Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 219

219: The Last Break

“I was watching TV yesterday, and…”

It was the afternoon after the Barcelona match.

The team had been given a day off until tomorrow after recovery training.

With the Premier League Round 36 match against Aston Villa scheduled exactly one week after the Barcelona game, it was practically the last break of the season.

Now, there were at least 4 games left, and a maximum of 5.

In the Premier League standings, they were in 2nd place, 3 points behind 1st.

In the Champions League semi-finals, they were at a disadvantage, trailing 1-3 after the first leg.

They could push harder, or they could stumble here.

With each game being so important, the players who received the day off weren’t overly joyful.

Of course, the expressions of captain Nicolas Seiwald and vice-captain Tomaso Pobega, glaring at the team with the look of someone ready to separate necks from torsos if anyone did anything unnecessary, might have dampened the joy of the day off a bit.

Anyway, enjoying the unusually sunny April weather in the northwest of England, Hyungmin was taking a walk in the woods outside Burnley, led by Helena.

“Hmm…?”

Helena chuckled at Hyungmin’s expression, which urged her to continue.

“I don’t really understand the psychology of guys who propose in crowded places.”

“Ah… crowded places?”

Seeing Hyungmin’s puzzled expression, Helena sighed inwardly and continued her explanation.

“Like proposing at halftime during a game, or in the middle of Times Square with tons of people… it’s like they’re desperate for attention.”

A proposal should be a precious moment shared only with loved ones.

“I would really hate to receive a proposal like that.”

“Ah, I see.”

Hyungmin nodded and walked on absentmindedly, then suddenly stopped.

“Hyungmin?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I just remembered a text I need to send urgently.”

Hyungmin suddenly rummaged through his pockets, found his phone, and started typing a message.

“Hoo…”

After sending the text, Hyungmin tilted his head and looked at Helena.

“Is there anything else?”

“Anything else?”

“Well, I mean…”

Hyungmin desperately searched for an escape.

“I mean, about that TV show from yesterday! I was wondering if there were any proposals you didn’t like!”

“Ah, so you’re asking if there was anything I didn’t like from the TV show?”

Hyungmin smiled awkwardly at Helena’s question, raising one golden eyebrow.

“Well, you can talk about what you liked too…”

“Well, then…”

Helena started walking alongside Hyungmin again and began to speak.

“I like music, but I don’t like anything too flashy, right?”

“…Bands are good, but flashy music is bad…”

Hyungmin muttered as he started texting again.

“The location should be somewhere meaningful, I think.”

“…A meaningful location…”

“But that doesn’t mean we have to go somewhere weird, right? Just a nice place. Somewhere meaningful to us.”

“…A place meaningful to us. Doesn’t have to be weird…”

Hyungmin muttered as he continued to text.

“Hyungmin?”

“Yes?”

Helena stared intently at Hyungmin.

“You’re getting a call. Don’t you need to answer it?”

“Oh, it’s Taejin. It’s probably not important.”

Hyungmin lightly declined the call and smiled awkwardly at Helena.

“So, Helena, do you have any particular preferences for the ring?”

At Hyungmin’s question, Helena stopped abruptly, and her gaze turned icy as it landed on Hyungmin’s face.

“The ring? Isn’t the ring something the man should pick out on his own?”

Hyungmin was flustered by the sudden drop in temperature.

“Uh… uh… I mean, for example, between a 1.3-carat round brilliant cut and a 1.5-carat cushion cut, which would you like more?”

“Hmm…”

Helena tilted her head, her gaze still fixed on Hyungmin’s face.

“That’s a very specific question. I didn’t know you were interested in rings.”

“Oh… uh… I mean, the players were asking.”

“The players? Which of the players is proposing?”

Growing desperate, Hyungmin mentally ran through the team roster.

Starting with the forwards by position… they’re all out.

The midfielders are either single or already married.

Among the defenders…

“Ah, Oscar! Oscar is proposing to his girlfriend!”

“Oscar? Didn’t Oscar break up with his girlfriend?”

Hyungmin started sweating at Helena’s question.

“Uh… they’re getting back together… supposedly?”

“Hmm…”

Helena slowly stroked her chin.

Helena, who had been watching Hyungmin tremble like a mouse waiting for its fate in front of a cat, finally made up her mind and started walking along the path again.

“The size of the ring isn’t important, but if I had to choose, wouldn’t a brilliant cut be prettier?”

“…Brilliant cut…”

Hyungmin muttered as he tapped on his phone.

“Hyungmin? Are you okay? It seems like you keep getting calls?”

“Just ignore them. I’m ignoring them too. So, is platinum a good material for the ring, or…”

“I think platinum is the prettiest.”

“…The ring is platinum…”

Helena chuckled at the sight of her boyfriend diligently muttering and texting.

“Hyungmin, your phone keeps ringing?”

“Just ignore it. I’m ignoring it too. So, what’s next?”

***

Hyungmin Kim’s text message history:

Hyungmin: […Don’t like crowded places.]

Hyungmin: […The location should be meaningful.]

That Bastard: […Hey, what does this mean?]

Hyungmin: […A place meaningful to us. Doesn’t have to be weird]

That Bastard: […What are you talking about?]

That Bastard: 1 missed call.

That Bastard: […Hey, aren’t you answering?! What are you doing?!]

That Bastard: 2 missed calls.

That Bastard: 3 missed calls.

Hyungmin: […Brilliant cut]

That Bastard: 4 missed calls.

That Bastard: […Is this bastard crazy on his day off?! You’re dead tomorrow!]

Hyungmin: […The ring is platinum.]

That Bastard: 5 missed calls.

Hyungmin: […The ring has a thin band. Don’t make the diamond too obvious.]

That Bastard: […STOP SENDING!!!]

***

“So?! Huh?! Your girlfriend gave you all the conditions, from the ring design to the proposal details? But why are you texting me about it and making a fuss on my day off?!”

“Nowhere… cough… suitable… cough… can you… I can’t breathe…”

First team meeting room.

The coach was pounding the table with his palm, but the middle-aged Portuguese married man watched the manager, whose neck was being strangled by the coach’s thick forearm that absolutely refused to accept defeat, with a look of disdain.

“Tsk, tsk. Everything you were preparing was exposed. You really have zero romance!”

“No… information gathering… cough… hey, let go of my arm…”

Of course, logically speaking, if you were to ask who is more experienced between the manager, who becomes useless as soon as he steps off the field, and the CEO, who has gone through all sorts of hardships at a young age and is revered as a goddess by the finance managers of not only Burnley Football Club’s employees but also football clubs all over Europe, you would naturally choose the CEO.

“Well, it’s a good thing. Helena has clear preferences anyway.”

Carolina, who had been watching the three men’s nonsense from the side, said.

“Of course, I don’t really understand her taste in men, but…”

Two of the three men, the married ones, nodded strongly, while the young manager, who had barely escaped the crisis of strangulation, gasped for breath on the table.

“Haa… haa… so Aston Villa is…”

“Ah, I don’t know anything about Aston Villa.”

Carolina waved her hand dismissively, dismissing concerns about Aston Villa.

The kids will take care of that.

“What’s important now is the second leg at Camp Nou [Barcelona’s home stadium].”

“Camp Nou…”

Taejin sighed.

“How is it? You’ve been there a few times when you played in Spain, right?”

“Hmm…”

At Carolina’s question, Taejin paused for a moment as if trying to recall.

“Well… it’s dirty.”

“…Huh?”

As Hyungmin blinked at the unexpected words, Taejin explained further.

“They’re endlessly harsh and critical of the away team, but tens of thousands of people who blindly follow their own team fill the 90,000-seat stadium and express their opinions on every action of the players and every decision of the referee for 90 minutes in a biased way.”

Of course, the home team gets criticized if they screw up badly.

But the away team is just unconditionally criticized.

It’s a really annoying stadium from the away team’s perspective.

The people who understood Taejin’s words nodded.

“So we have to face the undisputed number one team in La Liga [Spanish Football League] there this season.”

Barcelona’s strength had already been sufficiently confirmed in the first leg.

The tactical perfection is currently higher than Burnley’s, and the players’ skills are also higher, so various tactical attempts are possible.

“That’s a little envious.”

Hyungmin, who had been analyzing Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez’s double-pivot tactics last time, sighed slightly.

Being able to immediately implement new tactics that the players haven’t practiced beforehand is amazing.

Moreover, the fact that the tactics deployed in two areas can clash and return to each other without major problems.

“Well, we weren’t bad either.”

Carolina, who had been analyzing the end of the second half when a large number of substitutions and tactical changes took place, said.

“Lorenzo and Benjamin seized the opportunity well, and it was good that Tomaso coordinated the kids well to score a consolation goal, but isn’t it unrealistic to expect such opportunities to come in the second leg?”

At Hyungmin’s point, Carolina shook her head.

“The important thing is that the kids were able to seize the opportunity and knew how to make the moves to take advantage of it. After that, well…”

In football, a sport where you move non-stop for 90 minutes, the influence a manager can have after the game starts is extremely limited.

Of course, you can make substitutions or tactical changes, but basically, after the game starts, it proceeds variably as accumulated training and the individual judgment of the players combine.

“So, now we have the problem of how to use the two weeks we have left.”

At Taejin’s words, the other coaches nodded seriously, while Hyungmin shrugged.

“Do we really need to think about it that seriously?”

“Well, do you have any brilliant ideas?”

At the coaches’ hopeful expressions, Hyungmin smiled bitterly yet confidently.

“We just need to practice what we do best.”