One Thousand One Hundred and Seven Youth Training Methodology

In his previous life, as a middle-level executive of an enterprise, Gao Shen has always attached great importance to market research.

For example, Leeds United is going to invest in the construction of a new stadium plot. Although the team has made a detailed market survey more than ten years ago, but time has passed, Gao Shen still asks the club to entrust a third party to formulate a new one.

The results obtained are quite different from those of the previous year.

For example, the Trinity Shopping Center in the city center did not exist in those days.

This requires Leeds United to pay more attention to differentiation in the business planning and investment promotion of the new stadium.

The same goes for stadium naming.

When deciding to build a new stadium, Gao Shen has already hired a professional third-party organization through the club to conduct market evaluation on the naming of stadiums in several mainstream sports markets around the world.

When it comes to conclusions, the naming of stadiums in the Premier League is seriously underestimated.

The most obvious example is Arsenal.

When preparing to build the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal signed a package plan with Emirates. What happened?

This seemed like a lot at the time, but as time went on, looking back now, I found that Arsenal really suffered a big loss.

But there is no way, the long-term contract has been signed.

Cases like this are not unheard of.

For example, the Los Angeles Chargers of the American NFL.

In 1997, the Los Angeles Chargers signed a 20-year arena naming contract for less than $1 million per season, but now?

Value at least $5 million or more.

Of course, the increase in commercial value brought about by marketing itself must also be taken into account.

But in the report of the third-party organization, it is clearly mentioned that many financial companies, such as banks, insurance, personal investment, etc., as well as some retail, aviation, and Internet companies, are full of interest in this kind of cooperation .

“They realized early on that there was more to sponsorship than simple branding.”

In the Bundesliga, stadium naming is nothing new. Many Bundesliga teams have sold their home stadiums, such as Bayern and Dortmund.

These two Bundesliga teams are very capable of reflecting the value of the stadium.

The cooperation between Bayern and the Allianz Arena can be described as a model of stadium naming. The annual sponsorship fee of more than six million euros is not a loss at all. Even the Allianz Arena took this opportunity to directly bind Bayern and this stadium.

Now, when you mention Bayern, you naturally think of the Allianz Arena.

In contrast, Dortmund's situation is another.

It is estimated that many people do not remember the name of the Induna Signal Park stadium, but they still remember the original name of Dortmund, West FL Stadium.

Maybe many people will feel strange, why?

This is where preconceptions matter.

The difference between Bayern and Dortmund can very well explain the crux of the naming rights of stadiums in Europe's top leagues.

All the rich teams will basically not plan to build a new stadium in a short period of time, but the risk of naming the old stadium is too high and the benefits are not high.

For example, in this report by Leeds United, sponsoring Manchester United's stadium naming rights is about 17 million pounds per year, which is not a small amount of money, but how many people will remember the name of the new stadium by then?

It is estimated that when everyone in the world mentions Manchester United, they still think of Old Trafford.

It goes without saying whether this sponsorship will anger Manchester United fans.

The existence of historical baggage caused Manchester United to want to sell the naming rights early, but it has never been successful.

Manchester United's asking price is high, but companies that can pay the money are worried about profitability.

Conversely, Manchester United is unwilling to sell at a low price if they are given less.

The same is practically the case at the Bernabeu and Camp Nou.

In order to accommodate the emotions of the fans, the two giants will not easily move the naming rights. They want to sell, but they want to keep the names of the Bernabéu and Camp Nou, which makes the sponsors' willingness not particularly strong.

It's a bit like, a scumbag got divorced, got a girlfriend here, and lived with his ex-wife there, who can bear it?

According to the current valuation of the Premier League, Manchester United and Manchester City are the highest. Arsenal’s first contract is not signed, and the value cannot rise. Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea and Everton are basically not ideal. , after all, is the old course.

However, according to preliminary estimates, in the next five years, the value of stadium naming in the Premier League will at least double.

This is because the Premier League has a huge advantage that other top leagues cannot match, that is, overseas markets.

Therefore, the current psychological price of Leeds United is to sign for about ten years, which is about 15 million pounds per year.

This is also the advice given by third-party consulting companies.

Of course, it is a bit early to talk about this now, and we are still in the contact stage.

After all, Leeds United's new stadium is still under planning, and there is no shadow at all.

...

After attending the meeting at Elland Road, Gao Shen and his party headed north, left the urban area of ​​Leeds United, and headed for the Thorpe Arch training base.

According to the team's original plan, after the completion of the new training base, Thorpe's Arch will still be used as the team's youth training base, but after reconsideration, this plan was cancelled.

After seeing the plans for the new training base, everyone felt that there was no need to keep Thorpe's Arch.

So, when the team is finished, the team will all move to the new base.

It is human nature to like the new and dislike the old.

As Leeds United continues to grow, Thorpe's Arch is indeed becoming more and more crowded, with more and more people.

From the data center to the scouting team, to the methodology department, as well as the coaching staff, equipment team, medical room, etc., as Leeds United is getting more and more perfect, it seems that Thorpe's arch is getting smaller and smaller.

Now, everyone in the team is eagerly looking forward to the completion of the new base and putting it into use.

Gao Shen and his team went to inspect every department.

Under Borrell's management, the problem is not big.

After all, Borrell was a veteran of Barcelona's youth training before, and he was in charge of Leeds United's training base, so there was basically no problem.

More importantly, Gao Shen has always adhered to professional principles, so every department of Leeds United gathers various professionals from the European continent.

With the annual investment of over ten million pounds, the strength of Leeds United's youth training is also increasing day by day, and now it is a youth training force that cannot be underestimated in England.

Of course, there are also many people who criticize that Leeds United's youth training is fueled by money, and they are poaching people all over the world.

Regarding this, Gao Shen didn't think there was any problem at all.

Even when meeting with scouting director Steve Walsh, Gao Shen repeatedly urged him to improve the layout of the South American scouting network as soon as possible, and cooperate closely with South America, especially Brazil, Argentina and other talent bases.

The positioning of Leeds United is very clear, that is, the star transfer station.

Before the deep travel, many people criticized Real Madrid for spending a lot of money to sign Vinicius, Rodrygo and Reinier in Brazil, but no one understood why?

According to conventional practice, Brazilian players should first make their mark in the country, and be valued by teams in the middle and lower reaches of the top European leagues, or teams in the second-level leagues such as the Eredivisie and the Portuguese Super League. After performing well, they have proved their strength. And potential, the giants will make another move.

This layer-by-layer model can ensure that the risk of signings for the rich teams is minimized.

Therefore, it can be seen that the rich teams are willing to pay a lot of money to snatch people, because it is safe and the risk is not high.

Of course, the ones like Barcelona and Manchester United who wantonly rob people and have no rules at all are exceptions.

But with the influx of Manchester City, Paris, Monaco, and especially more wealthy teams into the four major leagues, everyone found that this road was no longer feasible.

When this player proves himself in the European League and emerges, he will become very sought-after and everyone will be grabbing it.

This is very outrageous.

Even some little-known players can exceed 100 million at every turn. Isn't this outrageous?

So, like Real Madrid, they started to turn around and choose to scratch the lottery. They went to the Brazilian league to search for talents.

That's where transfers like Vinicius, Rodrygo and Reinier come in.

Of course, there are also good and cheap cases like Uruguay's Ernesto Valverde.

But not all teams are Real Madrid, and even Real Madrid is not very willing to take this path, because the risk is really great.

It's like before the high-speed time travel, many people saw the success of Vinicius and Rodrigo, but Rainier was not very successful, and the former genius Erdgaard was also unsuccessful.

Behind the success, there are often a lot of losers, but they failed and were not known.

If you can choose, Real Madrid still wants to grab people in the European League at a high price.

For example, in 2017, they once wanted to sign the 18-year-old genius Mbappe from Monaco for 160 million, plus floating terms that could reach a sky-high price of 180 million euros.

But it is a pity that after all, they still failed to win Paris.

When Gao Shen came to Thorpe Arch this time, the focus was on the methodology department. He had a meeting with two experts, Paco Cerullo and Juan Villa, and the content was to study the youth training of Leeds United.

In the past two years, they have been investing in research on youth training. From individualized training of players to daily training items, etc., they are all their key research items and have achieved very fruitful results.

For example, this season, Leeds United's u21, that is, the reserve team, performed well in the Premier League's reserve team league. Among them, local players Calvin Phillips and Dele Alli have performed well, and they often come back to play in the reserve team. Young players such as Martial and Kimmich in the league made Leeds United's performance in the reserve league very eye-catching.

The methodology department also focuses on the cultivation of these U21 players, tailor-made training programs and training plans for them, including everything from diet to training to other aspects, and is doing its best to train them.

The head coach Luis Ramis from Spain led the team to play a round of offensive storm in the reserve league. The players performed well and their strength improved significantly.

Behind this, the methodology department has contributed a lot.

Moreover, in the past two years, they have been committed to creating a youth training system for Leeds United that is full of English characteristics and in line with the development trend of European football.

It's basically taking shape now and starting to see results.

Gao Shen came here this time to inspect the results.