The Godfather of Football

To be honest, Ye Qiu was not very interested in attending UEFA's award ceremony and draw ceremony.

But Eliza Moon personally persuaded Ye Qiu to show up, because this time they did have a cooperation with UEFA. Of course, it was not Tottenham Hotspur, but the agency. Moreover, after Platini came to power, he treated Ye Qiu more friendly. He mentioned Ye Qiu many times before the election, and even made a private call to Ye Qiu after the election.

Of course, Tottenham Hotspur had not yet qualified for the Champions League at that time. The team had just got Beckham, so the conversation between Ye Qiu and Platini was more about the club and some European events.

Platini was also generous in praising Ye Qiu. He had mentioned many times that among all the current head coaches, Ye Qiu was the most creative and innovative, and worthy of learning from all the head coaches. All of these left a very good impression on Ye Qiu, so this time, he decided to come to attend UEFA's award ceremony and draw ceremony.

Although Ye Qiu came in person, he couldn't change many things, such as the best lineup.

As the champion of the League Cup last season, Tottenham Hotspur did not win any awards except for Van Nistelrooy who won the Best Forward of the Year and the European Golden Boot. Ancelotti won the Best Coach of the Year.

However, in the draw ceremony that followed, Tottenham Hotspur was placed in the fourth tier, the worst tier, because of the few points in the Champions League. This also made all the teams in other tiers feel nervous. How unlucky would it be to draw this team in the fourth tier?

Before the draw, Ye Qiu said in an interview with the media that no matter who Tottenham Hotspur drew, he and the players would not feel pressure, but their opponents should feel pressure, "Whoever draws us will be unlucky!"

The final result was that the weakest team in the first tier, Valencia from La Liga, the weakest team in the second tier, Steaua Bucharest from Romania, and Slavia Prague from the Czech Republic, became Tottenham Hotspur's group stage opponents.

When the draw results came out, the whole venue was in an uproar, because the possibility and hope of Tottenham Hotspur and Valencia advancing from the group stage was too great, and the strength of the other two opponents seemed difficult to compete with these two teams from the four major leagues.

But some people think it is not necessarily the case, because in the third round of the qualifiers, Slavia Prague eliminated Ajax, which has performed well in the Champions League in the past few years, and Steaua Bucharest eliminated Toulouse from Ligue 1. From this point of view, these two teams are not without the strength to upset.

Relatively speaking, the grouping of other matches is more interesting. Manchester United faced Roma, which was bloodbathed by Manchester United 7:1 at Old Trafford last season. This bloody tragedy shocked the European football world, and some people even suspected that it was a match-fixing, which made Roma ashamed.

Chelsea's situation is more embarrassing. Sevilla, Schalke 04 and Rosenborg, this group can almost be said to be the strongest among the eight groups. Barcelona is in the same group with Lyon, Stuttgart and Glasgow Rangers.

In the past two years, with the widening gap in strength between the four major leagues, coupled with the blow of the 2006 Serie A phone-gate, there are not many teams in Italy that can really show off. Inter Milan's performance in the Champions League is not ideal, Roma is even worse, and AC Milan's league performance is not good, but it performs best in the European arena.

In addition, many well-known European giants such as Bayern Munich and Arsenal this season eventually missed the Champions League.

This also led to the Champions League group stage gradually giving some champions of the middle and lower leagues the opportunity to stand out, because these teams in the middle and lower leagues often gather a group of good players, and their overall strength is not even inferior to the middle teams of the four major leagues, and some are even better, so it is not surprising that such teams are upset.

Saying goodbye to the monopoly of the four major leagues and returning to the era of letting a hundred flowers bloom is undoubtedly what UEFA is willing and hopes to see.

As for the result of the draw, Ye Qiu smiled and said in an interview as usual that he had no problem with the draw ceremony. As for not being able to win the European Coach of the Season again, Ye Qiu generously expressed his congratulations to Ancelotti.

"AC Milan last season was indeed very strong and outstanding. I think they won the championship and Ancelotti won the Coach of the Season. I think this is well deserved!"

Ye Qiu's answer did not give the reporter any faults. When a reporter took the initiative to ask about the European Super Cup, Ye Qiu smiled and said that Tottenham Hotspur would have a good fight with AC Milan in the game. He was full of confidence in the team.

But in fact, at the Louis II Stadium in Monaco the next day, Tottenham Hotspur played better at the beginning. In the first half, thanks to Beckham's goal, they took the lead 1:0, but not long after the start of the second half, Inzaghi used an offside to equalize the score for AC Milan.

At the last moment, Kaka dribbled through the middle, cooperated with Seedorf, and scored a goal after entering the penalty area. AC Milan completed a beautiful reversal against Tottenham Hotspur.

After losing the European Super Cup, everyone at Tottenham Hotspur is quite regretful, but the overall strength of the team is indeed unable to compete with AC Milan. The biggest advantage of the Rossoneri at present is that they have very rich experience, and Tottenham Hotspur The personnel structure of Tenham Hotspur is too young. Although the strength is there, it still needs some accumulation and precipitation.

Not only did they lose the European Super Cup, but because of their participation in the European Super Cup and the third round of the Champions League qualifiers, Tottenham Hotspur missed the fifth round of the Premier League. This directly led to the fact that Tottenham Hotspur are currently only There were three rounds of Premier League games, including one win and two losses, and only 3 points.

After the fifth round of the Premier League, everyone looked at the Premier League standings and were surprised to find that Tottenham Hotspur was ranked 18th in the Premier League, which meant they fell into the relegation zone.

The competition in the Premier League this season is very fierce. So far, only one team, Derby County, has not won, but they have also achieved a draw and got one point. The worst start is Bolton, with one win and four losses. , got three points, while Reading had one win, one draw and three losses, ranking 17th.

The unlucky Tottenham Hotspur fell to the 18th place in the league and entered the relegation zone due to two games less. This really surprised everyone. No one expected that this start would be like this. .

Regarding the situation of Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea head coach Mourinho made fun of Tottenham Hotspur after losing 0:2 away to Aston Villa in the fifth round. He joked, “No matter how bad our performance is, we will never fall into the relegation zone!”

After Ferguson defeated Sunderland 1:0 at home and defeated his favorite disciple Roy Keane, he was asked by reporters about Tottenham Hotspur's experience. He laughed and promised his goals for this season. The first wish, "I hope that unlucky guy and his team will always maintain this ranking!"

Wenger's team also won this round, defeating Portsmouth 3:1 at home, which greatly boosted Wenger's confidence. He joked that Tottenham Hotspur's ultimate goal this season should be to avoid relegation, because after two games After the national team match this week, Tottenham Hotspur will face Arsenal at White Hart Lane.

This is the first North London derby of the season, and Wenger also wants to use this battle to erase the shame of losing the Champions League last season.

Ye Qiu is also very helpless about the current situation of Tottenham Hotspur, because the two games he missed were against Everton at home and against Fulham away from home. In the eyes of Tottenham Hotspur, these two games The game is all about getting three points, so there is absolutely no need to maintain such a ranking.

So when a reporter from the Daily Telegraph asked Ye Qiu what he thought of the standings in the first five rounds of the Premier League, he had only one answer.

"I feel very, very, very sad about this!" He exaggeratedly used four very exaggerated words to describe his mood.

This made Ferguson and Wenger standing next to him couldn't help but laugh. Even Benitez, who looked like a robot, couldn't help but smile, which was obviously unusual for everyone present. .

Mourinho also came to the scene, but don’t get me wrong. This is not a Premier League head coach summit, but a gathering between clubs and agents organized by Ye Qiu and Eliza Moon’s agency company. The gathering was named [Football Economic Forum], and today is the first time this forum has been held, but it has attracted great attention.

The forum was held at the Hilton Park Road Hotel, east of London's Hyde Park. A floor was dedicated to the hotel because it was the last three days of the transfer market and today all professional and semi-professional clubs in the English Professional Football League have closed their doors. The invitation arrived, and all agents from around the world were equally welcomed into the venue.

Not only that, Premier League CEO Richard Scudmore also came to the scene in person, and UEFA Secretary General David Taylor, a Scot, also came to the venue. The two accepted the invitation before entering the hotel venue just now. When interviewed, reporters said that this is a very interesting innovation and they believe it can change the pattern of the transfer market.

Richard Scudmore also expressed his personal presence, "Officials from the Football Association and the Premier League have come to the venue. All player transfer transactions completed today can be approved on the spot, which can greatly help." Facilitate the progress and procedures of the transfer. At the very least, they don’t have to worry about the transfer being aborted due to fax problems!”

"Of course, I don't know the specific functions and effects of this forum yet, but I am very happy to see its emergence, because it can greatly promote the liquidity of the transfer market!"

Scudmore's words caused a lot of laughter, because in the past, there were indeed many cases where transfers were aborted due to fax problems on the last day of transfers, but this was only part of the forum.

The top five coaches in the Premier League walked into the venue together, but they did not attract any attention in the venue, because those who walked into the venue were either agents, club officials, or even head coaches. Many of them had a final attitude. A crazy attitude came to the scene as this was happening for the first time in the history of English football.

Ye Qiu's idea came from the Serie A in his previous life. Perhaps many ordinary fans don't know that in the years before and after Ye Qiu's time travel, in the last two or three days of each transfer window of each season, Serie A and Serie B The league teams will gather at the ATA Hotel in Milan to participate in a roundtable meeting and stage the final madness of the transfer market.

Quite a few transfers are completed in this kind of meeting, such as Luca Toni. On the last day of the transfer market in 2012, Luca Toni came to Milan and wanted to sign with Siena. Many fans believed that Everyone will feel strange when they see this news. If you want to sign a contract, you should go to Siena. How did you come to Milan?

In fact, he came to Milan because his agent and Siena participated in such a roundtable meeting.

The meeting was attended not only by Serie A and Serie B teams, but also by the registration office of the Italian Football Association, so that all professional teams and agents can be brought together in the shortest time and in the most efficient way. , completing a final orgy similar to speed dating, and as long as it is registered at the Football Association’s registration office, the transfer will be considered successful.

But Luca Toni’s agent finally found Fiorentina for him, and it was in this meeting that the latter got Luca Toni and his agent, and Luca Toni himself has been waiting outside the hotel. .

Another interesting fact is that the famous agent Mino Raiola, after helping Balotelli return to Serie A, began to make another transfer, that is, to transfer the defender who was playing for AC Milan in Serie A at the time. Emmanuelson was exchanged for Swiss midfielder Kasami who was playing for Fulham at the time.

All parties involved in this transaction had already agreed at the venue. However, when the registration information was finally handed over, the hotel's network failed and the handover could not be completed. Although Raiola rushed over as quickly as possible. I submitted the information to the registration office, but the deadline has passed.

For this matter, Raiola also directly attacked the Italian Football Association, believing that they were too bureaucratic. It didn't matter if they were lagging behind in other countries, but they had to follow the rules and declare the transfer invalid.

But Emmanuelson successfully moved to Fulham, while Kasami failed to come to Milan and was forced to go to Switzerland.

Ye Qiu and Eliza jointly planned and organized such a venue, not just because they wanted to learn from the Italian model. In fact, the most important thing they were promoting was an online platform of their own, which was the scouting data platform. .

When the time for the venue to start arrived, all the invited guests took their seats one after another. Eliza walked up to the front desk of the venue dressed in elegant and capable professional attire. With a beautiful smile, she glanced at Many of the guests present were stunned, but in the end they fell on Ye Qiu with a smile on his face.

"Everyone, welcome to our Football Economic Forum!" Eliza's voice reached the ears of nearly a thousand people in the venue through the sound effects. It was very clear and pleasant to the ears.

"I believe that all professional club personnel here have encountered a problem. When the coaching staff proposes that they need a player and gives specific characteristics of the player, you may have to look at a lot of videos and reports. "It can take you months, sometimes even a year, to find this player."

Many people present felt the same. Many fans thought that the club's efficiency was very low, but they never imagined how low it was. Even in many aspects, such as scouting reports and player data, they have not yet completed computerization.

There are only a handful of teams that have truly completed computerization, because there is a saying in the football field: trust your intuition, not technology.

"Perhaps, you have all experienced missing out on some players and the transfer period, which ultimately led to you being scolded by the team president, head coach and fans. We must find a way to get rid of this almost boring and tedious manual labor. We need a broader, more open platform to serve ourselves.”

When she said this, Eliza laughed again, "I once had a friend who was the technical director of a well-known team and was responsible for player inspections. He told me that five years ago, he The team office had a room full of tapes, and their floors even had cracks because of it!”

Eliza's words made everyone present burst into laughter. This is not uncommon in many big teams. Even now, many teams still have those video tapes. Maybe they can find out some of them. A superstar who is now famous but was ignored by them at the beginning.

"It got much better later. We have VCDs and DVDs. I believe everyone can become very relaxed. But I want to ask everyone, have you ever thought about it? When you want to select a player, it is completely Can we not have to work so hard and observe the players playing in them over and over again from thousands or even tens of thousands of videos and DVDs?”

Eliza's words moved many club officials present, especially those engaged in player inspection.

"Also, I want to ask my fellow agents again, forget about your competition with me, let's talk about the future openly!" Eliza's words made the audience laugh again, because a large part of the guests at the scene were agents, and they all had a dispensable mentality and wanted to come here to recommend their players.

"I want to ask everyone, when you have worked hard to go all over the world, go to clubs in various places to recommend your players, and submit DVDs and game videos, have you ever considered whether there is a platform that can reduce a lot of work and busyness, but at the same time allow your players to get more and wider attention?"

As Eliza spoke, the atmosphere in the venue was obviously mobilized.

Ye Qiu has always said that football can be very modern, because football has a close relationship with the media and has advanced relationships with many sponsors, but football is also very closed, which is reflected in the management model and business methods of football.

And now, Ye Qiu feels that it is necessary to break this model and law, starting with player selection and transfer!