Chapter 595: The Ball Saint's Lip

"Mr. Yang Huan, this is our Adidas Sports Center!"

When the two teams arrived in Amsterdam, Ajax's core management was warmly welcoming the guests at De Tokmost, Ajax's training base in the south of the city, next to the Amsterdam Arena.

Yang Huan, Peter Kenyon and others, walked into the Adidas Sports Center in De Tokmost.

He was accompanied by Adidas representative and old friend Markus Baumann.

Adidas is the sponsor of both Southampton and Ajax, so Adidas obviously hopes to strengthen the communication and connection between the two teams through this method.

Yang, smiling, led a group of people and began to enter the sports center, accompanied and introduced by Ajax's chairman Johan Jark, head coach De Boer, and Overmars, who was responsible for the team's transfer operations.

This white building is a sports center just as its name suggests.

The largest area is an indoor football field, which is provided for training of the first team and youth teams.

In addition, there are a series of things that sound very high-end and classy, ​​such as speed measuring tracks, motion measurement systems and analysis systems.

It is not known whether John Jak and other core executives of Ajax wanted to prove themselves in front of Marcus Baumann or they just felt very proud, but they praised this sports center to be as advanced as it could be.

Yang Huan smiled perfunctorily along the way, following and visiting, not thinking it was anything big.

For example, Ajax said that their technology can integrate team and individual sports data, and analyze the future development direction of players, as well as the improvement of the team's training programs, etc.

But when Yang Huan wanted to know in depth how far they had reached in their research, the person in charge of the Ajax Sports Center just said that they were still exploring, but believed that they would be able to achieve results soon, and then he avoided the topic.

In response to this, Yang Huan could only laugh.

There is no doubt that Ajax has excellent, even unparalleled, experience in training young players, but they have their own fixed training model that has been running for many years.

Now, if we want to transform this traditional training model into an information-based model, it may not be done overnight. The advantages of the past have now become disadvantages that hold us back.

This has to be said to be a very sad thing!

However, if Ajax continues to invest and research in this area and perseveres, it will definitely achieve something in the future.

After all, what they have are valuable experiences that other teams don't have.

No matter how information technology is used and developed, in the end, it all comes down to the players!

But judging from the current situation, Ajax seems to lack such patience.

Especially when the Ajax project leader pointed out that Ajax's research in these areas has been leading the world for nearly ten years, Yang Huan couldn't help but shake his head and laugh. Is this fooling investors?

If you, Ajax, are years ahead of the world with just this little bit of technology, then what are we, Southampton?

Oh, aren’t we from Earth?

Okay, let’s go back to Mars!

The entire Adidas Sports Center gave Yang Huan the feeling that it was magnificent and costly, but lacked an atmosphere of innovation and was filled with old-fashioned stereotypes and conventions.

This is not a good phenomenon!

But Yang Huan was a guest, so he kept this matter to himself and said nothing.

"Mr. Yang Huan, what do you think of our sports center?"

As the group walked out of the Adidas Sports Center again, John Jak asked Yang Huan next to him with a smile.

Yang Huan laughed, "Very good, quite good."

"Yes, we have been researching some technical projects for two years. We plan to spend another three years to maximize the potential of this sports center."

John Jack was introduced with great enthusiasm and ambition.

Yang Huan nodded again, "Well, Ajax is indeed the world leader in these aspects!"

John Jacques was obviously very satisfied with the praise and affirmation from Yang Huan. After laughing a few times, he was even humble.

"Ajax has changed dramatically over the past three years since the Velvet Revolution. We have redefined the club's future direction and strategy and invited former stars such as Bergkamp, ​​De Boer, Overmars and Van der Sar to join the team."

"We will resolutely implement the business strategy proposed by Cruyff in the technical report [The Road to Reconstruction]. In the next few years, while ensuring Ajax's advantage in the Netherlands, we will try our best to improve the team's competitiveness in the European arena, get a better ranking and restore the glory of the past!"

When John Jacques mentioned Cruyff, many people around him showed a bit of enthusiasm.

But there are also some people who seem indifferent and do not comment.

It is obvious that even within Ajax, there is no monolithic unity.

When Yang Huan heard this, he laughed again.

Given Ajax's current situation, it would be good enough to be able to maintain their position as the leader in the Netherlands.

Do you still hope to make a difference in the Champions League?

Stop kidding, okay?

Not to mention compared with the top five European leagues, even compared with the Portuguese Super League, Ajax has no advantage at all.

The bottom line is, they have money!

Professional football is now dominated by capital. As for youth training and other things, anyone with money can do whatever they want.

How was Chelsea's youth training? How was Tottenham's youth training? How was Arsenal's youth training when Wenger took over?

But what about now?

What was Germany’s youth training like ten years ago?

What is the reason that, within ten years, we have gone from a talent decline to the current talent surge?

By money!

Would German football be what it is today if huge amounts of money had not flowed in over the past decade to promote youth training reforms?

But what does Ajax have?

A football field, a training base, a group of rigid and conservative old people, what else?

When it comes to Cruyff, Yang Huan laughed again in his heart.

After Rosell took office in Barcelona, ​​Cruyff could no longer stay in Barcelona and was directly kicked out.

What next?

With Ajax legends such as De Boer and Overmars, and with their past reputation, they incited the Ajax fans club, launched the so-called Velvet Revolution, overthrew the Ajax board of directors twice, and drew a lot of beautiful pie in the sky. But is it realistic?

To put it bluntly, this is just a palace drama full of intrigue and scheming. Don't think that Cruyff is so great!

Maybe, in the heart of the old football saint, it was because he was kicked out of Barcelona and felt empty and lonely, so he used Ajax to continue to make his presence felt in the professional football world!

As for Overmars, Jonk, De Boer, and even Bergkamp, ​​do they really have the ability to lead Ajax?

As Yang Huan is a layman, he can’t tell how good he is at coaching, but as far as club management is concerned, he has failed completely!

What is the most important thing for a professional team?

Without a doubt, transfers and signings!

It can be said that the quality of transfers determines the competitiveness of a team.

Ajax's current youth training is completely unable to meet the needs of the first team, so signings are very important.

But let’s take a look at Ajax’s signings after the Velvet Revolution.

Among the players brought in, how many are worth the money?

For a team like Ajax that operates on a small scale, signings that are worth the money are not enough. What they want is to buy low and sell high, which means they have to get great value for money!

But what about now?

The players brought in, led by Overmars and others, are not even worth the money!

As for Danish defensive midfielder Paulsen and former Liverpool player Babel, they are all a bunch of players who can't make it in the top five leagues, but their annual salary is not low. They are quite old. Is it useful to bring them in? Can they be sold at a good price?

A few years ago, Ajax spent more than 16 million euros to bring Soleimani from Heerenveen. What was the result?

The player became the biggest bust in Ajax's history.

According to common logic, since it is no longer viable, why not just sell it at a bargain price?

But Ajax’s management doesn’t want to do that?

Stay in the team, be supported, guard the water dispenser, and then... leave on a free transfer this summer!

If the Ajax fans were smarter, they would have shouted at Overmars and others.

Buddy, can you please stop thinking about buying people?

Occasionally, you should also sell out people!

In Yang Huan's opinion, this group of former Ajax executives may know how to play football, but they certainly don't know how to play professional football.

Moreover, these days, anyone who talks about loyalty, emotion, and feelings is always particularly unreliable.

More importantly, they followed Cruyff, but didn't learn any other skills except the eloquence of the football saint.

Empty talk will ruin a country, but hard work will make it prosperous!

Ajax's current problems are many and complex.

But there are some people who are unwilling to face the cruel reality and always fantasize about their past glory.

What's the use?

Can the Champions League trophy in the Hall of Fame be eaten? Can it be exchanged for money? Can it attract players?

To be frank, if Ajax could be more pragmatic, humble themselves and learn from Porto, it would be a success.

At the very least, Ajax is indeed experienced in player training.

But the problem is that you can’t even learn from teams like Porto, Sporting Lisbon and Benfica!

Yang Huan knew very well that the reason why Adidas took advantage of the opportunity of the Europa League final to invite Yang Huan and others to De Tokmost was, to put it bluntly, to promote cooperation between the Saints and Ajax.

But after learning about Ajax's situation, Yang Huan had no interest at all.

As a boss, he doesn't like employees who are unwilling to work hard and always like to talk big.

As the boss, he doesn't like those younger brothers who act too arrogantly.

So, after walking out of the Adidas Sports Center, Yang Huan winked at Peter Kenyon.

The latter understood what Master Huan meant and walked out immediately.

"Master Huan, it's almost time. Miss Zhuang is probably waiting!"

When John Jacques and others heard this, they all looked at the time.

That's not right. It's still early for kick-off. What do you mean it's almost time?

But Yang Huan pretended to be enlightened and said, "Oh, right, it's almost time!"

"No, Master Huan, it's still early. Why don't we go to the office and sit for a while, then look around. We'll treat you to dinner in the evening..."

"Some other time, some other time!" Yang Huan laughed and waved his hands, "I'm really sorry, I already have a dinner appointment tonight."

Everyone in Ajax looked at Marcus Baumann at once, as if asking, man, we haven't talked about the most important thing yet, we can't let him go like this!

But Marcus Bauman was depressed and could only smile bitterly.

You brag about yourselves so much that you scare people away. What can I do?

Besides, who can control what Young Master Huan does?

I can only find another opportunity and think of a solution later!

Yang Huan pretended to be ignorant of this, greeted Peter Kenyon and Long Wu, said a few polite words, and then left.

This group of people were left behind, looking at each other and sighing.

It's as if I missed a golden opportunity.

, read please.