PS: Chapter 29 of "Jihua".

As the match between Fiorentina and Arsenal is about to start, on the way to Highbury Stadium, Zhuang Mingge and others saw countless fans wearing Arsenal jerseys, and shops on both sides of the street also posted "cannon" patterns symbolizing the Arsenal club.

Highbury Stadium, the home stadium now used by Arsenal FC.

In 1913, Arsenal chairman Henry Norris decided to relocate Arsenal from Branstead to north London, and decided to move the team's home stadium to Highbury.

After two Shijie wars and more than 80 years of ups and downs, and several renovations, the current Highbury Stadium can accommodate 38,500 spectators, which is a relatively "pocket-sized" category in European football.

Zhuang Mingge knew that the small capacity of Highbury Stadium directly caused Arsenal to be unable to catch up with other competitors in terms of ticket revenue, which is why Weishenme Wengening was willing to grit his teeth for several years and not buy big-name stars to build a new stadium.

Although he visited the nearby shopping mall, Zhuang Mingge still arrived at the visiting team's locker room one step ahead of the team.

Zhuang Mingge carefully observed the facilities in the away team's locker room, Zhuang Mingge had heard Kenyon introduce before, in England, the away team's locker room will be much worse than the home team's dressing room. However, the scene that is now unfolding in front of Zhuang Mingge is obviously beyond his imagination: in the away team's locker room, the shower room is only more than 20 square meters, and the arrangement of the shower head is also very crowded; There are only 4 squatting positions in the adjacent bathroom, and there is no shelter between them; In the dressing room next door, there are only rudimentary wooden wardrobes and stools.

…… Let's take a look at the home team's dressing room, which is not even as good as the one at Frankie Stadium.

So, Zhuang Mingge said hello to Hillwood and got the permission of the chairman. Taking advantage of the fact that the whole Arsenal team had not yet arrived at the playing field, Zhuang Mingge slipped to the door of the home team's dressing room and opened the door.

"I'll you, the treatment of the home and away teams is too bad, right?"

The home team's locker room at Highbury Stadium has obviously undergone a careful makeover, not to mention that in the home team's locker room, Zhuang Mingge has seen a lot of humanized design: the floor of the locker room is paved with a geothermal system, which can freely adjust the temperature to maintain the indoor temperature; The place where sports equipment such as jerseys and shoes are placed is also quite reasonable, so that players can feel their own position even if they close their eyes; Each position is also fitted with leather sofa cushions.

In addition, the home team's dressing room is equipped with fresh food, fruit and drinks, and a neatly arranged leisure book and CD player can help the players relax and engage in the game. At the same time, the changing room is equipped with a massage treatment room with 8 treatment beds, a huge spa room with not only a jacuzzi pool, but also a comfortable shower room.

Compared to the Frankie Stadium, which is still owned by the city of Fiorentina, the Highbury Stadium, which is fully owned by the club, has clearly been transformed by the Arsenal people to be more humane, and the dressing room is full of humanity. The Fiorentina dressing room, located at the Stadio Franky, was still used as a match headquarters.

"It seems that even if the Stadio Frankie cannot be taken over by the club, it is necessary to get the right to renovate the stadium as soon as possible, and Fiorentina cannot fall behind other teams in this detail." Zhuang Mingge secretly made up his mind.

It is estimated that the Arsenal players have begun to warm up before the game, because Zhuang Mingge, who stayed in the dressing room, has heard the cheers of the fans in the stadium, so he did not stop in the dressing room of the home team for long, and quickly walked out of the dressing room, followed the signs into the VIP tunnel, and ascended to the main stand of Highbury.

Compared to the majestic Old Trafford, Highbury, which can only accommodate 38,500 spectators, can only be described as small and exquisite, on the one hand, every bit of space here is fully utilized; On the other hand, the potential weakness of limited spatial development also became one of the factors that constrained Arsenal's subsequent development.

……

Looking at the emotional Arsenal fans around him, Zhuang Mingge, who doesn't know much about British football, is really a little incomprehensible, hasn't the game started yet? Why are these England fans so excited? It's a complete over-energy performance - look at the Arsenal players on the pitch who are warming up before the game, doing the most ordinary half-time lap exercises, which can make them excited? Where is this kind of reasoning?

Are they demonstrating to the hundreds of Fiorentina fans who have come from afar? It's possible, but it's a bit of a fuss, isn't it?

Kenyon, who saw Zhuang Mingge's doubts, once again played the role of "answering questions and solving doubts".

"Hehe, boss, do you think we English fans are much more fanatical than the Italian ones?"

"Well, yes, I always thought that fans would only put their enthusiasm into the game after it started, but these England fans seem to have some ......"

"It's a little too fanatical, isn't it? Because the current generation of England fans, their passion is largely in these stars. ”

"Uh, Kenyon, after listening to what you said, why do I think this is similar to the situation in the NBA...... Fan loyalty is focused on the stars rather than the club, and once certain stars leave, the number of fans changes dramatically? ”

"Hehe, you can see it, boss."

"It's really sad that the birthplace of modern football, the current United Kingdom, has been completely eroded by the American business culture." Zhuang Mingge said with emotion.

"What's so sad about it, don't you think that when we develop in Florence, it will be much easier to make money from the British? That's not the Italian lira that is already worthless, it's a real pound! ”

"I always think it's a bit out of place for you to say that as an Englishman......"

……

After warming up before the game, the Arsenal players returned to the dressing room along the tunnel where their head coach Graham had to prepare for the upcoming game.

The Arsenal players who had warmed up naturally gave way to the Fiorentina players who came out of the tunnel, but the shouts of the fans in the stands did not decrease in the slightest, but the slogans they shouted were not to cheer for the away team, but to interfere with the warm-up of Fiorentina in every way and try to affect the state of the away players.

The London police, who were on the verge of a formidable enemy, protected hundreds of Fiorentina fans from afar. This time, the London police, who have learned the hard way, have imposed extremely strict quarantine and restrictions on registered football hooligans; At the same time, their almost stringent qualification checks for British fans watching the game have greatly reduced the probability of rioters mixing in at Highbury Stadium.

As the warm-up of Fiorentina players is over, enthusiastic Arsenal fans will only have to wait a little longer to see the 90 minutes of action at the Highbury Stadium, which will be presented by Fiorentina and Arsenal!