Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 102

102. Wrapping Up September

“Red Star is a prestigious team. Its official name is FC Red Star Belgrade. Along with FK Partizan Belgrade, located in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, it is one of the two major teams representing Serbia. Their advancement into European competitions and their performance there are far superior.”

Hyeongmin looked around at the people listening intently to his words and drove in a wedge.

“It’s on a different level compared to a rural team like Burnley, located in Lancashire.”

Mike Garlick, the former chairman from Burnley who was listening to Hyeongmin’s explanation, coughed uncomfortably.

“Ahem… Kim, I understand the explanation well, but calling Burnley, which you lead, a rural team is a bit…”

“Burnley is rural, isn’t it?”

“No, still…”

“Honestly, Mike, how many people in England can accurately explain where Burnley is?”

It seemed to everyone sitting around the conference room that Mike Garlick was sweating at Hyeongmin’s confident challenge.

“Well… if you give me a map…”

“Wouldn’t they just say it’s somewhere next to Manchester and Leeds?”

“Ahem…”

Mike Garlick, who was directly hit by an uncomfortable but unavoidable truth, turned his head and coughed again.

Hyeongmin continued his explanation without paying attention to Mike Garlick.

“Fortunately, the next game is at Turf Moor, so we don’t have to spend time traveling.”

“Then what’s unfortunate?”

Hyeongmin sighed at Helena’s question.

“It’s the Chelsea game in just two days. So, one day for recovery training. One day for game preparation. And then another game right away.”

The Burnley board members, who once again felt the schedule in September, which was full of fierce battles, exchanged glances.

“Helena, Mike, John. We have to give up something. Do you remember how Burnley’s Premier League performance was in the season when Sean [Sean Dyche, former Burnley manager] led Burnley to participate in European competitions before?”

“…It was 15th.”

John Banaszkiewicz, recalling the memory, answered with a groan.

“Yes. The team that was 7th in the previous season immediately dropped to 15th. It’s a great achievement and a great honor for a small club like us to advance to the European stage, but there is also a high possibility that chasing two rabbits [attempting two difficult or impossible tasks simultaneously] the following year will lead to the league results being ruined.”

The board members looked regretful at the manager’s words to face reality, but nodded as if they agreed.

“Not only us, but Leicester also fell to 12th in the season immediately after winning the championship like a fairy tale and advancing to the Champions League. Even that was the result of barely recovering after falling to 17th and facing the risk of relegation, and even using the shock therapy of firing manager Claudio Ranieri, who led the victory.”

“What do you want to say?”

Hyeongmin looked around the board members at Helena’s question.

“I hope you don’t have high expectations for passing the group stage in the Europa League. Of course, I will do my best, and the players will do their best, but I think it’s more important to build a foundation to be able to go to the Europa League again next year than to achieve better results in the Europa League this time.”

The directors all sighed.

“When young players come to our club, they will feel that ‘going to the European competition every year’ is more attractive than ‘having achieved good results in the Europa League last season.’ Because it’s not a one-time thing.”

***

…I clearly argued, and the argument was accepted.

Why am I so angry, Hyeongmin wondered.

Except for captain James Tarkowski, left winger Max Cornet, and central striker Wout Weghorst, the starting lineup for the cup competition and European competition was composed of Burnley’s young reserve players as usual.

Left-back Mika Marmol, whose adaptation to the team is noticeably improving, and central midfielders Luka Sukic and Christian Medina.

Leeds’ promising player, Joe Gelhardt, is still a bit inconsistent from game to game, and the coaching staff is wondering if the right winger is the best position for him, but he is steadily contributing by scoring attack points.

As if the last game against Sparta Prague was an exception, they are properly dealing with Serbia’s prestigious Red Star, centered on Nico Gonzalez, who is steadily spreading passes and developing attacks and defenses at the same time.

The problem is that if you ‘properly’ face the opponent in the European competition at home, there is a high possibility that you will fail to manage the overall points by getting properly caught in the away game.

Although there is a gap in the level of the league, most of the teams participating in the Europa League are talented enough to rank first or second in their domestic league.

With Burnley’s current power, the power difference is small enough to be caught.

Red Star, who brought out a 4-2-3-1 formation in the away game against Burnley, built a dense defense around the penalty box and leisurely played the game.

Burnley’s young players, with the opponent’s tactics clearly showing their will to gain one point through a draw, pushed the opponent with their unique energy and vigor when attacking, but they lacked experience to find or create gaps in the opponent’s crouching defense.

It is also noticeable that passes are not well connected to Burnley’s central striker Wout Weghorst, who is dominating the center of the opponent’s penalty box.

Rather, there were more moments when Hyeongmin was chilled by Red Star’s quick counterattacks every time the possession of the ball was transferred after a clumsy attack attempt.

Eventually, an accident broke out as the first half was coming to an end.

“Oh no!”

Burnley’s young midfielder, Christian Medina, who was developing an attack while turning the ball in front of Red Star’s penalty box, let out a bewildered cry.

He knew he had hit it wrong the moment the ball left his foot.

It was a pass that should have been connected to Burnley’s right winger Max Cornet, who was making a move to penetrate the right side.

However, the ball was slightly mis-hit and headed straight to Red Star’s central defender Aleksandar Dragovic, who suddenly popped out of the defense, and was perfectly blocked.

“Ohi!”

The veteran defender, who belongs to the Austrian national team and is about to play in 100 A-matches, stabbed the ball deeply towards the front line as soon as he cut off the pass.

The ball headed to central striker Ohi Omoijuanfo of Red Star, who was struggling in the front line and trying to interfere with Burnley’s attack.

The Norwegian national team striker turned his head slightly with the Burnley goal behind him and gently dropped the pass flying towards his head to the side.

The target of receiving the ball was Aleksandar Katai, who started as Red Star’s left winger.

The veteran striker, who returned to his home country after going through various leagues in Serbia, Spain, and the United States, did not miss the given opportunity and pushed the ball forward, penetrating Burnley’s penalty box.

“Nathan! James!”

Burnley’s goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell, who was guarding the goal, urgently requested support, but James Tarkowski had advanced to the halfway line to participate in the attack and was now turning around to return.

The remaining defenders and defensive midfielder Nico Gonzalez are also desperately running, but it is difficult to arrive in time.

“I’ll stop it!”

Nathan Collins, Burnley’s promising defender who faced a 1-on-1 situation, calmed his trembling heart with tension and faced Red Star’s striker.

With the goal behind his right shoulder, he lowered his upper body and slightly twisted his body to the side to drive the opponent back to the outside.

The more he delays while blocking the breakthrough, the more the advantage shifts back to Burnley, who is getting support.

A battle of time, a battle of wits, and a battle of patience.

Red Star’s striker Aleksandar Katai was well aware of this, but he did not rush and aimed for a gap like a veteran.

One is trying to delay while focusing on defense, and the other is in a situation where he has to quickly develop an attack and lead to a shot.

In an instant, the red and white striped uniform of Red Star moving behind Aleksandar Katai came into the sight of Nathan Collins, who was fighting wits with him.

It is an unavoidable instinct of a defender to turn his eyes for a moment to check if Red Star’s central striker Ohi Omoijuanfo is penetrating the penalty box.

And in that split second when he took his eyes off the opponent, Aleksandar Katai used his right foot to push the ball between Nathan Collins’ legs.

“Ugh!”

Nathan Collins, realizing that he had made a mistake, let out a short scream and tackled as it was, risking giving up a penalty kick.

However, Aleksandar Katai easily avoided the tackle that was not gaining speed from the spot and got rid of Burnley’s young defender.

He broke through the opposing defender by receiving the ball again with his left foot after pushing it in with his right foot.

The veteran striker of Red Star, who maintained possession of the ball, shot straight to the right of the goal as the path to Burnley’s goal opened.

Bailey Peacock-Farrell, who expected Nathan Collins to be able to delay the frontal breakthrough to some extent and was taking a position slightly biased to the left to prevent the opposing player from penetrating from the center or left, desperately threw his body to the right, but it was already too late.

“Uwaaaa!!!”

While the few away fans who came to Burnley to cheer waved Red Star’s red flags and cheered like crazy, Burnley’s goal net rippled with the ball.

“No way.”
Hyeongmin, who was standing in the technical area and watching the cheering Red Star players, turned around, and Karolina, who was standing next to him, immediately said.

“…I didn’t say anything.”

“Shut up and watch the game. I said no way.”

“No, I didn’t say anything.”

“You were thinking of putting in Dwight [Dwight McNeil], Benjamin [Benjamin Sesko], and Sebastian [Sebastian Szymanski] in the second half to accelerate the attack. I said no way.”

A plan to greatly strengthen the attack by putting in Dwight McNeil, Benjamin Sesko, and Sebastian Szymanski.

Hyeongmin looked at his friend and head coach with an absurd expression.

“Do you also do mind reading?”

“No. That’s what I want to do right now. So I thought you would want to do that too.”

“Then why are you stopping me?”

“Because stopping you here is fulfilling the duty of the head coach. I’m having a hard time enduring it too, so just shut up. Don’t get beaten up by Chelsea and go home and cry again.”

“Ugh…”

Hyeongmin, making all sorts of faces at the head coach’s bone-hitting advice, turned his eyes back to the stadium.

“Who knows? Maybe the kids will catch Red Star at Turf Moor?”

“Hmm… looking at the current state, it seems unlikely?”

“…”

***

In the end, Burnley had a successful month, winning 4 and losing 2 in the 7 games played in September…

…I couldn’t send it.

One of the 4 wins was against Forest Green, a third-tier team, in the Carabao Cup, and 2 wins were in the Europa League group stage.

Thanks to this, they advanced to the Carabao Cup Round 4 and took first place in the Europa League group, but in the most important league, they won only one game against Bournemouth, and lost 1-2 against Aston Villa and Southampton, respectively.

As of the end of the 7th round of the Premier League, Burnley is in 7th place in the league, outside the European competition qualification.

What’s even more exciting is that they have to play a whopping 9 games in October.

In a situation where he is worried about whether he can even do recovery training properly, let alone a day off, Hyeongmin received a call from Helena and headed to her office.

However, the CEO who called him was out of her mind.

Helena paced aimlessly around her office, talking on the phone with the phone to her ear.

“…No, Mom. No, I can go in December, but I think I have to come back before Christmas.”

“…Yes? No, England also rests on Christmas. Ah, but football doesn’t rest. Football games are still open.”

“…I’m not playing the game, but the transfer market opens in January.”

“…Transfer market? No, why… it’s about buying and selling players.”

“…Are players slaves? No, of course not. It’s about giving and receiving contracts that allow players to play. Mom, why are you doing this? You watch all kinds of sports, so you should know all this?!”

“…Ah. Ah, yes. Yes, I’m sorry.”

“…Of course. Of course. I never think that way. Yes.”

“…No.”

“…Of course. Of course. Oh, but Mom, I have to go now. I have a meeting.”

“…Yes, Mom. I love you too.”

After ending the long call, Helena dropped her cell phone on the floor and collapsed weakly on the sofa.

Hyeongmin, who was sitting on the opposite sofa waiting for the meeting with her, looked apologetic.

“I’m sorry. I should have gone out and waited.”

“No. I’m sorry. The phone call was too long. But if I didn’t make an excuse that I had a meeting, my mom would have held on to the phone for hours and talked about everything.”

Helena let out a long sigh.

“What’s the weather like there, are you eating well, are there any good men, when are you going to get married, etc. Then it flows into talk about nephews, brothers, sisters, and dads, and then it’s another lifetime.”

“Oh, do you have a nephew?”

A smile appeared on Helena’s face at Hyeongmin’s question.

“Third has two children. The first is Anna. The second is Mark. Both are not even 5 years old yet. They are as cute as angels, but according to Aileen, my brother’s wife, they are so mischievous… She said they are like Bonnie and Clyde.”

“What is Bonnie and Clyde?”

“Don’t you know Bonnie and Clyde? It’s a couple of robbers who were notorious in the United States in the early 20th century. They even made movies, anyway…”

Helena’s expression, which had brightened while talking about her nephews, darkened again.

“Do you know what’s depressing?”

“What is it?”

“Jonathan Landris came and said that our Southern European scout, Luis Gonzalez, received an offer from Arsenal. I guess they liked our skills because we keep renting good players from Spain this time. Do you know?”

In the narrow football world, it is easy for someone to be noticed by others as soon as they start to show their skills properly.

In particular, it is natural for large clubs to pay more attention to the promising players that small clubs like Burnley have signed or leased last season.

There is interest in the players themselves, but scouts with the ability to pick good players are literally geese that lay golden eggs.

It seems that they have started reaching out to scouts first, as they have to vacate someone’s existing position to bring in Jonathan Landris, Burnley’s football director.

“I’ve heard about it.”

Helena sighed again as Hyeongmin answered in a tone that he knew but was not greatly involved.

“Jonathan is worried about who will do the scouting in Spain if he leaves, and who will maintain the good relationship with Barcelona, but do you know what I was thinking?”

“What is it?”

“Ah, if Luis Gonzalez goes to Arsenal, I’ll get a penalty of 550,000 pounds. It’s so nice because you get money unconditionally when people move in this neighborhood, I was thinking.”

“…Ah.”

Helena made a face that she didn’t like herself, as if Hyeongmin was embarrassed by the unexpected remark.

“Am I being too much? It’s definitely a colleague I worked with, but I’m naturally calculating the vacancy only as cost and profit?”

“Well…”

Hyeongmin desperately tried to find a bright side by racking his brains.

“…While you’re going, should I ask Arsenal to rent a player?”

“Puhahat! That’s a good idea!”

Helena, who was giggling, took the laptop on her desk and sat across from Hyeongmin.

“Well, Jonathan has to worry about what to do if Luis leaves, so let him take care of that. I called Hyeongmin today because I wanted to ask for your opinion.”

“What kind of opinion?”

Helena, who found and opened a file on the laptop she had spread on her lap, turned the laptop on her lap so that Hyeongmin could see the data displayed on the screen.

“It’s a plan to renovate Turf Moor.”