Chapter 221 Hugging Young Master's Thighs

Southampton's training building only has two floors.

This is the same as football training bases all over the world, low buildings.

The first floor is the gym, swimming pool, lounge, entertainment room, locker room, medical room, etc. The second floor is the coaching staff's office, the head coach's office, and two meeting rooms, one large and one small.

Behind the training building is the living area.

The living areas of the first team and the youth team are connected and share a two-story building.

The ground floor is a restaurant, and the second floor is a room specifically for the players to sleep in.

All rooms and facilities are decorated strictly in accordance with the standards of a five-star hotel.

Even the restaurant on the ground floor is strictly implemented according to high standards.

By the way, the management system of the entire training base will adopt a modern model.

It's like a restaurant.

Every day, the restaurant manager receives information from the medical department, coaching staff, or research center, which requires the restaurant to prepare meals for the players in a targeted manner based on the physical conditions, injuries, and other aspects of different players.

The research center will have nutrition experts who will specifically follow up on this area and provide the most professional advice for the restaurant's meal preparation.

If necessary, the restaurant will even provide feedback on the players' dining situation to other departments and keep detailed records.

This is just the interaction between the restaurant and other departments.

Throughout the entire Steptwood, there are very close interactions and connections between almost every department and every working group, and what maintains all of this is the high-tech management system that Yang Huan began to promote a year ago.

Including Yang Huan himself, Bielsa and others, everyone has an APP on their mobile phones.

Let them connect to the system anytime and anywhere and understand everything here.

The entire system is very complex and requires constant debugging and adjustment.

But there are some areas where this is already mature and starting to work.

For example, data analysis.

Yang Huan invested a lot of money and brought in two technical experts, Marcus du Satoy and Howard Hamilton, and a research team composed of graduates from many prestigious universities such as Oxford, Yale, and Stanford, which enabled Southampton's data analysis capabilities to improve rapidly.

And all of this is finally reflected on the computer screen in Bielsa's office.

"Marcus and I, along with Howard, tried to do some statistics and analysis on all of our games last season, and you know what I found?"

Yang Huan was depressed. How would I know what you discovered?

"Get to the point!"

He found that almost all technical experts like to show off and keep people in suspense.

Will you die if I don’t keep you in suspense?

Bielsa smiled awkwardly, "I found that our midfield is not lacking in defense."

"What do you mean?" Yang Huan didn't quite understand.

"For example, from a data perspective, a good midfield defense can be reflected in many aspects, such as interceptions, steals, and even fouls by midfielders."

Yang Huan can understand this.

According to data experts, everything can be explained by data.

The explanation doesn't make sense because you haven't collected enough data.

"If we analyze it this way, we have no shortage of interceptions, steals or fouls in the midfield."

As he spoke, Bielsa pulled up a set of charts containing some comparisons.

And the teams being compared are all from the Premier League.

Judging from the chart, Southampton's midfield defense data is not inferior to that of the Premier League teams, and is even better than Arsenal and Manchester United, but slightly worse than Chelsea.

But the Blues have been a team known for their defense over the years, so their defense is naturally good.

The main reason here is that Stroman and Vidal's performances were too eye-catching.

"You mean, we don't need a defensive midfielder?"

All along, everyone, including Bielsa, has been telling Yang Huan that Southampton lacks a defensive midfielder.

Bielsa smiled awkwardly, "We lack a defensive midfielder, but we don't lack defense."

"Then what?" Yang Huan seemed to understand a little.

"One of the important reasons why our midfield failed to play a stronger role is that our midfield is too far behind the top teams in terms of organization and distribution of the ball."

As he spoke, he pulled up another chart.

The objects of comparison are still several strong teams in the Premier League, but the gap is now huge.

Compared with Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and other teams, Southampton's midfield ability to create opportunities is the worst.

"Our midfield is seriously holding Ibrahimovic back!" Bielsa came to this conclusion.

Ibrahimovic is indeed scoring goals in the English League One and FA Cup.

But if what Bielsa said is true, if Southampton's midfield can be improved to a higher level, Ibrahimovic's attacking power will be even stronger.

Even Neymar et al will perform better.

"From a tactical point of view and from the characteristics of Ibrahimovic, Adam Lallana's position should be removed because many functions of this position overlap with Ibrahimovic, which causes waste."

"In midfield, Vidal and Strootman are both excellent, but we need a commander, a leader."

Now Yang Huan really understood.

"You mean, we need a commander like Pirlo?"

Bielsa nodded, "Theoretically, yes, but Pirlo's age, I don't think it's suitable for us."

"Xabi Alonso?" Yang Huan asked again with a smile.

This player is good at both offense and defense, and is definitely a commander-level treasure worth acquiring.

"Can you convince Real Madrid?" Martin Hunt shook his head and smiled bitterly.

Xabi Alonso is not so old that he needs to retire. How could he abandon the core players of Real Madrid and come to Southampton to play in the Championship?

"So, Busquets has nothing to do."

Yang Huan thinks, how much money would Barcelona have to pay to sell Busquets?

Besides, he had absolutely no love for the Oscar-winning Barcelona actor.

"By the way, in addition to the midfield, I plan to improve the team's ball control ability in the next season, so we need to introduce another player in the central defender position."

Southampton currently has four central defenders, Benatia, Varane, Jose Fonte and Siberia.

Throughout the entire season, Siberia basically didn't get any opportunities and has been transferred out as a free agent.

Jose Fonte is also interested in the English League One team, so he will probably have to make a move.

There are only two players left, Benatia and Varane. Even if Nastasic, who was introduced last season, comes, there are only three players, and two of them are young players, which is a bit thin.

"I know this. I have asked Raiola to contact him. There will be news soon."

Yang Huan also remembered the bet he made with Abramovich.

"By the way, I have already finalised several players from Chelsea."

Bielsa was a little surprised. The poaching ended up at Chelsea?

"who?"

"Matic, Sturridge, and..." Yang Huan deliberately kept everyone in suspense, and waited until everyone looked over before he said with a smile, "...Drogba!"

"Drogba?" Bielsa was so surprised that he lost his voice.

Pablo Queiroga, a young member of the coaching staff, even stood up on the spot with a look of disbelief on his face.

"My goodness, you're going to Chelsea to poach Drogba?"

Yang Huan found it very funny to see these guys making a fuss.

"Who's interested in digging it? Chelsea is so enthusiastic that they offered it to me on their own initiative!"

But no one with a little common sense would believe this.

They would only think that Young Master Huan was so awesome this time that he actually went to the wealthy Chelsea to poach players.

It’s so awesome!

"Marcelo, you can do whatever you want with these three players. If they are useful, keep them. If they are not useful, just sell them."

Yang Huan's casual remark shocked everyone present even more.

From the tone of his voice, it seems that he really wasn't the one poaching the talent.

“Master Huan, these three players…what’s going on?” Bielsa asked with a wry smile, trying to get to the bottom of it.

"I've already told you that Chelsea gave it to me for free. Don't you believe the truth?"

To be honest, is it easy these days?

"Is it really free?" Martin Hunter was skeptical.

"Nonsense, no matter how great Drogba is, he is still a veteran. Am I interested in poaching him?"

Southampton is most interested in the tender and delicate young comrades.

He himself found it funny. "Abramovich is trying every possible way to curry favor with me, so he is not only giving them away for free, but also willing to pay the salaries of these players. Tell me, can I refuse such enthusiasm? Do I have the nerve to refuse?"

Everyone nodded.

If you are so enthusiastic, refusing will only offend others!

Hearing how hard Abramovich tried to cling to Young Master Huan, everyone looked at Yang Huan with a slightly different look.

To be honest, this Young Master Huan is quite special.

Always doing something amazing and spectacular.

If Abramovich were to cling to someone else's leg, people might still be a little skeptical.

But if you can cling to Young Master Huan's thigh, this is definitely possible.

For a moment, the eyes of this group of people were filled with something called worship.

Yang Huan felt it and felt a little proud.

Look how shocked you guys are, and I haven't told you everything yet.

If you knew that Abramovich was going to give me a Messi, wouldn't your hearts be broken?

After the shock, let’s get back to the topic.

"Matic and Sturridge have performed very well during the time they were loaned out, especially Sturridge. Let them both stay!" Bielsa was pondering the earthquake caused by the arrival of the three players.

"Simply sell Lambert and Barnard on the front line, sell Jason Bundchen, add Matic in the midfield, sell Hammond as well, and streamline the team's lineup."

Yang Huan had no objection either.

Among this group of people, only Lambert looks familiar, the others are not very famous.

But even Lambert is 29 years old. It's time to make a move while there is still a market for him.

"Okay, you guys discuss these things together!"

Yang Huan himself is not a professional, at best he is just an amateur fan.

So in the professional field, he has no say.

However, his greatest characteristic is that he respects knowledge and talents.

Since you don't understand, just let someone who knows do it, that's the right thing to do.

Taking advantage of the free time, Yang Huan simply called Raiola again to find out about the progress of the transfer.

"Mino, I noticed that your work efficiency has decreased recently!" Yang Huan's first words were criticism.

Mino Raiola on the other end of the phone smiled bitterly, "It's not easy to talk, Master Huan."

My dear young master, it’s not that I’m inefficient, it’s that you have high requirements. You only target items that are not for sale. Do you think it’s easy for me?

Yang Huan was cheerful and nodded continuously, "Of course, if he is not a high-level player, we in Southampton would not even consider him as such!"

"How's it going? How's it going in Spain?"

"We are still discussing it, it's a bit of a stalemate."

"What's the problem?"

"The club has money problems, and there are also some problems with the players."

"Um?"

"Next season, he wants to play in the Europa League."

"Nonsense, we Southampton can also play in the Europa League. Isn't the Europa League they participate in Spain the same tournament as the Europa League we participate in England?"

Raiola still smiled bitterly.

What they mean is not just to play in the Europa League, but to be competitive.

Although Southampton can also play in the Europa League, who expects Southampton to achieve results?

Anyone who thinks Southampton can do anything in the Europa League is a fool.

"Well, give him the phone and I'll talk to him."