Originally, Southampton could have taken a longer vacation, as the new season of the Championship would not start until the end of August. However, as Southampton has already qualified for the new season's Europa League qualifiers, in order to maintain adequate competitive form, head coach Adkins asked the players to end their vacation in late July of the new season and return to the club's training ground.

The players were naturally very happy.

First of all, it is an honor for them to be able to participate in the Europa League.

Secondly, although the vacation is shorter, the bonus and salary for overtime training are also higher.

The current Southampton club is no longer the Southampton club that was in a precarious financial situation a year ago.

After Gu Ran created various championship myths, Southampton Club’s annual tickets for the new season completed their sales target early and set a historical high.

Player-related merchandise, especially the No. 8 jersey represented by Gu Ran, has always been in great demand and you have to have connections to buy it.

In addition, the final ranking bonuses for the old season's English League One and various cup competitions are also very generous.

Before the new season even started, TV stations and online media had already significantly increased their broadcasting fees; the share of overseas online live broadcasts provided by "Ran Live" alone had already surpassed Southampton's total funding in the previous fiscal year.

What makes the top management of Southampton club even more excited is that the Southampton shares they hold have skyrocketed since the winter transfer window, and the current increase is close to 100%.

In a word, Southampton Football Club has become rich, and not just ordinary rich, but rich to a level close to its historical peak.

This is even before the new season starts.

If Gu Ran can continue to lead Southampton to win the Championship and be promoted to the Premier League after the start of the new season, then the share price of Southampton Club in the stock market will at least increase by another 100%!

Of course, Gu Ran had made the arrangements in advance. Gu Ran absorbed and held shares through Mendes, his white glove. Now, Gu Ran holds more than 55% of the shares.

This actually exceeds the number of shares held by the controlling shareholder Liebherr, which means that Gu Ran is currently the major shareholder of Southampton.

However, Gu Ran was not in a hurry to reveal his identity.

He also wanted to buy more Southampton shares before the equity war was put on the table.

When the shares he holds have an overwhelming advantage over the Liebherr Group, that is when it will be truly safe.

In addition, Gu Ran also has a concern that his current shares are actually still under the name of Mendes. If he cannot repay the money he borrowed from Mendes, according to the gambling agreement at the time, these shares of Southampton will not truly belong to Gu Ran, and Gu Ran will not be able to exercise the rights of a major shareholder.

So, when the holiday began, Gu Ran did not return home to rest, but chose to stay in England. Under Mendes' arrangement, he participated in several sports celebrity entertainment programs, and was a guest on the same stage with various Premier League stars, Premier League supermodels and Hollywood actresses.

After hosting these entertainment shows, Gu Ran's appearance fee has reached the level of top Premier League stars, even exceeding Manchester United's meritorious star Rooney.

In addition to participating in entertainment programs, Gu Ran also took on several advertisements, such as Qingyang, KFC, and Coca-Cola.

Although Gu Ran has no use for these products, it is not bad to make money from them.

What's more, these advertisements were originally prepared by Mendes for Ronaldo. Ronaldo's advertising fee is extremely high, which is already one of the highest among sports stars, and Gu Ran's endorsement fee is currently only one-fifth of Ronaldo's. Although this price is already very high in the Premier League considering Gu Ran's age, compared with the world's top players Ronaldo and Messi, Gu Ran can now be said to be good value for money.

These programs and advertising endorsements also took up a lot of Gu Ran's energy.

But Mendes was very satisfied.

Gu Ran has apparently become a new growth point for the Mendes agency's finances.

Mendes and his economic company also made a lot of money from this.

And Gu Ran's fame has begun to expand due to the indirect promotion of the program and advertisements.

Now, not only fans in England know about Gu Ran's existence, but also fans in his own country and Europe know about Gu Ran's existence, and not only fans in other parts of the world know about Gu Ran's existence - many non-fans who don't know much about football and don't even know how many players are on the field, also know Gu Ran's name.

Although Gu Ran is a member of the football and sports circles, his influence has expanded to the film and television circles, fashion circles, and entertainment circles.

During the vacation, Gu Ran continued to maintain high-intensity training every day, and in his spare time he had in-depth exchanges with Sophie, Maria, Evelyn, Anne Hathaway, Elizabeth Olsen, Taylor Swift and others.

Gu Ran communicated the most with Liverpool's boss Linda and Chelsea's Sister NO.

After all, Gu Ran is actually already the big boss of Southampton Club. In terms of identity and status, the communication between him and Linda and Sister NO will be more thorough.

During the holiday period, Mendes became the busiest agent.

Of course, this is not the real thing.

For Gu Ran, the real business this summer is to obtain the controlling stake in Southampton so that before the start of next season, he can have absolute rights to control the transfers and signings of the Southampton club.

Mendes is also the busiest agent during the offseason.

With the popularity of summer movies, plus the fees for Gu Ran's participation in various programs and advertising endorsements, the outstanding portion of the bet agreement was paid off much earlier than Mendes expected.

When Gu Ran pays off the gambling loan, Mendes will have to speed up to help Gu Ran acquire more club shares.

But the problem is that Mendes has already acquired the shares of most small retail investors at a premium in the secondary market, and the top executives of the Southampton club are all veterans and will certainly not give up their shares and rights so easily.

The summer transfer window has already begun, and other teams are desperately buying players, but Southampton's top executives, especially those headed by CEO Nicola Coster, have no intention of spending money to buy players. Instead, they want to use the money earned from the previous season to distribute dividends to major shareholders! ... (End of this chapter)