Mister Legend

Chapter 507 Dream Come True
The first matter was quickly resolved, but the second matter attracted Li Moody's great attention, because Guinness brought him an excellent opportunity to realize his dream.

After nearly a year of investigation and screening, Guinness, who had already let go of most of his brokerage work, led his newly formed small team, and finally found an acquisition target that met their expectations at the end of 2019: England veteran team Coventry Football Club.

Older Premier League fans should have a sense of familiarity with the name here. This team was a participant in the first year of the Premier League, and it has been in England's top league until the turn of the century.It's just that because the results have been at the bottom of the standings, it looks very inconspicuous, and it is difficult to leave a deep impression on everyone.

In 2001, after barely relegation for nine consecutive years, Coventry was relegated to the then League One Division 2013 and later the British Championship. Since then, they have never been able to get even a chance to return to the top league.What's even more frightening is that the team was relegated to the third tier in 50, and was relegated again four years later, becoming a member of the second division. This is their worst performance since the [-]s.

考虑到这支球队在自1883年成立以来的130多年间，获得的荣誉仅有一个足总杯（1986-87赛季）、一个英冠（1966-67赛季）、一个英甲（1963-64赛季）以及一个英国丙级联赛南部赛区（1935-36赛季）这四项冠军荣誉的凄惨程度，人们也不好意思太苛求什么。只是他们从1967年开始就一直跻身顶级联赛的行列中，在那里浮浮沉沉了30多年，还算是有些底蕴的，降入第四级别也确实是有些太说不过去了。

Fortunately, Coventry invited back the team's former coach Mark Robbins in early 2017. This short center forward who came from Manchester United's youth training in the player era, although his coaching resume after retirement was unremarkable, he still led the team. Give the old club enough luck.Coventry, nicknamed the Sky Blue Legion, successfully qualified for the promotion play-offs as the sixth in the league in the 2017-18 season, and counterattacked all the way to win the last promotion seat, breaking a big upset.

And Robbins can be regarded as repaying the debt he owed five years ago. At that time, he brought the team into the relegation circle, and unfortunately fell into the League One in the hands of his successor. This time he won A chance for "redemption".

However, in the next year and a half, the performance of the Coventry team led by Robbins was somewhat disappointing. In the summer of 2019, the thrilling relegation, and now this season is ups and downs in and out of the relegation circle. The executives and fans were very disappointed.

At this time, the owner of the club, Ray Ranson, who was about to turn 60 years old, expressed the idea of ​​selling all the shares in his hand, and the news was obtained by Guinness.

Speaking of the current chairman of Coventry, it is really quite legendary.Born in the youth training of Manchester City in the player era, he worked as a right back and a central back, but he can only be regarded as an unknown person. He has only played 17 top league games in his entire career.Finally, after playing for Newcastle and Reading, he officially retired due to injury in 1995.

However, after taking off his jersey, Ray Ranson's outstanding business talents since childhood helped him become an idol in the football circle.He first accumulated a lot of personal wealth through channels such as insurance investment, football financial transactions, and football technology analysis companies. High-level careers have laid an excellent foundation.

In 2006, when former Aston Villa owner Ellis was looking to sell the club, 46-year-old Ray Ranson was one of the bidders, but ultimately fell through.A year later, when news came out that Manchester City would be sold due to the deep debt crisis, he sharpened his sword and prepared to attack his old club. Unfortunately, his opponent at that time was a local tycoon in the Middle East who was so rich that he didn't know how to spend it. , naturally ended in tragedy.

After that, Lanson contacted Southampton and other teams successively, but there was no follow-up news.From this point of view, his long road to acquiring clubs was really tortuous and difficult.

Fortunately, this British football star quickly changed his plan and played the way of saving the country with curves. In 2008, Lanson first became the executive chairman of Coventry Club, monopolizing the club's administrative power.In the following work, he strengthened his influence within the club step by step, and finally succeeded in winning the support of all Coventry people a year later, and officially became the owner of the Sky Blues.

As for his eligibility to bid for the club, it mainly relies on two points. One is that there is a British consortium behind him in terms of funds as support, and the other is that he himself does have extremely strong management capabilities. At the beginning of 2009, both Liverpool and Newcastle had intended to hire him as the team's CEO, which can prove Lanson's strength from the side.

It's just that due to many reasons, after he took charge of the Coventry club, the performance of this veteran team has never shown signs of improvement.The most important thing is that the club's finances are also affected by many factors such as performance, attention, TV broadcast fees, etc., and some problems have appeared.

This situation made Lan Leisen, who wanted to prove himself as the chairman of a club more than ten years ago, feel a little disheartened. The idea of ​​leaving first appeared in the mind of the 59-year-old man .Just considering the thanks to the club accumulated over the years and the reluctance to part with the sport of football, it still didn't make Leisen make an immediate decision to sell the shares. He is still in a state of hesitation.

And this is the opportunity that Li Modi finally waited for.

Although Coventry's current situation is a bit bad, the club's fan base is still relatively good. After all, the city it belongs to is also an important town in the British Isles, and its history is also very long.And in terms of economy (because it is a famous automobile and electronic equipment manufacturing center in the UK, per capita wages and consumption levels are at the middle and upper reaches of the country) and geographical location (located in the center of England, not far from major cities such as London and Liverpool) Even if it is far away, it is the transportation hub of this country), and it also has many advantages.

In addition, although the area of ​​Coventry's urban area is less than 100 square kilometers and the population is less than 40, the number of residents in his area is not low, and there is no competition from other traditional giants (the biggest enemy is nothing but Aston Villa and Leicester City), considering the proportion of British fans and the tradition of supporting the hometown team, there is still huge potential to be tapped in terms of club support.

Of course, the most important thing is that the overall valuation of the club is not high because this team has been playing in the third or even fourth-level professional leagues for years. If you subtract bank loans and some other liabilities, it is normal. The market value is less than 700 million pounds, which is very cheap.

You must know that in the summer of 2017, a Chinese company named 5U Sports (the legal person is a Hong Kong businessman who has operated many Premier League stars to go to China for business activities, and the rest of the information is not easy to find), acquired the famous The little-known League One team Northampton Club spent about 2500 million pounds (of which about 1100 million was used to repay the original debt).When Fosun Group acquired the Wolves in 2016, it paid 4500 million pounds to succeed.

Coventry, which is more famous and has a higher historical status than those two teams, is so cheap. How can this not make Li Mudi and others excited.

Although the final transaction price must be much higher than the estimated price, according to the calculations of Guinness and others, even if the debt part is included, 1500-1700 million pounds should be able to make this old football team established in 1883 The team as a whole took it down.Of course, if part or all of the ownership of the team's home stadium, Ricoh Stadium, is added, the cost may rise to more than 3000 million, but it is still within Li Moody's ability to bear.

As mentioned before, our protagonist is really a small rich man now. He has successively won the European League, UEFA Super Cup, Italian Super Cup, Coppa Italia and Serie A. After being able to win honors in all aspects, Li Mudi's status in China has been promoted to a historical superstar, leaving the previous Dayao, Liu Feiren and Sister Na far behind.

In the two years between 2017 and 2018 alone, he earned more than 6000 million euros in business income from more than a dozen endorsement manufacturers, which can be called a humanoid money printing machine.Counting the previous savings and the salary provided by the team, his current net worth is as high as 8300 million euros, which surprises him from time to time.

Judging from Li Moody's current age of 36 and his ability in coaching, this number will almost certainly continue to rise in the next 20 years, so now he is fully capable of paying the bill for his dream.

But now it seems that the price may be a bit high, but Li Modi, who was born as an otaku, never loses money on such matters that cost more than 1000 yuan at a time. He is very optimistic about the "money scene" of running the club. Confidence is naturally his plug-in.

Although in England's lower leagues (League One and below), the team's economic situation is still very miserable. According to authoritative media statistics, the average annual revenue of League One and League Two clubs is only about 500 million pounds, which is not as good as Sky Sports The broadcast fee paid to the Premier League giants for a game is high.

But as long as they are promoted to the British Championship, the team's income will increase by at least four times, and if they are promoted to the Premier League, 6000 million pounds is guaranteed, not to mention the huge income of Manchester United and other giants of more than 2.5 million pounds.

As for the improvement of the team's performance, Li Moody still has enough confidence with the help of the FM system.Even if you don't know how to coach yourself, as long as you find excellent players and match them with reliable managers and head coaches, why not worry about your performance.

And it’s time to use scouting tools at the end of the year. He can put the main scouting target on the Coventry club and make future transfer plans in advance. It can quickly produce earth-shaking changes.

After confirming that this goal was worth working hard for, Guinez began to call other friends. Hierro, Raul, Morientes and others soon arrived in Mallorca.A group of Real Madrid celebrities first came to the farm to visit the two elders and the pregnant Lin Yuner, and after enjoying a sumptuous meal of Chinese food, they went to the nearest hotel together.

The next day, other members of their special group, such as professionals in finance and negotiation, also arrived one after another.Everyone studied together in the hotel for two full days, finally decided on various plans and countermeasures, and then dispersed separately, entering the working state within the scope of their own responsibility.

Of course, the follow-up has nothing to do with Li Mudi. Apart from providing the greatest financial support, his main task is to accompany his family, especially his wife who is about to give birth.At this critical moment, he was assigned a very simple job, and he probably didn't have the heart to deal with it, so he became a hands-off shopkeeper again, staying at home and waiting for the good news from his friends.

In the end, after five months of difficult negotiations, there were several times when the talks were on the verge of collapse, but all of them were satisfactorily resolved without any risk.Their group of Real Madrid celebrities reached an agreement with the owner of the Coventry club, Lan Leisen, and obtained 1750% of the equity and 100% of the old England team from the latter at a price of 50 million pounds. The right to use the Ricoh Stadium and bear the 25 million debts that the Sky Blues will need to repay to the bank within 1500 years in the future.

After that, they reached an agreement with the Coventry City Council to acquire 500% of the right to use the Ricoh Stadium for 40 million pounds. As for the remaining 10%, it must be held by the council and will never be sold.But even so, the new owner of the club has also obtained full rights to dispose of the stadium. Whether it is replacing the turf or expanding the seats, they can make completely independent decisions.What's even better is that they are allowed to carry out major renovations or even rebuilding of the stadium when the conditions are right, which is of great benefit to the club's future match day income.

As for the position, the largest shareholder, Li Modi, did not personally stand at the front desk. They first set up an investment company, and the legal person was handed over to his cousin.The latter had previously acted as the chairman of the Northern Xinjiang Volcanic Spring for his cousin, and this time he played the role of "Shadow Warrior" again, so that Li Moody would not be on the cusp of the storm, and the days to come would not stop.Of course, the inside story of this situation cannot be concealed from the investigation of those who are interested, but at least it can be regarded as a kind of protection on the surface, which is better than nothing.

In addition to this irrelevant chairman, the position of football director is held by Hierro; Morientes has become the head coach of the club's U23 team, mainly responsible for the cultivation of echelon talents; as for the team's head coach, Raul is currently His coaching experience is still obviously insufficient. Even in England's third-tier league, he now needs to accumulate for a while.So he took the position of "Prince Crown Prince" as an assistant coach of the first team, and studied with the newly appointed head coach Warren Joyce (former coach of Manchester United U18, reserve team and Belgium Antwerp team), One side is always ready to replace it.

However, these are all things that happened at the turn of the spring and summer of 2020. Before that, many very important events happened to Li Mudi and the entire European football world, and it is worth describing in detail.

(End of this chapter)