Chapter 28: Damage Control
The emergency board meeting convened at 8 AM the morning after the Wigan defeat, the Memorial Stadium’s boardroom heavy with the atmosphere of crisis management and desperate damage control.
Victoria Chen sat at the head of the table, her expression mixing disappointment with determination as she surveyed the faces of board members whose confidence in the club’s direction had been shattered by the previous night’s comprehensive defeat.
"Three-nil at home," she began, her voice cutting through the silence with surgical precision. "Our worst performance of the season, against opponents we should be competing with. The tactical revolution that was supposed to save us from relegation has instead accelerated our slide toward League Two."
The system interface provided real-time analysis of the political dynamics:
Board Meeting - Crisis Mode:
Primary Concern: Immediate relegation threat
Confidence in Management: Severely damaged
Tactical Revolution: Under intense scrutiny
Amani’s Position: Extremely vulnerable
Decision Required: Urgent course correction
Paul Trollope sat at the opposite end of the table, his face drawn with the stress of a manager whose authority had been compromised and whose tactical gamble had failed spectacularly. Beside him, Tony Richards wore the expression of someone whose warnings had been vindicated, though he was careful not to appear too satisfied with the vindication.