After returning from London, New Manchester United played five consecutive pre-season friendlies.
The team's performances were inconsistent, largely because the players had not yet reached full match fitness.
Mourinho also spent much of the second half of each friendly experimenting with the team's attacking patterns, frequently replacing Drogba with Villa.
Drogba's role within New Manchester United's system was obvious.
Whether the ball was played high into the air or driven firmly along the ground, he could serve as an excellent focal point for the attack.
Villa could not offer the same physical presence.
Whenever the Spaniard came on, New Manchester United's four attacking players had to rely more heavily on passing and movement along the ground.
Mourinho wanted those combinations to involve quicker, simpler exchanges.
The intention was to break through opposing defences with short passing, constant movement, and combinations in tight spaces.
That approach placed considerable technical demands on the players.
Ribéry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Hleb, Palacio, Kaká, and the injured Robben were all technically gifted.
There were no major concerns about their individual ability when playing alongside Villa.
The real challenge was developing an understanding between them.
That was why Mourinho repeatedly introduced Villa during the second half of the pre-season matches.
The purpose of friendlies was preparation, not results.
If the manager refused to experiment now, would he wait until the competitive fixtures began?
New Manchester United's first League One match was scheduled for 10 August.
A week earlier, on 3 August, the Red Rebels travelled to the Butcher's Arms to contest the annual Newton Heath Cup against Droylsden.
Following the match, New Manchester United announced a series of charitable initiatives.
The Red Rebel Foundation would work with Essien to establish an anti-malaria charity in Ghana.
Essien had nearly died from malaria as a child, and he desperately wanted to help protect others in his homeland from suffering the same fate.
The foundation would also cooperate with Drogba and the Touré brothers to build two hospitals and three orphanages in Ivory Coast.
Several football schools would be established to provide young Ivorians with structured coaching from an early age.
Those academies would work in partnership with ASEC Mimosas.
New Manchester United also announced several charitable programmes designed to support the local community and the club's supporters.
Every initiative would be implemented over the following year.
The announcement further undermined the previous accusations that Ethan was refusing to spend the club's money.
...
August's schedule was exceptionally demanding.
New Manchester United faced three league fixtures, two League Cup matches, and both legs of their UEFA Cup qualifying tie.
That meant seven competitive matches in just three weeks.
It would be a severe test.
However, the experience gained over the previous three seasons had made the club far better prepared for such congestion.
The squad was also complete.
Robben would miss several matches during August, but every other player was fit enough to train and compete.
That gave Mourinho considerable confidence.
New Manchester United's opponents in the UEFA Cup preliminary round were Avenir Beggen of Luxembourg.
On paper, they were one of the weaker teams in the competition.
The fact that New Manchester United had drawn a representative from Luxembourg allowed many within the club to relax.
Surely qualifying for the next round against such opposition would not be difficult.
Mourinho disagreed.
As he repeatedly reminded his players, no club that reached European competition deserved to be treated as weak.
He instructed Villas-Boas to monitor Avenir Beggen closely, particularly because the first leg would be played away from home.
Mourinho wanted every available piece of information about them.
New Manchester United's first League One match of the season was away to Ipswich Town.
Ipswich had reached the FA Cup final the previous year, losing to Arsenal.
Since Arsenal had also won the league title, Ipswich qualified for the UEFA Cup.
It was an unusual coincidence.
Two League One clubs representing England in Europe would meet on the opening day of the domestic season.
Supporters were eager to discover what kind of match the encounter would produce.
Before the game, Ipswich acknowledged the Red Rebels' quality.
New Manchester United had caused serious problems for Tottenham and Blackburn in the League Cup the previous season.
However, Ipswich believed the promoted club had weakened during the summer and could no longer be compared with the side that had performed so impressively the year before.
During his pre-match interview, Mourinho said New Manchester United's first objective as a promoted club was to avoid relegation.
After that, they would attempt to make progress in Europe.
More ambitiously, they might also produce another strong run in either the League Cup or the FA Cup and qualify for European competition again the following season.
For a club that had won three trophies and defeated several Premier League opponents the previous year, such ambitions hardly sounded excessive.
Even so, the media interpreted Mourinho's comments as evidence that he lacked confidence in his squad.
The reality was very different.
At Portman Road, New Manchester United taught Ipswich a painful lesson.
They demonstrated exactly why the Red Rebels had become known as giant-killers.
The stronger the opposition appeared, the better they seemed to perform.
Mourinho selected a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Kaká occupied the central position in the attacking three, although he played slightly deeper than a conventional number ten.
His role placed him somewhere between central midfield and attacking midfield, giving him greater freedom to move.
Drogba started as the centre-forward, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Hleb on the wings.
Juninho and Senna formed the midfield pair.
Juninho's passing and organisation were crucial to New Manchester United's control of the match.
His threat from free kicks also forced Ipswich to defend carefully around their penalty area.
Senna continued to improve.
His defensive positioning was excellent, his tackling was aggressive, and he played with greater composure and experience than Essien.
The back four consisted of Evra, Terry, Curtis, and Kolo Touré, with Čech in goal.
From the opening whistle, Ipswich targeted Evra's side.
They had clearly identified that the Frenchman was stronger going forward than he was defensively.
What they had not anticipated was how much Evra had improved.
His positional awareness in particular had developed considerably since the previous season.
That progress was one of the main reasons Mourinho had been willing to let Abidal leave.
Juninho and Senna also moved across repeatedly to support Evra.
Ipswich's plan to exploit New Manchester United's left side therefore failed.
At the opposite end, the Red Rebels completely dismantled Ipswich's left flank.
Hleb, Kaká, and Drogba attacked that side relentlessly.
Kaká was particularly dangerous.
Making his first competitive appearance for New Manchester United, the Brazilian constantly drove forward through the centre, broke beyond opponents, and made well-timed runs into space.
During the first half, he created goals for both Drogba and Hleb.
With a two-goal advantage, New Manchester United played with greater control after the interval.
They dictated the match both in and out of possession.
Juninho controlled the tempo from midfield, while Kaká continued moving aggressively between the lines.
Together, they allowed the Red Rebels to dominate Ipswich completely.
Kaká then scored his first goal for the club.
He collected possession in the centre, carried the ball beyond an opponent, and drove a long-range shot into the net.
The 3-0 victory at Portman Road was almost flawless.
New Manchester United received widespread praise from the media.
Their fitness, organisation, and individual quality led several journalists to describe them as a team already capable of competing in the Premier League.
The only significant disappointment was Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese winger kept possession for too long, slowing the team's attacks in the final third.
He also wasted several opportunities and failed to combine effectively with his teammates.
Inside the dressing room after the match, Mourinho criticised his compatriot directly.
He told Ronaldo that he needed to make quicker decisions.
Elaborate tricks did not win football matches.
Becoming obsessed with showing off his technique would only hold him back.
He needed to become stronger, more efficient, and willing to accept greater responsibility.
Mourinho also instructed Moniz to prepare a specialised finishing programme for Ronaldo.
He agreed with Ethan's assessment.
Ronaldo's technical ability was outstanding, but his shooting needed considerable improvement.
Drogba provided the perfect contrast.
For his opening goal, he met Kaká's through ball with a first-time finish, without taking an extra touch.
That was something he would rarely have attempted in the past and demonstrated how much his finishing had improved.
The media lavished praise on New Manchester United after their opening victory.
Kaká, who had already attracted attention during the World Cup, received most of the headlines.
Operating as the Red Rebels' creative hub, he finished the match with two assists and one goal.
His performance demonstrated all the technique and imagination expected from a Brazilian playmaker, combined with an ability to adapt that many Brazilian players initially lacked when arriving in England.
What the reporters did not know was that Kaká had travelled regularly between Brazil and Manchester during the previous two years to train with the club.
He understood New Manchester United's tactical system far better than any of the other summer arrivals.
That was why Mourinho had been willing to entrust him with such an important role immediately.
The attacking players attracted most of the attention, but the media also praised Juninho.
His ability to dictate the tempo from a deeper position and distribute the ball was outstanding.
He rarely sought attention, yet New Manchester United's entire system depended upon him.
Evra was also rated above average.
He had successfully filled the position left vacant by Abidal and appeared likely to become another academy graduate, after Curtis, to establish himself as a regular member of the first team.
Although Evra had already been 17 when he joined the Red Rebels, most people still regarded him as a product of New Manchester United's development system.
He had been almost unknown before arriving at the club.
Four years later, he was beginning to mature into an excellent player.
The victory over Ipswich gave the Red Rebels the perfect beginning to their League One campaign.
During the post-match press conference, Mourinho expressed his outlook through a personal motto.
"Perhaps I am destined to gather roses from among the thorns. What matters is never losing the determination to win or the belief that victory is possible."
He then spoke about the team.
The difficulties they would face that season would only make the players stronger and accelerate their development.
After surviving so many demanding matches during the previous campaign, the squad had developed considerable resilience.
Mourinho believed New Manchester United could win more honours that season.
The key was ensuring that every player continued to share the same conviction.
One reporter asked why Mourinho always appeared so confident and consistently managed to lead his teams towards success.
The Portuguese manager rose proudly from his seat.
He turned away from the microphones, leaving the reporters with only one defiant sentence.
"Because we are the Red Rebels."
(To be continued.)