In the study, Li Jianguo and Reeves chatted about Gillette. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

After graduating from college, he started in the meat processing industry, then worked in professional sports marketing for 20 years, and made a fortune of hundreds of millions, and now owns the Montreal Canadian Hockey Club, which followed the Glazer to buy Manchester United.

"Wait, father, what did you say his full name was?"

"George N. GillettJr."

Depend on! It turned out to be him, and after listening to Gillette's experience and the hockey club he owned, Reeves knew who this George Gillette was, and he also knew which club the old American man was going to buy.

Acquisition Target! Liverpool!

The most successful team in England history!

And Gillette and his acquisition partner Hicks are two names that Liverpool fans hate.

As the team that has won the most top-flight championships in England, Liverpool has become uncompetitive after entering the 21st century, and has been suppressed by Manchester United in the league, but seeing Chelsea with the support of Abou won the Premier League championship twice from Manchester United, so that the very red-eyed Liverpudlians see the benefits of being dominated by foreign capital. Because Liverpudlian are so desperate to win the top flight again after 1990.

And Liverpool's chairman, Sir Morse, does not have the stubborn English ancestry of Arsenal chairman Hill Wood, who is very welcoming to the arrival of the patron.

But the big financiers didn't look forward to coming, hoping to come to the two of them, these two people just wanted to get a vote to leave, Gillette and his acquisition partner Hicks.

In early 2007, Sir David Morse, the former chairman of Liverpool, who could not afford to run the club, sold his controlling 51% stake to the American owners for £89 million. The Americans then launched a full takeover, and on February 6, 2007, they completely acquired Liverpool, the greatest club in English football.

But Liverpudlians soon found that their dreams were shattered, with the outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States, Hicks and Gillette were also kicked out They are not as rich as they imagined, according to the figures released by Forbes in 2008, Hicks is only worth 130 million US dollars, and Gillett's net worth is only about 100 million US dollars, Liverpudlians finally know that the two owners are Mr. Nanguo, and the new stadium promised by the two is just a moon in the mirror, and even the money for the acquisition of Liverpool is borrowed from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). They then passed the debt on to the Merseyside team. It borrowed £185 million from the Royal Bank of Scotland at the time of the acquisition, and in 2010, over a three-and-a-half-year period, after rolling over the course of interest and fines for non-compliance, the British state-owned bank's debt equity to Liverpool FC would have reached £386 million, an increase of just over £200 million. Anfield's need to repay more than £10 million in interest a month is more jaw-dropping than the total debt, and the high level of debt is too much for Liverpool to bear, and Liverpool can only sell people to raise transfer funds, and the operation is in trouble.

In fact, the debt is not terrible, Manchester United next door owes more money, a loan of 700 million pounds, and an interest of 20 million pounds per season, but it is much better than Liverpool.

But the key is that Liverpool's two bosses are too cheating, especially Hicks, while gradually cutting Liverpool's transfer spending, Hicks and Gillette, who have a strong desire for power in those years, have discord on issues such as Liverpool's share transfer and change of coach, which has caused Liverpool to be restless and chaotic, and Liverpool has gradually slipped from the Champions League champion in 2005 and the FA Cup in 2006 to the 7th in the Premier League in the 2009-2010 season, and has degenerated into a second-rate team in just a few years. Hicks later wanted to squeeze Gillittle out of Liverpool and drag Winfield deeper into the abyss.

Fortunately, Liverpool's board of directors went to court to stop Hicks' death throes and forcibly sold Liverpool to New England Sports for £300 million.

Although it got rid of two cheats, Liverpool has been tossed for so many years, and its vitality has been greatly damaged, and it has not come out until 2016.

If you were to give each of the Liverpool fans a gun, they would all be shot at these two guys.

So when Reeves heard that the old American man was such a cheat, he couldn't help but retreat.

Although, according to the memories of his previous life, Hicks, who was the most clumsy, would not be offered by Gillette as an investment partner until January when he proposed a second acquisition. Gillette is still in the stage of independent acquisition, but Reeves still has concerns, he is worried that he will not change history, or will repeat the mistakes of the past, he does not want his father standing in front of the stage to become the person Liverpool fans want to kill the most.

Reeves vaguely raised his worries to his father.

"How did you know he was going to buy Liverpool?"

"I remember reading the news a few days ago that the owner of Liverpool had been looking for a seller, and Uncle Gillette said that he was going to buy a Premier League club, and it should be Liverpool."

"Whether it's Liverpool or not, don't worry about a conflict with Gillette over control, we have known each other for many years, Gillette is not a person with a strong desire for power, he just wants to make money, businessmen seek profits, this is nature, nothing more than buy low and sell high, but in the end, it must be to hope that the club will achieve good results, so that the team will appreciate and sell at a good price, which does not conflict with our purpose, you also want the team to have good results, as long as it does not infringe on his interests, he does not mind retreating into the background." Li Jianguo didn't think Reeves's worries were a problem in the slightest.

"But he could be like the Glazer family with debt."

"You don't understand, he must be a debt acquisition, his net worth is only more than 100 million, and he can't buy Liverpool at all, which is why he is looking for an acquisition partner, and the debt acquisition is a typical Yankee financial leveraged buyout model, even if he can come up with money to buy, he will not use his own money, this is the thinking of American businessmen."

Seeing that Reeves was still worried, Li Jianguo smiled and continued.

"Instead of fantasizing, why don't you look at Manchester United, which the Glazer family bought, will it have the Liverpool crisis that you feared?"

Manchester United was also bought by the Americans, but under the control of the Glazer family, instead of falling like Liverpool, they rushed to new heights, winning five Premier League titles and one Champions League title in the seven years since the acquisition. There is no essential difference between what Glazer did and Hicks and Gillette, they both completed the acquisition by borrowing, and then tried to squeeze the fans, increase the club's income, and then use the profits to pay off the debt, the difference is only that the Glazer succeeded, while Hicks and Gillette failed.

"I don't think Manchester United, they're going to be competitive for a long time." Reeves replied in the affirmative.

"Why?"

"Because they've got Ferguson! With Ferguson there is a champion, with a champion there is a profit, and with a profit you can pay off part of the debt, part of it into the transfer market, and then repeat the process until the loan is paid off. ”

Reeves saw that his father didn't seem to understand, so he changed his words.

"You may not know much about football, let me give you an analogy, the Yankees' financial leveraged buyout model, taking a dangerous path, just like a real estate developer playing empty gloves white wolf, borrowing and developing, selling the property in installments, the income of the first phase is used to start the second phase of the project, and the cycle repeats, and finally the house is sold, the loan is repaid, and he is equivalent to making a club for nothing. And Glazer got a piece of high-quality land, and Ferguson's construction captain is one of the best, and this plan can be carried out. ”

Reeves's analogy is very vivid, Li Jianguo nodded, he understood what his son said, and he also knew what his son was worried about.

"You are worried that the land obtained by Gillette is already a grade worse, if the construction captain and the workers found are not capable, the quality is not guaranteed, and even the first phase cannot be sold, the capital chain will be broken, and the follow-up development will come to naught, and the bank will immediately start to force debts, then Liverpool is likely to become an unfinished building. Right? ”

Reeves nodded yes, he was worried about this, in the history of Liverpool 09-10 season because of the lack of European competition, lack of large funds in Europe, coupled with poor results, the team's brand value declined, sponsorship income also plummeted, resulting in the rupture of the capital chain, the bank immediately came to collect debts, 10-11 season summer Liverpool did not have funds to invest in the transfer market, the team was even close to the verge of bankruptcy, and the last two owners were driven out by the board of directors, leaving a bad building.

"In fact, all your worries are pinned on the basis of the ability of the construction team leader and the workers found, so as long as this is solved and the results are guaranteed, there is nothing to worry about." Li Jianguo pointed to the crux of the matter.

Reeves fell into deep thought.

Indeed, as my father said, as long as the results are guaranteed, there is no such problem, and Manchester United has been in debt until 2016, and has been living well, with a large amount of transfer funds every year, and it has not fallen into the same miserable situation as Liverpool, but all this is Ferguson piled up with the championship, Moyes, Van Gaal, once Mourinho can no longer bring the championship to Manchester United, the various sponsorships, performance bonus income and other revenues will be greatly reduced, then Arsenal will be Manchester United's ceiling, Liverpool will be Manchester United's lower limit.

Therefore, Liverpool's results in the future are the key.

Liverpool's construction captain Rafael Benitez is not bad, and if he doesn't have the ability to take office, he will bring Liverpool the Champions League.

However, Benitez's vision of recruitment can only be regarded as average, and in the same financial situation as Manchester United, Benitez is quite extravagant and wasteful in buying people.

Although the average annual net transfer expenditure is only 10.5 million, Liverpool's total six-year transfer expenditure by demolishing the east wall to make up for the west wall is 289 million, so much money, buying a lot of good players, but buying more mistakes, Liverpool parallel goods are rampant in those years, there are many players who are sold cheaply after playing a season, the money is already less, and so many people have been replaced, but the effect is not visible. Benitez then sold Alonso to rebuild the team, but could not find a suitable replacement, and as a result, the team's results declined, which eventually led to the sinking of Liverpool.

Manchester United, on the other hand, are in the same bad situation and have higher debts, but Ferguson's ability to manage the team is much better than Benitez. He bought potential players at a low price, sold some players at a high price appropriately, and improved the youth training system while relying on buyers, so Manchester United's debt has always been safe.

Reaves has experience from his previous life and believes he can definitely bring a lot of calves to Liverpool in the transfer market.

"You can participate in the acquisition, but you need to mention some conditions, the first point, the transfer rights of the head coach need to be reviewed."

"Well, that should be fine, I'll talk to him tomorrow."

"The second point is that we have to be his only partner in the acquisition." Reeves is not afraid of Gillette, an old man with an excellent reputation at his hockey club, but he is afraid of Hicks, the partner that Gillette pulled in when he made a second-round offer.

The Texas cowboy, who has a strong desire for power, a strong personality, and is aggressive, after becoming the owner of Liverpool, has clashed with the club's original management many times, and is the culprit of Liverpool's fall from a Champions League team to a mid-tier team. Later, when Liverpool's debt was due and unable to be repaid, Hicks proposed a new financing plan, he would borrow 280 million pounds from the Blackstone consortium to pay off the old debts with the new debts, hoping to use the help of the Blackstone consortium to completely drive Gillette out of Anfield, and he would take charge of Liverpool alone. This move made the fans completely turn against him, and they would rather deduct 9 points than drive him away.

Reeves would rather not be involved in the takeover than have a business with Hicks.

"But we don't have any money for the time being, he said at the time that we lack 120 million euros, and we only have a loan of 60 million euros from the family fund." Li Jianguo spread his hands, he is not a rich man, although his son has a profit and founded two companies, neither of them is profitable.

"They Americans like to play leveraged buyouts, we can too, we can find bank loans, Gillette will definitely be willing to match."

"That's right."

"The third point is that you have to get him to sign a contract, set terms, and if there is any intention to sell Liverpool in the future, we have the right of first refusal."

"He's not going to say no."

Reeves knows that if he buys the shares at that time, it will definitely be a higher price than the current purchase price, but this is a helpless thing, who made him a latecomer to this acquisition, Gillette has already gone far on this road, and according to the memory of his previous life, the acquisition of competitors and the wealthy Dubai consortium, Reeves alone is not an opponent at all, and needs to be on the ship of Gillette, although this ship is a failure, and the fee is very expensive.

But Reeves didn't care, using the convenience of rebirth to establish two companies was just Reeves's primitive means of accumulation.

He has only two goals, to use the money earned by these two companies to make his family live a good life and make himself better enjoy the joy of football.

So spending more money to own the Red Army, Reeves felt that the price was acceptable.

As for whether Gillette will sell it at that time, this can not help him, the subprime mortgage storm will blow in August next year, historically Gillette was embarrassed after the financial crisis, Liverpool was on his list for sale at that time, and also asked the finance company to conduct an asset evaluation of Liverpool, but in the end received Hicks's obstruction, Gillette was finally forced to sell his beloved ice hockey team to relieve the financial pressure.

Reeves believes that Gillette, whose worth has shrunk badly, will not reject his offer after the subprime mortgage storm is over. (To be continued.) )