Juninho's personality was actually a little weak. He was very emotional about everything. Once he liked something, he would love it deeply, but once he disliked an environment, he would try every possible way to leave.
In fact, such people were not uncommon in football, especially among South American players.
However, Ethan could not just give up like that. In his plan, Juninho was the core player for New Manchester United for the next few years. If he let him go just like that, what would the players think of Ethan? What would the coaching staff think? How would the outside world view New Manchester United as a club?
Of course, Ethan was not the type to blindly force things or use a contract to hold Juninho hostage.
After returning from the training ground, Ethan immediately called Juninho's agent, Faou, to inform him of Juninho's situation, as well as the efforts and decisions made by the club. At the same time, Ethan hoped Faou could come to Manchester and have a good talk with Juninho.
Faou was not a vampire-like agent. He did not rely on Juninho's commission to make a living, and he sincerely hoped Juninho would succeed in Europe. So, after finishing the call with Ethan, he immediately told Ethan that he would definitely try his best to persuade Juninho.
In fact, he did not support Juninho leaving at all. If he wanted to escape as soon as he encountered a setback, what would happen in the future?
As a professional player, no one could always have everything go smoothly. One had to learn to constantly adapt to different environments in order to go further and achieve more in football.
For this matter, Faou took a few days off and rushed to Manchester along with Juninho's mother, who had already planned to come.
Ethan asked Jim to pick them up from the airport and bring them to the club. He then called over head coach Bruce to openly discuss Juninho's situation and the club's situation, hoping they could do their best to persuade Juninho to stay at New Manchester United.
After leaving the club, Juninho's mother was taken by Jim to the apartment the club had prepared for Juninho.
Although it was an ordinary and not particularly luxurious apartment in Manchester, for Juninho's mother, who lived in Brazil, this quiet, independent apartment was already considered very good.
The club had provided him with a good place to live, a high-salary contract, and sufficient help in every aspect. Such a club might not be the best in the world, but at the very least, it had done everything it possibly could.
Precisely because they saw the club's determination to keep and use Juninho, both Faou and Juninho's mother worked hard to persuade him, hoping he could bravely face and overcome the difficulties.
After a few days of effort, Juninho seemed to have been persuaded by his mother. He took the initiative to find Ethan and Bruce, stating that he would try his best to adapt to the environment in Manchester and hoped the club could help him.
Receiving Juninho's promise to stay, Ethan was overjoyed. He immediately called Professor Fryer, and several of them had a thorough discussion in the office. Based on the various circumstances, they summarized the problems Juninho was currently facing and came up with targeted solutions for each one.
In the next day's training, Bruce began to intentionally place Juninho in the substitute lineup. He then told Poulsen, Karl Marginson, and others from the main squad that when defending against Juninho, they should use as much physical contact as possible and not be afraid to be a bit rough, as long as they did not injure him.
Because of this change, Juninho suffered quite a bit in training. Especially when the other players were doing recovery drills, he still had to strengthen his physical confrontation ability according to the intensive physical training program developed by Professor Fryer.
In addition, regarding diet, Derek also specially formulated a meal plan combined with training based on Juninho's usual eating habits. This plan provided Juninho with the daily nutrition he needed and regulated his physical condition.
Juninho himself was also very diligent. Although he sat on the bench for the next few matches, sometimes not even making the matchday squad, he watched every single New Manchester United match without fail. He also began to follow the coaching staff's advice, carefully studying his teammates' movement and habits.
Although Bruce occasionally arranged for Juninho to come on as a substitute for a few minutes, he mostly kept him on the bench or in the stands. As a result, the opportunities for the young Ghanaian, Essien, began to increase.
This 17-year-old Ghanaian youngster's physical fitness was incredible. During internal training matches, even when facing Abidal, the most physically robust player on the team, Essien was not afraid to compete with him physically at all, which showed just how strong he was.
In addition, Essien's running ability was also very outstanding. His only weakness was his youth and lack of experience, but these were stages that all young players had to go through.
In August, when the league started, New Manchester United achieved excellent results with 7 wins and 1 draw, ranking first in the standings, 2 points ahead of second-placed Kidderminster, who had 7 wins and 2 draws and were also undefeated.
Bruce also won the National League Manager of the Month for August thanks to his outstanding performance coaching New Manchester United that month. Žigić, on the other hand, scored 10 goals in 8 league rounds, ranking first in the top scorers' list and also winning the National League Player of the Month for August.
But just like the curse of the Premier League Manager of the Month, the National League's Manager of the Month award seemed to have a similar curse.
Entering September, New Manchester United first faced two away matches. But now, when opponents faced New Manchester United, they were no longer as careless as they had been a month ago when facing a newly promoted team. After a month of steady performances, New Manchester United had drawn the attention of every team, and they began to find ways to restrain them.
First, on September 4, they lost 1-2 away to Nuneaton. Although Žigić scored a goal for the team shortly after the start, in the 28th minute, Nuneaton's forward took advantage of a mistake by Karl Marginson to pull one back. Marginson also fell to the ground and could not get up. After the team doctor's diagnosis, it was confirmed to be a groin strain, requiring at least 4 weeks of rest.
The young Essien, who was hurriedly substituted on, clearly lacked chemistry with the team. Especially when organizing the midfield, his coordination with Poulsen was not in sync, causing New Manchester United to fall into a passive state in the second half. In the 84th minute, Nuneaton scored again, putting New Manchester United behind.
With this victory, Nuneaton moved up 4 places in the standings to 12th in the National League, while New Manchester United were once again overtaken by the victorious Kidderminster by 1 point, falling to second.
This defeat gave New Manchester United their first loss of the season, while Kidderminster continued their triumphant progress and remained unbeaten in the league.
Bruce did not overly criticize the team for this loss. After all, Karl Marginson's importance to the team went without saying. The key was who would fill his position during his absence.
Currently, New Manchester United had three substitutes who could fill Karl Marginson's position: Juninho, the young Essien, and Stephen Smith. Smith's ability was the weakest of the three, so the choice was basically between the first two.
After careful consideration, Bruce and the coaching staff finally decided to choose Juninho.
But clearly, the latter was not yet ready.
In the 10th round of the league, New Manchester United, playing at home, faced the weak Altrincham. This team was currently ranked 20th in the National League, in the relegation zone. Before the match, almost everyone thought that New Manchester United winning at home should not be a problem. But who would have thought they would suffer an unexpected upset against Altrincham, losing 0-1!
The two consecutive losses in September not only caused New Manchester United to drop from the top of the standings to third in the league, but also widened the gap with top-ranked Kidderminster to 4 points. They were 2 points behind second-placed Boston, but only 1 and 2 points ahead of fourth-placed Morecambe and fifth-placed Rushden & Diamonds.
New Manchester United's current situation was indeed not optimistic. According to National League rules, only the champions were guaranteed promotion, while the teams from 2nd to 5th had to play in the promotion play-offs to determine the final promotion spot.
If things continued like this for New Manchester United, one mistake could easily see them pushed out of the promotion play-off zone.
After suffering two consecutive losses, the outside world's doubts about New Manchester United grew louder. In particular, Bruce's insistence on using the "bust" Juninho drew dissatisfaction from many fans.
For many fans, they hoped to see New Manchester United move up, preferably all the way to the Premier League to face Manchester United. That would be a sight to see.
Fortunately, despite the heavy pressure inside and outside the team, Bruce and the players still withstood it. In the 11th round away match against Stevenage, Žigić produced another hat-trick, helping the team take 3 points from Broadhall Way. However, since their other competitors also won, the league standings remained unchanged.
In the 12th round, New Manchester United traveled to Kidderminster near Birmingham to challenge the current league leaders, Kidderminster.
The outside world unanimously agreed that this was the most important match of the round, a clash between first and third in the league that could even guide the future trend of the standings. Therefore, even the local Manchester television station decided to broadcast the match live at 3 p.m., and multiple newspapers rushed to the scene to report.
But just before the match started, when everyone got New Manchester United's starting lineup, they were all puzzled by Bruce's decision.
Was he planning to give up on this match?
This was likely the question that arose in the minds of everyone who saw the starting lineup!
(To be continued.)