George spent the rest of his time in the other way except for leading the team in some warm-up games.

Burnley sold seven men this year for a total of £5.34 million, and with the club's investment of £500,000, George was able to spend £5.84 million.

George spent only £1.45 million on a summer transfer, leaving £4.39 million remaining. George has not touched the money, and of course George has not thought of handing it over to the Burnley board.

The people on the Burnley board are all money-seeing. And one by one, without the slightest sense of crisis, you can't see the rapid development of modern football at all.

For this money, George has a very important use.

George and Carl Pat have discussed many times that even if Burnley are promoted to the Premier League, Burnley's competitiveness is limited. Several of Burnley's major shareholders have limited funds of their own, and are not the richest people like Abramovich.

And it's all iron roosters, and it's impossible to come up with a lot of money at all. Therefore, it is impossible for the Burnley board to come up with tens of millions of pounds of transfer funds a year, and it can even be said that it is very difficult to come up with five million pounds a year. Five million pounds, put in the first and second divisions of England, then it is a very large amount of money. But this money is put in the Premier League, and it can't be taken at all.

If it was okay in previous years, then with the implementation of the Boseman Act, the Premier League will become the most expensive league. Later, with the arrival of Roman Abramovich, the investment of the Premier League team became even more frenzied, and it was difficult for Burnley to stand on its feet.

Even if George comes from later generations, he has a clear understanding of the future development of football. But at most, it can only be a few unfamous players, in the nineties, when the information was not very developed, and at the beginning of the twenty-first century. But once the 06 World Cup is over, those young stars who come later, as long as they have a little strength, will be targeted by major clubs. Without financial resources, it is impossible to sign at all.

There are many aspects of income for a club, and the main ones are three aspects. Ticket revenue, TV broadcast fees, and last but not least, sponsorship fees.

Burnley's ticket revenue can't be compared with the big clubs, and the fact that there are only 80,000 people in a town with 20,000 people can go to the stadium is already very good. More importantly, the townspeople of Burnley City, whose income is very low, and the entrance fee cannot be too high. For example, half the price of a ticket to Highbury is unaffordable for people in Burnley. Therefore, Burnley has a congenital defect in the area of ticket revenue.

And the TV broadcast fee, in the 21st century, the biggest is the Champions Cup. But it's hard to get into the Champions Cup without investment, and there are a lot of strong clubs in the Premier League. Needless to say, Manchester United and Arsenal are also on the rise, and Liverpool are the traditional giants. And at the turn of the century, there will be the glory of Leeds United, Newcastle United, and Tottenham Hotspur are all strong teams. If you want to break through it, you have to invest more.

The sponsorship fee is closely related to the team's performance, and these are all required money. But what Burnley lacks most is money, and since they can't invest more money in the transfer market, they have to find another way.

George had his own plans for Burnley's future when he became part of Burnley's coaching team six years ago. Burnley cannot rely on the board's investment if it wants to continue to grow. There needs to be a healthy path, and after discussing it with Carl Pat, George and Carl Pat felt that developing their own youth path was the most important thing.

So George put most of the remaining £4.39 million into improving Burnley's academy facilities. Of course, it also includes improving the scouting network and not limiting the selection of talent to Burnley. Burnley are so small that there is not much room for selection.

"Wilkinson, even in the first team now I don't have more than four million pounds. You can't afford to waste that money. "George first consulted with Carl Pat and then with the board. In particular, consult with Kilby.

Kilby doesn't quite agree, Kilby thinks it's better to invest in youth training than to use that money to buy more quality players. In Kilby's mind, staying in the first division is the most important thing, as for what academy, the effect is too slow.

But at George's insistence, Kilby could only agree. After all, most of the money came from George's sale of Poboski and Darren Hakby. George then approached Burnley's youth director, Wilkinson.

Wilkinson hasn't been a first-team coach since he arrived at Burnley. They both served in the youth team and worked with George Levy's father, Levy Sr., for many years. He is also more than 20 years older than George, having been with the club for almost 30 years.

Previously, George had been the head of the youth team and had a high regard for Carl Pat. But there is still a lot of respect for Wilkinson.

"George, you did what your father always wanted to do." Wilkinson was only fifty-one years old, but his face was already wrinkled and he looked like he was in his sixties. Looking at George's gaze was very kind. "We at Burnley are small clubs and can only go the path of self-sufficiency. Developing the Academy is the right thing to do. ”

'I know my father's biggest wish was for Burnley's Academy to produce more players for the first team. Speaking of old Levy, George looked gloomy. When he came to this strange country, George was also very hesitant for a while.

But the constant care and support of the elder Levy allowed George to get through his initial time. Levy Sr. has dreamed of being at Burnley club all his life and wants to see Burnley return to the top flight.

"If you see what you're doing now, your father will be proud of you."

…………

Soon Burnley invested £4 million, first improving the training base. Burnley's original training base was very rudimentary, but four training grounds were added at a time, allowing Burnley to have their own training grounds for all ages.

Then large trees were planted around the training ground, so that the training ground was surrounded by trees.

Burnley was originally a small town, and the environment was already very good. Especially compared to those big industrial cities, Burnley's environment couldn't be better. This time it has changed, and the whole Burnley club feels like it is in an isolated island garden.

Burnley then hired several scouts, including those from England and some from continental Europe. This is to increase the club's selection base across Europe.

Compared to killing all sides in the transfer market, this kind of improvement of the club's training base has not attracted much attention. Even Burnley's local fans don't pay attention to this.

George made the surprising decision in his second year as Burnley manager to improve Burnley's training base and strengthen the Burnley Academy with the proceeds from the sale of Poboski. This seemingly very simple action was not taken seriously by anyone at the time, not even the reporters who followed the Burnley club. But it wasn't until a decade later that it became clear that George had laid the most solid foundation for Burnley's development. ― Steven Yellen in Tales from a Small Town.