In fact, after Nottingham Forest had Beckham, the best place to make a fortune was not China with its vast population and seemingly unlimited market, but the tiny Japan.
The Japanese's love and admiration for Beckham had reached an irrational point. As long as it was related to Beckham, it would cause them to crazily pursue it, and their pursuit was measured with real money. Although China's market was vast, there were not many people who would really pay for the real thing due to the influence of the developed piracy industry. There was no such problem in Japan. If they liked Beckham, they would definitely go to regular specialty stores to buy real goods. Only in this way could the economic benefits that the Nottingham Forest Football Club wanted to see.
This might make the China people feel uncomfortable, but it was true — Japan was the gold rush destination that many European clubs valued. There was a lot of money there, and people would come quickly.
Nottingham Forest's itinerary in Japan was no different from that in China. The players were as tired as ever, and they could only relax a little by going shopping at Ginza in Tokyo at night. But what made Tang En happy was that there was no stupid organization like the China Football Association here, and he did not have to worry about how to play the game.
From arriving in Tokyo and leaving Tokyo, Nottingham Forest set off a red forest craze in Japan in four days. Fans wearing red Nottingham Forest jerseys could be seen everywhere on the streets.
Evan could not help but sigh when he saw the scene. "I'm afraid even Chelsea can't have such an effect."
"It's all David Beckham's credit." Allan knew who the key figure was. "His influence in Japan can only be described as' terrifying. '"
Allan was right. In Tokyo, as long as Beckham appeared, there would be traffic jams there. Giant billboards with his face on them stood on high-rise buildings, and products related to him were bound to be popular. Businesses did not need to advertise at all. The name "Beckham" was the best publicity.
In China, George Wood's popularity could compete with Beckham's. In Japan, the entire Nottingham Forest team added up was not as popular as Beckham alone. Allan knew this, so most of the time in Japan was Beckham's solo show, and Nottingham Forest was just a foil to him.
Here, Tony Twain had become a completely unknown staff member.
Twain would joke about the situation with George Wood. "Go back and criticize your agent. He did not put in enough effort in Japan. Look at David! "
George Wood did not comment on Twain's joke.
On the last night, Nottingham Forest played against the local J1 League team, FC Tokyo, at the Tokyo National Arena. Nottingham Forest, which used two sets of lineups to play, scored two goals in each half and defeated FC Tokyo, currently ranked eighth in the J1 League, by 4: 1.
After the game, the players did not get the treatment of returning to the hotel to have a good sleep. They collectively rushed to Narita International Airport and directly boarded the flight they had taken last night to Hong Kong. Time was tight, and he couldn't even squeeze out an extra night of rest. If he wanted to sleep, he would make up for it on the plane.
After arriving in Hong Kong, Nottingham Forest was also warmly welcomed. As Hong Kong was once a British colony, the English Premier League had a very solid base of people in Hong Kong. Influenced by Hong Kong, the entire Guangdong region was a loyal fan of the Premier League. Therefore, when Nottingham Forest was in Ningbo, the Guangdong fans who could not make it because of the long distance flocked to Hong Kong this time, intending to catch a glimpse of the Double Champion.
During the three days, not only did they play games, Nottingham Forest also had a gathering with the stars of Hong Kong's entertainment industry. Those big shot stars that Twain could only see on television were now fans of Beckham or Forest. This sense of accomplishment made him feel very good.
At that gathering, he once mischievously held Liu Dehua's hand and said, "I like to listen to your songs, and I can even sing 'Forget Love'!"
Then, looking at Liu Dehua's expression of shock and joy, he laughed very happily in his heart.
At the end of the banquet, the Hong Kong stars wore Nottingham Forest's red jerseys and took pictures with the players as a memento. This event was not only on the sports media, it was also widely followed by the entertainment media. Allan Adams' global promotion plan was carried out perfectly here in Hong Kong.
Overnight, in Hong Kong, whether it was people who liked football or people who did not pay attention to the sport at all, everyone knew about the Nottingham Forest team.
Of course, there was also the game. In Hong Kong, Nottingham Forest played a friendly match with the Provincial Hong Kong United Team. It was still two sets of lineups, which not only satisfied the audience, but also allowed as many players as possible to get a chance to play and train in the game. The only regret was that the Forest team's performance in this game was clearly not as good as the previous two games. The main lineups on the field looked a little tired and not in form. The two sides eventually tied at 3: 3, and the media publicized that it was a happy result for everyone.
But was it really so?
On the plane to Thailand, Twain's brows were already furrowed. The negative effects of commercial games and frequent commercial activities were finally showing. The players' stamina had reached the limit. No matter what the Thai and Malacia sides thought, he was determined to deal with the next two games with the second team and substitute lineups. His own players must get sufficient rest. Originally, the team's training time had been reduced because of the UEFA European Championship this year. Now that they had run to East Asia to make money, the whole team did not undergo systematic physical training at all. Their performance was completely a continuation of last season's, and it was just inertia. At the end of the day, the entire Nottingham Forest team's physical condition was still at last season's, and they had not entered the new season.
This made him a little worried.
The historical experience of the predecessors told him that such commercial games would inevitably affect the team's performance in the new season. How to reduce this impression to the lowest level? Twain was very troubled.
Nottingham Forest was still passionately pursued in Southeast Asia, but there were fewer commercial activities here, and the team could finally carry out systematic training. But the whole summer had been cut to pieces by the UEFA European Championship, commercial games, and the Olympic Games. What was the use of this little bit of systematic training?
After a small victory over the local teams in Thailand and Malaysia, the whole team finally got on the plane back to the United Kingdom, ending this busy and arduous trip to Asia.
For the team, it was busy and arduous. But for Allan Adams, it was a fruitful summer. The Forest team earned five million euros just from the appearance fees for the five games, an average of one million euros per game. One had to know that when Real Madrid came to Asia in 2003 to make money and set off a new wave of commercial games, the appearance fee for each game was two million euros. Counting the direct income and the "hidden income" caused by the free accommodation, food, and transportation provided by the organizers, Nottingham Forest earned thirteen million euros in one summer. And this thirteen million euros did not include the package of commercial cooperation projects, which, if carried out smoothly, were expected to bring at least thirty million euros to the Nottingham Forest Football Club in the next six years.
There were also some very long-term investments, such as the proposed construction of a Nottingham Forest football training base in Ningbo, specifically to recruit young players from China and nearby countries. The school would fully adopt the training materials, standards, and plans of English professional football clubs to discover and cultivate Asian geniuses. Like the University of Nottingham in Ningbo, the school was completely independent of the China football environment, closely linked to Nottingham Forest, and shared all of Nottingham Forest's resources. The outstanding young players would have the opportunity to go directly to the United Kingdom for more advanced training, and were likely to sign a contract with the Forest team, and then be loaned to the Forest team's satellite clubs to train — of course, including the clubs in China.
The reason why Ningbo was chosen was because of the strong support of the Ningbo municipal government. The leadership of the municipal government wanted to get rid of the long-standing image of Ningbo as an "economically strong city, football weak city," so they hit it off with Allan Adams. Nottingham Forest could enjoy a number of preferential policies by building a school here.
In addition to the new football school. By building a new stadium in Nottingham, the Nottingham Forest Football Club intended to try to enter the real estate industry. Allan saw the vast real estate market in China and decided to invest in a real estate company in China, with full responsibility for investing in the real estate business here.
Nottingham Forest's merchandise authorization was also signed after consultation with Nike. The factory in Wenzhou had started producing a variety of souvenirs, jerseys, backpacks, scarves, water glasses, lighters, key chains, cup holders, cutlery, tents … covering almost every aspect of life. The first store would open in Shanghai, and the second would be completed in Beijing four months later. The goods sold here would be much cheaper than the other teams' souvenir stores. China fans did not need to spend half a month's salary to buy a genuine jersey. Those small items were cheaper and well-made. Even if they were not Forest fans, they would be very practical and good-looking when they bought them home. They could also be used as gifts for their fan friends.
Not only that, Allan Adams was very ambitious. His plan for Evan Doughty was not as simple as just selling a few souvenirs. He did not even want to sell the Nottingham Forest brand, but a way of life and cultural atmosphere. The most authentic English pub, the most flavorful English football atmosphere, the most leisurely English pastoral style, and the noble and elegant authentic English afternoon tea. He wanted the name Nottingham Forest to appear in the life of any ordinary person in China.
This was his entire plan. It sounded a little unbelievable. But perhaps this was one of the factors that allowed Allan Adams to succeed. He always dared to think of things that ordinary people did not dare to think of. One must know that no European professional football club would want to develop the China and Asian markets in this way …
"The Nottingham Forest team is not the whole of my business plan. It is just a stepping stone, a key. After opening the door to this market, it can develop however it wants. The team no longer needs to play such an important role. In my eyes, this market was like a virgin land without any signs of development. There were countless possibilities. This is simply wonderful … "
※ ※ ※
If anyone thought that in the two and a half weeks in Asia, apart from training the team, Tang En was participating in commercial activities everywhere, like a lifelike wax figure for people to view and take pictures of as a souvenir, then they were gravely mistaken.
Even in the distant Asia, Tang En was constantly paying attention to every move in the transfer market. So far, the Forest team had left two players in the new season, but had not brought in a single one. This was clearly not in line with Tang En's plan after the end of last season.
Although Kompany was training to be a part-time defensive midfielder, he was, after all, only a part-time player. Tang En did not dare to guarantee the results of a half-baked switch. So, he still needed to continue looking for a replacement for George Wood — not a substitute, but a replacement. After running into several rebuffs in a row, this time he took a fancy to Tiago Mendes, who was not very happy at Juventus.
In 2004, Tiago transferred from Portugal's Benfica to Chelsea and became a member of Mourinho's "Portugal Gang." As a member of Chelsea in the 04-05 season, he won the English Premier League title. But after only playing for one season, he had to make room for Essien's arrival. In the summer of 2005, he transferred to Lyon for 6.5 million pounds. In the following two seasons, he helped Lyon win two Ligue 1 titles. Then he transferred back to Serie A's Juventus.
From this result, it could be seen that his career was glorious. But his experience at Juventus was indeed a failure. Juventus spent 13 million euros to bring in Tiago, making him Juventus' transfer king that summer. But just four months later, the Italian media gave him the title of "the most failed transfer of the season." Ranieri, who had been very optimistic about him, also sentenced him to death.
In fact, it was not that Tiago was not good enough, but that he was not used to the rhythm of Serie A games and Ranieri's tactics.
Tiago was an excellent defensive midfielder, but he was more suitable to play his role in the midfield triangle formation. That was to say, he should play as a defensive midfielder by himself, instead of playing as a central midfielder in the parallel 4-4-2 formation like Ranieri. This would only make him lose his direction and lose his position.
Tiago himself said that he always tried to intercept the ball in the game and then handed the football to his teammates. A defensive midfielder that was further back was more suitable for him.
Ranieri certainly would not change his overall tactics and formation for Tiago alone. But Tiago's characteristics were very much in line with Twain's requirements.
In January of this year, there was news of Tiago's transfer, but it did not happen in the end. Tiago was not very willing to transfer to play in the second-tier league. Now the only choice in front of him seemed to be to go back to Portugal, to Benfica or Porto, so that he would be in the center of European football … Nottingham Forest stepped forward in time to save his career.
When Tony Twain's team was still in Hong Kong, the Forest team's people had already contacted Tiago's agent. Would Tiago have any objections to joining the UEFA Champions League and Premier League champions? The only problem was that Tiago knew George Wood as a person, and he was worried that he would only be left on the bench. Twain immediately called to personally guarantee that the Forest team would launch a large-scale rotation in the new season. George Wood was definitely not the main force in this position, because the Forest team would play more games, and at the same time, the summer preparations had not been done well, and the players' stamina would certainly not be as full as in the previous two seasons.
The manager's personal guarantee dispelled the last doubts in Tiago's mind, and he agreed to join Nottingham Forest.
Juventus was also eager to get rid of this useless burden. With this layer of relationship, Nottingham Forest had the conditions to bargain on the transfer price. After several rounds of negotiations, Tiago, who had originally spent 13 million euros on Juventus, finally joined Nottingham Forest for six million euros, becoming the first player to join the Forest team this summer.
At this point, the player who shared the defensive midfielder position with George Wood was finalized. Kompany certainly would not stop training after this. Every player had to know that to have enough opportunities to play in Nottingham Forest, it was ideal to be able to adapt to multiple positions at the same time.
This season, Evan gave Twain a transfer budget of 30 million euros and asked him to save money as much as possible. The best result was that there would be leftovers of the 25 million euros at the end. Part of the income from the sale of the players was added to the transfer budget, and the other part went directly into the club's account.
Now that Nottingham Forest had sold Grosso and Sidwell, they had a revenue of 15.2 million euros. Five million was added to the transfer budget, and six million had been used out of thirty-five million. There was still twenty-nine million euros left. Twain also needed to chase at least one attacking midfielder and two defenders in the transfer market. This amount of money could not do anything big. He could only give up the talented players who were coveted by the powerhouses, or the long-established star players, and turn to poach the "low-key players" who did not seem famous but had good strength.
The taste of being poor was not good. When could Tony Twain realize his dream of waving his chequebook and snatching people all over the world?
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
