Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 183

183. Victory Complete

The last 8 minutes.

Now the game had completely devolved into a brawl.

Players collided all over the field, and those who fell on the grass got up and chased the ball before the referee’s whistle could even blow.

Arsenal was pushing Burnley hard to reclaim the victory that was within their grasp.

And Burnley was charging at Arsenal to fully secure the victory they had once lost.

Amidst the fierce tackles and physical battles happening everywhere, Burnley’s midfield destroyer duo, Nicolas Seiwald and Patrick De Paula, shone the brightest.

“Nicky!”

As Arsenal’s Martin Ødegaard dribbled the ball, quickly breaking through the center, Patrick De Paula blocked him, slowing him down initially.

The young midfielder, a point of pride for the Norwegian national team, gracefully turned his body to the right, shaking off Patrick De Paula who was sticking to him, but his speed inevitably decreased.

And that was enough time and space for Nicolas Seiwald, who was rushing in to support.

“Ugh!”

Martin Ødegaard gritted his teeth, trying to withstand the rough impact from the opposing player colliding from the side, but Nicolas Seiwald, skillfully using the momentum of his run, pushed the opposing player off the ball.

He was pushed back several steps, but the impact wasn’t strong enough to make him fall. Even if he had fallen, the referee wouldn’t have blown the whistle, but as if he had no intention of doing so, Martin Ødegaard immediately regained his balance and lunged at Nicolas Seiwald.

“Give it back!”

“No way!”

Nicolas Seiwald roughly pushed away the opposing team’s midfielder, who was aggressively trying to steal the ball, with his solid forearm, while simultaneously pushing the ball forward to Patrick De Paula, who was running up ahead.

Patrick De Paula slowed down his running speed due to the clumsy pass sent in haste, and Arsenal players began to swarm him like bees to steal the ball back.

From the front was Arsenal’s midfielder Thomas Partey, from behind was Amine Gouiri, who had switched his position to attacking midfielder, and from the right flank was Arsenal’s left-back Kieran Tierney.

With three directions closing in on him, Patrick De Paula raised his right foot and swung it strongly, sending a long pass towards the left sideline.

“Ah!!”

At the perfect moment, the pass was met with gasps from the crowd, and Burnley’s gem, Dwight McNeil, lightly chested the ball down on the sideline.

Although the details were different, it was almost the same situation as the third goal.

Dwight McNeil placed his left foot on the ball and scanned the field.

Arsenal’s right-back, Ben White, whose gritted teeth were clearly visible, seemed to remember being easily outmaneuvered before, and was running towards him to block his path rather than attempting a tackle.

A good choice, but that meant he had to slow down at the end to stop in front of Dwight McNeil.

Sure enough, as soon as Ben White slightly reduced his speed, Dwight McNeil sprang out like a spring.

“Oh no!”

Ben White screamed as he realized his mistake, caught off balance, but Dwight McNeil had already passed him on his right with the ball.

Arsenal’s two central defenders were stuck to Benjamin Šeško, who had re-entered the center of the penalty box, to block a possible cross to him.

Sensing the situation, Benjamin Šeško was instead stepping back, pulling the defenders out of the penalty box.

“Support me!”

Goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale shouted as he rushed out of the goal, but there was no one to support him.

With the two central defenders hesitating, Dwight McNeil had already entered the penalty box.

“I’ll go!”

William Saliba, who was standing a little closer, shouted and took a step, but it was already too late.

At a point where neither the opposing goalkeeper nor the defenders had approached.

Dwight McNeil lifted his left foot with the same penetrating speed and gently flicked the ball up.

“Ooh!!”

The stands were once again filled with gasps as the ball, with a slight rightward spin, quickly rose and then gently fell, passing through the upper right corner of Arsenal’s goal.

A chip shot that slightly cleared the desperately outstretched hand of the goalkeeper.

“Uwaaa!!!”

The Burnley players, raising both hands in the air, all ran towards Dwight McNeil, who was standing proudly in the penalty box.

87 minutes into the second half.

Burnley had finally regained the lead, 4-3.

***

Nicolas Seiwald couldn’t quite remember how the rest of the game went when he looked back on it later.

Unlike a game with 7 goals, there weren’t many fouls, so the added time was only 3 minutes.

As manager Eddie Howe vehemently protested to the fourth official, there was only a clash between the Arsenal players, who were desperately trying to score an equalizer, and the Burnley players, who were desperately resisting to protect their victory.

Even a usually calm player like Arsenal’s winger Bukayo Saka was making aggressive tackles, and Nicolas, who was running around breathlessly, disrupting the opposing team’s attacks, finally collapsed on the grass as soon as the referee’s whistle blew.

The surrounding Burnley players also had expressions mixed with relief and exhaustion rather than the joy of victory.

The Arsenal players also couldn’t hide their dejected expressions and were sitting down all over the field.

As Nicolas Seiwald was burying half his face in the cold grass between relief and self-reproach, he heard someone approaching.

“Not as easy as you thought, was it?”

He raised his head and saw his young manager smiling down at him.

“No.”

“Right. Just don’t let your guard down next time.”

“I guess so.”

As if he had said all he needed to say, the manager smiled at him and left for another player sprawled on the field.

Nicolas Seiwald, who had been burying his face in the grass for a long time, finally turned over and looked up at the night sky, faintly visible between the intense lights.

***

Beep!

The TV turned on, and a post-match press conference video began to play.

“…Manager Howe is a master tactician [a highly skilled and strategic manager]. I think Arsenal should give him enough time.”

In the screen, Hyungmin was answering the reporter’s question with a tired but calm expression.

“…But Arsenal’s recent performance has been consistently poor. They ended up losing to Burnley in today’s game as well.”

The reporter who asked the first question countered.

Hyungmin shook his head and continued to explain.

“…Victory and defeat can happen at any time. Burnley also struggled at the beginning of the season, but they succeeded in rebounding as the players’ condition recovered. I also know that Arsenal has been suffering from injuries to excellent players like Bukayo Saka. I think their performance will recover as these issues are resolved.”

Although he didn’t look completely satisfied, the reporter who had already used his opportunity sat down, and another reporter stood up.

“…Lucas Michael from Daily Sports. I really enjoyed today’s game. You mentioned Bukayo Saka. Would you ever consider coaching Bukayo Saka?”

The question from the reporter, who was known to be strongly pro-Arsenal, caused low laughter in the press conference room.

It was already an open secret that Hyungmin was the undisputed number one candidate among Arsenal fans who were tired of the poor performance that had been going on for several seasons since manager Arsène Wenger’s retirement.

Hyungmin tried to hide his fatigue and decided to answer the question directly.

“…Uh… If I have the opportunity? The opportunity to coach a great player is always enjoyable. He’s always welcome to come to Burnley.”

This time, the laughter in the press conference room was even louder.

As the questioner sat down and the next reporter was about to stand up.

Beep!

The TV turned off again, and Hyungmin’s gaze, which had been watching the TV, was blocked by a person.

“Isn’t that too much? It’s my day off.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. It’s just become a habit.”

Helena, who was looking at Hyungmin sprawled on the sofa with her hands on her hips, smiled slightly.

“Come on, get up.”

“…?”

As Hyungmin got up with a puzzled expression, Helena handed him the things she had prepared.

A plain black baseball cap and sunglasses that could be found anywhere.

Hyungmin looked down at the things in his hand with a bewildered expression.

“What is this?”

“What else? It’s a disguise.”

“I can’t go out to Burnley town with just this…”

He couldn’t avoid the fanatical devotion of the Burnley residents, who could recognize their manager just by his walk.

“Heh. Of course, we can’t go to Burnley. We’re going to Manchester!”

“Manchester?”

“Of course. There are so many people there anyway, and lots of tourists, so we won’t stand out much.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“That’s right! You haven’t really seen Manchester properly yet. I’ll show you around.”

Hyungmin, who had been planning to stay holed up in his office, which was more comfortable than his house, on his day off, smiled slightly at Helena’s expectant expression.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

“Great!”

***

“…Over there is the City of Manchester Stadium, home of the Manchester City football team. It is now also called the Etihad Stadium after its sponsor, and this stadium with 53,400 seats was originally built when Manchester hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2002…”

“Ooh!”

Without really listening to the guide’s explanation, the tourists all took out their cell phones and cameras and started taking pictures of the stadium.

Helena, who had been letting the guide’s explanation flow in one ear while on the double-decker bus touring Manchester, looked up at Hyungmin.

“…If these people knew who you were, they’d go crazy, wouldn’t they?”

“Shh!”

Hyungmin warned Helena, who was giggling, but he also chuckled.

People glanced at the young Asian man wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, and the Western woman wearing a baseball cap as well, but there were many couples on the second floor who were more interested in each other than in sightseeing, so it wasn’t very noticeable.

Thanks to that, the tourists who were taking pictures of the stadium from the outside and checking the stadium tour times had no idea that the man sitting quietly in the back with his girlfriend was the manager of Burnley, who had fought several bloody battles against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.

“Haa, I really wanted to do something like this.”

Helena muttered, leaning her head on Hyungmin’s shoulder.

“Riding an open-top double-decker bus in the cold English autumn?”

“Aww!”

Helena pretended to hit Hyungmin at his teasing, but she didn’t actually make contact with her fist.

No matter how much she pretended not to, she knew her strength well.

With great power comes great responsibility.

“Walking around or wandering around the streets with you like this? Eating something delicious in a place other than a restaurant where you have to order food or book a room in advance?”

“Hey. People won’t recognize me if we just get out of Burnley.”

Helena gave Hyungmin an absurd look at his words.

“Hyungmin, I’m a little hesitant to say this… but if you were to pick the most famous Asian person in Europe right now, number one would be Kim Jong-un of North Korea and number two would be you. No, in fact, if you just look at faces instead of names, they might know you better.”

If you live in Europe, you can’t avoid news related to soccer, and if you’ve been exposed to news related to soccer for the past two seasons, you can’t avoid news about this young Asian manager who is shaking up European soccer at Burnley.

Helena smiled cutely at Hyungmin, who looked embarrassed by her compliment.

“I hope we can do things like this often in the future.”

“Couldn’t we do it from time to time? When we’re a little less busy?”