Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 8

8: Interim Manager

People in Burnley often say there are only two kinds of people in Burnley:

Current fans of Burnley Football Club (alive) and former fans of Burnley Football Club (not alive).

It’s a small town so obsessed with football that they built a 20,000-seat stadium in a town of 70,000 people (in the days of standing room, they could squeeze in 50,000!).

Fortunately, neither Helena nor Hyungmin were well-known in Burnley. The other guests simply glanced at the outsiders, assuming they were tourists, and didn’t bother approaching them.

Helena, who had ordered an iced caramel macchiato, grande size, wasn’t entirely confident in the skills of a British barista in a rural town like Burnley. Still, she savored the taste of civilization as she looked at the young Asian interim manager sitting across from her, sipping an iced Americano.

“Congratulations on your first win, Manager Kim.”

“Thank you. But I’m only in charge for one game.”

Hyungmin answered, scratching the back of his head, seemingly embarrassed by Helena’s greeting.

Helena was taken aback by Hyungmin’s answer.

“Oh, haven’t you heard yet?”

“Heard what?”

Helena carefully looked around, and after confirming that no one was close enough to eavesdrop, she lowered her voice.

“Well… there’s a slight, well, a very minor issue in appointing a new manager.”

*For example, all the candidates on the list declined,* Helena muttered in her mind.

“A minor issue?”

“Yes. Anyway, it will be resolved soon, but in the meantime, you’ll have to put in a little more effort.”

“Um… to be clear, does that effort mean I’ll be leading the first team in the next game as well?”

“Yes, that’s right. You did well in the last game, so just keep doing what you’re doing.”

Hyungmin sighed.

“Well, I understand.”

“You don’t seem very happy. Didn’t you want to be the first team manager?”

“I wanted to be someday, but I’m overwhelmed because I have to take on the role so suddenly when I’m still a novice who doesn’t know anything. I haven’t even properly managed a youth team game at this level yet.”

Helena smiled at the words of the young interim manager who confessed so honestly.

“That may be so, but do you know what we say in my family at times like this?”

“What do you say?”

“Enjoy it while it lasts.”

Hyungmin pondered Helena’s words and slowly nodded.

“Hmm, that’s a good saying.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Then, have you ever had such an experience?”

“Of course.”

Helena said playfully, winking one eye. Hyungmin responded,

“Um… later, if there’s a chance, could you tell me about it?”

“Ah, it’s not that great.”

Helena said, recalling old memories with a faint smile.

“After graduating from college, the foolish daughter of the representative who joined the family-run fund insisted on following the director who was dispatched to normalize a failing mine in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. She said she wanted to gain experience on the field.”

Helena continued the story, chuckling.

“But guess what? On the day I arrived in Brazil, John, the director who was dispatched, was unfortunately rushed back to the United States with acute appendicitis, and the Cartwright Fund didn’t have enough manpower to send a new one. After all, it’s a family office, so it doesn’t have a lot of staff.”

“Oh, what’s a family office?”

“Um… it’s a term for funds that are managed by families. Well, it’s not like only family members work there. It’s much smaller than the bulge bracket investment banks on Wall Street.”

Hyungmin didn’t know what a bulge bracket was, but he roughly guessed that it meant a big bank and nodded.

“Thanks to that, I was able to learn Portuguese, mining, production management, human resources management, restructuring, and even turnaround management all at once in the middle of the Amazon. I slept about 2 hours a day?”

Helena gave a slightly self-deprecating smile as if she was dumbfounded.

“I had just graduated from college, and I was meeting people from morning to night without rest, making decisions about things I didn’t know anything about. At night, I was crying and looking for data to see if the decisions I made during the day were correct. It was in the middle of the Amazon, but if I couldn’t connect to the internet via satellite, I might have gone crazy.”

“So, did you save the mine?”

“No. It completely failed!”

Helena burst into laughter at Hyungmin’s bewildered expression.

“There was a reason why it was failing! Mines eventually run out of reserves. No matter how much you reduce costs and increase productivity, some things just can’t be done. In the end, all the miners who worked at the mine were laid off, and the mine was closed.”

Helena stirred the remaining iced caramel macchiato with a straw and continued.

“Oh my god, do you know how many documents you have to submit when you close a mine? I translated all kinds of documents that I couldn’t even imagine in my dreams into Portuguese and submitted them to the Brazilian government. I fought with officials and lawyers… Finally, after it was all over, I went back to my hotel room in Brasilia and drank a whole bottle of cachaça [a Brazilian spirit made from sugarcane] by myself, crying. I reaffirmed the valuable lesson that my dad’s intuition can be wrong sometimes.”

Hyungmin hesitated, not knowing what to say, and chose the safest topic.

“What’s cachaça?”

“It’s a type of rum made in Brazil. It’s made from sugar cane… I’ll send you a bottle later if I have the chance.”

Helena smiled, looking at Hyungmin’s still dark face.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s all in the past. It’s been over 5 years since I last had a nightmare about the mine.”

Helena grinned as she saw Hyungmin’s face turn slightly pale.

“But what I’m most proud of is that I managed to raise funds to give severance pay to all the miners who lost their jobs, and I was able to arrange other jobs for most of them. You can’t always succeed, but at least you can treat the people who worked hard with you fairly. Kim, if a new manager is appointed, I’ll make sure to secure a youth team manager position for you!”

“Oh, that sounds like you want me to go back to the youth team manager position?”

Helena chuckled at Hyungmin’s slightly grumpy retort.

“Enjoy it while it lasts. You never know what will happen in the world.”

***

“Enjoy it while it lasts.”

Arthur, who was sitting next to him, looked at Hyungmin as he muttered while contemplating the strategy for the next game in the conference room.

“Are you sick?”

“No. I’m just trying to enjoy this moment.”

“Did the board appoint a new manager?”

Hyungmin tried to suppress the rising irritation at Arthur’s sarcastic remark and answered.

“No. I’m just trying to focus on the next game.”

“Hmph. Well, even if the board appoints a manager tomorrow, it’ll be too late for the next game, so you’ll have to lead it anyway.”

Feeling like he kept hearing the phantom sounds of ‘someone like you,’ ‘someone like you,’ and ‘someone like you,’ Hyungmin tried to focus on the tactical board in front of him.

***

Brentford Football Club, one of the many clubs located in London, is famous in the football world for its unique management philosophy.

Of course, Brentford was also a newcomer who succeeded in being promoted for the first time since the English first division was reorganized into the Premier League, but it was more famous for the unique philosophy of its owner, Matthew Benham.

Matthew Benham, who had been a Brentford fan since he was a child, was a professional gambler and a believer in statistics. Unlike the existing football world, he insisted on recruiting players and forming teams through thorough statistics and analysis.

In 2012, when his hometown team Brentford, which was in the third division, faced bankruptcy, Benham accepted the earnest request of the fan club and took over the club.

Brentford’s new owner declared that they could not win in the same way as rival teams with much richer budgets, financial resources, and history and tradition.

The subsequent move shocked the football world. They drastically eliminated the reserve team and youth team, which everyone accepted as common sense, and started operating a B team, operating in a way similar to the so-called ‘Moneyball’ that Oakland had attempted in Major League Baseball.

After that, Brentford went through many ups and downs for 8 seasons, but gradually advanced to the second division, settled there, and finally succeeded in being promoted to the long-awaited Premier League in the 2020/21 season.

After enduring a long period of patience and finally entering the Premier League, Brentford was assigned the opening game as an away game against Brighton, so they had not yet shown the Premier League football that their home fans had been waiting for in front of their home fans.

Brentford’s next opponent, who drew in the first game, has been in the Premier League for a much longer period of time than them, but is Burnley, whose current power is considered to be inferior.

Everyone and the players related to the Brentford club were determined to decorate the first home game of the Premier League, which they were looking forward to, with a victory against them.

Of course, Hyungmin was focusing all his attention on applying his tactics to Burnley, regardless of such historical moments and resolutions of Brentford.

“As expected, Brentford’s formation is 5-3-2, with Brian Mbeumo and Ivan Toney as the two tops, Vitaly Janelt, Frank Onyeka, and Christian Norgaard as midfielders, and Bruno Valdez, Kristoffer Ayer, and Pontus Jansson as defenders, and Rico Henry and Mads Roerslev as left and right wingbacks.”

Half an hour before the game started.

While the home team’s cheering song, which the home fans were shouting loudly outside, was faintly heard through the walls of the away team’s locker room, Hyungmin gathered the players and calmly re-examined the tactics for the last time.

“First of all, Brentford will occupy the space with a total of 8 players in the center with 3-3-2, and the wingbacks will move up and down the sidelines on the left and right flanks. In particular, these wingbacks are the main attack route, so it is important to block them well. When they develop the ball to the side, Dwight and Charlie will be responsible for blocking the left, and Jay and Matt will be responsible for blocking the right.”

The left-wing attacker Dwight McNeil and left-back Charlie Taylor, and the right-wing attacker Jay Rodriguez and right-back Matt Lowton, who were scheduled to start, nodded.

“The midfielders should also actively help. If you press forward like last time, the ball will go out to the side, and if you block the two wingbacks well at that time, there won’t be a big problem. Toney and Mbeumo are good attackers, but they are inferior to Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who we blocked in the last game.”

At Hyungmin’s words, Burnley’s center backs Ben Mee and James Tarkowski, who tied Everton’s center forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin to a rating of 5 in the last game, nodded with confidence.

“They’re not a difficult opponent. If we concentrate well, we can finish it easily!”

“Good. Let’s do it!”

As the manager’s instructions were finished, captain Ben Mee stood up and looked around the players, raising morale.

“For ever and ever! Who are we?”

“We are Burnley!”

Burnley’s players responded, renewing their determination.

And the actual game proceeded like magic according to Hyungmin’s words.