I became the Premier League’s youngest manager

The day after the unexpected victory in the second round of the Carabao Cup, Hyung-min, who had gone to training, received a call from Helena and headed to her office.

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

The club office was quite shabby, with most of the staff—coaching team, scouting department, and nearly all of the analysis team—resigning, leaving only a few administrative workers, stadium operations, and public relations staff.

Hyungmin arrived at Helena's office, passing empty desks that could have been his, and knocked on her door.

"Yes, come in!"

As Hyungmin opened the door and entered, Helena, who had been talking on the phone with her ear, gestured for him to sit on the sofa with an apologetic expression and continued her heated conversation.

"… No, that's not it. Since we've taken over Burnley, it's right to invest money to stabilize it."

"… Yes. That's true."

Helena frowned after hearing the response.

"… I'm not talking about the yield! 100% of 0 is 0. If the club goes bankrupt, we'll lose the 20 million pounds we invested. Now is not the time to talk about yield."

"… We need enough money to run the club normally. This deal was reviewed by Dad! ALK Capital took it all, so there's really not a penny left!"

"… Do you think it's as easy as it sounds? Burnley has the worst reputation among banks because of ALK Capital. They won't lend you a penny unless we guarantee it 100% anyway."

Helena, trying hard to maintain her composure during the conversation, completely lost her cool when she heard the next thing on the phone.

"… Are you out of your mind, brother? You want me to take Turf Moor as collateral? No! As a director of Burnley Football Club, I cannot accept any offer that would put the club in a ditch. And I don't want to be stoned in the street! Besides, Turf Moor isn't worth much as collateral."

"… Why not?! It's a 22,000-seat stadium, and they only charge £35 per ticket! Even at full capacity, they only make a maximum of £770,000 per match, and more than half of that comes from season tickets, which means they only charge £15 per match! And what about stadium maintenance costs? That's not net income!"

"… Turf Moor is not about the arms and legs, it's about the head! It would be nice if the doctor cut off your neck to save your arms and legs!"

An excited voice could be heard on the other end of the phone, followed by sudden silence.

As Hyungmin looked at her with worried eyes, Helena sat up straight in her chair again from her slouched posture.

"… Yes. No. No. Yes, I will be careful. Yes."

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

"… 10 million pounds, sure. Thank you."

Finally ending the call, Helena gritted her teeth and muttered while staring at her switched-off phone.

"No, then why don't you come and save him yourself!"

When Hyungmin, who had been sitting on the sofa listening to one side of the conversation, coughed uncomfortably, Helena looked at him.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Kim."

"No. Should I have come at a different time?"

"No, it's not that embarrassing."

Helena got up from her seat and sat on the sofa in front of Hyungmin, facing 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 putting money into it to maintain the item you bought. It's the same for companies and clubs."

"Should Burnley keep putting money into it?"

"That's not how it was supposed to be. In fact, Mike and John have been running it pretty well."

"Then what is the problem?"

"Well… firstly, ALK Capital borrowed a lot of money to acquire Burnley, and to repay that money, they had to scrape together every bit of cash that Burnley Football Club had. Secondly, in the midst of all that, the COVID-19 crisis hit."

"Ah..."

Helena sighed.

"Actually, it's not all ALK Capital's fault. No one knew that COVID-19 would spread worldwide, and no one could have imagined it would completely wipe out ticket revenue."

Helena shook her head.

"The problem is that small clubs like Burnley don't have a lot of revenue from marketing or sponsorships. So, if gate revenue of around £20 million a year suddenly disappears, there's no way to make up for it."

"I see. Oh, then why did you suddenly want to see me?"

"Oh, that's right. I didn't call you here to talk about this."

Helena coughed slightly and looked at Hyungmin, who was sitting across from her.

"We've discussed this among the club's board members. There have already been many articles in the press speculating about this, but I'd like to offer Hyung-min the position of permanent manager of Burnley Football Club."

"… ."

Helena asked with a snicker at Hyungmin's unchanging expression.

"Aren't you surprised?"

"I read the newspaper too. And yes, I was surprised. I was just controlling my expression."

"Oh, I see."

"But why me?"

"Hmm... I think these guys can explain it better than I can."

What Helena pulled out were the sports sections of major British and regional daily newspapers.

The British media, which had always been fanatical about soccer regardless of the content, had now discovered a new hot topic in Burnley and had been rushing to cover it all at once, writing several articles a day.

Three straight wins in the first three games under a rookie Asian interim manager.

Without making any major changes to the team, they boldly broke away from the previous manager's style, scoring 4 goals and conceding none, showing a perfect balance of offense and defense.

Intense forward pressure from the edge of the opponent's penalty box all the way to the halfway line.

A delicate tactic that involved creating space by shifting left and right while exchanging short passes, then sequentially deploying attackers there to gain a numerical advantage.

And even the timing of quick and bold substitutions.

All the media, yellow presses, and tabloids were no longer discussing the appointment of a new manager.

The morning after the unexpected victory in the third game, the national sports sections were filled with articles analyzing and praising the tactics of the young genius who had turned Burnley's style around, and speculating that he would sign a formal contract depending on the result of the next match against Aston Villa.

"I was just lucky."

Hyungmin glanced at the newspapers Helena had handed him and gave himself a one-word low evaluation.

"Everton were in disarray because their manager was thinking of resigning, Brentford were in the Premier League for the first time in their history, and the Carabao Cup was just a stroke of luck at a time when they had just changed managers."

"But wasn't the match content good?"

To Helena's question, Hyungmin shook his head.

"Right now, the opposing teams are confused because they don't have any data on us, but as the season goes on and our tactics are figured out, it will become more and more difficult. But our player base is too thin to make major tactical changes by substituting players. The Premier League is not that easy."

"What if we change the tactics again?"

"We've already changed Sean's tactics so much that it's revolutionary compared to last season. If we start changing the tactics any more, it's going to fall apart uncontrollably."

Hyungmin shook his head and spoke with confidence.

"What we need to do now is accumulate as many points as possible while our tactics remain unpredictable in the first half, so that we don't have to worry about relegation even if we falter in the second half."

Hyungmin smiled brightly as he recalled the conversation from just a moment ago.

"Or are you providing financial support to recruit new players?"

Helena shook her head at Hyungmin's teasing question.

"Right now, securing funds to run the club is a headache. I can't even think about recruiting players."

"Look at that."

Helena let out a low laugh at Hyungmin's answer, which seemed to indicate that he had expected this.

"Anyway, this is a mess that can't even properly support its manager, but can you still take on the role of the official manager?"

"So, why me?"

Helena thought for a moment at Hyungmin's question and then answered.

"Well... I basically delegated the work, and if there is someone who's good at it, I don't think there's any need to find a new person and replace them. Hyungmin took over the command of the first team without any preparation, and he's doing much better than we all expected."

As Hyungmin nodded slightly, Helena continued.

"I heard that 30 points would be enough to secure relegation, and 40 points would be enough to stay safe. Kim has secured six points in two games. If Burnley can get just 30 more points in the remaining 36 games, it would be a huge success."

Hyungmin hesitated for a long time after Helena's honest answer, but Helena waited calmly without rushing him.

Hyungmin, who had been thinking for a while with his head wrapped around his neck, finally raised his head and looked at Helena.

"Okay. Let's give it a try, whatever. Well, if it doesn't work out, I'll just get fired, right?"

"Heh. I hope that doesn't happen. Anyway, thank you. Please take care of me in the future, Director Kim."

"I ask for your continued support, Helena."

The two shook hands firmly.

Additional truths, such as the fact that other directors had all turned him down, or that Hyungmin's salary could be kept relatively low compared to other directors, never left Helena's mouth and quietly disappeared.