Top of the Great Era

Chapter 1888 Was crushed by a local tyrant in the Middle East
In the end, with Rooney's wonderful goal, Manchester United defeated Chelsea 1-0 at home and got a chance to advance to the semi-finals.

This game is really not exciting.

The focus of Zhou Buqi's attention is more on the club's infrastructure. There are interest-free loans, and it can also be used in the name of helping the local economy. There is no reason to miss this kind of fame and fortune.

The Premier League games are usually played in the afternoon, and the Champions League games usually start in the evening.

After the game, it was 10 o'clock in the evening.

David Gill, however, did not let boss Zhou go, and directly called several directors of the Carrington base, and then everyone came to the president's office in Old Trafford.

There are three main locations of Manchester United's core work.

The commercial department is in London, led by Gilbert Lawrence; the administration is at Old Trafford, led by David Gill; and the football department is at Carrington, led by Ferguson.

Ferguson still has to attend the post-match press conference and summarize the game in the locker room, so he didn't participate in this small meeting.

In fact, there is no need to participate.

This meeting mainly discussed the construction of the team's infrastructure.

David Gill has already seen it. Boss Zhou seems to be very responsible and is very willing to respond to the government's call to use Manchester United's influence to develop some infrastructure projects.

If so, come on!
In addition to the five-star hotel project, there are other new projects!

When all the people arrived, David Gill first explained the significance of further developing the Carrington training base from the perspective of the overall situation, "Manchester City's training base is only 2 minutes away from our Carrington base."

After Zhou Buqi heard it, he couldn't help laughing.

Because once he went to Carrington Base for training, he saw an interesting scene.

At that time, during training, full-back Evra took an unreasonable long shot from 30 meters from the goal.The defender's footwork can be imagined, the ball directly turned into an anti-aircraft gun, and the shot disappeared.

Ferguson was very angry, scolded Evra immediately, and told him to go to Manchester City's training base to retrieve the ball.

The training bases of the two sworn enemies are very close.

This means that comparisons can be made at close range. Which of the two training bases is better?

Well Manchester United, as it should be.

Manchester United is a super giant.

If Manchester City is better, it will be over. Not only will the public image be ruined, but the players' internal self-perception will also be confused... Manchester United or Manchester City, who is the better club?

It used to be easy to say that Manchester City is a mid-lower team.

It's different now. Manchester City has achieved rapid development with the funds of local tyrants in the Middle East. They have spent huge sums of money on high-standard, all-round renovations and upgrades of the training base.

David Gill went on to say: "Manchester City's growth momentum is very fast, which has created pressure on Manchester United. It is a shame for Manchester United to even maintain the same level as Manchester City. Especially the club's infrastructure. Old Trafford is the pride of Manchester, and Manchester City will never surpass that. However, the stadium is only where the fans cheer. The training ground is more important for our managers, players and young children who come to try. The key place."

Zhou Buqi understands this and agrees with this idea, "Yes, Manchester United must lead Manchester City in all aspects. Not only must they lead the field, but the training base must also be stronger. In front of their rivals in the same city, Manchester United must have an absolute competitive advantage."

David Gill said with a smile: "This time the region and the city hope to promote the economy through the development of football infrastructure projects. The first choice is Manchester United. This is the brand value of Manchester United. The stronger the brand, the more resources you can get. More; the more resources you get, the stronger your brand will be.”

"Tell me, what else do you have in mind?"

"The five-star hotel plan is aimed at the first team. However, we also have youth teams such as U13, U14, U15, U17, and U19. Well, there are also women's teams."

David Gill's thinking in this regard is very traditional, and his attitude towards women's football is very cold.

The Premier League women's football is now a semi-professional league. 90% of the Premier League women's football girls play football in their spare time. Some are nurses, some are teachers, some are students, some are models, some are flight attendants, and some are OLs... just like the girls in bars. Like the service industry, they are all part-time jobs.

The difference is that you can earn a lot of money by working part-time in a bar; while working part-time in the women's football team in the Premier League, you are extremely poor, and your income is similar to that of the U15 youth team.

Zhou Buqi was a little surprised, "Youth team? Youth team games also adopt this model? Aren't youth teams all amateur games? Is it necessary to be so professional?"

"No, it doesn't mean the same thing..." David Gill smiled, and then entrusted the director of youth training to talk about the youth team's game mode and the difficulties encountered.

Youth training director Brian McClair is a direct descendant of Ferguson and a former Manchester United player, he talked about it.

Manchester United is the best team in the Greater Manchester area, and of course has the best youth selection team and youth academy in the area.However, the Greater Manchester area is too large, and many children's families are too far away from the Carrington base, and it may take three or four hours to drive.

Some children were even sent over from the next city.

Therefore, Manchester United's youth training is about 3 days a week.

Weekend training.

At other times, the players practice on the nearby stadium or in school according to the homework assigned by the teachers of the Youth Academy.Children near the training base can be close to the water, and they can go to training every day after school.

After waiting for the U15, U16, U17 level youth training echelon, the organized youth training league will be very formal.Young players who live too far away or in other places have to come here in advance and prepare for the next day's game.

But where do you live?

Are you staying in a hotel?

These youth training leagues will not create any value, and clubs cannot afford so much travel expenses.The families of many young players cannot afford the cost of staying in hotels for a long time.

Therefore, many families around the Carrington base will extend a helping hand in a warm and friendly way and invite their children to live in their homes.

Some young players will also live in the homes of nearby teammates.

In the past few decades, this has basically been done in this way, and the youth training system in the entire European football has basically followed this model. Relying on some kind families to provide children with a lodging environment and help children from other places to accept professional education football training.In fact, not only football, but the entire social system is like this. For example, young people in China go abroad to study, as long as they are willing, they can find such free host families.

However, lodging is not an easy task after all.

Some children may not like to live in other people's homes because of their personalities; some children may be very naughty and cause damage in other people's homes; especially now that women's football is on the rise, and there are many girls in youth training colleges, it is possible to let girls go to live in other people's homes There are some more risks.

In short, there are various geographical disadvantages.

Zhou Buqi nodded, "It seems that we still need to build a youth training dormitory."

"That's right!"

McClair was excited.

David Gill was also very happy. After two hours of thinking, he already had a general plan for the upcoming infrastructure project of Manchester United. "There are three main points. First, build a five-star hotel; Second, build a dormitory for the youth training camp; third, further expand and improve the Carrington training base, with larger venues, more training grounds, and more abundant facilities."

"Expansion?" Zhou Buqi didn't know much about the situation, "Isn't there already 14 courts in the Carrington base?"

"Well..." David Gill's expression was a bit complicated. It seems that the big boss pays little attention to football. At least he hasn't read the emails sent to him, so he can only explain truthfully, "14 There are indeed a lot of pitches, apart from Manchester City, it is the most in the Premier League."

Zhou Buqi almost died of anger, "Manchester City again?"

David Gill said flatly: "After the capital of Abu Dhabi took over Manchester City in 08, the first thing they did was to invest 2 million pounds to completely expand and transform their training base. Manchester United is planning. The Carrington base covers an area of ​​70 acres, and they have planned 80 acres; we have 14 pitches, and they will expand to 16 pitches. Their initial plan was to suppress Manchester United. One head!"

This is really the first time Zhou Buqi knows about this.

No way, he is usually too busy to read every email.Assistants like Ning Yaxian and Sun Guanran will do it for them, and they will only pick out the most important emails and mark them out.

There is really nothing important about football.

This is very embarrassing.

He remembers the planning and renovation plan of the Carrington base after he took over Manchester United.

3000 million pounds was used to expand the reserve stadium, 800 million pounds was used to renovate the Carrington base, 200 million pounds was used to update the training facilities... The total investment is only 4000 million pounds.

From the perspective of the time, this was a big deal.But compared with Manchester City, which is rich in the Middle East, the gap is really big!
Their investment budget has reached 2 million pounds!
All indicators are higher than Manchester United!
At this moment, Boss Zhou was unwilling. Feeling humiliated, he said angrily, "Why don't you talk about such a big matter? This is related to the Manchester United brand. You should have brought it up on the board of directors a long time ago!"

David Gill was very embarrassed, unable to express his suffering.

Zhou Buqi was very angry, and waved his hand, "Immediately notify that the board meeting will be held tomorrow night, everyone who can be present! This is a big deal! Manchester United is the football banner of Manchester, not Manchester City! The best youth training system should be in Manchester United!"

Here, the topic has risen to another level.

It's not just the scope of team management and financial investment discussed at the beginning, it has reached the height of the Manchester United Group's strategy.

Zhou Buqi has never paid attention to such a local tyrant in the Middle East. It is impossible to step on his shoulders to rise to the top!

He's not Glazer!
In the previous life, the Glazer family controlled Manchester United, which really ruined Manchester United. The team's performance plummeted. This is just a superficial phenomenon.

Just like an apple, if even the peel is rotten, the rot of the core will only get worse!
Especially the team's training base, which was completely crushed by Manchester City.

So much so that Neville, Van Persie, Andy Cole, Rooney, Ashley Young and a large number of Manchester United celebrities have sent their children to the Manchester City youth training camp of their arch-enemy.

Especially Fletcher, the most unbearable to look at.He was the director of youth training at Manchester United at the time, but he sent his son with extremely high football talent to the Manchester City youth academy for training. It was too heartbreaking!

Zhou Buqi can't happen to himself no matter what!
(End of this chapter)