Rebirth 1994: Football Situation

Chapter 553 Newcastle
On the tenth day after the working group led by Xu Bream set off, the team led by Pei Wei also set off. After some twists and turns on the road, they arrived in Soho, London where the FA is located.

It can be seen that Xu Bream and the FA had a good communication with the FA in the early stage. After contacting the FA, Pei Wei and his party immediately received warm hospitality. The John Bulls did not show their unique arrogance and arrogance. Being arrogant and unreasonable, he treated them with the most gentlemanly attitude, especially showing all kinds of enthusiasm for Pei Wei who led the team, which made Pei Wei feel a little strange.

It was only later that Pei Wei learned that the FA also attached great importance to the collective visit of the Chinese Football Association to learn from the experience. The birthplace of football, the birthplace of ancient football, China, is also a very face-saving thing. How can the FA, which is so successful, feel proud of itself.

As for Pei Wei, he is more enthusiastic because of his status as a FIFA executive committee member. He has no influence in FIFA FA. The only member of the FIFA executive committee list is Will David, an Englishman, and this The co-chairman of the FIFA referee committee and the legal affairs committee is still a Scot. We all know that the relationship between the Scots and the English has never been good, so the FA also hopes to have a relationship with Pei Wei, the FIFA executive committee member. On the point of friendship, "There are people in the DPRK and China who are easy to talk to" are not only known to Chinese people.

However, after getting in touch with Xu Bing and the others, Pei Wei found that he had become an insignificant person—the new blood in the league department were constantly flipping through the materials and learning the operation mode of the Premier League, while the foreign affairs team led by Xu Bing The members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs used their expertise in diplomacy to fight fiercely with the officials of the FA. There were nearly 20 people in the two groups, and only Pei Wei had nothing to do.

"Old Xu, I can't go on like this..." One night, Pei Wei said to Xu Bing depressedly: "If this goes on, I will doubt whether I still have the value of living."

"Well, judging from the current situation, you are indeed the most boring person in our delegation." Xu Bing said seriously.

"Damn, even you hit me!" Pei Wei said angrily, "No, I have to find something to do...Don't tell me that I have to act collectively when I come to England this time."

"It's a collective action." Xu Bing said, and then he saw Pei Wei's expression of wanting to kill, and hurriedly continued: "But you are an exception... because you have many friends in the UK, although Professor Wenger and those few None of the international players have returned to London yet, but I don’t think you will have nowhere to go, and you can move freely for the rest of the time.”

"It's more or less the same." Pei Wei's expression relaxed, Xu Bing looked at Pei Wei and couldn't help asking: "Where do you want to go? Be careful, here is no better than in China, there are a lot of hooligans in the UK. "

"It doesn't matter, I won't drill into the alley." Pei Wei said indifferently: "I plan to go to a Premier League club to investigate on the spot. After all, Ling Binghun and the others in the FA are only written data. The level of a player can not only be judged by his statistics, but also by his performance on the field, and the same is true for observing a club."

"That makes sense." Xu Bing nodded: "So which club do you plan to visit? Or how many more?" He didn't ask Pei Wei what method he would use to get the chance to visit Premier League clubs. He believed that Pei Wei had the ability .

"I haven't made up my mind yet, but I don't think it's necessary to visit several clubs, just choose a representative one." Pei Wei replied.

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On August [-], Pei Wei came to Newcastle.

Newcastle, located on the north bank of the Tyne River in the northeast of England, is the political, commercial and cultural center of northern England. The purpose of Pei Wei's coming here is of course Newcastle United, the only local super team.

Although Newcastle is one of the earliest established clubs in the UK and even in Europe (founded in 1881), they can only be regarded as a mid-range team in the modern Premier League, although in the early 90s they won the Premier League No.3 and the Premier League. Runner-up, but after entering the 21st century, they can only hover in the middle. For a long time, even participating in the UEFA Cup has become a luxury, which is quite different from the duo Manchester United and Arsenal that dominated the entire 90s. It is not as big as Chelsea and Liverpool, which have recently started to rise. There is a reason why Pei Wei did not visit the most prestigious Manchester United, nor did he visit Arsenal, which has a close relationship with him.

Newcastle United can be regarded as a relatively special team in the entire Premier League-they do not have a city derby!
In the UK, a country with thousands of teams and nearly a thousand professional teams, it is normal to have more than two professional teams in one city, among which London is the most. In the Premier League alone, they have Arsenal. , Chelsea and Tottenham are three strong teams, and other small and medium-sized teams such as League One and League Two are even more numerous like stars.

And Newcastle, a city with a population of more than 30, has only one professional team, Newcastle United, which is the only one in the British city, and there is no semicolon.

Now it's question time, which team has the most English fans in the Premier League?
Is it Manchester United?No, although they have a considerable number of fans around the world, in England, their influence is not even as good as Manchester City.

Is it Arsenal?No, they don't have as many fans in London as Tottenham.

Is it Liverpool?No, although the Red Army once swept across Europe, their influence was limited to Liverpool.

Is the upstart Chelsea?No, they have the smallest fan base of the three Premier League teams in London.

The answer is this humble Newcastle United team, this team with a magpie as its mascot.

Maybe it's because this team has players who are representative of England like Alan Shearer. This team has the most fans in the whole of Great Britain. The only regret is that this team has both historical background and financial investment. The team has only won four top league championships in England, and the last time they won the top league was in 1927, and it has been 75 years since now.

Compared with England, which has thousands of professional, amateur and regional teams, China has no way to compare in this respect. Although it has more than [-] professional teams, they are basically concentrated in the Northeast, Southwest and Along the coast, even in the central region, only Hubei and Henan have first-tier teams, let alone the vast and sparsely populated Northwest.

That's why Newcastle is more meaningful. How a club can gain a foothold in a city is what Chinese clubs need to learn now.

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Although Li Qiang returned to China to serve as the chairman of the Yunjiatianyu club, the European branch of Yunjiatianyu has not stopped operating. The current director of the European branch is Li Qiang's former deputy. With his contact, Newcastle quickly settled down. Knowing that Pei Wei planned to visit their club, they readily agreed to this request.

At this time, Pei Wei's other identity came into play-he is one of the top [-] personal wealth figures on the Forbes list. Although Newcastle is a very rich team, for their current chairman Sheffield, it is like A person like Pei Wei whose wealth is far above him cannot be offended.

Compared with the former club chairman who single-handedly saved Newcastle from the second tier league, the current honorary chairman of the club, steel magnate Sir John Hall, Sheffield's achievements after taking office are really pitiful. In 98, he succeeded Hall. Since the Jazz became the chairman of the club, Newcastle's performance in the league has gone from bad to worse, from a strong team capable of competing for the championship to a standard mid-range team. Just two runners-up in the FA Cup!

So now Newcastle fans don't like the current chairman very much. More than once they collectively asked the former chairman Sir Hall to come out again, but Sir Hall is old after all, and his son Douglas is not interested in becoming the chairman of the club. Sheffield also held on to power very tightly. Anyway, Lai refused to step down from the position of chairman. If it weren't for the highly respected head coach Robson supporting the club, Newcastle probably wouldn't even have the chance to participate in the UEFA Cup every year.

However, these things have nothing to do with Pei Wei, and Pei Wei is not interested in helping Newcastle rebuild its glory. In his previous life, he did not pay much attention to the Premier League. Luke, Irving in England, Emre in Turkey, but there are very few famous European teams that can play a big role, and they can be regarded as relatively weak.

As a club, to be successful, it is undoubtedly necessary to have the following points - deep heritage, abundant funds, and strong support from fans - these three points are the most basic, and Newcastle does not lack these three points, but it just happens to take Less than the championship - except for Inter Milan, no European giants in the 90s would be so unlucky.

"If it wasn't for the damn labor permit, Newcastle would be a good choice." Looking at Sheffield who greeted him with a smile on his face, Pei Wei thought regretfully in his heart.

PS: Maybe I will go to Wuhan tomorrow. My rhinitis has flared up again, which is very serious. I may go for three days. I will try to update as much as possible today, and I may only keep one chapter per day for those three days.

(End of this chapter)