The Godfather of Football

May 17, London belongs to Tottenham Hotspur!

The last time they won a European championship was in 1984, when they won the UEFA Cup. In the history of Tottenham Hotspur, they have never won the Champions League. Therefore, after 23 years, the team won the UEFA Cup again, which made all Tottenham Hotspur fans excited.

This time, Tottenham Hotspur also changed its past low-key style of doing more and saying less, and took a more public approach. After winning the championship last night, the club notified the public that the team would go south from Glasgow, Scotland, to London around noon, and this time the team would arrive at Heathrow Airport.

So, the time has not come yet, but Heathrow Airport has gathered countless Tottenham Hotspur fans from all directions. If, according to the geographical location, this place should belong to the territory of West London teams such as Chelsea and Fulham, but now it has become a place for Tottenham Hotspur fans to celebrate their winning of the UEFA Cup.

Some of these fans drove themselves, while others took buses operated by fan organizations, but the number of people was very large, at least more than 10,000, because Tottenham Hotspur had not won a championship for a long time in the past, or had not celebrated a championship.

When all the team members arrived at Heathrow Airport, the scene had been sorted out by the police and airport security. The players walked out of the gate holding the League Cup trophy all the way and were cheered by all Tottenham Hotspur fans in the stadium.

When they walked out of the terminal hall, the team's bus had been waiting here, and there was another championship trophy accompanying it, which was the League Cup championship of this season's Premier League. When the players got on the bus, the two championship trophies were put together and placed in the most conspicuous position on the roof of the open-top bus.

Both BBC and Sky TV specially sent filming teams to follow up the report, and saw that all Tottenham Hotspur fans, led by the team's open-top bus, went on the ring road in a mighty manner, and the traffic was busy and heading north, and the momentum was deafening all the way.

Everyone can see that this was intentional by Tottenham fans, who wanted to celebrate on the territory of their mortal enemies and disgust them to death. However, it is a pity that the team failed to enter the city, so there was no way to pass outside Arsenal's Emirates Stadium. Otherwise, I believe such a celebration would be more enjoyable.

But no matter what, being able to reach this point today, Tottenham fans are already extremely satisfied.

London is an international metropolis after all. There is no way to have a city-wide parade after winning the championship like in some small and medium-sized cities, such as Liverpool or Manchester. London cannot do this. Both the city government and the district council have imposed certain restrictions on the route of Tottenham's championship celebration parade.

Moreover, Tottenham's geographical location is north of London, a certain distance from the city, so no matter how you swim, you can't swim to the city of London, and there is no way to enter the area where Arsenal is located, even if the district council and the city government make an exception and relax the restrictions because Tottenham won the League Cup.

After all, winning the championship is a good thing, but if the restrictions are really relaxed and you are allowed to march, which disrupts the traffic order in London, the losses will be immeasurable. After all, it is not uncommon for riots or troublemakers to occur during such a championship parade celebration, so the government and the police department also take it seriously.

As before, Ye Qiu did not participate in the team's celebration after arriving at Heathrow Airport. He asked the players to get on the bus and celebrate with the fans, while he took a car north privately and returned to White Hart Lane.

The next summer will still be a very busy summer, because Tottenham Hotspur will move the team's training base to Theobald in Hertfordshire this summer, and both the competitive department and the business department will have a lot of things to do.

Equipment procurement has basically ended, but personnel recruitment is still continuing, especially considering that everything will start to get on track after the team resumes training in July, and there will be more and more preparations this summer.

Ye Qiu also fully considered that the team had just moved to the new training base, and both the players and the coaching staff needed a period of adaptation. Therefore, this summer, the team's training will not be arranged outside, but will be held at the Theobald training base. Even the team's warm-up matches will be arranged as much as possible in the vicinity of London.

The only foreign event was that Ye Qiu promised Ajax that he would go to Amsterdam to participate in the Amsterdam Cup Invitational Tournament organized by Ajax. For the invitation from his old club and old friends, Ye Qiu had no way to refuse. After all, he always hoped to cooperate more with Ajax.

This summer, Ye Qiu decided to bring Marcelo, the left back who was bought out but loaned to Ajax, to London. Tottenham Hotspur has reached an agreement with Ajax on this point. Marcelo will come to London in July to train with the team.

For any football club in the top European league, the focus of work every summer is inseparable from transfers.

In addition to Tottenham Hotspur's intention to introduce Marcelo, Ye Qiu also hopes to appropriately increase the number of young players in the team to prepare for future youth training quotas, so he is also looking for a few people who have potential and meet the requirements. Tottenham Hotspur needs young players as a reserve for the future.

Next season Tottenham Hotspur will compete on four fronts, including the Champions League, Premier League, League Cup, and FA Cup, especially the Champions League.

You know, the Champions League and the UEFA Cup are not at the same level. The competition in the former is far more brutal than the UEFA Cup. Therefore, this season Tottenham Hotspur can easily persist to the end on the two main fronts of the UEFA Cup and the Premier League. , but Ye Qiu firmly believes that if Tottenham Hotspur wants to maintain good results on both fronts next season, they must strengthen the team lineup and then let a group of young players play in the cup.

In addition to transfer signings, Tottenham Hotspur also has a very important task this summer, contract renewal.

Many players in the team have performed very well this season, and contract extension has become inevitable. And when rumors are constantly circulating in the transfer market, there is nothing more convincing than contract extension. A strong counterattack, so contract renewal will be a focus of Tottenham Hotspur's work this summer.

"Our performance this season is indeed good, but our player lineup is still relatively young and can continue to improve next season, so our most important challenge this summer is to maintain the stability of the current team's main lineup!"

In the chairman's office at White Hart Lane, Ye Qiu gathered many club executives including Eliza Moon, Robert Millson, etc., as well as Mauro Tassotti, Peter Brandt, Roland? Shepas and other core members of the athletics department were called to their offices for a meeting.

This group of Tottenham Hotspur executives probably meet every once in a while. The location is uncertain. Sometimes they are at the training base, sometimes they are at White Hart Lane. Sometimes they even just go out for dinner and have meetings. ,very free.

Therefore, many people say that Ye Qiu and Eliza Moon brought the management methods of Ye Zi Technology into the football club.

But today is obviously different, because there is one more person than in the past, a very old person, and that is the new director of the scouting department.

"Judging from past experience, almost all middle and lower-tier teams that perform well find it difficult to maintain a high level of performance and maintain the team's combat effectiveness. A very important reason is the loss of players. In other words, they lack long-term planning and ambition!”

Just like Everton, Ye Qiuchang feels that this team has missed the opportunity to rise. This is true, but the problem is that Everton's management may not have thought about rising at all. For them, taking advantage of the opportunity It is also a very good choice to get a vote when the team performs well. They are already content with the current status of the team.

This is true for the team in Liverpool. If it is in other less commercially developed cities, or even some relatively poor cities, the football clubs here are strictly restricted by the city's economy. No matter how good the team's performance is, they will always do the same. They are not big or strong, so they can only choose to be satisfied with just one vote.

Looking at all the top clubs, the teams that have maintained competitiveness for a long time are almost all in big cities. While some other cities may have had great successes, such as Nottingham Forest, but in the end the foundation is relatively weak and it is always difficult to last.

Ye Qiu still remembers reading an analysis in his previous life. In the following years, the reason why the Bundesliga has developed steadily and progressed, and even major clubs have maintained healthy operations, is that many people think that the Football Association and club policies play a key role, but in fact , Germany’s economy is also a key factor.

Just like Bayern Munich, they are also a giant, but Bayern Munich's business revenue is second to none among the major European giants. This is because Bayern Munich attaches great importance to business, but it is also because the German economy is superior to other EU countries. After all, there are Germany's excellent economy makes it much easier to operate.

Therefore, when he was selecting a team to acquire, Ye Qiu had always set his sights on London.

There are indeed many Premier League teams here, and the competition is very fierce, but as an international metropolis, there are also many opportunities. Even for Tottenham Hotspur, Ye Qiu and Eliza Moon, staying here is Being in London is equivalent to getting twice the result with half the effort, because they already have excellent resources and channels.

Now, Tottenham Hotspur has external objective environment and conditions, but what is lacking is its own accumulation.

And what is accumulation?

Accumulation does not mean that if you have good results today, you will immediately sell the outstanding players, and then introduce a new group of players to re-run, re-train, and re-grow and improve. Such a team does not mean that it cannot win the championship. , but he cannot become a rich man at all, because his performance will always be ups and downs.

What the real giants need is stable performance over a long period of time. This means that after the team performs well, it needs to maintain the stability of the team's lineup so that the team's performance can continue to rise.

Hearing what Ye Qiu said, Eliza Moon smiled brightly, which immediately made the group of men in Ye Qiu's office involuntarily dazzled, "Real Madrid and Barcelona are very sincere. They are asking about Ribery." price."

After hearing this, Ye Qiu shook his head, "Not for sale!"

Ribery has performed very well this season. His number of goals ranks second in the team, second only to Van Nistelrooy. Ye Qiu has always arranged him as an important part of the team's tactics, so he will not let Ribery transfer, and he also believes that as long as he does not let go, Ribery will not take the initiative to make a fuss about leaving.

Ye Qiu still understands the character of this French scarred man. It cannot be said that he is so loyal, but as long as Ye Qiu wants to keep him, he will definitely not refuse. Ye Qiu is still very sure about this.

"What about Van Nistelrooy?" Eliza Moon asked again, "Now it's not just Real Madrid that wants to get him. Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan are all interested in him, and he will soon be 31 years old."

The last sentence is obviously a reminder to Ye Qiu that Van Nistelrooy is a veteran.

Moreover, in the past, Ye Qiu had revealed his idea to Eliza during private communication, which was to support Van Persie to form a front trident with Ribery and Messi. If there was a suitable offer, selling Van Nistelrooy would be a good thing to kill two birds with one stone.

"From a competitive perspective, Van Nistelrooy's performance did decline in the second half, but his goal rate remained good. A very important factor is that the team has a strong ability to create opportunities, and from a tactical perspective, Van Nistelrooy is indeed unable to meet the team's current requirements!" Peter Brandt also put forward his own analysis.

Peter Brandt controls the team's research center. His responsibility is to give professional advice when the team makes some decisions, such as introducing and selling players. He will give a special report for evaluation.

Now Tottenham Hotspur's frontcourt offensive combination is disordered in the best state.

This disorder is not the messy or even improvisational one that everyone thinks. No, this disorder has its order and some fixed routines, but the players' positions and movements are more flexible, and they keep running in front, looking for opportunities and cooperating with each other tacitly.

Van Persie, Ribery and Messi all have such abilities. Cavani, Carroll, Arshavin and Ashley Young are also good additions to the team. If such tactics are to be played, the striker in the center must have a strong ability to support the two wings and retreat to get the ball, but Van Nistelrooy obviously does not have this, and even his movement is on a downward trend.

Ye Qiu did not have much opinion on selling Van Nistelrooy, but he glanced at Robert Milson, the head of the news department.

The latter was also looking at Ye Qiu, and he also had to pay attention to Ye Qiu's thoughts and opinions, so when Ye Qiu looked at him, he immediately smiled and shrugged, "Now the fans really like Van Nistelrooy, and many media have also portrayed Van Nistelrooy as the guarantee of our team's goals, but if the club still decides to sell him, we can do it."

Ye Qiu thought about it, shook his head and reminded: "I have to correct one thing, we will not take the initiative to sell Van Nistelrooy, but as long as the offer is right and the player himself does not object, we will consider it!"

This made Eliza Moon smile, and stared at Ye Qiu unhappily. This guy wanted to gain both fame and fortune. He wanted to sell Van Nistelrooy and take the opportunity to raise the price. At the same time, he also hoped to appease the fans, and at least create a feeling that Tottenham Hotspur is not very willing, but the other party is digging people very fiercely, and the team can't keep people.

But it must be said that this is the operating method of all clubs. Otherwise, if they really want to stay, who will leave?

Even if it was Ashley Cole from Arsenal, if Wenger really got angry and wanted to keep him, Chelsea would not only fail to poach him, but might even be sued for it. However, Arsenal itself did have the idea of ​​selling players at that time.

There are also the super-expensive transfers of Zidane, Ronaldo, and even Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka. Even though many fans think so and so, in fact, in the final analysis, it is a transaction between both parties.

"Davis is going back to the Netherlands, and Huddlestone is also sold. In this way, our midfield seems a little weak. We need to introduce more players, and there are also central defenders. If I see a suitable one, I want to introduce a central defender and sell Mike Dawson!" As the head coach and owner of the team, Ye Qiu said this after careful consideration.

Huddlestone can't play in the current Tottenham Hotspur, and his position is even worse than Lucas Leiva, and his style is incompatible with the team, so he was simply sold, and Mike Dawson is not the type of central defender that Ye Qiu likes. The skills of this English central defender are indeed too rough, and his defense is also relatively irritable.

In the entire attack and defense system of Tottenham Hotspur, passing and receiving are very important. If you observe Tottenham Hotspur's games carefully, you will find that even if the two full-backs often actively advance, the two central defenders must be delayed and serve as the team's delayed ball and ball control points.

If the delayed central defender is not capable of receiving and passing the ball, or has problems when encountering a forced scramble, then Tottenham Hotspur's ball control will not only fail to work, but will become the team's biggest hidden danger. At that time, all teams will force your central defender to scramble, forcing you to pass the ball blindly, or even make mistakes actively.

It should be mentioned here that some people think that Mike Dawson and Terry are very similar, but Ye Qiu thinks that the biggest difference between the two lies in stopping and passing the ball. Terry can ensure the most stable performance, but Mike Dawson can't. Just for this reason, Ye Qiu dares to bet that Mike Dawson will never reach Terry's level in his life.

After a round of discussion and research, Ye Qiu also found that although he hoped that the team would make small repairs, in fact, after this round of operation, the team's movement is still not small, and there will be some in and out of the three lines. Even if the players introduced are all powerful players, the price is also not cheap.

But Ye Qiu knows very well that this is the road that any team must take.

For any professional club team, the professional league is like sailing against the current. If you don't move forward, you will retreat.

Therefore, from the moment he took over Tottenham Hotspur, he was destined to not go back, and he could only lead the team and this group of players to move forward.