Chapter 830: You can’t eat hot tofu in a hurry
“Knock, knock, knock!”
"Come in?"
A German man in his thirties with a beard and a slightly bald head, looking furtive, sneaked into the office of the editor-in-chief of Bild, a newspaper headquartered in Hamburg, like a thief.
"Oh, it's you, Christian!"
Editor-in-chief Dickman, who was sitting behind his desk, raised his head, took a quick glance, and spoke after seeing who was coming.
"It's me, editor-in-chief!" Christian Falco looked around, as if he wanted to see if there was anyone else in the room.
Dickman, who had been planning to continue working, saw him like this and immediately laughed, "Don't look at me, I'm the only one here!"
After he finished speaking, he stared at his men in front of him and reached out to prop up the thick black-framed glasses on his nose. "What's up? Christian, is there any big news?"
"Yes, big news!" said Christian Falco.
"How big?" Dickman asked.
Christian Falco chuckled and said, "I promise, at least for the next week, we won't have to worry about any news in the sports section."
"Really?" Dickman's eyes lit up and he immediately became interested.
As the editor-in-chief of Bild, he also bears a lot of pressure, especially now.
Everyone knows that over the years, print media has been gradually dying out and the Internet age has arrived. Even as one of the most influential newspapers in Germany, Bild is not having a good time.
"But you have to promise to let me be in charge!" Christian Falco took the opportunity to bargain.
"Of course!" Dickman nodded. "Come on, Christian, stop talking nonsense and just talk like we did in the past!"
"I mentioned to you before that Hamburg was planning to transform into a joint-stock company and sell some of its shares, right?"
"Well, yes, what's the matter?" Dickman asked curiously.
"Many of us thought at the time that the most likely candidate was Alexander Otto, right?"
"Yeah!" Dickman nodded.
Alexander Otto, a wealthy local in Hamburg and also a loyal Hamburg fan, has always served as Hamburg's fan representative and has a considerable influence among local fans.
So, when Hamburg's management decided to sell its shares, many people thought that Alexander Otto was going to take action.
There are even many Hamburg fans calling for the 46-year-old local tycoon to simply buy the club.
But in fact, Otto never took any action.
In retrospect, on the one hand, it was because he had no money, and on the other hand, he was probably deterred by Hamburg's poor management.
"I was quite familiar with the maid of Alexander Otto's house, didn't you remember?"
Dickman nodded and laughed, "Remember, you have sacrificed a lot for this!"
Christian Falco scratched his head in embarrassment, "Oh, editor-in-chief, I'm sacrificing for my job."
"Okay, okay, go on. What's going on?"
Bild has always been known for its ability to poach people and even create some news materials.
Dickman's most proud masterpiece was his report on German President Wolff's low-interest mortgage policy, which made Wolff so angry that he called the newspaper to criticize him and asked him to delay publishing the report.
What's the result?
Stupid Wolfe just happened to come to Dickman's door, giving him a great opportunity to hype himself up.
What was originally just a small private debt dispute turned into a presidential scandal.
In the end, this incident completely became the fuse for Woolf to lose public support and finally step down in disgrace.
As the editor-in-chief of Bild, Dickman is very passionate about this kind of digging, because he always believes that everyone is interested in celebrities and scandals. In this regard, he feels that the positioning of Bild is very similar to that of the British Sun.
It is also because of Dickmann's philosophy that Bild's top and bottom departments have a consistent style of doing things.
This is why Christian Falco deliberately tried to build a relationship with Alexander Otto's maid in order to dig up news.
But no one expected that when they thought their efforts were in vain, the maid brought them breaking news.
"She just asked me out and told me that she heard a conversation between Alexander Otto and the current Hamburger FC CEO Thomas Reck and Dietmar Beiersdorf at home. The content involved Hamburger FC's management issues!"
"Really?" Dickman's eyes lit up when he heard it, and he stood up involuntarily.
"It's absolutely true!" Christian Falco said with certainty.
Dickman nodded. He knew his subordinate well. If this wasn't the case, he wouldn't dare to say anything.
"Tell me what's going on!" Dickman sat down again, stopped what he was doing, and looked at Christian Falco in front of him. He had a keen sense of smell and knew very well that this was big news.
Even though Hamburg is now on the verge of relegation, in fact, Hamburg is the second largest club in the Bundesliga after Bayern Munich.
Do you know what the match between Hamburg and Bayern Munich is called?
North-South derby!
Almost the entire German football world agrees that there is only one team in Germany capable of challenging Bayern Munich, and that is Hamburg!
As for Dortmund, Schalke 04 and the like, although they can rise occasionally, it is difficult for them to sustain it.
After all, their objective environment limits their long-term challenge to Bayern Munich.
But Hamburg is different. The objective environment of Hamburg is even better than that of Bayern Munich!
But why has Hamburg's situation been getting worse over the years?
Many people don’t know that as early as four years ago, Bild had tracked the internal corruption problem in Hamburg.
At that time, there was a power struggle among the top management of Hamburg and Beiersdorf was forced to leave the team. The chairman of Hamburg at that time was Hoffman, who came from a marketing background. Bild even did a special report, saying that Hamburg had invested a net of 130 million euros in the seven years from 2003 to 2010, but the results were getting worse and worse.
But that report was eventually aborted due to the interruption of clues, and Hoffmann stepped down in 2011 and was replaced by Kerkhove as the new chairman of Hamburg.
But after Khoff came to power, what he did was obviously not much better than Hoffman, and was even worse, causing Hamburg to almost be relegated last season. The team's finances were also heavily in debt, and they had to sell shares to pay off debts.
So, if at this time, Bild finds out Hamburg’s internal problems and gets solid evidence, then...
When Dickman thought of this, he suddenly felt that the following scene was so beautiful that he couldn’t bear to look at it!
"Editor-in-chief, according to the maid's retelling, after Beiersdorf and Thomas Lake took over the team's competitive and financial departments, they discovered many problems when cleaning up past accounts. So, they want to seek Alexander Otto's help and hope to further investigate the matter."
When Dickman heard this, he suddenly realized, "Yes, this is the right way!"
Isn’t it?
Hamburg used to be run by guys like Hoffmann and Kerkhove, who only wanted to make money and profit, regardless of the team's finances. If things got really out of hand, wouldn't there be wealthy fans paying for it?
But the situation is obviously different now.
Hamburg is now a joint-stock company, with a large portion of its shares being privately held. Investors will certainly be concerned about their return on investment, and therefore will no longer allow people like Kkhoff to act recklessly.
"What did Alexander Otto say?" Dickman asked with concern.
"I heard that he plans to invite several other fan representatives to negotiate!"
"Negotiation?" Dickman shook his head and sneered. "Why bother negotiating? Can't we just disclose the information to the public? Hamburg's foundation is rotten anyway. No matter how much trouble they put in, can it get worse than it is now? The worst that can happen is that they will be demoted!"
Christian Falco smiled bitterly, thinking that his editor-in-chief was really just watching the fun and not afraid of trouble.
"Editor-in-chief, what Alexander Otto means is that the team has finally gotten back on track. The warm-up matches have been so good, and the fans have high hopes for the team. This season's season ticket sales are at a peak never seen in the past two or three years, so he is afraid that it will affect the team's performance."
Dickman nodded. At least he believed that Alexander Otto and others truly loved hamburgers.
"However, Beiersdorf also believes that the cancer in the team should be eliminated as soon as possible, because he found that those involved in these things are not just small fish and shrimps. It is said that they include the head of the human resources department, Horst Becker, and Bernd Wimaier, a veteran who has worked for Hamburg for more than ten years."
Who would have thought that it would have been better if he hadn't said anything. Once he said it, Dickman became as excited as if he had been injected with chicken blood.
"Is this true? Even the two of them are involved?"
"Yes, the maid did hear Thomas Lake mention their names."
"Wahahaha, what are you waiting for? Just pick up your weapons and do it!" Dickman really wanted to create chaos in the world.
Horst Becker is in charge of human resources. I believe that needless to say, the importance of this position is something that anyone can guess. As for Bernd Wimaire, he has been with the club for fifteen years. He has served as a team leader and a manager, so he can be said to have held great power.
Before Kruse took office, he was the most popular candidate to be the football director of Hamburg, and almost everyone supported him. But in the end, Becker finally chose Kruse. It is said that it was Khoff who was behind it.
But now, both of them have been dragged into this.
It can be seen that this drama is not over yet!
If it is true as Thomas Recke and Beiersdorf say, then Hamburg's entire management team is rotten. Could it be just these two people?
Could it be that Khoff, or even Kruse, could be spared?
I’m afraid not!
"Editor-in-chief, what should we do now?" Christian Falco asked excitedly.
But Dickman was calm at this time, because he had no idea how many times he had handled such explosive news.
"This matter involves a lot of things and contains a lot of explosive information. Fans will definitely be very concerned, so we must first collect more inside information."
"Collect more inside information?" Christian Falco was a little troubled.
Where to collect this?
Seeing him like this, Dickman laughed and said, "Don't worry, isn't Thomas Lake from the Finance Department? I happen to know someone there, and I don't believe that I can't dig up some explosive information!"
Christian Falco looked surprised.
I can’t see that this chess move made by the editor-in-chief was buried so deeply!
"Then, Editor-in-Chief, are we not going to do anything now?" Christian Falco was a little depressed.
Dickman smiled and shook his head, "No, it's not about doing nothing, but taking it slow. There's an old Chinese saying that goes, 'A steady stream of water will last a long time, and if you're impatient, you won't be able to eat hot tofu!'"
"Huh?" Christian Falco was completely confused.
He couldn't figure out what it meant.
Why do they involve the Chinese when this is clearly a German matter?
Also, what is tofu? How do you eat it?