From coaching Real Madrid

Manchester City announced their disbandment the day after the parade around the city, and everyone began their summer vacation.

Gao Shen, on the other hand, went non-stop. Accompanied by Su Qing, Lucas, Borrell, Sarri and others, he arrived in Leeds, which is more than 60 kilometers away.

The British media are really crazy. They can even be so cruel that they arrange for people to squat outside the Elland Road stadium.

The purpose is just to know if Gao Shen will come?

Come, it proves that Gao Shen and Leeds United are inextricably linked.

In fact, everyone in the industry knows this and can guess it, but Gao Shen still chose to keep a low profile.

For the time being, it is better for this kind of thing to be known than seen.

There are benefits to being low-key.

Not to mention, Leeds United will be reorganized next. If Gao Shen gets too involved, or even takes action personally, there is no guarantee that he will not be targeted. By then, all the giants will be eyeing Gao Shen's target for poaching, so what can Gao Shen do?

On the contrary, it's good to be as secretive as we are now.

Just like Keylor Navas.

The Spanish media reported that Leeds United poached Albacete's Costa Rica international goalkeeper, but what does it have to do with it?

The media has far-fetchedly included Gao Shen, but who knows whether he was actually involved?

Would teams that really lack a goalkeeper bet on a nobody like Navas?

But if Gao Shen personally came forward to endorse Navas, the situation would be completely different.

This is why Gao Shen feels so difficult and tricky now.

Therefore, he simply rented a house in the town of Wetherby, a northern suburb of Leeds, to serve as a temporary command post.

It just so happens that the Thorpe Arch training base is starting to be renovated, and it is convenient for the club management to come here.

It is surrounded by countryside, and reporters are not interested in following it.

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As the handover of Gao Shen's acquisition of Leeds United is gradually completed, the work of establishing the club's management is also in full swing.

On the one hand, there is the administrative department headed by Su Qing. Su Qing is personally responsible for these, and she is personally in charge of the financial department.

On the other side, Fernando Lucas serves as the CEO, mainly responsible for external work, including news and public relations, marketing, fan services and a series of large and small tasks.

One of Lucas' most important tasks is to establish the club's entire competitive operation system.

The biggest difference between modern football and the past is that the degree of specialization is getting higher and higher.

Many fans will look at the success of a club with a heroic view of history. The simplest way is to dig out the so-called big names behind it, as if a certain big head is the password to the club's success.

This is undeniable, many talented people with outstanding abilities are indeed very powerful.

But don’t forget, there are always horses that can cover a thousand li, but there are not always Bole.

No matter how powerful a person is, he still needs to be on a platform that can display his abilities in order to shine.

For example, the current Leeds United club, Gao Shen's positioning of the club is cost-effective management, buying low, selling high, and cultivating players.

This leads to the fact that if Gao Shen blindly seeks talents from wealthy teams, sorry, the possibility of success is extremely low.

On the other hand, many fans are wondering, why doesn't Florentino go dig Sevilla's Monchi?

It is undeniable that Monchi is indeed one of the best football directors in European football, but his area of ​​expertise is completely different from Real Madrid's business philosophy. What Monchi is good at is buying low and selling high, or even buying mid-range and buying high.

Sell ​​this ring.

But what about Real Madrid?

Florentino wants stars.

You see, if these two different concepts collide, there will be no success!

Not to mention, if Monchi leaves the platform of Sevilla, can he still succeed?

Later, he went to Rome, but he also failed?

Peter Kenyon jumped from Manchester United to Chelsea, making a lot of splash, and was still the CEO. In the end, was it a success?

Therefore, modern football has long had a very clear professional division of labor.

For a club, it is more effective to build a smooth-running system than to introduce some big players.

This is also the reason why Gao Shen chose Fernando Lucas as CEO and Rudolf Borrell as technical director.

But besides that, there are other people.

The first director of the newly built data center was Victor Horta from Seville. He can be regarded as a direct disciple of Lucas and did a very good job in Seville.

Gao Shen's original intention was to recruit Pablo Blanco, Sevilla's scouting director. He knew Pablo Blanco and called him personally, but Blanco didn't care. Be it players or staff, they are all here at Sevilla and are committed to it.

There was no way, after Gao Shen persuaded him, he gave up on this top scout in fm football manager whose judgment potential and ability were almost full.

This naturally affected his plan to transplant Sevilla's scouting system.

However, outstanding talents abound in European football.

Gao Shen quickly chose another one.

Assistant manager and chief scout at Championship club Hull City, Steve Walsh.

…

Steve Walsh's parents are both Irish. His uncle Michael Walsh is a player and professional referee, so they were exposed to football very early. He and his brother Mickey Walsh played for Blackpool one after another. Unlike teams such as Everton, Queens Park Rangers and Porto, Steve Walsh lacks talent in this area.

But this also led him to transition behind the scenes like his uncle very early, so he became a coach.

At first, he worked as a physical education teacher in a church school, but because his brother played for Everton, he met the agent of Robson, the Everton midfielder at the time, and this agent was also at the Buri club. Take office.

So, he became a part-time scout.

In the following years, he worked as a teacher and a scout.

The front-line work of teaching youth sports has allowed Walsh to accumulate a wealth of experience, allowing him to understand the characteristics of teenagers more clearly and helping him with evaluation and screening. This has made him better and better in the scouting position. Clubs even include Chelsea.

You know, Chelsea at that time was just a mediocre mid-table team in the Premier League. Because of Walsh's outstanding work, the Blues gave him the first professional contract in his career as a full-time scout.

In 1991, Steve Walsh officially became Chelsea's full-time scout.

It's very insignificant, but he worked for more than ten years.

What really established his position at Chelsea was the transfer of Italian international Zola. Walsh was the scout arranged by Chelsea to inspect Zola. With Zola's success, he gradually rose to prominence at Chelsea.

After that, he participated in almost most of Chelsea's important transfer player inspections, such as Makelele, Cech, Robben, Drogba, Essien...

The club's scouts are busy, but also fulfilling.

The inspection of many players allowed Walsh to accumulate a wealth of experience, and he switched jobs to Newcastle in 2006.

The Magpies gave him a chance to make further breakthroughs as assistant coach and chief scout.

But at Newcastle, he assisted head coaches such as Rodl, Allardyce, Keegan and Pearson. From Allardyce, England's first generation big data maniac, he also started to use big data.

But also experienced the turmoil in Newcastle.

Due to his close relationship with Pearson, he accompanied Pearson to Leicester City in the then third-tier league in 2008 and successfully brought the team to the English Championship.

In 2010, he moved to Hull City with Pearson and was still the assistant coach and chief scout.

Until now, no one has truly understood what Steve Walsh is capable of.

Because he is just like other scouts, inspecting players, providing supporting services to the head coach, and providing reference opinions for the team's recruitment. There seems to be nothing special.

At best, his scouting reports are always better than others, or even better than everyone else.

But Gao Shen knew that Steve Walsh would follow Pearson to Leicester City and chose to stay after Pearson left.

This time, his career took off.

Not only did he discover many gems for Leicester City in England, but he also helped the team search for many talents on the European continent, such as Kante, Mahrez, etc., which made him highly recommended to Manchester United by Ferguson.

The most influential men in the Premier League.

…

It was quite unexpected for Steve Walsh to suddenly receive an invitation from Leeds United.

Gao Shen made the call personally and communicated with him for more than an hour.

Steve Walsh thought about becoming an assistant coach or even a head coach, but he was already fifty-five years old and had long passed this age. The reason why he still worked part-time was because he wanted to get an extra job.

salary.

But now, Gao Shen directly invited him to serve as Leeds United's scouting director, with full responsibility for the establishment of the scouting network.

This surprised Steve Walsh, but he was also very excited.

So, he went to Manchester from Kingston upon Hull and had an in-depth discussion with Gao Shen. After he clearly understood Gao Shen's entire idea of ​​running Leeds United and the competitive system he wanted to create, he was even more tempted.

He accepted Gao Shen's invitation on the spot and joined Leeds United as the scouting director.

This time Gao Shen came to Leeds United from Manchester to attend Leeds United's first high-level meeting.

In addition to Steve Walsh, Gao Shen also met for the first time Francisco Javier Garcia Pimienta, the head coach of the U18 youth team, and Luis Ramis, the head coach of the second team.

.

The former came from the Barcelona youth training camp and was recruited by Borrell; while the latter was recruited by Lucas from the Real Madrid youth training camp. He has worked in the Real Madrid youth training camp for many years and has considerable ability to train young players.

outstanding.

Both of them had chatted with Gao Shen on the phone.

Leeds United's first management meeting was held in this house on the outskirts of Wetherby.

But what is a bit embarrassing is that many departments are still vacant.

For example, in the news and public relations department, Lucas is contacting a familiar senior reporter, as well as the marketing department, but has not yet found a suitable candidate. Lucas is still intensively recruiting and searching.

Sarri is also preparing to go to Italy in the next two days to form his own coaching team. By then, Leeds United's staff will be more complete.