Chapter 490 Changes in Football
Although "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" premiered in the UK, little Gilbert was unable to attend the premiere.
However, this summer, Gilbert Jr. still went to the UK to prepare for the signing ceremony with Arsenal's senior officials.
This year Arsenal once again won the Premier League title with a huge lead in the Premier League, and also won the FA Cup again, achieving a season double.
Unfortunately, the team was eliminated from the Champions League and failed to realize Professor Wenger's Champions League dream.
After the season, Arsenal's senior management officially announced that Hollywood director Gilbert Landrini Jr. would become Arsenal's chairman by virtue of his share advantage.
As soon as the news came out, most Arsenal fans were delighted.
Chelsea next door is owned by the oligarch Abramovich, and our arsenal is not bad, and little Gilbert is also an owner who is not short of money.
Gilbert Jr. had previously promised that if he joined Arsenal, he would provide an annual transfer fee of no less than 200 million pounds. Arsenal fans all want to see what Professor Wenger, who has plenty of transfer money, will do.
On June 18, Gilbert Jr. landed at London International Airport on a private plane. Arsenal's top management arranged for Gilbert to go to a hotel to rest.
On June 19, under the watchful eyes of club directors, club fan representatives, and the full live broadcast of Sky Sports, Gilbert Jr. signed a contract with Arsenal shareholder representatives and took a group photo.
When the two parties exchanged contracts and took photos, the audience burst into warm applause. Arsenal fans' homes and bars immediately burst into cheers and applause to welcome the arrival of the team's new owner.
Subsequently, as the new boss, Gilbert Jr. re-appointed candidates for Arsenal's general manager, sports director and other positions.
In order to avoid the trouble caused by management turmoil to the team, Gilbert Jr. basically did not make a major change in management and retained the original team.
Just replaced the key financial director with their own people, and also arranged a new position, club development director.
This director does not have any specific functions. He usually works with the marketing department to develop the Asian and American markets.
The most important thing is that this position is the spy placed by Gilbert Jr. in the club. It is impossible for him to manage the team himself and put him in such a position where he can report to himself at any time if there is any situation.
Afterwards, Gilbert Jr. spoke to all the fans and promised that he would fulfill everything he said before.
Not only will the team soon have a large and modern stadium, but it will also not reduce investment during the annual transfer period to maintain competitiveness in the Champions League.
The new boss seems very credible, and Arsenal fans are very excited, as if they see a bright future for their team.
The fans of the rival Tottenham Hotspur next door are gritting their teeth. Isn't it because they have changed to a rich boss? What's the air?
Manchester United fans also gritted their teeth and continued to petition, hoping that the Manchester United management would increase investment and not impose restrictions on Sir Alex Ferguson's operations during the transfer period.
Other teams also felt that the Premier League had changed. They quickly dug into their pockets to see how many players there were and increased investment, otherwise they risked falling behind.
Perhaps the Blues and Chelsea fans are one of the few who are relatively calm, because they also exchanged for a boss, who is also not short of money.
Professor Wenger and team captain Vieira also attended the signing ceremony. After the signing ceremony, Gilbert Jr. encouraged Vieira and asked him to appease the core players of the team.
Afterwards, Gilbert Jr. and Wenger chatted behind closed doors for more than an hour, listening to Wenger's plans for the future of the team.
Little Gilbert said to Professor Wenger: "I personally am a patient person and will not rush for results. I hope Professor you can reasonably build a lineup according to your own needs to hit the Champions League."
Professor Wenger understood: "Don't worry, I already have a plan, our youth training players are very good.
The age of the core lineup can still be maintained for a few years. It only needs to be repaired and it will have the strength to compete in the Champions League. "
Little Gilbert said with a smile: "Of course, don't save too much money for me. Those superstars can spend money and try it. If you can't save it, the one who can't save it will be willing to come.
Even if you can't come, you can still help to raise your status and so on. It's fun to help others! "
Professor Wenger was speechless. He didn't expect this new boss to be so sinister. But he liked it because that's what he liked to do.
In the Manchester United head coach's office, Sir Alex Ferguson had just watched Arsenal's signing ceremony broadcast on Sky Sports and lamented that Wenger, his old rival, was finally getting rich.
The assistant said: "It looks like there will be a bloody storm in the transfer market this year!"
"Yes," Ferguson sighed, and then his face tightened: "Hurry up and notify the transfer department to finalize the few transfers I want.
Wenger will definitely take action next. If he intervenes, he will be in trouble. "
"This," the assistant didn't believe it, "it's not that fast, is it?"
"Don't I know him well?" Ferguson urged: "Go quickly, there are a few transfers, you can handle them yourself."
The assistant had no choice but to rush to communicate with the transfer department and speed up at a trot.
After the signing ceremony, because the players all went on vacation during the offseason, Gilbert Jr. did not see the players. However, he still visited Colney, the team's training base, accompanied by Arsenal executives.
"The Colney training base was planned and built by Professor Wenger himself. There are ten standard football pitches in total, and the standards are exactly the same as Highbury Stadium. Each pitch has an automatic irrigation system and drainage facilities to ensure the growth of turf. The two pitches used for first-team training also have geothermal systems, which ensure the quality of the turf even in winter.”
Steve Braddock, the head of the training base, introduced the base to little Gilbert, his words full of pride.
He can say that the Colney training base is the best training base in the Premier League, and even Manchester United cannot catch up.
Needless to say about Chelsea, after Abramovich took over, he disliked Chelsea's training base as being sloppy and asked people to quickly renovate the training base.
Little Gilbert doesn't understand football or training-related content, but he is quite comfortable looking at the beautiful Kearney training base.
Little Gilbert then visited the office building of the training base, which has 6 rooms that can be changed in size, a sauna, a swimming pool with adjustable depth, gym, treatment room, massage room and restaurant.
In addition to players and coaches, there are 2 full-time gardeners, 10 ground staff, 4 nutritionists, 3 building administrators, coaching assistants and youth team assistants serving the base.
Before the birth of the Colney base, the team could only occupy the grounds of the University of London Students' Union, which has hosted Arsenal's training since 1961.
Prior to this, Arsenal players could only use Highbury Stadium for training.
In the years before the decision-makers renovated the old stadium, they could only train with weights running along the coal dust-covered path between the stadium and the subway station.
Professor Wenger played an extremely important role in the development project of the training base.
In fact, the planning and design of this building was almost entirely handled by Wenger and his think tank.
The coaching team led by Gary Levine has been able to use this venue with ease to meet the needs of important training subjects.
The fitness coach Tony Corbett maintains close contact with the British Physical Recovery Association, and his gym has all the equipment to help players maintain the best physical condition.
Today's Kearney training base may not be as good as La Masia and Valdebebas, but it is also the most modern and advanced training ground in Europe.
When little Gilbert was wandering around the Kearney training base, the outside world had already made quite a noise due to the completion of the signing ceremony.
The entire European football world has long known that Gilbert Jr. is going to take over Arsenal. It only took more than half a year from the scandal at the end of last year to the completion of the signing.
This makes people have to lament the efficiency of little Gilbert, which is very fast.
The Football Association quickly welcomed Gilbert Jr. and welcomed him to the Premier League family. Prince Charles also welcomed little Gilbert to participate in the great sport of football as a team owner.
However, Prince Charles had some grievances. He originally encouraged Gilbert Jr. to acquire Burnley, but Gilbert didn't listen to his deception.
If Gilbert Jr. acquires Burnley, then Burnley will receive sufficient financial support and can have a very helpful development.
The media also covered the signing ceremony on a large scale, and football experts analyzed the future pattern of football.
With the entrance of Gilbert Jr. and Abramovich, the future of football seems to be heading towards a golden era.
To this end, a reporter from The Guardian interviewed Sir Alex Ferguson, the head coach of Manchester United. Sir Alex was very disdainful of this kind of money-burning behavior.
"Football is a competitive sport, not a money game..." Jazz left this sentence angrily and turned around to leave.
After Professor Wenger learned about it, he said to his assistant: "Alex is jealous of me. Go and inquire about Manchester United's recent transfer actions."
The assistant asked: "Are we going to rob someone?"
"Can I like what Alex likes?" Professor Wenger said unforgivingly: "I'll raise the price for him. Since he wants it, he has to spend money!"
The assistant was speechless. Wenger and Ferguson actually have a good relationship. The two are also red wine collectors and enthusiasts. When Professor Wenger celebrated his birthday last time, Ferguson gave Wenger a bottle of red wine from his collection.
But when it comes to football, the two are like old enemies and neither gives in to the other.
It is conceivable that Professor Wenger's behavior this time will definitely make Ferguson curse again.
In addition to the attention of the British media and local British fans, other European league media and fans are also paying attention to Arsenal's changes this time.
The Spanish media were cynical about their British counterparts, thinking that it was not a good thing for an American director who did not understand football to take over Arsenal.
However, after hearing that Arsenal's transfer fee exceeded 200 million pounds, the Spanish media could only be envious and jealous.
The Italian sports media are very objective. Major media outlets such as Tuttosport and Milan have made objective analyzes of the future of European football.
In short, the landscape of British and European football has changed.
(End of chapter)