coach legend

Chapter 37
Apart from leading the team for some warm-up matches during this period, George spent the rest of the time on the other side.

This year Burnley sold seven people for a total of 530 million pounds, plus the 50 pounds invested by the club, the amount George can control reached 580 million pounds.

And George spent only 140 million pounds in the summer transfer, leaving 430 million pounds.George has not moved the money, and of course George has never thought about handing over the money to the Burnley board of directors.

The people on Burnley's board of directors are all people who have an eye for money.And none of them have the slightest sense of crisis, and they can't see the rapid development of modern football at all.

For this money, George has a very important use.

George and Karl Pat have discussed many times, even if Burnley is promoted to the Super League in the future, Burnley's competitiveness is limited.Several major shareholders of Burnley have limited funds and are not rich like Abramovich.

And they are all iron cocks, it is impossible to spend a lot of money.Therefore, it is impossible for the Burnley board of directors to spend tens of millions of pounds in transfer funds a year, and it can even be said that it is very difficult to even get 500 million pounds a year. 500 million pounds, placed in the English League One and League Two, is a very huge amount of money.But putting this amount of money in the Premier League, it is simply impossible to get it out.

If it was still possible in the past few years, then with the implementation of the Bosman Act, the Premier League will become the league with the most money-burning.With the arrival of Abramovich in the future, the investment of the Premier League team will become even crazier, and it will be difficult for Burnley to stand up.

Even if George comes from later generations, he has a clear understanding of the future development of football.But at most, it can only be to find some unknown players. In the 90s when the information was not very developed, it was okay in the early 21st century.But once the 06 World Cup has passed, those young stars who have a little bit of strength will be targeted by major clubs.It is impossible to sign without financial resources.

There are many aspects of a club's income, the most important are three aspects.Ticket revenue, TV broadcast fees, and the last one is sponsorship fees.

First of all, Burnley cannot compare with big clubs in terms of ticket revenue. In a town with only 8 people, 2 people can go to the scene to watch the game is already very good.The more important thing is that the residents of Burnley City have a very low income, and the entrance fee cannot be too high.People in Burnley can't afford half the price of tickets for Highbury.Therefore, Burnley has inherent defects in terms of ticket revenue.

As for TV broadcast fees, the biggest head of the 21st century is the Champions League.But it is very difficult to enter the Champions League without investing. There are many powerful clubs in the Premier League.Needless to say, Manchester United and Arsenal, Chelsea are also on the rise, and Liverpool is a traditional giant.And at the turn of the century, there will be the glory of Leeds United, Newcastle United, and Tottenham Hotspur are all strong teams.To break through, it is necessary to increase investment.

Sponsorship fees are closely related to the team's record, all of which require money.But what Burnley lacks the most is money. Since they can't invest more money in the transfer market, they can only find another way.

When George became a member of Burnley's coaching team six years ago, he had his own plans for Burnley's future.Burnley cannot rely on investment from the board if they are to continue to grow.It is necessary to take a healthy path. After discussing with George and Karl Pat, they felt that developing their own youth training path was the most important.

So George invested most of the remaining 430 million pounds in the improvement of Burnley's youth training facilities.Of course, it also includes improving the scouting network, and not limiting the selection of talents to Burnley.Burnley is too small, there is not much room for talent selection.

"Wilkinson, I haven't used more than 400 million pounds even for the current first team. You can't waste this money." George first discussed with Karl Pater first, and then discussed with the board of directors.Especially consult with Kilby.

Kilby disagrees. Kilby believes that investing in youth training is better than using that money to buy more capable players.In Kilby's mind, being able to stay in the first division is the most important thing. As for the youth training, the effect is too slow.

But under George's insistence, Kilby could only agree.After all, most of this money is George's transfer income from selling Poborski and Darren Huckabee.After that, George found Wilkinson, Burnley's youth training director.

Wilkinson has never been a first-team coach since he came to Burnley.They are all serving in the youth team, and they are colleagues who have worked together for many years with George Levy's father, Levy Sr.He is also more than 20 years older than George, and has been in the club for nearly 30 years.

George had been the director of the youth team before, and he valued Karl Pat more.But there is still great respect for Wilkinson.

"George, you did what your father always wanted to do." Wilkinson was only 51 years old, but his face was already wrinkled, and he looked like he was in his 60s.Looking at George's eyes is very kind. "We are a small club at Burnley, we can only take the road of self-sufficiency. Developing the youth academy is the right way."

"I know that my father's greatest wish was that Burnley's youth academy could train more players for the first team." Speaking of the old Levy, George looked sad.When he came to this strange country, George was also very hesitant.

But old Levi's constant care and support got George through the first few hours.Old Levy's lifelong dream was in the Burnley club, and he hoped to see Burnley return to the top league.

"If you see your current achievements, your father will be proud of you."

…………

Soon Burnley invested 400 million pounds, first improving the training base.Burnley's original training base was very simple, but four training grounds were added at one time, allowing Burnley to have their own training grounds for all age groups.

Then, big trees were planted around the training ground, so that the training ground was surrounded by trees.

Burnley was originally a small town, and the environment is already very good.Especially compared to those big industrial cities, the environment of Burnley cannot be better.This time, the change made the entire Burnley Club feel like it was in an island garden.

After that, Burnley hired several scouts, including scouts in England and some scouts in continental Europe.This is to increase the club's selection base within Europe.

Compared with killing all parties in the transfer market, this improvement of the club's training base has not attracted much attention.Even the local fans of Burnley did not pay attention to this.

"George made an unexpected decision in the second year of becoming the head coach of Burnley. He used the transfer income from selling Poborski to improve Burnley's training base and strengthen the Burnley youth academy. No one paid attention to this seemingly simple action at the time, even the reporters who followed the Burnley club did not think about it. But it was not until ten years later that people realized that George had laid the most solid foundation for the development of Burnley. foundation." - Steven Yellen in "Small Town Tales."

(End of this chapter)