"This is our training base."

Jason McGill took Pan Yi on Wittington Road north of York, introducing Pan Yi as he went.

Pan Yi nodded, then took a bite of the chocolate and didn't say anything.

After he contacted the owner of York City, Jason McGill took him around the city first, and then went to see the relevant facilities of the York City Club, and introduced him along the way, and became a tour guide!

Yorktown is really a great place to visit.

Because of the rich history of the Roman Empire and the Vikings, York has gained a wealth of historical resources, which have greatly boosted the town's tourism.

York Minster, for example, is the largest medieval Gothic church in Europe, with the largest area of stained glass windows in the world and the largest area of gray monotone glass windows in the United Kingdom.

The Yorkshire Museum is one of the most famous museums in the UK, with a collection of precious jewels and artifacts from the Roman, Saxon and Viking eras.

The Cleverford Tower, one of the surviving ruins of York Castle, is located on a small hill in the south of the city, and you can climb to the top of the tower by following the spiral staircase in the tower and have a panoramic view of York City.

The National Railway Museum is a must-see for train fans. As the birthplace of railways, the UK's unique "train" culture has always been one of the cultural elements that tourists from other countries around the world compete to taste and explore.

Even here, you can go to Diagon Alley, where Harry Potter once strolled.

This street is one of the best-preserved medieval streets in all of Europe, and of course, it is famous due to the Harry Potter films, as the location of Diagon Alley.

In addition, there are the walls of York, the first windmill in England, and all kinds of interesting castles......

You can also go to the church where Chou Dong got married!

Yes, on 17 January 2015, the day Chelsea played Swansea, Jay Chou was married at Selby Chapel in York, and then the wedding reception was held at Howard Castle in York.

If it weren't for Pan Yi's competition task at that time, he would have come to the scene to take a look.

Of course, what attracts Pan Yi even more is the delicious and fragrant chocolate here – thanks to the town's historic and sophisticated chocolate factories.

Tourists from all over the world come to York to enjoy the ancient buildings and streets, and they all want to taste chocolate here.

Pan Yi is certainly no exception! He is a well-known snack lover.

He was also interested in a specialty tea restaurant called "Betty's Tea Room", which, according to Jason McGill, was very well served with a variety of handmade pastries, butter biscuits, macarons and cakes.

It's just that the business in this store is too good, and there is a long queue at the door of the store early, so Pan Yi can only give up, and buy a few chocolates in the small shop next to satisfy his hunger.

In short, the town of York is really a suitable place to live and live, and it is also the kind that Pan Yi likes.

However, when the two of them walked around York City for a long time and finally came to the main topic to see the training base of York City Club, that strong sense of contrast came out.

Such a good city, but there is no big football club to match!

Let's talk about this training base in front of you......

Although it is not fully equipped, at least it is better than nothing.

Or, to use the description in the FM game: it can be improvised.

This is a strong contrast for Pan Yi, who has just come from a top training base like Chelsea.

It's really nothing.

Of course, this is also a good match for the current infrastructure of York City.

It's not just the training base that's so bad!

If Pan Yi's eyes could display the electronic display screen, the various facilities in York City displayed now should be like this:

Course Condition: Dilapidated.

Underfloor heating system: No.

Canopy: No.

Office facilities: The most basic office facilities.

Level of training facilities: Makeshift training facilities.

Echelon training: improvisation of youth training facilities.

Youth Player Recruitment: Basic youth player recruitment.

……

All in all, very much in line with the level of a team that has repeatedly jumped sideways in the professional and amateur leagues.

And Pan Yi also knows very well that this is why such an English B team can only sell a few million at most.

Stadiums, training grounds, youth training ......

All of them need money!

Why does a club sell for money?

In addition to a team like Manchester United that has a top appeal overseas, there are more factors to consider when selling, and low-level clubs like League One and League Two basically look at the team's hardware and the value of the players.

But what is the value of York's players?

The team's best players are often on loan and are not part of the team's assets in the first place.

And this "most awesome", for example, the highest salary in the team is Zuba, who is on loan from Bournemouth, that is, 2500 per week.

The players in the team who belong to themselves in the contract have the lowest weekly salary of only two or three hundred, which is still after excluding dozens or hundred apprenticeship contracts.

Then if these people take it out and sell it, the theoretical value will not exceed 20 or 300,000 euros at the highest, and the lowest will only be a few thousand yuan.

But the problem is that basically no one will actually pay for a player of this level.

Clubs with money will pay real money to poach people from higher League One or even Championship clubs, and those who don't have money will of course be the same as York City, waiting for free agents to be exempted.

Spend 300,000 to buy a player at the level of an English Two relegation team? Then the uniform team of this club must be crazy!

That's enough to pay three or four "top" players on loan for a year!

Well, the so-called uniform group...... In fact, there won't be a few people.

The chairman is definitely there, and the normal one is the team owner.

And then there's a director, a head coach and an assistant coach, and then there's a couple of coaches for fitness, goalkeepers and academy, and that's pretty complete.

Scouts and team doctors, basically one or two each, it's pretty much the same.

So it's impossible to do something like Manchester United where you can field seven or eight match analysts in a game.

In short, such a club is economical in all aspects, so the value of personnel is almost negligible.

In other words, hardware assets such as training bases and stadiums are the bulk of the valuation of a low-level club.

But, not to mention the stadium, how much does it cost to just be a good training base?

What Pan Yi knows, Chelsea's Cobham training base cost Abu tens of millions of pounds!

For this price, you can buy a Championship or even a Premier League club.

And even if it's a little more ordinary, expand it, upgrade some training facilities, buy some advanced equipment, and millions of dollars will be thrown out.

Not to mention the pitch.

Everyone knows how much Arsene Wenger paid for Arsenal to save a stadium.

In London, where every inch of land is at a premium, buying a piece of land to build a new stadium is a lot of money.

The Emirates Stadium alone cost more than $700 million, not counting the land and other costs.

The exact figure is not available, but the final cost of around £4 billion should be about the same.

This shows how determined Wenger and his board of directors were at the time, and they pushed forward with the new stadium plan at great risk.

But since then, Arsenal have stepped into the pain of repaying the mortgage, and Wenger has been embroiled in endless controversy.

In order to repay the large loans, Arsenal had to start sacrificing the team's strength to sell players in exchange for money.

Arsenal has gradually become a "talent market" for other giants, with Vieira, Thierry, Henry, Galla, Cesc Fabregas, Van Persie, Nasri, Adebayor, Toure and others being sold by Arsenal one after another.

You know, they are the biggest stars of their time, and if they are placed in other teams, they will definitely be treated as cornerstones.

Many of these stars who were sold by Arsenal were even the captains of Arsenal at the time, which shows how "crazy" Arsenal was in order to make money.

Not only that, but while Arsenal is open source, it is also throttling.

Formulating a salary cap and signing contracts for players over 30 years old once a year, such a strict policy has forced away many big-name stars.

Nasri, Toure, Klich, Adebayor and others have all been offered contracts well above Arsenal's salary after leaving Arsenal.

During this period, Arsene Wenger suffered a lot of ridicule and the loss of winning the championship from unbeaten to long-term champions. And these are the "bitter fruits" brought about by his implementation of the new stadium plan.

But is this "suffering" worth it?

Answer: Yes.

After Arsenal finally moved into the Emirates Stadium, their matchday earnings increased dramatically, with at least £55 million of matchday earnings added each season!

This data surpasses that of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Chelsea and other giants.

Moreover, Arsenal have also benefited a lot from the title of the Emirates Stadium.

And all of this is obviously due to the new stadium.

The Emirates Stadium has begun to become a stable "cash cow" for Arsenal, and the £20 million in principal and interest that needs to be repaid each year does not look too high, and it will not be difficult for Arsenal to finish.

Now Arsenal have a modern stadium and a healthier finances.

With such a foundation, no matter how the situation changes in the future, Arsenal will be a giant team.

This is the foundation that Wenger and Arsenal sacrificed for more than ten years!

From the perspective of investing in the future, it is clearly worth it.

And from the perspective of Pan Yi as a traverser, the current Arsenal is indeed on the right path, and perhaps a new Premier League title is not far from them......

At this point in time, for Pan Yi, who is interested in acquiring a club, this is certainly a point that needs to be considered in the future.

It's just that the demand for the stadium is not so urgent for the time being.

After all, for an League Two team, the Crescent Stadium, which can accommodate about 10,000 spectators in York City now, is enough.

In the near future, only some renovation of the stadium's infrastructure, such as adding a water removal system to the stadium lawn and improving the quality of the winter grass, can meet the daily use.

And that's probably a few thousand pounds to spend.

"We have very loyal fans." Jason McGill continued, with a bit of pride, "Even when we were playing in the amateur league, we had thousands of fans at every game. ”

Pan Yi nodded.

It's not easy.

This also shows the depth of English football.

No matter what league your team is in, whether the game is won or lost, there are always countless fans cheering it on.

This kind of community-based football culture is really something you can't learn if you want to.

"We have a lot of local fan groups, such as the Harrogate, the Jorvik Reds, the York Nomads, and so on. It's just ......" Jason McGill smiled:

'You know, like a lot of English clubs, a lot of them are football hooligans, so they're banned from the club.

"Of course, there are a lot of big names who are also members of the club. The Archbishop of Yorkshire, for example, is the season ticket holder for our team......"

"When we play at home, the club also produces an official house catalogue called 'City Review' for £3......

"The club's mascot is a lion called the 'Yocki Lion,' who often puts on an antics before the game."

'Our two traditional main rivals are Hull City and Boehly, but it's strange that no fans of any other team see York City as their main rivalry.

"Hull City, for example, the East Yorkshire side fans decided that Leeds United were their main rivals......

Following Jason McGill around the York City Club and listening to him introduce the way, Pan Yi almost knew what to expect from this acquisition.

Overall, it's a typical England low-division team with a fan base but poor infrastructure and a lot of things to improve.

This is a challenge for Pan Yi.

But isn't this a great opportunity for him to play live FM?

Bringing a low-level team into a great team is an absolute sense of achievement.

Moreover, the money earned by buying and selling people is not working for the boss.

It's all self-earned!

In addition to updating the squad and improving the strength of the team, the money earned can also be used to renovate the training base, build a new stadium and so on.

For example, Wenger used the money from the sale of Anelka in exchange for Henry and a Kearney training base;

Then he used all kinds of money from selling the captain in exchange for the Stadium of the Emirates......

And Pan Yi is even better at buying and selling players!

When the time comes, if you make enough money, wouldn't it be beautiful to get a "Pan Yi Stadium" or something like that?

Of course, a team like York City facing all kinds of difficulties will also make the sale price of this club correspondingly low.

After all, it is still unrealistic for Pan Yi to let him spend hundreds of millions of pounds to build a more mature Premier League team.

"Three million pounds, I think it's about the same."

This is Pan Yi's psychological price.

He has also done some market research, such as the top leagues in League Two, with relatively good infrastructure, such as Portsmouth and Burton, which cost tens of millions of pounds or more.

After all, as soon as they are promoted to League One, the value will rise gradually.

However, if it is a team in the middle and lower reaches, because it may fall to the amateur league at any time, not only will there be no room for appreciation, but there is a risk of depreciation, and the price will be much lower.

And York City falls into that category.

Therefore, three or four million, or five or six million at most, is the valuation range of most League Two teams.

And for Pan Yi, the risk of depreciation does not exist for the time being.

As a traverser, he knows York City will not be relegated this season.

Therefore, he only needs to buy the club now, and then become a hands-off manager first, and then it will be too late to slowly operate next season.

It's just that when you think about the fact that you spent 3 million pounds to buy a young player like Lingard who was spurned by Manchester United, and it only costs 3 million pounds to buy an entire League Two club, the difference between this is really amazing.

However, Pan Yi had been planning a bargaining plan for a long time, but when he officially started negotiations with Jason McGill, it seemed that he was suddenly useless.

"Two million pounds. No, if you can take York City FC to the next level, a million pounds will do. ”

Jason McGill looked at Pan Yi's eyes, full of that fan-like expectation.

Or rather, the kind of savior-like look in it!

This time Pan Yi will not be able to fix it.

Is there such a thing as a business?

It's the bottom price, or even selling at a loss.

"You know, most football clubs don't make money." Seeing that Pan Yi was silent, Jason McGill said very sincerely:

"And I know that you didn't buy the club to make money."

"That's why I'm going to extend an invitation to you, and I'm comfortable putting the club in your hands."

"As for the specific acquisition amount...... Really, you just give a symbolic number. ”

This kind of negotiation process seems very unprofessional.

But Pan Yi understands that this is precisely because the old man loves this club deeply.

Perhaps his lifelong wish is to see York City, which he loves so much, become a truly powerful club.

That's why he tentatively chatted with Pan Yi when he met Chelsea in the League Cup.

And today Pan Yiken came over, McGill felt that he was halfway to success, so he must not let this savior run away because of any price problem!

After all, now Pan Yi is the most popular head coach in world football today, and his existence represents the championship!

Although it seems impossible for Pan Yi to personally coach a League Two team, with Pan Yi's fame and connections in European football, it is still a simple matter to make York City a strong and stable team.

It's a lot easier to just go on loan!

Not to mention Chelsea, getting some "swill" that can't play in Hamburg is enough to enjoy - of course, considering the household registration book or something, it is more suitable for Chelsea.

】

And if York City can be promoted to a higher division, such as League One, or even the Championship, the club will be financially well-off and can buy more people.

Is this a buyer...... The whole world knows that Pan Yi's vision of people is very accurate.

The players he fancies, any one of them is worth skyrocketing!

And Pan Yi will of course be more concerned about his own club.

In this way, it is not a dream for York City to become a Premier League club!

In the face of such a vision, what is McGill's own two million, three million?

After all, he's still a York City fan number one in the first place!

Now that he, as a fan, sees an opportunity to regenerate his team, how can he let it go?

"For two million pounds, a wholly-owned acquisition of York City FC." Pan Yi said, "You have paid so much for York City, and I can't let you suffer." ”

For Pan Yi now, two million pounds is really nothing.

His weekly salary is 400,000 yuan, even if taxes are deducted, he can earn it in ten weeks, not to mention that he still has hidden wealth in his hands.

The main reason is that the old man really paid too much affection and real money to Yorktown, and it was a bit reluctant to take advantage of him like this.

As McGill said earlier, running a club is actually unprofitable for the most part, and he doesn't know how much money he has invested in the team over the years, nor how much effort he has put into managing it.

Therefore, Pan Yi paid a small amount of money to buy it, which is really justified.

"But......" McGill wanted to say something.

"But what, is the team still in debt?"

"That'...... Not really. ”

"Then it's decided. Two million pounds, if you don't sell it, I'll leave. ”

"Don't ...... Don't! McGill hurriedly grabbed Pan Yi, "Okay, it's just two million!" We'll sign the contract right away! ”

"By the way, I have one more request." Pan Yi blinked.

"What?" McGill looked nervous, for fear that something else would change.

"After you sell the club to me, you still stay in the team as president and help me manage it." Pan Yi smiled, "I can't find someone who understands team management and is familiar with the local situation in York to help me for a while." ”

"That's no problem! You will be my boss in the future, and I will manage the team well! McGill patted his chest.

This is equivalent to Pan Yi buying a house, and then the original owner rents this house......

The identity conversion was completed in an instant.

Pan Yi nodded, and then he was relieved.

This kind of helped him solve a big problem.

After all, although he suddenly owns an English club, he really can't share too much of his heart here.

Now leading Chelsea to the Premier League and Champions League is his priority!

And if McGill can continue to hold the chairmanship, then he can really be a hands-off shopkeeper, anyway, except for the change of "sovereignty", everything else has not changed.

At least the entire York City club will remain stable, and there will be no changes to the overall development, and it will not affect what should have happened in the original timeline - the main thing is to keep the division first this season.

When he has time to free his hands, Pan Yi can slowly deal with the affairs of York City.

For example, step by step, the staff of the team will be updated, and the level of the uniform team, training team, and medical team will be improved;

For example, let Chelsea form a related club with York City, so as to facilitate the transfer of some talent to York City;

Even Pan Yi is considering letting Scaloni go directly to York City as the head coach next season, which is a good place for leveling, and it can also "support" some of Pan Yi's tactical ideas more directly.

"By the way, there's one more thing." Pan Yi said again.

"You say."

"This deal is still going to be low-key." Pan Yi said, "You can announce to the public that you have sold the club, but it is better not to say that it has been sold to me." Otherwise, some things are not easy to deal with. ”

McGill nodded: "I understand this." Anyway, it's just a mysterious dragon merchant who bought it. Haha......"

The two looked at each other and smiled.

Indeed, the Dragon Merchant is now a very energetic branch of European football.

More recently, there have been rumours that a boss Guo in the Dragon Kingdom is in talks with Championship side Wolves for a possible £45 million purchase price.

And Pan Yi's old club, AC Milan, heard that there is also a businessman surnamed Li who is interested in it and wants to buy it from Berlusconi at a huge cost.

The main thing is that these teams with Chinese backgrounds are often quite mysterious, and sometimes it is impossible to find out who is behind all this.

So if McGill claims that a dragon businessman bought the team and let the original management continue to manage the team, maybe the fans won't have a problem.

Of course, more importantly, if Pan Yi is found to be related to York City, this may have a negative impact on his subsequent actions, such as recruiting people from Chelsea.

Therefore, this way of dealing with it should be the best at present.

At this point, Pan Yi's wholly-owned acquisition of York City Club ended after a simple meeting and talks!

Pan Yi has also officially become the owner of Yorktown!