Chapter 404: "We will blow the trumpet to rule England again"
He scored a goal, assisted and scored a hat trick, everyone praised Xiaoliang.
Not only fans from all over the world, but even the Premier League officials came out to praise Chen Xiaoliang, editing a video for him and promoting it through various official channels.
Richard Masters, the current CEO of the Premier League, is in high spirits.
From the 2022-23 season to the 2024-25 season, the Premier League signed domestic broadcasting agreements with Sky Sports, BT and Amazon for a total of 5.1 billion pounds, and signed overseas broadcasting agreements worth 5.3 billion pounds with agents in Asia, North America and other regions.
10.4 billion pounds in 3 years, which means that the bottom team at the end of the Premier League season can get a huge sum of 106 million pounds just for broadcasting rights, while this figure was 96 million pounds in the previous contract period.
As the world enters the Internet age, there are fewer and fewer paid football broadcasts. The Premier League is well aware of the truth and broadcasts a large number of popular matches for free, which has greatly increased the ratings of legitimate channels in Asia and other places.
Although fans watching the game feel that they have not spent a penny, this is the same as the short video apps that allow you to watch videos for free. These days, whoever has traffic can monetize it.
The TV station bought a huge amount of broadcasting agency from the Premier League, and then sold it to the distribution channel providers, and at the same time sold the advertising space and sponsor broadcast space at a high price. This created a spectacular scene for a period of time when "the well-known protective brand Jie Tubang" was known to everyone in the fan circle.
At the same time, the online platforms and apps of these TV stations have also attracted a large number of registered users and active users, boosting the playback effects of other programs on the website, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.
So, just like that, under the win-win strategy, the Premier League has created the reality that even if the total revenue of La Liga, ranked second, doubles, it cannot surpass the Premier League's "dominance".
With the combination of Chen Xiaoliang, the most popular football star, and Manchester United, the most commercially successful club, coupled with the increasingly explosive team results and Chen Xiaoliang's personal performance, the Premier League has significantly expanded its share in the Asian market.
Coupled with Manchester City's strength, the rise of Haaland, the strong recovery of Liverpool and Chelsea, and the huge investment of Arsenal and Newcastle, oil capital, American capital, Asian market and the era of traffic are blended together.
In recent days, in the new three-year broadcasting negotiations, the total broadcasting fees in the UK increased from 5.1 billion pounds to 6 billion pounds, while the overseas market rose sharply from 5.6 billion to 8 billion pounds.
This means that starting from the 2025-26 season, the bottom team will receive 142 million pounds, and the champion team will receive an astonishing 224 million pounds!
What is truly terrifying about the Premier League is not only its operations, but also its healthy system.
Apart from not setting up exclusive broadcasting rights sharing for the top teams like the La Liga does for Real Madrid and Barcelona, thus ensuring the interests of small and medium-sized teams, there is also a very important policy, which is the "Golden Parachute".
This clause was first created in the American business community. It is used to ensure that if a company's original executive team is eliminated by new shareholders after a change in equity, they will receive a considerable amount of compensation according to the contract.
In the Premier League, once a team is relegated, in addition to receiving a share of the Premier League broadcasting rights this season, it will also continue to receive a share of the Premier League broadcasting rights after entering the Championship.
The specific rules are that in the first year, they will receive 55% of the share of the Premier League team of that season. According to the standards of the 2022-23 season, Norwich and Watford, which were previously relegated, will be able to receive about 50 million pounds.
If we don't count the broadcasting share that Barcelona received by "sucking the blood of La Liga", the figure of 50 million pounds is almost equivalent to the 60 million euros in broadcasting share that Barcelona received after winning the championship.
The problem is that this isn’t a comparison between the bottom of the Premier League and the champions of the other four leagues, it’s a comparison with the Championship teams…
If the club does not return to the Premier League in the season after relegation, it can continue to receive a 45% share of the broadcast rights in the second season, which is approximately £40 million.
If a team fails to return to the Premier League in the second season, but has been in the Premier League for more than one season before, meaning it has successfully avoided relegation once, then in the third season it can still receive an amount equivalent to 20% of the Premier League team's share.
That is to say, a team that was relegated to the Championship can still get nearly 110 million pounds in share from the Premier League in three seasons.
This is why newly promoted teams in the Premier League will buy, buy and buy, trying every means to successfully avoid relegation.
Because once you are eliminated in the first round and your score drops back down, you won’t be able to receive the money for the third year.
However, it would be a big mistake to think that with this money, these relegated teams can be promoted again quickly.
In terms of viewership, the Championship is actually the sixth best league in Europe.
Brighton, Brentford, Crystal Palace, Wolves, Nottingham Forest, these teams did not rely on the golden parachute policy when they were promoted to the Premier League, and if it were not for this policy, this season's newly promoted Sheffield United would have gone bankrupt due to a financial crisis after being relegated.
Healthy, shared and sustainable, these are the cornerstone concepts of the Premier League’s success. Not only is their profit-sharing not tailored for the giants, it has also spread all the way to the Championship.
This is also the reason why the English Football Association and UEFA are determined to boycott the European Super League.
The game played by the rich behind closed doors is doomed to fail.
In view of the further growth of the Premier League this season and Chen Xiaoliang becoming the double Footballer of the Year, Time magazine made him the cover character, and the main title was also very direct - "The Chen Xiaoliang Era", and the subtitle was "The Premier League has entered a new stage."
As a result, Chen Xiaoliang's personal income has increased dramatically, and the proportion of his off-field income has far exceeded his total annual salary of 25 million pounds at Manchester United.
Red Star Erke made the right bet and poached the entire football industry team when Adi's performance in the Red Country continued to decline for four consecutive years. The original four-year 2 million pounds sponsorship contract soared to 100 million pounds for five years.
This figure is higher than the 18 million pounds Messi earned for endorsing Adidas and the 15 million pounds Cristiano Ronaldo earned for Nike, and is second only to Neymar's 23 million pounds a year contract for Puma, which was a gamble signed by Puma in a "desperate" attempt to survive.
In addition, the King of Honor endorsement of Nanshan Pizza Hut Group was also re-signed, increasing from 2 million pounds for 5 years to 20 million pounds for 5 years.
What Chen Xiaoliang wants to do is to authorize them to release one skin after another in the game...
There is also Lao Gan Niang hot sauce. The sub-trademark set for Chen Xiaoliang was called "Little Junior Brother", but they dare not call it that now.
Why do you call Mr. Shuanglao "little junior brother"? What's the idea?
It was transformed into Lao Gan Niang No. 7 Hot Sauce, and the red color of the bottle also became the red of Manchester United. It was jokingly called the Chanel No. 5 of the hot sauce world by fans.
Just when Siwei Dihuang Pills were about to raise the price and renew the contract, Huiren Brand Shenbao came to bid.
Let’s not talk about the other manufacturers, the competition among them is so fierce.
Since sponsorship is exclusive, if you wear shoes of one brand, you cannot wear shoes of any other brand. If you wear watch A, you cannot wear watch B. This leads to manufacturers constantly raising prices and falling into disorderly competition.
In the end, Mercedes-Benz Hot Wheels was the smartest. They had already provided the bulletproof G-Class luxury car to Chen Xiaoliang, and after raising the price, they came up with a new idea.
They saw through Chen Xiaoliang's intentions and, while offering to renew the sponsorship contract with a higher price, they also "incidentally" sponsored the Ibiza Club and Chen Xiaoliang's Red National Primary School Players Youth Training Camp to a large extent.
According to what Reese said when signing the contract on behalf of Chen Xiaoliang, it was: "You are really a genius."
This also greatly enhanced the image value of Erica, who was far away in Spain and had already taken on the role of CEO of the team.
Her title has changed from "the most beautiful female athlete in the Tokyo Olympics" to "the most beautiful CEO of a European football club."
Erica also used the sponsor's money to buy out two 18-year-old players from the Red Country Youth Training Center. One was from Sichuan, named Hu He, who played as a left back, and the other was from the capital, named Guo Jia, who played as a central defender.
Chen Xiaoliang really wanted to go to the scene to watch the team's performance, but he really couldn't leave, and Manchester United would never let him go.
But he still invested a considerable portion of his income in youth training and his own club.
It’s about the situation as much as it is about his ultimate goal for the future.
Of course, investing in youth training is itself a commercial project with economic value.
After dealing with matters outside the venue, you have to deal with matters inside the venue.
The double hat trick in the last game gave him the illusion for the first time that his training value could be so high.
The basic reward of 5 points for training plus 5 points for the best of the game, plus 12 points for double caps, the basic reward is 22 points of training value.
However, he achieved two hat tricks and triggered [Reward: Reward for this game × (number of goals + number of assists)] twice.
22×6＋22×6=132＋132=264
Plus the 8 points from two days of training, the total is 272 points!
Training value 57 → 329
Breakthrough point 12 points, 69→81
However, he did not add the points immediately. Instead, after the training on the second day, he asked Ten Hag about the tactical arrangement for the next important game - whether to let him continue to play as a central midfielder or as a right winger.
Ten Hag's answer was also very clever. He said that he hoped Chen Xiaoliang would continue to move flexibly in the midfield and frontcourt, especially to switch positions more often with the players playing on the right side. However, the specific timing of the choice was left to him to adapt to the situation on the court.
In that case, he decided to add the attributes first.
Balance 16 → 18
Stop 16→18
Training value 329 → 9
Although it feels like going back to the days before liberation overnight, one game improves 4 high-level attributes, which is really worth it.
Thanks to this 7-0 victory, although Manchester City beat Fulham 3-0 away, Manchester United still returned to the top of the standings by overtaking Manchester City by 2 goals.
This is the third time the two sides have swapped top spots in the second half of the season.
After a week of training without any cup matches, Manchester United, in great form, travelled to Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire to challenge Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium.
After 6 days of training, Chen Xiaoliang has accumulated 24 training points (9→33).
February 25, 2024.
Carrick's Middlesbrough team currently has 25 points, ranking 15th in the league, 7 points higher than the relegation zone. It is very likely that they will complete this year's relegation task with a small investment.
When the two teams met in the player tunnel before the game, Carrick waited for the Manchester United players to come out of the locker room and shook hands with his old teammates Rashford, Luke Shaw, Lindelof and others. He also congratulated Chen Xiaoliang on his achievements in person.
But the court is the court, and the game is the game. No matter how much historical roots and friendship there are, they cannot stop both sides from pursuing points.
Another highlight of this game among fans is that Carrick loaned back the 30-year-old Jesse Lingard, known as the "King of Lingard", from Beckham's Miami International.
But within 10 minutes of the start of the game, the fans' comments changed from "Your Lin Huang, infinitely rampant" to "Your Lin Huang, extremely desolate, retiring to his hometown, with a bleak future, a middle-aged woman, broke at 30, with no talent left, why not try his luck in the Red Super League?"
…
In the end, even though they were playing at home, Manchester United, with Chen Xiaoliang on board, was still too big a monster for Middlesbrough.
Dean Henderson, who cursed his former club after being kicked out of Manchester United, made a high tackle but still couldn't prevent the team from losing 1-3.
Chen Xiaoliang made two consecutive attacks in the 37th and 41st minutes of the first half. The former time he dribbled the ball horizontally in front of the penalty area, attracted three defenders and then passed the ball directly into the penalty area. After receiving the ball, Cesco turned around and shot Dean Henderson into a reverse corner.
The second time, he received a corner kick from the left side by Luke Shaw who had just returned from injury and scored directly with a header.
The last goal came in the 54th minute of the second half, when B Fee broke into the penalty area and received the second-point ball that the opponent's defender failed to head far away, and shot directly, changing the score to 0-3.
The Senegalese striker Xabi Diallo, who was bought from Strasbourg for 20 million euros and is ranked sixth in the Ligue 1 scorer list, took advantage of the brief confusion and scored a goal after Ten Hag replaced a group of young players in the 81st minute, saving some face for Middlesbrough and letting the outside world see that they still have a good hope of relegation.
At this point, all the games in February have ended. Chen Xiaoliang also won the Premier League Player of the Month for the third time this season after August and October, with his incredible performance of 3 wins, 1 draw, 5 goals and 6 assists in 4 league games this month. He defeated Haaland and Osimhen, who also won 3 wins, 1 draw and scored 6 goals in 4 games, and Muani and Nunez, who scored 3 goals and 3 assists.
This game earned 7 training points (33→40), but the best of the month triggered [Reward: Get breakthrough points equal to the total number of goals and assists this month]
He also gained 11 breakthrough points (81→92)
After the game on February 25, since 2024 is a leap year, the team had an extra day of rest and came to Leicester on the first day of March to participate in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Leicester are currently ranked second in the Championship, second only to Southampton. The team's current head coach, Maresca, who was an assistant coach at Manchester City last season, does not think that a big FA Cup match with Manchester United in midweek is a meaningful goal.
They have only one goal this season, which is to be promoted to the Super League, and the rest is just training.
Ten Hag's side is more nervous.
After this game, they will go directly to London. The league match against Nottingham Forest at home on March 3 has been postponed because they will compete with Arsenal for the final championship of the League Cup at Wembley Stadium.
After playing against Arsenal, they will rest for a day and then go to Rome to play the second round of the Champions League round of 16.
In this game, the team made a large-scale rotation. Lindelof, Maguire, Eriksen, Anthony, Ganacho, McTominay started, while Casemiro, Milinkovic-Savic, B Fee, Kva and others all rested.
However, the midfield and frontcourt are still led by Chen Xiaoliang and Benzema, and this rotation lineup is still more than enough to play against Leicester City.
In the 10th minute of the first half, there was a free kick in the frontcourt. Chen Xiaoliang and Eriksen made fake moves against each other, and finally Chen Xiaoliang made a curved shot with his right foot , which hit the right post and bounced back.
Benzema, who was wandering behind the human wall, turned and rushed forward to push the ball into the net before the goalkeeper and Danny Ward could make a second save, and Manchester United easily took a 1-goal lead.
According to FIFA's early interpretation, this goal can , but it will not be recorded in the Premier League statistics.
In the first minute of the second half, Chen Xiaoliang made a long pass to Benzema. The French veteran lobbed the ball before the goalkeeper arrived and scored his second goal of the game.
In the 60th minute, Ten Hag replaced all the remaining main players on the field, such as Chen Xiaoliang, with young players such as Menu and Iqbal, and clearly asked them to control the ball more and consume all the playing time.
In the 71st minute, Ganaccio was tripped on the penalty area line. The referee looked at the VAR for a long time and finally gave Manchester United a penalty.
Benzema completed his first hat trick after joining the new team in one fell swoop, then clocked out and chatted leisurely with his teammates on the bench.
With a 3-0 win, the team easily advanced to the FA Cup quarterfinals.
The next morning, everyone gathered immediately and headed for London, leaving them only two and a half days to recover and adapt.
Arsenal, who were eliminated by Liverpool in the FA Cup, have been waiting there for a long time. It is impossible for them to replicate their past performance of 93% of the top spots in the league last season. The League Cup and the Champions League have become more realistic goals for them to win the championship.
Head coach Arteta has called on their fans to give their all to support the team in winning the championship and adding valuable experience to these players whose performances have fluctuated due to their youth.
Ten Hag, who secured his position as Manchester United head coach last season with the League Cup championship, obviously has no intention of moving the championship to another place.
It turns out that this year's squad is much stronger than last year's, and the club has acquired an honor machine that can help the team compete for all championships.
Chen Xiaoliang, who was sitting next to Ten Hag at the pre-match press conference, only said one sentence:
"This game is not a clarion call for Manchester United to return to the top, but a clarion call for them to dominate English football again."
