Chapter 431 Cash is King

As the Premier League was temporarily suspended and the national team match days entered two weeks, on the morning of September 1st, major newspapers across Europe reported on this football feast, the first Football Economic Forum, held in London, England. The results are impressive.

In the Premier League alone, before the transfer deadline on the evening of August 31, 35 transfers were completed in the Football Economic Forum that day, of which 17 were loans, two were free transfers, and the rest were all normal transfers. Yes, and according to the disclosed transfer total amount reached 25 million 150 thousand pounds, this does not include four transfers that have not been announced to the public.

Among them, the highest transfer amount was 5 million pounds. Portsmouth midfielder Gary O'Neill was transferred to Middlesbrough. There were also some famous stars in the loan transactions, such as Daniel Murray. Philippines, and former Liverpool rookie Letale was loaned back to Ligue 1, Corradi was loaned to Parma by Manchester City, etc.

This is only the last day of the Premier League. If you include the total transaction value of the four professional leagues in England during the three days of the Football Economic Forum, the total transaction amount exceeds 40 million pounds, of which there are more than 30 transactions that have not been announced to the public. transfer.

This undoubtedly gave the Football Economic Forum a good start, but as the Times said in a subsequent follow-up report, this is only the beginning.

"According to the information we received from officials, this summer, the total transfer value of the entire English football club reached 500 million pounds, and this number was 300 million pounds last summer. In other words, our football market is much larger than Last year, we should thank the Premier League for this, because there were 13 Premier League teams investing more than 20 million pounds.”

The analysis of The Times believes that the Football Economic Forum is a great innovation in the transfer market, which can greatly promote the mobility of players. Bringing so many club officials and agents together is a bit similar to promotion, but it is beneficial. The team sells some players who have lost their position and trust, but it can allow some small and medium-sized teams to get some high-quality and cheap treasures.

"The transfer market in the Premier League has been expanding over the years, because from this season, a total of ten of the twenty Premier League teams have been acquired or controlled by foreign investors. For example, as everyone knows, Tottenham Hot Thornton was bought by the Chinese Ye Qiu, Manchester United was bought by the Glazer family, and Chelsea was bought by Abramovich.”

"In addition, the old giants Liverpool were also acquired by capital from the United States, Portsmouth was acquired by an Israeli businessman in January 2006, West Ham United was acquired by the Icelanders, Fulham was acquired by the Egyptians, and Al "Ston Villa was bought by Americans, Birmingham was bought by businessmen also from Hong Kong, and Manchester City was bought by Thais."

"It is precisely because there is such a huge influx of foreign capital into the Premier League that the entire transfer market in the Premier League has been rising. Not only that, we have also received very definite news that Arsenal and Blackburn are currently in the process of acquisitions. Negotiations are ongoing, so we can expect that the English transfer market will continue to expand in the next few years.”

"The emergence of the Football Economic Forum and the scouting data platform will undoubtedly provide more and more convenient options for transfer parties. We can even predict that in an era of such rapid development of information technology, it will greatly change the past. With the traditional transfer model, maybe in the future the club will not need to arrange scouts to select players, but can just sit in the office and click a few mouse clicks, which can also greatly improve the transfer efficiency."

The total turnover of the Football Economic Forum is undoubtedly inconspicuous in England's transfer market of up to 500 million pounds. However, this is only the first session, and the forum is not positioned to replace those traditional transfers, but It is a powerful supplement.

In an interview with German Kickers, the authoritative accountant Deloitte also expressed its high affirmation of the Football Economic Forum, "According to the intelligence we have received, in the few months since the scouting data platform was launched, the current neutral The platform has attracted the participation of more than 50 clubs from major European leagues, including some wealthy teams.”

"The English Football Economic Forum is just an attempt, but based on our understanding of their plans and strategies, within the next five years, the Football Economic Forum will become the most influential football economic forum in the world, attracting teams from all over the world. , agents, football industry people and business people enthusiastically participated.”

"Not only that, the scouting data platform has strong operational and data analysis capabilities. It is revealed that they are currently negotiating with Sky TV to acquire OPTA Data Company. There are still some differences between the two parties because Sky TV hopes to set a price to buy shares, but Eliza Moon does not want to be involved with News Corporation and has not even ruled out the idea of ​​reorganizing a data company.”

"Once it acquires powerful and professional data processing capabilities, this scouting data platform will not only be a paradise for football clubs and agents, but will also attract the attention of betting companies and lottery players. This will undoubtedly become the most The authoritative online data platform even hopes to rapidly spread its business to the world within three years.”

"There is no doubt that this is a company with great development potential. It is bound to completely change the model and pattern of the entire transfer market in the next five years. It is also bound to create a more free environment for all teams and agents. , a more convenient and effective transfer channel!”

It is not an exaggeration to describe the scouting data platform and the Football Economic Forum as becoming popular overnight. Without thinking too much about anything else, the names of the two ace combinations of Ye Qiu and Eliza Moon are enough to make them famous. These two projects have received great attention from the outside world.

However, there are also many fans complaining on the Internet, especially some fans who are not fans. They think that the two ace founders of the Leaf Company have begun to play in the football field and have forgotten all Zeus fans, because the highly anticipated Zeus There has been no definite news about the second-generation mobile phone.

In response to fans' complaints on the Internet, Ye Qiu took the time to reply on his official Twitter, saying that he had not forgotten the research and development of the Zeus second-generation mobile phone. On the contrary, he had always maintained close contact with the research and development team. Ticketing is to provide users with better and more comprehensive services and experiences.

“This is going to be a revolutionary phone and you’re going to go crazy for it!”

As early as January 2007, Leaf Technology launched an enhanced version of the Zeus Generation. Because with the acceleration of the upgrading of digital electronic products, many new gadgets a year ago are obviously lagging behind a year later. Therefore, Leaf Technology An enhanced version has been launched, and two generations are sold under the same roof.

In 2006, the sales volume of Zeus mobile phones reached 11.36 million units, and by 2007, this number is expected to double to 25 million units. Although from the perspective of mobile phone sales, Yezi Technology's market share is very small, even as small as It’s negligible, but when it comes to profits, it can definitely beat all mobile phone companies.

YeZi Technology even licenses mobile phone systems, patents and various technologies to other mobile phone manufacturers through the Smartphone Alliance. These allow YeZi Technology to make a lot of money from it, and also allow Zeus Mobile to have a huge cash flow. , has amounted to billions of dollars.

How to deal with such a huge amount of cash flow has become a big trouble for company executives such as Ye Qiu and Eliza. Especially Eliza, she knows better than anyone else how much money Ye Qiu currently holds. Cash, with the advent of the subprime mortgage crisis, Ye Qiu's income from investing in the stock market is no less than the company's cash flow.

Sometimes, having more money is not necessarily a good thing.

In addition to continuing to increase the company's R\u0026D and innovation, Ye Qiu also quietly acquired an American semiconductor R\u0026D and design company. This company had previously participated in the R\u0026D program of Zeus mobile phone processors and various chips. The acquisition cost a total of It cost 300 million U.S. dollars, but it improved the entire R\u0026D system of Yezi Technology.

At the same time, Ye Qiu also acquired a Chinese semiconductor company, merged the two, and established a low-key semiconductor R\u0026D and design center in Xiamen, China. At the same time, he decided to continue to increase investment in semiconductor research. This move was also approved by the government. Strong support and recognition, because Yezi Technology has accumulated a group of strong software and hardware innovation talents in the past few years.

As for the remaining funds, in addition to continuing to make money in the stock market by taking advantage of the subprime mortgage crisis, Ye Qiu also focused on gold.

With the advent of the subprime mortgage crisis, the U.S. economy was greatly affected, and then the European debt crisis also occurred in Europe. The price of gold immediately rose, and the price of gold will continue to rise in the next few years.

Ye Zi Technology now holds a lot of Google stocks. Ye Qiu doesn't have the ambition or strength to eat up Google, so there is no need for more. Instead, he wants to complete the initial accumulation first, and wait until the time is right to acquire a company. Telecom operators may want to swallow up mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia and Motorola that hold strong patents.

Although Leaf Technology is very popular now, everyone knows that high-tech companies change as fast as digital products. In the early years, Microsoft was awesome, but it didn’t take long for Google to replace it. In the past two years, many people Everyone is speculating that Yezi Technology will replace Google and become the most valuable company on the Internet, but in a few years, someone else may replace Yezi Technology.

Therefore, whether it is Microsoft or Google, the current investment focus is actually not limited to the Internet, because it is too unstable, and any piece of news can knock your stock price to the bottom. Therefore, if you want the company's long-term stability, For development, the most important thing is to build an empire with diversified development.

Even if you look at Microsoft now, it seems that there is no development and it has encountered a bottleneck, but many people have not noticed that Microsoft's cash is the largest among all Internet companies, and as long as they hold this huge cash in their hands, then they will Always invincible.

Ye Qiu has studied Li Chaoren's investment, and he also strongly agrees that cash is king. Therefore, Ye Zi Technology's current investment is mainly focused on R\u0026D and innovation, because this is the future of any company, and it is also Ye Zi Technology's biggest weakness. A large part of the company's R\u0026D innovation is arranged domestically.

As for other investments, Ye Qiu is more cautious, but that does not mean he is conservative. After all, it is not easy to spend billions of cash, and he has no pressure from shareholders. He does not have to worry about being asked by shareholders like Google. How much money must be spent within a long period of time, etc., he can wait for the best time before taking action.

When it comes to football investment, Ye Qiu's strategy is the same, ensuring maximum cash flow.

It should be said that fans generally only pay attention to the team's performance on the field. Those who are more motivated will pay attention to profits and losses, but remember that, to a certain extent, profits and losses do not mean that the club is really profitable or really losing money. That is an accounting technique, but there is one thing that is the core of a club, that is cash.

Without cash, any club or company is bound to go bankrupt!

Tottenham Hotspur's current operating income is indeed low compared to high-income giants such as Manchester United and Arsenal. On the one hand, it is limited by the White Hart Lane Stadium, and on the other hand, it is because it failed to participate in the Champions League, and the latter will change with entering the Champions League this year.

But Ye Qiu is not going to invest in real estate like Arsenal. At least the Gunners' real estate projects have now become the main source of the club's crisis. They are even considering introducing foreign investment to acquire the team.

A football club is like a company. The most important thing is to ensure cash, so that the salaries and taxes of players and employees, as well as the daily operation and maintenance of the team can be guaranteed. Therefore, for Tottenham Hotspur, the most important investment in the next few years is mainly the youth training camp and the stadium. The players will depend on the needs, but Ye Qiu must not introduce superstars.

For a team like Tottenham Hotspur, superstars represent huge investment and huge salary and tax pressure. Even when Beckham was introduced in early 2007, it was Beckham who took the initiative to reduce his salary to join. Otherwise, Tottenham Hotspur would have to bear huge operating pressure.

Look at Chelsea. Why did Abramovich tighten his money supply in the past two years?

Because the joining of Shevchenko and Ballack, the annual salary, tax and bonus alone are enough to be surprising. Moreover, as Drogba and others have become famous, the salary must also increase. The operating pressure of the club is getting greater and greater. Ye Qiu even thought that Abramovich has no place to complain now. I guess I don’t know how much he misses the stress-free operating model during the Ye Qiu period.

Therefore, for Tottenham Hotspur, introducing superstars is tantamount to suicide, especially in the following years, the salaries of superstars will increase significantly, and many players in the team must be given salary increases. Unless Ye Qiu is willing to pour money into the club like a bottomless pit, otherwise, he will definitely not be able to afford the cost of introducing superstars.

Now London has obviously loosened its attitude towards Tottenham Hotspur's participation in the construction of the Olympic Stadium, because Tottenham Hotspur has shown great sincerity, plus the investment of 300 million euros for three consecutive years since 2008, which is a temptation that is difficult for them to refuse.

In other words, Tottenham Hotspur now needs to be appropriately frugal. Even in the strategy formulated by Ye Qiu, as long as it does not affect the team's performance and strength, it doesn't matter if it is a black shop, so he did not hesitate to sell Van Nistelrooy this summer in exchange for 35 million euros.

This is a kind of accumulation, living a life of tightening the belt, and when the new stadium is acquired in a few years, the team's operation is stable, and Tottenham Hotspur has already become one of the top European teams without knowing it.

With a healthy finance, strong revenue capacity, and a large amount of cash in hand, you can choose the star players of the top teams in the world, and buy whoever you want, and the team will naturally become a top team!

Of course, Ye Qiu has money now, and he can spend money as he wants, but what about the future?

If he cannot build a self-reliant operating system for Tottenham Hotspur, he will always rely on Ye Qiu's money in the future. Once Ye Qiu does not spend money, he will inevitably be greatly affected, just like Chelsea now.

Ye Qiu also made a plan for himself. When everything in the team is on the right track, he will choose to let go and choose to be the club owner, chairman and fan, and at the same time be responsible for his already large family business. After all, these are all the family businesses he has worked hard to build. So over the years, he has not only read books about football, but also read a lot of books about business administration and investment.

This is an information age where if you don't advance, you will retreat. If you don't keep up with the pace of the times, you will be eliminated by the times.

This is the case with running a company, and it is also the case with running a football club!

In early and mid-September, Ye Qiu was mainly discussing the gains and losses and improvement of the Football Economic Forum and the Scouting Data Platform with Eliza. At the same time, he also actively participated in the negotiations and negotiations between the team and various departments such as the London City Government, the Olympic Preparatory Committee, and the Olympic Heritage Committee.

The London City Government has given the green light to Tottenham Hotspur's plan, and the Olympic Preparatory Committee will definitely not stop it. Now that the Olympics is so short of money, it will naturally not refuse. However, the Heritage Committee, which is responsible for the aftermath of the Olympics, is wrangling with Tottenham Hotspur, mainly focusing on the renovation of the stadium runway.

Previously, they hoped that Tottenham Hotspur would get the Olympic Stadium in a permanent lease, for example, the term could be extended to 250 years, similar to Manchester City's City Stadium, but without the right to renovate, and they could get a share of the stadium revenue and commercial development, but Tottenham Hotspur wanted ownership and cut ties with them.

Are you kidding? I spent 300 million to help you build the stadium, and you want a share in the future? I've seen greedy people, but I've never seen such greed!

Both sides continued to argue, but there was still some time, after all, the new stadium was still in the design and planning stage.

But Tottenham was not in a hurry. With the global economic crisis, fewer and fewer companies were willing to invest in the preparations for the Olympics, which would inevitably increase the pressure on the government and the Olympic Organizing Committee. In the end, they had to make concessions. Who made Tottenham rich now?

Of course, Ye Qiu was not panicking now, but he was also considering whether he should work hard to increase revenue and reduce expenditure for Tottenham. After all, the club had invested 100 million euros a year since 2008. Although the pressure was not small, it was better not to invest if he could.

Amid the turmoil, two weeks passed quickly.

By mid-September, international players and youth team members from various countries returned to the Theobald training base one after another, and Tottenham began to make intensive and orderly preparations for the North London Derby at the weekend.

So far this season, Arsenal has maintained an unbeaten record of four wins and one draw. Currently, it ranks first in the Premier League. The results are indeed good, which also makes Wenger and the Gunners fans ambitious. They want to return to the Champions League this season and even compete for the league championship.

On the contrary, Tottenham Hotspur fell to the 18th place in the league, which is really a bit miserable. Many people have joked that if Tottenham Hotspur is relegated this season, it will be very interesting.

But everyone knows that this ranking is only temporary.