With a swish sound, Gao Shen opened the floor-to-ceiling curtains in the bedroom, only to find that the outside of the room had turned into a vast white world.
It's snowing in Manchester!
It was warm inside, but I didn't really feel anything unusual.
It's raining and snowing outside, and it feels cold even looking at it.
As a child who grew up in the south, Gao Shen has special feelings for Bai Xue.
He still remembered that when he went to school in the north and encountered snow for the first time, he ran to find Su Qing. The two southerners just stared at the snow for a long time, and they didn't even feel bored.
Thinking of Su Qing, Gao Shen made a video call to her and asked her to see the snow scene in Manchester.
After the two chatted for more than half an hour, they made an appointment. Su Qing would come to Europe to accompany him as soon as the Spring Festival holiday came.
By the way, let’s talk about the Gaoshen Buying Club.
After washing up, Gao Shen went downstairs. A nanny had already prepared breakfast for him.
While I was eating, I heard the doorbell ringing outside. It was Fernando Lucas.
He drove the car directly to the door of Gao Shen's house, rushed in with a large heavy box of documents, and kept shouting "cold". Then he saw Gao Shen eating breakfast leisurely over there in his home clothes. He felt a sense of injustice in his heart.
"Seriously, you are really an unscrupulous boss!" Lucas complained.
"I have to work so hard during work. It's almost Christmas, and I have a holiday, but there is still no time to rest. If I work for you, that's really 365 days a year, multiplied by 24 hours a day. , it’s fatal!”
Gao Shen knew that he must not have eaten yet, so he asked the nanny to prepare a portion for him and ignored his complaints.
After breakfast, Gao Shen asked Lucas to hold the box of materials and follow him into the study.
…
Since Gao Shen first revealed to Lucas more than two months ago that he was interested in buying a football club, Lucas began to collect information through various channels and methods in his spare time. Some materials and information.
The target is mainly in the English Championship and English League One.
It's too low of a league, and trying to get promoted to the Premier League takes a long time, but senior players don't have the patience.
Gao Shen couldn't buy a Premier League team, and his financial resources were limited.
Over the past two months, Gao Shen has met with Lucas frequently. When talking about this matter, both of them unanimously set their sights on teams in the middle and lower reaches of the English Championship and the upper reaches of the English League One.
As a result, teams like Notts County, Charlton, Brentford and other teams basically have no ideas.
As for teams in the upper reaches of the English Championship, such as Queens Park Rangers, Cardiff, Norwich, Swansea and other teams, there is basically no need to think about it. Each of these teams is worth a lot of money.
Of course, having a high net worth does not mean that the transfer price will be high.
For example, many teams in the English Championship are heavily in debt, and the transfer price is very cheap. However, Gao Shen must bear all the debt after the acquisition. This is another sky-high price for him, and it is not worth it.
His acquisition budget is 50 million euros, which also takes into account post-acquisition investment and daily operating issues.
Gao Shen can also seek bank loans to complete the acquisition, but the risk is a bit high.
Among the materials submitted by Lucas, Gao Shen also saw many familiar teams.
Take Middlesbrough for example, but the owner of this team is also quite wealthy.
Watford, this club has the same owner as Udinese in Serie A and Granada in La Liga. They are both the Pozzo family in Italy. They run the team through this kind of acquisition, and players also move back and forth.
When choosing a team, the city where you are located is actually very important.
For example, Nottingham Forest is a pretty good club. It has won the Champions League twice and has a rich history. However, its boss is the chairman and founder of a European private equity company called Nigel Doughty. He bought Nottingham Forest in 1999 for 11 million pounds.
According to the intelligence collected by Lucas, Doughty has invested at least 100 million pounds in Nottingham Forest over the years.
Under such circumstances, at what price can Gao Shen pay to impress Nigel Doughty and let him take action?
As for a team like Derby County, the price is not high, but the problem is that the city of Derby where he is located has a population of about 200,000, and the stadium capacity is more than 30,000.
What does it mean?
That is to say, one out of six people in the entire city has to go to the stadium to watch the game in order to fill up the home stadium of more than 30,000 people. The key is that the ticket price is quite cheap, so you can imagine how difficult it is.
If home attendance is poor, game-day revenue will drop significantly, and Gaoshen's operating costs will be higher.
Because at the beginning, there is no need to count on any commercial income and broadcast rights. The latter will only be considered after entering the Premier League, and the former will have to be at least familiar with the Premier League before it has a chance.
In other words, the most reliable thing now is the income on match days.
The lower the game day income, the higher the operating costs Gaoshen has to pay.
To put it simply, the more funds he needs to invest.
Match day income actually depends on stadium attendance, which in turn needs to take into account the population of the city where it is located.
For teams like Nottingham Forest and Brighton, their owners are local fans and have strong financial resources. Gao Shen doesn't need to think about it at all.
Teams such as Portsmouth and Leicester City have already been acquired by foreign investors, let alone Gao Shen.
…
"I did a preliminary screening and I think there are a few teams worth considering."
"Leeds United, Sheffield United and Southampton, these three teams would be good choices."
Gao Shen was reading Lucas's information while listening to his analysis.
"Let's talk about it one by one."
After Lucas finished speaking, he pointed to a document in Gao Shen's hand, "Leeds United, I don't need to say more, you must be familiar with this team. Its current boss is Ken Bates, the former boss of Chelsea. He brought After selling Chelsea to Abramovich, he turned around and bought Leeds United."
"But six years have passed. Under his management, this team has not improved at all, but has become worse and worse. The current price of Leeds United will definitely not be high. I personally feel that it is not worth more than 25 million euros." A good deal.”
"So cheap?" Gao Shen raised his head and looked at Lucas, suspecting that he heard wrongly.
"Cheap?" Lucas smiled and shook his head, "I asked my friends in the City of London to inquire and found out that Bates has mortgaged almost everything Leeds United can mortgage and sold everything it can sell. Leeds United is now an empty shell. The stadium is not theirs, the training ground is not theirs, and even the youth training is gone. Not to mention the age group, the second team sometimes does not have enough to make up an 18-man roster. "
Gao Shen frowned when he heard this.
How outrageous is this?
"How will Leeds United play now?" Gao Shen thought it was funny.
"It's rented. The Elland Road stadium is rented, and the training ground is also rented. As for the youth training, have you heard about the rookies trained by Leeds United in the past few years?"
Gao Shen was truly speechless.
"Then you still say that Leeds United is worth considering?"
"Because it is cheap, and the attendance at his home stadium is really high. Leeds has a population of 700,000, and several large cities within 20 to 30 kilometers around it have long been connected, with a total population of more than 2 million. In recent years,
The economy is developing very well, the surrounding football team is Leeds United, which is the highest level, has the best fan base, and the home attendance is also the best!"
Gao Shenmo Ran, the foundation of Leeds United is indeed really good.
But it’s too crotch-stretching in other ways!
"Let's talk about Sheffield United. This is also a team from a big city. The population of the metropolitan area exceeds 1.5 million, but this team is currently in trouble. There is a high possibility of being relegated from the English Championship this season.
It is said that owner Kevin McCabe has no money to invest."
"Oh, by the way, he also invested in a football club in China before, but lost a lot of money."
When Lucas said this, Gao Shen remembered it.
There is indeed such a thing.
At that time, he also paid special attention to the news. Kevin McCabe was said to be a British real estate tycoon. However, the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008 and the subsequent financial crisis caused his assets to shrink significantly, so his life has been very difficult in the past few years.
Not having a good time.
But this guy is not a good person either.
Later, Saudi investors were willing to accept Sheffield United, so McCabe transferred part of the shares for one pound in exchange for a Saudi investment of 10 million in Sheffield United. At that time, the team was still in the third tier.
, but I don’t know what happened later. Anyway, the two sides got into a big fight.
Gao Shen didn't remember the specific content very clearly, but he knew that McCabe was not a good person, but a scammer.
"Sheffield United doesn't need to consider it. I know McCabe and I can't cooperate."
Lucas was stunned for a moment. He had only done the background adjustment for the first time and had not yet understood this in detail.
But since Gao Shen said so, it is definitely not wrong.
"That was the last Southampton. The Saints were sold to Swiss billionaire Marcus Liebherr in 2009. The sale price at that time was 14 million pounds, and Liebherr was also very
I am optimistic about Southampton. The first thing I did after the acquisition was to invest a large sum of money to renovate the training base and increase investment in youth training."
"The good times did not last long. Just this year, Markus Liebherr passed away due to a sudden heart attack. The current successor is his daughter, but she has no interest in running a Premier League team. There is news from the City of London.
, she plans to sell, but the price will definitely be much higher than in 2009, because this year's Saints are the favorites to be promoted to League One."
The top favorite to win the League One title this season is Brighton, and the owner behind this club is also a big financier.
Gao Shen remembers clearly that Southampton should quickly return to the Premier League in the next two or three years, because the Saints quickly set off a storm in the Premier League.
In the current English Championship and English League One, basically all the better-quality clubs have been plundered by foreign capital and local tycoons.
The rest are basically leftovers picked up by others, each with its own shortcomings, and some are sold at extremely high prices.
If one team, Sheffield United, was removed according to Lucas' previous screening, then only Leeds United and Southampton would be left.
These two teams really have their own problems. Judging from the current situation, Southampton is about to be upgraded. Coupled with the training ground being renovated and the complete youth training system, the asking price of the Liebherr family is probably
It should be more than 40 million or even 50 million euros.
As for Leeds United, this is also a big problem. Even the stadium and training ground are rented, and the youth training camp is abandoned. This is too nonsense!
Who should I choose?
Gao Shen has a headache!
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