"This is our training base."
Jason McGill took Pan Yi walking on Weddington Road in the north of York City, introducing Pan Yi as he walked.
Pan Yi nodded, then took a bite of chocolate without saying anything.
After he contacted the owner of York City, Jason McGill took him around the city first, and then went to see the relevant facilities of the York City Club, and introduced him along the way, acting as a tour guide!
York City is really popular for shopping.
Because of its deep historical connections with the Roman Empire and the Vikings, York has gained rich historical resources, and these resources have also greatly boosted the town's tourism industry.
For example, York Minster is the largest medieval Gothic church in Europe. It has the largest stained glass window in the world and the largest gray single-tone tinted glass window in the UK.
The Yorkshire Museum is one of the most famous museums in the UK. It collects and displays various precious jewelry and cultural relics from the ancient Roman, Saxon and Viking eras.
Clifford's Tower is one of the remaining remains of York Castle. It is located on a hill in the south of the city. You can climb to the top of the tower along the spiral stairs and have a panoramic view of York City.
The National Railway Museum is a must-see for train fans. As the birthplace of railways, Britain's unique "train" culture has always been one of the cultural elements that tourists from other countries around the world compete to taste and explore.
Even here, you can go shopping in Diagon Alley, where Harry Potter once walked.
This street is the most well-preserved medieval-style street in Europe. Of course, the reason why this street is famous is due to the "Harry Potter" movie, because "Diagon Alley" was filmed here.
In addition, there are York City Walls, Britain's first windmill, and various interesting castles...
You can also go to the church where Jay Chou got married!
Yes, on the day Chelsea played Swansea, that is, January 17, 2015, Jay Chou held his wedding at Selby Church in York, and the wedding banquet after the wedding was held at Castle Howard in York.
If Pan Yi hadn't been on a competition mission at the time, Gao Lu would have come to the scene to take a look.
Of course, what attracts Pan Yi even more is the delicious and fragrant chocolate here - all thanks to the chocolate factories in the town with a long history and sophisticated technology.
When tourists from all over the world come to York, in addition to admiring the various ancient buildings and streets, they also want to taste chocolate here.
Of course Pan Yi is no exception! He is a famous snack lover.
And he was also interested in a specialty tea restaurant here called "Betty's Tea Room". According to Jason McGill, the various handmade snacks, butter cookies, macarons and various cakes and scones here are very good. .
However, the business in this store was so good that there was a long queue in front of the store early, so Pan Yi had no choice but to give up and buy a few chocolates from a small store nearby to satisfy his craving.
In short, the town of York is really a suitable place to live and live, and it is also the kind of place Pan Yi likes.
However, when the two of them wandered around York City for a long time and finally came to the main topic to see the York City Club's training base, the strong sense of contrast emerged.
Such a good city, but there is no matching big football club!
Let’s just talk about the training base in front of us...
Although it can't be said to have complete facilities, it is at least better than nothing.
Or, to use the description in the FM game: it’s just usable.
This is in sharp contrast to Pan Yi, who has just come from a top training base like Chelsea.
I really don’t want anything.
Of course, this is also very consistent with York City’s current infrastructure.
It’s not just the training base that’s so bad!
If Pan Yi could display an electronic display in front of his eyes, the current situation of York City's various facilities would look like this:
Course condition: dilapidated.
Floor heating system: No.
Ceiling: No.
Office facilities: the most basic office facilities.
Level of training facilities: Accessible training facilities.
Echelon training: makeshift youth training facilities.
Youth Player Recruitment: Basic youth player recruitment.
…
In short, it is very consistent with the level of a team that has repeatedly jumped across the professional and amateur leagues.
And Pan Yi also knows very well that this is why such a League Two team can only sell a few million at most.
Stadium, training ground, youth training...
All require money!
Why should a club make money?
In addition to teams like Manchester United that have top overseas appeal, there are more factors to consider when selling. For low-level clubs like English League One and English League Two, it basically depends on the team's hardware and Player value.
But what value can York players have?
The best players on the team are often on loan and are not originally team assets.
And this "most awesome", for example, the highest paid player in the team is Zuba, who is on loan from Bournemouth, with a weekly salary of 2,500.
Among the players in the team who are on their own contracts, the lowest weekly salary is only two or three hundred, and this is after excluding apprentice contracts with dozens or one hundred.
If these people then sell it, the theoretical value will not exceed 200,000 or 300,000 euros at the highest, and only a few thousand dollars at the lowest.
But the problem is that basically no one will actually spend money to buy players of this level.
Clubs with money spend real money to poach people from higher-level League One or even Championship clubs. Those without money, of course, like York City, wait for free agents without visas.
Spending 300,000 to buy a player of the level of a English second division relegation team? Then the front office staff of this club must be crazy!
This is enough to pay three or four "top" players on loan for a year!
Well, the so-called uniform team... actually doesn't have a few people.
There is definitely a chairman, usually the team owner.
Then there is a director, a head coach and an assistant coach, and then there are several coaches in charge of physical fitness, goalkeeping and youth training. It is considered very complete.
Basically, one or two scouts and team doctors each are enough.
So it's impossible to do something like Manchester United, which can send seven or eight game analysts per game.
In short, such a club can save money in every aspect, so the value of personnel can almost be ignored.
In other words, hardware assets such as training bases and stadiums are the bulk of a low-level club's valuation.
But, leaving aside the stadium, how much does a good training base cost?
What Pan Yi knew was that Chelsea's Cobham training base cost Abramovich tens of millions of pounds!
This price can buy a British Championship or even a Premier League club.
And even if it's a more ordinary one, just expand it, upgrade the training facilities, buy some advanced equipment, and just throw away millions.
Not to mention the stadium.
Everyone knows how much Wenger paid to save a stadium for Arsenal.
In London, where land is at a premium, buying a piece of land to build a new stadium is a waste of money.
As for the Emirates Stadium, its construction cost alone exceeds US$700 million, not counting land and other expenses.
Specific figures are not available, but the final cost should be around £4 billion.
This shows how determined Wenger and the board of directors at the time were. They took huge risks and pushed forward the new stadium plan against all odds.
But since then, Arsenal has entered the pain of repaying the mortgage, and Wenger has also fallen into endless controversy.
In order to repay a large loan, Arsenal had no choice but to sacrifice the team's strength and sell players in exchange for funds.
Arsenal has gradually become a "talent market" for other giants. Vieira, Henry, Gala, Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie, Nasri, Adebayor, Toure and others have been sold by Arsenal one after another.
You know, they are the biggest stars of their generation. If placed in other teams, they would definitely be treated as the cornerstone.
Many of the stars sold by Arsenal were even Arsenal's then-captains. From this we can see how "crazy" Arsenal was in order to raise money.
Not only that, while Arsenal is increasing revenue, it is also reducing expenditure.
A salary cap was established, and contracts for players over 30 years old were signed once a year. Such a strict policy forced away many big-name stars.
Nasri, Toure, Clichy, Adebayor and others all received contracts that were much higher than Arsenal's salary after leaving Arsenal.
During this period, Wenger suffered a lot of ridicule and also suffered the loss of going from undefeated to winning the championship for a long time. And these are all the "bitter fruits" brought about by his implementation of the new stadium plan.
But is this "suffering" worth it?
The answer is yes.
After Arsenal finally moved into the Emirates Stadium, their matchday revenue increased significantly, with an increase of at least 55 million pounds in matchday revenue every season!
This data exceeds that of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Chelsea and other giants.
Moreover, Arsenal also received considerable benefits from the title rights of the Emirates Stadium.
And all of this is obviously the result of the new stadium.
The Emirates Stadium has begun to become a stable "cash cow" for Arsenal. The 20 million pounds of principal and interest that need to be repaid each year does not seem to be high, and it is not difficult for Arsenal to complete it.
Arsenal now have a modern stadium and healthy finances.
With such a foundation, no matter how the situation changes in the future, Arsenal will be a wealthy team.
This is the foundation that Wenger and Arsenal have sacrificed for more than ten years!
From the perspective of investing in the future, this is clearly worthwhile.
And from the perspective of Pan Yi, a time traveler, Arsenal is indeed on the right path now. Perhaps a new Premier League championship is not far away from them...
At this point in time, for Pan Yi who is interested in acquiring a club, this is of course something that needs to be considered in the future.
It's just that the need for the stadium is not so urgent for the time being.
After all, for a League Two team, York City's Crescent Stadium, which can accommodate about 10,000 spectators, is quite sufficient.
In fact, in the near future, we only need to make some renovations to the stadium's infrastructure, such as adding a water removal system to the stadium lawn and improving the quality of the winter grass, so that it can meet daily use.
And this probably costs a few thousand pounds.
"We have very loyal fans." Jason McGill continued with a somewhat proud tone. "Even when we were still playing in the amateur league, we had thousands of fans attending every game."
Pan Yi nodded.
This is indeed not easy.
This also shows the profound foundation of English football.
No matter what league your team is in, whether it wins or loses the game, there are always countless fans cheering for it.
This kind of football culture based on the community is really something you can’t learn even if you want to.
"We have many local fan organizations, including Harrogate Believers, Jorwick Red Army, York Nomads Society, etc. It's just..." Jason McGill smiled:
"You know, like a lot of English clubs, there are a lot of them who are hooligans and so they're banned from the club."
"Of course, there are also many big names who are also members of the club. For example, the Archbishop of Yorkshire is a season ticket holder of our team..."
"When we play at home, the club will also produce an official game magazine called 'City Review', which sells for £3..."
"The club's mascot is a lion called 'The Yorkie Lion' who often performs comical displays before games."
"Our team's two traditional main rivals are Hull City and Burley, but strangely no other fans see York City as their main rivals."
"For example, Hull City, the fans of this East Yorkshire team believe that Leeds United is their main rival team..."
After following Jason McGill around the York City Club and listening to his introduction, Pan Yi almost knew about this acquisition.
Overall, this is a typical English low-level team with a fan base but poor infrastructure and many areas need improvement.
This is a challenge for Pan Yi.
But for him, isn't this a great opportunity to play live FM?
Turning a low-level team into an awesome team gives you an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.
Moreover, now the money earned from buying and selling people is no longer working for the boss.
I earned it all by myself!
In addition to updating the lineup and improving the team's strength, the money earned can also be used to renovate the training base, build a new stadium, etc.
For example, Wenger used the money from selling Anelka in exchange for Henry and a Colney training base;
Then he used all the money from selling the captain to buy the Emirates Stadium...
And Pan Yi is even better at buying and selling players!
When we make enough money, wouldn't it be nice to build a "Panyi Stadium" or something like that here?
Of course, a team like York City facing various difficulties will also make the club's sale price correspondingly lower.
After all, it is still unrealistic for Pan Yi to spend hundreds of millions of pounds to build a relatively mature Premier League team.
"Three million pounds, I think that's about it."
This is Pan Yi's psychological price.
He has also done some market research. For example, League Two clubs with relatively high rankings and relatively good infrastructure, such as Portsmouth and Burton, cost tens of millions of pounds or even more.
After all, as soon as they are promoted to League One, their value will rise steadily.
But if it is a team in the middle and lower reaches, because it may fall to the amateur league at any time, not only does it have no room for appreciation, but there is a risk of depreciation, the price will be much lower.
York City falls into this category.
Therefore, three to four million, and at most five or six million, is the valuation range of most English second division teams.
And for Pan Yi, the risk of devaluation does not exist for the time being.
As a time traveler, he knows that York City will not be relegated this season.
Therefore, all he needs to do now is buy the club and then be a hands-off manager, and then he can start running it slowly next season.
However, think about the fact that I spent three million pounds to buy a young player like Lingard who was spurned by Manchester United, and it only cost three million pounds to buy an entire English second-division club. The gap between the two is really huge. It's deplorable.
However, the price negotiation plan that Pan Yi had planned for a long time seemed to be no longer useful when he officially started negotiations with Jason McGill.
"Two million pounds. No, a million pounds if you can take York City to the next level."
Jason McGill's eyes looked at Pan Yi, full of fan-like expectations.
In other words, it’s the kind of look that looks like seeing a savior!
This suddenly made Pan Yi unable to deal with it.
Is there anyone who talks about business like this?
It's the lowest price, or even selling at a loss.
"You know, in fact, most football clubs don't make money." Seeing that Pan Yi remained silent, Jason McGill said sincerely:
"And I also know that you didn't buy the club to make money."
"It is precisely because of this that I will extend an invitation to you, and I will leave the club in your hands with confidence."
"As for the specific acquisition amount...really, you can just give a symbolic number."
This negotiation process looks very unprofessional.
But Pan Yi understood that this was precisely because the old man loved this club so deeply.
Perhaps his lifelong wish is to see his beloved York City become a truly powerful club.
That's why he tentatively talked to Pan Yi when he met Chelsea in the League Cup.
But when Pan Yiken came over today, McGill felt that he had already succeeded halfway, so he must not let this savior run away because of some price issue!
After all, Pan Yi is now the most popular head coach in world football, and his presence represents the championship!
Although it currently seems impossible for Pan Yi to personally coach a League Two team, with Pan Yi's reputation and connections in European football, he can turn York City into a strong and stable team. Still a very simple thing.
Just renting out players will be much more convenient!
Not to mention Chelsea, just get some "swill" that can't play football in Hamburg, it's enough to enjoy - of course, considering the household registration and other things, Chelsea is more suitable.
】
And if York City can be promoted to a higher level, such as League One or even the Championship, the club's finances will be better and it can buy more people.
As for buying people... the whole world knows that Pan Yi has a very accurate eye for people.
The value of any player he is interested in has skyrocketed!
Of course Pan Yi will be more concerned about his own club.
In this way, York City becoming a Premier League club is not a dream!
In the face of such a prospect, what does McGill's own two or three million mean?
After all, he is first and foremost a York City fan!
Now as a fan, he saw an opportunity to bring his team to nirvana, how could he let it go?
"It's only two million pounds to fully acquire York City Club." Pan Yi said, "You have paid so much for York City, and I can't let you suffer."
For Pan Yi now, two million pounds is really nothing.
His weekly salary is 400,000 yuan. Even after deducting taxes and fees, it is enough to make money in about ten weeks, not to mention the hidden wealth in his hands.
The main reason is that the old man really paid too much affection and real money to York City, so he feels a little guilty for taking advantage of him like this.
As McGill just said, running a club is actually not profitable in most cases. He doesn't know how much money he has invested in the team over the years, nor how much effort he has put into management.
Therefore, it is only natural for Pan Yi to pay a small amount of money to buy it.
"But..." McGill wanted to say something else.
"But what? Does the team still have debts?"
"That...that's not the case."
"Then it's settled. Two million pounds. If you don't sell it, I'll leave."
"Don't... don't don't!" McGill quickly grabbed Pan Yi, "Okay, just two million! We'll sign the contract right away!"
"By the way, I have one more request." Pan Yi blinked.
"What?" McGill looked nervous, fearing there would be any changes.
"After you sold the club to me, you stayed on as the chairman and helped me manage it." Pan Yi said with a smile, "I can't find anyone who understands team management and is familiar with the local situation in York. Someone come and help me.”
"That's no problem! You will be my boss from now on, and I will manage the team well!" McGill patted his chest.
This is equivalent to Pan Yi buying a house, and then the original owner rented the house again...
The identity transformation was completed in an instant.
Pan Yi nodded and felt relieved.
This helped him solve a big problem.
After all, although he suddenly owns an English club, he really can't focus too much on it at the moment.
Leading Chelsea to the Premier League and Champions League championships is now his top priority!
If McGill can continue to serve as chairman, then he can really be a hands-off shopkeeper. Anyway, except for the change in "sovereignty", nothing else has changed.
At least the entire York City club will remain stable, and the overall development will not change, nor will it affect what should happen in the original timeline - the main thing is to maintain relegation first this season.
When he has time to spare, Pan Yi can slowly deal with the matters in York City.
For example, updating the team's staff step by step and improving the level of the uniform team, training team, and medical team;
For example, Chelsea and York City can form a related club to facilitate the transfer of talents to York City;
Pan Yi is even considering letting Scaloni go directly to York City as the head coach next season. This is a good place for leveling, and it can also "support" some of Pan Yi's tactical ideas here more directly.
"By the way, there is one more thing." Pan Yi said again.
"You say."
"This transaction should be kept low-key," Pan Yi said. "You can announce to the public that you sold the club, but it's best not to say that you sold it to me. Otherwise, some things will be inconvenient to deal with."
McGill nodded: "I understand this. Anyway, just buy it from a mysterious Dragon Kingdom businessman. Haha..."
The two looked at each other and smiled.
Indeed, the Dragon Kingdom businessmen are now considered a very powerful branch in European football.
Recently, there are rumors that a boss Guo from Dragon Kingdom is negotiating an acquisition with the British Championship team Wolves, and the acquisition price may reach 45 million pounds.
Pan Yi's old club AC Milan heard that a businessman surnamed Li was also interested in it and wanted to spend a huge amount of money to buy it from Berlusconi.
The main thing is that these teams with Chinese-funded backgrounds are often quite mysterious, and sometimes it is not clear who is behind it all.
So if McGill claims that a certain Dragon Country businessman purchased the team and allows the original management staff to continue to manage the team, perhaps the fans will not have any objections.
Of course, more importantly, if Pan Yi is found to be related to York City, this may have an adverse impact on his subsequent actions, such as recruiting people from Chelsea.
Therefore, this method of processing should be the best at present.
At this point, Pan Yi's wholly-owned acquisition of York City Club ended after a simple meeting and negotiation!
Pan Yi also officially became the boss of York City!
