Chapter 5: Starting from coaching Atletico Madrid
After returning to the apartment from the Calderon Stadium, Yang Hao began to study Atletico Madrid behind closed doors.
Coaching a team is far from as easy as writing a novel, and he still needs to do a lot of preparation work.
Before noon, Xiao Hill called him.
"It's done!"
After Yang Hao left, the three giants of Atletico Madrid held a meeting behind and finalized the matter.
"Yang, I leave all the team matters to you from now on." Hill said sincerely on the phone.
Both father and son placed a heavy bet on this gamble.
If Atletico Madrid fires Antic, it will have to pay a large amount of compensation.
But that's not the point.
The key point is that Yang Hao had no coaching experience at all, and everything he did was just talk. Whether he could control the team was a very disturbing question.
More importantly, Atletico Madrid is in a precarious situation now. Once the news gets out that they have fired the famous coach Antic and selected a 25-year-old rookie with no coaching experience as the head coach, are they sure they are not joking?
By that time, both father and son would become the laughing stock of all of Spain, no, the whole world.
The fact that Xiao Xi'er said such words on the phone proved that he was not completely without worries about Yang Hao.
"Michelle, don't worry. I promise you will be proud of the decision you made today. Believe me!"
Little Hill on the other end of the phone agreed and mentioned that he had asked someone to look for a suitable assistant. He also called Fernando Zambrano, the head coach of Atletico Madrid's second team.
The 50-year-old Spanish head coach once coached Rayo Vallecano, but his experience at Atletico Madrid is somewhat similar to that of Antic.
In March 1999, he joined Atletico Madrid's second team to save the team, and his contract only lasted until the end of last season.
As a result, the head coach Carlos Aguiar had a poor coaching record this season and was dismissed in November 1999, so Atletico Madrid invited Zambrano back.
According to what Hill Jr. communicated to him, Zambrano was not very interested in serving as an assistant coach for the first team.
He even opposed a rookie like Yang Hao taking over the team, thinking it was a crazy decision.
Yang Hao was not surprised by this.
As far as he can remember, Antic did not finish coaching this season. After he was fired, Zambrano was his successor.
In other words, Yang Hao snatched away the coaching opportunity that originally belonged to Zambrano.
The Spanish coach certainly wouldn't be happy.
Of course, saving Atletico Madrid was also the peak of Zambrano's coaching career.
"It's okay, let's look for it again." Yang Hao said with a smile.
Yang Hao gave Hill the impression of being very calm from beginning to end, which made the Atletico Madrid prince feel a little more at ease.
After the two parties reached an agreement, Yang Hao returned to the Calderon Stadium in the afternoon to sign the contract.
Atletico Madrid will also officially announce this appointment.
…
After hanging up the phone, Yang Hao was not as excited as he had imagined.
On the contrary, he was quite calm.
The real test has just begun, and the burden on his shoulders is heavy.
As a time traveler, the current European football scene is full of talents for him. For example, Van Nistelrooy is still recovering from his injury in Eindhoven, and Ronaldinho is still waiting for a flight to Europe at Gremio.
There is also Eto'o, who was loaned out by Real Madrid to play for Real Mallorca.
It's interesting to say that before Yang Hao traveled through time, he happened to see that after Eto'o retired, he became the chairman of the Cameroon Football Association and was suspected of match-fixing, which caused an uproar among fans around the world.
Who would have thought that in the blink of an eye, Eto'o was just a young man who had just started to show his talent.
In the next 20 years, European football will usher in its most prosperous era with the most talented players, and it will also usher in the era of superstars such as Ronaldo and Messi.
Yang Hao is very much looking forward to it and is also ambitious. He wants to write a glorious chapter of his own in this best era, so as not to let his time travel go to waste.
Coaching Atletico Madrid is the beginning of his story, and he must write it well no matter what.
…
Time is money.
Just after lunch break, Yang Hao returned to the Calderon Stadium.
Unlike last time, his identity has changed now.
He is the new head coach of Atletico Madrid.
Little Hill personally came to the front desk to greet him and welcomed him into the meeting room in the morning.
Unlike the morning when only the Hills and Cerezo were present, there were a few more people in the meeting room in the afternoon.
Sitting next to Hill Sr. and Hill Jr. is club legend Paulo Futre, a 34-year-old Portuguese, Atletico Madrid's first superstar player, who retired in Japan in January 1999.
Not long ago, he was involved in the transfer rumors between Real Madrid presidential candidate Florentino Perez and Figo. Some people said that he helped the agent Jose Vega meet with Florentino.
This club legend has been in Madrid recently and has been quite active.
In Yang Hao's previous life, Paulo Futre took over as Atletico Madrid's sports director in November this year.
Now it seems that it will be earlier than expected.
Paul Futre had an obviously closer relationship with the Hill father and son. When he saw Yang Hao, he smiled and nodded to show his friendliness.
Sitting next to Cerezo was Clemente Valverde, a member of the club's board of directors. He had played for Atletico for many years but was cleared out in 1987 when Hill took over as manager.
After the club was privatized in 1992, he joined the club's management as a member of the board of directors and has served in that position ever since.
After the beating incident of old Hill in 1996, he basically became the representative of the club. Whether it was various meetings and draw ceremonies of the Spanish Football Association or UEFA, it was basically Balaverde who attended.
In addition to the club's management, two players were also present, namely the team captain Tony Muñoz and vice-captain Juan Carlos Aguilera.
Tony Muñoz, the left-back, has lost his position this season and has been replaced by the younger Capdevila, who, at 32, is already in the twilight of his career.
Also a veteran, the 31-year-old Aguilera is still in good shape and has played more as the team's right midfielder this season.
This also reflects Atletico Madrid's current lack of talent on the right side.
The meeting began as soon as Yang Hao arrived.
Hill first announced the appointment of Yang Hao, saying that the club had reached an agreement with Antic that the latter would no longer serve as Atletico Madrid's head coach, and Yang Hao would lead the team in all remaining games this season.
"The team has now reached a very critical and extraordinary period. We need to make some extraordinary decisions and use extraordinary people!"
Hill Jr. used this to explain the reason for the senior management's appointment.
But obviously, this is not convincing at all.
Not only the captain and vice-captain frowned, even Balavid was shaking his head.
This appointment was unexpected and puzzling to them.
It's not uncommon for Antic to be sacked.
The whole of Madrid knows that old Hill, like the vast majority of Atletico Madrid fans, really dislikes Antic.
Although, Antic once brought the team a double championship.
But after firing Antic, they actually hired a 25-year-old Chinese man with no coaching experience. Isn't this a joke?
Do you really think managing a team is just playing house?
However, the entire club belongs to the Hill family and Cerezo. As long as they don't object, nothing others say will matter.
Of course, after the news gets out, Atletico Madrid fans will definitely protest.
And there will be serious protests.
It is precisely because of this concern that Atletico Madrid’s management hopes that this coaching change will be handled in a low-key manner.
Yang Hao sat in his seat and watched the reactions of everyone present. This was all within his expectations.
It is normal to oppose, it would be strange not to oppose.
In addition to appointing Yang Hao as head coach, Paul Futre will also serve as the team's sports director.
This is also in response to what Yang Hao said before, that Atletico Madrid has no method in forming the team in the past few years, and has no mature ideas at all. It is purely based on feelings, which is definitely not feasible.
So, they opted to appoint a sporting director.
As a former superstar player, Paul Futre still has many connections in European football.
For example, the Portuguese agent Jose Vega, who made friends with him, is a well-known tycoon. Almost all Portuguese players who go abroad to play football have to go through Jose Vega's hands.
Even Jorge Mendes, who is expected to make waves in European football in the next few years, is currently working as a lackey under Jose Vega, which shows how famous Jose Vega is now.
Currently, Hugo Leal in Atletico Madrid is Jose Vega’s player.
In the next few years, the Portuguese Super League will be a treasure trove of talents.
Paul Futre took office in a hurry. It took only a few hours from the time he received the call from old Hill to now for him to make the decision. It would definitely not be feasible for him to come up with a complete set of ideas.
So, Futre just repeated the same thing for a few words and then threw the difficult problem to Yang Hao.
This can be regarded as an initial test for Yang Hao.
He must fully explain his next coaching plan in front of everyone at today's meeting.
The first thing to bear the brunt is how to avoid relegation.
…
"I've calculated that if we want to stay in La Liga this season, we need to get at least 44-46 points."
Yang Hao first gave a brief introduction to Atletico Madrid's current situation and the relegation situation in La Liga.
"But we only have 32 points now, which means we have to get 12 points in the remaining six games to have a chance of avoiding relegation."
Everyone present actually knew that Atletico Madrid's hopes of avoiding relegation this season were very, very slim.
Now, Yang Hao's words undoubtedly further confirmed this point.
After 6 rounds of league matches, even if they win all the games, they will only get 18 points. To get 12 points, they need to win at least 4 games.
Is it difficult?
It’s difficult, and very difficult.
Even for a top team, it is very difficult to win 4 out of 6 games.
Note, it is La Liga in 2000.
The strength of all teams has not yet widened the gap.
In the next few years, as the wave of globalization surged, Real Madrid and Barcelona took advantage of this momentum and their revenue increased at a very fast pace. They then recruited more and more stars and their overall strength improved by leaps and bounds, which completely widened the gap in strength with other teams.
But now, the era of the Spanish Super League has not yet arrived.
With the current strength of Real Madrid and Barcelona, it is not easy to win 4 out of 6 La Liga games.
What’s more, Atletico Madrid has not won in ten rounds.
The last victory of the Colchoneros was in January, which is 3 months ago.
With this kind of strength, would Atletico Madrid still stay in the relegation zone?
So, as soon as Yang Hao finished speaking, someone immediately spoke up to refute him.
