Seven Hundred and Twentieth Eight Signed!

There is such a saying in the British study circle: Out of London is a village.

This is actually very reasonable.

If you are used to seeing large and medium-sized cities in China, you will find that the urban appearance of Leeds is really quite rural.

There is no subway, travel is either by bus or by foot.

Interestingly, the city is not very big, and it is very fast to ride a bicycle and go around.

More importantly, the per capita income here is not a village at all.

Moreover, in recent years, Leeds has developed very rapidly. It is already the second largest financial center and second legal center in the UK, the third largest city, the fourth largest metropolitan area, the city with the lowest unemployment rate and the fastest population growth.

Even knowing this, every time Gao Shen came to Leeds, he still felt that it was a village.

...

Elland Road Stadium is located in the middle of two large overpasses in the southwest of Leeds city, and the traffic is quite convenient.

To the west and north of the stadium, there is a large piece of wasteland.

This is the original Pleton Park training center of Leeds United, but it was deserted at the beginning of the century.

It is said that the earliest purpose was to expand the Elland Road Stadium. At that time, it was planned to build a hotel and a Leeds largest shopping center on this land. No big shopping malls.

But what happened later, everyone knows that Leeds United went bankrupt.

This piece of land has been abandoned in this way, and now it has become a temporary parking lot.

But England has a lot of rain, so the whole land is muddy, and even as a parking lot, the conditions are still terrible.

Northeast of Elland Road is the interchange where the M621 and A643 meet.

Don't think that it will be the kind of tall overpass in China. It is actually a large roundabout, which is elevated from east to west, and the rest is on the ground. Not too much difference, not tall at all.

Litong North, A643 is actually a dead end road. Both the north and south ends have been repaired, but there is a section of nearly 300 meters in the middle that stopped abruptly. It is said that there was some controversy at that time, and then it was shelved.

Who knows?

To the west of Dead End Road is Leeds United's largest car city, where most of the family car brands can be bought, and all kinds of auto parts are also sold here.

To the east of Dead End Road is another large piece of wasteland, the area is larger than those next to Elland Road. The wasteland is surrounded by some old warehouses that are rented to store waste. The conditions of the site are very bad, and even I saw a mountain of plastic barrels in front of a warehouse.

This is the destination of Gao Shen and others' trip.

...

"They said that this was originally a high school, but it was abandoned more than ten years ago. When the road was built, even the teaching building was pushed away, but it has been abandoned since then, and it is useless."

Standing on the dead end road, Su Qing and others introduced the wasteland in front of Gao Shen.

"According to the intention of the Leeds City Government, this large piece of land, including the surrounding warehouse areas, can all be planned for us to build a new training base. The premise is that we must give them this dead end road superior."

"That's it?" Gao Shen didn't believe it.

Su Qing smiled, "Of course it's not that simple. We need to pay a demolition fee for the warehouse area, but the government will come forward. It's not a big problem. I asked Richard Kramer to find out. The whole area is really huge. It is definitely more than enough to build a training base.”

Gao Shen took a look, and looked over with naked eyes, the area was indeed large.

This land is really worthless, because it has been abandoned for so many years.

If there is such a large piece of land in the urban area in China, even in third- and fourth-tier cities, how much is it worth?

Not to mention anything else, it is simply too extravagant to use so much wasteland around Elland Road Stadium as a parking lot.

Although the land in Leeds is not very valuable, it is impossible to be so cheap and sophisticated for no reason.

They also have shrewd plans of their own.

That is to hope that Leeds United will move the training base back to the urban area.

A well-equipped training base, especially a modern training base for Premier League teams, requires an investment of at least 20 to 30 million pounds, which can provide hundreds of jobs in the surrounding area for a long time and drive a series of supporting facilities, including some service industries.

Professional football has long been an entire industry, not just training and competition.

According to Richard Cramer's explanation, if no one invests in a wasteland like this, it is likely to be left here for decades, and the dead end road will always be broken like this, and no one will take care of it.

Because it costs money.

This is why after Leeds United went bankrupt, the area around Elland Road was abandoned.

If Leeds United plans to build a new training base in the future, this land will undoubtedly be very suitable. The city government just took this opportunity to launch an urban renovation project, directly transforming the dilapidated waste collection concentration camp into a The tall training base can also serve the surrounding residential communities.

Of course, the demolition fee must be a sum of money, but it will not be too much.

According to the current plan given by the Leeds City Government, Leeds United and the owner of the stadium, Gao Shen will acquire the Elland Road Stadium, the Prelton Park site and the Thorpe Arch training base at a high price of 15 million pounds.

The government compensates with a long-term agreement. As long as Leeds United pays the expropriation fee, the wasteland of the high school and the surrounding warehouse area and waste area will be handed over to Leeds United, but they can only be used to build a new training base.

"What do you think?" Gao Shen asked Su Qing.

Su Qing nodded, "I think it's pretty good."

Conditions at Thorpe's Arch are indeed dire, and need to be remodeled, even if only temporarily.

If Leeds United has money in the future, Gao Shen's first thing must be to build a new training base.

Instead of expanding Thorpe Arch at that time, it is better to move directly to the city center and use Thorpe Arch as one of Leeds United's youth training centers.

As for the city center, if it is built here, a pedestrian bridge will be erected at that time, and it will be directly from here to the Elland Road Stadium, which is very convenient.

The ideal is to be very plump, but now it is a bit cruel.

Because all of these cost money.

Gao Shen has even asked Fernando Lucas to start preparations to start building a data center in Leeds United.

This will be an upgraded version of the existing analysis group.

The so-called data center is divided into two parts, one is the team's training and game data, that is, various data and analysis of existing players, which many teams are already doing, including Manchester City.

Another part is the player database.

Few fans should know this, but in fact there are several teams doing it, but the methods and methods are different.

There was a rumor in professional football that in the 1990s, a Ligue 1 team received videotapes of players' games from all over the world, and then accumulated more and more, and finally crushed the floor.

This is not a lie, but a fact.

It's as if a best-selling author in China bought several apartments in order to store letters from readers.

At first it was videotapes, then it became VCDs and DVDs, and now some teams are using the Internet.

For example, in Seville, Monchi has been transforming Seville to the Internet over the years.

Monchi's scouting network is, to put it bluntly, really no big deal.

They have arranged about ten full-time scouts in different regions of the world, and at the same time there are different numbers of amateur scouts who are responsible for providing intelligence and news. The task of full-time scouts is to collect various information about players.

When Sevilla was able to dig Daniel Alves from Brazil's second-tier league, it can be seen how deep Sevilla's scouting network has dived in Brazil.

Similar to the model of Sevilla, in fact, many teams are doing it, but some are doing it very successfully, and some are doing it very badly. This is also normal, because not everyone can play it well. A set of patterns.

Coincidentally, Fernando Lucas is a top analyst in the world. He has given lectures to many data analysis employees. Among them, one of his most proud students, said to be a student, is actually not much different from him in age. His name is Victor Horta, he works in Seville, and he is also Monchi's right-hand man.

He studied chemistry at university. After graduation, he became a football reporter, reporting news for Marca and Eurosport, and later worked as an agent for a Spanish sports agency. It was at this time that he became interested in data and met Lucas.

Later, he went to Seville and worked as an assistant for Monchi, mainly to analyze and summarize various data.

According to his introduction, it was an extremely large and complex project.

And the advanced data center wants to systematize this huge and complicated project.

Scouts all over the world can use the computer and mobile software provided by the club to upload various player data and videos they have collected online anytime and anywhere, and the club can summarize and analyze them through the data center, and select their own players Players and even coaches are needed.

In addition, the data center can also collect and analyze the first team and youth team players in the team, including their various data and intelligence, such as injuries, state fluctuations and so on.

Previously, all of this was done manually, but now it can be done by computers in the data center.

Doing so can greatly reduce the workload and reduce labor costs.

But you need to invest a lot of money upfront.

Gao Shen has already approved, no matter what, this set must be assembled first.

Once Gao Shen successfully completes the acquisition of Leeds United, Victor Horta will also come to the UK from Seville to serve as Leeds United's first data center director. This will be a brand new position.

At the same time, the head of scouting and the head coach of the youth team are currently being formed.

Today's Leeds United can be said to be poor and white, with nothing.

Once Gao Shen completes the acquisition, the investment will not even be less than 15 million pounds for the acquisition of this team.

But Gao Shen believes that once the establishment is completed, the future development prospects of Leeds United will not be what can be imagined now.

As for the land in front of me...

"Signed!" Gao Shen said ambitiously.

Su Qing, Lucas and Borel all nodded.

This wasteland is the real future of Leeds United!