Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 132

132: A Veteran from Korea

“Wise Men say!”

“Only fools rush in!”

“But I can’t help falling in love!”

“With us! Us! Us!”

*From the official Sutton United chant

“Haa…”

He had played in much bigger stadiums and in much more important games than this.

But maybe it was because he had returned after retiring.

Or maybe it was because he didn’t want to embarrass his friend, who had given him a coaching position and now a chance to play again, even if temporarily.

Or maybe it was because of that ridiculous chant.

Taejin Jeong, standing at the center spot of Sutton United’s 4,900-seat stadium, a team in the English 4th division, sighed deeply.

“Are you nervous, Coach Taejin?”

Asked Joe Gelhardt, standing next to him.

Taejin, seeing the 19-year-old prospect looking at him with wide eyes, looked at him, dumbfounded.

“No?”

“Hey, they say it’s better to admit when you’re nervous.”

“Who says?”

“Coach Stephan. He said so during mental management training. If you’re too nervous, admit it. And use that nervousness as a driving force to move to the next level.”

Taejin was speechless for a moment.

He had been a professional player for over 10 years in Korea and the Spanish Primera Liga [Spanish First Division].

On top of that, he was selected for the national team as a college student and participated in four World Cups. He was a member of the Century Club [players with 100+ international caps], having played in over 100 international matches for the national team, and held both the record for most appearances and most goals for the Korean national team.

He had reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup, and he had won the Asian Cup several times, but honestly, he didn’t remember exactly how many times because he didn’t usually memorize it.

“Haa… Joe.”

Looking down at the bright and affable prospect, Taejin barely suppressed a sigh.

“Just focus on doing well yourself, okay?”

“Yes…?”

“Damn it…!”

Hyeongmin, who was watching with his arms crossed in the technical area, barely managed to hold back the curse that was about to burst out.

Fortunately or unfortunately, someone else behind him was cursing instead.

However, the target of the curse was a little different from Hyeongmin.

“Just take him down!”

“Finish him! Good!”

“Damn it! That was good just now! Get your act together, you idiots!”
A roar that would have been more suitable for a mixed martial arts or wrestling match than a soccer game erupted from the stands.

In fact, the 5,000-seat stadium was small, and the technical area wasn’t large either, practically attached to the bench and the stands right behind it.

As Sutton United’s home fans, filling the stadium, were shouting encouragement and curses in their rough voices, Hyeongmin was also tempted to curse along.

“They’re definitely not in sync.”

Hyeongmin frowned at Karolina, who spoke in a calm voice next to him.

“That’s why making Taejin a player-coach doesn’t make sense!”

“This isn’t Taejin’s fault, is it? Rather, Max and Joe are the ones showing a disgrace.”

“Ugh…”

Hyeongmin kicked the innocent grass.

As Karolina pointed out coldly, there was nothing wrong with Taejin’s movements.

As if his month-long retirement after the World Cup was a lie, he was smoothly and skillfully moving in and out of the penalty box, drawing out Sutton United’s defenders and disrupting the defensive line.

It was natural for him to interfere with Sutton United’s game flow by appropriately joining the attack and pressing forward.

He was properly showing the presence of a top striker who was once considered one of the best in the mid-tier teams of the Primera Liga.

The problem was that Joe Gelhardt and Max Cornet, who played as left and right wingers, kept trying to dribble the ball too much and were being blocked by the opposing team’s midfielders and defenders.

Rather, Taejin was blocking the blocked attacks with forward pressure and cutting off counterattacks, so the one-sided game was being maintained, or else they would have already allowed several counterattacks.

“I’ll have to give them a good scolding at halftime…”

Karolina shrugged her shoulders at Hyeongmin, who was grinding his teeth and glaring, and gestured towards the field.

“I don’t think we’ll even make it to halftime. Look.”

“Ah…”

“Both of you, get your act together! What are you doing?!”

In a situation where the game was temporarily delayed for Burnley to take a corner kick, Taejin Jeong grabbed Max Cornet and Joe Gelhardt, who had entered the center of the penalty box to join the attack, and rebuked them in a low but rapid voice.

Usually, as if well aware of his position as a temporary coach, Taejin tends to encourage and gently point out mistakes rather than scold.

No, his personality itself may be like that outside the stadium.

But today, the French and English strikers, who were playing a professional game for the first time with the veteran striker from Korea, were properly experiencing what happens when this seasoned veteran gets angry.

“That’s not the tactical movement the manager asked for! Why are you dribbling the ball like that?!”

“Well, no… that’s…”

Unlike Max Cornet, who sensed something ominous and remained quietly silent, young Joe Gelhardt tried to argue but was immediately cut off.

“You don’t move like that in training! Are you looking down on Sutton United because they’re in the 4th division? Everyone here is a professional! Do you think that if you guys dribble in, they’ll back down and say, ‘Oh, you’re great Burnley players’?!”

The expressions of the Sutton United players, who vaguely heard the content of the conversation, although not in detail, were souring.

Max Cornet and Joe Gelhardt swallowed hard at the gazes of the opposing team’s players, who were glaring at them with fierce eyes.

In fact, in England, the lower the league, the rougher and more combative the physical play becomes.

The list of Premier League players who have been caught by lower league players in the Carabao Cup [EFL Cup] or FA Cup and had their arms or legs broken is quite long and has a deep history.

Naturally, Max Cornet and Joe Gelhardt shook their heads, not wanting to add their names to that list at all.

“Luca and Chris are supporting from behind, and Nico is there too! If the front is blocked, pass the ball back and just move your bodies! You guys keep drawing out the defenders, but you’re not coming in, so the center is empty and the attack isn’t continuing!”

The two players lowered their heads at the veteran striker’s rebuke, whose efforts to create space by moving non-stop for almost 30 minutes had been wasted.

“Get your act together! Unless you want to be substituted at halftime!”

At the last point, the two simultaneously turned their heads and looked at the away team’s technical area, as if they had promised to do so.

Even from here, you can clearly see the dark clouds gathering on the manager’s face, who has his arms crossed.

“Eek!”

Max Cornet, the biggest victim of the water bottle kick incident that marked a milestone in establishing discipline in the Burnley squad, was horrified.

“You see that? So do well from now on!”

“Yes!”

“Yep!”

Max Cornet and Joe Gelhardt both answered and ran to their respective positions.

Well, there’s no need to go far since it’s a corner kick situation anyway.

Watching his attacking partners move away, Taejin muttered quietly.

“I might get substituted too, you bastards…”

This is all I can do against a 4th division team in the FA Cup game?

Taejin shook his head, thinking about his high school classmate who would make that annoying expression every time he saw him for the next few weeks.

I can never allow that to happen.

I swear on my pride, Jeong Taejin!

***

“Ugh…”

Hyeongmin looked down at the game record with a dissatisfied expression.

It was in the FA Cup, against Sutton United, a 4th division team, and one of the goals was a penalty, but Taejin still scored two goals.

In the subsequent Premier League Round 22, he was substituted in the second half against promoted team West Bromwich Albion and contributed to a 2-0 victory by assisting on the wedge goal scored by Sebastian Szymanski.

And in the Premier League Round 23 away game against Norwich, he was put in during the second half and crushed Norwich’s desperate counterattacks to avoid a shutout through forward pressure and time-wasting.

He didn’t have the tremendous activity and vigor of the young Burnley players, but instead, he had the presence of a seasoned veteran in grasping the flow of the game and subtly pulling it in a favorable direction.

Hyeongmin also had to admit that Jonathan Landris’s boast that replacing Wout Weghorst with Taejin Jeong would not lead to a weakening of the team was not wrong.

Well, he knew it from the beginning.

“What?!”

Taejin, who was sitting across from him, raised both hands and shrugged his shoulders at Hyeongmin’s annoyed question.

It seems he started imitating South European hand gestures and expressions after hanging out with Karolina and the other coaching staff.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You looked like you wanted to say something! It was written all over your face!”

“Well, no…”

Taejin turned his head and pretended to look at the distant mountains.

“…Thank you to the veteran striker who wonderfully filled the gap in the team’s power. Thank you for saving the team from the crisis. Or, I admit that I couldn’t have done it without you. A good manager should say those things.”

Taejin raised the coach license textbook that was spread out in front of him and pointed at it with his finger.

“See, it’s written here.”

“I know that?! I have a UEFA Pro License [highest coaching license available in Europe]!”

“Oh, that’s great then. Well, I’m ready to listen anytime, so quickly feed me some compliments. Hehehe.”

Hyeongmin sighed and then chuckled at Taejin’s proud expression.

“Yeah, thanks. You bastard.”

“Well, it’s like receiving a bow while lying down, but it’s better than nothing at all.”

Taejin, who finished teasing his friend with a smile, made a slightly more serious expression.

“Are you nervous about PSG [Paris Saint-Germain]?”

“Yeah.”

Hyeongmin sighed deeply.

“Mbappe. Neymar. Messi. That alone is terrifying, but the midfielders, defenders, and even the goalkeeper are all world-class. On top of that, manager Galtier has improved that sandy organization with some kind of magic.”

Christophe Galtier is a veteran manager who has been a manager in the French Ligue 1 [French First Division] for as many as 13 years.

In the 2020/21 season, he led LOSC Lille to win the Ligue 1, defeating all the strong teams in Ligue 1 such as PSG, Olympique Lyonnais, AS Monaco, and Olympique de Marseille.

Of course, there were also evaluations that it was not at the level suitable for PSG, which has a lot of world-class stars and continues to challenge the European stage, but the trust of Luis Campos, who led the victory with Galtier at LOSC Lille and was appointed as the new football advisor at PSG last summer, was firm.

And with some kind of magic, manager Galtier took control of the PSG squad, which was notorious for its lack of cooperation and disharmony between players, as well as its sandy organization and poor defense system, compared to its outstanding offensive power.

Although they were eliminated in the group stage of the European Champions League, they fought well against Liverpool and Inter Milan in the same group, and he was reappointed because he was not given enough time at PSG, where the life of a manager is shorter than a mayfly.

The first leg of the Europa League Round of 16 against such PSG is less than 4 days away.

They have won all three games played in February, but it would be strange if the manager wasn’t nervous.

“It’s okay. You’ve done well enough just to get here.”

Taejin chuckled at his high school classmate, who was looking at him with a surprised expression.

“Yeah, you idiot. You came all the way here with your bare hands from nothing. I thought Burnley was a really rural place because it was called Burnley, but it’s like a town with nothing. Leading a hastily assembled team in a place like this and achieving these results is something to be proud of.”

In Korean terms, it’s like leading the Samcheok City soccer team in Gangwon Province and winning the national championship and competing in the Asian Cup.

Even that is like breaking through the gaps between the large clubs that are densely packed in the same Gangwon Province, if it is a slightly larger city.

“And PSG isn’t undefeated either, right? They’ve lost or drawn a game or two in Ligue 1 this season as well.”

That’s right.

They recorded 18 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss in 20 Ligue 1 games, and that 1 loss was against AS Monaco, where prospects sprout from the ground when you dig.

The draw was an away game against their derby rivals, Olympique de Marseille.

Taejin, who spoke, and Hyeongmin, who listened, both tried to ignore the fact that they both knew so well.

“Yeah. PSG isn’t invincible either.”

Taejin nodded solemnly at Hyeongmin’s words, who was comforting himself.

“Yeah. And I’m always there in case of an emergency! Hahaha!!”

“…Ugh.”

The young mastermind, knowing that he wouldn’t get anything out of attacking that giggling giant, just sighed deeply.