Becoming a Russian Oligarch After Rebirth
Chapter 743: Age of Gold_1

Chapter 743: Chapter 743: Age of Gold_1

Curiously, Wang Ye asked, "Hasn’t your board of directors ever discussed the addition of capital? Why do you have to resort to transferring shares to solve financial issues?"

David Dain shook his head with a wry smile, "Of course, we have."

As a large shareholder, I’ve brought up more than once at board meetings the idea of each shareholder adding fifty million pounds sterling of capital proportionally with their shareholdings.

Having this money would actually alleviate the club’s situation.

If the club performs well next season, manages to make it into The Champions Cup, or even achieves a decent rank, we could completely turn things around.

Unfortunately, the other shareholders don’t agree, they only hope to receive dividends from the club rather than subsidizing it out of their own pockets.

Some shareholders even suggested selling off the team’s star players.

This is absolutely a short-sighted strategy and I firmly oppose it!

So, there’s actually a big divide among the club’s board of directors right now. Everyone has different opinions and is rather pessimistic about the club’s future..."

Wang Ye contemplated. No wonder he feels that tens of millions of pounds are not a big deal; he makes money too easily.

However, for the vast majority of people, including those minor shareholders of Arsenal Club, this is a fortune!

Perhaps those shareholders invested in Arsenal Club not because of their passion for football, but because they value the return on investment more.

Now, Arsenal’s performance is not good, the team is in a slump, with accumulating debts, and many shareholders have begun to consider pulling out.

They wouldn’t even think about investing more money to increase their investment, let alone talk about it!

They plan to get rid of their shares in Arsenal while it’s still valuable...

........

"One hundred and fifty million pounds sterling..., the price is reasonable. Paying off debt and adding transfer budget is not a problem, but is that transfer budget enough? The team doesn’t seem to have many superstars right now." Wang Ye asked casually.

His most memorable Arsenal team is the invincible one from the 0304 season. Naturally, Henry The Emperor was the most impressive.

It seems that Henry only truly rose to stardom in the football world from the 0304 season onwards.

As for the other stars in the Arsenal team, he could not recall. Oh, there seems to be a defensive midfielder, Vieira, who was also a very capable player and a teammate of Henry in the French National Team.

Because the head coach, Wenger, was French, there were quite a few French players in the Arsenal team.

At its peak, almost half of the main French team were Arsenal players...

Speaking of players, David Dain went through them like counting treasures, "Though the team doesn’t have many superstars, the players are very strong, like Boge Camp, Henry, Vieira, and Ljungberg. They have either made a name for themselves or have the potential to become superstars. Especially the forward, Henry, this young man is growing very fast with huge potential. He is expected to become the team’s vanguard!"

The players he mentioned are all known to Wang Ye and were indeed the backbone of Arsenal during its golden era.

Except for Boge Camp, who is older and seems to be close to retiring.

Believe it or not, this current Arsenal team doesn’t seem to need a big makeover even after it’s bought.

Under the management of head coach Wenger, the framework of the team has long been carefully set up and only awaits the likes of Henry to rise, ready to reap the rewards.

Compared to Wang Ye’s team, A Bu has it a bit "tough".

After purchasing Chelsea, he invested huge sums of money year after year for the team’s transformation.

In fact, the money he spent on buying players was several times that of the acquisition of the club.

Not that Wang Ye doesn’t have the money, or is unwilling to spend it, because in football, sometimes being rich doesn’t necessarily bear fruit.

First, you might not be able to buy the football star you want. Perhaps the rival club is unwilling to sell, or they’re asking a sky-high price. Then you have to consider whether or not to play the fool.

Second, even if you manage to buy a galaxy of football stars, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll succeed. There might be too many stars for the head coach to manage, causing conflicts in the dressing room, and performances might even deteriorate.

Therefore, with a good foundation and framework like Arsenal, as well as a club with a grand tradition and an excellent coach setting up the team framework,

The team style is already mature, the squad is stable, and only needs to strengthen in certain positions to achieve good results.

If A Bu and Wang Ye both buy the teams and invest the same amount of money, Wang Ye would dare to say that Arsenal will surely outperform Chelsea!

After all, Chelsea was just an ordinary team before, with no remarkable football stars in the squad. A thorough revamp would mean a long period of turbulence.

An unstable team can’t perform!

........

"So, after acquiring the club, you, Mr. Mikhail, don’t need to invest too much money for the team’s makeover. At most, you just need a transfer budget of twenty to thirty million pounds per year. Furthermore, if the club performs well in the future, even the transfer budget can be earned by playing in the UEFA Champions League, and you wouldn’t need to invest any more money."

David Dain was afraid that too many investments would frighten Wang Ye off.

What he said also made sense. In that era, when the football world had not yet been "commercialized", most clubs could be self-sufficient.

For small underperforming clubs, income from the league broadcast, player development sales to big clubs, home ticket sales, and more could not only support the entire club, but could also result in a profit, making money for the boss.

As for the big clubs, apart from those with lavish bosses or excellent business development, most of them earned operating and development funds through participating in the UEFA Champions League, business development, exhibition matches, friendly matches, commercials, etc.

Among them, the UEFA Champions League bonus is a big contributor!

Just getting into the UEFA Champions League proper could earn nearly tens of millions of euros. For most clubs, this is a pretty substantial sum of money.

You must know that in that era, players’ values had not yet experienced "inflation". Only a very small number of luxury brand players could sell for more than tens of millions of euros.

Most practical blue collar players were still very cheap.

Even for a near-luxury club like Arsenal, there were very few large-scale recruitments.

In fact, Wang Ye didn’t know that in the summer of 2003, when A Bu’s Chelsea started the so-called "Age of Golden", most clubs didn’t spend much on transfers.

That year, A Bu spent 170 million euros, shocking the entire world of football!

And Barcelona, which ranked second, had a transfer budget of only over 40 million euros.

The third-ranked Manchester United had 38 million euros.

Ranked fourth was Real Madrid with 35 million euros...

At that time, the exchange rate of pound sterling to euro was 1:1.5, so David Dain’s proposed transfer budget of 20 million pound sterling is equivalent to 30 million euros.

In David Dain’s heart, this amount was already very high...