It was past midnight when Aldrich returned to London.
At home, Yiwen was standing in the living room watching TV. The Champions League match between Millwall and Leeds United quickly became an instant hot news, including game reports, game content, post-match coach interviews, etc. The BBC football program was covering up the news, and several commentators were focusing on the key points.
When discussing the game, they automatically ignore the racial discrimination incident. After all, it is negative for the image of national football. Just like the Heysel tragedy, the Hillsborough tragedy and countless football hooligan incidents, the British official still chooses to cover up and put out the fire.
But other European media were unscrupulous and rushed to report on the scandal that occurred in the "English Civil War" in the Champions League semi-finals!
At this time, the UEFA Disciplinary Committee announced an investigation into the game after receiving the referee's match report after the game.
The Champions League is the flagship of UEFA, and the importance of the semi-finals is self-evident. UEFA certainly does not want to see what happened in the game. They will not have the mentality of watching Leeds United suffer criticism from the outside world. After all, the game is still
Officially organized by UEFA.
The game report was very ordinary, and only briefly mentioned key words such as racial discrimination, riots in the stands, and fan conflicts in the investigation statement.
Of course UEFA hopes to put an end to the matter. If this happened to teams in different national leagues, UEFA would really have a headache for a while because they don't want to make a big fuss, but how can the Football Association of the injured team just let it go?
Well now, both parties involved are English teams. UEFA is not afraid of the FA's troubles. Anyway, everyone must try their best to put out the fire.
Since there is still one game in the semi-finals, and it will be played at Millwall's home court, the results of UEFA's investigation will definitely not be finalized until after the semi-finals.
Bert and Earl were still awake at the moment. Andrew received a call from Arthur in the evening. He came over to Aldrich's place to wait for him. By the way, he bought a remote-controlled toy car for his two nephews, and they had a lot of fun in the living room.
Happy.
Aldrich opened the door and went home. When Yiwen saw him, he turned off the TV first to prevent Aldrich from being upset when he saw it.
Andrew stopped playing with his two nephews on the floor. Yiwen took the children upstairs and coaxed them to sleep. Andrew patted his trouser legs and smiled at Aldridge: "Don't worry about the FA, I'll help you settle it."
."
He didn't know that Thompson had called Aldridge directly, but judging from Aldridge's comments after the game, the FA must be dissatisfied with Aldridge.
Aldridge untied his tie, pulled it from his neck, and sneered: "Thompson will only cause trouble for me unless he no longer wants to be the chairman. There is nothing to settle."
Not to mention that Thompson's appointment was supported by Andrew's connections within the FA. Aldridge's appointment as national team coach was finalized by Thompson against all odds.
In the past few months, it was widely claimed that this was his contribution. After inviting Aldridge, the England national team immediately took on a new look.
If Aldridge resigns, and Thompson cannot escape his involvement, the opposition within the FA will inevitably overthrow him.
Thompson's phone call must not have been carefully thought out, and he probably did it blindly because he was anxious to get angry.
Aldridge is afraid of the FA chairman?
Damn it, he was the one who brought down the previous chairman!
Chairman of a non-governmental sector. What should I fear?
Andrew thought for a while and felt that what Aldrich said made sense.
The FA is dissatisfied, but it should be clear which is more serious.
It’s not like Aldridge is confusing right and wrong. If the FA targets Aldridge, it will probably outweigh the gains and losses.
The two sat down on the sofa, and Andrew first asked Aldrich about Ronaldinho's injury.
He is an agent, but he cannot interfere with the operations of the player's club. A player's injury during a critical period is an absolute secret within the club, and the player himself has no right to leak it to the outside world.
"It will take three to four weeks to recover."
Aldridge also received the news from the club's medical department after getting off the plane. Ronaldinho's injury was not serious, but the recovery time was not short.
We definitely can't count on the next few games in the league. Whether we can catch up with the Champions League final depends on Ronaldinho's specific recovery situation.
Andrew was relieved. The player under his control, Ronaldinho, was already an important star, with a leg worth at least tens of millions of pounds.
He told Aldrich completely about Arthur's previous "blackmail" against him.
"Hahaha, old castle? Believe it or not? He will go crazy after staying there for at most a month. Old men can't bear the loneliness and even take care of themselves."
Aldrich finally showed a smile. Sometimes Arthur was messing around, but he always made people happy.
Andrew frowned and said, "Didn't you understand what he meant?"
Aldrich picked up an apple on the coffee table and began to peel off the peel with a fruit knife. He said indifferently: "I'm not stupid. He wants you to bleed Leeds United as much as possible. This matter has nothing to do with me. Why?"
?You wouldn’t do such a thing? It’s impossible.”
Of course Andrew can do this kind of vampire thing. When Rivaldo landed in La Liga in the first operation, he took 300,000 pounds, which is not a lot. After all, the transfer fee is not much. Rivaldo is nostalgic and grateful to his old club. Andrew is also
Generous, wanting to earn a good reputation, he smoked 300,000 pounds, of which 200,000 pounds
They are all privately deposited in Rivaldo's offshore center account. In recent years, as long as it does not involve Millwall transfers, he will take a certain percentage of commission from the middle, and transfer some to the players' private accounts when they win over the players.
Use money to buy loyalty to prevent players from becoming too weak to fly solo or being seduced away by their peers.
He didn't understand the situation at Leeds United and the specific revenue and expenditure of the club's operations. He only knew about Millwall, but Millwall couldn't be used as a reference, so he wanted to ask Aldridge about the so-called knowing yourself and the enemy.
To spare Leeds United's blood, you must first understand the opponent's situation.
He got the point across and asked Aldrich.
"I'll give you a general ledger. You can calculate the details yourself. Leeds United has invested more than 100 million pounds in bringing in players over the years, and the money recovered from selling players is only 35 million pounds at most. And Leeds United club management
It was a loss because they bought a lot of players.
The salary expenditures incurred when signing these stars have accumulated. It is a huge expenditure. They rely on their operating income to make ends meet. Most of the money spent to purchase the players was bank loans, and the banks naturally charge interest, one for each season.
The accumulation of the season..."
Aldrich cut the apple in half and gave it to Andrew. Andrew held it in his hand and ate it without any hurry, looking thoughtful.
He is aware of the overall economic environment in the football world, which is that the football bubble is beginning to burst.
Are Leeds United unlucky? Or are they being punished?
No. This is just the risk they should have taken when they signed a huge loan with the bank to develop the club.
Looking at the football circle, relying on loans to develop a team is a big gamble. Even if it is brilliant for a while, it will basically end badly after a short period of time.
Chelsea, for example, is now almost in trouble. Its debts are as high as more than 50 million pounds. Bates's dream of building Chelsea into a "Roman Empire" is about to be shattered, especially in the context of the bursting of the football economic bubble.
Ci is secretly selling Chelsea, and no one in the industry dares to take over. It is simply a sinkhole!
A few years ago, there were still many businessmen who wanted to make money by controlling football clubs. At this stage, anyone who wants to make money through football must be crazy.
What exactly is a football economic bubble?
It is more intuitive to use the financial market to explain the tip of the iceberg. About 3 or 4 years ago, there was a period of craze in the football circle for clubs to go public. The big clubs in the Premier League issued stocks to go public for financing development. Italian teams also did the same.
There are also Italian bosses who preach that these are the football rules of the new era. If other clubs do not follow suit, they will fall behind and will be eliminated by the times.
Listing, financing, the club has money, the lineup is expanded to strengthen the strength, and the shareholders sit on the ground and divide the spoils.
And 99% of the wealth this club absorbs from the financial market comes from its fans!
Only fans will be interested in football club stocks, and what the club actually sells is the loyalty of the fans.
However, a series of dirty things will happen in the middle that are very despicable in the financial circle and can be noticed by experienced investors in the circle.
Some club shareholders just want to list the team, then sell their shares and leave with a huge fortune. Brokers who really invest in stocks will not recommend their clients to buy stocks of such football clubs.
As the team's performance fails and business performance is linked to stock value, the stock will fall.
At this stage in 2001, even fans, no matter how much they love their team, will rarely use their money to buy the team's stocks. Everyone knows that it is garbage! And it is easy to be cheated!
Who knows if the club will change ownership tomorrow?
Leeds United is a team listed on the stock market. Once listed, the annual financial report will be released. Operating income and expenses, whether it is a profit or a loss, and whether the debt situation has been reversed or worse than before? These are all clear at a glance.
If your business is on a downward trend, your stocks will become even less valuable, the banks that lend you money will also call for debts, and other financing channels will close their doors to you, leaving you in a desperate situation.
Aldrich didn't really care about talking to Andrew about this matter, but now that he had talked about it, he remembered the situation when he made the deal with Ridsdale.
"While I was talking, I remembered that when Leeds United came to me to buy someone, I asked someone to investigate the source of Leeds United's funds. Ridsdale used Leeds United's income for the next 25 years as collateral, mainly
The income from ticket and television broadcasts was mortgaged to insurance companies and banks in exchange for 60 million pounds. I don't know the specific interest rate, but the information revealed is one word: high."
When Andrew heard this, he said calmly: "What can he give in return?"
Aldrich shrugged and said: "He is ambitious. In his view, as long as Leeds United can guarantee to play in the Champions League every season, it will not be difficult to pay back the money, but it has not caught up with the good times."
Andrew nodded. Leeds United had not caught up with the good times. The value of the players was soared. On the contrary, the football economic bubble burst. In the meantime, Leeds United's development plan was like a rainy night.
What Aldridge actually means is: after 10 years, 60 million pounds will be nothing to the Premier League team! Not to mention playing in the Champions League, as long as they avoid relegation every year, 60 million pounds will be enough for three seasons just by relying on television broadcasts.
Andrew also recalled the negotiation with Leeds United that year, and said solemnly: "I didn't worry about it at that time. I just thought that Leeds United was really wealthy. With Ferdinand's transfer treatment, I thought that the weekly salary of 35,000 pounds was higher than the asking price.
The other party argued for a long time, but in the end, Leeds United offered a weekly salary of 40,000 pounds! There were also negotiations on the treatment of other players, which was higher than the upper limit I planned to extort. Now that I think about it, Ridsdale made a generous offer.
Leeds United are digging a grave!"
Aldrich didn't want to hear Andrew talk about this at all, and it made him upset.
Leeds United performed brilliantly in the first year after O'Reilly took charge. In the second year, they borrowed money to bring in strong reinforcements. Their record was not as good as Millwall's, not even Manchester United's, but they imitated the style of strong teams everywhere, like
Millwall purchased 50 high-end cars for the club, while Leeds United spent 600,000 pounds a year to rent more than 70 cars. The team traveled around and spent extravagantly.
When talking about the players led by Ferdinand who switched to Leeds United, Aldridge didn't hate anyone in his heart, but he felt a little helpless.
In this world, beatings and scoldings can be used to laugh off grudges, but blocking people's way of making money will never end.
Thinking of Ferdinand repeatedly choosing to leave for the sake of his career in front of him, Aldridge would rather be a villain, believing that Ferdinand was doing it for the huge weekly salary offered by Leeds United.
