Gao Shen and Lucas stayed in the study room and studied for a whole day.
Starting from the earliest teams in the English Championship and English League One, they gradually focused on the White Rose Leeds United and the Saints Southampton.
Each of these two teams has its own advantages.
Leeds United is mainly cheap, but the stadium and training ground are not owned by themselves. They have to find someone to rent them. The youth training is also abandoned and must be reinvested. Moreover, it seems that Leeds United does not have much ambition to break into the Premier League.
Over the years, Ken Bates has gradually taken all the shares in Leeds United into his own hands, and they are currently up for sale.
Of course, he can't expect to sell for a high price unless Leeds United can enter the Premier League.
But if you want to reach the Premier League, you must invest, and Bates has no money to invest now.
This has become a dead end.
The advantage of Leeds United is that its fan base is strong enough, and the home attendance rate is really very high. The Elland Road Stadium with more than 30,000 people is basically full, which is rare in the English Championship.
But because the stadium and training ground are not your own, you have to pay a large additional rental fee every year.
According to information Lucas received from some banks in the City of London that specialize in football club transactions, the annual rent is close to three million pounds.
But what's interesting is that the Elland Road stadium has been around for more than a hundred years. It has been repaired many times in the process, but all the facilities are very old, and the training ground is far away in a small town in the northeastern suburbs of Leeds city.
The town itself is not expensive.
The expansion of the East Stand at Elland Road has been completed, but the West Stand went bankrupt before construction began. Space was originally reserved for the West Stand, and the west side of the West Stand was the original Leeds United training ground, Fullerton Park Base, but
It is now deserted.
According to the information obtained by Lucas, the total price of the Fullerton Park base, Elland Road and temporary training base is 20 million pounds. The current ownership is in the hands of a private company in Leeds, but it is basically useless.
Collect rent.
In other words, if you buy Leeds United, you will have to spend another 20 million pounds to buy the stadium, training base and Fullerton Park base, but you can save 3 million pounds in annual rent.
Gao Shen can only say one thing about this: dig holes!
Bates and the managers of Leeds United back then were really fucked up. They could even sell these things. It was really a waste of money!
If you really calculate it this way, Leeds United's purchase price is almost in line with Gao Shen's expectations.
…
The situation in Southampton is actually similar.
The Liebherr family is currently waiting for a price. They have done a good job in running Southampton. The team has performed very well in English League One and has a high possibility of promotion to the English Championship.
According to the Liebherr family, they probably want to take the opportunity to make a fortune after the upgrade, but it does not rule out that they want to gamble on the Premier League. After all, the value of Premier League teams and English Championship teams are completely different.
And speaking.
Even if it's just a one-day trip to the Premier League, relying on the parachute protection plan, you can get a lot of money every year.
Therefore, Lucas initially estimated that if you want to win Southampton, you will definitely not be able to win without 40 to 50 million.
But the Saints' advantages are obvious. The team has a strong lineup, a strong bench, and a complete youth training system. The stadium and training ground are all their own.
The disadvantages are not that there are none, that is, negotiations will be very difficult, and the Liebherr family's asking price must be high. In addition, Southampton's population is not as good as that of Leeds, and its fan base is not as good as that of Leeds.
Lucas also said that the UK is currently applying for the 2018 World Cup. Leeds is one of the cities arranged by the UK to host the World Cup. Elland Road Stadium is also under renovation plans, which shows the importance of this city.
But Gao Shen also told Lucas that Britain was unlikely to succeed.
As for the reason, the Football Association has already approached the two presidents about this matter.
Yes, old friend David Bernstein is taking over.
All in all, these two teams each have their own advantages, and Gao Shen doesn't have a good idea at the moment.
However, now that these two teams have been initially selected, Gao Shen asked Lucas to continue to dig deeper. It would be best to learn more about the two teams in more detail. He even wanted to go and watch them live if he had time.
one time.
To be honest, Gao Shen has never been to Leeds or Southampton in the past year and a half since he came to the UK.
Especially Leeds, which is only more than 60 kilometers away from Manchester, and he hasn't been there yet.
…
After the lunch break, Gao Shen told Lucas some things and then sent him away.
Tomorrow is Christmas, and he also needs to spend time with his family.
Gao Shen calculated the time to get off work, called Su Qing, and chatted with her about the matter.
Su Qing only listened to Gao Shen's introduction initially, and felt that both clubs had their own advantages and disadvantages, and she still had to take a look or contact them before she could be sure.
Even if Gao Shen wants to buy it, he has to be willing to sell it.
"I have arranged all my holidays to be around the Spring Festival. Then I will accompany you to the site to see it."
Gao Shen nodded in agreement.
If you really want to buy it, you better act quickly.
Time is precious. Once he makes a move, it is best to get it done before the transfer period. Then he can operate in the transfer market to improve the team's competitiveness as soon as possible and strive to return to the Premier League as soon as possible.
If we don't catch up with the transfer period, wouldn't it mean another season is wasted?
To other rich bosses, this may not be a big deal, but to Gao Shen, it's all money.
In the English Championship and English League One, the money spent is basically high-end money.
After hanging up Su Qing's phone, Gao Shen thought for a while and called David Bernstein.
If he wants to acquire a club, it must be approved by the English Football League and the Football Association.
The former is a club alliance responsible for managing other English leagues except the Premier League. It is an organization under the management of the Football Association. It will definitely have to deal with it when the time comes.
Therefore, Gao Shen had to talk to David Bernstein in advance.
Christmas is just around the corner, but David Bernstein is not idle at all.
He is busy preparing to run for chairman of the Football Association.
Bernstein was also very happy when he received a call from Gao Shen, not because Gao Shen was the head coach of Manchester City, but because Gao Shen had put forward many opinions on his England youth training reform plan and helped him a lot.
Of course, Bernstein also helped a lot with Fernandinho's labor certificate.
When he heard that Gao Shen actually wanted to acquire a low-level league club, Bernstein's first reaction was to be shocked.
"Are you crazy?" Bernstein blurted out. "Does the head coach really make so much money? Although your annual salary after tax is over 10 million, you can't afford the club to burn money like this. Can you afford it?"
Gao Shen did not feel offended because Bernstein was telling the truth.
These days, there are very few people who are willing to tell the truth to themselves.
"What kind of money can I have? Doesn't it all belong to my fiancée?" Gao Shen explained with a smile.
Generally speaking, Su Qing is described as a rich second generation who owns a mine at home. She then wants to invest overseas and wants to enter a sophisticated and familiar industry, so she came up with this idea.
But Gao Shen also said that the family property is not very rich, and it is all in China, so it can only be done in moderation.
"What I'm most worried about is, will this affect my coaching at Manchester City?" Gao Shen asked with concern.
If so, he would have to think about it carefully.
"The situation you mentioned has never happened in England before. We may have to study it carefully, but it is not true yet, so I can't say anything."
Gao Shen understands that it is impossible to go to the FA and say that Gao Shen wants to acquire a football club. Do you think there will be any conflict?
Wouldn’t that be big news?
"I can only say that as far as the current situation is concerned, if it is only in a low-level league, the problem should not be big and I can control it. But if it comes to the Premier League, you know, the Premier League is not under the jurisdiction of the Football Association, it will be more difficult.
Trouble."
The jurisdiction of the Premier League belongs to the Premier League, and the Football Association is only responsible for cup competitions and lower-level leagues.
Gao Shen understood what Bernstein meant.
Even if it was just this, he was already very grateful.
"To be honest, I really feel that running a football club is not as profitable as coaching. If you take your salary and put it in the Premier League, most teams will not be as profitable as you." Bernstein advised again.
Most people who play football are losing money.
Of course Gao Shen knows that, but there are always exceptions to everything.
And now is a God-given opportunity, it would be a pity not to take it.
He thought so in his heart, but Gao Shen kept thanking him openly, saying that he would consider it carefully, and advised his fiancée and family, hoping that they would not make such a blind investment, so as not to cause trouble for himself.
As we chatted, the topic naturally turned to Gao Shen about the upcoming FA presidential election and Bernstein's youth training reform plan, including the construction plan for St. George's Park.
This is a big project!
Gao Shen suggested that Bernstein could learn from Clairefontaine in Germany and France.
Regarding the reform of youth training, Gao Shen believes that strengthening technical training is the long-term trend in the future.
Especially in recent years, the trend has become more and more obvious. Players' skills and passing and receiving skills are becoming more and more important in the game. This will definitely become the direction of the reform of England's youth training.
Over the past year or so, Manchester City's reforms have been going very well under Gao Shen's promotion.
The experienced technical coach Borrell is the technical consultant of Manchester City's youth training camp, and Manchester City is also willing to invest in searching for high-quality young players throughout European football. The current youth training camp is also full of talents.
Bernstein said that he is considering taking the FA team to Manchester City's youth academy to inspect and study.
Of course Gao Shen would not refuse and said that he would do his best to support.
To put it bluntly, he must have had a friendship with Bernstein, but friendship is worth money or not. It is not as reliable as regular exchange of some benefits with each other.
Bernstein can transfer some benefits to Gao Shen, and Gao Shen will naturally give Bernstein what he wants.
Through such exchanges, the friendship will become stronger and stronger, and the relationship will last longer.
If I really acquire a club in the future, I will have many opportunities to deal with the FA.
Please remember the first domain name of this book:. Mobile version reading URL:
