Chapter 557 Genius Day

Early in the morning, just after daybreak, an old Ford Mondeo was driving fast on the M25 ring road.

The radio in the car was playing this morning's weather forecast, showing that the next few days would be the best weather in London since the beginning of winter, with ice and snow melting and warming up. The maximum temperature is expected to reach eight degrees, and it will be difficult to see snowfall in the next few days.

Although it is clear that weather forecasts are unreliable, Paul Brinton still smiled when he heard the news. His mood, which was already quite good, also improved. He raised his hand to the roof of the car, opened the sunroof, and took the opportunity to look up and glance at the top of his head. The blue sky was only lightly hung with a few thin clouds.

"I hope it won't rain!" Paul Brinton murmured hopefully.

The M25 highway went into a tunnel, and when it came out, a branch road appeared on the left side of the road. The sign on the A10 fork indicated a left turn. Paul Bullington immediately turned on the left turn signal and slowly drove into the A10 branch road, coming to the four-way intersection between Enfield and Cheshunt.

Going north along the roundabout at the four-way intersection, it was not long before it came to another roundabout with obvious road signs.

Tottenham Hotspur Theobald Training Base, turn left!

St. Mary's Public School, turn left!

Both road signs clearly indicated pedestrians. Paul Bullington passed by here every day, so he just glanced at the road sign casually, then turned left and directly entered the road named Lieutenant Ellis Road, which was named after Lieutenant Ellis.

After driving a few dozen meters, there is another small roundabout. Turn left to the Theobald training base. There is a very conspicuous Tottenham Hotspur team logo at the intersection, a vivid fighting cock stepping on a football, and turn right to St. Mary's School. The gates of both sides are hidden in the dense woods, leaving only a small road to the roundabout.

In fact, the entire Lieutenant Ellis Road is lined with dense woods on both sides, so people can't see anything inside the two famous places on both sides. There is almost no gap, which is completely hidden.

Paul Bullington turned left, passed through the woods, and came to Tottenham Hotspur's Theobald training base.

If the dense woods are just a disguise, then passing through the woods, you will feel suddenly enlightened, because the gate of Tottenham Hotspur is a large and very open park, full of various flowers, plants and trees. Even in winter, covered with snow, it still adds a bit of alternative scenery, especially those treetops covered with snow.

Seeing Paul Bullington's car, the gate slowly opened, and the latter drove to the parking lot behind the security building, where there was a parking space exclusively for him, because he was the security captain of Tottenham Hotspur's Theobald training base.

It was about to enter 2010, and Paul Bullington had been working at Tottenham Hotspur for six or seven years. He was not very old, 45 years old, and had been a policeman for more than ten years. Later, he was injured. If you pay attention, it is not difficult to find that his left leg is slightly lame, but it is difficult to find if you don't pay attention.

As early as when Tottenham Hotspur's training base was still in Chigwell, Paul Bullington was already the security captain. Later, it was moved to Theobald, and everything was emphasized to be formalized. Paul Bullington once thought that he would be fired, but it turned out that he not only continued to be his security captain, but was also sent to public training by the team.

The team paid for the five young security guards who were on duty at the Chigwell Training Base to receive formal security training, and then continue to work at the Theobald Training Base. However, as the training base grew in size, the security team also expanded. Now Paul Bullington has more than 30 people under his command, taking turns to protect the Theobald Training Base 24 hours a day.

Not only that, the security team also arranged for people to accompany the team and the youth team during their outings. After all, it is easier to use your own people, and these security guards have all received formal training. In particular, the London Police Department has cut its budget in recent years and laid off many people. In addition, the salary and benefits are not very good, so Paul Bullington used his connections to recruit many former London police officers to work as security guards at Tottenham Hotspur.

When Paul Bullington arrived at Theobald, the dedicated parking lot was already full of many large and small vehicles, and when he walked to the security building, all the security team members were already in place, including the employees who were originally on leave.

"Everyone!" Paul Bullington walked in front of everyone, except for those on duty outside the door.

"Today is the first day of Genius Day, and it is also a major challenge we have accepted in recent years. I hope everyone can stay alert and make sure there are no accidents during the Genius Day event. Do you understand?"

"Understood!" Everyone answered in unison. It is obvious that Paul Bullington has a high prestige among this group of people, and Tottenham Hotspur also treats security guards very well, at least much better than the London Police Department, which cuts its budget every year.

"Let me tell you some precautions today!" Paul Bullington took out a notebook from his pocket. These were some important things that Ron Gourley told him when he went to the White Hart Lane Stadium for a meeting yesterday. He must convey them to all assistants as soon as possible to ensure that there are no problems.

"A hundred volunteers organized by fans will come to the training base later. Everyone is familiar with it. We will do the same as usual today. I need four people to divide into two groups and lead volunteers to organize parking at the gate to ensure that this passage is not congested!" Paul Bullington pointed to the gate of Theobald. There is a piece of grass next to the park outside for parking.

For every game at White Hart Lane and every game of Theobald Youth Team, Tottenham Hotspur will organize and receive some volunteers to help, so the next three days of Genius Day will continue to be like this.

"The first-team area is not open to the public, so please pay attention to the sentries at the intersections. Also, our youth team's training building, research center, practice room and indoor stadium are not open to the public. There must be someone at the door of these places, and all the young players participating in the Talent Day activities are not allowed to be accompanied by their parents after entering the training building!"

Paul Bullington introduced a lot of rules, and the security team members below were also carefully recording them in their notebooks. They all knew that although Tottenham Hotspur's Talent Day activities were open to the public, they were only moderately open, and it was impossible to allow everyone to run around in the training base.

You know, there will be a lot of people coming to the scene today, and there may even be some scouts from other teams among them. If they are allowed to run around in the training base, no one knows what will happen.

"Finally, everyone will go to their respective posts later, and at the same time, make sure that the road signs and facilities in the areas they are responsible for are intact. If there are any problems, immediately notify the people in the general affairs department to deal with them. Do you understand?"

"Understood!" Everyone answered in unison again.

With Paul Bullington's wave, everyone dispersed immediately.

Time is running out. The selection for the Talent Day starts at nine in the morning. Now there are only less than two hours left. They must make the final preparations as soon as possible, because in the next three days, they will welcome a lot of players' parents, fans and media reporters.

Paul Bullington was once a well-known police officer in the London Police Department. The reason why he was able to become the security captain was not only because of his resume, but also because of his cautious style of doing things.

After the meeting, he was still worried. He walked from the park and parking lot outside the gate to the youth training area of ​​Theobald alone. He walked almost every road and confirmed every link that needed to be confirmed to ensure that there was no mistake.

"Hello, Mr. Bullington!"

When Paul Bullington walked to the fork outside the Central Lake Park, he saw several people stopped in front of the big map.

"Hello, Mrs. Ye!" Paul Bullington immediately walked in front of Huang Chu and greeted politely and courteously.

Huang Chu rarely appears at the Theobald training base, but everyone knows her because she is the kind of woman who is so beautiful that you can't forget her after just one look. More importantly, she is also a doctor with superb medical skills, and has a high reputation in Wellington Hospital and London.

Standing next to Huang Chu are three men, two old men and a middle-aged man. Paul Bullington also knows these three men. Ye Qiu introduced them to him a few days ago. The two old men are nominal consultants of the team, and the middle-aged man is the team's newly hired youth training camp director, Jan Olde Ricklink, the former Ajax youth training director.

The people who can let Ye Qiu's wife accompany him in person are not ordinary people. They are all good friends and mentors of Ye Qiu and his wife in their humble days. They are Bobby Hams, a famous former assistant coach of Ajax, who is now a technical consultant of Tottenham Hotspur, and Pim van Dude, a consultant of the R&D center.

Paul Bullington had never heard of these three people, but Ron Gourlay once told him that Ricklin was the most discerning youth coach in Ajax, known as Hawkeye. He almost never made mistakes in judging young players, and was very good at organizing and maintaining youth training; Bobby Harms was an expert in youth training, and he had produced Ajax stars such as Cruyff, Van Basten, Rijkaard, De Boer, Kluivert, and Van der Vaart.

As for Pim van Dude, it was said that he had rich experience in sports medicine and had worked with Peter Brandt.

Bobby Harms and Pim van Dude have both retired, but this time they were forcibly recruited by Ye Qiu to Tottenham Hotspur, which was considered to be a great honor for Ye Qiu, a good friend. However, they would not stay in London for a long time, but only come here when the team needs them, that's all, because relatively speaking, they don't like life in London.

As for Ricklink, he will become the team's youth training director, so he will naturally stay in London for a long time.

The map clearly lists the distribution of Theobald's youth training area, including every field and every building, which are clearly marked on it, and people can feel the perfection and advancement of Theobald, especially those youth training fields. Each field is equipped with monitoring and video recording. This is to facilitate the research center to collect data and information, and then combine the various sensors carried by the players to conduct in-depth analysis of each player.

When Huang Chu led a group of people into the youth team, passed the training building, and came to the training ground, they found that every training ground was very clean, which made Bobby Harms, Pim van Dude and others exclaim.

You know, it snowed in London in the past few days, and the weather was quite bad, but from the field, there was no trace of rain or snow, which shows that each field has excellent geothermal and drainage systems. And you know, Tottenham Hotspur's youth team has adopted the Ajax system, that is, six age groups, each age group has a total of two groups, including from seven to eighteen years old, and each group has a dedicated turf.

If all these twelve turfs are installed with geothermal, drainage and other systems, the cost is also a surprising figure.

Many people are surprised at the cost of Tottenham Hotspur's Theobald training base, and many people even think that it is exaggerated, but that's because they don't know the inside story. On the surface, the Theobald training base is no different, just like this youth team training ground, is there any difference from the training ground of other teams?

If it is normal, you really can't see the slightest difference, because the geothermal and drainage, even the cameras and sensors hidden in every corner of the training ground, you can't see them at all, but after snowing and raining, you can clearly feel their difference.

Only insiders can clearly know that Ye Qiu's heavy investment in building Theobald is not a waste of money, but a direct one-step to build the most complete and advanced training base in the world. Such money can get such an effect, super value!

Let alone, for Chelsea and Manchester City, with the same investment, do you have the ability to build a new Theobald training base? Don't dream, even if you spend twice the money, you can't do it!

"It's really a big deal!" Bobby Hams was also full of amazement.

Obviously, not only is he praising Theobald's youth training conditions, but he is also praising Ye Qiu's investment and ambition. At least in this regard, Ajax can't catch up, because they lack such ambition and foundation.

Isn't there a saying? The bolder your heart is, the more productive your land will be!

"He still does things the same way, a little too much in pursuit of perfection, and is still making constant efforts. Not long ago, he even specially developed a set of analysis system, and invested a lot of money!" Huang Chu was complaining about her husband.

It's not that she feels sorry for the money, but when others praise your husband, you always have to be more humble and euphemistically mention some shortcomings or something.

At least, Huang Chu is not the kind of woman who will follow others to praise her husband.

"I know that the system is very popular now. Ajax also planned to ask him for one before, but the cost will be more expensive!" Bobby Hams understood Huang Chu's little thoughts. The two old men helped to match them up, so they knew what Huang Chu was thinking.

"Let him send a set later!" Pim Van Dude said with a laugh.

Paul Brinton followed by him, and he found that he couldn't say anything, because no matter what he said, it would be inappropriate. After all, this group of people were Ye Qiu's closest family and friends.

"I heard that he plans to build a youth training and recreation center in Theobald?" Bobby Harms asked.

This time Paul Bullington finally had the opportunity to talk, "Yes, Mr. Harms, it will be arranged next to the Central Lake Park and will be open to children under the age of seven, but they need to be accompanied by their parents. No fees will be charged, just to cultivate children's interest in football and Tottenham Hotspur."

"This is a good idea, based on the long-term, and it can subtly let children accept Tottenham Hotspur's youth training culture." Pim Van Dude directly exposed Ye Qiu's idea.

Building a team, especially a team with culture and heritage, is not just about how much money you invest, how many superstars you buy, and how many championships you win. Wrong, you have these, but it does not necessarily mean that you have culture and heritage, because you lack a core culture, a core culture that can infect people.

It's like everyone mentions Manchester United and immediately thinks of the Red Devils spirit. Why?

In addition, many low-level teams often have a lot of die-hard fans in the fan group. Even if their performance is poor, even if their performance is bad, they still have so many die-hard fans. Why?

It can be said that building the culture of the club is a very long, long and complicated process. It requires you to start from all aspects and fields, from the first team, the youth team, the children, and even all aspects of society. You need to establish your own image and unique culture.

Only in this way, when others think of you, they will naturally think of your culture and identify with it.

After Paul Bullington accompanied the group to visit the youth training area, the club staff and volunteers also arrived in Theobald one after another, and the busy Talent Day selection activities finally kicked off.

At 8:30, more and more fans began to appear outside, and the bus arranged by the team to pick up the players and parents who participated in the Talent Day activities also arrived in Theobald.

The entire training base began a busy day, especially when more and more fans flocked to Theobald, wanting to see the so-called Talent Day selection event with their own eyes and witness what kind of talented young players Tottenham Hotspur would select. Inevitably, some scouts from other teams mixed into the crowd.

They are just like those scouts who mixed in the Ajax fan group and pretended to visit De Tokmost. They all hope to use Tottenham's influence and connections to find opportunities to select and poach young players they like.

Tottenham has no way to stop such things, so there is a rule in the team's Talent Day event, that is, all scores will not be announced to the public, even the players and their parents will not know.

The analysis report of the players participating in the Talent Day selection event is only known to Tottenham's internal staff.