When everyone mentions the English Academy, there must be one club that cannot be escaped, and that is Southampton, the Centennial Saints.

To say that England's youth training丨Manchester United, West Ham United, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough, Arsenal and other teams have always been good, but Southampton is undoubtedly the most famous among all English teams.

But at the moment this England academy team! The flag teams are facing a serious debt crisis, not only having been relegated from the Championship to League One last season, but have been forced to file for bankruptcy protection since April, and they have been deducted 10 league points in League One for the new season

With the current situation in Southampton, the hope of returning to the Championship in the new season can be said to be very, very slim.

Matthew Le Tissier, the god of Southampton fans, although his status in international football and English football is not as good as that of England legend Alan Shearer, who also came from Southampton, he is the greatest player in the club's history in the hearts of all Saints fans, because he only played for Southampton in his career.

He and Bergkamp are the only two players who have scored two goals at the same time and have been selected as one of the top ten goals in Premier League history, and even as an attacking midfielder, in the minds of a considerable number of fans, he is better than the well-known Gascoigne, but he has played for Southampton all his life, so he is not as famous as Gascoigne.

As the club's legendary superstar, Le Tissier did everything he could to get around the city when the club was relegated to League One and was on the verge of bankruptcy, raising half a million pounds to ease the salaries of the club's staff and players, and at the same time he decided to form a consortium to buy Southampton, a move that was supported and affirmed by all Saints fans.

However, a huge sum of at least £25 million is needed to complete the acquisition

Twenty-five million pounds, perhaps, is not worth much for some of the super-rich, but for Le Tissier, it is simply not something he can afford, so in the past few months, he has been running around the city, attracting many local tycoons to join his consortium, hoping to get their financial backing, buy Southampton and save the saints.

As the clock ticked into July, as the team sold off one by one by the Board of Trustees, and as the team fell apart, Le Tissier was helpless because he had not raised enough money to buy the club, even until now.

Just when he felt helpless, Le Tissier received a phone call from London on the other side of the phone from Tottenham Hotspur chief executive Peter Kenyon, who was invited by the Manchester man to come to London

For this north London powerhouse who just took Luke Shaw from Southampton, Le Tissier is full of affection, he used to play as a delicate player, so he likes Tottenham Hotspur very much, who also admires the school of skill, but what is this team asking for now?

With such a doubt, Le Tissier still drove 80 kilometers to London, but to his surprise, in addition to the expected Tottenham Hotspur CEO Peter Kenyon, there was also a person he couldn't even imagine, Ye Qiu

Although Le Tissier is not one of those young entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley who has dreams, carries a thick plan and a book, and always feels that he has never met talents, he still feels a little nervous when he sees Ye Qiu, because he is a football coach himself, and he knows very well that Ye Qiu plays a pivotal role in the current world of football

The place where the two sides met was not public, but deliberately chose to meet in a relatively private hotel, avoiding all reporters and media, which also made Le Tissier full of doubts about what Ye Qiu and Peter Kenyon wanted.

"I've heard you've been raising money lately to buy Southampton?" Ye Qiu was as direct as ever, straight to the point, as soon as Le Tissier sat down and ordered a cup of coffee, he directly asked the purpose of his appointment with him.

From the time Le Tissier decided to go north, his mood seemed very uneasy, and now when he heard Ye Qiu say this, his uneasy mood is even more obvious, because he always has a premonition that Ye Qiu and Tottenham Hotspur have ambitions for Southampton.

"Don't be nervous, Mr. Letissier, I just want to know what you think" Ye Qiu saw Letissier's uneasiness and said with a smile.

Letisier stared at Ye Qiu a few times, he really admired Ye Qiu and his football, but it was related to Southampton, so he said to Ye Qiu very solemnly, almost word by word, "I will not betray Southampton"

After Ye Qiu heard this, he glanced at Peter Kenyon, and both of them laughed.

"I think you're mistaken, Mr. Leticier," Peter Kenyon explained for Ye Qiu with a smile, "We are the owners of Tottenham Hotspur, according to the rules, we can't buy Southampton again, even if this team is now in League One, but whether it's in the FA or in the Premier League, it's completely out of order, you know"

Le Tissier only remembered at this time that the FA and the Premier League do have such regulations, of course, this is mainly reflected in the holdings, but if it is shareholding, it is not a big problem, because there are quite a lot of investment companies that hold shares in multiple English football clubs at the same time, but they are not very many

"And what are you asking me to come for?" Le Tissier's tone slowed down a little, and he felt that he was too careful.

Ye Qiu smiled slightly, "I want to fully support your consortium to acquire Southampton"

"What?" Letissier was taken aback, "Full support for me? ”

Maybe this is a completely unreasonable thing in his opinion, but looking at Ye Qiu and Peter Kenyon's expressions again, they don't seem to be joking at all, but are very serious and sure.

Ye Qiu learned about the current situation in Southampton from the mouth of Peter de Visser, who got some inside information when he poached Luke Shaw, such as the current financial crisis and bankruptcy protection in Southampton, and the only thing that is currently interesting to Southampton is the consortium formed by Le Tissier, but the problem is that they simply cannot raise enough funds to buy the team.

In Ye Qiu's view, the biggest value of this team is that they have a very complete youth training system that is consistent from the first team to the youth team, and because they are in the south of England, the FA made an exception to allow Southampton to establish a satellite base in Cardiff, Wales.

That's why Gareth Bale was able to get into Southampton, which has long been seen by many Welsh players as a springboard to the English league.

After being surprised, Letisier quickly came to his senses, shook his head and smiled bitterly: "I don't really understand what you mean, Mr. Ye Qiu, I said that I would not betray Southampton"

"I never said I wanted you to betray Southampton," Ye Qiu also said with a smile.

"Then you just said that you want to fully support my acquisition of Southampton?" Le Tissier was a little puzzled.

Peter Kenyon took the initiative to speak again at this time, after all, there are many things Ye Qiu is indeed inconvenient to say, "What Mr. Ye Qiu means is that we strongly support your acquisition of Southampton financially, we know that you lack funds, and we can provide you with sufficient funds, not only to acquire Southampton, but also to renovate Southampton's youth camp, and to provide the best and best training equipment and technical personnel support."

Money is a huge temptation, but Tottenham Hotspur provides the best and best training equipment and technical staff support, and this is also a huge temptation, because the whole world now knows that Tottenham Hotspur's Theobald training base is the best and most advanced training base in the world, and almost all teams want their support.

But across the world, with the exception of Ajax, who have a partnership with Tottenham Hotspur, and Brazil's Santos, it has always been difficult for any other team to share their scouting intelligence and training skills from Tottenham Hotspur.

It can be said that Tottenham Hotspur gave these two big chips that Southampton could not refuse.

Because, after the team fell into a financial crisis, Southampton's scouting system is close to collapse, and most of the scouts have been scattered, because no one wants to guard this team that can't even pay salaries, so the current Southampton academy has almost no future.

However, if they can get strong support from Tottenham Hotspur, then they will be able to get out of this adversity very quickly, not only financially, but also in terms of training equipment, training skills and human resources.

"I don't really understand, what's in it for you to do this?" Letisier is not stupid, no profit can not be early, although he does not understand this Chinese, but the meaning is very clear to him, Ye Qiu will do things that are not profitable?

Peter Kenyon smiled, "It's very simple, you know that we have partnerships with Ajax and Santos, we have invested in these two teams, we have a certain stake in them, but they are not well known to the outside world, and we share the results of the academy and scouting information with them.

Le Tissier understood, "You want Southampton to be Tottenham Hotspur's star-making factory?"

As the most famous youth club in England, Southampton has dispersed talents, but with the fame and strength of this club, only with sufficient financial support, there may not be no possibility of regrouping in a short period of time, and if the Saints can be revived, then for Tottenham Hotspur, having such a youth club as a talent reserve center will inevitably ensure that Tottenham Hotspur will always maintain a personnel supply chain in the future.

All big teams actually have their own talent supply chain, just like Manchester United, they have more than a dozen partner teams all over the world to ensure that they have an endless supply of talent, and Arsenal is no different.

Tottenham Hotspur has acquired Ajax and Santos, two major talent processing centers, and the talent pool is not strong, but they still want to continue to further strengthen their talent advantage, because professional football, to put it bluntly, is talent, that is, who can get a better supply of talent.

"It can be said that Peter Kenyon did not hide it at all, because everyone is a smart person, sometimes the more you hide it, the easier it is to be disgusted by the other party, but you say your intentions straight to the point, accept it if you can accept it, refuse it if you can't accept it, and it will be easier for everyone to talk.

"We want to inject capital into your consortium and have you as the chairman of the consortium to buy Southampton, and we believe that with your influence and appeal in this team, as long as you come up with enough funds to impress the Board of Trustees, the takeover will not be a big problem."

Le Tissier, of course, knew this, "And what do you want?" ”

"At the same time, we hope to establish a modern management model similar to Tottenham Hotspur in Southampton, as well as a more complete and advanced youth training system, and I can invite a famous European manager for Southampton, and strive to help the team return to the Premier League in the shortest possible time."

Ye Qiu said that the head coach is Co Adrianse, the Dutch coach has been more and more unsatisfactory in recent years, although his strength is absolutely not doubtful, but in the past few years due to various reasons have led to various unsatisfactory, successively in Portugal, Ukraine, Qatar and Austria suffered Waterloo, is currently at home.

Ye Qiu has learned about Adrianse's situation with Bobby Harms, and he is convinced that the Dutch manager will be interested in taking over the Saints Southampton, because this is a team that fits his character very well, with a well-established and prolific line of young players, coupled with the poverty caused by the financial crisis, he can build a new team exactly as he wants.

Of course, the premise is that the board of directors gives full support and recognition.

Returning to the Premier League, this is simply a dream event for Le Tissier, since Southampton was relegated, he has been thinking about how to help the team return to the Premier League almost all the time, and judging from Ye Qiu's tone and assumptions, this is not completely impossible.

"How much can you fund?" Le Tissier pondered in his heart for a long time, and finally decided to bow to capital.

Professional football is short of money and can't play anything.

"£20 million, plus some brand new training equipment for the academy and training base"

Letissier calculated in his heart that with the funds he can raise so far, if he adds Ye Qiu's 20 million pounds, it is more than enough to buy Southampton, even if he wants to renovate the training base, it is not a big problem, and if he can continue to raise a little more money in Southampton, the summer transfer may be able to come up with three or five million pounds to bring in reinforcements.

And it must be said that Ye Qiu's sincerity is very great, because the current price offered by the Board of Trustees to Southampton is about 25 million pounds, that is to say, Ye Qiu's sum of money is fully equipped to acquire Southampton, but he only needs 49 shares, which has to be said to be Le Tissier's advantage.

"But I have a request," Ye Qiu, of course, couldn't just let Letisier mess around after taking out the money

"You Say Come and Hear It"

'As I said, I'm going to set up a modern management model in Southampton and at the same time introduce a continental system, and I think you should see that the Premier League style is gradually going continental, which is the trend of the future.

Letissier is no stranger to this, the continentalization of the Premier League began when Ferguson introduced Veron, to the attention of the outside world when Ye Qiu landed at Chelsea, and until the rise of Tottenham Hotspur, which completely sounded the clarion call for the continentalization style of the Premier League and triggered this trend.

"Of course, I can tell you with great certainty that I want you to be the chairman of the team, because I believe that you who have played football for many years and have been trained as a coach for many years after retiring from football all your life must be more eager than anyone else to run this team well, and we can provide you with the talent support you need, such as team management, commercial marketing, scouting and so on."

Letissier had to admit that the chips given by Ye Qiu were indeed difficult for him to refuse, but in spite of this, Southampton will be tied to the Tottenham Hotspur chariot from now on and become the youth training center of Tottenham Hotspur, but from the current point of view, Southampton has almost no choice, unless the fans can accept it bankruptcy.

Because even after more than three months, no rich man has been able to stand up and express his willingness to take over the team.

In recent years, the British economy has been sluggish, and the recent outbreak of the European debt crisis has made the British economy worse, the unemployment rate remains high, Southampton itself is not a big city, there are not many rich people, Southampton is not a giant team in English football, the attraction is not strong, so no one has been willing to take over it.

Ye Qiu is not wronged, on the contrary, his abacus is very shrewd, judging from this transaction, he did suffer a loss, 20 million pounds in exchange for 49 shares, he suffered a big loss, but in the long run, he did not suffer, because he has a long-term youth training center like Southampton, and the stars produced here can be taken by him and Tottenham Hotspur in the future, just this layer of relationship is enough to ensure that he will not suffer.

And it should be noted that if Southampton does have a chance to return to the Premier League in the future, as he said, the team's total assets will rise, and the 49 shares he occupies now of 20 million pounds will be multiplied several times in the future.

"Can you tell us about your head coach?" Le Tissier said the manager is also an important part of a team.

"Co Adrianse," Ye Qiu said with a smile.

This is indeed a very powerful and well-known head coach, especially in the past few years, the Dutch coach has generally been valued and affirmed by the outside world, because the Dutch coach has always paid attention to system construction and tactical literacy, which is very in line with the needs of the modern football tactical system, and is considered to be a representative faction of continentalization.

"Will he come to League One?" Letissier was a little skeptical.

Ye Qiu shrugged his shoulders and said with a smile: "This is my business, I can handle him"

After a pause, he added, "But I wish I could make him the Director of Techniques as well."

Head coach and technical director, this can be regarded as Ye Qiu's trust and affirmation of Co Adrianse, at least he and Bobby Harms know Co Adrianse very well, with the strength of the Dutchman, as long as you give trust and support, he will give you enough rewards, at least he can lay an extremely solid foundation for you, and he is very good at youth training.

When Letissier heard this, he really couldn't think of any reason for him to refuse, the reason was very simple, he needed Ye Qiu's support in both financial and other aspects.