Six Hundred and Ninety-Seven Can You Afford It?

Gao Shen and Lucas locked themselves in the study and studied for a whole day.

From the earliest English Championship and League One teams, they slowly focused, and finally there were White Rose Leeds United and Saints Southampton.

Both teams have their strengths.

Leeds United is mainly cheap, but the stadium and training ground are not their own. They have to find someone to rent, and the youth training has been abandoned, so they must reinvest. It seems that Leeds United does not have much ambition and it is difficult to break into the Premier League.

Over the years, Ken Bates has gradually received all the shares of Leeds United into his own hands, and they are currently up for sale.

Of course, he shouldn't expect to sell at a high price, unless Leeds United can reach the Premier League.

But if you want to enter the Premier League, you must invest, and Bates has no money to invest now.

This becomes a deadlock.

The advantage of Leeds United is that its fan base is strong enough, and the home attendance rate is really very high. The Elland Road Stadium with more than 30,000 people can basically be full, which is rare in the English Championship.

But because the stadium and training ground are not their own, they have to pay a large additional rental fee every year.

According to information Lucas received from some banks in the City of London that specialize in football club transactions, the annual rent is close to three million pounds.

But what is interesting is that the Elland Road Stadium has been around for more than 100 years. During the process, it has been repaired many times, but all the facilities are very old, and the training ground is far away in the northeast suburb of Leeds. The town itself is not expensive.

The expansion of the east stand on Elland Road has been completed, but the west stand went bankrupt before construction started. Originally, the west stand had reserved space for expansion, and the west side of the west stand was the original training ground of Leeds United, Fullerton Park. Now it is also deserted.

According to the news that Lucas received, the total price of the Fullerton Park base, Elland Road and the temporary training base is 20 million pounds. The current ownership is in the hands of a private company in Leeds, but it is basically useless. Collect rent.

In other words, if you buy Leeds United, you will have to spend another 20 million pounds to buy the stadium, training base and Fullerton Park base, which is a big wasteland, but you can save 3 million pounds a year in rent.

Gao Shen can only say one thing about this: Digging!

The managers of Bates and Leeds United were really fucked up. They can even sell these things.

Calculated in this way, the purchase price of Leeds United is about the same as Gao Shen's expectation.

...

Southampton's situation is actually similar.

At present, the Liebherr family is up for sale. They have done a good job in Southampton's management.

According to the meaning of the Liebherr family, they probably want to take the opportunity to make a fortune after the upgrade, but it does not rule out that they want to gamble on the Premier League. After all, the value of the Premier League team and the English Championship team is completely different. And language.

Even if it's just a one-day trip to the Premier League, relying on the parachute protection plan, you can get a lot of money every year.

Therefore, Lucas initially estimated that if he wanted to win Southampton, he would definitely not be able to do it without 40 to 50 million.

But the benefits of the Saints are obvious. The team has a strong lineup and a strong bench. In addition, the youth training system is very complete, and the stadium and training ground are all their own.

The disadvantage is not without it, that is, the negotiation will be very strenuous, and the asking price of the Liebherr family must be very high. In addition, the population of Southampton is not as good as that of Leeds, and the fan base is not as good.

Lucas also said a message,

Currently, the United Kingdom is applying for the 2018 World Cup. Leeds is one of the cities arranged by the United Kingdom to host the World Cup. The Elland Road Stadium is also in the renovation plan, which shows the importance of this city.

But Gao Shen also told Lucas that Britain's success is unlikely.

As for the reason, the Football Association has already hired two chairmen for this matter.

Yes, deep old friend David Bernstein is coming up.

All in all, these two teams have their own advantages, and Gao Shen doesn't have a good idea for the time being.

However, since these two teams have been preliminarily selected, Gao Shen will let Lucas continue to dig deeper. It is best to learn more about the two teams in more detail, and even, if he has time, he wants to go to the scene to watch a bit.

To be honest, after being in the UK for a year and a half, Gao Shen has never been to Leeds or Southampton.

Especially Leeds, which is more than 60 kilometers away from Manchester, and he hasn't been there yet.

...

After the lunch break, Gao Shen explained some things about Lucas, and then sent him away.

Tomorrow is Christmas, and he also needs to be with his family.

Gao Shen calculated the off-duty time, called Su Qing, and chatted with her about this matter.

Su Qing only listened to the advanced introduction, and felt that the two clubs have their own advantages and disadvantages, and the specifics still need to be seen or contacted to be sure.

Even if Gao Shen wanted to buy it, he had to be willing to sell it.

"I've already adjusted all my holidays to around the Spring Festival. I'll accompany you to the scene to see it then."

Gao Shen nodded in agreement.

If you really want to buy, you have to act fast.

Time is precious. Once it is done, it is best to get it done before the transfer period, so that he can operate in the transfer market, improve the competitiveness of the team as soon as possible, and strive to return to the Premier League as soon as possible.

If you don't catch up with the transfer period, wouldn't it be a waste of another season?

This may not be a big deal to other rich bosses, but to Gao Shen, it is all money.

In the British Championship and the League One, basically all the money burned is advanced.

After hanging up Su Qing's call, Gao Shen thought about it and called David Bernstein.

If he wants to acquire a club, he must pass the review and approval of the English Football League and the Football Association.

The former is a club league responsible for managing other English leagues except the Premier League. It can be regarded as an organization under the management of the FA, and it will definitely have to deal with it at that time.

Therefore, Gao Shen had to talk to David Bernstein in advance.

Christmas is around the corner, but David Bernstein is not idle at all.

He is busy preparing to run for the chairmanship of the FA.

Bernstein was also very happy to receive the call from Gao Shen, not because Gao Shen is the head coach of Manchester City, but because Gao Shen had put forward a lot of opinions on his England youth training reform plan before, which helped him a lot.

Of course, Bernstein also helped a lot with Fernandinho's labor certification.

When he heard that Gao Shen actually wanted to buy a low-level league club, Bernstein's first reaction was to be taken aback.

"Are you crazy?" Bernstein blurted out, "Is the head coach really making so much money? Although your annual salary after tax is more than 10 million, you can't stand the club burning so much money. Can you afford it?"

Gao Shen didn't feel offended, because Bernstein spoke the truth.

These days, there are very few people who are willing to tell the truth to themselves.

"What money can I have? Isn't it all my fiancée's?" Gao Shen explained with a smile.

Generally speaking, Su Qing is described as a rich second generation who has a mine at home, and then wants to invest overseas, thinking about entering an industry that is more familiar with advanced, so this kind of idea came up.

But Gao Shen also said that the family property is not very rich, and it is all in the country, so it can only be enough.

"What I'm most worried about is, will this affect my coaching in Manchester City?" Gao Shen asked with concern.

If so, he would have to think about it.

"The situation you said has never happened in England before. We may have to study it carefully, but it is not true yet, so I can't say anything."

Gao Shen understands that it is impossible to go to the Football Association and say that Gao Shen wants to buy a football club. Do you think there will be conflicts?

Wouldn't that be big news?

"I can only say that as far as the current situation is concerned, if it is only in the low-level leagues, the problem should not be big, and I can control it, but if it comes to the Premier League, you know, the Premier League is not under the jurisdiction of the FA. Trouble."

The jurisdiction of the Premier League belongs to the Premier League, and the FA is only responsible for cup competitions and low-level leagues.

Gao Shen understood what Bernstein meant.

Even if it was just that, he was already very grateful.

"To be honest, I really think that running a football club is not as profitable as coaching. If you put your salary in the Premier League, the income of most teams is not as good as you." Bernstein persuaded again.

Most football players are losing money.

Of course Gao Shen knows, but there are always exceptions to everything.

And now is a godsend opportunity, it would be a pity not to.

I thought so in my heart, but on the bright side, Gao Shen continued to thank him, saying that he would definitely think about it, and persuaded his fiancee and family members, hoping that they would not make such blind investments, so as not to cause trouble for themselves.

Chatting and chatting, the topic was naturally talked about the upcoming FA chairman election and Bernstein's youth training reform plan, including the construction plan of St. George's Park.

This is a big project!

Gao Shen suggested that Bernstein could learn from Germany and France's Clairefontaine.

Regarding the reform of youth training, Gao Shen believes that strengthening technical training is the long-term trend in the future.

Especially in recent years, the trend has become more and more obvious. Players' skills and passing and receiving skills are becoming more and more important in the game. This will definitely become the direction of England's youth training reform.

Over the past year or so, with Gao Shen's promotion, Manchester City's reforms have been carried out very well.

The highly skilled coach Borrell is the technical consultant of Manchester City's youth training camp, and Manchester City is also willing to invest, searching for high-quality young players throughout the European football world. The current youth training camp is also full of talents.

Bernstein said that he is considering taking the FA team to Manchester City's youth training camp to study and study.

Of course Gao Shen would not refuse, saying that he would do his best to support it.

To put it bluntly, there must be a friendship between him and Bernstein, but friendship is valuable if it is valuable, and it is not valuable if it is not valuable. It is better to exchange some benefits with each other frequently.

Bernstein can transfer some benefits to Gaoshen, so Gaoshen naturally needs to send Bernstein what he wants.

This kind of exchange can make the friendship stronger and stronger, and the relationship can last longer.

If a club is really acquired in the future, there will be more opportunities to deal with the FA.

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