The facilities at San Paolo Stadium are still too outdated.
Whether viewed from the inside or outside, it's the same.
The stadium was verted from a multipurpose spround. There's a trad field space betweed the stands, and there are semicircur areas behind the goals at both ends. This means the distaweed the stands is too far, which seriously affects the home atmosphere.
Thanks to the double-decker stands, which aodate more than 50,000 people, and the famously passionate Naples fans, the atmosphere is still quite good. But it could be much better. If it were transformed into a dedicated football stadium, the home atmosphere would be even more intimidating.
There's practically nothing in terms of stadium facilities.
You see this very clearly from the outside.
The two-tier stands are a reinforced crete structure, bowl-shaped, with no additional c pletely exposed. A yer of steel structure supports the ceiling above the stands, making the stadium look quite rugged from the outside.
To put it nicely, this is called exposed wildness.
Gao Shen had long heard that the home facilities of Serie A teams were very outdated because they don't even own their stadiums.
Now that he has experie himself, it is indeed shabby to the point of having nothing to ask for.
With su ine level, Serie A is far behind teams in other leagues.
De Laurentiis also has no good solution for this.
The stadium is a municipal facility. It 't be moved, and it 't be modified. Despite clear fan demand in this area, there's nothing to be dohe city gover eve from time to time to host various events and spames.
In Italy, the gover expressly prohibits teams from privately building football stadiums, which effectively cuts off a major revenue source.
Over 50,000 seats in one of Italy's most popur football markets 't gee much reve's truly a great pity.
"Actually, it's not pletely impossible," Gao Shen said with a smile.
De Laurentiis and Marino were a little surprised.
"Is there a way?" De Laurentiis couldn't believe it.
"It's actually very simple. Isn't private stru not allowed?"
Seeing De Laurentiis and Marino nodding, Gao Shen tinued: "The it, lease it for a long time 99 years, for example. Isn't that almost like owning it? You remodel it however you want. Wouldn't that solve the problem?"
De Laurentiis shook his head. "It's unrealistic. The gover won't lease the San Paolo Stadium for that long, and they use the stadium frequently for various events and spames. They wouldn't agree to major renovations."
"Then find a different one. Find ohat's pletely run-down, dipidated, and abahat way, the rent would be cheap, and you could justifiably renovate it. There'd be a good reason, because without renovations, it wouldn't be usable."
De Laurentiis' eyes suddenly lit up.
This old guy was shrewd and not to be uimated. Once Gao Shen poi out, he immediately grasped the key idea.
"That's brilliant. This way, we could justifiably build a adium. The ight be over 100 million euros, but after that iment, the matchday revenue would signifitly increase. It'd absolutely be worth it!"
De Laurentiis' excitement fred up.
It's a very good idea, simir to what Juventus has been doing i years.
De Laurentiis patted Gao Shen on the shoulder and could barely hold back from pig him up and giving him a kiss.
This young man was really talented, giving him such a good idea right away.
Ah, it's good to be young with flexible thinking and so many clever ideas!
But soon, De Laurentiis started to mutter to himself: "This kid is quite the schemer. Did he pull any tricks during the iations with me?"
After thinking for a while, he finally felt reassured that nothing seemed to be out of pce.
That brought him some fort.
---
Napoli's home stadium is in the Bay Area of the city, but its training base is located 35 kilometres northwest of the city, in a small town called Fort Volturno, which has a total popution of just over 20,000.
The distance isn't far, but sihe stadium and the training base are both he highway, travel is ve.
However, what surprised Gao Shen was that the Fort Volturno trainire was actually in a golf club he sea.
Three long, narrow football fields are ected from north to south, followed by a training building and pyer dormitories.
Only Napoli's first team trains here. The club's youth training camp isn't very plete, and this is not under Gao Shen's ma.
When Marinht Gao Shen to the training base, Carlo, Bueura, Lucas, Lopis, and Borrell were already there. They had already examihe eraining base.
Rodolfo Borrell took only three days to call Gao Shen and agree to join his coag staff.
Today, they all arrived in the same time, heading straight to the San Paolo Stadium to sign their tracts, while the five of them went directly to the Fort Volturno training base to ihe various hardware and software facilities here.
In the low-rise training building, they held their first meeting of the Napoli coag staff, with teical direarino sitting in.
The main tent of the meeting was for everyoo offer their opinions acc to their own roles and suggest what equipment o be modified and what o be introduced. All decisions were made.
Marino would be responsible for overseeing this work.
At this time, the advantages of having a plete coag staff were evident.
Napoli, as a team established only two years ago, naturally has inplete training facilities, and the yout isn't stific or reasonable. Additionally, previous head coaches Ventura and Reja were both older coaches, so their requirements in this area weren't high. Some eologies were also unfamiliar to them, leading to outdated software and hardware in Napoli.
However, the new coag staff all came from top clubs.
To put it bluntly, wealthy clubs represent the most advanced productivity in today's football world.
For example, Bueura proposed a testing device that had bee Real Madrid for two years. It is very useful for dug physical assessments of pyers, but Napoli hadn't seen it at all. The key is that it's also cheap.
Borrell suggested using the open spaext to the three training fields to vert it into a small field. He wanted pyers to engage in small-sided games there to maximize training on pyers' touches and their coordination.
In fact, all the proposed iments were retively small, but the key was how they worked together.
Marino is from Udinese and is known for his youth training in Serie A, but he was truly amazed by the new coag staff's approach.
Serie A had been basking in the glory of the "Little World Cup" for so long that it began to g behind the times in every aspect.
A is retively better, with their renowned Min Lab. However, it is reported that even Min's upper ma has quite a few pints about the b, which requires heavy annual iment.
But after participating in the meetiween Gao Shen and his coag staff, Marino realized how outdated Napoli really was.
He didn't care how much the whole renovation cost; even if it was over a million euros, he believed it was worth it.
Pyers are the primary assets of a football club!
---
"Pierpaolo, these renovations and equipment introduust be done quickly."
After the meeting, Gao Shen escorted Marino out of the offid repeatedly emphasized this point.
"Don't worry; everything will be ready before the summer training camp starts," Marino assured.
De Laurentiis had promised to give him the position of general manager, and he was now w very hard, even harder.
"In addition, none of us have found a good house yet. I heard from you before that you live in the Bay Area?" Gao Shen asked.
"Yes, the security in the Bay Area is good, the sery is nice, and there are plenty of houses. If you need one, I ask someoo help you find a pce."
"Thank you, sorry for the trouble." Gao Shen nodded in gratitude.
"I inally p in a few pyers from Real Madrid, like Callejon, Parejo, Juan Mata..."
After saying that, Gao Shen shook his head and smiled bitterly, "It's all my fault. Last season, I gave them a ce to perform. Now, many teams have their eyes on them, and Real Madrid is paying attention to them too. It won't be easy to poach them."
For instance, Callejon this winger has strong immediate impact, speed, deep knowledge, and uanding, and he works well with the team, but unfortunately, Real Madrid values him too highly. Callejon's price tag is 5 million euros.
If you want to loan him, it's not easy either. If he performs well, Real Madrid could just take him back, and you'll have to find someone else again.
"It's not surprising; these are all talented pyers and leaders from the Spanish youth academy," Marino wondered if Gao Shen was being too humble and uated.
You have to know that any of these pyers, released at will, would be hot odities for major teams practically treasures.
It's just that Real Madrid doesn't seem to value them enough.
"Let's look around outside first, and if there's someone suitable, we'll buy them. If not, I'll go to Real Madrid to see if I get a loan," Gao Shen said.
As long as Gao Shen asked, Real Madrid generally wouldn't refuse.
Besides, it would be like nurturing talent for Real Madrid, and they might even be happier about it.
Everyone knows that Real Madrid is on a downward slope and is now focused on developing young talent.
"Also, get in touch with Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia and ask about the priidfielder Luka Modri?. Let's see if we afford him," Gao Shen said, though a bit relutly.
Having a pyer like Modri? in the midfield would be incredibly valuable. He offers both offensive and defensive capabilities he pass, trol, and shoot. The key is that he dribble past oppos and drive the ball forward through the middle, which is being increasingly crucial as defenses beore anized and disciplined.
Just like Kaka, Modri?'s ability to carry the ball through the ter is a game-ger and a vital tool for breaking down defensive formations.
Although Gao Shen's tactics emphasize wing py, having someone like Modri? in the ter would signifitly elevate the team's overall strength.
However, Gao Shehat Modri? was already a Croatian iional and ying in the World Cup. Dinamo Zagreb, a regur partit in the Champions League, likely wouldn't part with him easily. Moreover, the cost would be prohibitive spending over 10 million euros t Modri? to a Serie B team just didn't seem worth it.
So, Gao Shen was ined to look elsewhere.
Fortunately, he already had a couple of alternative didates in mind for the double pivot in midfield. This time, he was determio go out and secure those pyers himself, no matter what it took.
