The Greatest Manager of All time

In the final few minutes of Swansea's away match against Brighton, the scene on the pitch was still one of Swansea bombarding Brighton's goal.

Whether it was long-range shots from outside the box or players fighting for chances inside the area, Swansea still could not break through the opponent's deep defensive block.

Lynn stood on the touchline the entire time, encouraging his players and directing them to attack.

Until even stoppage time reached its end, and the referee blew the final whistle.

Lynn's hand was still pointing toward Brighton's penalty area, signaling for Balic to push forward down the flank.

He heard the whistle. The players on the pitch stopped running. For a few seconds, he seemed to blank out, frozen in place as if he had turned to stone.

It was over?

They had lost?

How had they lost?

The relaxed mindset before kickoff, the confidence he still had after conceding the first goal, the tension that grew stronger and stronger as their attacks failed again and again, each burst of expectation turning into disappointment until he had almost become a machine directing the match...

Only now did Lynn suddenly realize it.

'I lost to Micky Adams!'

In the stands of the Community Stadium, the Seagulls fans sang and danced. They cheered for victory and showed off toward the Swans!

Although they had lost to Swansea twice before, today, on a brand-new journey, they had defeated Swansea!

Micky Adams wore the smile of a winner as he walked toward Lynn with his head high and chest out.

Before the match, Adams had been so humble that he almost looked ready to kneel before Lynn. Now, his swagger was such a stunning contrast!

Lynn turned around expressionlessly. What entered his sight was Micky Adams's proud smile.

It was not hateful. Instead, it made Lynn feel as if he had seen a reflection of himself in the other man's eyes.

A Lynn who had been distracted by far too many things.

His struggle with Ibrahimović, his hidden control of Toulouse while still paying attention to Thomas Hitzlsperger's transfer and the later-added transfer target Franck Ribéry, watching the calendar as he prepared to plunder the financial markets when the September 11 attacks arrived...

Not one of those things failed to weigh on Lynn's mind.

He had been distracted!

When he had warned the players to stay humble and not underestimate the Second Division, had he truly told himself the same thing deep down?

This job was not easy. If he did not devote himself to it completely, if he did not stay fully focused, then countless details and invisible variables could spread outward like ripples, and perhaps one of them would grow into an uncontrollable tidal wave!

Looking at Micky Adams, Lynn knew he needed to calm down. He needed to reflect.

He did not take a step forward, but he was the first to raise his right hand toward Micky Adams. After shaking the other man's hand, he spoke first.

"Micky, that was an impressive lesson. You were excellent, truly. Congratulations to your team on the win."

Micky Adams had imagined that Lynn might ignore him, or that he might fly into rage out of embarrassment, but he had never imagined Lynn would have this kind of attitude, let alone say something like this.

In the end, Adams could only smile and reply, "When an opponent has beaten me twice, I have to treat that opponent as a powerful enemy. Swansea are my powerful enemy. Thank you. Brighton deserved the win today, but the next time we meet, I'll still treat Swansea as a powerful enemy!"

Lynn said sincerely, "Thank you. This defeat taught me a great deal. After the match ends, we can talk a little like friends, but before that, we are enemies who fight until one side dies. I overlooked that point. Micky, good luck."

The corners of Micky Adams's mouth lifted. Although deep down he still hated Lynn—especially because even in defeat, Lynn did not show the slightest trace of being pathetic—the graceful air around Lynn was something Adams admired, even envied. That was why he hated Lynn. But at the same time, he found himself liking Lynn more and more, because facing Lynn and his team was genuinely enjoyable.

"Lynn, good luck to you too. Fleet Street listed the four favorites for promotion from the Second Division: Brentford, Queens Park Rangers, Reading, and Stoke City. That really pisses me off, and I'm sure it pisses you off too. We may be opponents, but the bigger enemies are those four teams."

Lynn walked away without looking back, offering no reply to Micky Adams.

To him, there was no such thing as a true opponent or a true friend.

In his eyes, the whole world was the enemy!

And today, Micky Adams had once again reminded him of that.

When Lynn walked through the tunnel and passed the mixed zone, reporters immediately gathered around him. They were all Fleet Street journalists. The Welsh media usually did not travel to away matches for post-match interviews because it increased costs, unless the match was close to Wales or was a major headline fixture. Unfortunately, Brighton was in the southeast of England, and Swansea and Brighton were already old rivals, so Welsh reporters had not come to cover the match live.

Fleet Street reporters began throwing questions at Lynn all at once.

"Why did Swansea suffer such a complete defeat away to Brighton today? Does this have anything to do with the fact that you couldn't strengthen the squad during the summer?"

"Ibrahimović spent the entire match on the bench. Was that your mistake? If Ibrahimović had played, would the result have changed?"

Lynn refused to accept the interview. He walked straight toward the parking lot, boarded the team bus, sat in his usual seat, and waited for the players to finish packing up before heading home together.

The team's travel manager, Joseph Levin, calmly and efficiently directed his colleagues in the dressing room as they collected the players' luggage, making sure Swansea did not leave anything behind on someone else's turf.

After Swansea's players returned to the dressing room, they silently went to shower, changed their clothes, picked up their bags, and boarded the bus.

No one was in a good mood after losing the first match of the new season.

Even Ibrahimović, who felt the slightest hint of dark satisfaction in his heart, grew heavy-hearted once the team bus drove out of the Community Stadium.

After all, the people around him were teammates he had once fought beside. With the team having lost, the atmosphere alone made it impossible for Ibrahimović to feel happy.

When the bus was about to reach the train station, Lynn stood up and turned to speak to the players inside.

His expression was serious, and his tone was calm.

"Guys, we lost unexpectedly today. I say unexpectedly because we once beat Brighton twice, and we beat them thoroughly. Yet today, we lost. We lost in a way none of us expected.

"I have to reflect on this, and I hope all of you will join me.

"Maybe we were still lost in the beautiful dream of sweeping aside opponents in the Third Division, but the reality is that we have come to the Second Division now. Brighton are also part of this division. Today, what did you discover?

"Did anyone notice?"

The players stared at Lynn calmly. Some of them shook their heads slightly.

They had no idea what Lynn was referring to.

Lynn said, "Brighton are stronger than before. Their overall team combat ability has improved. They barely had any new faces. They were still the same players we once faced. But the fighting power they showed today, along with their preparation for this match, were the main reasons we lost.

"We thought we could win by playing the way we did in the past. And what happened?

"Brighton's manager, Micky Adams, first generously gifted us a sugar-coated shell. He praised us humbly and low-key, lifted us up into the clouds, and through the media, he sent us his 'fear.' But what was the truth?

"He was brave. Brighton's entire team was brave. While they were showing weakness to soften us up, they were sharpening their knives! Then they slaughtered us at the Community Stadium!

"We underestimated them. We were careless. We were still living in the Third Division. Today, we did not show a leading Second Division level. If we had faced another opponent, a stranger, we might have performed better. But unfortunately, it was Brighton, a team we had beaten before.

"It wasn't Brighton who defeated us. We lost to ourselves. I am responsible, and so are all of you. I hope that after we go back today, every one of you reflects seriously. Today, we became a joke. Next time, there will be no next time! We cannot make the same mistake twice. I will reflect with all of you, then we will improve together, and together we will start killing our way through the Second Division!

"We are Swansea, the fearless Swans. We are going to play in the First Division next season, so we must show better performances than this!"

The players nodded repeatedly as they listened with full attention.

After returning to Swansea, Cromwell immediately held an internal team meeting as captain.

He called on his teammates to first increase their running in matches. No matter what, their attitude had to be shown. On the pitch, they had to fight with everything they had!

Swansea losing to Brighton in their first Second Division match made Lynn a target for Fleet Street's verbal bombardment.

Ian Clarke of The Sun gleefully kicked them while they were down, declaring, "Swansea are simply not ready for the Second Division. This will be a season of torment and destruction for the Swans!"

Mark Cady of the Daily Star wrote in his column, "Swansea were only a flash in the pan in the Third Division. Many players in their squad were believed to possess great potential, but in reality, they have failed to continuously prove themselves on the cruel professional stage. Losing to Brighton represents Swansea's regression!"

Martin Samuel of the Daily Mail, the reporter Lynn hated enough to grind his bones to dust, targeted the issue of Ibrahimović being frozen out and questioned Lynn's coaching ability.

"Ibrahimović is an excellent forward. Otherwise, Manchester City manager Kevin Keegan would not have favored him so much. Although he failed to leave the Liberty Stadium for Manchester this summer, since Ibrahimović has stayed, he is capable of allowing Swansea to maintain strong combat power. Yet in the first match of the new season, a match originally believed to be firmly within Swansea's grasp, they ultimately suffered a two-goal defeat. Ibrahimović sat on the bench for ninety minutes with nothing to do. When the team needed Ibrahimović, Lynn was still continuing their private feud.

"This is clearly a lose-lose situation. Swansea are missing a capable player, and Ibrahimović cannot gain match time to continue developing himself. Why is Lynn doing this?

"Perhaps only he knows the answer.

"There is something almost obsessively unreasonable about him. Sometimes, this makes Swansea look like a mad team and causes countless people to fall in love with this young side. But at the same time, it is also a double-edged sword. Now, that blade is harming Swansea's team interests."

The Welsh media did not put too much pressure on Swansea. They described the match as an "unexpected defeat," rather than using shocking, glaring words like "complete defeat," as Fleet Street had done.

The next morning, Lynn brought several newspapers to the club. He walked into the dressing room and taped them to the wall.

The content was Fleet Street's criticism of Swansea, including belittling attacks on many of the players.

For example, they criticized James Cook for being too one-dimensional, called Villa a sinner for missing a great chance, or claimed Cromwell was not as outstanding as people imagined.

When the players arrived at the club for training and walked into the dressing room, they saw the newspaper pages on the wall.

Villa angrily wanted to tear them down, but Cromwell stopped him.

"David, the Boss put these here."

"Huh? Wasn't this someone's prank?"

Many players had the same thought as Villa. They assumed there was an "inside traitor" taking pleasure in the team's defeat.

But Cromwell said firmly, "The Boss did this. He isn't trying to humiliate us. He's motivating us. We should read every word written up there. Every word that denies us, belittles us, and slanders us. Then we tell ourselves that we're going to prove through action that everything written there is dogshit!"

The dressing room fell silent. Each player walked to his own locker and changed clothes to prepare for training.

On the surface, everyone looked as calm as usual.

But a flame had been lit inside each of them!

If their preseason training had been serious but their mentality still relaxed, then from this day onward, every member of Swansea entered "war mode"!

Before the second round of the Second Division began, the situation Lynn had been monitoring in Ligue 1 finally came to a temporary end.

The deal between Swansea and Aston Villa had fallen through.

But after Toulouse stepped in, Thomas Hitzlsperger transferred to Ligue 1 side Toulouse.

In addition, all six of the planned signings—Argentina's Tévez and Mascherano, Serbia's Vidić, Brazil's Maicon, Portugal's Bruno Alves, and France's Ribéry—were finalized in early August.

Of the thirty million pounds Will Taylor had invested, the club acquisition itself had barely cost much. However, repaying debt and unpaid wages had used up almost eight million pounds, and another sixteen million had been spent to bring in seven players. The remaining funds could barely keep the club operating for one season at most, and that left Will Taylor terrified.

During his recent phone calls with Lynn, his tone had almost turned pleading.

He needed the thirty million pounds Lynn had promised!

At the very least, he needed it so he could sleep peacefully.

Will Taylor was not having an easy time. He was under enormous pressure as chairman of Toulouse.

Still, there was a good side. Just as many people who invested in English football used the football industry as a springboard into the upper-class social circle, Will Taylor instantly became a prominent figure in France. Because the outside world did not understand him, they assumed this mysterious, handsome Englishman had an unfathomable background. Many powerful people were willing to befriend him, allowing him to live a glamorous upper-class life.

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