Team Spirit

Chapter 69 There is only one football elf in the world (please share it on WeChat Moments)
After deducting registration fees, stadium maintenance expenses, players' salaries this season, miscellaneous expenses, etc., the team currently has about 360,000 pounds left in its account.

Of course, most of the expenses are incurred gradually as the season progresses, so the actual funds are more than £400,000.

If their traffic doesn't disappear after this season, they can use this opportunity to find two or three powerful sponsors and avoid relegation in the next two years.

That would basically allow us to pay off the total debt of £700,000 while ensuring the normal operation of the team.

"When I first heard about such a huge debt, I almost went crazy. I didn't expect that in just one or two months, we would have raised more than half of it." Jiang Mengyun felt that all this was a little unreal. "If everything goes well, we can pay it off within three years."

"By then, you'll be worth hundreds of thousands!"

"too fast!"

Lu Kai smiled but said nothing.

Jiang Mengyun still didn't dare to think about it.

Is it impressive to pay back £700,000 in three years?
If the team's repayment or profitability is so poor, Lu Kai might as well go back to Arsenal as a youth player, and in ten years he can become a rotation player in Arsenal's first team, with an annual salary of more than one million pounds.

"Three years..." Lu Kai murmured softly, "In three years, the four words 'Dartford' will be worth more than one million pounds!"

……

August 25, 2001, the first round of the English Premier League.

Dartford host Canvey Island.

Canvey Island is a veteran team in the English Premier League. Last season, it ranked eleventh among the 22 English Premier League teams and is a standard mid-level team in the seventh level.

For this game, the pond stadium, which had undergone a minor renovation, was packed.

Two thousand people surrounded the stadium.

The "luxury boxes" in convenience stores are all packed.

Jiang Mengyun and Emily can no longer watch the game here freely.

But they were not uncomfortable.

If you want to watch the game here, each person must guarantee a minimum spending of 68 pounds.

This is much more expensive than the team's £8 adult ticket.

That’s right, fans with good memory have already noticed that the ticket prices for the Pond Stadium have increased.

But local fans support it.

On the one hand, the team has indeed been upgraded.

The enjoyment has been improved and the price increase is very reasonable.

On the other hand, eight pounds is just a "special price" for local fans.

The team's adult ticket price is ten pounds!

Isn't this a sense of superiority that comes all of a sudden?
Whether it is cheap or not is determined by comparison.

For English people who are willing to spend nearly 100 euros to watch Premier League games, it makes no difference whether tickets for local lower-level league games cost six pounds, eight pounds or ten pounds.

The key is to give everyone a home experience.

And those high-priced tickets are part of the home experience.

"Why are there so many fans from other places in this game?" Jiang Mengyun felt that this game was a bit strange.

Is it because of what the Canvey Island head coach said before the game?

Not to the point.

Emily smiled mysteriously, clicked on an article on her computer, pointed at the bucktoothed player and said, "It should be related to him."

"This is Ronaldinho, the core player of the Brazilian national team at the Sydney Olympics."

"Two years ago, he represented the Brazilian U17 team in winning the World Youth Championship in Egypt and was named the tournament's top scorer."

"He helped Brazil's second team win the Copa América last year with six goals and finished as top scorer in FIFA's Confederations Cup with six more."

"In the earlier Olympic qualifiers, he scored nine goals and became the top scorer of the qualifiers."

"He is the hottest new star in world football right now. He is considered the next Ronaldo, or the midfielder version of Ronaldo." "Many top clubs are keeping an eye on him."

"His style of play is extremely flamboyant and very popular, just like Beckham two years ago. But Beckham is more attractive in appearance than in football."

Jiang Mengyun's face was full of question marks: "What does this have to do with us?"

Emily scrolled down the news, and then a picture of Lu Kai appeared: "Remember the goal that Lu Kai scored after four consecutive dribbles?"

"This is the most watched goal in every compilation of great goals this summer."

"After being selected for the upcoming Brazilian Olympic team, Ronaldinho made it clear in an interview that he wanted to score a more exciting goal than Lu Kai."

Emily then played a video.

The young Ronaldinho confidently said to the camera: "I always thought I was a football wizard until I saw Lu Kai's goal."

"But I won't give up. I want to score a better goal than him!"

Jiang Mengyun looked at the people who had been taken advantage of in the convenience store and couldn't believe it: "Just because of this sentence?"

Emily nodded. "That's like Beckham telling the media that he must beat Lu Kai in free kicks and handsome looks."

"Although Ronaldinho is also a newcomer, he has inherited the popularity of Romario, Ronaldo and Rivaldo."

Jiang Mengyun understood it immediately. It was the Great British Empire Star, right?

No wonder it has such appeal.

The English Football Association also took the opportunity to set the match between Dartford and Canvey Island as the opening game of the English and Irish Premier League this season!

……

With a whistle, the game officially begins.

Dartford still adopted a 4213 formation:
Marin, Eastwood, Tomas Madeira

陆凯
Patton, Kylo

William, Benjamin, Duff, Macover
安琦
-

Although Ashley Young has recovered from his injury, to be on the safe side, we should first see how the game goes before deciding whether to play.

The advantage of this formation is... it is the best training effect for Lu Kai and helps him improve quickly.

In the lower-level leagues, when the core players rise, the team will rise.

The core of this team is undoubtedly Lu Kai.

Ashley Young: ?
Makov: ? ?
Barton: ???
beep!

A fierce confrontation broke out from the first minute of the game.

The Canvey Island players were clearly planning to give Dartford a warning by going straight for the physical attack.

To Madeira couldn't hold the ball at all, and even committed a foul when he tried to counterattack.

The attack on Canvey Island then began.

Canvey Island's number 10 player has excellent personal skills and confrontation ability, and his continuous dribbling creates threats.

At the critical moment, Lu Kai, who rushed back to defend, seized the opportunity to poke the ball away from the side with a half-shovel posture. Patton then took the ball away and passed it back to Duff.

The Canvey Island number 10 stumbled and fell to the ground, looking for a foul, but the referee did not call it.

He was a little angry.

Just at this time his teammates were pressing in the frontcourt.

Duff passed the ball to Benjamin, and Benjamin passed the ball to William, but the ball was always under pressure.

"Over here!" Lu Kai provided support to William and successfully caught the ball.

After getting up, Canvey Island No. 10 rushed directly towards Lu Kai.

This is his moment of revenge!

(End of this chapter)