Chapter 535 Star-making Factory

When anyone talks about England's youth training, there is one club they cannot escape, and that is Southampton, the century-old saint.

When it comes to youth training in England, the youth training of Manchester United, West Ham United, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough, Arsenal and other teams have always been good, but Southampton is undoubtedly the most famous youth training among all English teams. biggest.

However, this flag-shaped team of England's youth training is currently facing a serious debt crisis. Not only was it relegated from the English Championship to the English League One last season, but it was also forced to apply for bankruptcy protection in April and enter the English League. Government trusteeship status, and they were also deducted ten league points in the new season of English League One.

With the current situation in Southampton, the hope of returning to the English Championship in the new season can be said to be very, very slim.

Mathieu Le Tissier, the God in the eyes of Southampton fans, although his status in international football and English football is not as good as that of the legendary England superstar Alan Shearer who also came from Southampton, but he is all the saints In the hearts of fans, the greatest player in the club's history, because he only played for Southampton in his career.

He and Bergkamp are the only two players to have two goals at the same time selected into the top ten goals in Premier League history. Even as an offensive midfielder, in the minds of many fans, his strength is worse than that of the well-known Canadian. Scoyne, but he has played for Southampton all his life, so he is not as famous as Gascoigne.

As a legendary star of the club, Le Tissier did everything possible to travel around the city when the club was relegated to League One and on the verge of bankruptcy. He raised half a million pounds and gave it to the club to ease the salaries of employees and players. He decided to form a consortium to acquire Southampton, a move that was supported and affirmed by all Saints fans.

However, to complete the acquisition, at least a huge sum of 25 million pounds is needed!

Perhaps, twenty-five million pounds is nothing to mention to some super rich people, but for Le Tissier, it is simply not something he can afford, so in the past few months, he has been constantly Running around the city, he attracted many local wealthy people to join his consortium, hoping to get their financial support to acquire Southampton and save the Saints.

Seeing that the time has entered July, seeing that the team's stars in their playing years are being sold by the trusteeship committee one after another, seeing that the team is about to fall apart, Le Tissier is helpless, because even if he Until now, they have not raised enough funds to purchase the club.

Just when he felt helpless, Le Tissier received a call from London. On the other side of the phone was Tottenham Hotspur CEO Peter Kenyon. The Manchester native invited him to London for a chat.

Le Tissier is full of affection for this North London club that just took away Luke Shaw from Southampton. He was a player with delicate skills when he played in the past, so he is very fond of Tottenham, who also respects the technical school. Tottenham likes it very much, but what is the purpose of this team meeting with me now?

With such a doubt in mind, Le Tissier drove 80 kilometers to London, but to his surprise, the only person he met this time was the expected Tottenham Hotspur CEO Peter Kay. Besides Nien, there was someone he couldn't even imagine, Ye Qiu!

Although Le Tissier was not one of those young entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley who carries dreams, carries thick plans, and always feels that his talents are not being appreciated, he still felt a little nervous when he met Ye Qiu, because he himself is a As a football coach, he is very aware of Ye Qiu's important position in the current world football.

The place where the two parties met was not public, but they deliberately chose to meet in a relatively private hotel, avoiding all reporters and media. This also made Le Tissier wonder what Ye Qiu and Peter Kenyon wanted to do. Full of doubts.

"I heard that you are raising funds everywhere recently and want to acquire Southampton?" Ye Qiu was as direct as ever and straight to the point. As soon as Le Tissier sat down and ordered a cup of coffee, he directly asked the person he had arranged to meet with. Purpose.

When Le Tissier decided to go north, he seemed very uneasy. Now that he heard Ye Qiu say this, his uneasy mood was even more obvious, because he always had a premonition that Ye Qiu and Tuo Tenham Hotspur have ambitions for Southampton.

"Don't be nervous, Mr. Le Tissier, I just want to know your thoughts!" Ye Qiu saw Le Tissier's uneasiness and said with a smile.

Le Tissier stared at Ye Qiu for a few times. He really admired Ye Qiu and his football, but this was related to Southampton, so he said to Ye Qiu very solemnly, almost word for word, "I will not sell out Southampton!"

After hearing this, Ye Qiu looked at Peter Kenyon and both of them laughed.

"I think you misunderstood, Mr. Le Tissier!" Peter Kenyon smiled and explained for Ye Qiu, "We are the owners of Tottenham Hotspur. According to the rules, we cannot acquire any more. Southampton, even if this team is now in League One, it is completely against the rules whether it is in the Football Association or the Premier League, you know!”

It was only then that Le Tissier remembered that the English Football Association and the Premier League did have such regulations. Of course, this was mainly reflected in the holding aspect, but if it was a shareholding, it would not be a big problem, because there are quite a few investment companies that hold shares in multiple English football clubs at the same time, but not a lot.

"Then what is the purpose of your inviting me here?" Le Tissier's tone slowed down, and he also felt that he was too suspicious.

Ye Qiu smiled slightly, "I want to fully support your consortium to acquire Southampton!"

"What?" Le Tissier was shocked, "Fully support me?"

Perhaps this was completely unreasonable in his opinion, but looking at the expressions of Ye Qiu and Peter Kenyon, they did not seem to be joking at all, but were very serious and sure.

Ye Qiu learned about Southampton's current situation from Peter De Visser, who got some inside information when he poached Luke Shaw, such as Southampton's current financial crisis and bankruptcy protection, and the fact that the only group interested in Southampton was the consortium formed by Le Tissier, but the problem was that they simply couldn't raise enough funds to acquire the team.

How much Southampton's value is depends on who sees it. In Ye Qiu's opinion, the greatest value of this team is that they have a very complete youth training system that maintains consistency from the first team to the youth team, and because they are in southern England, the English Football Association made an exception and allowed Southampton to establish a satellite base in Cardiff, Wales.

This is why Gareth Bale was able to enter Southampton, and Southampton has always been regarded by many Welsh players as a springboard to enter the English league.

After being surprised, Le Tissier quickly came to his senses, shook his head and smiled bitterly: "I don't quite understand what you mean, Mr. Ye Qiu, I said, I won't sell out Southampton!"

"I never asked you to sell out Southampton!" Ye Qiu also said with a smile.

"Then you just said that you would fully support me in acquiring Southampton?" Le Tissier was a little puzzled.

Peter Kenyon took the initiative to speak again at this time. After all, Ye Qiu was really not convenient to say more about many things. "Mr. Ye Qiu means that we strongly support you in acquiring Southampton in terms of financial resources. We know that you lack funds, and we can provide you with sufficient funds, not only to acquire Southampton, but also to renovate Southampton's youth training camp, and provide the best and most excellent training equipment and technical support!"

Funds are indeed a huge temptation, but Tottenham Hotspur provides the best and most excellent training equipment and technical support, which is also a huge temptation, because now the whole world knows that Tottenham Hotspur's Theobald training base is the best and most advanced training base in the world, and almost all teams hope to get their support.

But looking around the world, except for Ajax and Brazil's Santos, which have established partnerships with Tottenham Hotspur, other teams have always found it difficult to share their scout intelligence and training technology from Tottenham Hotspur.

It can be said that the two major chips given by Tottenham Hotspur are both irresistible to Southampton.

Because, after the team fell into a financial crisis, Southampton's scout system has been close to collapse, and most of the scouts have been scattered, because no one is willing to guard this team that can't even pay wages, so Southampton's youth training has almost no future.

But if they can get strong support from Tottenham Hotspur, they will be able to get out of such adversity quickly, not only in terms of financial resources, but also in terms of training equipment, training technology and human resources.

"I don't quite understand, what's the benefit of doing this for you?" Le Tissier is not a fool. He won't get up early without profit. Although he doesn't understand this Chinese sentence, he knows the meaning very well. Will Ye Qiu do something without profit?

Peter Kenyon laughed, "It's very simple. You know we have reached a partnership with Ajax and Santos. We have invested in these two teams and hold a certain amount of their shares, but it is not well known to the outside world. We share youth training results and scout information with them."

Le Tissier understood, "You want Southampton to become Tottenham Hotspur's star-making factory?!"

As the most famous youth training club in England, even if Southampton has scattered talents, with the club's fame and strength, as long as there is sufficient financial support, it may not be impossible to regroup in a short period of time. If the Saints can be revitalized, then for Tottenham Hotspur, having such a youth training club as a talent reserve center will inevitably ensure that Tottenham Hotspur will always maintain a continuous supply of personnel in the future.

All the giants actually have their own talent supply chain, just like Manchester United, they have more than a dozen cooperative teams all over the world to ensure that they can get a steady supply of talents, and the same is true for Arsenal.

After acquiring Ajax and Santos, two major talent processing centers, Tottenham Hotspur's talent pool is strong, but they still want to further strengthen their talent advantage, because professional football, to put it bluntly, is all about talent, that is, who can get a better supply of talent.

"You can say that!" Peter Kenyon didn't hide it at all, because everyone is a smart person. Sometimes the more you hide it, the easier it is to be disgusted by the other party. On the contrary, if you state your intention straight to the point, you can accept it. Accept it, or reject it if you can't accept it, and it will be easier for everyone to talk.

"We hope to inject capital into your consortium and let you serve as the chairman of the consortium to acquire Southampton. We believe that with your influence and appeal in this team, as long as you spend enough funds to impress the trusteeship committee, the acquisition will not be a big problem. "

Of course Le Tissier knew this, "Then what do you want?"

"With 49% of the consortium's shares, we hope to establish a modern management model in Southampton similar to Tottenham Hotspur, as well as a more complete and advanced youth training system, and I can invite a young man to Southampton. A well-known European head coach strives to help the team return to the Premier League in the shortest possible time!”

The head coach Ye Qiu was talking about was Co Adrianse. This famous Dutch coach has become more and more unsatisfactory in recent years. Although there is absolutely no need to doubt his strength, in the past few years due to various reasons Various disappointments have occurred, including failures in Portugal, Ukraine, Qatar and Austria, and I am currently unemployed at home.

Ye Qiu had learned about Adriance's situation with Bobby Harms. He firmly believed that the Dutch coach would be interested in taking over the Saints Southampton, because this is a team that fits his characteristics very well. With a complete and prolific production line of young players, coupled with the poverty caused by the financial crisis, he can form a completely new team according to his own wishes.

Of course, the premise is that the board of directors must give full support and affirmation.

Returning to the Premier League is simply a dream event for Le Tissier. Since Southampton was relegated, he has been thinking about how to help the team return to the Premier League almost all the time. Judging from Ye Qiu's tone and vision , this is not completely impossible.

"How much capital can you inject?" Le Tissier pondered in his mind for a long time, and finally decided to bow to capital.

Professional football is short of money and can't do anything.

"Twenty million pounds, plus some brand new training equipment for the youth academy and training base!"

Le Tissier was thinking in his mind that with the funds he could raise so far, plus Ye Qiu's 20 million pounds, it would be more than enough to buy Southampton. Even if he wanted to renovate the training base, the problem It's not big, and if he can continue to raise more funds in Southampton, he may be able to spend three to five million pounds to sign players in the summer transfer.

And it must be said that Ye Qiu's sincerity is very high, because the current price offered by the Trusteeship Committee to Southampton is around 25 million pounds, which means that Ye Qiu's amount of money has been completely He has the strength to acquire Southampton, but he only wants 49% of the shares. It has to be said that Le Tissier took advantage.

"But I have a request!" Of course, Ye Qiu couldn't just take out the money and then let Letissier do whatever he wanted.

"Come and listen!"

"As I just said, I want to establish a modern management model in Southampton, and at the same time introduce the continental system, integrating Southampton's tradition with the continental football system. I believe you should be able to see that today's Premier League style is changing Gradually moving towards mainlandization is the future trend.”

Le Tissier is no stranger to this. The mainlandization of the Premier League started when Ferguson introduced Veron. When Ye Qiu landed at Chelsea, it attracted the attention of the outside world. Until the rise of Tottenham Hotspur, it has completely Sounded the clarion call for the continental style of the Premier League and triggered this trend.

"Of course, I can tell you with certainty that I hope you can become the chairman of the team, because I believe that you, who have played football for many years, received many years of coaching training after retiring, and have been loyal to Southampton throughout your life, will definitely You are more eager to run this team than anyone else, and we can provide you with the talent support you need, such as team management, business marketing, scouting, etc.”

Le Tissier had to admit that the bargaining chip offered by Ye Qiu was indeed difficult for him to refuse. However, from now on, Southampton would be tied to the Tottenham Hotspur chariot and become a Tottenham Hotspur's youth training center, but as of now, Southampton has few options unless fans can accept it going bankrupt.

Because even though more than three months have passed, no rich man has come forward and expressed his willingness to take over the team.

The British economy has been in a slump in recent years, and the recent European debt crisis has made the British economy even worse. The unemployment rate remains high. Southampton itself is not a big city, there are not many rich people, and Southampton is not a wealthy team in English football. , not very attractive, so no one has been willing to take it over.

Ye Qiu was not taken advantage of. On the contrary, his calculations were very shrewd. Judging from this transaction, he did suffer a loss. Twenty million pounds was exchanged for 49% of the shares. He suffered a big loss, but in the long run It seems that he is not at a disadvantage because he has a long-term youth training center like Southampton. In the future, the stars produced here can be taken away by him and Tottenham Hotspur. Just this relationship alone, It's enough to ensure that he won't suffer a loss.

And it should be noted that if Southampton really has a chance to return to the Premier League in the future as he said, the team's total assets will rise, and the 49% stake of the 20 million pounds he has invested now will multiply several times in the future.

"Can you tell me about your head coach candidate?" Le Tissier said. The head coach is also an important part of a team.

"Ko? Adrianse!" Ye Qiu said with a smile.

This is indeed a very capable and famous head coach. Especially in recent years, Dutch head coaches have generally been valued and recognized by the outside world, because Dutch coaches have always paid attention to system construction and tactical literacy, which is in line with the needs of modern football tactical systems and is considered to be a representative school of continentalization.

"Is he willing to come to the English League One?" Le Tissier was a little skeptical.

Ye Qiu shrugged and smiled, "This is my business, I can handle him!"

After a pause, he added, "But I hope he can serve as the technical director!"

Head coach and technical director, this is also Ye Qiu's trust and affirmation of Co. Adrianse. At least he and Bobby Hams know Co. Adrianse very well. With the strength of the Dutchman, as long as you trust and support him, he will give you enough rewards. At least he can lay an extremely solid foundation for you, and he is very good at youth training.

After hearing this, Le Tissier really couldn't think of any reason to refuse. The reason is very simple. He needs Ye Qiu's support in terms of financial resources and other aspects.