NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4: 4
15 minutes before the official kick-off time.
Helena sat in the director's box at Turf Moor, Burnley's home ground, looking out over the pitch.
It was a modest stadium with a seating capacity of about 22,000, which is considered small by European football standards.
However, the sight of home and away fans filling the seats and competitively singing their anthems until the stadium was full was heart-fluttering, even for Helena, who was indifferent to sports.
Of course, the lyrics of the cheering song sung by Burnley fans were familiar even to Helena, who was an outsider:
"For ever and ever (Forever and ever)"
"We'll follow a team (We only cheer for one team)"
"It's Burnley FC"
"We are supreme! (We are the strongest!)"
"We'll never be mastered (We'll never be mastered)"
"By the Blackburn bards (By the Blackburn bards)"
"And keep the claret flag flying high! (And keep the claret flag flying high!)"
Helena couldn't understand why, when playing Everton, they were singing a song that disparaged their local rivals, Blackburn.
As if reading her curiosity, John Banaskiewicz, sitting next to her, explained.
"The fans are happy."
"Are you happy?"
"Blackburn is in the Championship, the second division, so we rarely face them. We don't have to face them, so we can't lose to them. But what if they're in a league below ours? Well, it's basically like we won."
Although he tried to sound neutral, Helena could barely suppress a laugh at the satisfaction on John Banaskiewicz's face at being in a higher league than his rivals Blackburn.
Below, Burnley players could be seen warming up under the direction of Kim and Arthur, while Everton's director of football, Marcel Brand, who was sitting next to Helena on the other side of the pitch, leaned over to speak to her.
"Helena, is this your first time at Turf Moor?"
"Yes? Oh, yes. Actually, this is my first time watching a soccer game at a stadium."
It was her first time watching a sporting event, let alone soccer, but Helena didn't go into detail about it.
Her words made the Dutch Everton football administration chief smile.
"Isn't it a truly magnificent sight?"
"That's right."
"When we get going in the second half, you have to come to Goodison Park. Turf Moor is great, but the Merseyside fans are the ones who will show you what real passion is."
"Joy···!"
John Banaskiewicz, from Lancashire, snorted faintly at the praise for Merseyside fans.
Helena, still unfamiliar with the regional character and rivalries that came with it, decided to quietly watch the game unfold between the two men.
Located a few blocks from Turf Moor, the home ground of Burnley Football Club, The Rifle Volunteer Inn is a small pub that doesn't serve food other than simple snacks but is loved by the locals for its home-brewed craft beer and Guinness.
With kick-off just around the corner, regulars who had failed to secure opening-day tickets flocked to the pub to watch the game, taking up seats at the central bar and scattered throughout the pub, trying their best to drown their despair in their pints.
"Aww, that's annoying!"
Henry Smythe downed his beer in one gulp and motioned to the bartender for another.
The successor to the Smythe family, who had been established in Burnley since his great-grandfather's time, was proud to be a native of the land, having been born in Burnley, lived there for 50 years, married a Burnley woman, and raised his children in Burnley.
And like 99% of Burnley men, he had been rooting for his hometown team since before he could even walk.
Although it was a shame that he didn't get to experience Burnley's heyday when they won the First Division in the 1960s, he remained steadfast in his support of his hometown team, even as the team was relegated to the third division in the 1979/80 season, plummeted to the fourth division in the 1984/85 season, and faced the threat of bankruptcy in 2002.
Finally, in the 2008/09 season, they returned to the Premier League after 33 years under manager Owen Coyle.
Since 2012, he had enjoyed six seasons in the Premier League under Sean Dyche, happier than when he was a newlywed.
At least, that was until those damn Americans took ownership of the club back and forth like a toy twice in eight months, driving the club to the brink of bankruptcy and forcing manager Sean Dyche to resign because he was fed up with it.
"Will it be okay without Sean Dyche...?"
At the suggestion of Henry Smythe's old friend and formidable Burnley native Mitch Tyler, Henry slammed his fist on the bar.
"There's no way it's okay! It's all because of those Americans! If only it weren't for those Americans!"
Both had season tickets, but today they were handing them over to their children and sharing their frustrations and concerns with the Rifle Volunteers.
"I'm sure all the home fans inside the stadium are having similar conversations today."
"That's not the important thing. This year, relegation is a certainty···."
Another fan, who had been listening to the conversation from the side, muttered sadly.
Sean Dyche, who had led Burnley for the past eight years and received absolute support from fans as they achieved a miraculous promotion to the Premier League, qualified for European competitions, and successfully stayed in the league, had now resigned.
The mood among Burnley fans was at rock bottom.
In addition, the sentiment toward the second American owner, who replaced the first American owner that ruined the club's finances, had shifted from concern to despair.
Nevertheless, in front of the fans gathered to cheer on their hometown team, on a large screen with the volume turned up to the max, the casters and commentators in charge of broadcasting the match gave a cool-headed assessment of the situation at their club, Burnley.
[Today, the Premier League opening match is finally held!]
[Yes, among the 20 teams in the Premier League, 10 teams are playing their first matches today, and the one that is attracting the most attention is Burnley Football Club.]
[With Manager Dyche suddenly resigning, the opening match is being played with a temporary manager. Among the managers who have been mentioned as candidates for the Burnley manager so far, Roy Hodgson, who led Crystal Palace well until last season and then returned to the Wild West, and Neil Warnock, the wizard of promotion, seem to be at the forefront.]
The commentator nodded at the caster's words.
[Roy Hodgson has a bit of a rigid tactic, but he is well-known for leading lower-ranked teams and gradually accumulating points. Neil Warnock, despite his long hiatus, is a top expert at getting his team promoted. Come to think of it, Sam Allardyce, who led West Bromwich Albion until last season and is currently unemployed, is also a top expert at preventing relegation, although he is not mentioned now.]
[Roy Hodgson is hoping to stay in the Premier League, and Neil Warnock is hoping to get relegated to the second division and then get promoted again. Sam Allardyce vividly remembers failing to prevent West Brom from being relegated last season, so perhaps his expectations have dropped a bit.]
[I don't know how the Cartwright Fund, Burnley's new owner, will judge it, but former club owner Mike Garlick, who remains a director, will be well aware that he has to choose between those two, or three, broadly speaking.]
[Now, the starting lineup is coming out. Ah, this is···!]
As the pub buzzed, Burnley's starting lineup appeared on the screen.
[Nick Pope as goalkeeper, Matt Lowton, James Tarkowski, Ben Mee, Charlie Taylor as defenders from the right... so far, it's as expected.]
[They've used all the available midfielders: Jack Cork, Ashley Westwood, and Zac Brownhill! Jack Cork is the defensive midfielder, with Westwood and Brownhill above him. There's Jay Rodriguez on the right and Dwight McNeil on the left as wingers. And Chris Wood is the only striker.]
The commentator added his own thoughts to the caster's words.
[It seems like they are trying to protect the center against manager Rafa Benitez's 4-2-3-1 formation. In that case, it would be correct to see Burnley as playing defensively with a 4-1-4-1 formation.]
[It seems like they are trying to not lose points as much as possible under the caretaker manager. It would be correct to say that they played more defensively than manager Sean Dyche's 4-4-2 formation.]
[It seems like a tactic to sit deep and hope for luck with a long ball to Chris Wood.]
Just avoid a crushing defeat with a huge score difference.
The referee blew the whistle to start the game as the 22 players from both teams, who had knelt on one knee around the center circle as part of a campaign to raise awareness of discrimination, stood up again in front of fans who clasped their hands together and prayed for their team.
And the game that started went in a direction no one could have imagined.