Saint-Germain-en-Laye, western suburbs of Paris, France.
Paris Saint-Germain's training base is isolated in the woods on the northern outskirts of this small city. It is surrounded by woods and has Rutgers Camp to the east and north. It is inaccessible on weekdays and difficult to find.
Ancelotti was standing in front of the window of the head coach's office, looking out at the dense woods outside.
The Italians frowned, obviously they were also troubled.
Behind him, assistant coach Angelo Castellachi was reporting the latest situation to him.
Paris Saint-Germain has just defeated the visiting Nice 3-0 at home in Ligue 1. It is as many as 9 points ahead of Marseille, which is second in the standings. With only five rounds left in the league, winning the championship is almost certain.
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What Ancelotti cares most about is not Ligue 1, but the Champions League.
Gao Shen and the Real Madrid he coaches are a hurdle in front of Ancelotti.
Fatty An is very knowledgeable.
Whether in AC Milan or Chelsea, he has frequently interacted with Gao Shen.
Naturally, he is also very aware of advanced abilities, especially in recent times.
With Marcelo returning from injury, Real Madrid's lineup is complete, and the tactical map created by Gao Shen for Real Madrid is becoming increasingly clear.
Everyone can clearly see that the tactical play adopted by Gao Shen, especially the powerful offensive power of the two wings, as well as the comprehensive and technical skills of the midfield, have attracted the attention of the entire European football world.
Ancelotti is naturally no exception.
Real Madrid double defeated Juventus in two rounds, and the Bianconeri showed no competitiveness. All these things forced Ancelotti to pay attention to, and he was even worried about the pressure from Real Madrid.
Therefore, he has even arranged for scouts to be stationed in Madrid recently to pay close attention to Real Madrid's every move.
Includes training.
But the feedback came back not particularly ideal.
Because Gao Shen only had one morning of training after playing in La Liga, focusing on recovery, and then conducted a closed training camp, no one knew what he was training in these two days.
Ancelotti didn't get the answer he wanted, so he turned around and looked at Castellachi with resentment.
"Do you think this is an appropriate statement?" Ancelotti asked back.
Castellachi looked at the two colleagues on the side, Paul Clement and Claude Macalai. Both of them were also helpless. It was obvious that the intelligence work on Real Madrid was not going well.
"You know, Gao Shen is different from other Real Madrid coaches. He attaches great importance to intelligence work and takes confidentiality measures very well. He also changed the venue for daily training. Our people outside can't even hear them.
What are you shouting?"
Castellachi was also speechless.
How can this guy conduct training? It's like counter-espionage.
is this necessary?
Paris Saint-Germain is surrounded by woods, but if you stand outside the northern wall, you can't see anything, but you can hear the shouts from the first team training ground.
This is because although Paris Saint-Germain is full of stars and has a luxurious lineup, its training ground is really terrible.
Of course, Ancelotti understands that this is because Paris Saint-Germain's foundation is too thin.
And things also have priorities.
Qatar’s investors are not stupid either. Don’t they know that investing in these hardware facilities is a thankless task?
Therefore, more of their funds went directly into the transfer market, bringing more stars to Paris Saint-Germain and getting more calls, but there has been no progress in the construction of a new training base.
There is a plan, but progress is slow.
In the final analysis, the advertising effect and influence that football stars can bring are what Qatari investors value most.
I would like to ask, how many people in this world can invest 70 to 80 million in one breath to build a brand new training base like Gao Shen?
But the gameplay is also different.
A few days ago, the French newspaper Le Figaro disclosed a news that AXA, the world's largest insurance company based in France, intends to sponsor Leeds United and is in contact with the Premier League team, hoping to win the naming rights of Leeds United's training base in one fell swoop.
, training uniform sponsorship rights and other package cooperation plans.
Annual sponsorship costs are expected to reach £15 million.
This fee has caught up with the naming fee of the Carrington training base where Manchester United and aon insurance signed a contract. The latter is also 15 million pounds. But the difference is that Manchester United only sells stadium naming sponsorships, and it is naming old buildings.
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Leeds United has used training uniform sponsorship and a series of other global promotion plans.
According to Le Figaro, AXA Insurance values Leeds United’s influence on the Internet, and the fact that this new training base has not yet officially started construction, it has already triggered heated public opinion momentum from all walks of life around the world.
"The strong partnership between Leeds United and Norman Foster has made this training base the focus of attention around the world. Sponsoring this training base is a very good deal for AXA Insurance
transaction."
More importantly, Leeds United's training base is not in the suburbs, but in the center of Leeds.
What AXA Insurance means is that it wants to link its name to this landmark building and promote it around the world. Just like when everyone mentions Bayern's stadium, they will think of the Allianz Arena and Arsenal.
Any stadium will remind you of the Emirates Stadium.
These are very successful title sponsorships.
From now on, Leeds United’s training base will be named AXA Training Center for a period of three years.
Equally valuable is Leeds United's commitment to promote AXA on the Internet and around the world in the next four years. This is undoubtedly very attractive to AXA Insurance, which aims to promote new media.
Because on the Internet, Leeds United is the well-deserved "number one giant" and is deeply committed to Internet operations.
An investment of 70 to 80 million was invested in building a training base, which has already attracted more than 40 million pounds in sponsorship before construction even started. Leeds United's business operation capabilities are fully reflected in this transaction.
…
Ancelotti is just the head coach, and he admires the operation of Gao Shen and Leeds United more.
This is a trading ability that only top wealthy families possess.
But he also lamented that tycoons like Paris Saint-Germain, who are not short of money, just do not carry out similar operations in business. In other words, Paris Saint-Germain is not short of this money at all and does not care about it.
Precisely because of this, the current training base in Paris is really not good.
Ancelotti also felt helpless about this.
You must know that the software and hardware of the training base are the bottom line of a team's training level.
All thoughts were fleeting, and Ancelotti quickly looked at Castellachi, targeting Real Madrid again.
"Didn't I tell you before that you let the scouts bring binoculars to a nearby high place and overlook Real Madrid's training base?"
Ancelotti really tried his best to spy on Real Madrid's military situation.
They even asked the club to allocate a budget to purchase a military telescope for the scouts.
"I took it with me and did it, but Real Madrid had already prepared it. The training ground that Gao Shen temporarily changed was blocked by the training building. I changed places several times and didn't see anything." Castellachi was also very depressed.
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Ancelotti was surprised, "Is it exposed?"
"I suspect they have guessed it a long time ago. Maybe Barcelona, Juventus, Manchester United, etc. have done this before." Castellachi smiled bitterly. He felt that Paris Saint-Germain would not be the first to do this.
of.
There may even be reporters in the media who have done this kind of thing.
Ancelotti sighed lightly, turned around, and looked at the dense woods in the distance again.
Unlike Paris Saint-Germain's training base, which is hidden deep in the jungle, Real Madrid's training base is in an open area, surrounded by no obstructions, and there is Madrid Airport not far away.
However, due to the height limit of the airport, the surrounding buildings are not very high, so it is blocked by the training building.
"I was skeptical before, but now I am 100% sure that that bastard must be secretly practicing some tactics against us, and he will definitely try his best to score goals in the away game."
Ancelotti said it very, very definitely.
He is very knowledgeable.
That guy has never been a guy who likes to give up the initiative to others, he just likes to take the initiative.
I would like to ask, is there any more proactive move than grabbing an away goal in the away game?
More importantly, Paris Saint-Germain's most important asset now is defense. As long as Real Madrid scores the first goal, can Paris Saint-Germain still defend?
Real Madrid is famous for its offensive football, but the team trained by Gao Shen does not look like Barcelona.
Barcelona's defense is just like Zhihu's, but Gao Shen is steeped in Italian football. His ability to coach defense is famous even in Serie A.
Back then, the Serie A storm in Naples drove many Italian teams crazy?
"Tell the people in Madrid that they must explore again and try every means to dig out for me to see how he plans to play? Especially the cooperation of the players!"
When Ancelotti said this, he couldn't hide the worry in his eyes.
"I have a hunch that this guy is secretly plotting against us."
"Can't you?" Castellachi was a little doubtful.
Gao Shen looks harmless to humans and animals, but is he so sinister?
"No?" Ancelotti snorted coldly, and his face became serious. "You were still in the Milan youth team back then, so naturally you didn't know about his machinations."
Castellachi was a youth team coach in Milan. After Ancelotti left, he entered the first team as a technical coach, and later followed Leonardo to Inter Milan as an assistant coach.
This time Ancelotti took over Paris Saint-Germain, he came to be Ancelotti's assistant.
"In a word, I want to know what he wants to do."
Ancelotti gave the order to die.
He now admires Gao Shen more and more, especially his team.
Over the past few years, the highly skilled team has not only been professional, but has also been truly amazing in terms of intelligence analysis and deduction.
Even after the world's top analyst Fernando Lucas went to Leeds United to become CEO, Carlos Vargas was equally as good.
Ancelotti feels that he should have such a group of assistants.