green winger

Chapter 192 Wood's State

People go to high places and water flows to low places. This is an eternal truth no matter where it is. If you fail to achieve results and win the championship, sooner or later Leeds United will be scattered.

This is the helplessness of non-rich teams, and it is also the reality they must face.

Leeds United is now in such an endless loop. The team achieved results in the first year, and the young monsters emerged one after another. It seems that there is a great momentum.In the second year, he entered the top three of the Premier League and qualified for the Champions League. The players who debuted in the youth training became the absolute main force of the first team, creating a youth storm, and the team's revival was close at hand.Like Leeds United, the situation in these two seasons is a talent blowout that many small and medium-sized clubs will experience every few seasons or longer. At this node, the club board of directors has two options.

First: Sell young players who have already made a name for themselves and showed their great potential at a high price, and use the high transfer fee to continue to develop and strengthen the youth training business, laying a more solid foundation for the team.Although doing so will hinder and delay the team's revival and rise, there is no doubt that this is the safest approach, because no one can guarantee that the team will achieve better results next season.

Two years is a node, which means that the club's high-level board of directors must make a decision during this time period, because most players' contracts will need to be renewed in the second year, whether it is a renewal or a transfer. A decision must be made, no club is willing to transfer players on a free transfer in the third year, and it will be empty.

If the club makes a decision at this time that I want to give it a go, I believe that next season can achieve better results, then I must give the players a reassurance. The first reassurance is to renew the contract. A new contract worthy of their current strength and worth.But this also means a large salary expenditure, and at the same time, it is impossible to rely on the original lineup to achieve better results, and it must be strengthened!Compared with giants, what advantages can small and medium-sized clubs have?That is stable playing time, promising club prospects, and most importantly, transfer fees and wages higher than the average level of the transfer market.

But all this requires money, and where will the money come from?

Sponsor?There are so many teams in the UEFA Champions League, why do sponsors with strong financial resources choose you?At the same time, the sponsorship of Real Madrid and Barcelona in a season can reach 5000 million pounds, which means that Real Madrid can buy Zidane by adding 2000 million on this basis, but what about Leeds United?2400 million pounds for three seasons, this is still under the condition that the contract must be qualified for the Champions League!
So if small and medium-sized clubs want to continue to persevere, where will the money come from?Take on debt, mortgage!

So how many clubs are willing in this situation?Can say no!Most small and medium-sized clubs choose the former under such circumstances, honestly becoming a star processing factory to provide fresh blood for the giants day after day, because they know that once the gamble fails, what awaits them will be The fate of bankruptcy and relegation, since it has been here for so many years, so what if we endure it now.

But Leeds United chose the most dangerous path, they chose the latter!Borrowing heavily, renewing the contract of the main stars, and introducing more stars with high transfer fees to add to the team, they blocked everything in the next season.Fortunately, they succeeded. In the third season, that is, in the 2000-2001 season, they historically entered the semi-finals of the Champions League.
But what they never expected was that just when they breathed a sigh of relief, a financial report was sent to them, including the bonuses and ticket sales of the Champions League semi-finalists, new sponsors and popularity. The income from peripheral products brought in is only barely equal to their expenditure!In other words, if you want to go further, you have to continue to borrow!
At this time, Leeds United is like a gambler in a quagmire. They know that they have no way out, so they can only continue to gamble. Now that they have already embarked on this road, how can they give up willingly?The FA Cup, the Premier League, the Champions League, they only need one title to be on the list of top sponsors.Then continue to gamble, win more championships in a few seasons and make the team a real big club. At that time, it will be a heaven and a hell compared to now!

So Leeds United, who went to the cliff, simply borrowed a lot of money to buy out Keane again, and introduced Kenny. Now they still have the last sum of money. They are aiming at the god of Liverpool, Fowler. Fowler, who was gradually squeezed out of the core position by Owen, did not seem to adapt to the current Liverpool tactical system. His agent started negotiations with Leeds United.

Just when everything seems to be developing on the bright side, perhaps because of the blessings that come from misfortunes, the two backbone players of the team, Woodgate and Lee Bowyer, are caught in a huge scandal. And this directly affected Wood's huge ups and downs in the game from the end of last season to training at the beginning of this season.

And it all stemmed from a night in January 2000. At that time, Wood and Bowyer, who were already famous in the Premier League, could be said to be in high spirits. The highlight performance in the league and the crazy pursuit of media fans made them lose themselves. , that night in a nightclub in the center of Leeds, they had a fierce conflict with an Asian student.We don't know the cause of the time, but everyone saw them beat the Asian student and chased the nightclub as far as 1 meters away.

This incident was covered by the pervasive media and newspapers that night, and before noon the next day, the whole of England learned about it.Bowyer and Wood, who were prosecuted for beating someone, not only suffered great damage to their personal images, but their frequent trips to and from courts and courts also affected their state.

We can imagine the pressure they were under during that time, but Bowyer broke out again under the pressure and showed his own brighter performance, but Wood just fell into a slump and his state was extremely unstable.

How can Leeds United, which is burdened with huge debts, be assured of Woodgate's current situation in the face of Arsenal, which is about to face off in two days' time!

(End of this chapter)