There is a saying in the British study abroad circle: London is a village.
This actually makes sense.
If you are used to seeing large and medium-sized cities in China, you will find that the urban appearance of Leeds is actually quite rural.
There is no subway, so you have to travel by bus or by foot.
What’s interesting is that this city is not big, so it’s very quick to take a bike around.
More importantly, the per capita income here is not bad at all.
Moreover, Leeds has developed very rapidly in recent years. It has become the second largest financial center and the second largest legal center in the UK, the third largest city, the fourth largest metropolitan area, the lowest unemployment rate, and the fastest growing population.
Even knowing this, Gao Shen still feels that Leeds is very rural every time he visits it.
…
Elland Road Stadium is located between two large overpasses in the southwest of Leeds city, and the transportation is very convenient.
To the west and north of the stadium are large areas of wasteland.
This is the original Plyton Park training center of Leeds United, but it was abandoned at the beginning of the century.
It is said that it was originally intended to expand the Elland Road Stadium. At that time, it was planned to build a hotel and the largest shopping mall in Leeds on this land. It caused quite a stir at the time because the consumption level in Leeds was very high, but the consumption level in Leeds was very high.
There are no large shopping malls.
But what happened later, everyone knew, Leeds United went bankrupt.
This piece of land has been left uncultivated and is now used as a temporary parking lot.
But it rains a lot in England, so the entire land is muddy. Even if it is used as a parking lot, the conditions are still very bad.
To the northeast of Elland Road is the interchange where the M621 and A643 meet.
Don’t think that it will be the kind of high-rise overpass in China. It is actually a large roundabout, elevated from east to west, and the rest is on the ground. Both sides of the road are blocked by street trees, so it looks like an ordinary roundabout in China.
There's not much difference, not superior at all.
The A643, which runs from Lili to the north, is actually a dead end road. The north and south ends have been repaired, but there is a section of nearly 300 meters in the middle where the road suddenly stopped. It is said that there was some controversy at that time and then it was shelved.
Who knows?
To the west of Guantou Road is Leeds United's largest car city, where most family car brands can be purchased, and a variety of auto accessories are also sold here.
To the east of Guantou Road is another large piece of wasteland, which is larger than the one next to Elland Road. The wasteland is surrounded by some old warehouses that are rented to store scraps. The site conditions are very bad, and even
I saw a mountain of plastic barrels piled up in front of a warehouse.
This is the destination of Gao Shen and others' trip.
…
"They said that this place was originally a high school, but it was abandoned more than ten years ago. When the road was being built, even the teaching buildings were demolished, but it has always been abandoned and has no use."
Standing on the dead end road, Su Qing and others introduced the wasteland in front of Gao Shen.
"According to the wishes of the Leeds City Government, this large piece of land, including the surrounding warehouse areas, can be planned for us to build a new training base. The premise is that we must connect this dead end road to them.
superior."
"That's it?" Gao Shen didn't believe it.
Su Qingyan smiled, "Of course it's not that simple. We need to pay a demolition fee for the warehouse area, but the government will come forward. It's not a big problem. I asked Richard Kramer to find out. The entire area is really big."
It’s so big that it’s definitely more than enough to build a training base.”
Gao Shen took a look and saw with the naked eye that the area was indeed large.
This land is really worthless because it has been left vacant for so many years.
If there was such a large piece of land in the urban areas of China, even in third- and fourth-tier cities, how much would it be worth?
If nothing else, it is simply too extravagant that there is so much wasteland around the Elland Road stadium being used as a parking lot.
Although the land in Leeds is not very valuable, it cannot be so cheap and expensive for no reason.
They also have their own shrewd plans.
That is to hope that Leeds United will move their training base back to the city.
A well-equipped training base, especially a modern training base for a Premier League team, requires an investment of at least 20 to 30 million pounds, which can provide hundreds of long-term jobs for the surrounding area and drive a series of supporting facilities, including some service industries.
Professional football has long been an entire industry, not just training and competition.
According to Richard Cramer's explanation, if no one invests in a wasteland like this, it is likely that it will remain here for decades without any movement, and the dead end road will remain like this without anyone taking care of it.
Because it costs money to take care of it.
This is also the reason why after Leeds United went bankrupt, the area around the Elland Road stadium was directly abandoned.
If Leeds United plans to build a new training base in the future, this piece of land will undoubtedly be very suitable. The city government also took this opportunity to initiate an urban transformation project and directly transform the original dilapidated waste collection concentration camp into
The high-end training base can also serve the surrounding residential communities.
Of course, the demolition fee will definitely cost a sum of money, but it won’t be too much.
According to the current plan proposed by Leeds City Council, Leeds United and the stadium owners, Gaoshen will acquire the Elland Road Stadium, Pleton Park site and Thorpe Arch training base for a high price of 15 million pounds.
The government then offered a long-term compensation agreement. As long as Leeds United pays the relocation fee, the wasteland of the high school and the surrounding warehouse area and waste area will be handed over to Leeds United, but they can only be used to build a new training base.
"What do you think?" Gao Shen asked Su Qing.
Su Qing nodded, "I think it's pretty good."
The conditions over Thorpe Arch are indeed very bad, and they need to be renovated even if it is just a temporary transition.
If Leeds United has money in the future, the first thing Gao Shen will do is to build a new training base.
Instead of expanding Thorpe Arch at that time, it would be better to move directly to the city center and use Thorpe Arch as one of Leeds United's youth training centers.
As for the city center, if it is built here, a pedestrian bridge will be built directly from here to the Elland Road Stadium, which is very convenient.
The ideal is very fulfilling, but now it is a bit cruel.
Because all of these require money.
Gao Shen has even asked Fernando Lucas to start preparations to start building a data center at Leeds United.
This will be an upgraded version of the existing analysis team.
The so-called data center is divided into two parts. One is the team's training and game data, which is various data and analysis of existing players. Many teams are already doing this, including Manchester City.
Another part is the player database.
Very few fans probably know this, but there are actually several teams doing it, but the methods and methods are different.
There is a rumor in the professional football world that in the 1990s, a French Ligue 1 team received videotapes of players' matches from all over the world. Later, the number of tapes accumulated so much that the floor collapsed.
This truth is not false, but fact.
It's like a best-selling author in China bought several houses specifically to store letters from readers.
At first it was video tapes, then it became VCDs and DVDs, and now some teams are starting to use the Internet.
For example, in Seville, Monchi has been transforming Seville to the Internet in recent years.
Monchi's scouting network actually put it bluntly, it's really not a big deal.
They have arranged about ten full-time scouts in different regions around the world, as well as a varying number of amateur scouts to provide intelligence and information. The full-time scouts' task is to collect various information about players.
When Sevilla was able to recruit Daniel Alves from Brazil's second-tier league, it shows how deep Sevilla's scouting network is in Brazil.
Similar to a model like Sevilla, there are actually many teams doing it, but some are very successful, and some are very unsuccessful. This is normal, because not everyone can play this well.
A set of patterns.
Coincidentally, Fernando Lucas is the world's top analyst. He has given lectures to many data analysis employees. One of his most proud students is said to be a student, but in fact he is not much different in age from him.
His name is Victor Horta, he works in Seville and is Monchi’s right-hand man.
He studied chemistry at university. After graduation, he became a football reporter, reporting news for Marca and Eurosport. Later, he also worked as an agent for a Spanish sports agency. It was at this time that he became interested in data and got acquainted with
Lucas.
Later, he went to Seville to work as an assistant to Monchi, mainly performing various data analysis and summary.
According to his introduction, it was an extremely large-scale and complex project.
The advanced data center wants to systematize this huge and complicated project.
Scouts all over the world can use the computer and mobile phone software provided by the club to upload various player data and videos they have collected anytime and anywhere. The club can summarize and analyze them through the data center and select their own.
Players and even coaches are needed.
In addition, the data center can also collect and analyze the first team and youth team players in the team, including their various data and intelligence, such as injuries, state fluctuations, etc.
In the past, all of this had to be done manually, but now it can be done entirely by computers in the data center.
This can greatly reduce the workload and reduce labor costs.
But it requires a large investment upfront.
Gao Shen has already approved it, and this set must be assembled first no matter what.
Once Gao Shen successfully completes the acquisition of Leeds United, Victor Horta will also come to the UK from Seville to serve as Leeds United's first data center director. This will be a brand new position.
At the same time, the scouting director and youth team head coach are currently being formed.
Today's Leeds United can be said to be poor and have nothing.
Once Gao Shen completes the acquisition, the capital invested will not even be less than the 15 million pounds used to acquire the team.
However, Gao Shen believes that once the establishment is completed, Leeds United's future development prospects will not be what can be imagined now.
As for the land in front of me...
"Signed!" Gao Shen said ambitiously.
Su Qing, Lucas and Borrell all nodded.
This wasteland is the real future of Leeds United!
