Chapter 11: Interim Manager (5)

The day after an unexpected victory in the second round of the Carabao Cup, Hyung-min arrived at the training ground and was summoned by Helena to her office.

The void left by Sean Dyche's departure had yet to be filled.

Apart from a handful of staff handling the club's administrative tasks, stadium operations, and PR, the club's offices were eerily quiet. Most of the coaching staff, the scouting team, and nearly the entire analysis team had resigned, leaving the place desolate.

Passing by empty desks that could have been his own, Hyung-min reached Helena's office and knocked on the door.

"Yes, come in!"

As Hyung-min entered, Helena, who was on the phone, gave him an apologetic look and gestured for him to sit on the sofa while she continued her heated conversation.

"…No, that's not it. Since we've taken over Burnley, it's only right that we inject funds to stabilize it."

"…Yes, that's true."

Helena's face twisted into a frown at something she heard.

"…I'm not saying we should mess with the profit margins! 100% of zero is still zero. You know full well that if the club goes bankrupt, the 20 million pounds we invested will vanish. Now's not the time to worry about profitability."

"…We need enough funds to run the club normally. This deal was vetted by Dad! ALK Capital stripped everything—there's not even a penny left!"

"…You think it's that easy? Burnley's reputation with the banks is in the gutter because of ALK Capital. Unless we guarantee 100%, they won't lend us a single penny."

Trying to stay rational, Helena clung to composure, but the next words from the other end shattered it entirely.

"…Are you out of your mind, Oppa? Put Turf Moor up as collateral? No way! As a director of Burnley Football Club, I can't accept a proposal that would plunge the club into ruin. And I don't fancy getting pelted with rocks on the street! Besides, Turf Moor isn't even worth much as collateral."

"…Why not? It's a 22,000-seat stadium where we charge just 35 pounds per ticket! Even at full capacity, that's only 770,000 pounds per match. But over half of that comes from season tickets, so we're really getting less than 15 pounds per game! And what about maintenance costs? That's not pure profit!"

"…Turf Moor isn't an arm or a leg—it's the head! How would you feel if a doctor cut off your head to save your limbs?"

A furious voice erupted from the phone before suddenly falling silent.

Hyung-min looked on with concern as Helena straightened up in her chair from her previously relaxed posture.

"…Yes. No. That's right. Yes, I'll be careful."

"…Yes. But it has to be interest-free. Yes. Yes, of course."

"…A 10-million-pound call. Absolutely. Thank you."

Finally ending the call, Helena glared at the dead phone, gritting her teeth as she muttered, "Then why doesn't he come here and fix it himself?"

Hyung-min, who had been sitting on the sofa listening to one side of the conversation, cleared his throat awkwardly. Helena turned to him.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting, Kim."

"No, it's fine. Should I have come at a different time?"

"No, it's not exactly something I'm ashamed of."

Rising from her desk, Helena sat on the sofa across from Hyung-min, facing him over the table.

"This is how investing works. You want to buy something as cheaply as possible, but once you've bought it, you have to keep pouring money in to keep that cheap thing alive. It's the same with companies and football clubs."

"So Burnley needs constant funding too?"

"Not originally, no. Actually, Mike and John did a pretty good job running things until now."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Hmm… First, ALK Capital borrowed a hefty sum to acquire Burnley, and to repay it, they scraped every last bit of cash the club had. Second, right in the middle of that, the COVID-19 pandemic hit hard."

"Oh…"

Helena sighed as she continued.

"To be fair, it's not entirely ALK Capital's fault. No one could've predicted a global pandemic, and no one imagined ticket revenue would completely dry up because of it."

She shook her head here.

"The problem is that a small club like Burnley doesn't generate much from marketing or sponsorships. When your annual gate revenue of about 20 million pounds suddenly disappears, there's no way to fill that gap."

"I see. Uh, so why did you suddenly want to see me?"

"Oh, right. That's not what I called you here for."

With a slight cough, Helena looked at Hyung-min across from her and said, "The board had a discussion. The media's already speculating about it, but we'd like to offer you, Hyung-min, the role of Burnley Football Club's permanent manager."

"…"

Seeing Hyung-min's expression remain unchanged, Helena smirked and asked, "Not surprised?"

"I read the papers too. And I am surprised—I'm just good at hiding it."

"Oh, I see."

"But why me?"

"Hmm… I think these might explain it better than I can."

Helena pulled out the sports sections of major national and local newspapers.

The British press, already fanatical about football regardless of the story, had latched onto Burnley as fresh fodder, churning out articles by the dozen every day.

A rookie Asian interim manager leading the team to three straight wins in his first three matches.

Without major changes to the squad, he'd boldly broken away from the previous manager's style, scoring four goals and conceding none—a perfect balance of attack and defense.

Relentless pressing from the edge of the opposition's penalty box to the halfway line.

Short passes exchanged to shake up the flanks, creating space, and sequentially committing numbers to gain a numerical advantage with meticulous tactics.

And swift, decisive substitutions.

No outlet—legitimate or tabloid—discussed the appointment of a new manager anymore.

The morning after the unexpected third victory, the sports pages of national dailies were plastered with analyses praising the young genius manager who'd turned Burnley's style 180 degrees, alongside predictions that his official contract would hinge on the result of the next match against Aston Villa.

"It's just luck," Hyung-min said, dismissing the glowing reviews with a single sentence as he skimmed the papers Helena handed him.

"Everton was a mess with their manager about to leave, Brentford was in their first-ever Premier League season, and the Carabao Cup win came right after a managerial change. It was just good timing."

"But the performances weren't bad, were they?"

Hyung-min shook his head at Helena's question.

"Right now, opposing teams are caught off guard because they don't have data on us. But as the season goes on and our tactics get figured out, it'll get tougher. Our squad's too thin to make big tactical shifts with substitutions. The Premier League isn't that forgiving."

"What if you tweak the tactics again?"

"We've already overhauled Sean's old tactics to a revolutionary degree compared to last season. If we start tinkering more, it'll spiral out of control and collapse."

Shaking his head, Hyung-min spoke with conviction.

"What we need to do now is rack up as many points as possible in the first half of the season, while our approach isn't fully exposed, so that even if we falter in the second half, we're safe from relegation."

Mid-sentence, he recalled the earlier conversation and grinned.

"Unless you're planning to give us funds to sign new players?"

Helena shook her head at his playful jab.

"Right now, securing funds just to keep the club running is headache enough. Transfers are out of reach."

"See?"

Helena chuckled softly at Hyung-min's "I knew it" response.

"Anyway, it's a mess of a club that can't even properly support its manager, but would you still take on the permanent role?"

"So, why me?"

Helena paused to think before answering.

"Hmm… I believe that if someone's doing a job well, there's no need to replace them with someone new. You took charge of the first team with zero preparation and have exceeded all our expectations."

Hyung-min nodded slightly, and Helena continued.

"I've heard that 30 points is the bare minimum for survival, and 40 points is the safety zone. You've already secured 6 points in 2 games, Kim. If you can scrape together about 30 more points in the remaining 36 matches, that's a massive success for Burnley."

Faced with Helena's candid reasoning, Hyung-min hesitated for a long while. Helena didn't rush him, waiting patiently.

After wrestling with his thoughts, Hyung-min finally looked up at her.

"Alright. I'll give it a shot. Worst case, I just get sacked, right?"

"Heh. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Anyway, thank you. I look forward to working with you, Manager Kim."

"Same here, Helena."

The two shared a firm handshake.

The additional truths—that other managers had all declined, or that Hyung-min's salary could be kept astronomically lower than other candidates—remained locked in Helena's mind, never to see the light of day.