Six Hundred and Ninetieth Six Saints and White Roses

With a bang, Gao Shen opened the floor-to-ceiling curtains of the bedroom, only to find that the outside of the room turned into a vast white world.

It's snowing in Manchester!

The room was warm, but I really didn't feel anything unusual.

It's sleet outside, and it's cold to look at.

As a child who grew up in the south, Gao Shen has a special feeling for Bai Xue.

He still remembered that when he went to school in the north, he ran to find Su Qing for the first time when it snowed. The two southerners just watched the snow for a long time, and they didn't even feel bored.

Thinking of Su Qing, Gao Shen made a video call to her and asked her to see the current snow scene in Manchester.

After the two chatted for more than half an hour, they made an appointment that Su Qing would come to Europe to accompany him as soon as the Spring Festival was off.

By the way, let me talk about the Gaoshen Buying Club.

After washing up, Gao Shen went downstairs, and the nanny had already prepared breakfast for him.

While eating, I heard the outermost doorbell rang, and it was Fernando Lucas who came.

He drove the car straight to the door of Gao Shen's house, rushed in with a large heavy box of documents, kept shouting cold, and then saw Gao Shen was leisurely eating breakfast in his home clothes, That was a grievance in his heart.

"Seriously, you are really an unscrupulous boss!" Lucas complained all the time.

"During work, you have to work hard. It's finally Christmas, and you still don't have time to rest. If you work for you, that's 365 days a year, multiplied by 24 hours a day. , damn it!"

Gao Shen knew that he must have not eaten yet, so he asked the nanny to prepare one for him, and ignored his complaints.

After breakfast, Gao Shen asked Lucas to hold the box of materials and followed him into the study.

...

Since Gao Shen revealed to Lucas for the first time more than two months ago that he intends to buy a football club, Lucas began to collect information through various channels and methods in his spare time. Some materials and intelligence.

The goals are mainly in the English Championship and League One.

The league is too low, wanting to be promoted to the Premier League will take a long time, and Gao Shen doesn't have the patience.

The Premier League team is advanced and cannot be bought, and his financial resources are limited.

In the past two months or so, Gao Shen has met with Lucas frequently. When talking about this matter, both of them will target the teams in the middle and lower reaches of the English Championship and the upper reaches of the League One.

In this way, teams like Notts County, Charlton, Brentford, etc. basically have no idea.

As for the upstream teams of the British Championship, such as Queens Park Rangers, Cardiff, Norwich, Swansea and other teams, there is basically no need to think about it. Each of these teams is worth a lot of money.

Of course, a high net worth does not mean that the transfer price is high.

For example, there are many teams in the British Championship that are heavily in debt, and the transfer price is very cheap, but Gao Shen has to bear all the debts after the acquisition. This is another sky-high price for him, and it is not worth it.

His acquisition budget is 50 million euros, which also takes into account the investment and daily operation issues after the acquisition.

Gao Shen can also find a bank loan to complete the acquisition, but the risk of doing so is a bit high.

Among the materials submitted by Lucas, Gao Shen also saw many familiar teams.

For example, Middlesbrough, but the owner of this team is also quite rich.

Watford, this club is the same owner as Serie A Udinese and La Liga Granada,

They are all the Pozzo family in Italy. They run the team through this kind of acquisition, and the players also flow back and forth.

When choosing a team, the city where it is located is actually very important.

For example, Nottingham Forest, this club is quite good. It has won the Champions League twice and has a rich history, but his boss is the chairman and founder of a European private equity company called Nigel Doughty. Nottingham Forest was bought in 1999 for 11 million pounds.

According to the information collected by Lucas, Doughty has invested at least 100 million pounds in Nottingham Forest over the years.

In this case, at what price can Gao Shen impress Nigel Doughty and let him make a move?

As for a team like Derby County, the price is not high, but the problem is that the population of Derby City where he is located is only about 200,000, and the stadium capacity is more than 30,000.

What do you mean?

That is to say, one out of six people in the whole city has to go to the stadium to watch the game, in order to fill the stadium with more than 30,000 people. The key is that the ticket price is quite cheap. One can imagine how difficult it is.

If the home attendance rate is not good, the game day revenue will drop a lot, and the operating costs invested by Gao Shen will be higher.

Because at the beginning stage, don’t count on any commercial income and broadcasting rights at all. The latter will only be considered after reaching the Premier League, and the former will have a chance at least after getting acquainted with the Premier League.

In other words, the most reliable thing now is the game day income.

The lower the game day income, the higher the operating costs that Gaoshen needs to pay.

To put it simply, the more money he needs to invest.

The game day income actually depends on the attendance of the stadium, which needs to take into account the population of the city where it is located.

For teams like Nottingham Forest and Brighton, their bosses are all local fans, and their own financial resources are also very strong, so Gao Shen doesn't need to think about it at all.

Teams like Portsmouth and Leicester City have already been acquired by foreign capital, let alone Gao Shen.

...

"I made a preliminary screening, and I think there are a few teams that are worth considering."

"Leeds United, Sheffield United and Southampton, these three teams would be good choices."

Gao Shen read Lucas' information while listening to his analysis.

"Let's talk about it one by one."

After Lucas finished speaking, he pointed to a document in Gao Shen's hand, "Leeds United, needless to say, you must be familiar with this team. His current boss is Ken Bates, the former boss of Chelsea. Chelsea sold to Roman Abramovich and then went on to buy Leeds United."

"But six years have passed. Under his management, this team has not improved, but has become worse and worse. The current price of Leeds United will definitely not be high. I personally think that more than 25 million euros is not enough. Good deal."

"So cheap?" Gao Shen raised his head and looked at Lucas, suspecting that he had heard it wrong.

"Cheap?" Lucas shook his head with a smile, "I asked my friends in the City of London to find out that Bates has mortgaged almost all of Leeds United's energy over the years, and sold everything that could be sold. Now Leeds United is left with an empty shell, the stadium is not their own, the training ground is not their own, even the youth training is gone now, let alone the age group, sometimes the second team can't make up the 18-man roster. "

Gao Shen frowned.

How outrageous is that?

"Then how does Leeds United play now?" Gao Shen thought it was very funny.

"It's rented, the Elland Road Stadium is rented, the training ground is also rented, youth training, have you heard of the rookies trained by Leeds United in recent years?"

Gao Shen was really speechless.

"Then you still say that Leeds United is worth considering?"

"Because it is cheap, and the attendance rate of his home court is really high. Leeds has a population of 700,000, and several big cities within 20 to 30 kilometers have already been connected together, with a total population of more than 2 million. In recent years, The economy is developing very well, the surrounding football team is Leeds United with the highest level, the best fan base, and the most ideal home attendance!"

Gao Shenmoran, Leeds United's foundation is indeed really good.

But other aspects are too hip!

"Let's talk about Sheffield United. This is also a team in a big city. The population of the metropolitan area exceeds 1.5 million, but this team is currently in trouble. The possibility of relegation in the English Championship this season is very high. Owner Kevin McCabe is said to have run out of money to invest."

"Oh, by the way, he also invested in a football club in China before, but lost a lot of money."

When Lucas said this, Gao Shen remembered.

There is indeed such a thing.

At that time, he also paid special attention to the news. Kevin McCabe is said to be a British real estate tycoon, but the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008 and the subsequent financial crisis caused his assets to shrink sharply, so his life has been very difficult in recent years. It's hard.

But this guy is not a good stubble either.

Later, Saudi investors were willing to accept Sheffield United, and McCabe transferred a part of the shares at a price of one pound, in exchange for the Saudis' 10 million capital injection into Sheffield United. At that time, the team was still in the third tier. , but then I don’t know what happened, anyway, the two sides had a lot of trouble.

Gao Shen doesn't remember the specific content very clearly, but he knows that McCabe is not a good stubble, but a bad guy.

"Sheffield United don't have to think about it. I know McCabe and I can't cooperate."

Lucas was stunned for a moment, he just did the background tune at the beginning, and he hasn't understood this in detail yet.

But since Gao Shen said so, he must be right.

"That was the last Southampton. The Saints were sold to the Swiss billionaire Marcus Liebherr in 2009. The sale price was 14 million pounds, and Liebherr was very happy. I am optimistic about Southampton, the first thing after the acquisition is to invest a large amount of money to renovate the training base and strengthen investment in youth training."

"The good times don't last long, just this year, Markus Liebherr died of a heart attack, and now his daughter is his successor, but she has no interest in running a Premier League team, sources from the City of London said , she intends to sell, but the price will definitely be much higher than in 2009, because this year's Saints are the favorites to be promoted to League One."

The number one favorite to win the League One this season is Brighton, and the boss behind this club is also a big money maker.

Gao Shen remembers very clearly that Southampton should quickly return to the Premier League in the next two or three years, because the Saints quickly set off a storm in the Premier League.

The current British Championship and League One, basically a little higher quality clubs, have long been scoured by foreign capital and local rich.

The rest are basically some leftovers picked by others, each has its own problems, and some are sold at a very high price.

If one of Sheffield United is removed according to Lucas' previous screening, then Leeds United and Southampton will remain.

These two teams really have their own problems. Judging from the current situation, Southampton is about to upgrade, coupled with the training ground being renovated, and a perfect youth training system, the asking price of the Liebherr family is probably It must be more than 40 million, or even 50 million euros.

As for Leeds United, this is also a big problem. Even the stadium and training ground are rented, and the youth training camp is abandoned. This is too nonsense!

Who should I choose?

Gao Shen is a headache!

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