Chapter 13 Taking Over the Saints
"The British media is so boring!"
In a Bentley Mulsanne speeding on the M3 highway, Yang Huan put down the newspaper in his hand and said indignantly.
The tone sounded indescribably aggrieved, but it made everyone in the car feel very strange.
Are you bored?
I'm afraid someone is saying one thing and thinking another!
"Ordinary people in the UK really like the style of the Sun, which is speculative but entertaining." Cash Harris is a British and is very familiar with the British temperament.
"The Times used to be a very serious newspaper, but in the UK, only the top elites liked it. It was very niche and poorly managed. After being acquired by News Corporation, it immediately took a route to cater to the common people. Now it is a newspaper that has a good balance between seriousness and entertainment."
But even such a newspaper still gave a lot of coverage to Yang Huan, and it lasted for two or three days.
Just two days ago, when the news about Yang Huan was about to fade away, Cash Harris accepted interviews from multiple media outlets in the City of London and talked about Yang Huan. He admitted that Chinese investors were interested in acquiring an English professional team.
In this interview, he described Yang Huan as another super-rich man who had arrived in English football after Abramovich and the Abu Dhabi consortium, which once again shocked the entire British and European media.
In less than two days, there was an endless stream of news about which wealthy football team Yang Huan was going to acquire.
From the Glazer family's Manchester United, to Hicks' Liverpool, to the tragic Gunners Arsenal...
Almost all the top teams are related to Yang Huan.
When this news reached back home, it also attracted crazy attention from the media and fans.
If successful, Yang Huan will become the first person from the mainland to enter the English professional league!
But in fact, Yang Huan secretly took over Southampton, a team in the third-tier league in England.
Now he was on the motorway to Southampton.
"Mr. Yang Huan, you asked me to help you contact the head coach before. I already have several suitable candidates. Please take a look." Cash Harris has been very busy in recent days.
Not to mention anything else, just to help Yang Huan find a head coach, he didn't know how many connections he had used.
Five hundred thousand pounds is a lot, but it's not easy to earn.
Yang Huan took the document handed over by Cash Harris and opened it.
The first page of the document features former Real Madrid coach and Chilean engineer Manuel Pellegrini.
In this evaluation document, Pellegrini was highly evaluated, and it was believed that this head coach was very suitable to lead a mid- to lower-level team. Although he was fired by Real Madrid, his coaching ability was unquestionable, and the teams he led were often able to launch a hearty attack.
However, there is a problem. Pellegrini may not be willing to coach a League One team, especially after suffering a Waterloo at Real Madrid. For the sake of value preservation, he will definitely have to prove himself again in the top league.
The second is the famous Czech coach Zeman who is currently unemployed at home.
This head coach is certainly not as famous as Pellegrini, after all, he has never coached a top team, but Yang Huan knows that he is a head coach who is notorious for not caring about the rest of the team. He attacks desperately and his football creed is to score one more goal than the opponent.
Zeman has been out of work for two years, so it shouldn't be difficult to invite him out of retirement.
However, he is not the world-famous coach that Yang Huan requires.
The third one is much more famous. He is the current head coach of the Bundesliga powerhouse Bayern Munich, the Dutchman Van Gaal.
There is absolutely no doubt about Van Gaal's reputation. He is one of the world's top coaches. He led Bayern Munich to the Champions League final last season. Although they eventually lost to Mourinho's Inter Milan, they are invincible in German domestic competitions. Van Gaal is most famous for his football philosophy of attacking at all costs.
But just like Pellegrini's problem, Van Gaal's personality and the fact that he has just gotten on track at Bayern Munich make the possibility of moving to English League One to coach Southampton very slim.
In addition, there are other world-famous coaches on the list, such as Germany national team head coach Loew, Spain national team head coach Bosque, Chile national team head coach Bielsa, etc., but are they willing to coach the English League One teams?
On the contrary, less famous and capable players like Adrianse, Michael Laudrup and Pochettino, or the young coaches who have emerged in the past one or two years, are more realistic.
Yang Huan closed the report and handed it to Zhang Ning, then turned his head to look out the car window.
Outside the window, the scenery along the highway was rapidly receding.
There are more and more trees on the roadside, telling passengers on the highway that Southampton is near.
Southampton is a shining pearl on the south coast of England. The Titanic set out from here.
This is the second largest container cargo port in the UK and the most famous cruise terminal in the UK. It is also the famous flower and tree capital of the UK. Almost every household enjoys planting flowers and trees, and the most famous attraction in the city is Tudor Gardens.
Southampton's team logo has a tree and a white rose.
So, when speeding on the highway, seeing more and more trees means Southampton is getting closer.
"Kash." Yang Huan thought it through and decided that he had to do it himself.
After Cash Harris agreed, he continued, "Help me contact someone."
Yang Huan is very clear about the football trends in the next few years. He must adjust Southampton within one or two years, otherwise it will be difficult for the team to adapt to the future football trends.
Therefore, Yang Huan’s first head coach after taking over the team is crucial, as he will determine the future direction of Southampton.
This is a task that not just anyone can accomplish!
It's just like when Abramovich took over Chelsea, the best thing he did was to keep Ranieri, allowing the latter to lay an extremely solid foundation for Chelsea. He then went a step further and invited Mourinho, who had a similar style, which led to Chelsea's glory in the past few years.
On the other hand, Manchester City has so many superstars, but why can't they achieve results?
It all comes down to one thing: the head coach is not good enough!
Yang Huan now has three very good candidates in mind, and he must get at least one of them.
…………
…………
Southampton's core city center is an inverted triangle. The Itchen River, which runs from south to north, and the Test River, which runs from northwest to southeast, meet at the end of the inverted triangle, forming the largest cargo port in the UK after Felixstowe.
To the west of the cargo terminal is the headquarters of the International Sailing Federation, and to the north is Southampton's St. Mary's Stadium.
After Yang Huan arrived in Southampton, he asked the driver to take them around the city before arriving at St. Mary's Stadium.
When Bentley arrived at St. Mary's Stadium, the club's executive chairman Nicola Cortes, who had received the news earlier, was already waiting at the door with his men. As soon as he saw Yang Huan get out of the car, he immediately went to greet him.
"Hello, Mr. Yang Huan!"
Nicholas Cortes is not old, only 42 years old. He wears a blue suit and a red tie. He gives a good first impression, but there is a hint of worry between Nicholas Cortes' brows.
He didn't even receive any news before the club's owner Katharina Liebherr sold the team, which made him feel betrayed, but he could do nothing about it because he was just an employee.
With the new boss taking over, he has to start worrying about his future fate.
"Hello, Mr. Cortes!" Yang Huan shook hands with him.
Accompanied by Nicola Cortes, Yang Huan and his party entered the conference room of the administrative office on the first floor of Southampton.
As soon as everyone entered, Yang Huan sat in the boss's seat without any hesitation. Zhang Ning, Sun Yue and Cash Harris sat on one side, and Nicola Cortes and former Southampton employees sat on the other side. Everyone was clearly separated.
"I believe Mr. Cortez should have received the notice!"
Cash Harris was the first to speak. "Since yesterday, Mr. Yang Huan has officially completed the acquisition of Southampton. So, from now on, everything in this team belongs to Mr. Yang Huan."
"I know." A trace of hatred flashed in Nicola Cortes' eyes, but it was not directed at Yang Huan, but at Catalina.
He now looked like an unlucky guy waiting for the judgment of fate, feeling a little hesitant and at a loss.
"Mr. Yang Huan is from China and is not very familiar with running a football team. Therefore, after completing the acquisition of Southampton, he will not make too many adjustments and changes to the team's existing management. He also sincerely wants to retain Mr. Cortes to continue to stay in office and everything will remain the same."
This surprised Nicholas Cortez a little, but he soon let it go, probably because this was for a smooth transition.
After Yang Huan took over Southampton, he placed Zhang Ning and Sun Yue into the core management team. They were his own people, with Zhang Ning in charge of finance and Sun Yue in charge of news, public relations and publicity and marketing.
Southampton's original management had no say in this and could only accept this parachuted appointment.
After making the personnel arrangements, Yang Huan asked Nicola Cortes to introduce Southampton's current situation.
It was only after this introduction that he realized why Catalina was so determined to sell Southampton.
"We have started construction of a new training base in the forest on the other side of the Test River in the suburbs of Southampton, but the budget has exceeded our expectations. It is expected to increase from the original 15 million pounds to more than 30 million pounds, but the team cannot invest even a penny in this project at the moment."
"What?" Cash Harris was surprised.
The total value of Southampton is only 14 million pounds, but a training base costs 30 million pounds?
"You didn't mention this project at all in the report you submitted to us!" Cash Harris was blaming Nicholas Cortes and explaining to Yang Huan that he was also a victim.
"None of the club's asset reports went through me, so I don't know." Nicola Cortes has always been excluded from Catalina's trust.
Isn't it just 30 million pounds?
Yang Huan was very calm, smiled and said, "It's okay. If you want to build a top-level giant, the best training base is a must, so I will continue to invest in this project."
In fact, this is a very common phenomenon, just like when Ashley acquired Newcastle and spent 80 million pounds, but after the acquisition was completed, he checked the accounts and found that Newcastle still had a debt of 70 million pounds.
That is why Ashley has always kept his offer for Newcastle at 300 million pounds and refuses to give in.
Relatively speaking, Southampton is in a better situation, with no debt and only one fixed asset investment project that requires money.
Besides, fixed assets basically will not lose money as long as they are built.
After a pause, Yang Huan continued, "However, I am not satisfied with the British infrastructure team. They all withdrew for me. I found people from China. I believe that whether it is price, speed, or quality, it will at least be better than the British one."
China's infrastructure capabilities are world-famous, and the Yang family is also engaged in real estate and other development projects. It is not difficult to find a trustworthy infrastructure team to come to the UK.
On the contrary, Yang Huan is more concerned about whether Southampton has the ability to enter the transfer market.
Football Giants