Chapter 1259 Football is a game of heroes

For foreign investment, private capital is more popular than state capital.

National capital represents the country, and there may be a relatively deep kidnapping attribute behind it. For example, these sovereign funds of local tyrants in the Middle East have such risks.

The situation in the Middle East is very chaotic, and there may be rebellions and wars in any region, such as Saudi Arabia. Once something goes wrong in Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi sovereign fund has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in Europe and asks the EU to help settle the domestic chaos, will it help? If you don't help, you can withdraw your capital. If you help, it may violate the EU's values.

This is very troublesome.

But the local tyrants in the Middle East are too rich, and it is unrealistic to completely refuse, it can only be love and hate.

In contrast, Zhou Buqi's investment belongs to private capital, so there are not so many obstacles. These years, the Chinese consortium has invested more and more in Europe.

The acquisition of Manchester United has not yet been completed, but many times, Zhou Buqi has already regarded himself as the owner of Manchester United and started dealing with British celebrities.

Out of distaste for the Glazer family, all walks of life also welcomed him.

When he arrived in Manchester, Zhou Buqi asked about the Manchester United women's football team, and he became more and more aware of the crimes committed by the Glazer family. Now Manchester United has a total of three official teams participating in the official competitions organized by the Premier League or the Football Association, namely the adult team, the reserve team and the U18 youth team.

No women's football!

After asking David Gill, I learned that Manchester United had a women's football team a few years ago. However, after the Glazer family acquired Manchester United, they believed that women's football lacked market influence and was a loss-making business. Because it is the market trend, the wages of the men's football team are very high, and the wages of the women's football team are extremely low. This is an unstable factor.

Another point is that it is difficult to manage.

People in the football world generally have a relatively low level of education, and they all have a "rogue temperament". For example, Ronaldinho from the Manchester United team, when he first came to the UK, because he couldn't speak English, he fell in love with the waitress in the restaurant, and couldn't communicate with the language, so he directly and rudely made obscene gestures of love between men and women. Offer to go out and open a room together.

When managing female football players, male staff must be indispensable, and some nasty things will inevitably happen here.

The main reason is that women's football does not make money.

After the Glazer family came to power, they decisively disbanded the loss-making Manchester United women's football team.

This is obviously against the law of football development.

Now, women's football is getting more and more attention, especially in a highly developed place like Europe, where women's football represents political correctness to some extent. A club like Manchester United doesn't even have a women's football team? This will be criticized in public opinion.

"United need to have a women's football team."

After arriving in Manchester, Zhou Buqi met with David Gill. Accompanied by the sports director, they went to see the reserve team and the youth training echelons at all levels.

He already regarded himself as the owner of the club.

David Gill's eyes brightened slightly, "Women's football?"

Zhou Buqi glanced at him, and said slowly: "Mr. Jill, in my opinion, the management and operation of a healthy and excellent century-old wealthy family should be more competitive than commercial. Once there is a conflict between business and competition, it must It’s about competition.”

David Gill was very comfortable in his heart, and said with a smile: "Yes, this is the correct club development philosophy."

Zhou Buqi went on to say: "However, competition cannot be the highest standard for club development. The highest criterion should be the club's development strategy. Some players may play very well, but their reputation in other fields is too bad, and they even become public servants. Negative cases. Such players, even if they are helpful to Manchester United, must not be introduced. This is the strategy.”

David Gill thinks deeply, "It should be like this, the club's brand and image are its vitality."

"Everything must be subordinated to the strategy, whether it is sports or business." Zhou Buqi made a final decision on this. "Women's football is a strategy, and it must be there! This is the fit between Manchester United and European values, and it is a major trend of social development."

It sounds nice.

In fact, he wants to lead Manchester United to expand its influence in the country. Manchester United has unparalleled influence in English-speaking countries and Southeast Asia, but in other regions it is difficult to compete with Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​or even Arsenal.

Football is aesthetic.

Fans love good football.

Real Madrid, Barcelona and Arsenal all play fantastic football, but in this regard, Manchester United has a certain gap. Ferguson played championship football, not pretty football.

Manchester United's domestic audience is not large, which requires some additional attention to make domestic fans have more emotional identification with Manchester United.

In addition to the fact that the owner of the club is a compatriot, there is also the fact that the national football team must have players playing for Manchester United.

If men's football does not have this level, they can only rely on women's football.

But Manchester United doesn't even have a women's football team!

Women's football has to be established first.

At this time, the group had already arrived at the reserve team, and Zhou Buqi met a very familiar person, former Manchester United player "Babyface" Solskjaer, who is now the head coach of the reserve team.

Say hello and get to know each other.

Let everyone meet the new boss.

Solskjaer asked bluntly: "You really bought Manchester United?"

Zhou Buqi smiled, "Definitely!"

The reserve team had a short communication here, and then went to the training ground next to it. There is the U18 team over there. They will have a FAYC Youth Cup match tomorrow and are preparing for the game with all their strength.

The head coach is the famous Paul McGuinness.

When he played football, he was one of the most important players under Sir Busby, but unfortunately he had too many injuries. It was also because of the injury that he did not get on the flight to Munich, escaped the Munich air crash and survived.

Zhou Buqi sat on the sidelines with some people, watching the young players train.

The young players performed very hard, and seemed to want to show their strength in front of the new boss and leave a good impression.

It's a pity that Zhou Buqi didn't pay attention to them at all, and was discussing big plans with David Gill.

"If you want to play women's football, there are two options."

"Um."

"First, buy a team directly in the Premier League and then transfer the team to Manchester. With Manchester United's influence, it can be easily done. It may cost more, as many as millions of pounds."

"Yeah?"

Zhou Buqi laughed.

Millions of pounds?

It seems that this women's football team really can't get on the stage. The annual salary of a random player in the men's football team is several million pounds. The total value of a Premier League women's football team is not as good as the annual salary of a certain male football player.

No wonder England women's football sucks.

In the local Women's World Cup last year, the clanging roses ranked fifth and the England women's football team ranked sixth. However, good grades mean nothing. The advantage of domestic women's football is that it starts early and receives more attention. All players are professional players. There are still many part-time players in the Premier League women's football team, and the attention is far from enough.

In terms of football rules and football environment, England is better. It is far more promising for women's football girls to come to the UK to develop than to stay in China.

David Gill went on to say: "If you don't want to spend too much, you can choose the second option, starting from a low-level league, um... In fact, it is only one level lower, and you can start from League One."

Zhou Buqi twitched the corner of his mouth, "There are only Premier League and League One in women's football?"

"Yes." David Gill nodded, "We are Manchester United. If we play women's football, we will definitely receive strong support from the FA, and we will be able to compete next season. Manchester United's women's youth academy has not been abolished. There are still a lot of girls training here every year. We have a very good foundation in women's football."

Zhou Buqi asked, "Is there any problem with the labor certificate?"

David Gil paused for a moment, hesitating slightly, "A player from your country?"

"right."

"If it's men's football, the labor certification restrictions will be very large, and... I don't think it's a good choice. When Dong Fangzhuo was at Manchester United, he mainly played reserve team games, um... not too good. .But women's football should be fine."

Zhou Buqi asked: "What about the youth training?"

David Gill knew what he meant. He just wanted to deepen the relationship between Manchester United and Chinese football. This was originally within Manchester United's strategic plan, otherwise they would not have spent 3.5 million pounds to buy Dong Fang's table.

"Youth training will not have labor certification issues, but young players are no better than adults. The most important thing in cultivating young players is not the growth of football, but the psychological level. Football is a game of heroes. Only heroes can become the best players. For young players, the most important lesson is the hurdle of growing from an ordinary person to a hero."

"Yes! Hero!"

At this moment, Zhou Buqi was in awe.

Sure enough, it is a big football country, and its understanding of football is really deep. It’s no wonder that in echelon football matches, the domestic echelon is often able to beat the European youth training echelon. Domestic children are more precocious, more proficient in football skills, and can play European children like monkeys. But when the children grow up, the European team can completely abuse the domestic team.

Football education is also education.

no difference.

Domestic children can beat the whole world when they participate in the International Mathematical Olympiad. But after becoming an adult, the domestic achievements in mathematics are not even ranked second-rate in the world, and at most they can be regarded as second-rate in Asia.

David Gill could tell that Zhou’s boss is a fan, but he may not know much about football, especially in the professional youth training field, so he slowly explained: “The youth training echelon is also divided into levels. Generally speaking, the U14 For young players, the most important thing is not the cultivation of football skills, but the work of diet, daily life, life, counseling and welfare.”

"Cultivate interest?"

"Yes, interest is the best teacher. In addition to cultivating interest, it is also the process of discovering the talents of young players. Children are the same. If the coach guides too much, the children will not be able to bridge the gap and discover Those kids who are gifted with football. These kids don’t need to be taught a lot and use their instincts to come out on top.”

"No wonder!"

Zhou Buqi looked at the dozens of players' parents sitting on the sidelines, and all of them watched the players' training quietly. Some children were kicked, and they didn't respond.

It is completely different from the country.

In domestic youth training competitions or youth training, parents are like coaches, each with a louder voice, and they are all "guiding" their children to play football well.

David Gill went on to say: "At the stage of 14-18 years old, it is the stage that coaches really need to work hard and do more training and guidance. What happened to Dong Fangtable gave me a better understanding of football in your country. Some understanding. Well, it's hard."

"Tell me specifically?"

"If you come to the youth training after the age of 14, then there is no foundation in the stage of interest cultivation. Even if you have the best football skills, it is likely to be tempered the day after tomorrow. That is not talent. Without talent, it is impossible to play professional football. Just like these children in the stadium, there will not be more than five of them who will be able to play professional football in the future."

"What about before the age of 14?"

"It's also very difficult. Children's psychological immaturity is the biggest obstacle. Even if they come to the UK with their parents, the living, education, food, language and other environments here are different from those in your country, which will cause obstacles. This kind of obstacle will hinder the realization of talent. Unless the child is of British descent, he can speak English from an early age and is used to the way of life here."

"Um."

Zhou Buqi secretly sighed.

It's a huge problem, it's not about football at all.