New Manchester United's Newton Heath training ground was located next to Newton Heath Brookdale Park. The two were separated only by a quiet, tree-lined path. Surrounded by residential houses, there were very few passers-by, which made the place especially peaceful.
Whether by fate or by coincidence, the road outside Brookdale Park was called Droylsden Road, even though it was far from the Droylsden district where Butcher's Arms was located.
When renting this area as a training ground, Ethan specifically rented the row of houses closest to Droylsden Road. Three of them were turned into New Manchester United's club offices, while the others were renovated into changing rooms for the training ground and other functional rooms.
Although the area was large, it lacked many facilities, which made the whole training ground look rather empty.
During the period when several nearby schools sent their young players here for training, Cassel had the grass pitches divided up. Half was reserved for the first team, while the rest was set aside for those young players. He, together with Hampson and two newly hired assistants, stood on the touchline watching, taking notes from time to time.
As soon as word spread that New Manchester United was recruiting players, besides students from nearby schools such as Windsor, Newton, and Cambridge, many fan parents also brought their children over. New Manchester United turned no one away.
As a result, during those few days of trials, New Manchester United almost turned into a youth scouting camp.
Because the schools had to balance academics, the children's trials could only be held intermittently, which added to the difficulty of New Manchester United's trial work. So during those few days, Ethan and Walsh also joined in to help, busy to the point of exhaustion.
Since this was only the first batch for the youth setup, New Manchester United only planned to recruit children aged 10 to 16 for the time being, then divide them into different groups according to numbers and age. This was also because New Manchester United currently lacked the manpower and resources to do more.
"A total of 367 students took part in the trials this time. After the selection process, we finally decided to keep 40 young players." Cassel was a kind and gentle middle-aged man. His tone was always especially mild, and he was very patient with children, guiding them step by step.
Sometimes Ethan felt that only someone with Cassel's personality could spend more than thirty years working in a youth academy. It was said that he had started by coaching the youngest age group, teaching those children how to play football by hand, before being noticed by Eric Harrison, promoted directly to assistant coach, and then following him for nearly twenty years.
"Does that include Messi and Curtis?" Ethan asked.
Cassel nodded. "Those two will definitely become the finest products of our youth academy in the future. Of course I couldn't leave them out!" After saying that, he burst out laughing.
Ethan, Walsh, and Bruce, who were attending this meeting, took the list Cassel handed over and studied it carefully. This was the first time New Manchester United's youth academy had recruited players, so they could not afford to be careless.
"What do these red lines mean?" Walsh asked, a little puzzled.
On the list, some players' names were underlined in red. There were not many of them, only five or six.
"It means the player has a certain level of talent, but the specifics still need to be observed through daily training. However, I did notice that among the young players who came for training, two of them have especially outstanding talent." Cassel clearly enjoyed uncovering young talent, and he chuckled as soon as he began talking about it.
"Is it Ishmael Miller and Michael Johnson?" Bruce pointed at two names on the list that had been circled heavily in red, making them especially eye-catching. The schools listed behind those two names were Cambridge and Windsor respectively.
"It's those two. That Ishmael Miller has excellent technique with his left foot, he's tall and strong, and he strikes the ball with power. With a bit of polishing, he'll definitely become a very good striker in the making. As for Michael Johnson, his technique with both feet is excellent, his medium and long-range passing has real character, and he's very intelligent, which is impressive."
Cassel's eye for talent was very similar to Bruce's. Earlier, after watching only one half, Bruce had been full of praise for those two, believing they would not lose out to Curtis, or even Messi.
Before, Ethan had only known the names Ishmael and Michael and had not asked for their full names. Now that he heard them in full, they sounded very familiar, especially Ishmael Miller.
He thought and thought, looking very troubled.
"Ethan, what's wrong?" Seeing that Ethan had not spoken, Bruce found it a little strange.
"Oh, nothing. What were you saying?" Ethan came back to his senses.
Bruce felt that Ethan seemed to be worrying about something, but he did not want to ask too much. "We were just talking about Ishmael Miller and Michael Johnson. Both players are excellent. Michael Johnson even went to Manchester City for a trial, and they liked him too, but they're still considering it. If we want to get him, we'd better move quickly."
"Manchester City?" Ethan immediately seemed to catch onto something.
"Yes, Manchester City!" Bruce was a little surprised.
Ethan suddenly understood. Born in 1987, Ishmael Miller had come through Manchester City's youth academy in his previous life. In 2007, Miller played as a left midfielder, and there were reports that Bolton had offered £2 million for him. Back then, he had been loaned out by Manchester City to West Bromwich.
Later, his performances at West Bromwich got better and better, especially after he was converted into a striker. He became a key player in West Bromwich's return to the Premier League, and in January 2008, West Bromwich also made Ishmael Miller's move permanent.
However, a serious injury in December 2008 caused Ishmael to tear knee ligaments, forcing him off the pitch for more than a year. Up until Ethan had transmigrated here, he had not heard any more news about him.
When playing Football Manager before, besides managing big clubs, Ethan had also liked taking charge of lower-league English teams. Watching a small club grow from nothing into something, from weak to strong, gave him a huge sense of achievement. In Ethan's gaming history, Ishmael Miller had been one of his favourite signings. Once he bought him and used an editor to remove his injuries, he scored goals in waves.
The grown-up Ishmael Miller stood 191 cm tall, was built like an ox, and had excellent technique. He was left-footed, and his heading, shooting, and other attributes were very well balanced. His pace reached 18, the same as Ronaldo, Pato, and Navas. One could easily imagine how good he was.
If this guy was developed properly, he would definitely be an upgraded version of Ibrahimović!
As for Michael Johnson, he was a well-known wonderkid among FM Premier League players. He was born in Manchester, but for some reason went to Everton, only to be bought back later by Manchester City. After that, he played for Manchester City. His creative and accurate passing, as well as his excellent dribbling ability, were all trademarks of Michael Johnson.
Ethan had never expected that these two players, who had been his favourite data stars in FM, would actually appear alive in front of him.
Luckily, his old computer had been terrible, and he had never used player portraits when playing the game, so he always recognised the names but not the faces. He had almost let these two future wonderkids slip through his fingers.
"No, we have to hurry!" Ethan shouted.
The others in the room were startled by Ethan's intense reaction. Their boss had been acting a little mysteriously all day.
"I mean, we have to get these two players immediately!" Ethan hurriedly added to cover it up. "Walsh, go with Cassel right away and visit Ishmael's and Michael's parents in person. Just tell them that we hope those two players can receive training at our club, and during this period, the club will cover all of their schooling and training expenses."
Walsh and Cassel both nodded in understanding.
"It's already close to Christmas. We must settle everything regarding the youth players before Christmas. We have to get the youth academy up and running before 1999 arrives, then improve it step by step."
"As for training equipment, I think we still need to order some more, and the equipment for young players is different from that of the senior team. I'm wondering whether we can free up another area." Cassel clearly understood New Manchester United's situation, so he sounded a little unsure when making the suggestion.
Who would have thought that Ethan would make the decision immediately? "No problem. Walsh, coordinate this with Jim. I'll deal with the money. This must be done as well as possible. It concerns the future of our club!"
Walsh nodded solemnly. As a supporter, he understood very clearly how valuable a youth academy was to a club.
After sending everyone away, Ethan walked to the office's floor-to-ceiling glass doors and looked out at the players training on the ground outside. He thought to himself, Ishmael Miller and Michael Johnson have been found, but what about the other future wonderkids?
Leaving non-EU players aside for now, after all, New Manchester United still could not extend its influence to those places yet, he could at least consider local English players, such as Micah Richards, who also came from Manchester City. He had become a signed apprentice for Oldham at the age of 12, was later rejected by Leeds United, and then joined Manchester City instead.
It seemed that if he worked hard, made the club's youth academy outstanding, and improved the team's results as quickly as possible, he might still be in time to gather all those future superstars under his command.
Kaká, Ronaldinho, Ibrahimović, Ronaldo, Essien, Ribéry, Rooney, Tevez, Mascherano, Terry, Agüero, Vidić...
Just thinking about it made Ethan dizzy, truly dizzy, completely dizzy.
If there were such a thing as a fantasy index, Ethan would definitely have reached the level of a full-blown fantasy maniac by now. Because if it was a semi-professional club in the tenth tier of English football, then even if you really did sign all those future stars, could you actually keep them?
Ethan's current situation was that the dream was beautiful, but the reality was brutally cruel.
During the negotiations that followed with the parents of Ishmael Miller and Michael Johnson, Ethan came to understand very deeply just how difficult life was for a small club.
(To be continued.)