The Godfather of Greenery

Chapter 535 Star Factory
When everyone mentions England's youth training, there must be one club that cannot escape, and that is Southampton, the century-old saints.

In terms of youth training in England, the youth training of Manchester United, West Ham United, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough, Arsenal and other teams has always been good, but Southampton is undoubtedly the most famous youth training of all English teams. biggest.

But at present, this flag team of England's youth training is facing a serious debt crisis. Not only was it relegated from the English Championship to League One last season, but it has been forced to apply for bankruptcy protection since April. The state is managed by the government, and they have also been deducted ten league points in the new season of League One.

With the current situation in Southampton, the hope of returning to the British Championship in the new season can be said to be very, very slim.

Matthew Le Tissier, the God in the hearts of Southampton fans, although his status in international football and English football is not as good as that of the legendary English superstar Alan Shearer who also came from Southampton, but he is all the saints In the hearts of the fans, the greatest player in the history of the club, because he played only for Southampton in his career.

He and Bergkamp are the only two players who have scored two goals in the history of the Premier League. Even as an offensive midfielder, in the minds of quite a few fans, his strength is worse than that of the well-known Canadians. Coyne, but he has played for Southampton all his life, so he is not as famous as Gascoigne.

As the legendary superstar of the club, when the club was downgraded to League One and was on the verge of bankruptcy, he tried his best to run around the city and raised 50 pounds, which was handed over to the club to ease the salaries of employees and players. It was decided to form a consortium to acquire Southampton, and this move was supported and affirmed by all Saints fans.

However, to complete the acquisition, at least a huge sum of 500 million pounds is required!
Perhaps, 500 million pounds is not worth mentioning to some super rich, but for Le Tissier, it is simply not something he can afford, so in the past few months, he has been constantly Running around the city has attracted many rich locals to join his consortium, hoping to get their financial support to acquire Southampton and save the Saints.

Seeing that the time has entered July, seeing the team's one-year-old stars being sold off by the trusteeship committee, and seeing the team is about to fall apart, Le Tissier is helpless, because even if he But until now, they have not raised enough funds to acquire the club.

Just when he felt helpless, Le Tissier received a call from London, the phone is Tottenham Hotspur CEO Peter Kenyon, Manchester invited him to London for a talk.

Le Tissier is full of affection for this North London team that has just taken Luke Shaw away from Southampton. Tottenham likes it very much, but what is the reason for this team to meet me now?
With such doubts in mind, Le Tissier still drove [-] kilometers to London, but to his surprise, this time he saw people other than the expected Tottenham Hotspur CEO Peter Kay Besides Nien, there is actually another person that he can't even imagine, Ye Qiu!

Although Le Tissier is not one of those young entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley who have dreams, carry a thick plan with him, and always feel that he is underappreciated, but when he saw Ye Qiu, he still felt a little nervous, because he himself is a He is a famous football coach, he is very aware of Ye Qiu's pivotal position in the current world football.

The place where the two parties met was not ostentatious, but deliberately chose to meet in a relatively secret hotel, avoiding all the reporters and media, which also made Leticier wonder what Ye Qiu and Peter Kenyon wanted to do. full of doubts.

"I heard that you are raising funds everywhere recently and want to acquire Southampton?" Ye Qiu was straightforward as always, straight to the point. As soon as Le Tissier sat down and ordered a cup of coffee, he directly asked about his appointment to meet him. Purpose.

Ever since Le Tissier decided to go north, he had been in a state of uneasiness. Now that he heard Ye Qiu say this, his uneasiness became even more obvious, because he always had a premonition that Ye Qiu and Tuo Turnham Hotspur have ambitions for Southampton.

"Don't be nervous, Mr. Le Tissier, I just want to know your thoughts!" Ye Qiu saw Le Tissier's uneasiness and said with a smile.

Le Tissier stared at Ye Qiu a few times. He really admired Ye Qiu and his football, but it was related to Southampton, so he said to Ye Qiu very solemnly, almost word for word, "I will not betray Southampton!"

After hearing this, Ye Qiu exchanged glances with Peter Kenyon, and both of them laughed.

"I think you misunderstood, Mr. Le Tissier!" Peter Kenyon explained for Ye Qiu with a smile, "We are the owners of Tottenham Hotspur. According to the rules, it is impossible for us to acquire another Southampton, even though this team is in League One right now, it's totally against the rules whether it's in the FA or in the Premier League, you know!"

It was only then that Le Tissier remembered that the FA and the Premier League do have such regulations. Of course, this is mainly reflected in the shareholding aspect, but if it is a shareholding, then it is not a big problem, because there are quite a lot of investment The company holds shares in many English football clubs at the same time, but there are not many of them.

"Then why did you invite me here?" Le Tissier's tone slowed down, and he also felt that he was overthinking.

Ye Qiu smiled slightly, "I want to fully support your consortium to acquire Southampton!"

"What?" Le Tissier was taken aback. "Fully support me?"

Perhaps this seemed completely unreasonable to him, but looking at the expressions of Ye Qiu and Peter Kenyon, they didn't look like they were joking at all, but were very serious and sure.

Ye Qiu learned about Southampton's current situation from Peter Dewissel. When the latter poached Luke Shaw, he got some inside information, such as Southampton's current financial crisis and filing for bankruptcy protection, as well as the current situation of Southampton. The only interesting thing about Ampton is the consortium formed by Le Tissier, but the problem is that they simply cannot raise enough funds to acquire the team.

The value of Southampton depends on who sees it. In Ye Qiu's view, the greatest value of this team is that they have a very complete youth training that is consistent from the first team to the youth team. system, and because they are in the south of England, the FA made an exception to allow Southampton to establish a satellite base in Cardiff, Wales.

This is why Gareth Bale was able to enter Southampton, and Southampton has always been regarded by many Welsh players as a springboard to the English league.

After being surprised, Le Tissier quickly came to his senses, shook his head and said with a wry smile, "I don't quite understand what you mean, Mr. Ye Qiu, as I said, I will not betray Southampton!"

"I never said I want you to betray Southampton!" Ye Qiu also said with a smile.

"Then you said just now that you want to fully support my acquisition of Southampton?" Le Tissier was a little puzzled.

Peter Kenyon took the initiative to speak up again at this time. After all, it was really inconvenient for Ye Qiu to talk about many things, "Mr. Ye Qiu means that we strongly support you in purchasing Southampton financially. We know that you lack funds. And we can provide you with sufficient funds, not only to acquire Southampton, but also to renovate Southampton’s youth academy, and provide the best and best training equipment and technical support!”

Money is indeed a huge temptation, but Tottenham Hotspur provide the best and best training equipment and technical support, which is also a huge temptation, because now the whole world knows that Tottenham Hotspur's West The Obald training base is the best and most advanced training base in the world, and almost all teams hope to get their support.

But looking around the world, except for Ajax and Brazil's Santos, which have established partnerships with Tottenham, it has always been difficult for other teams to share their scouting intelligence from Tottenham. and training techniques.

It can be said that the two chips offered by Tottenham Hotspur cannot be refused by Southampton.

Because, after the team fell into a financial crisis, Southampton's scouting system was close to collapse, and most of the scouts had scattered, because no one wanted to guard this team that couldn't even pay wages, so At present, Southampton's youth training has almost no future.

But if they can get strong support from Tottenham Hotspur, then they will be able to get out of such adversity very quickly, not only in terms of financial resources, but also in terms of training equipment, training technology and human resources. Strong support.

"I don't quite understand. What good will this do for you?" Le Tissier is not an idiot, he can't afford it without profit. Although he doesn't understand this sentence in Chinese, he has a very clear meaning. Can Ye Qiu do it? interest thing?
Peter Kenyon chuckled, "It's very simple, you know that we have reached a partnership with Ajax and Santos, we have injected capital into these two teams successively, and held a certain amount of shares in them, but we did not They are not well known to the outside world, but we have shared youth training results and scouting information with them."

Le Tissier understood, "You want Southampton to be Tottenham Hotspur's star factory?!"

As the most famous youth training club in England, even if Southampton's talents have been dispersed, with the reputation and strength of this club, as long as there is sufficient financial support, there may not be no possibility of regrouping in a short period of time. So for Tottenham Hotspur, having such a youth training club as a talent reserve center will surely ensure that Tottenham Hotspur will always maintain an unbroken supply chain of personnel.

All giant teams actually have their own talent supply chain, just like Manchester United, they have more than a dozen cooperative teams all over the world to ensure that they can get an endless supply of talent, and Arsenal also The same is true.

After Tottenham Hotspur acquired the two major talent processing centers of Ajax and Santos, their talent pool is not weak, but they still want to continue to further strengthen their talent advantages, because professional football, to put it bluntly, is hard work. The most important thing is talent, that is, who can get a better supply of talents.

"You can say that!" Peter Kenyon didn't hide it at all, because everyone is a smart person. Sometimes the more you cover up, the easier it is to be disgusted by the other party. Accept it, and reject it if you can't accept it, and it will be easier for everyone to talk.

"We hope to inject capital into your consortium, and you will be the chairman of the consortium to acquire Southampton. We believe that with your influence and appeal in this team, as long as you spend enough funds to impress the trusteeship committee, the acquisition will not be a big problem. "

Of course Le Tissier knew this, "Then what do you want?"

"49% of the consortium shares. At the same time, we hope to establish a modern management model similar to Tottenham Hotspur in Southampton, as well as a more complete and advanced youth training system, and I can invite a player for Southampton. A well-known head coach in Europe, strive to help the team return to the Premier League in the shortest possible time!"

The head coach Ye Qiu mentioned was Ke Adrianse. This famous Dutch coach has become more and more unsatisfactory in recent years. Although there is absolutely no need to doubt his strength, in the past few years, due to various reasons. All kinds of unsatisfactory, successively encountered Waterloo in Portugal, Ukraine, Qatar and Austria, and is currently unemployed at home.

Ye Qiu had learned about Adrianse's situation with Bobby Harms, and he firmly believed that the Dutch coach would be interested in taking over Saints Southampton, because this is a team that fits his characteristics very well. With a well-established and prolific pipeline of young players, coupled with the poverty caused by the financial crisis, he can build a brand new team exactly as he wants.

Of course, the premise is that the board of directors should give full support and affirmation.

To return to the Premier League, this is simply a dream event for Le Tissier. Since Southampton was relegated, he has been thinking about how to help the team return to the Premier League almost all the time. Judging from Ye Qiu's tone and vision , which is not entirely impossible.

"How much can you inject?" Le Tissier lingered in his mind for a long time, and finally decided to bow to the capital.

Professional football can't play anything without money.

"£2000 million, plus some brand new training equipment for the academy and training base!"

Le Tissier thought in his mind that with the funds he could raise so far, if Ye Qiu's 2000 million pounds were added, it would be more than enough to buy Southampton. Even if he wanted to renovate the training base, there would be no problem. Not much, and if he can continue to raise a little more money in Southampton, he might be able to spend 500 million pounds for signings in the summer transfer.

And it has to be said that Ye Qiu's sincerity is great, because the current trusteeship committee's price for Southampton is around 500 million pounds, that is to say, Ye Qiu's money is fully qualified In order to acquire the strength of Southampton, but he only needs 49% of the shares, it has to be said that Le Tissier took advantage.

"But I have a request!" Of course, Ye Qiu couldn't just let Le Tissier do whatever he wanted after paying out the money.

"Come and listen!"

"As I said just now, I want to establish a modern management model in Southampton, and at the same time introduce the continental system to integrate Southampton's traditions with the continental football system. I believe you can see that the current Premier League style is changing. Gradually moving towards mainlandization, this is the future trend.”

Le Tissier is no stranger to this. The continentalization of the Premier League began when Ferguson introduced Veron, and when Ye Qiu landed at Chelsea attracted the attention of the outside world. Until the rise of Tottenham Hotspur, it was completely It sounded the clarion call of the continental style of the Premier League and triggered this trend.

"Of course, I can tell you with certainty that I hope you can become the chairman of the team, because I believe that you, who have played football for many years and received years of coaching training after retiring, and who have been loyal to Southampton all your life, must More than anyone else, I want to run this team well, and we can provide you with the talent support you need, such as team management, commercial marketing, scouting and so on."

Le Tissier had to admit that the bargaining chip offered by Ye Qiu was indeed hard for him to refuse. Even so, Southampton would be bound to Tottenham Hotspur's chariot from now on, becoming Tottenham Hotspur's youth training center, but from the current point of view, Southampton has few options, unless the fans can accept that it goes bankrupt.

Because even after more than three months, no rich man has been able to stand up and express his willingness to take over the team.

The British economy has been sluggish in recent years, and the recent outbreak of the European debt crisis has made the British economy worse. The unemployment rate remains high. Southampton itself is not a big city, and there are not many rich people. Southampton is not a giant football team in England. , the attraction is not strong, so no one has been willing to take it over.

Ye Qiu is not being taken advantage of, on the contrary, his calculation is very shrewd, judging from this transaction, he has indeed suffered a loss, 2000 million pounds in exchange for 49% of the shares, he suffered a big loss, but in the long run Look, he is not at a disadvantage, because he has a long-term youth training center like Southampton, and the stars produced here can let him and Tottenham Hotspur take whatever they want in the future. Enough to guarantee that he will not suffer.

And it should also be noted that if, as he said, Southampton really has a chance to return to the Premier League in the future, then the team's total assets will rise, and the 2000% of the shares he has invested in now will be doubled in the future. several times.

"Can you tell me about your head coach candidate?" Le Tissier said, the head coach is also an important part of a team.

"Ke Adrianse!" Ye Qiu said with a smile.

This is indeed a very powerful and well-known head coach. Especially in recent years, Dutch head coaches have generally been valued and affirmed by the outside world, because Dutch coaches have always paid attention to system construction and tactical quality, which is very in line with The needs of the modern football tactical system are considered to be a representative faction of continentalization.

"Will he come to League One?" Leticier was a little skeptical.

Ye Qiu shrugged and said with a smile, "This is my business, I can handle him!"

After a pause, he added, "But I hope that he can also serve as the technical director!"

Head coach and technical director, this can be regarded as Ye Qiu's trust and affirmation to Co Adrianse. At least he and Bobby Harms know Co Adrianse very well. Trust and support, he will give you enough in return, at least he can lay an extremely solid foundation for you, and he is very good at youth training.

When Le Tissier heard this, he really couldn't think of any reason for him to refuse. The reason was very simple. He needed Ye Qiu's support, whether it was financial resources or other aspects.

(End of this chapter)