Born to be a coach [soccer]

Chapter 281

When Anton started to rebuild the team, Liverpool's new boss Henrik flew to Liverpool several times to discuss with the club's core the club's current financial problems.

As the head coach and an old friend of Henrik, Anton will attend every meeting.Because Henrik needs to hear Anton's opinion.

This is the case with big clubs. Liverpool has a relatively complex governance structure, which is very different from Sunderland when the owner Short had the final say.

Most of the time, Anton would not easily interrupt the meeting.He's the manager of this club, not the chief financial officer.But on some very crucial issues, he must express his views.

For example, on the issue of whether the team should move away from Anfield.

Anfield is a very magical stadium, which has witnessed the birth of two famous Premier League clubs.

In 1884, Anfield Stadium was built, and Everton Football Club was created at the same time.But in 1892, because of the economic dispute between the founders, Everton made up their mind to move away and moved to the nearby Goodison Park Stadium.

After Everton moved away, John Houlding, one of the original founders of Everton, established a new club on the vacated Anfield stadium and named it after the whole city. This is Liverpool football. The origin of the club.This football club was born, rose, and brilliant at Anfield... and it is also gradually dimming here, waiting to be rebuilt.

The problem with Anfield Stadium is: the audience can only accommodate 45000 spectators, which does not meet the club's commercial needs.However, due to the surrounding environment and ownership of property rights, it is very difficult to expand Anfield.So Liverpool Football Club applied to the city government as early as 2004, intending to build a Stanley Park stadium that can accommodate at least 60000 spectators.

Liverpool city government is very cunning, their request is: Liverpool and Everton should share this new stadium.

This thankless decision made fans on both sides explode.

Liverpool fans: There's no way we're going to share the pitch with our rivals!Everton aside.

Everton fans: Come on, the first to flirt is cheap, you are the first to propose the construction of the stadium, okay!

Negotiations to share the stadium collapsed amid fierce opposition from both teams and fans on both sides. In 2006, the city of Liverpool had to pass a plan to allow Liverpool to use the new stadium alone.

But in 2007, "Blood and Bear" entered Liverpool.They all vowed at the beginning that the construction of the stadium is an important task for the club, and they hired a design company to give a design plan.

In June 2008, construction of the new stadium began on a small scale, and then an indefinite suspension of work was announced due to the financial pressure of the club.This hopeless construction situation continued until the autumn of 6 when the team changed hands.

"Blood and two bears" is equivalent to drawing a big pie for Liverpool fans and digging a big hole where the new stadium is located.

After listening to the report on the construction of the stadium, the new owner Henrik weighed the input and output of continuing to build a new stadium.The investor-turned-owner knows it well, but the club's board is still arguing over whether to build a new stadium or rebuild the old one.So Henrik turned to look at Anton: "You are the head coach of the team, what's your opinion?"

Anton had already prepared for this. He cleared his throat and said loudly to the members of the board of directors attending the meeting: "I think everyone knows the fact that 'Anfield' has a bonus to the team's performance!"

Indeed.Anfield has always been known as the "home of the devil", and the visiting team will inevitably feel nervous and restrained.On this stadium, the team performed miracles countless times, shocking the visiting team.Anton's statement that it has a "bonus" to the team's performance is not exaggerating at all.

An elderly member of the board of directors coughed lightly: "Lin, we understand your concerns, but from a commercial point of view, Anfield's existing seats are indeed not enough, and expansion is relatively difficult and costly. You also hope More fans come to the stadium to cheer for the team!"

The director obviously regarded Anton as a young man, and there was even a little contempt in his words.

"Besides, after building a new stadium, we can still name the new stadium 'Anfield'!" The board members laughed together when they heard this.

Anton's eyes narrowed slightly behind the lenses of his black-rimmed glasses.He thought to himself: Old wine in a new bottle, is the old wine still pure old wine?

Will it really continue to be a sacred place for the Red Army if it is demolished and rebuilt at another site, which has accumulated a lot of history?

At this moment Henrik turned his face away and winked at Anton.Anton suddenly remembered that the boss had said before that the reason why he paid a lot of money to buy this "story" football club was precisely because of the club's strong historical accumulation and tradition.

So Anton thought for a while and asked a question: "I remember when the new stadium was under construction, someone mentioned that the new stadium was 'haunted'?"

When this matter was mentioned, the faces of these elderly directors all changed.It was Henrik who asked with great interest, "What's 'haunted'?"

"Haunting" happened in 2008. When Anton was preparing for this board meeting, he read all the news related to the old and new stadiums before he found this "old news".

All the people who witnessed the "haunted" event of the new stadium were designers and construction workers working on the new stadium, not just one person.They all believed they had met the legendary Liverpool coach, Bill Shankly.

According to the person concerned, they saw an old man with gray hair appear strangely.As for what that figure looked like, everyone expressed differently. Some said that they saw the figure wearing a red sportswear, while others said that he was wearing a gray suit jacket—after all, these people saw it from different positions. of this shadow.

But everyone agrees that this old man is not tall, has light gray hair, and his figure is exactly the same as the image left by Shankly.

As we all know, Shankly was obsessed with Anfield during his lifetime. If there is a soul in this world, it seems understandable that Shankly suddenly appeared to prevent his beloved stadium from being demolished.

When Anton asked about this old incident, all the directors turned pale and kept silent.

This topic can only be shelved for the time being without any results.

After the meeting, Henrik turned to Anton: "Anton, my friend, come with me to Anfield for a walk!"

Shankly's influence on the club can be seen everywhere at Anfield.The gate at the entrance to Anfield Stadium is named "Shankly Gate".A statue of Shankly is erected outside the stadium, and engraved with a sentence: "He made us happy."

Anton accompanied Henrik into the silent Anfield Stadium.When Henrik came to the player channel and saw the "This is Anfield" sign, he couldn't help but reach out and stroke it like other players.

Anton smiled and explained from the side: "This is also left by Shankly. He once said that this sentence is to remind the players who they are fighting for, and at the same time warn the opponents who they are fighting. .”

After hearing the supernatural story, Henrik seemed to feel that the sign was a bit hot, so he quickly withdrew his hand, turned to Anton and asked, "What kind of person is my friend, Bill Shankly? The impact seems to be very profound."

Anton thought with a smile, no wonder the entire board of directors was silent when the legendary name was mentioned just now, and never dared to mention the demolition of Anfield and the construction of a new stadium.

"You know Zlatan Ibrahimovic, my former player!" Anton explained to Henrik.

Henrik smiled immediately when he heard Ibrahimovic's name, and said, "That's the one who always calls himself 'God'!"

Anton also laughed: "Although Zlatan is arrogant, if he is in front of Shankly, he may not even be able to match Shankly's arrogance."

Henrik immediately became interested: "Tell me."

Anton said: "You know that Merseyside has two very good teams at the same time, one is Liverpool and the other is Everton?"

As the owner of Liverpool, Henrik naturally knows this.

"Shankly said, 'When I was working at Anfield I always said we had two of the best teams in Merseyside - Liverpool and the Liverpool reserves.'"

——See Shankly's "madness".

As soon as Anton finished speaking, Henrik couldn't help clapping his hands and laughing.

"There is another story," Anton added, "that once there was an English player named Alan Ball who joined Everton Football Club..."

Henrik stopped laughing, not knowing what Anton meant by saying that.

Anton continued: "So Shankly reassured him and said, 'It's okay, Alan, at least you can play next door to a great team.'"

Henrik: ...hahahahaha.

What else could he have said other than hahaha?

Anton did not laugh with the boss. He changed the subject and talked about football philosophy: "He is also the first person to put forward the 'trinity' theory of the head coach, players and fans. He believes that the fans are the root of the team's victory , is the most important factor in football. This concept continues today and has become the cornerstone of modern football club operations.”

Henryk nodded and began to think.

Anton added slyly: "I haven't actually finished. When Shankly proposed this theory, he had another sentence-'The managers are not in it, they are just responsible for signing the checks.'"

Hearing this, Henrik couldn't help laughing again, nodded and said, "You young man... Oh no, I was wrong, Mr. Coach, I understand what you mean!"

"Then... I will listen to the opinions of the fans and see what they think about demolishing the old stadium and moving to the new stadium." Henrik said to Anton, "If all the fans don't want to move, Then I would change my mind and expand Anfield in situ, no matter how high the cost would be."

This is the first time since Starway took over, the management has officially proposed that fans' opinions should be included in the decision-making process and used as a decisive factor.

On October 2012, 10, the Director of Liverpool Football Club officially announced that the club would abandon the construction of a new stadium and instead focus on the expansion of Anfield.Plans to build Stanley Stadium have been confirmed to be permanently abandoned.

At the same time, the club has started negotiations with real estate owners near the stadium. By 2014, all the negotiation work was basically completed and the expansion process officially started.

The Shankly gates at Anfield have been temporarily removed due to grandstand extensions and are being stored in a secure warehouse.With the completion of the new stands, the Shankly Gates were finally put back into the distance.

On the day when Shankly's gate was moved back to the distance, the club held a small ceremony to commemorate the famous man, and also used the expanded stadium to comfort Shankly's spirit in heaven.

Before this ceremony, several directors of the board joked that they did not know if the legend would appear this time.But until the ceremony was over, everything was business as usual.Shankly's spirit seemed reluctant to reveal itself easily.

After the ceremony, Anton walked into the Anfield Stadium with a smile on his face.

As he walked towards the tunnel, he reached out and touched the "This is Anfield" sign.

At the ceremony just now, he was in a daze, as if he saw an old man with gray hair, with a red scarf around his neck, staring silently in the distance, as if thanking him for protecting this historic city With the inherited course, a little contribution has been made.

"Anton, let Liverpool people feel the joy of football!"

A voice murmured and repeated in my ear.

The author has something to say: In fact, Shankly still has a lot of "quotes" that can scare people. For example, when he yelled at Everton every day, he said: "If Everton is playing in the vegetable garden, I think I will draw the curtains .”

Adding: "I'm used to looking at Everton's league standings in the Sunday papers - counting from... the bottom of course."

The referee: "The problem with the referees is that although they know the rules, they don't understand football."

When a reporter suggested that Liverpool was in trouble, he replied: "Well, we are really in trouble staying at the top of the league!"

When he failed to sign a player, he said: "It doesn't matter, we just want him to play in the reserve team anyway."

In contrast, other people's oral skills are still much weaker than Shankly's.

This year Mourinho began to explain, saying that there are four teams in the Premier League this year: Manchester City, Sleeper, Tottenham and Manchester United.Thinking about it now, he seems to have lost a little bit of Shankly's teeth back then.

I wish you all a happy holiday.