Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: For Staying Up (3)
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Thud, thud, thud!
A young man strolled down the corridor.
His expression somehow looked uncomfortable.
Kevin Potters was a rookie reporter who had just joined the Horichi Daily a few weeks ago.
For the past several months, he had been harboring one major doubt.
Who exactly was this Ma Jeong-woo guy?
The reason was obvious.
He was a local reporter for Horichi and, at the same time, a die-hard Wanderers fan.
And he held negative views about Ma Jeong-woo.
He was a conservative who believed the club owner shouldn't also take on the manager role!
But lately, he had been going through some serious mental turmoil.
‘These results make no sense...!’
He just couldn't wrap his head around it.
As a Wanderers fan, it was obviously great news that Bolton had escaped the relegation zone and now needed just one more win to secure survival.
But the man who had led them to this glory was none other than Ma Jeong-woo.
‘This is ridiculous!’
Kevin Potters had done tons of digging on Jeong-woo.
His conclusion: the guy was a total loser.
Back in Korea, he had been nothing more than a performance analyst from a third-division league.
And if that was all, it might have been forgivable.
‘Assault! Extortion and threats! A guy with zero professional ethics!’
He had even reached out directly to Korea.
To an acquaintance who had once been on the same team as Ma Jeong-woo.
‘His name was Kim Seok-tae, right?’
He could still remember it vividly.
Over the phone, the man had spat it out like he was talking about his sworn enemy.
‘That bastard’s a total thug. Nobody likes him, you know? Treats his seniors like dirt, and if something doesn’t go his way, fists come out first. He’s three years older than me, and out of nowhere, he clocked me right in the jaw. For no reason!’
Of course, you couldn’t take one person’s word as gospel.
So he had also contacted Ma Jeong-woo’s former manager and club owner.
‘Ma Jeong-woo...? Don’t even mention that name! The guy stormed into the owner’s office because he was in a bad mood and tried to smash our one and only trophy!’
‘Jeong-woo? That shameless prick. He went around bragging about my achievements like they were his own. A guy like that as manager and owner? The world’s so unfair!’
Every single one of them had nothing good to say.
And Kevin Potters had reached one conclusion.
‘To get results like this..., there must be something else at play.’
Like some unnamed, competent analyst by his side.
The manager’s lament kept nagging at him.
The claim that Jeong-woo had stolen his achievements.
And wasn’t that exactly what was happening now?
With these insane results, a good chunk of Wanderers fans were now praising Ma Jeong-woo.
Fortunately, Kevin Potters now had the perfect excuse to dig into the club owner up close.
“Think of it as filming a sort of documentary.”
His six-year senior, Robert Downing, patted Potters’ shoulder lightly with a gentle smile.
They soon arrived at his senior’s desk, and Potters’ eyes lit up as he asked.
“A documentary?”
“Yeah. Bolton approached us first. We’ll cover the club like a documentary, do interviews with players and the manager. Especially..., the deputy editor wants us to focus on the owner-manager guy. You and me. Oh, and we’ll have a few extra cameras too.”
“That’s perfect.”
Potters flashed a sly grin and made a vow to himself.
‘I’ll uncover the truth...! No matter what!’
* * *
Five days before matchday 45.
7 a.m.
Owen Pressais arrived at the training center first and got to work.
To be precise, hamstring strengthening drills.
“Huff huff! Huff huff!”
Owen exhaled roughly.
Right now, he was sprinting laps around the training center.
Off in a corner, Jeong-woo stood slouched in his training gear.
His eyes were fixed squarely on Owen’s landing feet.
Soon, his brow furrowed slightly.
“Owen. You idiot, your heel’s hitting again.”
“Huff, huff!”
Instead of answering, Owen immediately corrected his form.
Jeong-woo recited the explanation he had given a few days ago, just to review.
“Most of the stress on the hamstring tendon happens the moment your heel strikes. That’s when it demands the most force.”
He skipped the technical stuff like how the biceps femoris goes eccentric right before the heel hits the ground again.
“It’s your body’s way of preventing excessive pressure on the knee.”
It was a natural response to stabilize the knee and pelvis.
But in a sudden sprint, if you do that, the force gets too much or dispersed, throwing off your balance completely.
And in the worst case, it leads to a hamstring tear.
“Plus, you’ve already got a history of hamstring injuries. The path’s already worn open.”
Once a hamstring tears once, it’s prone to re-injury.
Like a tunnel that’s been dug.
So Jeong-woo was drilling Owen to land on the midfoot instead of the heel when pushing forward.
After about 30 minutes, Owen moved to deadlifts on Jeong-woo’s signal.
Jeong-woo explained from the side like a personal trainer.
“This drill strengthens the long head of the biceps femoris and the semimembranosus.”
“Semimem... what?”
“Semimembranosus. Just know it minimizes injury risk.”
“Yes!”
Owen was drenched in sweat but followed Jeong-woo’s instructions faithfully.
Over the past few months taking Jeong-woo’s guidance, Owen couldn’t stop being amazed.
‘He’s incredible.’
At first, it was partly because he was the owner.
Expectations had been low to begin with.
But the more time they spent training and playing matches together, the more his amazement grew.
It went beyond just having deep training knowledge—he had serious expertise in sports medicine too.
And he couldn’t refuse it.
‘The boss... really cares about me.’
Even now, Jeong-woo was watching every tiny movement with the sharp eyes of a bird of prey.
At first, Owen had wondered why.
Why was he so invested in his perfect comeback?
He still wondered.
So during a five-minute break, sprawled out on the floor like a starfish, Owen asked.
“Boss, why do you care about me this much?”
Regular training should’ve been enough, but Jeong-woo was coaching him personally.
And that wasn’t all.
Sometimes he even did one-on-one sessions with stars like Pak and Sensuous Rough.
It felt a bit much just to grow players for simple wins.
‘We could grow through the coaches just fine.’
Jeong-woo looked down at Owen’s half-dead face and curious gaze, then grinned.
“You’re my player. And anyone can see you’ve got tons of potential left. Too wasteful to let it go.”
“...”
Owen’s pupils trembled ever so slightly.
Right after coming back from injury, he thought his career was on a downhill slope.
His form had dropped as low as it could, and no one was looking for him anymore.
But the man in front of him was different.
He saw value in his stalled potential.
‘Damn, he’s touched.’
Jeong-woo chuckled at Owen, who squeezed his eyes shut as his tear ducts reddened.
Of course, what he just said was true.
In his eyes, Owen’s talent hadn’t fully shone yet.
The meniscus was unavoidable, but the hamstring aftermath could be overcome to a degree.
‘Get some direction changes and speed back on him, and he’ll eat it up even in the Championship.’
His two-footed passing and shooting were already top-tier in the league.
Of course, the real goal was something else.
‘He’s the closest thing to a franchise star.’
Even before the injury, Owen Pressais had been Bolton’s present and future.
And the most popular player among Wanderers fans.
His playstyle just had that satisfying flair.
Plus, having a franchise star boosts club value plenty.
‘This guy even had Chelsea bidding up to 50 billion won back when he flashed in the Championship.’
At just 18 years old.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich had fallen hard for him.
By the way...,
Jeong-woo glanced toward the entrance.
A young man with short brown hair had been staring at him for a while.
Kevin Potters, the Horichi reporter.
They were collaborating with the local Horichi media for filming, but...,
‘Something about him rubs me the wrong way?’
Seriously, the guy was glaring at him like an enemy.
* * *
May 3rd.
Matchday 45.
Bolton Wanderers vs. Blackpool.
Blackpool, sitting in 7th, had been on an insane run lately.
They had climbed from 14th to 7th with six straight wins.
And the pundits were all saying the same thing.
[Blackpool’s manager changed!?]
It was the kind of question you’d ask because Eric Rye, Blackpool’s manager, was dismantling opponents with tactics completely different from before.
In reality, the manager hadn’t changed.
But the tactics? Night and day.
Today against Bolton, Blackpool unleashed fierce attacks.
Thwump-!
[Ooooh! Baz Rubara’s lofted pass!]
[The deep ball finds the speedy striker! Joe Natal stretches out his right foot!]
Thwack-!
[Natal shooooots!]
[Oh! It clips just over the crossbar!]
[Relief for Bolton there.]
The commentators were wrong.
Just a minute later, Blackpool hammered Bolton’s goal again with a massive counter.
Four minutes after that, the tactics shifted completely.
Blackpool, who had focused on counters, suddenly switched to tiki-taka with possession elements.
Bolton’s players looked visibly rattled.
In the technical area, Jeong-woo watched with his mouth agape.
He was genuinely impressed.
‘Their tactical structure is pretty solid.’
He turned his head.
Opposite technical area.
Eric Rye, in his mid-40s, controlled the players on the pitch with sharper eyes than anyone.
Personally, Jeong-woo thought he was a cut above Lowell Gardner, who had been done in by Middle Eastern bedsheet soccer.
Perfect balance between attack and defense—almost too perfect.
Even variable tactics like this...,
‘Makes pre-match video analysis pointless.’
Totally different from their last game.
And systematic.
In defense, they blocked pass lanes with fluid, perfectly positioned movements.
In attack, they threatened Bolton’s defense with organic plays like counters and tiki-taka.
When Bolton dropped into a low block sensing danger,
Thwack-!
[Ooooh! Alice Sims’ long-range screamer!]
They exploited the tiniest gaps with cannon shots.
But something felt off.
By the 33rd minute of the first half, Bolton had managed just one shot.
Blackpool? Already 13 on target.
One had gone in, but it was ruled offside.
Jeong-woo’s expression had changed drastically from before.
His eyebrows shot up then dropped, and one cheek twitched.
On the pitch, some Bolton players looked pale as ghosts.
Like they were facing a team they’d never seen before.
Even Jeong-woo was experiencing chaos on the touchline for the first time.
And the reason was, unexpectedly...,
‘Wait, isn’t this... a tactic I’ve seen before?’
Specifically, it reminded him of the Mad Dog tactic he had uploaded on World Management around 5 p.m. on November 8, 2020.
In other words...,
‘Mine?’
Have a great day~
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