Chapter 188: Rebuilding a powerful team

Arenal Stadium is not only a modern stadium, but also a famous shopping mall in the New Town southeast of Amsterdam.

Here, there are many leisure, entertainment, catering and other shops. It is very lively every day. And if it is a match day, it is a paradise for all Ajax fans in the city and a place for all shop owners. their festival.

But all of this happened after Ye Qiu took charge of the team.

Since moving from the old Olympic Stadium to the Arena Stadium in 1996, as Ajax's performance has plummeted, fans have rarely had the opportunity to indulge in carnival. Although Olsen won a league championship during his period, At that time, more core players kept leaving the team, which somewhat diluted the joy of Ajax fans.

But now, after Ye Qiu took charge of the team, he vigorously reformed Ajax, making this Ajax team's strength improve by leaps and bounds. Coupled with the continuous improvement of the team's performance, almost every player in the Arena Stadium Every game becomes a paradise for fans to celebrate, and it also brings a huge improvement to the business of the shops here.

When Abramovich, accompanied by Pini Zahavi and Souness, walked into one of the small bars in the Arena Stadium, he found that the place was crowded, full of fans, and the air was filled with alcohol. breath.

The Russian rich man frowned, and withdrew his legs that he had just stepped in. He shook his head and said, "Let's go drink coffee!"

Originally, he planned to experience the kind of carnival that ordinary fans would have after winning the game, but at that moment, he felt disgusted from the bottom of his heart. He simply could not integrate into the bar atmosphere full of alcohol and foul language. go.

Even, to a certain extent, he prefers to drink red wine, eat steak, and watch the game leisurely on his luxury yacht, which is definitely more comfortable than coming to the scene to watch.

The difference between a cafe and a bar is that one is noisy and the other is quiet, one is on the first floor and the other is on the second floor. One has no air conditioning, while the other always maintains a proper temperature and does not have the disgusting smell of alcohol.

"Welcome!" As soon as we walked in, a well-dressed waiter came to greet us politely.

Abramovich glanced at the coffee shop. There were also a lot of people gathered, but it was obviously more orderly than in the bar.

Arena Arena is very expensive. The rent of the shops is not cheap, but the area is very small. This coffee shop is probably less than 100 square meters, but it also has a bar, storage rooms, bathrooms and other facilities. The actual area for entertaining guests is even smaller, but because the furnishings are neat and the guests are sitting in an orderly manner, it looks very comfortable.

Sometimes it is like this. No matter how big the space is, it will feel crowded if it is messy. If the space is small, as long as it is tidy and tidy, it will feel enough. People, whether they are comfortable or not is purely a feeling.

"It seems business is very good!" Abramovich smiled and found a seat by the window to sit down.

From here, you can see Ajax fans coming out from downstairs. The square below is crowded with tens of thousands of fans. The scene is really spectacular.

"Yes, especially during home games. The Arena Stadium has been almost full in the past few years, and our business has also improved accordingly." The waiter smiled and wiped the table over there, following Abramovich. Strange words.

Abramovich smiled and said, "From your tone, it seems that the attendance rate was not high before?"

The waiter was a little surprised. Almost all the people who came here were Ajax fans. Don't these people know what happened in the past few years? When he thought of this, he felt a little proud, thinking that he would pretend to be a veteran when he met a new fan. "You don't know, right? Our Ajax results were terrible back then, and all the people were poached." , and the results plummeted.”

Under Abramovich's encouraging smile, the waiter continued to say that at least he felt that if he pleased this customer, he might get a large tip, and he would make a lot of money.

"I still remember that when I first came to the store, we lost 0:4 at home to PSV. Oh my god, all the Ajax fans went crazy that day. There was a demonstration downstairs in our store, and we were so frightened by the display that they were afraid of rushing in and destroying the store.”

Abramovich didn't seem to be in a hurry to drink coffee or push him, he just sat there and listened with a smile on his face.

"Then there was another time. It seemed that we lost to Feyenoord. It was a miserable loss. The fans were not happy and they rebelled directly. That season was very chaotic and the team's results were also very bad. In the end, the first team The team could not qualify for European competitions and could not even win the UEFA Cup. Instead, the second team won the Dutch Cup and could play in the UEFA Cup.”

Abramovich was happy when he heard this, "The second team can go to European competitions instead? How does this count?"

"Yes, everyone is surprised, how does this count?" The waiter also asked with a smile, "In the end, he was on the first team."

"Ye Qiu?" Abramovich finally recognized it. Isn't this what Ye Qiu did a few years ago?

"Yes, Mr. Ye Qiu is so awesome. I have a friend who works in the administration department. He told me that in the first meeting, Mr. Ye Qiu said directly that all the players in the first team are not good, or they are veterans who have declined. , or they are not strong enough, even if there are a few good players, but if the club wants to recruit them, they have to sell them if they don’t have money. In the end, he sold them all with a wave of his hand!”

Abramovich was a little surprised when he heard this. He didn't expect Ye Qiu, who was so gentle, to have such courage.

"At that time, this matter broke out in Ajax. The directors were crazy and thought that Mr. Ye Qiu was messing around. In addition, the players he introduced later were not famous, and the results were not very ideal at the beginning, so they wanted to fire him. But later, as the team's performance gradually improved, the directors were helpless. Instead, their power was reduced one by one, and some were kicked out of the board of directors. The management was finally controlled by Chairman Van Praag."

"Now we look back, some of the players sold by Mr. Ye Qiu have disappeared, some can't play football at all, and some can only play in Playing in the middle and lower reaches of the Eredivisie, or even in other worse leagues, this is enough to prove how sharp Mr. Ye Qiu's vision was at that time. "

A newspaper once made a summary. Among the group of people who were kicked out of the Ajax lineup by Ye Qiu, there were either players such as Grunsjær, Arveladze, and Konope who actively requested transfers or were sold for money. The transfer fees of these players were converted into Ajax's signings. There were also several players such as Van Haast and Aaron Winter who played in the middle and lower reaches of the Eredivisie. Most of the remaining players stopped playing and almost never appeared in front of the media and fans.

For example, Dani, the Portuguese genius who was heavily introduced by Atletico Madrid, eventually disappeared, and Konope's performance was always unsatisfactory after leaving Ajax. Some other players, such as Grunsjær, performed well in the Premier League, and that's it.

Therefore, many people believe that although Ye Qiu's approach was drastic and seemed a bit excessive, it also reflected his understanding of Ajax. He launched a reform from the bottom up, which completely gave Ajax a new look.

Watching the waiter leave, Abramovich's smile became even stronger. Even Zahavi praised Ye Qiu's vision. Almost every player he introduced proved his strength in the end.

I won't say much about other things. Look at Arteta. The players that Barcelona didn't like were directly given to Ajax as a bonus for the transfer. But as soon as he came to the Eredivisie, he immediately showed the strength of not being able to say the top, but at least the first-class midfield in Europe. He almost had a seamless connection with Ajax and became a well-known rookie in Europe.

There are also the new Dutch three musketeers of Van der Vaart, Sneijder and Robben. Some people call them the four young Dutchmen together with Van Persie of Feyenoord. However, Van Persie has been put into the cold palace by Van Marwijk because of his public conflict with him. However, the three musketeers of Ajax have already made a name for themselves in Europe and attracted the attention of many giants including Barcelona and Real Madrid. The gap is not ordinary.

The coffee was served, but Abramovich did not drink a sip. Zahavi and Souness also sat quietly opposite him. They all knew that the Russians were thinking about some problems at this moment.

No one would have thought that these problems would completely overturn the current pattern of European football.

After a long time, Abramovich put away his thoughts and looked at Zahavi, "What do you think of him?"

Souness was embarrassed and disappointed because he was completely ignored by Abramovich.

After hearing this, Zahavi smiled, "I heard that what he hates most are those giants, because he has been poached by giants many times, so he once said that there is nothing great about giants. Give him time and money, and he will create another giant!"

When these words came out, Abramovich's eyes lit up. He was also ambitious to build a giant.

For Abramovich, who grew up in the Soviet Union with complicated relations, he entered the football field with a very complicated purpose, but his goal was very clear, that is, to use the influence of football to make himself the most watched group of people in the world, so that he can continue to survive safely.

And no one is more concerned by the European media than the owner of a super giant, and his character has always been to hope to become the strongest and the most powerful decision-maker, so he is unwilling to be inferior to others. He either doesn't do it, or he wants to do it the best.

Zahavi knows how to guess Abramovich's mind, and he is a very shrewd guy.

Why is he willing to invest so much effort in Abramovich?

Because he tried every means to instigate, or incite Abramovich to acquire a Premier League team. In his opinion, the power of an agent is always limited, and controlling a player is far less influential than controlling a top team.

Abramovich listened, smiled, and said nothing more. He drank the cup of coffee in front of him in one breath and stood up, "Let's go, Pini, didn't you say you would take me to Eindhoven and introduce someone to me?"

Zahavi also smiled and stood up after hearing this, "Yes, he is the general manager of Eindhoven, Frank Arnesen, the youth training expert with the most complete scout network in the world today."

After a pause, he smiled again: "If an outstanding championship coach can bring you the present, then Arnesen is the one who can give you the future!"

…………

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Ye Qiu didn't know whether Abramovich came to the Arena Stadium to watch the game, because he didn't have time to contact anyone before the game. He was focused on preparations and the game. During the game, there were so many people in the stands. How could he have time to slowly look for someone?

Even if he could find someone, he didn't have the heart to do it.

Ajax beat Manchester United 3:1 at home. This was indeed a big upset, which shocked the entire European football world, because Ajax will rely on the victory of this game to sit firmly on the throne of the group leader.

But soon, everyone forgot Ajax, forgot Ye Qiu who defeated Ferguson, and remembered another name.

Antić!

It is true that Barcelona this season is tragic. Gaspart bet all his belongings on Van Gaal, confident that Van Gaal's return will definitely bring changes to Barcelona, ​​but what he didn't expect was that Van Gaal's Barcelona fell to 15th in the league, almost falling into the relegation zone.

Many people began to doubt that Van Gaal would make Barcelona another giant club relegated to the Spanish Second Division after Atletico Madrid.

After the winter break, Van Gaal finally couldn't bear the pressure and announced his resignation, and the chairman who supported him, Gaspart, also announced his resignation. Vice Chairman Reina temporarily took charge of the board of directors. After Rexach led the team for a short period of training, the former Yugoslav coach Antic, who relegated Atletico Madrid, took over Barcelona.

Everyone knows that there are many reasons for Atletico's relegation, and Antic cannot be blamed entirely, but it is still inevitable to feel pessimistic about Antic's future in Barcelona. What was unexpected was that this coach, who was questioned after taking office, beat the opponent 3:0 when facing Inter Milan at the Nou Camp.

Cooper's Inter Milan is star-studded, but it has no fighting power at the Nou Camp. The Argentine coach publicly criticized the team's midfielders and defenders after the game, and severely criticized Cannavaro, the team's top central defender.

"Today's game taught us a painful lesson. Kluivert and Saviola's running created a huge space. The distance between our central defender and central midfielder was too large, which was exploited by the opponent, especially Saviola, who played the best game since joining Barcelona. Someone must be held responsible for this."

According to Inter Milan's lineup before the game and the performance in the game, Cooper arranged a combination of Cannavaro and Carlos Gamara, in which the shorter Cannavaro was responsible for marking Saviola, and Gamara was responsible for Kluivert, but Saviola's performance in this game was very eye-catching.

Although Cooper did not name names, everyone knew that he was very dissatisfied with Cannavaro's performance.

As early as the summer of 2002, Inter Milan had its eyes on Nesta, and it was AC Milan that had its eyes on Cannavaro, but by mistake, it was puzzling that the two actually exchanged clubs, and Cannavaro was injured and stopped after coming to Inter Milan, and his performance was very different from that in Parma, which was difficult to be satisfactory.

With a 3:0 victory over Inter Milan at home, Antic's Barcelona won the recognition of fans and the media for the first time, and also made himself the number one figure who rose rapidly in the Champions League.

Leverkusen, who was in the same group as Ajax, had just experienced a change of coach, and the team's fighting power declined rapidly. They showed no fighting spirit at the Bayer Arena. Even when facing Moscow Lokomotiv from Russia, the Bayer Leverkusen did not have the style of the three Asian kings last season.

In 30 minutes, Moscow Lokomotiv only took 30 minutes to completely collapse the Bayer Leverkusen.

In the 6th, 16th and 30th minutes, Moscow Lokomotiv scored three goals against the Bayer Leverkusen. Although Leverkusen scored a goal in the 26th minute, it was ultimately useless. They watched the Russian team win the first victory of the second round of the group stage at their doorstep, while the Bayer Leverkusen lost three games in the second round of the group stage.

The entire German football world is puzzled by Leverkusen's decline. The Sanya King, who was so glorious last season, has completely become a weak team fighting for relegation in the Bundesliga just half a year later. It has no fighting power in the Champions League. This is indeed puzzling and a bit sad.

Some people even wondered if Ballack was still there, would Leverkusen sink to this point?

No one knows the answer, but it is obvious that both Ferguson of Manchester United and Ye Qiu of Ajax have removed Leverkusen from the list of opponents to qualify. Now for these two teams, the biggest suspense is not whether they can qualify from the group, but who can become the first in the group.

Back to the Eredivisie, Ajax challenged Utrecht away.

For the game at Old Trafford four days later, Ye Qiu arranged most of the substitutes to play in this game, but eventually drew 1:1 with Utrecht away.

In the 74th minute, Heitinga had a conflict with his opponent and was sent off by the referee. In the 83rd minute, Utrecht striker Kuyt equalized the score for Utrecht.

In the locker room after the game, Ye Qiu gave a stern warning to Heitinga who was not calm and rational. He also expressed disappointment with the performance of several players in the team. If there was no red card, Ajax would have won the game.

Now they only got one point, but Hiddink's PSV beat Breda and got 3 points. The gap between the two sides was shortened to 2 points. Ajax's momentum to win the championship was once again impacted by PSV.

Heitinga also apologized to the head coach and teammates before the training session the next day after returning to Amsterdam, admitting his mistakes for his recklessness yesterday. Ye Qiu and the club did not intend to continue to punish Heitinga, but told Heitinga not to do it again.

After three days of preparation in Amsterdam, the team set off for Manchester.