Ethan did not pay much attention to the small incident that happened while he was buying the car. He did not even bother to look into who those two people were.
Over the next few days, Ethan accompanied Eva, who was on a rare break, and had a wonderful time in Manchester with her. He also kept his promise and took her to Chinatown for Chinese food, which helped restore some of his credibility.
However, Ethan's happy days did not last long.
New Manchester United was marching triumphantly through the National League. Bruce had clearly done his homework. He wanted to secure enough points before the FA Cup, then make a real impact in the tournament. To him, the FA Cup was a rare stage where lower-league teams could challenge higher-level sides, so he did not want to give up on it.
Although Essien had left Manchester and returned to Ghana for training camp, New Manchester United's defence was not greatly affected because Marginson had returned from injury. On top of that, the partnership between Juninho and Poulsen was becoming increasingly effective, so New Manchester United's strength remained largely intact, and the team was in excellent form.
However, compared to the team's form, Ethan's own state of mind was not quite as good.
Since their promotion to the National League, along with New Manchester United's outstanding performances, the number of official club fans had been rising rapidly. Especially after the launch of New Manchester United's official website, fans from all over the world could register directly online and become official fans of New Manchester United.
By October 1999, the number of New Manchester United fans had exceeded 100,000, a large portion of whom had registered and paid their membership fees through the internet.
To keep fans engaged both offline and online, Ethan established a Fan Department at the club and hired several staff members specifically responsible for replying to fans' letters and emails. They would also communicate and chat with fans on the fan forum every day.
These were practical ways to win over fans, and for now, the results were quite good.
However, recently, the staff in the Fan Department reported that fans were puzzled as to why New Manchester United still did not have its own team anthem. They hoped the club would deal with this as soon as possible.
Ethan had indeed overlooked this point. The club had already been established for a year and a half, and Ethan had been incredibly busy. Only now was he reminded that a club truly could not be without an anthem.
Should he find someone to write it? Or should he do it himself?
"What a headache!" Ethan felt quite overwhelmed.
Just then, Bruce and Cassel happened to pass by the door of Ethan's office. Hearing his voice, they walked in. When they saw the distressed look on Ethan's face, they immediately found it amusing.
"What's the matter? Still haven't decided on the team anthem?" Bruce asked with a smile.
Ethan shrugged and nodded helplessly.
"I heard quite a few fans online have spontaneously written a lot of songs. Haven't you listened to them?" Cassel suggested.
"No. I've gone through the forums, and many of the submitted songs aren't very good." For the sake of the team anthem, New Manchester United had even opened an official submission process to encourage fans to send in their work, but so far, there had not been any satisfactory pieces.
"Then why not try finding a fan band?" Cassel suggested again.
In Manchester, there was a fairly well-known amateur band made up of several New Manchester United fans. They often took part in the Red Rebels fan club gatherings at Walsh's bar and had said they were willing to help the club record a team anthem.
"They only do covers. Can they even write a song?" Ethan retorted, slightly annoyed.
Bruce and Cassel exchanged glances, then immediately burst into laughter.
The two of them were only responsible for the first team's matches and the youth team's training. As for these club-related matters, Ethan had to handle them himself.
If this were a big club, Ethan could simply throw these matters to his subordinates and let them worry about it while he comfortably sat back as the owner.
But New Manchester United was severely understaffed, and there was simply no one who could help Ethan solve this kind of problem.
Do not think that just because Ethan had money, he could hire more employees to do the work. In reality, that would not be reasonable. After all, Ethan did not want New Manchester United's structure to become too bloated and eventually end up with the same internal strife as giants like Real Madrid, Barça, or even Manchester United.
Small clubs should have streamlined staffing, which would also lower the club's operating costs. This was simply not a question of whether Ethan was willing to spend money.
With Ethan's current financial resources, he could completely build New Manchester United's management team according to the setup of Manchester United or even Real Madrid, but would that make sense? In the end, the high salaries of office staff would only become a heavy burden on the club's operations.
However, the internet that Bruce mentioned was indeed a good idea, so Ethan immediately went online to take a look.
Although computers were no longer rare in 1999 and were beginning to enter offices across the board, in football, clubs that had adopted computerised office work were still rare. Clubs that, like New Manchester United, equipped every department with computers and internet access were even rarer.
Out of habit, he first went to the club's official fan forum to look around.
Relying on his years of internet knowledge, Ethan had given many suggestions for the club's official website, such as posting official news every day, publishing player interviews, and scanning and uploading photos of team training sessions. These were all ways to attract fans on a daily basis.
As for the forum, New Manchester United's fan forum was very active. Even many netizens who were not New Manchester United fans would come here to chat and spam. Furthermore, following Ethan's suggestion, the staff of the Fan Department had appointed several of the more talkative fans as moderators, allowing them to help manage the forum as well.
In Ethan's vision, the fan forum would not only be a gathering place for New Manchester United fans in the future. It would also allow more non-New Manchester United fans to come in and create sections for other clubs. This would bring more traffic to the forum, and he believed this area could very well become a source of internet revenue for the club in the future.
After entering the New Manchester United fan section, he immediately saw many posts from fans. Most of them were discussions about the club's matches, with many replies, but there was also a small portion of fan-made creations.
For example, a fan from Denmark had personally designed a team flag for New Manchester United, and the title of the post was [Wishing New Manchester United a Triumphant Start to the Season]!
Every time he saw posts like this, Ethan felt very happy because it represented the fans' dedication to the club.
However, when Ethan saw the words [Triumphant Start], he immediately thought of a song.
"I really am an idiot. It's been more than a year since I transmigrated, and I'm forgetting more and more things from my previous life. I actually forgot such a good song!" Ethan abruptly slapped his forehead and complained to himself.
After saying this, Ethan immediately closed the browser, picked up the phone, and called the person in charge of the fan band.
After making an appointment, Ethan called Jim and Walsh, and the three of them took a car together to the fan band's studio near Newton Heath.
"How is it? Ethan, have you decided on the team anthem?" asked the Black lead singer, K'naan, while bouncing to the rhythm.
This was a band formed purely out of interest. They were usually invited to perform at some public gatherings and had a bit of fame around Newton Heath.
"Yes, there is a song I think is good. I'll sing it, and you help me write it down."
"You wrote it yourself?" Not only was K'naan surprised, but Jim and Walsh, who had come along, were also astonished.
Ethan could actually write songs? Was this a joke?
But when Ethan slowly sang the song from his memory, the Coca-Cola promotional song for the 2010 South Africa World Cup, [Wavin' Flag], the three of them immediately quieted down. All of them looked at him with disbelief, as if they were seeing a visitor from another planet.
🎵Oooooooooooooh Oooooooooooh!
Give me freedom, give me fire
Give me reason, take me higher
See the champions take the field now
Unify us, make us feel proud
In the streets, our heads are liftin'
As we lose our inhibition
Celebration, it surrounds us
Every nation, all around us
Staying forever young Singin' songs underneath the sun
Let's rejoice in the beautiful game
And together at the end of the day
We all say
When I get older, I will be stronger
They'll call me freedom just like a wavin' flag
When I get older, I will be stronger
They'll call me freedom just like a wavin' flag
So wave your flag, now wave your flag
Now wave your flag (Oh)
Oooooooooooooh Oooooooooooh!
We all say
When I get older, I will be stronger
They'll call me freedom just like a wavin' flag
When I get older, I will be stronger
They'll call me freedom just like a wavin' flag
So wave your flag, now wave your flag, now wave your flag, now wave your flag, now wave your flag, now wave your flag.
Oooooooooooooh Oooooooooooh!
And everybody will be singin' it
Oooooooooooooh Oooooooooooh!
And we all will be singin' it 🎵
...
"How was that?" Ethan looked at the three stunned men with a hint of pride. Thankfully, he had not sung off-key.
"Uh... very... very good! It fits the club's current situation perfectly!" Walsh stammered, though his eyes were still full of doubt.
K'naan, on the other hand, had completely abandoned his earlier skepticism. In its place was a look of admiration. "My God, this song is amazing. That melody... wait, let me get something to record it. Sing it one more time."
Under the gazes of the three men, Ethan had no choice but to bite the bullet and sing it again. This time, K'naan listened while writing down the melody and lyrics, filling in any gaps with the recording.
"Did you really write this song?" Walsh asked, still somewhat doubtful. He really could not see where Ethan had gotten such talent.
"Hey, Andy, if you keep doubting me, I'm going to get angry!" Ethan put on an exaggerated act to cover up his guilty conscience. "Have you ever heard anyone else sing a song like this?"
Walsh shook his head, and when Ethan looked at K'naan, he shook his head as well.
"Exactly. Think about it. If no one has ever sung this song before, and I didn't write it, then who did? Did it fall out of the sky?"
Although his tone was firm, Ethan was secretly thinking that he had plagiarized the most popular song from the South Africa World Cup. He wondered what other song Coca-Cola would find for the 2010 World Cup.
If they ended up using this song anyway, Ethan would not object!
The three men clearly had no way to refute Ethan's argument. Even though K'naan later asked around everywhere, he still could not find the origin of the song. He could have racked his brain forever and never guessed that this would be the Coca-Cola promotional track for the 2010 World Cup, written by a Somali hip-hop artist also named K'naan.
Still, it was a very good song, so K'naan called over his bandmates, and together they began to work on it.
Although Ethan had heard "Wavin' Flag" many times in his previous life, he did not remember the arrangement clearly. He could only let K'naan improvise, making it as suitable as possible for fans to sing from the stands, while adding some stirring drumbeats and similar touches.
Three days later, when K'naan and his band finished the song, Ethan immediately distributed it throughout the club, making sure every player received a copy and learned to sing it properly.
Ethan's idea was to gather the first-team players every year to record a version of "Wavin' Flag" sung by different people, then post it online for fans to download for free. This would attract more supporters and help New Manchester United's players develop a stronger sense of attachment to the club.
K'naan was completely enamoured with the song Ethan had "plagiarized." He performed it at many later shows and actually made a name for himself because of it. Not long after, a British record company even approached the band, saying they wanted to help them record an album.
Naturally, Ethan had not expected any of this. At the same time, he had never imagined that the song would quickly become popular online, spreading New Manchester United's name to more fans and attracting more of them to join the club as official members.
Just as Ethan breathed a sigh of relief, someone from Lamborghini came knocking!
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)