Chapter 15: Reorganization (3)
**Burnley Football Club's 2021 Summer Transfer Window Departures and Transfers:**
- Phil Bardsley, 35. Transferred to Nashville (USA) for £100,000*
- Aaron Lennon, 34. Transferred to Vitesse (Netherlands) for £70,000*
- Matej Vydra, 29. Transferred to Cruz Azul (Mexico) for £2 million*
- Ben Gibson, 28. Center-back. Transferred to Norwich (England) for £8 million*
- Ashley Westwood, 31. Transferred to Norwich (England) for £10 million
- **Total Income: £20.17 million**
*Completed before Cartwright Fund's takeover
**Burnley Football Club's 2021 Summer Transfer Window Signings:**
- Maxwel Cornet, 24. Left-back/winger, right-winger. Signed from Olympique Lyonnais (France) for £12.75 million*
- Connor Roberts, 25. Right-back. Signed from Swansea (England) for £3.5 million*
- Wayne Hennessey, 34. Goalkeeper. Free transfer*
- **Total Expenditure: £16.25 million**
*Completed before Cartwright Fund's takeover
**Burnley Football Club's 2021 Summer Transfer Window Loan Signings:**
- Jacob Ramsey, 20. Central midfielder. Loaned from Aston Villa (England) (Wages: £0; £47 million permanent transfer option)
- Karim Adeyemi, 19. Central/right-winger. Loaned from RB Salzburg (Austria) (Wages: £44,000; £14 million permanent transfer option + £1 million add-ons)
- Nikolas Seiwald, 19. Central/defensive midfielder. Loaned from RB Salzburg (Austria) (Wages: £39,000; £13 million permanent transfer option + £1.5 million add-ons)
- Hannibal Mejbri, 18. Central midfielder. Loaned from Manchester United (England) (Wages: £0; £33.5 million permanent transfer option)
**Burnley Football Club's 2021 Summer Transfer Window Net Spend: -£3.92 million**
Burnley Football Club managed to stabilize its finances—ravaged by ALK Capital—through the sale of key player Ashley Westwood and an emergency cash injection from the Cartwright Fund. With the August transfer window barely closed via last-minute loan reinforcements, the board began tackling tasks sidelined while awaiting a permanent manager.
The top priority was rebuilding the club's leadership structure, decimated by ALK Capital's exit and Sean Dyche's departure.
Helena stepped in as the Cartwright Fund's representative, taking the role of board chairwoman. For the time being, she also assumed the duties of CEO and financial director.
Given the club's dire financial state, it made sense for her—someone who could directly negotiate with the owning Cartwright Fund to secure support—to handle these roles.
The only downside? With no budget for assistants, Helena officially took on three jobs' worth of work. She shed a tear as she accepted a business card listing her triple titles.
At Helena's insistence, Mike Garlick and John Banaszkiewicz were brought back to oversee non-football operations—stadium and training ground management, PR, marketing, and general staff supervision—forming a lean leadership team.
Helena had her reasons for dragging the two near-retirees back into the fray. Not only did they offer invaluable football knowledge to a novice like her, but Burnley's board members worked for free, costing the budget not a single penny.
Her passionate persuasion—mixed with appeals to their guilt over the club's current state—was what convinced them.
The football side, however, posed a problem.
With Hyung-min appointed as permanent manager and Arthur Brimlow reversing his retirement to serve as first-team assistant coach, the daily training and match routines were covered.
But there was no one to handle off-field football operations—scouting, analysis, and the logistics of player recruitment.
"We need to hire a Technical Director, ideally a Football Director," Mike Garlick said.
The others nodded as the comment hung in the air during the weekly Tuesday morning executive meeting—a routine set unless something urgent arose. With the August transfer window closed and the first two weeks of September reserved for international matches, the players were on break. Hyung-min and Arthur, lounging in their chairs with relaxed expressions, ignored the discussion, savoring the rare downtime.
Helena, unfazed by her ignorance, raised her hand casually. "Mike, what's a Football Director?"
Glancing at the unhelpful manager and assistant coach, her trusty guide John Banaszkiewicz stepped in.
"You met Everton's Marcel Brands and Aston Villa's Johan Lange, right? A Football Director typically oversees all football-related operations at a club."
Pointing at Hyung-min, he continued, "In other words, while the manager leads the team and handles matches, the Football Director supports them to do that job well. They manage the scouting and analysis teams, handle player signings and transfers, negotiations, and even the hiring and firing of managers."
"What about a Technical Director?" Helena asked.
"Well… a Technical Director usually has less authority than a Football Director. They assist by running the scouting or analysis teams and contributing to player recruitment and transfers."
"They don't sound that different," Helena remarked.
John shrugged. "It's not a strictly defined role. It varies by club—some have both, some just one. Others call it a Sporting Director."
"Hmm… So how does the football industry usually fill these positions?"
"You put out a job posting," John replied.
"Oh, is there a job site for that? Or do you post it on LinkedIn or the club website?"
Mike Garlick chuckled. "That's one way, but these guys can be pretty useful too."
"These guys?"
"Journalists."
The European football world might seem vast, but in terms of personnel and scale, it was far smaller and cozier than Wall Street or the finance industry.
A few hours after the meeting, once Mike Garlick and John Banaszkiewicz finished calls with a handful of reporters, Helena was floored by the flood of applications.
"Wait, the info spreads *this* fast?"
"Rumors travel quick. Drop a word in a few WhatsApp group chats, and everyone knows. Isn't Wall Street the same?" Mike asked.
Helena nodded after a moment's thought. "Well, rumor sheets and tabloids there can be pretty accurate too. Though if you blab too much, the SEC might haul you in for insider trading or leaks. Still, this is impressive."
"In this world, who you know can matter more than what you know or can do," John added.
Helena tilted her head slightly. "That's true everywhere people live."
---
Over the next week, the three directors sifted through the deluge of resumes, debating and narrowing them down before starting interviews with the shortlisted candidates.
With COVID-19 complicating travel and Helena loathing unnecessary time-wasting, most interviews were held via video call.
The problem? None of the candidates clicked with all three.
Young, passionate candidates Helena liked lacked the football connections or experience to lead a Premier League club as a Football or Technical Director.
Older, seasoned candidates, meanwhile, didn't have the philosophy—or had a weak one—to drive the long-term rebuilding Helena envisioned.
Most damningly, nearly every candidate agreed that chasing both results and rebuilding with Burnley's meager finances was a pipe dream.
As the trio grew weary from interviewing seven or eight people a day, they began to think about dragging the manager (now official) and assistant coach (now official)—who'd fled to the manager's office under the pretense of "tactical planning"—back to share the burden.
Then, an unexpected candidate applied for Burnley's Technical Director role.
"Well, well, this guy applying to our club… that's a surprise," Mike Garlick said, flipping through a printed resume (Burnley still couldn't kick its paper habit) with a look of astonishment.
"Who is it? Someone famous?" Helena asked from across the table, reviewing resumes on her laptop.
"Not famous, exactly… but he's fairly well-known in the industry. He used to work at Burnley. Was here during Eddie Howe and Sean Dyche's tenures before moving to Liverpool. A diehard Liverpool fan, I heard he's been thriving there, so it's odd he'd apply to us."
"Let me see."
Mike handed her the resume, and Helena scanned it quickly.
It was a concise, one-page summary of a man who'd steadily built a career in football administration and analysis.
Surprisingly for a Liverpool fan, he'd started at rivals Everton as a youth development analyst.
He rose quickly, becoming head of youth analysis within a few years.
In 2010, Burnley scouted him, and he served as head of first-team performance analysis under Eddie Howe and Sean Dyche for three years.
Then, in 2013, Liverpool—a much bigger club—offered him the role of head of performance analysis. As both a career move and a dream for a lifelong fan, it was an offer he couldn't refuse.
Seven years later, he'd played a major role in assisting Liverpool's genius Sporting Director Michael Edwards and manager Jürgen Klopp, helping transform a fallen mid-table giant into a Premier League powerhouse rivaling Manchester City and one of Europe's top five clubs.
Now, a key figure in Liverpool's analysis team—nurtured by owners FSG—overseeing post-match and first-team player analysis, he'd inexplicably applied to Burnley.
Helena read the name at the top of the resume slowly.
"Jonathan Landris."