Chapter 323 The rabbit dies and the fox mourns

Many people know that Peter Kenyon left Manchester United to join Chelsea. His biggest wish is to build a wealthy business empire by himself. He wants everyone to know that the reason why he can succeed in Manchester United is not because of Edwards behind him, but because he has enough strength.

But many times, wishes are always beautiful, but reality is extremely cruel.

In the first full year after he took over Chelsea, the bill he received was enough to make him bald because his Chelsea's financial deficit was as high as 90 million pounds. Looking around the world, no team would be like Chelsea, heavily in debt, and at the same time ambitious to continue to invest heavily.

As the CEO of Chelsea, Peter Kenyon actually does not agree to continue to invest heavily. On the contrary, he is very supportive of Ye Qiu's suggestion made in many internal meetings of the club's senior management that Chelsea does not need to make big signings in the next few years, but only needs to adjust the details and start to focus on strengthening youth training and promoting youth team players.

But as the boss behind Chelsea, Abramovich is obviously not prepared to do so.

Now there are rumors flying everywhere. Previously, Gazzetta dello Sport first disclosed an inside story that Abramovich intends to dig Brazilian superstar Adriano from Inter Milan at a shockingly high price and use the Brazilian to replace Drogba.

Everyone knows Adriano's strength and the status of this Brazilian in Inter Milan. He is the king of the Nerazzurri now. If you want to dig him, it is impossible to impress the Brazilian without a huge transfer fee and a high salary.

But this rumor is definitely not groundless, because Abramovich has been very close to Juan Figel recently, and everyone knows the status and influence of Juan Figel in the minds of Brazilian players.

Another rumor is hard to believe. The all-pervasive Sun first disclosed a shocking news, that is, Abramovich has reached a three-party agreement with AC Milan and Shevchenko. Chelsea will buy the new European Golden Ball winner Shevchenko at the world's highest price of 80 million euros after the end of this season.

In order to avoid the breach of contract by both parties, the breach of contract fee of this agreement will be as high as 20 million euros. Once Shevchenko fails to complete the transfer in the summer, Chelsea and AC Milan have the right to recover the breach of contract fee from the party that breaches the contract. As the agent who handles this transfer, Pini Zahavi will receive 10% of the agency fee.

The rumors about Shevchenko's transfer to Chelsea have been circulated for the past two years. There was even news that Shevchenko had personally promised to join Chelsea, but in the end it was aborted because of Ye Qiu's refusal.

People outside don't know, but as the person who handled it personally, Peter Kenyon knows very well that if Ye Qiu did not refuse Shevchenko with a contract extension after the team won the Champions League, the Ukrainian nuclear warhead would have belonged to Chelsea long ago. Because of this, Abramovich had a gap with Ye Qiu, and even no longer trusted Peter Kenyon, and began to rely on that damn Israeli Pini Zahavi for everything.

Now the news from The Sun has undoubtedly made those who know the inside story feel a little more uneasy.

"We all know that Abramovich made a clarification a few days ago, saying that the matter of buying Shevchenko can be forgotten. He is very satisfied with Chelsea's current lineup, and he is unlikely to force Shevchenko to offend AC Milan. He also reiterated his friendship with Galliani and Berlusconi."

"When Abramovich made such a clarification, we all believed that Shevchenko's door to Stamford Bridge was closed, but in fact, behind this clarification, there is a mystery, that is, what if Chelsea does not force him to dig?"

"When Abramovich, AC Milan and Shevchenko reached an agreement, the transfer was a natural thing. The three parties got what they needed, and AC Milan could also get a shocking transfer fee from it. This does not violate Abramovich's previous clarification at all."

The Sun gave an analysis of the direction of the whole thing, which is also to further gain the trust of readers.

But if it was just a rumor from The Sun, Peter Kenyon would not believe it. But soon, he received a message from Adidas, which was to suspend the negotiations on jersey sponsorship. They wanted to add a clause.

Peter Kenyon has always been very clear that Umbro can no longer meet Chelsea's requirements. This English jersey sponsor obviously cannot satisfy Peter Kenyon and Chelsea's appetite. Only international brands such as Nike, Adidas, Puma and Reebok can meet Peter Kenyon's positioning of Chelsea.

After deciding to get rid of Umbro, Peter Kenyon began to contact Adidas, because Nike sponsored Manchester United and Arsenal, two major Premier League giants, and has reaped great rewards in the past few years with the rise of the Premier League, while Adidas has been excluded from the Premier League. This German jersey sponsor has always wanted to enter the Premier League market.

The rise of Chelsea has undoubtedly provided Adidas with a very good opportunity, and Chelsea's amazing performance last season has won Chelsea an excellent image. It can almost be said that Adidas is pursuing Chelsea in turn.

But now, Adidas requires a clause to be added, that is, to ensure that Ye Qiu stays!

The result of Peter Kenyon's negotiation with Umbro was that the two sides announced their breakup in the summer of 2006, but Chelsea compensated Umbro with a penalty of 25 million pounds, which would be deducted and paid by Adidas from the sponsorship fee.

But now Adidas requires a clause to ensure that Ye Qiu stays. If Ye Qiu is no longer Chelsea's head coach when the cooperation between the two sides begins in the summer of 2006, the annual sponsorship fee of 15 million pounds will automatically decline to 10 million pounds.

This is the first time that Peter Kenyon has felt Ye Qiu's commercial value so clearly. In the past few years, under Eliza Moon's astute operation, Ye Qiu has become a brand in the world football. Moreover, when he was in Ajax, Ye Qiu had a very good cooperation experience with Adidas, and Adidas also made a lot of money from Ye Qiu.

Now, after Ye Qiu came to Chelsea, his performance and value have also risen. If we simply count his influence, he is definitely the most influential head coach in today's football world, and he doesn't even need to be one of them. For Adidas, Ye Qiu's value is equivalent to half of Chelsea.

So, with Ye Qiu, it is 15 million pounds, and without Ye Qiu, it is only 10 million pounds!

Of course, Adidas values ​​not only Ye Qiu, they are also the sponsor of AC Milan, and obviously got some inside information of their own. In the end, they should come to a relatively pessimistic result, that is, Ye Qiu is likely to leave the team. Once Ye Qiu leaves the team, will Chelsea, which he built, fall apart?

You know, before Ye Qiu came, Chelsea was just an ordinary Premier League team, and Umbro's annual sponsorship fee was 2 million pounds. Now, even if there are more stars, once the results are not ideal, a team like Chelsea may fall rapidly at any time, such as Leeds United in the past, or some short-lived teams. Adidas is naturally unwilling to pay a huge sponsorship contract for this, because it is a loss-making business.

Peter Kenyon sat in the office, looking out the window of Stamford Bridge with a sad face. Stamford Bridge and Cobham seemed to be two worlds. All football clubs have been constantly talking about the conflict between these two worlds. Even a strong team like Manchester United is wandering between business and competition. Ferguson has bombarded the team's business operations more than once.

Now, all this naturally appears on Chelsea.

He has reported the situation to Abramovich, and now he is waiting for the Russian to make a decision.

If he agreed to Adidas's conditions, it would mean that Ye Qiu would stay, and Abramovich's idea of ​​introducing a superstar against Ye Qiu's will would be aborted, because Ye Qiu's contract contained a clause that allowed him to unilaterally terminate the contract at any time without paying liquidated damages, which was agreed by Abramovich himself.

In other words, he could get a signal from Abramovich.

Just when Peter Kenyon was worried, the phone on his desk rang. He turned around to answer it. When he saw the caller ID, it was Abramovich, so he answered it immediately.

"Put a hold on the negotiations with Adidas, Peter!" Abramovich said on the phone.

Peter Kenyon frowned, "Do you really want to put it on hold?"

He had finally managed to get hold of the Adidas line. If Chelsea unilaterally called for a hold now, then with Adidas's arrogance and wealth, they would not be able to contact Chelsea again, unless Chelsea was willing to make concessions.

To be honest, despite Chelsea's success in the past two years, it is still a nouveau riche in the eyes of giants like Adidas.

"Yes, let's suspend it first, because we can't meet the other party's terms!" Abramovich said lightly on the other end of the phone.

This made Peter Kenyon's heart tremble, and he knew exactly what this meant.

He had no doubt that Abramovich was optimistic about and valued Ye Qiu. If he didn't value Ye Qiu, with Abramovich's character, it would be impossible for him to make concessions after the end of last season. But now, Abramovich said such words, which obviously sent a signal that Ye Qiu's future in Chelsea was not clear.

"Don't disclose these to the outside world, including Ye Qiu, so be it!" After Abramovich explained a few words, he hung up the phone directly, obviously not planning to say more to Peter Kenyon.

Mr. Bald put down the phone with some weakness. He had a hunch that the report of The Sun was very likely to be true. Only in this way could Abramovich make such a decision, because Ye Qiu and Chelsea still had a contract that would not end until 2007.

Thinking of this, Peter Kenyon could not help but feel a sense of sadness from the bottom of his heart, because he could clearly feel that Ye Qiu's situation could fall on his head at any time and anywhere.

However, all this had to be kept secret from Ye Qiu for the time being!

Ye Qiu did not know what went wrong in the team's negotiations with Adidas, because there was a confidentiality agreement, so he did not know that the monthly best curse actually fell on such a thing, causing the club to lose more than 10 million pounds every year.

However, Chelsea was invincible on the court and was getting better and better.

In the 25th round of the Premier League, Chelsea challenged Blackburn on the road. Mark Hughes' team still couldn't stop Chelsea. The Blues defeated Blackburn 4:0 away and successfully won 16 consecutive Premier League victories, breaking Real Madrid's record of winning the four major leagues for more than 40 years.

On the other hand, Arsenal was slaughtered by Manchester United 2:4 at home. Although Vieira's goal took the lead at the beginning, Giggs and Bergkamp soon scored one after another. In the second half, Portuguese teenager Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice to help Manchester United reverse Arsenal 3:2, and O'Shea's goal at the last moment locked the score at 4:2.

This game completely exposed Arsenal's weakness. Henry publicly stated in an interview with the media after the game that the reason why Arsenal suffered a defeat was because they lost Edu and Gilberto Silva.

"Many people are surprised that Chelsea can still perform so well so far, but in fact, Chelsea has 25 outstanding first-team players. Their midfield has outstanding players such as Makelele, Davis, Deco, Parker, Lampard, Essien, etc. They can form an effective rotation mechanism. Once we lose Edu and Gilberto Silva, we will completely lose the midfield."

Vieira can no longer be considered a defensive midfielder. He looks more like a commander. He doesn't do any dirty work, but his temper has improved. At least he almost had a fight with Keane, but he couldn't lead the team to beat Manchester United.

After this game, Chelsea's lead directly expanded to 17 points, which is enough for everyone to declare Chelsea the champion in advance, because so far there has been no precedent of a team leading by 17 points after the winter break and being reversed.

Some even believe that with Chelsea's current strength and Arsenal and Manchester United's poor performance, Chelsea may break Manchester United's record of leading the runner-up by 20 points. If it is really broken, then this season's Blues will undoubtedly break a lot of records and become the so-called record-breaking experts.

Ye Qiu is satisfied with the team's 17-point lead and said that he is not surprised at all, but he also warned the players not to be careless, especially after the team created the amazing miracle of 16 consecutive wins, it is appropriate to pour cold water on the team and let everyone calm down.

Three days later, the team welcomed Keegan's Manchester City at home, and the two sides played 0:0. Ye Qiu's lineup after the rotation performed generally. Although the draw was maintained, because Arsenal won Aston Villa away, the gap between the two sides was narrowed to 15 points.

On February 12, Chelsea challenged Everton away.

Moyes' team is the biggest dark horse in the Premier League this season. Moyes also said before the game that Chelsea has just ended its winning streak. Although it has remained unbeaten so far, this will put huge psychological pressure on Chelsea.

"This team has been in a period of rapid growth in the past six months, and they have adjusted their tactics to make their offensive power stronger. In addition, Ye Qiu has introduced suitable players and improved the team's bench thickness. They are now the strongest team in the Premier League."

"But no matter how strong the team is, there will definitely be loopholes. Chelsea played Manchester City. They seemed to be out of shape. I think this is because of the psychological pressure they have accumulated after a long winning streak, and they lost the direction and motivation of their efforts after breaking many records."

"I am very confident that I can beat Chelsea in this game and end their unbeaten record!"

Moyes' confidence also comes from Chelsea's injuries. Ronaldinho was injured in the game against Manchester City. Joe Cole, Drogba, Cannavaro and Terry were also injured. Evra had strained his leg before and his injury has not healed yet. He will also miss this game.

Obviously, Chelsea did not play with the main lineup, but Everton had to do their best and give it a try.

Moyes' words actually made sense. Chelsea was under great pressure, and the players had experienced so many games and were not in good shape. At least Captain Terry made several mistakes in defense in this game, and Lampard was completely out of shape, which led to problems in Chelsea's offense and defense.

But one of the important reasons why Chelsea can maintain its current momentum is that the team trained by Ye Qiu can be invincible when it is in good shape, but when it is not in good shape, they still have a way to defeat their opponents.

Gallas made great contributions at the critical moment. The substitute central defender replaced Cannavaro in the starting lineup and partnered with Terry. As a result, in the 78th minute of the second half, when Chelsea had a corner kick, he headed the ball to the back point, and Gudjohnsen, who replaced Van Persie, easily pushed the ball in front of the goal and scored the only goal of the game.

1:0, relying on Gudjohnsen's goal as a substitute, Chelsea defeated Everton away and successfully got 3 points, continuing to maintain the points gap with Arsenal and Manchester United.

However, Arsenal's performance in this round was very good, beating Crystal Palace 5:1. Gilberto Silva's return really made the Gunners' midfield look brand new, which also made everyone realize that Gilberto Silva has become an indispensable member of Arsenal's midfield, even if he is just a defensive midfielder.

Chelsea's poor form continued for a week. On February 20, Chelsea played away to Newcastle in the FA Cup round of 16. Chelsea still performed poorly and was passive throughout the game, but finally defeated Souness's Magpies 1:0 with Parker's goal.

The depth of the bench played its best when the team was in poor form, which made everyone marvel at Chelsea's overall strength.

After the FA Cup, the first round of the Champions League round of 16 was ushered in in the middle of the week.

The opponent is the La Liga giants, Barcelona!