Review (5/10)
....
In Scarlett's impression, mornings in Manchester were always grey and gloomy, with very little sunshine to be seen. Therefore, no matter where she moved, she always liked to arrange her bed near the east-facing window. That way, as soon as she opened her eyes and saw the sunlight, her mood for the entire day would become quite good.
Just like today!
Scarlett, like a mischievous little girl, jumped out of bed, pulled open the floor-to-ceiling glass door by the bedside, and walked out onto the balcony. She felt the golden sunlight shining on her body and felt incredibly warm.
Wearing a white floral pajama set, she stretched out her arms, much like the heroine standing at the bow of the ship in Titanic, and lazily stretched her back, letting out a sound of pure comfort.
But just at this moment, a voice she absolutely hated drifted up from downstairs.
"You seem to be in a good mood, Miss Reporter!"
Scarlett quickly put her hands down, walked to the smooth stone railing, pouted, and looked down quite unfriendly. "None of your business!"
Ethan chuckled, his eyes fixed on her the whole time. "I don't want to mind either, but my eyes just can't look away. Tsk, tsk, it's truly wonderful and charming!"
Scarlett felt something was wrong as soon as she heard that. She looked down and was shocked to find that the loose pajamas she was wearing were white. With Ethan looking up from downstairs, through the light, wouldn't it be as if she were wearing nothing at all?
Scarlett quickly stepped back two paces.
Ethan was still laughing. "Don't worry, Miss Reporter, I'm nearsighted. I can't see very clearly!"
Scarlett was furious. What did he mean by "can't see very clearly"?
Judging by his tone, it seemed he even wanted her to get closer so he could see more clearly!
"Oh, by the way, Miss Reporter, just to let you know, I've already paid the rent for the next year. I heard you paid yours too, so what a coincidence. It looks like we'll have to continue living together!"
Living together, my ass!
Scarlett really wanted to curse out that shameless bastard downstairs, but her upbringing prevented her from saying such things.
What should have been a rare good mood immediately turned from bright to overcast the moment she encountered this jinx, Ethan, and it felt like it could rain at any moment.
This bastard must be my nemesis from a past life!
Scarlett walked back into her room, feeling distressed.
Since she could not outtalk Ethan, she could at least avoid him, right?
Ethan continued to lean against the stone railing with a smile, watching the red sun rising slowly in the east.
In his mind, New Manchester United was just like the sun he was watching now, rising steadily!
Just a few days ago, New Manchester United defeated Ashton 3-1 in the North West Counties League Challenge Cup, becoming the first team to win a double crown since the establishment of the North West Counties League. In the history Ethan was familiar with, New Manchester United only achieved this honor when they were promoted to the North West Counties League Premier Division in 2006, making them the third team in history to do so.
Ethan had to admit that his appearance had already changed history. Fortunately, the current scope of this impact was limited only to the amateur-level leagues in England.
This year, Manchester United still won the treble. In last night's Champions League final, they still managed to reverse the score against Bayern Munich thanks to goals from Sheringham and Solskjaer, achieving the great feat of the treble.
It was precisely because 1999 was a year that belonged to Manchester United that even though New Manchester United won a double crown in the amateur league, there were not actually many people who truly cared. Only occasionally did some newspapers mention New Manchester United a few times because of Manchester United, and that was it.
But this was fine. At least for New Manchester United, being overly high-profile was not a good thing.
Just yesterday, Ethan, Bruce, and the other senior management officials saw off the players. After a grueling season, they were about to enter the holiday period. However, because most of the players only worked part-time at the club, even though the league had ended, they still had to continue working outside.
The same was true for Ethan and the club's senior management. They were about to start planning for the team's next season.
Precisely because of this, after eating breakfast early, Ethan hurried to the Newton Heath training base.
Getting off at the entrance of Brookdale Park and walking deep along Droylsden Road, one could see that a wall nearly four meters high had been built along the side of the road near the Newton Heath training base, with green trees planted inside the wall.
In a little while, once the wall was fully completed, the green belt along Droylsden Road would be transplanted onto the wall. This would cover up the original appearance of the wall, making it look like a raised green belt.
This was Professor Fryer's suggestion, because he felt that, from a psychological perspective, no one wanted to be penned inside a wall like a pig. However, the function of the wall was indispensable, so he proposed disguising the wall as a green belt, which would prevent such thoughts from arising.
It was precisely because he listened to Professor Fryer's words that Ethan suddenly remembered that, having seen Manchester United's training base in the future, Ferguson seemed to have renovated the walls for this very reason.
Remembering this, Ethan could not help but admire Professor Fryer's professionalism.
Although transplanting the green belt would significantly increase the cost of the walls at the Newton Heath training base and also require consideration of subsequent maintenance issues, Ethan felt that as long as it was beneficial to the players, he would humbly accept it.
The area of the training base was very large. With New Manchester United's current squad, it was impossible to use it all. Plus, since New Manchester United was still just an amateur league team, Ethan felt that the improvement of the base could be done slowly.
Currently, three standard pitches were planned. The largest one was for the first team to use, while the remaining two were separated from the first team's pitch and provided for the youth team, with one of them also to be used for youth team matches.
In addition, there was a training building equipped with rooms specifically for players to rest, a gym, a treatment room, a massage room, and a dining hall. In the future, it would be gradually improved with a sauna, swimming pool, tactical discussion room, conference room, as well as a press conference room and interview hall specifically for dealing with the media, and so on.
These were all outlined by Ethan based on some training bases he was familiar with later on. They were also configurations studied after discussing with Professor Fryer, Bruce, and others, and then handed over to an architectural firm to design.
The boss of this architectural firm was also a New Manchester United fan, so when he took on the project for the Newton Heath training base, he almost patted his chest in guarantee that he would design a training building with the characteristics of New Manchester United.
On the other side of the training building, an area would be isolated where a laboratory would be built. That was where the experiments led by Professor Fryer would be conducted, but at the same time, they would also arrange for sports medicine specialists to follow the team and serve as team doctors.
Of course, Ethan had to pay the salaries for this!
Arriving at the main entrance of the training base, just like the vast majority of training bases in England, it was just a very ordinary gate, like a factory gate.
Originally, Ethan had intended to design a cool and distinctive gate, but after being discouraged by Bruce, he completely abandoned the idea.
"We are a football team, not an exhibition hall!" Bruce said very earnestly.
This sentence was like an alarm bell ringing in Ethan's ears, waking him up and letting him know that he was not playing a game, but was actually running a club and managing a group of living people.
However, Bruce's words also reminded Ethan to prepare an exhibition hall for the club. Before that, the championship trophies for the North West Counties League Division Two and the Challenge Cup were placed by Ethan in front of his desk in his office.
Looking at them every day, excited for decades!
...
When Ethan walked into his office, Bruce and Cassel were sitting inside chatting. The topic of conversation naturally did not go beyond last night's classic Champions League final, where Manchester United staged a classic comeback.
In Ethan's view, Bayern Munich were undoubtedly wronged. In terms of strength, this year's Bayern were definitely the strongest among all teams, but they failed to win the championship. However, it was precisely because of Bayern's formidable nature that it indirectly showed the value of Manchester United's treble.
"How about it? Steve, where are you planning to go for your holiday?" Ethan asked with a smile.
Bruce and Cassel stopped talking and looked over.
"I'm planning to take my wife and children to Spain to enjoy the summer beach there," Bruce replied with a smile.
Ethan nodded repeatedly upon hearing this. "Good place! I've long heard that Spanish beaches are a concentration camp for beauties. I should go and see for myself!"
"How about you, Jim?"
Cassel shrugged. "Nowhere to go. I just want to stay at home."
"A model of a mature man. Steve, you should really learn from him. Don't be like a bird without feet all day, just thinking about playing everywhere. You don't have any sense of family responsibility. Is that appropriate?"
Bruce and Cassel immediately widened their eyes. They must have thought that this guy Ethan was definitely acting like a dog.
"By the way, David is getting married. Have you prepared a gift yet?" Bruce asked casually.
Ethan sat at his desk, picked up the two trophies, puffed air onto them, and then carefully wiped them. Although he knew that the cost of such amateur league trophies was very low, Ethan still felt they were very precious.
"Not yet. There's still plenty of time. Isn't it set for July 4? It's still over a month away. What's the rush?" Ethan's mind was clearly focused on the trophies.
In fact, Ethan was the one among everyone at New Manchester United who cared the most about these two trophies. He looked at them carefully almost every day.
"In the blink of an eye, he's also getting married!" Cassel had watched Beckham grow up with his own eyes, and speaking of it, he felt a sense of how time flies.
"I heard that the Sir is not very keen on this wedding." Ethan walked over with a smile.
The "Sir" he referred to was naturally Ferguson.
"So what? Now it's the young people's world! Besides, he knows very well in his heart that some things are inevitable." Cassel's words had a hidden meaning.
Bruce, who was at the side, nodded repeatedly in agreement.
Just as Ethan was about to continue questioning, Walsh hurried in from outside.
"Ethan, something big has happened!" Walsh shouted as soon as he opened his mouth.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)