Guiding the New Recruits
The youth players who had been called up were training ahead of their opening match. They had returned from vacation and were slowly getting their bodies back into shape. [So, what do you think of the current situation?]
“Hmm… Why do you ask?” Harrison pointed toward the players who had just been promoted from the B team and were standing around awkwardly. [The team’s taken quite a hit. You can really tell the leadership and veteran presence is missing. You’re feeling a bit out of place too, aren’t you?]
Yeah… Ha Sunmoon suddenly felt a sense of emptiness. Naldo. The veteran Brazilian centre-back had looked after him ever since he was promoted to the first team. But he had transferred to another club. A Chinese team had offered him a high salary, and Naldo had accepted, heading off to China.
“At least we got to have a meal together before he left. Whew. But why are you asking?”
[You received help, so now it’s your turn to help others. Besides, you said you liked this city and this team enough to stay, right? Then it’s important to take on that kind of role. Help those kids adapt quickly.]
“But they’ve been at Espanyol longer than me, and they’re older than me too.” Harrison smacked Ha Sunmoon on the forehead. [Hey! There are already groups in this team. The veteran group and the young group!]
“Am I considered part of the young group now?”
[No! You’re an exception! Not young — you’re the baby. That’s how youth players are treated. That’s why Naldo, who was in the veteran group, looked after you.]
“Ah…” Ha Sunmoon still didn’t quite grasp it.
[Now that the team’s in the second division, they’re relying more on youth players. But do those players have much influence in the locker room? No, they don’t. You can already tell they’re just watching everyone’s reactions and not doing anything properly.]
“But the young group can help them, can’t they?”
[Those guys? Do you really think they will? Maybe one or two have that kind of personality, but most of them are just showing off. That’s why!]
“That’s why what?”
[You go talk to them and show them how things are done. As the representative of the youth group. One or two getting promoted is one thing — the players would’ve been considerate. But suddenly so many have come up.] Harrison pointed at Ha Sunmoon as he spoke, and Ha Sunmoon suddenly stiffened.
“Um… I don’t really know how to do that kind of thing.”
[New recruits are usually looked after by their seniors. You’ll figure it out as you go. Go on, Sunmoon. Make sure I don’t have to call you a kid anymore. Show some leadership and help them settle in.]
Ha Sunmoon walked over to the other youth players, who were standing around awkwardly with creaking bodies.
“Ah… Hey. Long time no see?”
“Oh! It’s Ha! Long time no see.”
The atmosphere had changed. After his performances against Real Madrid and Barcelona, Ha Sunmoon was clearly a first-team player, and the B-team players looked at him differently now.
“It hasn’t been that long for me. We played football together with Vegas.”
“Oh? That’s right! Alex!”
Fortunately, there was one player who had played with them during the neighbourhood matches with Vegas. And then… [Huh? Isn’t that Ian? They promoted a right-back too?]
Ha Sunmoon flinched. They’re promoting a right-back from the youth team? At that moment, another familiar face approached him.
“Huff huff! Ugh, I’m exhausted!”
“Huh? Vegas? What are you doing here again?”
The person who had entered the training ground a little late was none other than Vegas, the B-team left winger.
“What do you mean, ‘again’! I got called up too! Finally! I can’t believe I’m here!”
Vegas’s face was filled with excitement.
“Oh? It’s Vegas!”
“What, you got promoted too? Nice. You looked like you were dying of envy when we said we were going up.”
The centre-backs, Wasim and Kedari, greeted Vegas.
“I heard about it yesterday. Something must’ve happened.”
[So they promoted this many from the youth team…] Harrison’s expression hardened. [Left winger Vegas, midfielders Alex and Gori. Right-back Ian. Centre-backs Wasim and Kedari. And goalkeeper Prieto…] Seven players. [They replaced all the outgoing players with youth-team players. Well, that was common in my era, but… is this really the right move now?]
Back in the 1990s when Harrison played, Manchester United manager Ferguson had heavily invested in developing young players, so cases like this were common. But even Ferguson hadn’t neglected signing quality players, so Harrison wore a slightly worried expression.
“I didn’t expect so many of you to get promoted… Ahem! I’ll explain where everything is and what you need to do. I joined the B team later than you, but I’ve been in the first team longer, so I know my way around!”
[Hmm…] Harrison watched Ha Sunmoon explaining the training ground and the rules to the called-up youth players and fell into thought. [They didn’t promote these young players because they developed them well… This is just about saving money. If the first-team players get injured, the drop in quality will be severe…]
Of course, it wasn’t unusual for managers to promote a large number of young players before the season to test them. But Espanyol’s current first-team squad only had sixteen players, and there had been no additional signings.
* * *
“I never dreamed Ha would do something like that.”
Espanyol B-team manager David spoke to first-team manager Abelardo Fernández.
“Indeed.” Abelardo also watched Ha Sunmoon leading the youth players around during training and nodded.
“He clearly has a lot of affection for the club. He stayed even after taking such a big pay cut, and now that the B-team players have been promoted, he’s taking care of them like this… Thanks to him, we can even bring up two more B-team players. You have no idea how much my head hurt when I heard there wouldn’t be any signings.”
David frowned slightly at Abelardo’s words.
“Ah… So that’s the final decision. This is… I really don’t know if this is the right call. The vice-chairman said he’d try, but…”
“Well, if the club says there’s no money, there’s nothing we can do. Even if we can’t pick the players we want, it would be nice if someone just bought us someone…”
Abelardo’s decision to call up youth players had been unavoidable after hearing there would be no signings.
“By the way, what did you mean when you said Sunmoon was helpful?”
“He suddenly requested a meeting and said he wants to play right-back too. I thought it was ridiculous at first, but… the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. If Ha plays right-back, it adds a lot more versatility.”
Creating a strong best eleven was important. But Espanyol had struggled to field a good one. The main reason was the massive hole at right-back. There were three decent players who could play left-back, but unlike left-back, there was no talent at right-back. Even Gomez, the most skilled option, was still young and better suited as a rotation player. Last season they had loaned in a starting-level right-back, but Corsia had returned to his parent club, and Espanyol no longer had the money to loan another quality player.
“If Ha can play right-back the way he plays left-back, then pairing Pedrosa and Ha as the full-back duo would give us a backline that’s usable even in La Liga. The starting eleven would be very solid, so I’m looking forward to this season.”
“So that’s why you decided to bring up Vegas too. If you move Pedrosa to left-back, you’ll need another left-winger.”
“Yes, that’s right. As for Ian, the right-back… depending on the situation, he might be sent back down, but we’ll train him for now. You never know what might happen.”
* * *
“What? Why?”
[Just do what I say for now.]
“Got it.”
At Harrison’s instruction, Ha Sunmoon headed over to Abelardo.
“What? You want to sit this one out?”
“Yes. I… have something I want to check.”
They were about to split the players into two teams for an internal evaluation match during training. But Harrison had suddenly told Ha Sunmoon to sit out, and though it was awkward, Ha Sunmoon trusted there was a reason and followed the instruction.
“Alright… Testing Ian is more important than you right now anyway. But what are you planning to do?”
“I’m going to watch the match from up there.”
“Up there? The stands?”
“Yes. I’ve been thinking about how I should move lately, and I think watching from above will help a lot.”
“Hmm… Fine, go ahead.”
Ha Sunmoon received the manager’s permission and climbed up to a higher level to observe the training pitch.
“So what do I do now?”
[We’re going to align our perspectives. How I make requests to you.] Harrison picked out one of the players on the pitch and spoke to Ha Sunmoon the way he usually did during matches. “Is this the kind of perspective you mean?”
[That’s right. When they move like this or like that, you tell them to drop back, pull wide, or warn them about an opponent coming. But the frustrating part is this.]
Midfielder Roca played a sharp pass to right-back Embarba, who crossed the ball into the box. Poado received it and scored.
[It’s hard to explain the chance that just appeared in that moment. If you hit it with that kind of trajectory…]
“Ah!” Ha Sunmoon’s eyes lit up at Harrison’s explanation.
“Instead of floating the ball, you sweep it along the ground with curve?”
[Exactly. That’s it. Since long passes are difficult, let’s try playing the ball along the ground.]