Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 80

80: Goodbye, Arthur

After a rough August when he first arrived in Burnley, Hyungmin finally made it down to the pitch where the first game had been held. Helena, drenched in champagne and sweat, approached Hyungmin and the team.

“Woo-hoo! Congratulations, Hyungmin!”

“Helena!”

Hyungmin, caught up in the team’s excitement, spotted Helena and shouted happily.

Helena smiled, seeing the young Asian manager waving with such enthusiasm but seeming unsure of what to do. She approached him and gave him a quick hug.

Hyungmin awkwardly returned the hug with one arm, hesitated, and then let go. Helena stepped back, her eyes shining.

“Thank you, Hyungmin.”

“No, I think I’m more grateful…”

“We wouldn’t have gotten this far without you, Hyungmin.”

As Hyungmin searched for a response, he heard the host’s voice from the sidelines.

“Coach Kim! The trophy presentation will begin soon! Please bring the players over!”

“Hurry! They won’t take the trophy away just because you’re late, but still!”

Helena smiled brightly and gestured for him to hurry. Hyungmin returned an awkward but bright smile and began gathering the players, who were scattered around celebrating.

“Alright, everyone! Let’s go get the trophy!”

“Woo-ah-ah!!!”

On the hastily erected stage on the field, the dejected runner-up team received their medals first. Then, the winning team took to the stage in turn.

As the coaching staff, players, and even the manager received their medals, captain Ben Mee finally took the trophy. He cheered and roared, heading to the center of the stage where the players and coaches stood shoulder to shoulder.

The Burnley captain smiled brightly at the players, who were laughing, shouting, and roaring.

“Forever and ever! Who are we?”

“We Are Burnley!!!”

Although the game and awards ceremony were over, the Aston Villa fans had departed like a receding tide, leaving behind about 45,000 Burnley fans – practically everyone in Burnley who could move – in a celebratory frenzy.

“Henry! Henry!”

Karim Adeyemi, wearing a championship t-shirt and hat, ran around madly spraying champagne everywhere. He spotted a familiar face among the fans cheering in the stands and shouted.

“This way! This way!”

The guards, who were preventing fans from entering the stadium, let Henry Tyler and his group through when the player directly pointed them out.

“Woo-hoo! It’s the championship! It’s the championship!”

The huge Henry Tyler, who lifted Karim Adeyemi up and put him down, introduced two middle-aged men who were equally excited next to him, as if snapping back to reality.

“Karim! This is my father, Mitch Tyler! And my father’s friend, Henry Smythe!”

“Hello!”

“Woo-hoo! It’s the championship!”

The two middle-aged men, who had not only seen their team lift the FA Cup for the first time in 60 years but also entered Wembley Stadium [the iconic English football stadium], the mecca of all English men, shouted with tears of joy.

The members of the (temporary) rental house, witnessing this scene, gathered.

“Henry!”

While Hannibal Mejbri and Nicolas Seiwald joined in and exchanged greetings through Henry Tyler’s introduction, Jacob Ramsey, a loanee from Aston Villa, whose parent team had unfortunately finished as runner-up, felt strange about celebrating the championship to his heart’s content. He led Nico Gonzalez and Oscar Mingueza over.

“Hahaha! It’s the best! It’s the best!”

“I’m going to keep this as a family heirloom from now on!”

The two men from the Tyler family and one man from the Smythe family, who took pictures with the players, received autographs, and even shared commemorative shirts and hats, shouted, unable to hide their joy.

***

Burnley Football Club reached the FA Cup final for the first time in 60 years since 1962.

They won the FA Cup for the first time in 108 years since 1914.

While all the British media reported on the ‘108 years of waiting,’ Hyungmin and Burnley’s coaching staff tried to calm the atmosphere.

Because there were still two games left in the Premier League, they promised the Burnley town mayor, who was celebrating wildly, to hold a championship parade after the season was over, and they warned the players not to get too caught up in the festive atmosphere of the previous day.

Of course, no one, including Hyungmin, actually expected the players to calm down their excitement in just one day.

Despite his warnings, he forcibly dragged the players, who were sprawled out enjoying the joy of winning, to complete a late morning recovery training session. Hyungmin and the coaching staff gathered in the conference room to have a brief discussion about the next game.

Hyungmin, sitting down and looking around at the coaching staff with their faces full of joy, suddenly realized something absurd.

“Huh? If we win the FA Cup, we automatically get a Europa League spot, right?”

“Uh… right?”

Arthur answered, scratching his head, to Hyungmin, who stood up and shouted as if he had realized something.

“Then we’re going to the Europa League whether we finish 6th or not, right?”

“Uh… I guess so…?”

Arthur’s face, following Hyungmin’s face, also lit up with realization.

Ignoring Paulo Morais, who was bewildered and looking back and forth between the two, Hyungmin asked Arthur again.

“And now there are two games left, and even if we win all of them and get 6 points, that makes 69 points. That means we can’t surpass Manchester United’s already secured 72 points, which is 4th place and gets a spot in the European Champions League? So we can’t go to the Champions League no matter what?”

“…Th, that’s right…”

“Arthur…”

Hyungmin leaned towards his head coach with a serious expression and whispered.

“…What the hell have we been doing?!”

But that afternoon, Helena, who heard Hyungmin’s words, was furious.

“Are you kidding me right now? Do you know how much the bonus increases every time the final ranking in the Premier League changes by one place? It’s 2 million pounds! Shut up and go raise the ranking as much as possible!”

***

Was it thanks to Helena’s angry nagging?

Or was it because they hadn’t recovered from the shock of losing the FA Cup yet?

Aston Villa, who visited Burnley for the Premier League 37th round while both teams had not yet fully recovered from the aftermath of the FA Cup final, suffered a crushing defeat of 3-0.

As the referee’s whistle blew, Aston Villa’s Steven Gerrard, struggling to contain his anger, shook hands with the home team manager who approached him and turned away.

“Coach Steven Gerrard doesn’t seem to be in a good mood either. We lost to them twice in May alone. They’ll be sharpening their knives and coming at us even harder next season, right?”

Hyungmin said to Arthur, who was standing next to him, as he shook hands and returned to his technical area.

Suddenly, a mixture of surprise and shouting erupted from the stands. Hyungmin was bewildered by the sight of the players and coaches on the home team’s bench all standing up, looking at him, gesturing, and shouting something.

“What are they pointing at like that… What is it, Arthur? Arthur?! Arthur!”

Hyungmin, walking towards the home team’s bench, turned to look at the empty seat next to him and saw his old head coach sitting on the floor, his maroon training uniform stained red with the blood he had vomited, looking up at him with a bewildered look.

“Arthur!!!”

Burnley’s team doctor, Simon Morris, led the medical staff and rushed over. Arthur was soon taken away in an ambulance waiting next to the stadium.

Helena was waiting for Hyungmin, who was in shock but had no choice but to finish the post-match interview in a daze.

“Arthur has been taken to the emergency room at Burnley General Hospital. They’ll take emergency measures there and then move him to a bigger hospital if necessary.”

Hyungmin, sitting next to Helena, who had become proficient at driving in England, couldn’t shake off the shock.

“…What…?”

“I don’t know either. I think we’ll have to go to the hospital and hear the doctor’s explanation. Simon is at the hospital too, so we can hear the explanation together.”

Although it was only a few minutes from Turf Moor [Burnley’s stadium], it felt like more than an hour had passed before the two arrived and rushed into the emergency room of Burnley General Hospital.

“Simon!”

“Kim! Helena!”

Burnley’s team doctor, Simon Morris, greeted the two at the entrance to the emergency room.

“How’s Arthur? Is he okay?”

“He’s stable now. We’ve decided to keep him in the hospital for now to monitor his progress.”

“What happened?!”

Simon Morris raised both hands to calm the urgent manager.

“Now, Kim. I know you’re upset, but getting excited won’t help the patient or the family. Clarissa is in the hospital room next to Arthur right now.”

“…!”

Hyungmin and Helena were both surprised to hear that Arthur’s wife was in the hospital room.

“…Is it something serious?”

Helena asked cautiously, and Simon Morris shook his head slightly.

“Arthur has always had a bad stomach, and his eating habits and lifestyle haven’t been good either. You know, he’s always drinking that cheap whiskey.”

The two, who had secretly drunk that cheap whiskey several times, nodded.

“He was already diagnosed with a stomach ulcer before the season, but he obviously didn’t take his medicine properly and ignored all the dietary issues. It seems like it got worse during the season. After all, his body couldn’t handle the stress on top of a bad lifestyle and no management.”

“Oh, dear…”

While Helena muttered quietly, Hyungmin shook his head and asked.

“Can I see Arthur? Is he conscious?”

“He’s conscious, and it’ll be okay for a little while. Wait a minute. I’ll ask the doctor in charge and come back.”

Although it was a small hospital, the hospital room was neatly organized.

While Helena and Simon Morris waited in the hallway, Hyungmin, who came into the hospital room alone, frowned at the strong smell of medicine.

The old head coach, who was sitting halfway up in bed and opened his eyes at the sound of the door opening, smiled faintly at the sight of his young manager coming in with a tearful face and gestured for him to sit next to him.

“Thanks to you, I had a good dream.”

Arthur, who had lost his usual complexion and turned pale, said to Hyungmin, who was approaching him.

Hyungmin, sitting in the chair next to the bed, realized for the first time how wrinkled the old Englishman’s face was.

Each of the deep wrinkles etched on his face contained a much longer history than Hyungmin had lived.

“I originally failed as a player. And then I worked hard to teach the kids, but I don’t think I can say I was great. If a good kid came, he became a good player, and if a bad kid came, he couldn’t even become a player.”

“That alone is great.”

Hyungmin said, but Arthur continued to speak as if he hadn’t heard Hyungmin’s words.

“So when Sean first told me about you, when you first came, I was very worried. In fact, there are more than a few people who give up their playing career because they get injured at a young age like us, and they have no choice but to go down that path because all they know is soccer. But for some reason, I felt like I saw the same shadow as me in you.”

While Hyungmin was silent, Arthur continued slowly.

“But what do you know? This young rookie manager took over the first team and started writing miracles one line at a time. On the one hand, I was happy, and on the other hand, I was envious and felt self-loathing.”

Arthur, who was breathing heavily for a moment, continued.

“To have the opportunity to coach a Premier League first team at this old age… And while that friend is working so hard to climb up step by step at such a young age, I wondered what I had been doing all this time. But watching the Clarets [Burnley’s nickname] fly high, I think I only felt joy.”

“Arthur…”

Arthur grabbed Hyungmin’s hand with strength.

“I think this is the end of the road for me. I was going to retire last summer anyway, but thank you for helping me have a good dream for another year. You’ll do well in the future too.”

“Arthur… keep helping me. I need Arthur. You can’t die!”

At Hyungmin’s sobbing words, Arthur looked dumbfounded.

“Who’s dying! It’s just a stomach ulcer!”

“…Huh? Doesn’t a stomach ulcer lead to stomach cancer?”

“No! You idiot! It just means you have to rest absolutely and you’ll get better!”

“Then what’s with Clarissa being in the next room?! I heard she collapsed in shock?”

“Who collapsed! She just came to the hospital and said she was going to get a checkup too! She said her blood pressure went up because she was surprised by me. She’ll be back soon!”

In an absurd situation, Hyungmin suddenly started laughing at the sudden sense of relief.

“Ah, don’t laugh! How can such an idiot be a Premier League manager! Hey, you forged your UEFA Pro License [highest coaching license in Europe], didn’t you? How did a fool like you pass the screening?!”