With a group of promising England superstars, Arsenal's star-studded lineup should undoubtedly be strong contenders for the league championship.
"Losing our midfield core and main striker is our biggest loss," Mr. Winter said directly to Lu Yang in a video call, addressing what he saw as the problem, "Selling our captain for consecutive years has also dampened the players' morale."
"Therefore, we really need a championship to reignite the players and rekindle Arsenal's torch of dignity as a prestigious club!"
Lu Yang chuckled from his end.
"What are you laughing at?" Mr. Winter knew Lu Yang was quite cheeky and asked, "We Arsenal are determined to win this UEFA Europa League title!"
Lu Yang replied, "You misunderstood me. What I meant was, actually, regaining the dignity of a prestigious club is simple; you don't need a championship... money will do."
Mr. Winter almost choked on his soda, barely keeping himself together.
If they had money, would Arsenal have ended up in this situation?
Forget about bringing in top reinforcements. Though Arsenal's current lineup is indeed luxurious, most of the famous stars are veterans, and there are difficulties with contract renewals as their contracts are in their final stages.
In other words, in a couple of years, Arsenal won't have this squad. Their owner won't spend money to retain these "luxury items."
The only high-priced player, Olic, was purchased because of business collaborations between the owner and Russia.
Money is Arsenal's lifeline right now!
"Dad, what's wrong with you? I've told you how many times to... Are you not drinking water? This is Sprite? Oh my god, have you been pouring Sprite in your thermos all this time? Don't you know you have diabetes? You shouldn't be consuming these..."
A young woman's voice came complaining from the call.
"Sorry, this is my daughter, Lola," Mr. Winter said, pulling his daughter into the frame, "By the way, last time you said you were looking for someone knowledgeable about football and computer science. What do you think of her?"
"An excellent master's graduate in big data and statistics from the University of Cambridge, twenty-three years old, unmarried."
Lu Yang was taken aback. Mr. Winter, surely it hasn't come to this?
To tie me down early, you're actually offering your daughter?
A while ago, Lu Yang was preparing to form a personal football team.
The main purpose was to recruit and arrange various private trainers, using a more scientific and professional approach to plan athletes' physical condition and training.
There were also data statisticians and analysts, primarily to observe and summarize various data from each match played by Lu Yang and his teammates, analyzing players' match patterns and performances through big data.
For example, if Morici passes the ball to Canyes far more than to Lu Yang, then is the team's tactical focus leaning towards Canyes?
If not, then there might be an issue between Morici and Lu Yang. Is Morici unwilling to pass to Lu Yang? Or is Lu Yang not running actively enough?
Data isn't everything, but when combined with the actual match situation, data can be very convincing.
Lastly, there are league analysts, responsible for gathering basic data and unique situations from major leagues.
For example, the sudden emergence of Blue Fox Leicester City in the Premier League this year, Super Laco in La Liga, Hoffenheim and Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga, Monaco in Ligue 1, and some players whose stats are exceptionally unusual and off the charts in these leagues this year.
By summarizing data, one can roughly judge the league's style, player standards, etc.
This is very helpful for Lu Yang's future transfers, as well as advising the team on buying and selling players.
The first aspect is understandable, but the latter two are departments typically established by relatively trendy clubs, yet Lu Yang plans to cover all of them.
This astonished Mr. Winter greatly.
It is precisely because of this that Mr. Winter jokingly mentioned it to his daughter and asked her to look for some professionals.
However, Lola became fascinated upon hearing about it and immediately expressed her desire to try it out.
That's why Mr. Winter staged a small act with his daughter to smoothly recommend her to Lu Yang.
Otherwise... it's quite a difficult task for Mr. Winter, who has a somewhat thin skin, to recommend someone while maintaining familial impartiality.
"From Cambridge? That's more than enough. Even Jianqiao University would do, let alone Cambridge!" Lu Yang wasn't going to be picky. Big data was still a relatively niche field over the past two years. In China, not even second-tier colleges had students majoring in it, yet research had been ongoing at Cambridge for a while now.
It's just right.
"Lola, I'll leave the team formation to you then. In a few days, we'll first establish a studio. I'll handle the funding, but you sort out the office location and such. Once it's on track, we'll purchase new equipment and build a dedicated research institute..." Lu Yang chatted with Lola further.
Though Lola was a bit dizzy from the conversation, she remembered the main tasks, and since she had Lu Yang's contact, she could easily reach out for anything she couldn't decide on her own.
As for Mr. Winter, he listened on the side, filled with shock, envy, and resentment.
Look at what Arsenal's owner has done, using mortgage funds from the team to build a stadium, repaying the interest with the team's profits, and then mortgaging the stadium for even more funds.
Arsenal is basically working on a shoe-string budget.
Mr. Winter, this old steward, is as broke as can be, having to sell a few players each year to keep the team afloat.
And Lu Yang?
Not to mention that building a team will easily cost him tens of thousands at the start.