The Era of Emerald

()ps: "Addition and Completion Plan" Chapter 28

After the plane landed at London Heathrow International Airport, Zhuang Minge went to the headquarters of the Arsenal club as planned, and paid a courtesy visit to the chairman of Arsenal, Sir Peter Hillwood.

There are many landlords and minor nobles in Britain who started their fortunes by relying on the industrial revolution and colonial expansion. Hillwood's ancestors belonged to such a social class.

Hillwood himself belongs to the kind of rich man who lives on the property inherited from his grandparents, makes occasional investments, and sells them for cash as soon as he gets the proceeds.

Therefore, although Arsenal under his control has made profits every year, it has never repaired the Highbury Stadium, nor has it made a large investment in the team. Even if Wenger came here to coach, Arsenal Na has always lived within its means, and even the money for the construction of the new stadium was raised by the club through loans.

In Zhuang Minge's eyes, Hillwood's stinginess is the key to preventing Arsenal from becoming a top giant. Even Barcelona and Manchester United, who are famous for their youth training in later generations, will not be stingy with big signings, and the cash-strapped Arsenal But they have to frequently tear down the east wall to make up for the west wall. Although the effect is very good, the team is still not as famous in terms of popularity.

Let me ask, who would regard a club that relies on reselling key players to make money as the object of their lifetime service?

……

Unlike the owners of Serie A clubs, the owners of Premier League clubs generally don't ask about the specific affairs of the team, while the head coach of the Premier League team also plays the role of the team manager and controls the team's transfer power.

Based on this, when Zhuang Mingge tentatively tried to inquire about Arsenal's tactical arrangement from Hill Wood, Hill Wood regretted that he was a layman who received dividends from Arsenal every year. , There is no control over the team at all.At the same time, he also has a traditional British gentleman's demeanor, asking Zhuang Mingge's Florence to be merciful in the game, and not to make him, a British gentleman, look too ugly.

Of course, Zhuang Mingge wouldn't take this old guy's low-key seriously. Hillwood, an old fox, staged a good show of pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger in the final of last year's Cup Winners' Cup, and yined Palma... …

But generally speaking, this trip to Arsenal is still fruitful for Zhuang Mingge.The low-key Sir Hillwood, on the one hand, spoke highly of Florence, and on the other hand spared no effort to meet the "investigation" requirements of Zhuang Mingge and others, which inevitably surprised Zhuang Mingge.

After all, in order to investigate the business operation model of Premier League clubs, Zhuang Mingge asked some questions in this regard during the conversation.

Unexpectedly, Sir Hillwood almost answered every question, and asked his secretary to help answer Zhuang Mingge's questions if he couldn't answer, without thinking at all whether he would reveal the club's secrets by doing so.

Especially Zhuang Mingge's most concerned about stadium management and TV broadcasting experience, he had a more detailed understanding from Hill Wood at almost no cost, which made Zhuang Minge realize the abnormality: the legendary Sir Hillwood, who is very traditional British gentleman, behaved at this time, more like a glittering upstart, trying to show off his team.

Perhaps, it is because the British team has been suppressed for too long in the past few years, which caused the old man to be a little mentally disturbed?Zhuang Mingge made idle guesses in a vicious manner.

What Zhuang Mingge didn't know was that his guess was very close to the truth.

Since the English team was banned by UEFA for five years, the competitiveness of English clubs in the European arena has plummeted. Liverpool, the "Red Army" that dominated Europe back then, has long since ceased to exist.In recent years, the performance of the English team in the European arena has been terrible. There are only two Cup Winners' Cup winners that can be won, one of which belongs to Arsenal.

In May last year, Arsenal, who were extremely low-key before the game, defeated Parma from the Serie A team known as the "Little World Cup" with iron-blooded defense and fighting. Hill Wood took a deep breath.

Therefore, when facing Fiorentina, which is also from Serie A, but has not been as good as Parma in recent years, although Hillwood is still very strict about the confidentiality of the team's game arrangement, when it comes to other topics, he Then you will start to "squeeze" unconsciously.

How about it?The TV broadcast fee that our Premier League can get in five years is nearly 2 million pounds. Does your Serie A have this treatment?The stadiums of our Premier League teams are all privately owned by the club and can be transformed commercially by themselves. Can you do it in Italy?

As a result, Hillwood, who was too "serious", was unconsciously obtained by Zhuang Mingge with many details about commercial operations.

"Sir Hillwood, I hope there will be a wonderful game tomorrow." Zhuang Mingge said when leaving the Arsenal headquarters.

"Hehe, I hope Chairman Corleone and your team will be merciful." Chairman Hillwood said with a smile, completely like a cunning fox.

……

The next day was the day of the game. As the game time was approaching, Zhuang Mingge gave up his plan to disturb the team's coach and players. He knew that before the game, he needed to give his players a space without interference.

Zhuang Mingge, who had made a plan, gave up the plan to take the bus to Highbury Stadium with the Fiorentina team and asked Karin to rent two Opels from the service desk of the hotel.Together with the "investigation team" composed of Antonioni, Kenyon and others, they went to Highbury for a "field investigation".

The car Zhuang Mingge and others took did not drive directly into the parking lot set up near the Highbury Stadium, but turned into an underground parking lot about 200 meters away from the stadium.

The traffic near Highbury Stadium in the north of London is quite convenient. Even when there is a football match, there will be no large-scale congestion. Therefore, when you park your car here, the consideration is of course not whether there will be traffic jams after the game. .

The reason why Zhuang Mingge got off the car here was because he wanted to visit the commercial circle planned around Arsenal, because next to this parking lot was the shopping mall run by the Arsenal club.

"Arsenal Mall...the British really have no creativity." Zhuang Mingge looked at the signboard in front of the gate and couldn't help complaining.

"It's the arsenal, Tony." Karin corrected Zhuang Mingge's mistake from the side.

"I said, Karin...Obviously Arsenal and Arsenal are the same word (arsenal in English), how did you figure it out?" The corners of Zhuang Mingge's mouth twitched as he looked at Karin who looked calm.

"A woman's intuition."

"..."