Professional football is always particularly cruel.

It does not have the so-called focus on participation at all, its evaluation criteria are success and defeat.

Such as Barcelona and Guardiola, they have to lower their arrogant heads in the face of this evaluation standard.

The past season has both a smile of success and tears of failure for Chinatown.

After experiencing the trough at the beginning of the season, the team quickly got into the position, catching up in the league, returning to fourth place in the league, retaining the qualification for the Champions League, which basically ensured that Chinatown could earn at least tens of millions of euros from the Champions League next season, which is also a great benefit for the club's finances.

The Champions League reached the semi-finals and became a big upset. Chinatown not only made its name in European football, but also gave the team full opportunities to train. From the head coach to the player, the overall strength has been improved very significantly.

But this also brings a hidden danger, that is, from the head coach to the players, they have been coveted by many teams.

The results of the King's Cup have also improved a lot, reaching the finals, but they were defeated by Barcelona with a huge advantage. This game hit Chinatown the biggest blow and allowed the team to witness the huge gap between themselves and top giants.

Gao Han is very confident in his team. With his current lineup, as long as he trains for another two or three years, he will definitely have the strength to compete with the top giants, and he has the hope of competing for the La Liga championship. Even if he is in a better state, he may have a chance to make a UEFA Champions League, but Chinatown is far from being able to do so now.

This season's performance has been considered a high level of performance.

But more importantly, the giant teams will not give Chinatown such opportunities at all.

As soon as the season ended, the digging hand reached into the gate of Chinatown.

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"I just asked the Finance Department to count. The total amount of UEFA's prize money allocated from UEFA last season reached 40 million euros, which is the game bonus income plus the share of the TV broadcast."

The team will disband immediately after the game. Many players have to rush to the national team, especially several Spanish internationals in the team, who have to return to the national team to prepare for the upcoming European Cup.

But the club's core management is not good. They must carefully calculate the income and expenditure of the past season, and also summarize some of the problems and lessons learned last season.

Head coach Pochettino also started to have a holiday, and technical director Cantalero attended the meeting as the top leader of the technical department.

At the beginning of the meeting, General Manager Armando Marcos was the first to disclose the club's fiscal revenue and expenditure status. The UEFA Champions League income was emphasized, which surprised everyone attending the meeting, including Gao Han.

"so much?"

Gao Han's accident made Armando Marcos happy, and he nodded with a smile: "Yes, we made it to the semi-finals and were the last of the four teams in the La Liga, so we have the most prizes to win the championship."

Forty million euros, if it were put before, it would definitely be something that Chinatown would never dare to even think about.

"However, unfortunately, although our income in terms of bonus sharing exceeds that of Barcelona, ​​Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, if we include the game-day income brought by the Champions League games, we have the lowest income among the four teams, mainly because our home income is too small."

The benefits brought by the Champions League are not just the sharing of game bonuses and TV broadcast fees, but the other two revenues are commercial sponsorship income and game day income.

Chinatown received a prize of 40 million euros from UEFA, which is really good. It ranks third in European football, even more than Manchester City, because in England's prize pool, Manchester United scored the most.

Chinatown has always been operating well in terms of commercial income, but in terms of game day income, it is not at the same level as other La Liga strong teams. Not to mention comparing with the three giants, even teams such as Sevilla and Valencia are better than Chinatown.

The daily income of the Champions League matches is also quite generous, and the ticket price is higher than that of the league, but Chinatown has suffered a lot of losses in this area. This loss will continue until the new stadium can be opened.

It can be said that if it weren't for the commercial sponsorship system that Armando Marcos had worked hard to establish in the past two or three years, and the sale of the team stars every year to fill the financial deficit, Chinatown would not be able to support the current lineup.

"Due to my outstanding results in the Champions League this season, I am very pleased to tell you that in the past season, our club has truly achieved a break-even for the first time."

Armando Marcos's words immediately made the heads of various departments in the entire conference room applaud.

What a difficult thing this is!

How many teams in European football dream of achieving balance between income and expenditure, but they can't do it anyway. Chinatown did it. Although this is only temporary, it is also a very exciting thing.

"We will officially post it tomorrow on the guān fāng website, Twitter and China's Weibo. I believe this will greatly inspire our supporters and also make the players on the team more confident in our management."

Armando Marcos's words once again received a burst of warm applause.

"Of course, this is only temporary. A season's break-even does not mean anything. The difficulty is how to adhere to a long-term break-even. Moreover, our overall salary structure is still low even in La Liga, so our test has just begun." Armando Marcos said earnestly.

In the past few years, with the continuous influx of external capital and the arrival of the information age, European football has ushered in explosive growth, and the fiscal revenue of various clubs has also increased by leaps and bounds, but the consequences are also obvious, that is, as a scarce resource, the value of stars is getting higher and higher, and their salary is also rising rapidly.

The Premier League is the best in this regard. When Premier League relegation teams can wield tens of millions of pounds of transfer budget, it is conceivable how much the value of Premier League players will soar.

In addition, teams such as Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, and Malaga have all increased their investments. When veteran giants such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​and Manchester United have had to start an arms race, the transfer fees of players in European football have continued to hit record highs, and the salaries of players have continued to set records.

Gao Han had predicted this situation very early, so he reached an agreement with Armando Marcos early on that he would rather sell the players than maintain the club's salary structure, which could increase but not soar.

The reason is very simple. Slow growth leaves a way out. Once the salary increases explosively, when the team's income fluctuates, the club's finances will face a huge crisis. Once the salary structure is improved, it will be difficult to lower it again, so it has to be treated with caution.

In this regard, everyone, including Armando Marcos, admired Gao Han so much that he was overwhelmed.

Although Gao Han spent money like flowing in Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, burning hundreds of millions of dollars without blinking, he was actually smarter than anyone else and had a clearer look at it, so he was able to balance Chinatown's revenue and break even this season.

"Based on the reliable news we have received, Barcelona is planning to renew their contract with Messi, with an annual salary of 15 million euros, and Manchester City will also renew their contract with Cristiano Ronaldo soon, and the Portuguese salary may also reach this surprising number."

Armando Marcos's face became very serious when he spoke this.

"According to our analysis, we have absolutely reason to believe that the salaries of European football players will once again surge in the next few years, so we must take measures in advance."

This is not difficult to understand at all.

Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are the two top superstars in the world today. If they are compared to locomotives for the players' salary increase, then when the locomotives keep rushing forward, the star array behind them will also follow them. Although the increase is not as good as theirs, a salary increase is inevitable.

Let me ask, the two superstars have risen, will Manchester City's Kaka, David Silva, Modric, Sanchez, Benzema, Xavi Alonso and Cech rise? Will Barcelona's Ibrahimovic, Xavi, Iniesta, Pique and Alves rise?

If both teams have increased, will the annual salary of the ace stars of Manchester United, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Atletico Madrid and other teams increase?

In a surging environment, it is difficult for Chinatown to be safe.

"Last season, the team completed the contract renewal with several players in the team. Some players have just joined the team, but the salary increase and renewal must be put on the agenda again. For example, Pelle, his annual salary and termination fee are low, and players such as Rakitic, Hazard, Isco, etc. must renegotiate renewal."

The team performs well and the players shine, the consequence is that they face more poaching.

For example, Pelle, when he joined Chinatown a year ago, he only had a net worth of one million euros, but what about now?

After this season's tempering, the Italian center's performance and tactical role have been recognized, and its value has soared by fifteen times. The assessed price of an authoritative German organization is 15 million euros, while Pelle's liquidated damages are only 20 million euros, which was very high a year ago, but now it seems to be very dangerous.

Many Italian teams, including Juventus, AC Milan and Roma, are interested in Pelle. If they really take action to poach people, aren't they willing to pay the penalty of 20 million euros?

Of course, these three teams have not had any contact with Chinatown yet, but there has been rumors in the transfer market. Obviously, they are still not at ease with Pelle, worried that the center who failed to prove in Italy only broke out once a season.

But the situation in the transfer market has changed suddenly. Who dares to say that they will definitely not take action to poach Pelle?

What if I take action on the last day of the transfer period?

Even if they don’t take action, is it reasonable to not give a salary increase based on Pelle’s performance last season?

Without a salary increase, can he continue to perform this season next season?

To put it bluntly, players work for clubs and pay as much as they work. Otherwise, they will inevitably undermine their enthusiasm and may also stimulate them to change jobs.

There are many other players in the same situation as Pelle, such as Aubameyang, Hazard, Rakitic, Isco, Kavajal and other players, all facing the situation of having to raise their salary.

This is one of the consequences of the team's outstanding performance last season.

Once it reaches the point where there is no way to rise, you can only sell people.

Of course, there is also a situation where the conditions given by the other party are too generous, and Chinatown cannot give them at all, so they can only bear the pain of selling people.

For example, Barcelona wants Alba.
Chapter completed!