After Christmas, New Manchester United's schedule was packed.
First, they hosted a North West Counties League Division Two match, followed by an away game against Forest Green. Then came another away game, followed by the first leg of the North West Counties League Challenge Cup quarter-final in midweek against an amateur team from the North West Counties League Premier Division.
The entire month of January consisted of two games a week, which was a major test of the New Manchester United players' stamina and willpower.
Since Christmas fell on a Friday, the next Division Two match was scheduled for Sunday. After two days off, the New Manchester United players remained disciplined. Upon returning to the team, their form had not dropped, and they comfortably defeated their opponents 2-0 at home.
Although they were all amateur teams, New Manchester United held a significant advantage in the North West Counties League Division Two, even greater than the advantage Real Madrid and Barcelona had in La Liga. After all, they were a team made up of higher-level players.
After securing a winning start after Christmas, New Manchester United traveled to Nailsworth the next day. This small town in southern England had a population of less than 10,000. Coupled with the fact that this first round of the FA Cup did not attract much attention, the total attendance for the match was less than 1,000, setting a record for the lowest attendance in a match since New Manchester United was founded.
Moreover, it was worth noting that among those nine hundred-plus spectators, three hundred had traveled south from Manchester with the team, riding on a bus arranged by a Manchester City travel agency.
Because there were few local spectators, even though there were only three hundred of them, the New Manchester United fans still passionately showed what die-hard supporters could do, completely turning the entire stadium into New Manchester United's home ground.
Amid the cheers of the fans, New Manchester United won 3-1 away against Forest Green.
In reality, if viewed purely from the perspective of individual ability, New Manchester United's advantage was not large. It could even be said that they had no advantage. However, New Manchester United were very organized in terms of team tactics and playing style. In contrast, Forest Green had all the characteristics of an amateur team, relying mainly on individual performances with no technical or tactical discipline to speak of.
The gap between the two teams was reflected more in the divide between a professional setup and an amateur one. Therefore, after watching this match, Ethan could not help feeling secretly pleased at how wise his decision had been to sign full-time contracts with many key players at the beginning of the season.
It was also this match that further strengthened Ethan's determination to turn the team into a professional one this year.
After the victory, New Manchester United headed straight north to the town of Colne near Burnley to face the fourth-ranked team in the North West Counties League Division Two, Colne FC. This was an amateur team founded in 1996. Their performance in the North West Counties League Division Two had fluctuated over the past two years. They had almost won promotion in their first year, but almost got relegated last year. This year, however, their performance was good, and they had high hopes of promotion.
According to Colne's plan, they hoped to snatch a point from New Manchester United at home, which would allow them to climb to third in the league and narrow the gap to the second-placed team to 2 points.
However, despite the long journey and having just played a match against a higher-level team, New Manchester United still defeated Colne away cleanly and efficiently. The 4-0 scoreline ruthlessly showed the gap between the two teams.
But in the subsequent away match in the North West Counties League Challenge Cup, New Manchester United were pinned down by the home team. In the end, they relied on the team's stubborn defending to escape with a draw. The score was as dull as the match itself, 0-0.
Although Bruce and Cassel had developed a detailed rotation plan, taking factors such as the players' physical condition into account, in reality, New Manchester United only had 19 players. Subtracting the two goalkeepers left only 17, so no matter how they rotated, they could not cover everyone.
A defensive midfielder with great stamina like Carl Makinson, due to a lack of rotation options, played three games in a row. As a result, by the fourth game, he could barely run and suffered cramps before half-time. They had no choice but to waste a substitution to take him off the pitch.
It was precisely because of the frequent matches, which led to excessive physical exhaustion among the players, that New Manchester United failed to win the first leg of the North West Counties League Challenge Cup away from home. If the team had played in top form, they would have made the second leg at home completely meaningless long ago.
It was also because of this that discussions began within New Manchester United about whether they should give up certain competitions, such as the FA Cup, where there was absolutely no possibility of achieving good results, so the players could focus more on the league.
Perhaps some people thought that the FA Cup was a single-elimination tournament, and the chance of accidentally defeating a strong team was not small. But in reality, even if New Manchester United got through the second round and entered the third, what could they achieve when facing professional teams from the Premier League and Division One?
Luck could happen once, but if it happened twice, it was no longer luck.
No one could expect a tenth-tier English semi-professional team to defeat professional teams from Division Three, Division Two, or even Division One and the Premier League one after another. That was simply unrealistic.
But Steve Bruce clearly did not see the problem that way.
"Although it's true that we can't possibly achieve good results in this year's FA Cup, I cannot do what the outside world suggests and tell my players, 'Ah, guys, we need to save our strength for the league and the Challenge Cup, so we're giving up on the FA Cup. We're not playing.' That won't do. What would that be?"
During a high-level meeting within New Manchester United, when Cassel proposed his opinion, Bruce appeared very agitated.
During this period, he had also been under a lot of pressure, especially since he also had to take care of the players' emotions.
"Ethan, you were the one who told me you thought I could bring something unique to your team, remember?" Bruce asked, pointing at Ethan.
Ethan nodded. Of course he could not forget.
"Then I want to say that the thing I can bring to your team is never giving up!"
"My team can be defeated, but we will definitely be defeated while standing tall. We cannot admit defeat before the enemy even arrives. That is not my style, nor is it the style of the team I lead!"
Ethan, Walsh, and Cassel all fell silent immediately.
Yes, their idea to give up the FA Cup was rational, and one could even say it was very wise, but sometimes football did not need wisdom, and it needed rationality even less.
"My players are suffering now, I know that. Look at Carl. His physical condition used to be so great, yet he fought so hard on the pitch that he kept going even when he got cramps. And Jonathan Matten, almost every game, by the end, he might not even have the strength to lift his legs, yet he still persists. Why?"
Bruce clenched his fist and pounded his chest hard. "It's for that belief, that love we hold in our hearts for the club. We won't give up, and I cannot tell my players, when they still want to persist, that for one reason or another, we are going to give up on this or that competition. In my view, that is not wisdom. That is betrayal, a betrayal of the players!"
"Now, tell me, Ethan, what do you decide to do?"
Ethan stood up, patted Bruce on the shoulder, then placed one hand on Cassel's shoulder, nodding continuously.
"Steve is right. I should reflect on this. But through today's events, I am even more certain of one thing, and that is that choosing you to be our club's head coach was absolutely the wisest decision I have made. Steve, I and the club will definitely fully support you!"
Cassel also stood up, looking at Bruce with admiration, and smiled. "You are right, Steve. This is also why I could never be a head coach in my entire life!"
"Andy, I heard there is a very well-regarded sports therapist on Faulkner Street who is excellent at physiotherapy and deep-tissue massage. I want you to go and see whether you can hire him to serve our club's players!"
Ethan had learned about the effectiveness of physiotherapy, sports massage, and recovery treatment from some materials on the Lab that he had seen in his future life. It was said that the recovery methods of this world-renowned laboratory had borrowed heavily from established rehabilitation practices, including targeted massage, muscle stimulation, and hands-on therapy, only they had been refined through modern sports science after absorbing the best aspects of those methods.
At present, Ethan could not build a large-scale medical research institute like the Lab. Even the team doctor was just a fan who worked as a doctor at a nearby hospital. So, for now, he could only adopt this piecemeal approach to help the team.
After introducing the effectiveness of traditional physical recovery therapy to everyone present, Ethan's proposal to hire a sports massage therapist received the support of Bruce and Cassel, who were both willing to give it a try.
After Bruce, Cassel, and Walsh had all left, and Ethan was left alone in the office, his previously relaxed expression immediately became troubled.
In reality, he understood very well why Bruce was angry. Besides the reasons he had stated before, it was also because the club, in terms of both hardware and software, limited his performance. Ethan believed that if given enough resources, Bruce could bring better results to the team.
With only 19 players, many of whom were part-time, Bruce felt very frustrated. His ambitions were being stifled.
In fact, from the moment Ethan first hired Bruce, he already knew that Bruce would not stay at New Manchester United for long. Because of his qualifications, his ability, and his proud personality, he would absolutely not be content with mediocrity.
In other words, even if he really was optimistic about New Manchester United's development prospects, that would take many years, and he could not wait that long. Given the choice, Ethan believed Bruce would rather go directly to coach a Division Two or Division One team, leading them to promotion to the Premier League within a year or two.
In addition, Bruce had also started to hint that this year was his last season as a player. Next season, he would focus on being a head coach. Of course, that was assuming he was still at New Manchester United by then.
A small club could not keep a man meant for a much bigger stage.
Although the season was only halfway through, Ethan had to start worrying about next season.
(To be continued.)