Chapter 34 Saint Harry
"Snapped!"
In a bar called Saint Harry not far from St. Mary's Stadium, the bar owner Harry, who has a nose of red wine, slammed the beer bottle in his hand to the ground, scaring the originally noisy bar to silence. down.
"You're talking nonsense!"
Harry is fat, typically over-alcoholic, and drank a lot this evening. He was wobbly when he walked, but he climbed the bar hard and pointed at all the people in the bar. They were basically all of them. Old customers of the bar.
"What is excess? What is arrogance? What is arrogance?"
When Harry shouted, his mouth was full of spittle stars, spraying everywhere.
"We've had enough, I've had enough fucking enough!"
All the diehard Saints fans present were silent.
Just now, they were still expressing their opinions on a series of remarks made by the new boss. Most people felt that the new boss was a bit arrogant. After all, it was a League One team, but he threatened to challenge all the giants. offended many people.
"I was a fan in 1978, when the team was promoted from the second division to the first division, and since then, in the decades, we have never been relegated, until 2020. In 2005, when we were relegated from the Premier League, what was our slogan?"
"We returned to the Premier League for the second year, but since then, we have repeatedly shouted that we want to hit the Premier League every year, but in 2009, we were relegated from the second level of the British Championship humiliatingly. why?"
In the face of Harry's spit-filled questions, everyone present fell silent.
"Humility, reserve, restraint...what can these bring us? Our complacency, our humility, what can we bring? Walcott, Gareth Bale, we look at our good players, One by one leaving our team, is there anything we can do?"
When he said this, two lines of muddy tears fell from Harry's red eyes.
The relationship for more than 30 years, and the belief from childhood to adulthood, Southampton seems to be his whole life. He hopes that he can be a saint for a lifetime, and also hopes that his children and grandchildren can continue to be devout saints. .
But today's young people like Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, who knows you Southampton?
"In 2009, when the team was in financial crisis, our club management was incompetent, the team went bankrupt and was put into trust by a government agency, Matthew Le Tissier, our God, he was all over the city. Running, calling on more Southampton fans to donate money to help the team get through this difficult time, but what about the result?"
"Have half a million pounds, we've all put together half a million pounds!"
"What does this mean? It means that in the hearts of all of us, Southampton is only worth half a million!"
"But people, the Chinese you are accusing and criticizing, he invested 15 million without hesitation. He will invest 30 million in the team's training base. He has spent more than Ten million, what qualifications do you have to criticize and criticize others?"
"Did he say it wrong? Did he say it wrong? Why should we be afraid of those Premier League teams? We are one less than them? Or are we weaker than them? We are inherently worse than them?"
The whole bar was dead silent, and no one spoke.
All were speechless.
"You will never forget how the damned Portsmouth people humiliated us, when we were relegated from the Premier League and they were promoted from the Championship, they were shamelessly humiliating and taunting us. And there is nothing we can do to allow them to be humiliated and ridiculed, a shame to all Southamptonians!"
Portsmouth is also on the south coast of the United Kingdom, a small city that has developed rapidly in recent years, and Brighton further east. These two emerging cities have replaced Southampton and become the flag city of the south coast. Target.
This has also led to a very strong rivalry between the three cities, especially Southampton and Portsmouth, which is almost a replica of Manchester and Liverpool on the south coast.
It is said that when Southampton opened a train to London, the people from nearby Portsmouth would rather go a long way than come to Southampton to take the train. This tradition has not changed even now.
However, in recent years, Southampton has been included in the London economic circle and has become a livable city. More and more Londoners choose to work in London during the day and live in Southampton at night, making the area around Southampton develop rapidly. It has become a harbour metropolis, while Portsmouth has not changed much, still like a small port.
In the eyes of the people of Portsmouth, the only thing they can compare to Southampton is that their team has performed much better than Southampton in recent years, even if they are relegated from the Premier League to the Championship in the new season .
But still a level above Southampton, isn't it?
"Peter, what do you think?" Harry suddenly pointed to a middle-aged man in his fifties in the bar.
His name is Peter, nicknamed Peter the Saints, and he is the keeper at Stapletwood, but a man whom all Saints fans look up to because he gave up being an engineer in London twenty years ago He chose to return to Southampton to become an ordinary doorman, and he did it for twenty years.
The position of the doorman is very low and insignificant, but he can understand a lot of inside information that outside fans can't understand, and Peter is highly educated and has his own independent thinking and judgment, so he has a lot of weight among the Saints fans.
"The new boss is very young, only 20 years old, and a bit rambunctious, but I can see that he is very determined to run Southampton. I heard people say that he was in Staplewood yesterday afternoon, and he made a decision at once. The budget for the new training base has been raised from £30 million to £50 million and it is required to be built within two years."
"Wow!" Everyone present was in an uproar.
The previous £30 million was already a lot of money, and now an additional £20 million has been invested?
"Not only that, the team has been reporting new players in the last two days. I have also seen them play. They are all capable and young. I heard Martin Hunter say that Bielsa is very interested in this new batch of new players. The players are very satisfied, the price is not high, but the quality is outstanding."
"According to Martin Hunter's assessment, there is no problem with upgrading in the new season."
Upgrade, the word is too tempting for Southampton fans!
"And Martin Hunter also said that the team is still continuing to recruit, and I heard that at least two top stars will be introduced."
"Two big names? Is it true?"
"Really want to introduce two big-name stars?"
"Who? Peter, have you heard who it is?"
As soon as Peter's voice fell, the bar suddenly became noisy again, and everyone rushed to ask questions.
"I don't know who it is. This is the operation of the club. It is a matter of confidentiality. I definitely don't know, but I heard that the progress is OK, but it has not been finalized yet. After all, we are a League One team."
Everyone agrees with Peter's words that League One teams really don't have much appeal to top stars.
However, from the club's daring to operate top stars, it is not difficult to see the team's ambition.
"Mummy, I've had enough!" I don't know who it was, and smashed the beer bottle in his hand on the ground again.
"Even the new boss, who was not a Saints fan, has such ambitions. Could it be that we die-hard fans of the Saints are not as good as him? Then what qualifications do we have to call ourselves die-hard Saints?"
"Yes, goddamn it, the new boss has done this. What we fans didn't say, just one word, support to the end!"
"Yes, support to the end!"
"Maybe we don't have the money, but we must support the team!"
"Support Southampton, support the new boss!"
Saint Harry stood on the bar, and when he heard the crowd below, he shouted loudly, "Everyone be quiet, everyone be quiet, listen to me!"
Everyone quieted down and looked at the rosacea-nosed fat man.
"In the past, we at Southampton did not have a strict fan organization. Now that we have a new owner, we have to form a brand new team and build a brand new club. Then we have to have a decent fan organization. So, I will tomorrow Going to apply to the team to create an official fan organization called Saint Harry!"
"Okay, Saint Harry!"
"This name is good, count me in!"
"Count me in too!"
"My whole family will join in!"
"And us, and the whole family joins!"
The following group of people immediately enthusiastically supported it.
"Harry, we'd better start a website to attract more fans, as well as those young fans. Many of Southampton's diehard fans are old fans. We should actively attract more young fans to join them. This city, the future of this team," Peter suggested below.
Harry nodded vigorously, "Okay, let's do that, we'll start preparing tomorrow!"
"it is good!"
"Great!"
"We have to organize more activities, go to every game, let the guys who look down on us in Southampton see the majesty of our saints!"
"Yes, scare them to death!"
In the midst of the crowd, Matthew Le Tissier, the former legendary star of Southampton, was always sitting in an inconspicuous corner, watching all this silently. He felt a sense that the Southampton fans had passed by for many years. The enthusiasm for football is emerging rapidly.
The city has not felt the passion of football for too long!
Over the past few years, the city's economy has grown, but it's always regrettable.
That's because there is no football.
In the UK, a city without football is always a bit of a bummer.
Suddenly, Matthew Le Tissier understood the intention of the new owner of the team. He was encouraging more and more people to regain their passion for football, and he was trying to make football a belief in this seaport city.
His seemingly arrogant remarks actually spoke the voice of the Saints fans and inspired their frenzy.
Who doesn't think their team is the strongest?
Who wants to admit that their team is inferior to others?
"Perhaps, he can really lead Southampton to a revival!"
Matthew Le Tissier still underestimated Yang Huan's ambition, because the most peak moment in Southampton's more than 100-year history was a 1976 FA Cup championship.
It was also the only championship trophy in the history of Southampton's top domestic competition.
For Yang Huan, an FA Cup title is too small a goal.
Just as Matthew Le Tissier was walking out of the Saint Harry's bar and walking home, the phone in his pocket suddenly rang.
A strange caller ID.
After connecting, the person on the other side of the phone spoke directly.
"Hello, Mr. Matthew Le Tissier, I'm Yang Huan!"