Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 105

“…What do you think?”

Jonathan Landris, Burnley Football Club’s Football Director, listened intently to Helena, the club owner’s representative and CEO, but wore a dubious expression.

“Well… in the long term, it’s not bad, but…”

While it wasn’t his area of expertise, as a Football Director, he needed to have a general understanding of the club’s overall management.

Jonathan reviewed the various materials Helena had brought once more, then looked up at the young CEO with a worried expression.

“Can our finances handle this right now?”

“I spoke to Hyungmin about it, and… I’ve never seen him so agitated.”

Jonathan, who had heard about the so-called ‘water bottle kick’ incident from some players—when the Burnley squad’s discipline was established in an instant last season—shrugged.

“Well, from Kim’s perspective, he’s already feeling a lot of pressure, so hearing that financial support might decrease would naturally provoke that kind of reaction. I agree with that point. The amount Burnley spends on the squad right now is truly the bare minimum.”

Even this season, Burnley’s total wages were £1 million per week.

This was a similar level to West Brom, Bournemouth, and QPR, who had just been promoted to the Premier League, placing them at the bottom of the league in terms of spending.

Moreover, they had invested a similar amount in the summer transfer market as QPR, who recorded a net expenditure of £27 million, falling short of West Brom’s £46 million and Bournemouth’s £38 million, both of whom were determined to stay up after being promoted from the Championship.

Yet, Burnley was still fiercely competing for a spot in the European competitions, fluctuating between 4th and 7th place.

“If the quality of the squad drops any further, not even Sir Alex Ferguson could prevent the team’s performance from plummeting, let alone Kim. Kim is not a magician.”

Helena nodded seriously at Jonathan’s warning.

“I know. I’m well aware that the current squad situation is like walking on a knife’s edge. I didn’t mean to put more pressure on Hyungmin or Jonathan. I’m sorry if it sounded that way.”

Jonathan nodded, accepting Helena’s apology.

“But to normalize Burnley’s finances in the long term and compete with other teams, we need to increase revenue, and to do that, stadium redevelopment is unavoidable.”

“Haa…”

Jonathan sighed in agreement.

“I’m not blindly opposing it. I just wanted to say that we need to proceed with stadium redevelopment while ensuring we have the necessary funds to maintain the squad.”

“Hmm…”

Both the Football Director and the manager expressed strong concerns.

Even though he didn’t react as vehemently as Hyungmin, given his personality, Jonathan Landris had essentially voiced his clear opposition.

In fact, it was the first time Helena had seen someone as usually mild-mannered and gentle as Hyungmin become so emotional, with the blood vessels in his face bulging.

Is it impossible to secure funds independently?

***

“Haa…”

Leaning back in his chair in the first team meeting room, Hyungmin sighed deeply.

Contrary to Karolina and the coaching staff’s concerns, Burnley’s almost entirely changed squad defeated Norwich 3-0 in the Premier League’s 9th round, providing an opportunity for the starters to recover their stamina.

However, in the Premier League’s 10th round, with the starters heavily involved, they suffered a shocking 2-1 defeat against promoted team West Brom.

West Brom was playing the role of a mischievous ‘goblin’ this season, significantly impacting the Premier League standings.

They won 2-1 against West Ham.

They won 2-0 against Chelsea.

They won 2-1 against Burnley.

Conversely, they lost 1-2 to fellow promoted team QPR.

They were performing the so-called ‘Robin Hood’ act of beating strong teams and losing to weaker ones, underpinned by a solid defense and quick counter-attacks established by Steve Bruce, who was appointed after being sacked by Newcastle following the PIF [Public Investment Fund] consortium’s acquisition.

Of course, they were running into trouble when they tried to play more aggressively to gain points against weaker teams.

In any case, West Brom had an even denser five-back formation than Sean Dyche’s Burnley, with three defensive midfielders in midfield.

To make matters worse, even one of the forwards dropped back to help defend, creating a scene where a whopping ten opposing players, including the goalkeeper, were swarming inside the penalty box, leaving Karolina utterly helpless.

“Seriously, are they trying to play football, or do they want to play hedgehog?!”

Karolina finally exploded in anger after reviewing and analyzing the video footage of the West Brom game with Hyungmin for the past few hours.

In truth, there wasn’t really a clear solution even after reviewing the footage.

Throughout the game, Burnley tried to create gaps in that ironclad defense to score, and West Brom simply repelled them.

As a result, they could only confirm that Burnley’s usual style, which created opportunities through intense pressing and attacking movements, was completely ineffective.

The only consolation was that Karim Adeyemi scored a consolation goal with a breakthrough and shot showcasing his individual skill against West Brom, who had scored two goals in the first 20 minutes with quick counter-attacks before properly locking the door.

“Haa… it can’t be helped. Steve Bruce is an expert in rebuilding teams around such a solid defense from the start.”

Although he drew a lot of anger from fans at Newcastle, his experience of somehow keeping Newcastle in the Premier League with an owner who provided even less support than Burnley’s was not something to be ignored.

Karolina clicked her tongue at Hyungmin’s rebuttal.

“You know this has been our weakness since last season, right? Teams that sit back and focus on counter-attacks are really bad matchups for us.”

“I know. I know, but…”

Hyungmin sighed.

“It’s not like we can immediately reorganize the team around precise passing. No, even if we did, could we break through something like that bus parking?”

A 10-back, or parking the bus [a defensive tactic where a team focuses on preventing the opponent from scoring rather than attacking].

This is an expression used to mock tactics that abandon attack and focus entirely on defense in the world of football.

The image of defenders clustered in front of the goal is likened to parking a bus, and the problem is that it works better than expected.

At least, you need to have the ability to smash through the bus and score, or to pull the bus out with precise passing and score.

In any case, to expect results beyond luck, you need to have the ability to overcome the bus, but right now, Burnley had nothing to rely on but luck.

Of course, the individual skills and passing abilities of the midfield and defense have improved a lot compared to last season.

Abdou Diallo and Anel Ahmedhodžić possess high-level passing skills along with James Tarkowski, and the midfielders added this year, Sebastian Szymański, Kristian Medina, Luka Sučić, and Tommaso Pobega, all have average or above-average passing abilities.

Moreover, Nico Gonzalez extended his loan, and Nicolas Seiwald is gradually opening his eyes to passing through special training.

Of course, if you ask if that’s enough to break through 10 players sitting in the penalty box, the only answer is no.

“Well, anyway, we’ve confirmed that starting Wout and Benjamin as a two-top is definitely not the way to go…”

“To have to take solace in that… it’s miserable.”

Karolina muttered, covering her face with her hands at Hyungmin’s words.

As a temporary measure, they even tried to break through the opponent’s defense with brute force by transforming into a 3-3-4 formation and putting both giant center forwards in, but strangely, having two giant forwards in the penalty box at the same time only caused confusion throughout the team.

“This… I think we need to start thinking about this from now on.”

Hyungmin sighed again at Karolina’s words.

“Haa… that last game was really…”

***

[…It was terrible.]

[Unfortunately, I have to agree this time.]

Late at night.

A sports program featuring experts, former managers, and players as panelists discussing football is airing on TV, after the late-night news has ended.

In a dark room with all other lights turned off, only the light and sound from the TV filled the space.

[Actually, it’s not something we couldn’t have predicted, but I think manager Kim was complacent.]

Game scenes are being replayed on the large screen behind the panelists sitting in a semicircle.

Solid defense and intense counter-attacks.

The scenes of Burnley being defeated 4-1 by West Ham under the guidance of David Moyes, who doesn’t hold onto unnecessary pride, appear one after another on the screen.

[Steve Bruce, the manager of West Brom, has already shown how weak teams can beat Burnley.]

Along with the host’s comment, the scenes of conceding goals from the previous West Brom game appear on the screen.

The same scene appears, with 10 players defending and 1 attacker launching a quick counter-attack to score.

The only difference is that Callum Robinson is launching the counter-attack in West Brom’s striped uniform, and Michail Antonio or Jarrod Bowen are launching the counter-attack in West Ham’s claret and blue uniform.

[The defensive organization has deteriorated a lot as the squad was significantly reorganized through the summer transfer market, but until now, they have somehow managed to hold on with the strengthened attack, but now it seems that there are limits to that. The strengthened attack is blocked by the defense, and the weakened defense is stabbed with counter-attacks, clearly revealing the loopholes.]

As the other panelists nod at one of the panelists’ points, another panelist joins in.

[Burnley’s manager Kim has many great aspects in other areas, but tactically, he is too rigid. He needs to approach tactics more flexibly, but he lacks a lot in that area.]

[Karolina Stefan, who was newly appointed this time, was also an excellent player, but she has no coaching experience at that top level. It was a mistake for the Burnley board or Football Director Jonathan Landris not to hire a more experienced coaching staff to compensate for manager Kim’s shortcomings.]

[It’s closer to dereliction of duty than a mistake.]

A sharp point from a panelist who had been listening to the conversation quietly.

They are only not talking about sacking the manager because he won the Manager of the Year award last season and the team is still in the upper ranks.

Criticism of the manager has shifted to the coaching staff, and criticism of the coaching staff has shifted to the board and the Football Director.

[In fact, all of this is largely the responsibility of the club and the manager for not properly strengthening the squad in the summer transfer market. They only signed too many young players. They too easily released veterans who had Premier League experience and could immediately help the team, and the players who filled those spots are still lacking in skill.]

[It seems that manager Kim not working more closely with the club while spending his summer vacation in Korea was a big factor. It was the most important time for team reorganization, but returning to his home country for personal matters was nothing short of imprudent.]

[Or maybe he’s been in the East for too long and his resistance to the West has weakened. The teams that inflicted two consecutive defeats on him in the Premier League this time are all related to the West. West Brom, West Ham. Since the manager is from the Orient, he is weak against the West…]

The criticism directed at the manager again is slowly crossing the danger line.

Click!

The lights in the dark room turned on at the same time as the TV turned off.