The Godfather of Football

Monday, February 4, 2008, 7:30 in the morning.

The workers in the Olympic Village in Stratford have not started their busy day yet. In the temporary dormitories scattered around the Olympic Village, they may still be in sweet sleep, not worried about the upcoming busy day.

For them, they have already gotten used to it.

The current Olympic Village project is still in full swing, and many projects have been started one after another, but the stadium, which is the most eye-catching and is the iconic building of the Olympics, has just completed the preliminary design. The construction date has been postponed to the middle of 2008, and according to the agreement, Tottenham Hotspur will submit the first payment of 100 million euros in September.

The early spring morning in London is very cool, but sitting in the car with the heater on, it is obviously not cold.

In this car parked high up, looking at the Olympic Village that has been cleared and is under construction, as long as you get a little closer, you can feel his gradually heavy breathing, because the car's door and window glass keeps fogging up and then dissipating.

From the back, the most conspicuous thing about him is his iconic bald head, which looks like a big light bulb.

But from the front, his eyes are full of a kind of burning expectation, because he is about to usher in a brand new beginning, and what makes him feel unprecedented expectation is the large piece of land in front of him that is flat but has not moved. In the future, it will be the world's top five-star stadium.

Next to the stadium, there will be a five-star hotel, and all of this belongs to Tottenham Hotspur!

If someone passes by at this time, they can see the person in the car through the car film with good transparency on the window glass. His name is Peter Kenyon, the former CEO of Chelsea.

Yes, before, because he clearly told Abramovich before Christmas in 2007 that he would not renew his contract with Chelsea. After the contract expires, he will leave Stamford Bridge. As for his destination, he did not disclose it, and there was no news from the outside, which is also in line with someone's usual style.

Just like Leaf Technology, with Leaf Technology's popularity in recent years and the popularity of Zeus mobile phones, the outside world has dug deep into this company, but has not been able to get even a little bit of news and effective intelligence from them. Even when acquiring Nortel Networks, it was only after the acquisition was completed and Nortel Networks, as a listed company, announced it to the public that the outside world received this acquisition that took more than half a year.

Thinking of this, Peter Kenyon couldn't help but want to laugh, because he will officially debut at the press conference at White Hart Lane this afternoon, and his new identity is the CEO of Tottenham Hotspur.

From Manchester United to Chelsea to Tottenham Hotspur, if you look at it simply, Peter Kenyon seems to be gradually going downhill, but only he knows that his career is steadily improving, and Tottenham Hotspur may be the stop where he completely establishes his position as the chief manager of football.

This morning, he went out early and drove from the Thames to the financial district, then to Stratford and the Olympic Village. He found that this would become an important area for the future development of London, and it was definitely a very wise choice for Tottenham Hotspur to locate the new stadium here.

West London is indeed relatively wealthy and is a well-known wealthy area, but as teams, Chelsea and Fulham have encountered a problem in West London, that is, the difficulty of implementing the new stadium plan.

Rich areas often represent densely populated residential areas. It is absolutely unimaginable to expand a new stadium in such a place, and the feasibility is very low. The demolition cost is a huge amount of money that is enough to discourage anyone, not to mention other conflicts and problems that may be caused by demolition.

Therefore, Chelsea's new stadium plan has always been difficult to implement over the years, and one of the important reasons is this.

In addition, another important reason that troubles Chelsea's home attendance is that the team's playing style is not pleasing, especially during Mourinho's time. The team's style is not appreciated by the rich, because relatively speaking, they prefer to appreciate gentlemen and elegance, so Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur in the north are welcomed by them, especially Tottenham Hotspur.

As early as the 1990s, Tottenham Hotspur was the favorite team of the rich in London, and was even called the Jewish team. One of the important reasons is that Tottenham Hotspur's team style is very pleasing, and over time it has formed a gentlemanly behavior of watching Tottenham Hotspur games, which is equivalent to appreciating art.

Ye Qiu's arrival has brought Tottenham Hotspur's technical offensive football storm back to White Hart Lane, and has become the most powerful and most gorgeous team in the Premier League for two consecutive years. Ye Qiu's transformation of Tottenham Hotspur has not only won a revival in performance and won the recognition of fans, but also won the praise of the rich.

According to the current agreement between Tottenham Hotspur and the Olympic Committee, the new stadium will cover an area of ​​30 acres, which is much larger than Arsenal's Emirates Stadium. During the London Olympics, the total capacity will reach about 80,000. After the Olympics, some of the upper floors will be demolished, and some will be added after the lower floors are renovated, and the total capacity will remain basically unchanged.

But if necessary, a third tier of stands can be built on the second tier in the future. By then, the number of seats can be comparable to or even exceed that of the Camp Nou, but all this will be decided after the new stadium is put into operation.

And by then, a VIP box will be built between the first and second floors, just like Arsenal, with a total of more than 200 boxes, and 50 high-end executive boxes. If all are priced according to Arsenal's pricing standards, the VIP box ranges from 2,000 to 5,500 pounds per game, and the average annual income is 65,000 pounds, then these VIP boxes will bring Tottenham Hotspur more than 16 million pounds in revenue a year.

This income is much more than the ticket income of White Hart Lane in a year, and this does not include other operating income such as shops and team stores. If it is added, a new stadium will bring Tottenham Hotspur a very huge income a year.

And for Tottenham Hotspur, there is another benefit, that is, as long as the team is well managed, self-positioning and marketing are done well, and the style of play remains unchanged, then they don't need to worry about attendance at all, because this team is currently the most popular team among the rich and the middle class in London.

Ye Qiu's influence is also a very important factor here.

Thinking of this, Peter Kenyon's eyes looked at the piece of land in Stratford more passionately. He had no doubt that he had made a wise choice and was full of longing and expectations for the future.

This time Ye Qiu postponed the club's monthly meeting, in addition to the impact of the game with Manchester United, more importantly, he wanted to introduce someone at this meeting, Peter Kenyon.

According to his contract with Chelsea, he became a free agent this year and could freely decide his own destination. Ye Qiu personally came forward to persuade Peter Kenyon to join Tottenham Hotspur and introduced his expectations for the club to him.

In the current British and even world football, there are two completely different attitudes towards Peter Kenyon. One is bad, thinking that this person knows nothing about professional football, does not respect football rules, and is a profit-seeking businessman. This was more obvious when he jumped from Manchester United to Chelsea, and his trip to Chelsea was also characterized as a failure.

Standing in front of the office window, looking at the parking lot outside the White Hart Lane Stadium, Ye Qiu couldn't help but sneer.

There is a saying that people's eyes are sharp, but sometimes, the general public is really easy to be confused, because everything they know and understand comes from the analysis and interpretation of the media. When the information is seriously asymmetric, they will naturally think that everything the media says is right.

Ye Qiu has a deep relationship with Peter Kenyon. The Manchester native once told Ye Qiu why he left Manchester United.

That happened in 2002, when Ferguson said he was going to retire. As the club's CEO, he was an executive invited by the board of directors. In that case, he had only one choice, which was to find Ferguson's successor as soon as possible. This was his job, so he contacted Eriksson, but Ferguson later changed his mind.

In this case, Kenyon's private contact with Eriksson was immediately interpreted by the media as Peter Kenyon's attempt to force Ferguson away, which immediately caused great indignation among Manchester United fans. It can be said that from that time on, he had already thought about leaving Manchester United, and the appearance of Abramovich just gave him the opportunity.

Many people doubt this Manchester man, thinking that he has always claimed to be a Manchester United fan, but in fact he is a Manchester City fan. Perhaps many foreign fans do not understand that in Manchester, Manchester City is the big fan, while Manchester United is a small one. This interpretation by the media also gave Manchester United fans an illusion that this guy speaks to people and speaks to ghosts.

And Manchester City fans don't like him either, because they think this is a betrayal of Manchester City's faith.

So at that time, Peter Kenyon could hardly stand in Manchester. After the private contact with Eriksson, he immediately aroused the indignation of Manchester United fans and also made Manchester City fans add insult to injury. After he jumped to Chelsea and went south to London, he completely offended all Manchester fans.

Sometimes things in the world are so interesting. When everyone thought that Peter Kenyon could create glory at Chelsea, Chelsea ushered in a high start and a low end. Especially in the past one or two years, the situation has been getting worse and worse. Especially after the private contact with Ashley Cole and the private poaching of Arnesen and Ledley King, Peter Kenyon was even complained and dissatisfied by Chelsea fans, but all this obviously had little to do with him.

Now, many people say that Chelsea is Peter Kenyon's Waterloo, but in the professional circle, especially in the management and operation circle of professional football, Peter Kenyon's reputation is very high. His status and influence have not declined at all, but have been improved, because many people know that his plan is right and the direction is right, but he made a mistake in choosing Chelsea.

There are about 40,000 seats, but the attendance rate is not high. The stadium's match-day business is almost zero, just like Tottenham Hotspur. With no significant breakthrough in broadcasting fees, commercial sponsorship has also reached a bottleneck.

According to the analysis given by Deloitte, Chelsea missed a great opportunity to improve its strength and influence after winning the Champions League and the Premier League, that is, it did not keep Ye Qiu.

Failure to keep Ye Qiu not only made Chelsea miss the world's top sponsor such as Adidas, but also made Chelsea miss the influence brought by Ye Qiu's fame, and then missed the opportunity for the team to establish itself as a giant.

But letting Ye Qiu go, introducing a controversial Mourinho, and the joining of two superstars Shevchenko and Ballack, put Chelsea's business operations into trouble, especially the salary structure, even the wealthy Abramovich was a little overwhelmed and could only tighten the money supply.

In this case, it is really not easy for Peter Kenyon to operate the team's finances and operations to the current situation. After all, Chelsea's influence in the world has been gradually increasing in recent years.

Therefore, Peter Kenyon has formed two very extreme images, one appears in the mouths of the media and fans, and the other appears in the professional circle. Which one is true? Which one is false? Who can tell the difference?

In Ye Qiu's opinion, when Peter Kenyon was at Chelsea, especially after Ye Qiu left, he was forced to clean up the internal conflicts between Mourinho and the club, but he himself was not good at dealing with the media. He was best at management and behind-the-scenes work, which can be seen from his work at Manchester United.

If, as the top marketing expert, Peter Kenyon's biggest shortcoming, Ye Qiu thinks it is that he is not good at dealing with the media. When communicating privately, he is full of wisdom and logic. He has very good ideas, creativity and system for marketing and club management, but he lacks the ability to explain his ideas clearly.

This is also an important reason why he has poor communication with Abramovich and has always been demonized by the media.

Ye Qiu once said that the media nowadays does not care what you want to say, but what you say. They will do everything possible to ask you some questions full of traps, and then no matter how good your answer is, they will find loopholes in it and extract some remarks that they want out of context to attract readers' attention.

Ye Qiu was not used to these things at first, but gradually, under the influence of Eliza, he also adapted well.

Although Peter Kenyon stared at a big bald head and even looked a bit like a tough British rough man, he was actually a person who could not be said to be very gentlemanly in private, but at least he was very polite and did things in a very graceful manner. This is why he still maintains a good relationship with many sponsors and companies even now.

Therefore, every time he saw Peter Kenyon, Ye Qiu would show a helpless bitter smile like now, because he really found that the media was harmful to people, and they only shit and piss, regardless of the aftermath. Once they label you, don't expect them to clarify for you, and it is basically impossible to eliminate it.

"This is the plan I spent a month to draw up!" Peter Kenyon walked into the White Hart Lane stadium and went straight to Ye Qiu's office. He didn't even go to his own office and went straight to Ye Qiu to talk.

At ten o'clock, the team will hold the February management meeting. It is also at this meeting that he will officially take over Chelsea. He will also come to Tottenham Hotspur with Ron Gourlay, the former Chelsea COO whose contract has also expired. He is an old servant during his time at Manchester United.

After the two came to Tottenham Hotspur, they will still serve as CEO and COO, and officially take over the power left by Eliza Moon. The latter will be promoted to vice chairman, but it is just a title without much real power.

Peter Kenyon's plan is very thick, but very organized. The general direction starts from the club's operation. For example, he proposed that the new stadium, commercial sponsorship and excellent performance on the field will become the three pillars of the team to become the top giants. These three aspects are indispensable. Only by achieving these three things in parallel can it be possible to challenge giants like Real Madrid and Manchester United.

In terms of details, he also listed a lot of his ideas and built a complete set of detailed operation plans for the team. It is very meticulous, and even Ye Qiu felt bright after reading many of them.

What satisfied Ye Qiu was that Peter Kenyon had the same idea as Ye Qiu, that is, in the years before the new stadium was acquired, Tottenham Hotspur should tighten its money supply, adopt a strategy of only selling stars and not buying them, and try to make up for the huge debt brought by the new stadium through profits in the transfer market.

In order to ensure the team's combat effectiveness, he felt that the team should introduce some semi-finished products with strength.

When Ye Qiu saw this, he looked up and looked at Peter Kenyon.

The English bald strongman seemed to have noticed it, and showed a rare playful smile, "This is your strong point, isn't it?" I really didn't see that he could joke.

Ye Qiu couldn't help laughing, Peter Kenyon had the same positioning as him in this regard.

Introducing superstars is a disaster for the healthy operation of Tottenham Hotspur, especially in the years before the new stadium was acquired, because superstars bring huge transfer fees, huge salary expenses and tax expenses, and Tottenham Hotspur does not have the operating conditions of Real Madrid at present.

What are the strongest conditions for Real Madrid and Barcelona?

That is, as a membership club, they not only have a huge advantage in team management taxation that Tottenham Hotspur does not have, but they do not need to have any operating burden at all. They can invest as much money as they earn, and they do not have to worry about debt because they have an extremely large membership system and membership fee income.

Without all this, let's see whether Real Madrid and Barcelona can still insist on such a huge transfer investment every year.

Introducing superstars, only Real Madrid and Barcelona can persist for a long time in the world. Abramovich couldn't bear it after introducing Shevchenko and Ballack, and looking at Manchester City in the future, they will definitely not last long.

Because it is simply a huge money-eating monster, even Manchester United can't support it, let alone the current Tottenham Hotspur?

Moreover, the introduction of superstars will also break the internal balance of the team and bring some unfavorable factors, so Ye Qiu feels that Tottenham Hotspur's business model in the past two years is very good, very healthy, and sustainable.

"Announce it at the meeting later, as your first move after taking office!" Ye Qiu spent more than half an hour reading it, and then casually pushed it to Peter Kenyon.

After reading this plan, he even thought that Abramovich must not have listened to Peter Kenyon's introduction seriously, and the two of them had no serious communication. Otherwise, who would reject this person?