On the morning of February 7, 2011, Guangzhou Evergrande, a Chinese Super League team, officially announced the official signing of Chen Tao, a midfielder from Blackburn Rovers and the current main player of the Chinese national team, with a total transfer fee of 2.3 million pounds, equivalent to about 25 million yuan, and a contract period of four years. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Chen Tao will fly directly to Spain on February 10 to meet with the team for overseas training after passing the physical examination, wearing the No. 23 shirt, and the club will hold a meeting with new signings after the team returns to China in mid-February.

Chen Tao as the current offensive core of the Chinese national team, Guangzhou Evergrande has always been very interested in Chen Tao, his arrival can solve the problem of Zheng Zhi's retreat, and at the same time in the midfield can also increase the ability to control the ball, after all, Evergrande is now in addition to Zheng Zhi, the main back Zhao Xuri is not an organizational back.

In addition to Evergrande's interest in Chen Tao, Evergrande's sworn enemy Guangzhou R&F also has a soft spot for Chen Tao.

In the new season, Guangzhou Evergrande and Guangzhou R&F have vacated a quota for the introduction of domestic reinforcements over 21 years old. With the opening of the transfer window in the middle of last month, Evergrande and R&F once saw bayonets in Chen Tao's attack.

After learning that Chen Tao intended to leave Blackburn Rovers to return to China to play, R&F was the first club to throw an olive branch to the Blackburn midfielder, and the contact and communication between the two have also been developing in the direction of holding hands.

However, as Chen Tao's agent became more and more strict in terms of transfer conditions, especially after putting forward the real estate requirements, R&F finally gave up the introduction of Chen Tao.

"In Chen Tao's transfer, the transfer fee and annual salary offered by the other party are beyond the acceptable range of R&F, and the transfer fee + annual salary for one year is more than 40 million yuan." R&F's senior management in charge of the recruitment negotiations said that R&F was not unable to give this money, but this annual salary would lead to a serious imbalance in the salary structure of the R&F team, so they finally gave up Chen Tao.

When R&F launched a strong attack on Chen Tao, Evergrande, which was eager for talent, was also actively fighting for the latter on the transfer issue. In the end, with a rich salary package and personal development platform, Evergrande finally won the competition with R&F and won the "Guangzhou Derby" in advance.

After R&F withdrew, Evergrande had no rival in the introduction of Chen Tao. In fact, the reason why Chen Tao was able to play the most minutes in the Club World Cup was because Arthur instructed Ancelotti to "inspect the goods" for Evergrande, and Chen Tao's outstanding performance in the face of the South Korean team Seongnam Ilwa made Evergrande excited-after all, Evergrande, which plans for the long term, aims not only to be a three-point land in China.

After the end of the Club World Cup, Evergrande has actually reached an agreement with Blackburn, and there is no suspense for Chen Tao to join. According to Chen Tao's previous offer to R&F, excluding the transfer fee of 2.3 million pounds, Chen Tao's annual salary in Evergrande will exceed 8 million yuan, and if you add bonuses, Chen Tao can get more than 10 million yuan in Evergrande a year.

Of course, this annual salary is also within the normal range for Evergrande, and it will not break the balance of Evergrande's salary structure.

In the introduction of Chen Tao, in fact, Evergrande communicated with Chen Tao on the transfer as early as more than a year ago, and the two sides finally held hands after more than a year of mutual communication and understanding, "R&F is actually just a guise for Evergrande in the introduction of Chen Tao, and the latter sang a wonderful double reed with R&F to make Chen Tao transfer to Evergrande smoothly." ”

As for the news that Chen Tao's agent wants to add an attendance clause to the contract, that is, if Chen Tao's attendance rate cannot be guaranteed to reach 50%, then Chen Tao can transfer as a free person after the game. Evergrande will never accept this clause, because at the same time, Evergrande is also competing for Yu Dabao.

Yu Dabao put forward a request to guarantee play, although Evergrande was very eager for Yu Dabao to join, but did not agree to the request to guarantee the playing rate. Although Chen Tao is currently the most famous star in the Chinese national team, I believe that Guangzhou Evergrande will not let itself lose its principles in employing people for the sake of a Chen Tao.

Chen Tao did not encounter the slightest obstacle in the physical examination of Guangzhou Evergrande -- the Blackburn Laboratory is the most advanced sports hospital physical examination center in the world, and if it can pass the physical examination of the Blackburn Laboratory, Guangzhou Evergrande will naturally not be able to find any problems.

After the signing of the contract, Evergrande took a group photo with Liu Yongzhuo and Chen Tao in accordance with the usual practice. After the group photo, Chen Tao left Guangzhou on a flight at half past two.

In the official statement of Evergrande Club, Chen Tao is a world-class domestic aid that Evergrande has been looking for to successfully prove its value in Europe's five top leagues and is at the peak of "tens of millions".

This time, Chen Tao returned to China not on an ordinary flight, but on Arthur's private jet to return home.

In the last five years, Arthur has not personally been responsible for the transfer of any player, let alone flown to the location of the opposing club, and this time it was no exception, but sporting director Monchi was sent in.

However, it stands to reason that Chen Tao, a marginal person like the team, is not worthy of a high-level executive like Monchi who ranks in the top four of Blackburn Rovers Club, especially in the Premier League winter transfer period, but Monchi came to Guangzhou not because of Chen Tao's transfer, but because of the task specially arranged for him by Arthur.

In recent years, Arthur has gradually decentralized, and has given Monchi instructions as solemnly as this time, the last time he let Monchi "hoard" a large number of English young football talents into the Blackburn Rovers academy.

Monchi still clearly remembers what Arthur deliberately explained before he stepped on the plane: "The Chinese Super League is the most important strategic point for us in the future, you can see them as Chelsea in previous seasons, Manchester City now, you have to see this mission as the most important task in recent years, there is no one." ”

Although Monch was curious about why Arthur had such a judgment, he did not have the slightest doubt about Arthur's decision, because Arthur had never made a mistake over the years.

After the signing ceremony, Evergrande arranged a simple celebration dinner, which was a Western-style buffet cold meal, on the one hand, to take care of the eating habits of Blackburn and his party, and on the other hand, to facilitate conversation.

As the highest level on both sides, Meng Qi naturally talked with Liu Yongzhuo while tasting the food.

"Monchi, can you tell me about your experience in the early 2000s? After all, compared to clubs like Real Madrid and Manchester United, you have only become one of Europe's top teams in the last decade, but you are still the most successful club of the century. Liu Yongzhuo, who can conduct ordinary conversations in English, asked directly.

For Guangzhou Evergrande, Arthur's Blackburn Rovers is definitely the best object to learn from, because the other party has also risen extremely rapidly in one or two seasons, promoted to the top in one year, the Premier League title in the second year, the Champions League title in the fourth year, and the Champions League defense in the fifth year...... There are hardly any teams more worthy of Evergrande's admiration than Blackburn.

"It's simple." Monchi shook the Bordeaux wine in his glass and concluded: "The first point is planned management. Our chairman Arthur is not directly involved in the specific matters within the club, but it is all left to me, the vice-president of the club, the head of youth development, the head of medical care, the first team coach and other heads of departments. ”

"Hmm." Liu Yongzhuo nodded thoughtfully.

"The second point is not to be stingy with various investments, such as player introduction, wages, medical investment, youth training investment, etc." Monchi praised: "I have seen all of this in your planning. ”

"Well, yes." Although Liu Yongzhuo wanted to brag about Evergrande's investment in these aspects, he still chose to hide when he thought of Blackburn's world-famous youth training base and Blackburn laboratory.

"As for the third point...... At this time, Monchi remembered Arthur's previous confession at Blackburn, and the corners of his mouth curved: "That is, if you want the team to have a good record, you must need an excellent commander." ”

"Head coach?" Liu Yongzhuo frowned and asked.

"Yes." Monchi looked like a teachable child: "Like our three managers: Mourinho, Lippi and Carlo Ancelotti, which one is not the top 10 managers in world football today?" Especially Mourinho, who is the first of our results, his presence can be said to have laid a backbone for us. Unfortunately, as far as I know, your current manager doesn't fit your plans for the future. ”

Guangzhou Evergrande's current head coach is South Korean coach Lee Jang-so. On March 25, 2010, Li Zhangzhu officially signed with Guangzhou Evergrande and led the team to win the championship of the Chinese League that season.

At the beginning of the signing of Lee Jang-su, Liu Yongzhuo swore that "when Evergrande was established, Chairman Xu made it clear at the press conference that Evergrande should either not do it or do it well, and in this strategic thinking, whether it is in the selection of players and coaches, we must select good talents, and this time it is an honor to invite Lee Jang-su, the champion coach." ”

But in Liu Yongzhuo's heart, is Li Zhangzhu really the head coach who is most in line with the future development of Guangzhou Evergrande?

The answer, of course, is: no.

Because in Arthur's previous life, after only two seasons of coaching Guangzhou Evergrande, Evergrande chose to terminate the contract with Li Zhangzhu, who won the Chinese Super League championship.

Meng Qi thought at first that Arthur arranged for him to come to Evergrande, and thought that he would let himself sell the players, but he didn't expect that he would let himself sell the head coach, and this is Arthur's cleverness.

Blackburn has always been on the passive side of selling players, but if the recommendation of the head coach is successful, with the style of Xu Jiayin and Liu Yongzhuo that Arthur knows, he will definitely obey the world's top head coach to a large extent in terms of player transfers, then Arthur can do it once and for all.

And Arthur lacks a player who fits Evergrande's requirements?

There is no shortage of nature.

Not to mention Blackburn, Arthur's other three satellite clubs can all contribute a steady stream of sophisticated foreign aid to Evergrande.

Seeing Liu Yongzhuo's appearance that seemed to be moved, Meng Qi knew that he should push again, "Liu, I just happened to know that one of the best head coaches in the world is currently at home and ready to return to coach again. ”

"Oh? Don't know who it is? Liu Yongzhuo also understood what Meng Qi meant at this moment, but he still asked the other party, because he was really curious about this question.

"Marcello Lippi!"

This time, Liu Yongzhuo was really moved.