Football giants

Chapter 362 The future belongs to fake fans!
"Welcome to watch off-site!"

"I'm Charlene Lahiri!"

Charlene Lahiri was wearing a brown knitted sweater, the cuffs were pushed down at the elbow, revealing a bracelet on her left hand. She wore a long blond hair shawl, looking casual and intellectual.

"This is our first program, so the guests we invite are also very important."

"Let's welcome, Southampton boss and my good friend, Yang Huan!"

Yang Huan really couldn't be too enthusiastic towards the empty camera, so he could only sit there and nod with a smile.

"Hello everyone!"

Seeing him like this, Charlene Lahiri smiled and asked, "Are you pretending to be cool?"

"No, I'm nervous!" Yang Huan nodded.

"I've known you for so long, but I rarely see you nervous. Is the camera so scary?"

Yang Huan curled his lips, "People who are not standing in front of the camera don't understand how terrifying the camera is!"

After he finished speaking, he couldn't help laughing himself.

Charlene Lahiri was also smiling.

Compared to Yang Huan, she seemed much more calm when dealing with the camera.

But after such an opening statement, the atmosphere gradually turned to a small chat between the two.

Needless to say, Charlene Lahiri has obviously put in a lot of effort and preparation in this regard. Every word she says is driving Yang Huan, making him relax, and even forget the existence of the camera.

It feels like a face-to-face interview, or even a small chat among friends, rather than talking in front of the camera.

"Although the name of our program is off-site, we can't stop talking about Southampton when you come."

"En!" Yang Huan nodded.

"Anyone who is familiar with football knows that Southampton is the team with the fastest rise and the best momentum in European football in the past two seasons. Especially this season, its performance is very eye-catching. Many people believe that the Saints have such outstanding results. It is all because of their strong capital backing."

Yang Huan shook his head after hearing what she said.

"I know you don't admit it, just say it if you have something to say!" Charlene Lahiri encouraged with a smile.

Yang Huan laughed, "Actually, you can't get paid if you only have money, especially in the professional football circle. You have to understand the operating rules of this industry."

Charlene Lahiri snorted, looked at Yang Huan with a smile, and listened.

"Since the professionalization of football, the industry has become no longer pure."

"En!" Charlene Lahiri still nodded.

"To be professional, you have to support players, coaches, and staff, and you have to be rich!"

Charlene Lahiri still nodded, "Yes, many fans tend to easily overlook this point, they are too emotional."

"Yes!" Yang Huan also nodded.

"In the earliest days, where did the money for professional teams come from? Tickets, revenue from stadiums, and later on with the rise of television broadcasting, professional football began to be promoted rapidly, with more and more fans, advertising, sponsorship, and professional football began to be subtly affected."

"En!" Charlene Lahiri still nodded.

She knew that now she should be a good listener.

"Everything in the world must have pros and cons, pros and cons go hand in hand, you can't just want the good side and not the bad side!"

"When professional football develops to a certain level, with enough influence, capital will look at you, so over the years, more and more capital has entered professional football, started to buy teams, and started to change the way professional football is played."

"So we have seen that in the past so many years, Nottingham Forest, Ajax, and many, many old giants have all fallen. It is because they can't keep up with this new style of play, so they can only be eliminated, because the general trend is like this!"

Charlene Lahiri nodded uncontrollably, "Survival of the fittest, only by advancing with the times can the fittest survive!"

"Yes, many people criticize the current professional football, thinking that being corrupted by money is a kind of retrogression. In fact, I think it is completely unnecessary. The reason is very simple. If you calculate the employee size of the professional team in the past, and then calculate the current team's employees, you will know how different it is from the past."

"The behind-the-scenes team of some top stars can even catch up with all the employees of a professional team in the past, and the club, management, head coach, players, agents, and even all aspects of this industry, and even the entire society, have gained huge benefits from it!"

"In the past, groundskeepers were voluntary labor, but now, every team has at least one or two groundskeepers, and their salaries are quite good. At least it is no problem to support a family, so they are more professional and constantly improving."

"This is the change brought about by capital!"

Charlene Lahiri frowned when she heard that, "Then why do many fans still feel dissatisfied?"

Yang Huan smiled slightly, "First of all, everyone has a different understanding of football. In the eyes of a thousand people, there are a thousand Hamlets. In the eyes of older people, the football they have been accustomed to since childhood is like this. Suddenly one day, it becomes like that. They find it unacceptable and start to criticize!"

"But for some young people, the football they have been exposed to since childhood is like that, and they take it for granted!"

"To give an example, transfer."

"Adam Lallana is the captain of Southampton. Many Saints fans were dissatisfied with his transfer. Some media hyped that we had a problem, but in fact, Adam Lallana often returned to Southampton and contacted us. We have a very good relationship. This is a personal relationship. But from the perspective of the club operator, the price offered by Chelsea is attractive and the players' salaries are generous. We will not just lose Adam Lallana, so we accept it."

"But some fans feel that this is selling the core, selling the team's soul, whatever, and even satirizing the management for not understanding football. These remarks are inherently problematic."

Charlene Lahiri nodded, "Then how do you view the past, present and future, the transformation of professional football?"

Soon, she added, "Stay in the position and position of your club owner!"

"Well, it's not easy for me to say this, and it may not be clear."

Charlene Lahiri smiled, "Then say whatever you want, whatever comes to mind."

"I think professional football is definitely getting better and more prosperous. There is no doubt about it, because more and more capital is pouring into this field. This is proof that if they are not optimistic, they will not come in."

"From the perspective of a football club owner, I would like to say that football itself is no longer the most attractive element for fans."

"why?"

"To give a simple example, the earliest fans fell in love with a team or player by watching the game live. They liked it because of the football game. Later, television and the media came in. The vast majority of fans fell in love with the team or player through TV and the media. But you have to admit that they are more interested in news other than games."

When Charlene Lahiri heard this, she suddenly realized and smiled.

"That's right, they might discuss the scandals of the stars, their hairstyles, or discuss which star is more handsome."

This is also the inside story that almost the vast majority of media are scrambling to dig out.

"Yes, especially with the advent of the Internet age, the speed of information dissemination is getting faster and faster. What fans living in the Internet age need is not a game, but a kind of entertainment, so they may not like watching football games at all, or they may only go to watch football games for their favorite stars."

"Because a football game itself cannot be regarded as a qualified entertainment product, because it will lose. Of course, winning can bring enjoyment and joy to fans, but losing will only make fans feel unhappy and even bring pain."

"So, when fans want to get entertainment from football, their focus will definitely shift from the football game, which requires the emergence of football entertainment products that can meet their needs, so football stars and star teams have emerged as the times require!"

Charlene Lahiri frowned when she heard that, "You mean, these fans don't watch the game to see the win or loss, but just to see the stars and teams they like and follow?"

"Yes!" Yang Huan nodded with certainty.

"Many fans don't even watch football games at all, they just watch the news and watch the results, but can you say they are not fans? Can you say that they don't like football?"

Charlene Lahiri couldn't help but fell into deep thought.

There are very, very many fans who don't watch the game, maybe even more than the fans who follow the game.

"In the final analysis, this is a progressive trend of the times. In the past, if you didn't watch the game live or watch live TV, you couldn't name the star or the team, but now you don't watch the game, you can still know it."

Charlene Lahiri nodded, "What you are talking about may be more fans of the younger generation, that is, fake fans that many old fans call."

Yang Huan smiled slightly, "Fans will always get old. The earliest fans who went to watch the game to support the team must look down on those who watched the live TV broadcast, because you did not support the team, but they always ignore one thing. Fans watch live TV. The TV station pays for the team's broadcast, which is considered support."

"Nowadays, those who watch live TV look down on those fans who don't watch live TV and only watch the news. Is it the same as before? These fake fans in their mouths have not contributed to the team?"

"Furthermore, fans will age, and football is not for any kind of people. It belongs to both old fans and new fans. But in the final analysis, the future belongs to this group of new fans."

"From the standpoint of the team manager, you must have this kind of forward-looking, and you must adapt and satisfy the new fans as much as possible while stabilizing the old fans, because in the near future, they will be the core of your team's supporters, just like they will become the backbone of this era!"

"If anyone in the current professional team abandons these old fans, his future will be the declining giants such as Nottingham Forest and Ajax!"

Charlene Lahiri didn't expect that she would be able to induce Yang Huan to make such a wild story.

He believes that all Southampton fans must be very interested.

Because there are too many things revealed here, some of which are even subversive.

"What you said, plus the controversial prosperity of the Premier League in recent years, I seem to understand, but some don't understand, how do you think of the Premier League? Southampton will also enter the Premier League next season!"

Charlene Lahiri asked with a smile.

"The Premier League has a unique advantage, that is, the loose capital operation space, so the capital likes the Premier League most, and the Premier League is also the best in using the media, and the attention is also the highest. This is very successful."

"But the problems of the Premier League are also obvious. First of all, there are restrictions on the number of foreign players. Star players and star teams form a star league. Your structure must be large enough to attract the best star players in the world, not restrictions."

"Since ancient times, no one can tell what the relationship between the amount of foreign aid and the level of local players is, but if you don't have a big enough structure, then you can't achieve the star league at all."

"Then do you think there is a so-called star league in Europe?"

Yang Huan shook his head, "No, but the Premier League has the most potential!"

"What about the star team?"

"Barcelona and Real Madrid, the only two teams in the world."

"Why?" Charlene Lahiri asked.

(End of this chapter)