The Young Lion

It was past midnight when Aldrich returned to London.

At home, Ivan stood in the living room and watched TV. About the match between Millwall and Leeds in the UEFA Champions League, which quickly became instant hot news, the match report, game content, interview with the coach after the game, etc., the football program was deceptive, and several commentators were focusing on the discussion After all, it is negative for the image of national football. Just like the Heysel tragedy, the Hillsborough tragedy and countless football hooligan incidents, the British official still chooses to cover up the fire as the first choice.

But other European media are unscrupulous, rushing to report the scandal of the Champions League semi-final English Civil War!

At this time, the UEFA Disciplinary Committee announced the investigation of the game after receiving the game report from the referee after the game.

The UEFA Champions League is the signature of UEFA. The importance of the semi-finals is self-evident. UEFA certainly does not want to see what happens in the game. They will not have the mentality of watching Leeds United suffer from the outside world. Officially organized by UEFA.

The game report is commonplace, and only key words such as racial discrimination, grandstand riots, and fan conflicts were briefly mentioned in the investigation statement.

Of course, UEFA hopes to calm down the matter. If this kind of thing happens in a match between teams from different national leagues, UEFA will really have a headache for a while, because they don't want to make a big fuss, but how can the Football Association of the victimized team be willing to let it go?

Well now, both parties involved are English teams, UEFA is not afraid of the FA's toss, anyway, everyone must try their best to put out the fire.

Since there is still one more semi-final, and it will be moved to Millwall's home court, the results of UEFA's investigation will definitely be finalized after the semi-final.

Bert and Earl were still up at the moment. Andrew received a call from Arthur at night. Just come over to Aldridge and wait for him. By the way, I bought remote control toy cars for my two nephews, and they had a great time playing in the living room.

Aldridge opened the door to go home, and Yiwen saw him, and turned off the TV first, so that Aldrich would not be upset when he saw it.

Andrew stopped lying on the ground to play with his two nephews. Ivan led the children upstairs and coaxed them to sleep, while Andrew patted his trouser legs. He smiled at Aldridge: Don't worry about the FA, I will help you settle it.

He didn't know that Thompson had called Aldridge directly, but judging from Aldridge's post-match remarks, the FA must be dissatisfied with Aldridge.

Aldrich untied his tie, pulled it from his neck, and said with a sneer, Unless Thompson doesn't want to be the chairman, he will trouble me. There is nothing to settle.

Don't say that Thompson has the support of Andrew's internal connections in the Football Association behind Thompson's appointment.

It was Thompson who made the appointment of Aldridge as the coach of the national team against all opinions.

In the past few months, it has been publicized that this is his credit. Aldridge was invited, and the England national team immediately took on a new look.

If Aldrich resigns. Thompson can't get away with it, and the opposition within the FA will inevitably overthrow him.

Thompson's phone call must have not been carefully thought out, and he probably did it blindly in a hurry.

Is Aldridge afraid of the FA chairman?

I'm afraid, he was the one who brought down the last chairman!

Why should a chairman of a non-government department be afraid?

Andrew thought for a while, and felt that what Aldrich said made sense.

The FA's dissatisfaction is dissatisfaction, but it should be clear which is more important.

Aldridge is not confounding right and wrong. If the FA targets Aldridge, the loss outweighs the gain.

The two sat down on the sofa, and Andrew first asked Aldrich about Ronaldinho's injury.

He is an agent, but he cannot intervene in the operation of the player's club. The injury of a player during a critical period is an absolute secret within the club, and the player himself has no right to disclose it to the outside world.

It takes three to four weeks to recuperate.

Aldridge also got the news from the club's medical department after getting off the plane. Ronaldinho was not seriously injured, but the recovery time was not short.

The next few games of the league are definitely hopeless. Whether he can catch up with the Champions League final depends on Ronaldinho's specific recovery.

Andrew was relieved, the player under him, Ronaldinho, was already an important star, and a leg was at least worth tens of millions of pounds.

He told Aldridge completely about Arthur's previous blackmail of him.

Hehehe, the old castle? Believe it or not? He will go crazy if he lives for a month at most. The old man can't stand loneliness, and he's going to retire.

Aldrich finally showed a smile. Sometimes Arthur is mischievous, but it always makes people happy.

Andrew frowned and said, Didn't you understand what he meant?

Aldridge picked up an apple on the coffee table, began to peel off the peel with a fruit knife, and said nonchalantly: I'm not stupid, he wants you to bleed Leeds United as much as possible, and this matter has nothing to do with me. Why? ? You wouldn't do such a thing? Impossible.

Of course Andrew will do this kind of vampire business. When Rivaldo landed in La Liga in the first operation, he drew 300,000 pounds, which is not too much. After all, the transfer fee is not much. Generous, wanting to earn a good reputation, he drew 300,000 pounds, of which 200,000 pounds were privately deposited in Rivaldo's offshore center account. Over the years, as long as it did not involve the transfer of Millwall, he would transfer money from the center. A certain percentage of commission is drawn, and some players are transferred to the player's private account to win over the players. It can be regarded as buying loyalty with money, so that the players will not be too winged to fly solo, or be seduced by their peers.

He doesn't know the situation of Leeds United, the specific income and expenditure of the club's operation, he only knows about Millwall, but Millwall can't be used as a reference, so he wants to ask Aldridge, the so-called knowing yourself and the enemy, you want To put the blood of Leeds United, we must first understand the situation of the opponent.

He said the key points and asked Aldridge.

Let me give you a general account book. Specifically, you can figure it out yourself. Leeds United has invested more than 100 million pounds in the introduction of players over the years, and the most they can get back from selling players is only 35 million pounds at most. And Leeds United club management It is a loss, because they bought a lot of players, and the salaries paid when they signed these stars. The accumulation is a huge expense. Relying on their operating income, they can’t make ends meet. And most of the money spent on buying players at the beginning It is a bank loan, and the bank will naturally charge interest, which will be accumulated season by season.”

Aldridge cut the apple in half and gave it to Andrew. Andrew took it in his hand and ate it without any haste, with a thoughtful expression on his face.

He knows the overall economic environment of the football circle, that is, the football bubble is beginning to burst.

Is Leeds United unlucky? Or was it punished?

No, this is just the risk they should have taken when they signed a huge loan with the bank to develop the club.

Look at the football circle. It is a big gamble to use this kind of loan to develop the club's team. Even if it is brilliant for a while, after a short period of time, it basically ends badly.

Chelsea, for example, is almost at the end of the day, with debts of more than 50 million pounds. Bates' dream of building Chelsea into a Roman Empire is almost shattered, especially in the context of the bursting of the football economic bubble. Betts was secretly selling Chelsea, and no one in the industry dared to take over. That is simply a sinkhole!

A few years ago, there were still many businessmen who wanted to make money by controlling football clubs. At this stage, those who want to make money through football must be crazy.

What exactly is the bubble of the football economy?

More intuitively, the financial market can be used to explain the tip of the iceberg. About 3 or 4 years ago, there was a frenzy of club listings in the football circle. Major clubs in the Premier League issued stocks for listing, financing and development, and Italian teams did the same. There are also Italian bosses who preach that this is the football rule of the new era. If other clubs do not follow suit, they will be outdated and will be eliminated by the times.

Going public, financing, the club is rich, the lineup is expanded and the strength is strengthened, and the shareholders sit on the ground and share the spoils.

And 99% of the wealth this club has absorbed from the financial market comes from its fans!

Only fans are interested in football club shares, and what the club actually sells is the loyalty of fans.

However, there will be a series of dirty things that are very despicable in the financial circle, as long as they are experienced investors in the circle, they will be aware of them.

Some club shareholders sell their shares in order to let the team go public, and then leave the market with a fortune. Brokers who really invest in stocks will not recommend their clients to buy such football club stocks.

And as the team's record fails to come out, operating performance is linked to the value of the stock, and the stock will fall.

At this stage in 2001, even fans, no matter how much they love their team, will rarely buy the team's stock with money. Everyone knows that it is rubbish! And it's easy to be tricked!

Who knows if the club will change hands tomorrow?

Leeds United is a team listed on the stock market, and once listed, the annual financial report will be announced, operating income and expenditure, whether it is profitable or losing, and the debt situation has reversed from before, or is it worse than before? These are clear at a glance.

If your business is in a downward trend, the stock will be even less valuable, and the banks that borrowed will also press for debts, and other financing channels will also close the door to you, and you will be in a desperate situation.

Aldrich didn't care about talking about this matter with Andrew, but since he talked about it, he remembered the situation when he made a deal with Ridsdale back then.

As I was talking, I remembered that when Leeds United came to buy someone from me, I specifically found someone to investigate the source of funds for Leeds United. Ridsdale used Leeds United's earnings for the next 25 years as collateral, mainly Tickets and TV broadcast income were mortgaged to insurance companies and banks in exchange for 60 million pounds. I don’t know the specific interest, but the information revealed is one word: high.”

Andrew heard the words and said in a low voice: What will he pay for it?

Aldridge shrugged and said: He has ambitions. In his opinion, as long as Leeds United can play in the Champions League every season, it will not be difficult to pay back the money, but it didn't catch up with the good times.

Andrew nodded. Leeds United didn't catch up with the good times, and the value of players was exaggerated. On the contrary, the football economic bubble burst. Between the ebb and flow, Leeds United's development plan can be said to be leaking overnight.

Aldridge actually means: 10 years later, 60 million pounds is nothing to the Premier League team! Not to mention playing in the Champions League, as long as you keep relegation every year, 60 million pounds, just relying on TV broadcasts, 3 seasons are fine.

Andrew also recalled the scene when he was negotiating with Leeds United, and said in a deep voice: At that time, I didn't worry about it. I just thought that Leeds United was really rich. Ferdinand's transfer treatment. The other party has been arguing for a long time, but in the end Leeds United offered a weekly salary of 40,000 pounds! There are also other players’ treatment negotiations, which are higher than the upper limit I intend to extort. Leeds United are digging their graves!

Aldridge didn't want to hear Andrew talking about these at all, and he was upset when he said it.

Since O'Reilly took over Leeds United, they played a bright performance in the first year, and borrowed money to bring in reinforcements in the second year. The record is not as good as Millwall, even Manchester United, but they imitate the style of strong teams everywhere, like Millwall bought 50 high-end cars for the club, while Leeds United spent 600,000 pounds a year to lease more than 70 cars. The team fought around and spent extravagantly.

And talking about the time when Ferdinand led a group of players to switch to Leeds United, Aldridge didn't hate anyone in his heart, but he felt so helpless.

In this world, beatings, scolding and scolding can make friends and enemies disappear with a smile, but they can prevent people from making money, and they will never die.

Remembering that Ferdinand kept saying in front of him that he chose to leave for his own career, Aldridge would rather be a villain, believing that Ferdinand was for the huge weekly salary that Leeds United offered. (to be continued...) ()