Chapter 14 Burning Money

Southampton is in English Football League One, and its share of league broadcasting fees is very small, only around four million pounds, which is only one-tenth of the bottom team in the Premier League. This shows how great the commercial value of the Premier League is to a team.

The low-level league has caused Southampton to have almost no business operations. After the British low-cost airline decided not to renew the contract, the chest advertising sponsor has not yet been found. The jersey sponsor is the declining British brand Umbro, and the annual sponsorship fee is 1.5 million pounds.

On the contrary, the team's match day income reached more than 8 million pounds, which is Southampton's largest source of income.

All this is thanks to Southampton's fanatical Saints fans. Every game has an attendance of around 20,000, which is very rare in the English League One.

"A professional football team has three major sources of income: broadcasting fees, commercial sponsorship and match day income."

After listening to Nicola Cortes' introduction, Sun Yue felt somewhat helpless about Southampton's current situation.

"Match-day income is relatively unfeasible. After all, the stadium is limited, and the broadcasting fee sharing and commercial sponsorship are also limited by the fact that the team is currently in the English League One. So no matter from which aspect, we only have one choice."

"Rush to the Premier League in the shortest possible time!"

Reaching the Premier League means sharing more than 40 million pounds in broadcasting fees every year, and with the Premier League platform, commercial sponsorship will certainly increase as well. As long as the team is well managed, it is not impossible to earn over 100 million pounds.

Yang Huan nodded continuously as he listened, "In the new season we must be promoted from English League One, and then from the English Championship next year. The year after next I want to see Southampton appear in the Premier League. At the same time, we must appear in the European arena in the shortest possible time!"

He spoke with force, with a resolute attitude and with a powerful momentum.

This made Nicholas Cortes compare Yang Huan and Catalina, the latter obviously did not have the courage that Yang Huan had.

Moreover, Yang Huan’s goal is absolutely correct. Establishing a foothold in the Premier League is the foundation, and the European arena is the key to building a strong team.

Zhang Ning is the financial director appointed by Yang Huan, and she also has financial considerations.

"If we want to advance to the Premier League, we must recruit players to strengthen the team, which requires a recruitment budget, plus the daily management of the team and the budget for a new training base. In the coming year, our total investment will be an astronomical figure that no team can afford."

Yang Huan spent 15 million pounds to acquire Southampton, but now she has to invest tens of millions of pounds to operate it. She can't understand the logic behind this.

"Astronomical figures?"

After hearing this, Yang Huan chuckled and said that he just wanted an astronomical figure.

What he is pursuing now is the eye-catching economy, which is the more shocking the more effective it is.

"What are you laughing at?" Zhang Ning's face turned red because of Yang Huan's laughter. "Am I wrong? You only consider the investment and not the return?"

Yang Huan nodded and said, "Yes, investing in football is just a pleasure for me. I never thought about making money from it."

"So, I want to build Southampton into a team that is highly competitive even in the Premier League in the shortest possible time. As for how much money to invest, are you worried that I don't have the money?"

Everyone present, except Sun Yue who knew the truth and Long Wu who had been standing behind Yang Huan playing mobile games, had frowns on their faces.

Too rich, too nouveau riche!

But this method is the simplest and most practical method!

Isn’t this how teams like Chelsea and Manchester City rose to prominence?

"Sun Yue, tell me what you think." Yang Huan pointed at Sun Yue.

Sun Yue used to have many bizarre ideas and concepts in the Yang Group, but he was never valued. He always felt depressed and frustrated until he was brought out by Yang Huan. Then he felt proud.

Therefore, in recent times, he has devoted almost all his energy to implementing Yang Huan's plan.

Now that Yang Huan called him, he prepared himself mentally before speaking.

"Master Huan, I think there is only one way for Southampton at the moment, spend money, spend money desperately!"

Hearing Sun Yue's words, everyone present was frightened.

Does Southampton have the chips to spend money?

"Tell me, how do you spend the money?" Yang Huan waved his hand, agreeing with Sun Yue's statement.

Zhang Ning was so depressed. She seemed to see a shocking deficit on Southampton's books.

Sun Yue was also excited when he heard it. "It's very simple. We will introduce one or two top superstars every year, match them with a group of powerful players, and form a strong lineup. Next year, we will enter the Championship, and then the Premier League. In three years, we will appear in the European arena!"

Nicola Cortes almost fell down when he heard Sun Yue's plan from the team's translator. He really thought professional football was so easy? How much money would it cost to spend so much?

But he was also secretly excited, because if he really did this, Southampton's strength would be improved overnight.

Who doesn’t want his or her team to be a high-end, classy and top-notch club?

The reason why the team failed to be promoted last season was because Markus Liebherr was stingy. He did not pay money or recruit new players at the beginning of the season. When the season was halfway through and it was the winter break, he introduced several players in a row, but he had missed the opportunity for promotion.

All in all, a lot of money was spent, but the effect was not good.

On the contrary, people like Yang Huan, who are ambitious and have a big appetite, will have better results.

"Nikola!" Yang Huan looked at Nikola Cortes.

"Master Huan."

"Is there any top star I can get in the transfer market? Money is not a problem, I want the best!"

In order to welcome Yang Huan's arrival, Nikola Cortes also made a lot of preparations, especially in the transfer market.

"There are many hottest superstars in the transfer market now, including Arsenal's Fabregas, Valencia's David Villa and David Silva, Manchester City's Robinho, Barcelona's Ibrahimovic and Yaya Toure, and Manchester United's Rooney. They are all the hottest superstars in the transfer market."

After Nicola Cortes finished speaking, he added with a wry smile, "But the possibility of them coming to League One is quite slim."

"Why?"

"Many of these superstars are in the rising stage of their careers. If they want to transfer, they will go to top teams, not to English Football League One."

Cash Harris, who had been sitting next to him, interrupted and shook his head, saying, "I don't think so. Professional players treat playing football as a job. As long as they can afford the money, who would go against money?"

"Kaka almost joined Manchester City. If it weren't for the intervention of Florentino Perez, the chairman of Real Madrid, Kaka would be in Manchester City now. So, in the final analysis, whether you can bring in a player or not depends on whether you are willing to spend money."

Nicola Cortes smiled bitterly. Of course, that was true, but Manchester City was at least a Premier League team at that time, while Southampton is now in League One. There is a big difference. Moreover, even if it is spending money, one has to consider the cost and benefits, right?

Unexpectedly, Yang Huan slammed the table and praised in a lavish manner: "Well said!"

"Among the current superstars, Fabregas is always thinking about Barcelona when he is at Arsenal. We don't like such players. Robinho is out of date. David Villa and David Silva are OK, but they are a little soft and not domineering enough. Ibrahimovic seems to be divorcing Barcelona now..."

"It's him, Ibrahimovic!" Yang Huan made the decision immediately. This Swedish center is a strong center who can lead a group of friends to have fun alone. He has super personal abilities and is worth having.

"Nikola, please call Ibrahimovic's agent. I don't believe there are people in this world who can't get along with money!"

It was the first time that everyone in Southampton felt Yang Huan’s wealth and power, and they were all shocked.

What is a rich person?

A truly rich person is someone who will do whatever he wants to do no matter what the cost.

Turn the impossible into possible and turn decay into magic.

This is the effect Yang Huan wanted!

…………

…………

After finishing the first high-level meeting after the acquisition of Southampton, Yang Huan saw that there was still early time, so he went straight to inspect Southampton’s training base, Staplewood.

Before leaving, he did not forget to ask Nicola Cortes to book a table at the best restaurant in Southampton, and he would treat everyone to dinner tonight.

Staplewood is on the other side of the Test River. To get there from the city, you have to go around to the northern suburbs, cross the river bridge, and then head south, making a big N-shaped route. After all, there is only one bridge across the entire Test River.

"Is this the only way to get here from the city?"

Yang Huan was very depressed. The straight-line distance was only about four or five kilometers, but he took a detour and walked a full eight or nine kilometers.

Nicola Cortes smiled bitterly and shook his head, "This is the only way."

Yang Huan curled his lips and said nothing.

It was already July and Staplewood had already started training.

Like most of the training grounds of English teams, Staplewood is located on the edge of the New Forest National Park. The scenery here is picturesque, but the facilities are a bit too simple.

The first team has only two fields, an indoor training ground built with white plastic film and a row of low brick squares. This is all the first team training area at Staplewood Training Ground.

The youth team has several training grounds, but the training facilities are rather old.

“No wonder the Liebherr family did not recruit any new players after acquiring Southampton, but immediately proposed to build a new training base.”

After hearing this, Nicola Cortes also smiled and said, "In fact, the level of our training base is at least mid-level even in the Premier League. You haven't seen many Premier League teams' training bases. They are simply too bad!"

Yang Huan had read many reports in his previous life saying that the training environment of Premier League teams was too poor, and it seemed to be true.

Someone even made a joke that in Abramovich's early days, the luxury cars of Chelsea stars combined were worth more than the entire training base, so the security guards were most concerned about the stars' cars rather than the training base.

That was in London!

This shows how bad Chelsea's training base is.

The time when Yang Huan and others arrived happened to be during their training period, and the training ground of the first team was very lively.

But head coach Alan Pardew was nowhere to be seen, so the assistant coach was in charge.

The players are all undergoing physical endurance training, actively preparing for the new season in August.

Yang Huan found it incomprehensible that the players were basically training without the ball and running under the command of the coach, "Don't we have to train with the ball?"

Nicola Cortes knew that Yang Huan advocated crazy offensive football and gorgeous ground coordination, so he could only smile bitterly and said, "Every coach has his own set of training methods."

"But aren't all teams now transitioning to the European tactical system? Shouldn't our training methods keep up? Without training, how can we perform effectively in the game?"

As the saying goes, training is the accumulation of competition, and competition is the explosion of training.

Without good training, how can you have outstanding performance in the competition?

At least from the reports Yang Huan had read, a truly outstanding coach would never simply train physical fitness.

"Bullshit! Who says England has to learn the European style? Isn't our own style good enough?"

A guy with white hair came out and retorted indignantly.

Football Giants