Review (7/10)
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"Hello, Mr. Bart!"
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Yu!"
At the gate of the Newton Heath training base, Ethan politely shook hands with Bart, the assistant to the CEO of the FA, and then greeted the members of the inspection team who came with Bart before welcoming the guests into the training base.
"Mr. Yu, I heard that this base has a total area of 165 acres?" Bart asked casually to Ethan, who was walking beside him.
Ethan smiled and nodded. "Yes, Mr. Bart. There are detailed records of this at City Hall."
"That must have cost a lot of money!" Bart said with a smile, though it was unclear whether he was praising him or implying something else.
Arriving in front of the temporary office building, one could see construction everywhere. The training building would take at least a year to be put into use, while the green belt walls, standard pitches, and other training facilities would take another month or two.
This was also why the construction of the training base had to wait until after the league season ended.
"Perhaps I can take everyone around to have a look!" Walsh volunteered.
Bart nodded to the group behind him, and they immediately followed Walsh and Cassel.
Ethan, meanwhile, invited Bart into the office.
After they sat down as host and guest, Bruce sat to the side to accompany them.
"To be honest, Mr. Bart, we were all very surprised that the FA included our club on the shortlist for the fast-track promotion spot. You must know, we are just a newly established club."
Ethan voiced his doubts very directly.
"While that is true, we have also seen the strength of New Manchester United. Your performance in the North West Counties League Division Two last year was outstanding. You won the title six rounds early and broke the goal-scoring and goals-conceded records for the tenth-tier league. At the same time, you also won the North West Counties League Challenge Cup and reached the third round proper of the FA Cup. All of it was quite astonishing."
"To be honest, Mr. Yu, when you first decided to establish New Manchester United, none of us expected that you could achieve so many brilliant results in just one short season!"
Ethan smiled politely. "But this is only the tenth-tier league!"
"Of course," Bart also laughed. "In fact, last year many teams in the North West Counties League Division Two reported to FA officials that they felt matches against New Manchester United at home put them under considerable pressure, not just on the pitch, but off it as well. They were somewhat overwhelmed."
"For example, in the opening match of the North West Counties League Division Two, New Manchester United played away against Leek. That was an exciting match, and New Manchester United's victory was well deserved. However, after that match, Leek had to spend a sum of money to hire people to clean and tidy the stands. Furthermore, after that game, many Division Two teams had to pay for a group of security personnel whenever they hosted New Manchester United, and sometimes they even had to call in the police."
Ethan felt helpless about this, as he could not very well say, "Then we will limit the number of fans who travel to away games!"
"According to our investigation, New Manchester United's average home attendance last year was around 3,760. This figure is something many teams in English League Two probably couldn't even achieve," Bart said with no small amount of admiration.
According to the information currently released by New Manchester United, their official club membership had already exceeded 20,000, and the growth trend was very rapid, with many members located near Manchester.
This meant that there was still room for New Manchester United's home attendance to rise.
It was precisely because of this that Ethan was so desperate to own a larger home stadium.
"The FA's decision to include New Manchester United on the shortlist was made after thorough and careful consideration. I hope you can give it some serious thought," Bart suggested.
After the FA listed the candidates, it was customary to conduct inspections of the team's home stadium, training grounds, and other facilities. Meanwhile, the team could also consider whether or not to accept the FA's fast-track promotion based on their own situation.
If they did not accept, the subsequent steps would not continue. Once they accepted, a series of relevant reviews would begin. Besides the assessment of the team's hardware and software facilities, the more important part was the financial status reported by the team.
...
After seeing off the inspection team, Ethan and his group walked back to the office.
During this period, there had been many discussions revolving around whether or not New Manchester United should accept the fast-track promotion spot.
Walsh was a staunch supporter of accepting it because he felt the team should have a better space for development. Especially since New Manchester United's current players generally came from higher-level leagues, they would have the strength to compete even in the National League. In that case, why stay in the North West Counties League Premier Division?
Cassel was firmly in the refusal camp. He believed the team should move forward one step at a time. Once they reached the National League, what if they were relegated? They might even be ridiculed then!
As for Bruce, he was neutral, feeling that either accepting or refusing would be fine.
Thus, when everyone returned to Ethan's office and sat down, they all looked at Ethan again, waiting for him to make a decision.
"To be honest, I must say, the pressure is immense!" Ethan said with a wry smile.
He treated New Manchester United like his own son. Even though he knew his son was a genius and very talented, anyone would hesitate upon hearing that their son was to be fast-tracked directly from primary school to high school.
"I asked many fans for their opinions in the pub last night, and they were basically divided into three factions: one for, one against, and the last neutral, just like our current situation!" Walsh also gave a wry smile.
This was a decision that no one dared to take lightly.
New Manchester United's current development momentum was very strong, but once they skipped levels through promotion, who knew if they would be relegated?
If they were relegated, who could guarantee that New Manchester United could regain its former glory?
Ethan glanced at everyone. He realized it would be difficult to find an answer from them, and he could only rely on himself.
Five days had passed since receiving the fax, and Ethan had considered it very seriously for those five days.
As a transmigrator, Ethan's greatest advantage was possessing more than ten years of future football knowledge compared to others. This included stars who were currently unknown but would be world-famous in the future. Thus, he had found Evra and Messi.
But it was only these two players.
The former was found by Ethan because he happened to be leaving the Paris Saint-Germain youth academy at the time and preparing to quit football. The latter was because he suffered from a serious illness, and Ethan spent money to treat him. That was all.
With the advent of the information age, players like Ballack, Van Nistelrooy, and Klose, who rose from lower-level teams to become superstars, were becoming fewer and fewer. As professional clubs placed more importance on youth training, it was generally hard for good prospects to fall into the hands of amateur teams.
Looking at it from another perspective, even Ethan could not guarantee that if his team stayed in the amateur leagues for a few more years, he would be able to keep Evra, Messi, Curtis, Ishmael, and the others once they grew up and were noticed by big clubs.
Raúl was loyal to Real Madrid because Real Madrid was a super giant. Maldini's loyalty to AC Milan was for the same reason. For a lower-level team, where could one find a lucky charm who would serve for a lifetime?
Sometimes, professional football was just that cruel!
If Ethan did not want to lose Messi and Evra in the future, he had to keep getting promoted. Since they had to get promoted anyway, wasn't now an opportunity?
Ethan's so-called greatest advantage had less effect the lower the level of the amateur league. If New Manchester United were a Premier League team now, Ethan could guarantee he could assemble a strong team capable of winning the title in one season. But in the lower leagues, Ethan could not guarantee that.
It was not that he could not find good players, but that even if he did, they would not be willing to come!
Thinking of this, Ethan took a deep breath. He felt he had found the answer.
"These past few days, I've been thinking: if we accept the FA's fast-track promotion, are we going to the National League just to take a stroll and come back, or are we going there to stay, or even strive to win the championship?" Ethan suddenly asked.
The three people present immediately looked at Ethan with thoughtful expressions.
"Steve often lectures the players, saying we must have the conviction to win. So I also tell myself, whether we stay in the North West Counties League or get promoted to the National League, we only have one goal, and that is to strive for the championship!"
Ethan's words gave Bruce and the other two a huge shock.
When they were thinking about this problem, they had only been agonizing over whether the team could successfully avoid relegation after being promoted.
The National League title was a distant dream, out of reach for a semi-professional team that had just won a tenth-tier league title.
"A year ago, some people said we were dreaming to establish a club. Later, others said it was a dream for us fans to want to run a club. After that, some said it was a dream for us to want to win a championship. But what about now? Our club is operating very smoothly, and we have won the championship. Are we dreaming?"
Ethan stood up, appearing very excited, because he had just made a very startling decision.
"If it's a dream, then I want to say, let us make the dream bigger and bigger. Ideally, so big that it shocks everyone, makes all teams feel threatened, and makes them afraid, just like we made Arsenal afraid at Highbury."
Whenever they thought of that match, Bruce, Walsh, and the others were filled with excitement. It was a match regarded by fans as the best of the season. Although the outcome was a loss, New Manchester United had won the respect of their opponents at Highbury, won the applause of the fans, and at the same time, reclaimed their dignity.
"Are you willing to dream this dream with me?" Ethan smiled and reached out his hand.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 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.)