The Godfather of Football

How much did Cavani sell for?

This is definitely a topic that is being discussed all over the world. Even the German Bild newspaper predicts that this may be a century-long unsolved case in football, because Tottenham Hotspur has no need to announce it to the public, and Real Madrid does not want to announce it to the public.

But everyone knows that Cavani's transfer fee must exceed Cristiano Ronaldo.

Without saying too much, just one point is that Real Madrid is anxious to get this superstar, and has made concessions again and again during the negotiations. It can be seen that Tottenham Hotspur has the upper hand in the negotiations. Even three days before the official announcement, Robert Milson, the head of Tottenham Hotspur's press department, vowed that the negotiations broke down and Cavani would stay.

During the entire negotiation process, Cavani and his agent did not say a word, and Real Madrid's negotiations were very passive.

This is completely different from when Cristiano Ronaldo transferred to Real Madrid. At least Mendes was very active in those years, and Cristiano Ronaldo's family members also spoke frequently.

So, Ferguson had a hunch that this would be a sky-high price!

But just when Ferguson was expecting Ye Qiu to reveal the answer, this guy teased him with a heartless smile, "Guess!"

Is it time to ask you if I can guess?

Ferguson was so angry that he wanted to vomit blood. This guy is too disgusting, isn't he?

Seeing his angry look, Ye Qiu laughed, "It's not much, in fact, the transfer fees of the four players this season, plus the second phase of the Chiswick Office Park, is about this!"

Ferguson opened his eyes a little wide. The four players introduced by Tottenham Hotspur this season cost more than 50 million euros, and the second phase of the Chiswick Office Park project was previously reported by the media, and it was said that the investment was 100 million.

Oh my god, 150 million euros? !

Seeing his shocked expression, Ye Qiu was so proud. In fact, he was also surprised by the transfer negotiation. He did not expect Real Madrid to agree. Even at the beginning of the negotiation, when Ye Qiu called out the sky-high price of 200 million euros, Peter Kenyon thought it was absurd because it was impossible. Real Madrid even stopped the negotiation for a while.

But later, Real Madrid's price was directly raised to more than 100 million. In addition, Florentino stayed in office and a lot of contracts were waiting for renewal. Real Madrid came to the door again. Ye Qiu knew that 150 million would be a possibility. So after the negotiation, Peter Kenyon held on to this bottom line and finally pushed the price up.

Of course, Real Madrid is currently paying 100 million in one lump sum, and the remaining 50 million euros will be paid in half a year. This is also the first time that Tottenham Hotspur has allowed installments since doing business with others. However, considering Florentino's credit and the fact that this transfer is indeed too amazing, Tottenham Hotspur agreed and promised to keep it confidential.

But soon, Ye Qiu was surprised, because he found that Ferguson was only surprised for a moment, but looked annoyed.

"If I had known, I should have insisted!" Ferguson shook his head helplessly, with a look of regret?

"What do you mean?" Ye Qiu didn't understand at this moment.

"When they wanted to buy Cristiano Ronaldo, David Gill asked me what price I wanted to offer. I said 150 million pounds, and asked them to return it, at least over 100 million. But David Gill thought it was impossible at the time, so he did not raise this price, but lowered the offer."

When he said this, Ferguson looked helpless, "Cristiano Ronaldo was only 23 years old at the time, and he was so outstanding. He was not better than Cavani now, but at least he was not much worse. If he was willing to pay 150 million euros for Cavani, he would definitely be willing to pay this price for Cristiano Ronaldo."

Ye Qiu had to admit this. In fact, although David Gill did a good job in business, he was actually not as good as Peter Kenyon in some of the team's transfer and negotiation operations. This can be seen from the series of transfer operations after Peter Kenyon left and David Gill took over the team.

Ye Qiu is very familiar with David Gill. He thinks David Gill may be a very good financial director, but unfortunately, he is not a qualified club CEO because he lacks a clear judgment of the industry and the market as a football club manager.

David Gill is always calm and rational. Many people even think that David Gill's transfer strategy is that no matter who your head coach wants, as long as it is within the financial budget, I can get it.

But the problem lies precisely here. Most of the football transfer market is not calm and rational.

Just like Stroman, does Tottenham Hotspur need him now?

Not urgently needed. Ye Qiu and Mauro Tassotti originally thought that one Matic would be enough, because Tottenham Hotspur has no shortage of midfielders, but the problem is that both Manchester United and Chelsea want him, so I will grab him.

The player is young. After grabbing him, I will carve him for a few years. If he works, it will work. If not, I will talk about it. At worst, I will sell him.

This is the reality, the reality of professional football!

Ever since Ye Qiu lost the time traveler's ability to predict the future, Tottenham Hotspur has been on the path of becoming Ye Qiu-like, and will inevitably become like all the top teams.

And after introducing Stroman, Ye Qiu has enough midfield reserves. He can arrange different tactical styles and personnel configurations according to different tactical needs and different opponents. Moreover, this group of players is still very young. In addition to Pirlo, the oldest is Vidal, who is 25 years old. Matic will be 24 years old in August, and the others are all born in the 1990s.

If we count the front and back courts, as well as the entire lineup and foundation that the team has loaned out, what Ye Qiu and Mauro Tassotti left behind is a huge lineup that aims to challenge the championship. Especially considering that the team can come up with tens of millions of euros in transfer fees every year after entering the new stadium, is there any doubt about Tottenham's strength?

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Manchester United failed to poach Tottenham, and Chelsea's plan to poach Luke Shaw and Azpilicueta also failed. Mourinho even called Ye Qiu personally because of Matic's matter, and complained about Ye Qiu's love.

Barcelona failed to recruit Neymar, Newcastle and West Ham United also failed to recruit Lucas Moura, and Manchester City also failed to recruit Nastasic. Tottenham Hotspur's entire summer training camp began in such an environment.

Although the team's training camp was after the Confederations Cup, all Brazilian internationals, Neymar, Thiago Silva and Marcelo returned to the team to participate in the training camp as soon as possible. Especially Neymar, after the Confederations Cup, he participated in Brazil's victory celebration and immediately returned to London to prepare for the new season.

On this day, London was clear.

At nine o'clock in the morning, the sun had begun to burn the grass of Theobald unscrupulously.

All the players who walked out of the locker room rarely saw Ye Qiu standing on the training ground early, waiting for them to come out.

For a long time in the past, Ye Qiu and the coaching staff had a clear division of labor. He participated in the team's tactical formulation and framework design, while Mauro Tassotti was responsible for training and arrangements, and basically took on all the big and small affairs of the team, including the renewal of some players and some external activities of the team.

This is a transitional process. Although Mauro Tassotti is still the chief assistant coach, he has actually assumed most of the responsibilities of the head coach. The only difference is that the person standing in the head coach's command seat is Ye Qiu.

It is really rare to see Ye Qiu standing on the training ground waiting for them like this morning. Therefore, except for a few new players, everyone else quickly ran to the training ground. Everyone who passed by Ye Qiu would smile at Ye Qiu and shout, "Boss!", and after getting a slight nod from Ye Qiu, they would run aside to warm up.

When all the first-team players arrived, Ye Qiu did not speak. After they finished warming up, they stood in front of Ye Qiu very consciously, and all the coaching staff and staff stood behind Ye Qiu.

Ye Qiu looked calm and composed, looking at every player in front of him, some were familiar, some were unfamiliar, but no matter what, the way these people looked at him gave him a sense of satisfaction that was hard to explain.

Yes, he could control and even dominate their future to a certain extent, even though there was only one year left.

But at the same time, he was also bearing the pressure these people put on him.

This is how the world is, it is impossible for you to take all the benefits, and you have to pay for what you want.

"As you have seen in the newspapers, or heard outside, this is my last season as the head coach of Tottenham Hotspur!" Ye Qiu said this in a very stable tone, even if there is still a year left.

But in the eyes of many players below, these words are very unusual, especially for Ribery, Messi and others, their careers have almost been spent under Ye Qiu, especially Ribery, he is not young anymore, unless there is any change, otherwise, he will retire at Tottenham Hotspur.

There are also many people whose careers have just begun, and Ye Qiu may only occupy the beginning of their careers, such as Mitrovic, but this does not prevent them from looking at Ye Qiu with respect, admiration, and more importantly, reluctance.

"A few days ago, Mr. Robert Milson, the head of the club's press and public relations department, asked me if we should make the last season more grand and grand!" When he said this, Ye Qiu laughed and shook his head, "I don't think it's necessary. I told him to keep a low profile."

After a pause, Ye Qiu couldn't help but make fun of Ferguson again, "It's like Ferguson, who clearly said he would retire in 2012, but he didn't win the championship in the end, so he didn't retire again, and he insisted on holding on until 2 In 2013, I guess he saw that he still had no chance of winning the championship if he continued coaching, so he simply retired in despair! "

Everyone laughed after hearing Ye Qiu's words. In fact, Ferguson did say before the 2011/2012 season that he would retire if he won the championship, but unfortunately, Manchester United failed to win the championship that year, and Ferguson stayed for another year. In the 2012/2013 season, Manchester United's performance did not improve much, but was rather bad, so Ferguson retired directly.

This can be said to be a regretful retirement!

"To be honest, I'm worried. I don't know if my last season will be like Ferguson's." Ye Qiu said with a bitter smile. In fact, this is not under his control at all. The key lies in the players.

"No, boss!"

"Definitely not!"

"This will never happen!"

"Don't worry, boss, this will never happen!"

The players answered Ye Qiu's words very firmly. Although many of them were in a conflicted mood and did not want Ye Qiu to retire, they felt that they must not let Ye Qiu repeat Ferguson's mistakes, because they are Tottenham Hotspur, not Manchester United!

"So, today I am here to propose our goal for the new season to each of you. There is only one sentence!"

Ye Qiu pointed at the players in front of him, "That is, let the whole world know our low-key!"

The players in the stadium suddenly cheered.

Sometimes, being low-key itself is the most high-profile thing, especially for a team like Tottenham Hotspur. It is almost impossible to be low-key.

In fact, Ye Qiu's meaning has another layer, that is, Tottenham Hotspur will be more pragmatic and focused on the game this season. He hopes that all players can be consistent with him and the team's goals, focus on the game, and use their strength to tell everyone on the football field to defend Tottenham Hotspur's golden signboard.

This is undoubtedly not an easy thing, especially for Tottenham Hotspur, which has reached its peak in the past two seasons. It is almost difficult to continue its glory this season.

Almost everyone believes that the most important thing for Tottenham Hotspur this season is to complete the succession of the midfield after Pirlo's era, and the handover between Ye Qiu and Mauro Tassotti. As long as these two things are completed, Tottenham Hotspur's glory can be continued.

This is not easy, because Pirlo is the core of Tottenham Hotspur's midfield in the past two seasons, and Ye Qiu is the soul of Tottenham Hotspur in the past seven years. They are replaced at the same time, which will inevitably cause turbulence for any team.

How to minimize this impact is also a big test for Tottenham Hotspur.

So when Ye Qiu said to keep a low profile, he actually meant to ask the team to try to match the team's achievements and performance during operation and promotion. After all, if the promotion is too high-profile and it doesn't come true in the end, it's not beautiful.

Just like Mourinho, in his first season back in the Premier League, he said he would challenge Ye Qiu's Tottenham Hotspur and win the championship, but he couldn't even make it to the semi-finals. After the season ended, he was ridiculed by countless media, which is not a good thing.

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Perhaps he was stimulated by Ye Qiu's encouraging remarks before the training camp, or perhaps he really wanted to leave a brilliant mark for Ye Qiu's last season. Therefore, during the pre-season training camp, except for a few veterans in the team, all the players worked very hard. As for the veterans, the most important thing for them was to maintain their condition and help the newcomers.

After training in Theobald for a period of time, the team set off for China and trained in Guangzhou.

This is also another trip to Asia for Tottenham Hotspur after the North American trip last summer. With two consecutive seasons of Premier League and Champions League double championships, Tottenham Hotspur has caused a huge response in China, especially many fans know that this is Ye Qiu's last season, and they all want to stay.

Outside the training ground of Tottenham Hotspur, some domestic fans shout slogans every day, hoping that Ye Qiu can continue to coach, but Ye Qiu is very determined this time. Before the game with Guangzhou team, when he was interviewed by the media, he once again emphasized that he had made up his mind to retire for a long time.

"My wife and friends, as well as my family and children, all hope that I can spend more time with them. In fact, I have made up my mind to retire for two or three years, but I have been dragging it out because I have always been reluctant to leave!"

Ye Qiu gave a high evaluation to his successor Mauro Tassotti.

"I don't think Mauro needs to prove anything. He is a great player and will become a great head coach. At the same time, I want to reiterate that he will not be the second Ye Qiu, nor will he be anyone else. He will only be himself, Mauro Tassotti, just like his career as a player."

"I will not plan anything for Mauro in advance. I think everyone should have his own choice in everything they do. I respect and understand Mauro's choice. I also believe that his choice can bring him what he wants to achieve. So, once I leave, I will no longer ask about anything on the team's competitive level."

This is also a statement by Ye Qiu, because any head coach, whether he succeeds Ye Qiu or a famous coach like Ferguson, will often have a kind of pressure and worry, that is, will Ye Qiu and Ferguson point fingers behind their backs?

No one wants to hear this kind of voice and is willing to accept such a puppet status, so when Ye Qiu retires this time, he will retire very thoroughly. He will not ask about all the team's games and team management matters. At best, he will provide some of his own suggestions and analysis when necessary.

But all of this is based on the head coach's willingness.

As for his life after retirement, Ye Qiu said with a smile, "I hope to build a bridge after retirement to help more young Chinese players go abroad at the right time, go to European teams for training, and play there, because I believe that if I can gain a foothold there, they can do the same."

"After retirement, I think the thing I want to do most is to travel around the world with my wife!"