun reading though!