The Godfather of Football

There was a time when Ye Qiu would think about a question like this: in the current information-based environment, what exactly is a wealthy team? What is the difference between a wealthy team and a civilian team?

He felt that he had to figure this out, because only by figuring it out could he clearly know in which direction he should take Tottenham Hotspur, and what Tottenham Hotspur is pursuing.

Championship? Just a championship?

Ye Qiu thinks it is not, and it is not enough!

Some people say it is the foundation, but the problem is that now there are a lot of teams with foundation lying in the coffin. If the foundation is really effective, why do they decline?

Or, some people say that results are important, but don't forget that Arsenal has never achieved results that match those of a wealthy team for so many years. Although Wenger's team has won the championship, it was the Premier League championship. He has never won the Champions League, but it does not affect others from treating Arsenal as a wealthy team.

It was not until Ye Qiu talked about this issue with Eliza and Peter Kenyon during dinner that he discovered something very important from Eliza and Kenyon's answers.

Perhaps an example would be more vivid, that is, the Zeus phone.

Some people say that the Zeus phone of Leaf Technology has huge profits, because the same product, the same configuration, and the same Android system, if it is made by other manufacturers, the price may be one-third cheaper. Why are the things sold by Leaf Technology so expensive?

The marketing department of Leaf Technology never gives an answer to this kind of question. Naturally, someone from the outside will take the initiative to help answer it. For example, many consumers will say that this is because the Zeus phone is fashionable, it is face-saving to take it out, or they think it is easy to use, etc.

Some people put it down to one sentence, called brand added value!

The same product, how much others buy, I sell twice as much as them, just because I put my brand and label on it, what is the reason? It is because my brand has strong enough added value, and you can't!

Is it the same for the top teams?

Two players with the same strength, one plays for a top team and the other plays for a mid-level team, but why are their influence and popularity in the hearts of fans around the world so different?

It is because playing for a top team has enough exposure, enough media attention, and enough brand added value, so playing for a top team is equivalent to a gilding, and the value is different after a trip.

Therefore, those super high-priced transfers will always only appear in the mutual poaching between top teams, and will never appear in the top teams against civilian teams, because the players from civilian teams do not have such high added value.

Ye Qiu thought of the same two employees again. They both have strong working abilities, but one of them went to an ordinary small company, while the other went to a well-known large company. Not to mention the difference in treatment, benefits, and office environment between the two during their work, if they want to change jobs and leave, there is no doubt that the employee who goes to the big company will be more popular, and this is a kind of gilding.

The reason why the top teams attract players is not only because of their high salaries. In fact, the salaries of many top teams may not be higher than those of other teams, but the problem is that the top teams have such strong brand added value that they can provide players with the best environment and better game results, while helping players improve their influence and popularity.

Just like Real Madrid, at least in terms of brand building, Real Madrid has done quite successfully. Florentino has successfully created a golden signboard for Real Madrid, and slowly changed a concept by poaching superstars, that is, from Real Madrid only poaching superstars to subtly giving all fans an illusion that all the people who come to Real Madrid are superstars.

And looking at Real Madrid, the club has a car sponsor Audi to provide players with cars every season, the planes they take when they go out are sponsored, the clothes they wear are sponsored, the shoes they walk on the road are sponsored, and even a lot of things such as suits, drinks, and alcohol are all sponsored. Players can get actual benefits from the sponsorship of these international brands and can also use the activities of big brands to improve their influence.

Everyone, whether Chinese or foreign, wants to save face and pursue honor. When you wear a piece of clothing and go out, you hope that others will praise you for being beautiful and wearing a famous brand. When you go to a team to play football, you also hope that others will give you a thumbs up and say, wow, a rich team when they hear about your team.

Human nature has always been like this, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, without exception!

Ye Qiu thought of the future of Tottenham Hotspur. A complete sponsor system is the foundation of a rich team, but handling the relationship with the media well is also an important cornerstone of a rich team. Sometimes he even has to admit that in the process of building a rich team, results are not the most important, it is a bonus question.

Therefore, in the later period of Real Madrid's Galacticos, the results were extremely bad, but the commercial influence of this team was greatly improved, and even attracted one superstar after another to join. This is the reason!

This is the current professional football world. No one or any team can change it. You can only adapt to it!

Because he understood this, Ye Qiu recruited Robert Milson, the team's head of press, who has rich media experience. He is very good at public relations and media cooperation, ensuring Tottenham Hotspur's media attention and exposure.

At the same time, Ye Qiu recruited Peter Kenyon and Ron Gourlay in marketing. These two golden partners quickly formulated a very detailed sponsorship system for Tottenham Hotspur and promoted Tottenham Hotspur to visit Asia this summer to participate in the Premier League Asia pre-season, which is also a round of marketing and promotion.

But as the chairman and head coach of the team, Ye Qiu must also check to prevent the team from repeating the mistakes of the Galaxy Battleship, so he insists on giving equal importance to competition and business, walking on two legs, and walking steadily and powerfully, promoting each other.

At least, this year's team's winning of the Champions League will inevitably bring huge stimulation to business.

But the more this happened, the more cautious Ye Qiu became, treading on thin ice, because he knew very well that Tottenham Hotspur was now a big company, the players were famous, the team had influence, and many things were watched by countless eyes, and many things that were originally very common would become complicated because of this.

At least, Ye Qiu did not ask about Fabregas and Messi's private contact with Barcelona, ​​but pretended not to know, because the players did not express anything to him, so he did not ask.

Because sometimes asking, on the contrary, represents a kind of distrust!

But at the same time as not asking, the team put their salary increase on the agenda again, which also showed the team's sincerity.

And with the contract period, Ye Qiu was not worried that they would be poached. Even if Barcelona really wanted to poach them, at least they would have to spit out a large basin of blood, because even if they sold people, Tottenham Hotspur would sell them at the price of the top stars of the giants!

So, this depends on skills!

After returning to London, Ye Qiu finished the afternoon high-level meeting and hid in the office of White Hart Lane, thinking about random things while waiting for the team parade to arrive at White Hart Lane.

According to the news from the south, it is estimated that it will be at least in the evening, so there is still a lot of time.

While Ye Qiu was daydreaming, Peter De Visser knocked on the door of Ye Qiu's office.

The Dutch old man always gives people a feeling of being very thin and weak, but as long as you see his eyes, you can feel a kind of enthusiasm from it. That is his passion for football that he has persisted for a lifetime. Even now, he still feels honored to dig out the players needed by the club.

In his words, this is his greatest pleasure as a scout.

"Ha, Peter!" Ye Qiu smiled and asked De Visser to sit in front of him.

There are three Peters in Tottenham Hotspur's management, namely CEO Peter Kenyon, then Peter Brandt, director of the research and analysis center, and finally the one in front of Ye Qiu, the Dutch chief scout Peter De Visser.

So, sometimes, when three people get together, it is really difficult to call people.

"Are there any results?" Ye Qiu asked with concern.

Peter De Visser handed over a thick report, which was a report that had been streamlined by the scout department.

Ye Qiu wanted a midfielder who could help the team complete the dribbling from the middle to the front line, and then let the scout department investigate and make plans. The list was also gradually reduced from the original dozen to the current two.

They are Diego from Werder Bremen and David Silva from Valencia.

Originally, Ye Qiu wanted to recommend another player, Mesut Ozil, but Peter De Visser went to Germany to investigate the player's two games, and then completely persuaded Ye Qiu to give up this idea.

"Unless you can make space for him in the front court, or you are willing to pull back the defense line and let him play the threat when switching from defense to offense, otherwise, he can't play the role you want in your team!"

In Peter De Visser's evaluation, Ozil has a very serious problem, that is, his style of play is soft. Once he encounters pressure and pressing, his technical movements are a bit unstable. This is caused by many reasons, including that he is a little afraid of physical confrontation, and Ozil's organizational ability is not outstanding. He is best at two things, running without the ball and the last pass.

But in terms of the ability to run without the ball, there are also differences. For example, the best runner without the ball should be the one who drives and integrates into the overall running of the team. To put it simply, it is not only to be able to drill into the space created by teammates, but also to be able to create running space for teammates. The latter is more important than the former.

Davis and Scholes are undoubtedly the latter, so they are the best in running without the ball.

If you only have the former ability, then to play your role, there must be a prerequisite, that is, teammates open up space for you to drill, which is undoubtedly very passive, especially when encountering dense defense, the effect is very poor, just like Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United now.

As for the last pass, Tottenham Hotspur has Fabregas in this aspect, and Messi's last pass ability is also quite good, so there is no lack. If Ozil is introduced just for this, it would be a bit excessive.

Diego and David Silva are two midfielders that Peter Devisser is very optimistic about.

As for Diego, de Visser believes that both his ability with and without the ball is excellent, his basic technical skills are very solid, and his physical fitness is good. Moreover, he is not as fancy as the Brazilian players, and his movements are similar to Kaka, which is a bit simple. Practical feeling, and his passing and deep advancement can make up for Tottenham Hotspur's lack of ability to advance in the middle within the 30-meter area of ​​the opponent's goal.

David Silva is also a type with excellent running ability without the ball and with the ball. He and Diego are both good at advancing the ball in depth, whether passing the ball or dribbling the ball with their own ball control ability. There is no big problem. De Visser even believes that David Silva's ability is not inferior to Iniesta.

But a very important reason for the performance gap between the two players is the strength of the surrounding teammates. They are also players. Whether the surrounding teammates pass the ball well or not is comfortable or not, which directly affects the player's next action, and even many Sometimes, such as Xavi's breakaway, one should look at how his teammates passed the ball to him before he got rid of it.

Or you can put it another way, why did Harvey not show such a strong ability to escape in the past few years, but then showed up in the following years? There must be Harvey's own progress in this, but isn't it that the team's style and the abilities of his teammates are also helping him develop this characteristic?

It can be said that a player's performance cannot be separated from the cooperation of the team as a whole and the surrounding teammates. Any individual comment alone is absolutely unfair and unfair. Therefore, take Iniesta and David Silva. Comparison is meaningless because the environments the two are in are fundamentally different and there is no comparison.

"Of these two players, Diego is physically stronger, but David Silva is more flexible, and he is very good at using his body to attack and defend, so judging from the performance of the game, the difference between the two is not big. , and Diego’s ability to score from behind is stronger, and David Silva is more comfortable in intensive defense due to his height and low center of gravity.”

After hearing this, Ye Qiu chuckled and found it interesting. The two of them were two different types of choices.

"Peter, what do you personally think?" Ye Qiu asked again.

"I would recommend David Silva!" De Visser said.

Ye Qiu said noncommittally, "Tell me and listen."

"Mainly because he is cheaper. Currently Valencia is heavily in debt and the team is in trouble. It is not a secret to sell stars. It is easier to poach. And unless David Silva performs very well in the European Cup, otherwise , His worth is generally not too high. If it is sold before the European Cup, I estimate it to be around 20 million euros.”

Ye Qiu nodded, but still didn't speak and continued to listen.

"Diego performed very well in the Bundesliga last season and attracted a lot of attention. Now it is conservatively estimated that Werder Bremen's asking price for him will at least not be lower than David Silva, or even higher. , because his contract is still very long, and David Silva has reached the time when he must renew his contract. The latter is more convenient for us to put pressure on Valencia.”

"David Silva's salary is relatively cheap. Also, judging from his performance in the Spanish national team, I think David Silva can be a deputy core, or a midfield lubricant. He is quite good, which is something Diego does not possess. Therefore, based on the above factors, I recommend David Silva.”

While Peter Devisser was analyzing, Ye Qiu was looking at the report he submitted very seriously. Although it was streamlined, it was still a very detailed player report, especially the comparison. The advantages and disadvantages of two players, David Silva and Diego.

If Diego is an attacking midfielder who combines both traditional and modern football styles, then David Silva is a typical winger built-in player, who looks like a traditional attacking midfielder. Coupled with the attributes of a full-back, he also has strong organization, penetration and coordination, as well as the ability to pass and threaten the ball.

From this point of view, David Silva is indeed more in line with Tottenham Hotspur's needs.

"But David Silva is also facing strong competition, that is Barcelona!" De Visser said with a smile.

"What should I say?" Ye Qiu asked with concern.

"After Barcelona sold Ronaldinho, their technical department made an assessment of David Silva and believed that he is the most capable person in today's football to perfectly fill the vacancy left by Ronaldinho. Players, it’s just that Barcelona doesn’t seem to have made any concrete moves yet, and may have to wait until after the European Cup.”

"In addition, your archrival, Rafael Benitez, also has a crush on him!"

Ye Qiu was stunned after hearing this, and then smiled bitterly. David Silva can play in multiple positions in the midfield, and his versatility ensures that he can perform very well, so Benitez is not interested in targeting him. strangeness.

"However, according to me, the players don't seem to like Benitez, so you still have a chance!" De Visser showed a rare smile, but there was encouragement in his tone. It was obvious that he was quite optimistic about David? Silva.

"Is the Spanish national team training yet?" Ye Qiu asked after thinking for a while.

Devisel had expected that Ye Qiu would ask, "Not yet, we have to wait until May 28th, but he should be in his hometown, the Canary Islands. Maybe you should consider traveling there. , take a look at the scenery!”

After hearing this, Ye Qiu was actually happy, "What a great place, a holiday paradise, do you want to go with us?"

"No, no, no!" De Vissel shook his head vigorously, "I have something else to do, you should take your family with you, right?"

Ye Qiu didn't say anything more, he knew very well that at De Vissel's age, generally speaking, if it wasn't necessary or required for work, he would rather stay at home instead of running around.