Rafael Benítez had taken charge of Liverpool.
For the Premier League, it was another major statement.
Soon after arriving at Anfield, Benítez moved quickly to stabilise the squad. Michael Owen stayed, while Liverpool added Djibril Cissé, Xabi Alonso, and Luis García, three signings that immediately strengthened different areas of the team.
Suddenly, the Premier League seemed to have become the centre of the football world. Ferguson, Wenger, Ancelotti, Benítez, Mourinho, some of Europe's most highly regarded managers were now competing in the same league. Beckham, Shevchenko, Van Nistelrooy, Keane, Henry, Kaká, and countless other stars would be facing one another week after week.
No other domestic league in Europe was attracting quite the same level of attention going into the new season. Even before pre-season had properly begun, and with the European Championship only just concluded after an extraordinary underdog triumph, the Premier League had already seized the headlines through one transfer story after another.
Many columnists reached the same conclusion. If the summer were judged purely as an arms race, Chelsea were clearly ahead, with Manchester United not far behind. But football had never been decided simply by accumulating famous names.
Nobody doubted Ancelotti's ability to organise talented players, but exactly what his Chelsea side would look like remained uncertain. He had never managed in England, and even an elite coach needed time to adapt to the Premier League's pace, physicality, and relentless schedule.
Abramovich had clearly hired him to win the title, but expecting an immediate championship after such a major squad overhaul would be asking a great deal, even of Ancelotti.
Manchester United had also strengthened considerably.
The Glazer family had previously indicated that Ferguson would receive substantial transfer backing if he did not oppose their growing influence at the club. Ferguson therefore remained publicly restrained while the Americans continued acquiring shares from Magnier and other major shareholders.
The money soon arrived.
Quaresma, Diego, Robinho, Rooney, Heinze. Each addressed an area Ferguson believed needed strengthening, particularly the creativity and pace that Manchester United had lacked at times the previous season.
After one summer, both Chelsea and Manchester United looked significantly stronger.
By comparison, the defending champions had barely moved at all.
New Manchester United promoted Agüero from the academy, loaned Mascherano, Džeko, and Joe Hart out for development, and otherwise kept the squad largely intact. From the outside, it almost looked as though Mourinho and Ethan had decided there was nothing worth changing.
Arsenal had been similarly quiet. Wenger added Robin van Persie and Mathieu Flamini, but neither move created anything like the noise generated by Chelsea or Manchester United.
Even so, nobody dismissed either side.
The previous Premier League season had effectively been dominated by New Manchester United and Arsenal. The Red Rebels went unbeaten, while Arsenal matched the existing record with twenty-eight league victories and lost only twice all season.
Those numbers spoke for themselves.
Chelsea and Manchester United had added more quality, and if their new signings settled quickly, both were capable of mounting serious title challenges. New Manchester United, however, had retained almost every important player from an already championship-winning side.
Arsenal had changed little. Liverpool had changed considerably.
Those five clubs now looked capable of reshaping the balance at the top of English football.
The spending did not stop there. Newcastle, Bolton, Aston Villa, and several other established Premier League sides had strengthened aggressively as well, while Tottenham drew particular attention by bringing in fourteen new players.
The transfer market was only one part of the Premier League's growing power.
Commercially, the league continued to accelerate.
The dramatic title race of the previous season had pushed television audiences and general interest even higher. Chelsea and Manchester United's summer spending only added to the attention.
Barclays then agreed a new title-sponsorship deal with the Premier League. The three-year agreement was worth substantially more than the previous arrangement, another sign of how strongly major companies believed in the league's commercial future.
Yet behind all the optimism, there were growing concerns about the way English clubs were financing that growth.
Several financial analysts had begun criticising the increasing dependence on debt. Clubs borrowed against future income, assets, or even player values, spent heavily in the transfer market, then borrowed again in anticipation of still greater revenue.
During a strong economy, the cycle could continue for years.
During a downturn, it could become dangerous very quickly.
If revenues declined or banks tightened lending, clubs with fragile cash flow could suddenly find themselves unable to service their obligations. A few high-profile collapses would not only damage individual teams but also the reputation of the Premier League as a whole.
Another issue was the increasing use of long-term instalment structures in transfer deals.
Manchester United's £27 million purchase of Rooney was a perfect example. Everton would not receive the full fee immediately. The payments would be spread over several years, while Everton had also negotiated a twenty-five per cent share of any future transfer fee.
Not profit.
Transfer fee.
If Manchester United later sold Rooney for £27 million, Everton would receive another £6.75 million regardless of what United had originally paid.
Ethan immediately understood why clauses like that could become significant. A club selling a player years later might discover that a large portion of the fee still belonged elsewhere.
More importantly, instalment-heavy deals disproportionately favoured rich clubs.
A giant could acquire several expensive players while paying only part of the cost immediately. Smaller clubs, meanwhile, often needed cash at once to survive, strengthen their squads, or cover operating expenses.
To Ethan, that distorted the market.
New Manchester United had always preferred straightforward transactions. When buying, Ethan generally wanted to pay the agreed amount cleanly. When selling, he preferred the same from the other side.
At the Premier League owners' meeting at the end of June, he raised the issue directly.
"Instalments are fine," Ethan said, "but there should be limits. One year at most, perhaps even six months in certain cases. Otherwise we're creating a system where the strongest clubs can keep postponing payment while smaller clubs carry the financial risk."
His influence in those meetings had grown considerably.
A few years earlier, most discussions had been dominated by the traditional powers. New Manchester United's rise, Chelsea's emergence, and Ethan's involvement in several league-wide initiatives had changed that balance.
The academy reforms he had previously proposed were already being introduced in various forms, and organised youth competitions at different age levels were beginning to take shape. Those measures benefited clubs across the professional pyramid, not only the Premier League.
That gave Ethan credibility beyond the fact that his own team happened to be champions.
His position was simple.
The Premier League could not become a closed aristocracy.
If the same small group monopolised every meaningful source of income, every elite player, and every trophy, the league would eventually lose what made it commercially valuable in the first place.
Uncertainty.
Competition.
The possibility that something unexpected might happen.
Motorsport had spent years introducing regulations specifically to prevent one team from becoming permanently untouchable. Football was not identical, but the principle was easy enough to understand.
The owners around the table understood it too, especially representatives from newly promoted West Bromwich Albion, Crystal Palace, and Norwich City.
They knew better than most how enormous the gap between the Premier League and the second tier had become.
Promotion transformed a club's finances. Television money rose dramatically. Sponsorship improved. Wage structures could expand. Better players suddenly became realistic targets.
The Championship did not offer anything close to the same financial environment.
Ethan had come through the lower divisions himself, which made him unusually sympathetic to clubs trying to make that jump.
Richard Scudamore, the Premier League's chief executive, smiled across the table.
"So what would you suggest, Ethan?"
New Manchester United's rise had been enormously valuable to the league. The club played attractive football, attracted overseas interest, operated with modern commercial methods, and had become proof that a new club could still break into the elite.
That made people listen when Ethan spoke.
"I've heard the Football League and the FA are looking at ways to strengthen the Championship, League One, League Two, and the divisions below them," Ethan said. "I think we should support that. Those clubs form the base of the pyramid. If they become healthier businesses, improve their academies, and develop stronger players, the Premier League benefits too."
He paused before continuing.
"There's another point. Competition forces everyone to improve. If all we want is a league where the same twenty clubs remain permanently protected, then we might as well abolish promotion and relegation altogether."
A few people laughed.
Ethan smiled as well.
"But if we're keeping promotion and relegation, then it needs to mean something. If newly promoted clubs arrive every year already doomed financially and structurally, then the system isn't working properly."
One owner chuckled. "We can't exactly turn ourselves into the NBA."
"Nor should we," Ethan replied. "But there are things the NBA does very well that we can learn from. Revenue development. International marketing. Merchandising. Salary management. Long-term commercial planning. None of that requires copying their competitive structure."
The room grew quieter.
Ethan continued.
"For most clubs at this table, giving up a small percentage of short-term income would barely change your annual budget. But if that money strengthens the pyramid below us, produces better players, improves stadiums, expands academies, and keeps more clubs financially stable, then the long-term value of English football rises for everyone."
He began laying out the numbers.
Greater overseas distribution.
More coordinated league marketing.
Centralised digital rights.
Joint merchandising opportunities.
Pre-season competitions in key international markets.
League-wide sponsor packages that could sit alongside individual club deals rather than replace them.
Commercial programmes designed specifically to help smaller clubs build audiences outside their local regions.
The NBA had already demonstrated how a domestic competition could be turned into an international entertainment product without relying entirely on a handful of teams.
Ethan believed the Premier League could go much further.
Not by becoming less English.
By making English football easier for the rest of the world to follow.
The figures he presented were ambitious enough that several owners initially looked sceptical. Then the projections began to sink in.
If even a portion of them proved accurate, the increase in international revenue could dwarf whatever short-term concessions they were arguing over that afternoon.
For the first time, the discussion shifted away from how the existing money should be divided.
People began asking how much larger the entire market could become.
And if Ethan's calculations were anywhere close to right, the Premier League was not merely heading towards another period of growth.
It was standing on the edge of something that could change European football altogether.
(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.)