The path to becoming a football legend began with being ousted from Carrington by Manchester United.

On the same day that Manchester City suffered a shock defeat to the Black Cats, the English Premier League winter transfer window also opened.

Generally speaking, there aren't many big moves during the winter transfer window; most teams just make minor adjustments to improve their squads.

This year's Premier League winter transfer market has been slightly more active than in previous years.

Because the Africa Cup of Nations was the first event of 2012, many teams had players who would be called up to participate in the Africa Cup of Nations.

The biggest loser is Chelsea, who will lose their star striker Didier Drogba and Ivory Coast striker Kalou.

Manchester City are not far behind, as the Toure brothers will be unable to play for the team for the next month.

Others like Gervinho of Arsenal, Demba Ba and Tiote of Newcastle United, also left their teams to go to Africa during the most intense Premier League season.

Newcastle United were the first to make a move, and unlike other teams that relied on loan signings as a temporary solution, they spent a whopping £1000 million to sign Papis Cissé from Freiburg.

This move left everyone puzzled, because Papis Cissé is also a key player for the Senegalese national team, and like their top scorer, Demba Ba, who scored 14 goals in the first half of the season, he will not be able to rejoin the team until after the Africa Cup of Nations.

Chelsea spent £700 million to sign center-back Gary Cahill, but this was more for the sake of rejuvenating the squad. Manager Villas-Boas decided to rely on young star Fernando Torres to get through the days without Didier Drogba.

Arsenal have briefly re-signed their king, Thierry Henry, on loan for approximately two months.

Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour had already made it clear that club chairman Mubarak was on standby at any time, and that he would travel the world in his private jet with his checkbook to poach any player that manager Pellegrini believed would be of service to the team.

However, the cautious Chilean coach believed that it would be difficult to find any good players in the winter transfer window, and that big-name stars would not choose to transfer at this time. Therefore, he only made a small, negligible request to Mubarak.

"Manuel, are you sure that he's all you need? His Highness Sheikh Mansour has already instructed us not to worry about how much it costs; as long as he has a price, it's not a problem."

"Mr. Chairman, thank you for your trust. If we really need to strengthen the squad, we can put some effort into it in the summer. As things stand, the team's current squad is quite reasonable, and it would be enough to loan this player for half a season."

"Alright, as you wish, I will bring him back to Manchester as soon as possible."

Although Pellegrini proposed a loan, Mubarak, who was better at understanding people's hearts, chose to buy him outright after understanding why the man was needed.

The €400 million offer was simply too good to pass up for Roma, especially since Manchester City wanted David Pizarro, a veteran approaching 33 years old and from Chile, who was also a compatriot of their manager.

Both sides quickly reached an agreement on Pizarro's transfer, signing the papers faster than each other, afraid that the other party might back out.

Roma couldn't understand why the deep-pocketed Manchester City would spend so much money to buy a past-his-prime veteran.

Manchester City, on the other hand, believed that spending a mere £330 million to hire an assistant coach for Pellegrini's new tactics was both cost-effective and worry-free.

And so, this veteran, who rose to fame at Udinese, was brought to Rome by his mentor Spalletti and reached his peak there, growing into the team's midfield core.

Driven by money, he arrived in Manchester just before the big match between Manchester City and Liverpool.

Pellegrini introduced his fellow countryman to the other players during training.

"Let me introduce you all. This is David Pizarro, who just joined the team. I think he has a deeper understanding of the new tactics we are practicing. If any of you have any questions, feel free to ask David."

The Manchester City players began their training session with curiosity and scrutiny. From the scrimmage, they couldn't discern anything particularly outstanding about Pizarro.

His long passes are accurate, his vision is broad, and he can launch attacks directly from the backfield. This is similar to Yaya Touré, who is about to leave the team to compete in the Africa Cup of Nations. Perhaps he can indeed fill the void left by Touré in the short term.

However, at 32 years old, Pizarro was at a significant disadvantage in terms of physical strength and speed. Compared to the robust Toure, Pizarro was the one who needed to be protected on both offense and defense.

Manchester City is not AC Milan; they won't specifically assign a Gattuso to Pirlo.

Pizarro failed to win over the proud Manchester City stars with his own abilities, and they couldn't help but whisper among themselves during training breaks.

Milner, taking advantage of the other's distance, voiced his doubts first: "Could this be the coach favoring his fellow countryman, and the two of them conspiring to swindle money from a Middle Eastern tycoon?"

"I really didn't sense anything particularly outstanding about him," Nasri agreed.

On the other side of the training field, Aguero and Lin Yi, who were on the same team as Pizarro, were also talking in hushed tones.

"Violent maniac, how do you feel?"

Lin Yi rolled his eyes at Aguero and said irritably, "Get lost!"

"Hey, I'm talking to you seriously, tell me already."

Lin Yi rolled his eyes twice, but this time he actually thought about it seriously before answering Aguero: "It felt pretty comfortable to kick."

"You feel that way too? Me too, me too. I'm too embarrassed to tell David."

"You little mule, are you just a follower? If I said farts smell good, you'd probably smell them too."

"Pshaw! I'm not kidding. His moves seem pretty simple, just a slow, leisurely swaying motion, but his coordination is definitely much smoother than when he's with David. Why do you think that is?"

"I don't know, but I think we'll have an answer soon."

Lin pointed to a spot not far away, where David Silva was walking towards the newly arrived Pizarro.

"Welcome to Manchester City, David. What a coincidence, we share the same name," Silva said, extending his goodwill.

Pizarro has a standard square face, thick eyebrows and big eyes. If he were to perform a skit on the Spring Festival Gala, it would be obvious that he would be playing a positive character. Even Zhu Shimao doesn't look as good as him.

When Silva greeted him, Pizarro gave a good-natured smile, his thick eyebrows curving up to look like a big "囧" (a Chinese internet slang term for awkwardness or embarrassment).

"Hi David, it's great to be your teammate."

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Silva revealed the purpose of his visit.

"David, the coach said you have a more thorough understanding of the strikerless formation, and I definitely felt that just now, but I don't understand where the problem lies. Can you give me some pointers?"

Upon hearing that the other party had something important to discuss, Pizarro quickly suppressed his smile, adopting a serious and earnest expression, much like the dean of student affairs.

"As an engine, you're too slow, David. I think that's the problem."