After the victory over Newcastle, Mourinho sent a heavily rotated side to Crewe for the League Cup, with most of the senior starters rested and several academy players given their chance.
The timing of the fixture, squeezed between a Premier League match and a Champions League group game, meant it was never going to receive much attention from Mourinho. Even so, he gave the youngsters plenty of motivation before kick-off.
"Anyone who performs well tonight has a chance of travelling to Prague."
He was referring to the following week's Champions League trip to Sparta Prague.
Many of New Manchester United's younger players already received occasional substitute appearances, partly to familiarise them with the speed and physicality of senior football and partly to accelerate their development. The prospect of joining the Champions League squad, however, gave them an extra incentive.
Against Crewe, they played with obvious hunger.
The attacking quartet of Ishmael, Ribéry, Messi, and Agüero caused chaos throughout the match, combining sharp movement with technical quality that Crewe struggled to contain. Fàbregas was particularly impressive in midfield, scoring once and providing two assists as New Manchester United won 5-1 and advanced comfortably in the League Cup.
Once they returned from Crewe, attention immediately shifted back to the Premier League and an away match against Fulham.
Years of competing on several fronts had forced Mourinho to develop a fairly clear rotation policy. At its heart was a spine he preferred to change as little as possible: centre-forward, attacking midfielder, deep-lying organiser, and centre-back.
Whenever fitness allowed, Kaká, Beckham, and Terry were among the first names on the team sheet. Up front, Drogba and Villa rotated depending on the opponent and the tactical demands of the match. Mourinho rarely changed more than one or two positions in that central spine at once.
Elsewhere, he was more flexible.
The wide players, full-backs, and ball-winning midfielders were rotated regularly. Essien and De Rossi in particular exchanged places often enough to keep both fresh.
The League Cup was different. Mourinho was perfectly happy to use almost an entire side of reserves and academy players there, giving fringe players competitive minutes while allowing the younger generation to prove whether they were ready for greater responsibility.
Compared with the Premier League and Champions League, the League Cup and even the FA Cup inevitably sat lower on his list of priorities.
For Fulham, Mourinho returned to a much stronger eleven. Villa led the attack, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robben started on the wings, and Kaká played centrally behind them. Beckham partnered De Rossi in midfield, while Evra, Vidić, Curtis, and Maicon formed the back four in front of Čech.
Fulham had already endured a miserable start at home. Arsenal had recently beaten them 2-0 at Craven Cottage through goals from Ljungberg and Reyes, making it their third home defeat of the campaign. They had yet to collect a single point there.
With pressure already building and the possibility of a relegation battle looming, Fulham approached New Manchester United with one objective above all else.
Do not lose.
There was a popular view that the Red Rebels were at their most comfortable against teams willing to press high and push their defensive line forward. Newcastle had tried exactly that and been destroyed 5-0.
So what kind of opponent caused Mourinho's side the most difficulty?
Fulham provided the answer.
A team willing to retreat almost completely into its own half.
New Manchester United dominated possession and territorial control from the opening minutes, but Fulham defended with remarkable stubbornness. There was almost no space between the lines, almost no room behind the back four, and every attack seemed to run into another wall of bodies.
Mourinho eventually introduced Ishmael and switched to two strikers in an attempt to increase the physical pressure inside the penalty area, but even that failed to produce a goal.
Fulham defended desperately, sometimes cynically, and Edwin van der Sar produced several excellent saves when the Red Rebels finally did create clear chances.
The match ended 0-0.
It had also been brutal.
The referee showed thirteen yellow cards and one red. Fulham collected nine bookings and the majority of the punishment, while New Manchester United received four yellows. Curtis was eventually dismissed after reacting angrily to another heavy challenge on a teammate and shoving a Fulham player to the ground, earning a second yellow card.
Mourinho was furious afterwards.
"If you showed me nothing but the disciplinary record, I'd assume I'd just watched a boxing match," he said at the press conference. "My players were kicked throughout the game. There was aggression, provocation, and very little intention to play football at times. They could have been punished more severely, yet somehow we are the team that finishes with ten men."
He did not stop there.
"We should have won. We didn't. And now we've dropped points in the title race because the game was allowed to become that kind of contest."
Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool all continued winning, which meant New Manchester United slipped behind them and into fourth place, although they remained ahead of Chelsea.
The next few rounds, however, offered an opportunity. Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea were due to face one another in several direct clashes. If Mourinho's side could remain consistent, the table could change quickly.
The draw at Fulham was frustrating, but it also extended New Manchester United's unbeaten Premier League run to forty-five matches.
Since the victory over Chelsea, the media had become increasingly obsessed with predicting how long that streak might last. Some believed forty-eight games was realistic because the next few opponents did not appear especially dangerous, although Arsenal awaited in the eleventh round.
After the 5-0 demolition of Newcastle, a few commentators had gone further and begun discussing AC Milan's legendary fifty-eight-match unbeaten run under Fabio Capello.
That record had always seemed almost untouchable.
Suddenly, people were wondering whether New Manchester United might actually threaten it.
The draw at Fulham immediately cooled some of that enthusiasm. Watching Mourinho's side spend ninety minutes unable to break down a deep defensive block reminded everyone that even an elite team could be frustrated.
Predictably, newspapers began publishing detailed tactical analyses of how to stop the Red Rebels, with some reporters writing as though they had discovered the definitive blueprint for defeating Mourinho.
New Manchester United had no time to worry about it.
The squad travelled to Prague for their second Champions League group match.
Mourinho honoured the promise he had made before the League Cup tie. Several youngsters who had impressed against Crewe were included in the travelling party, and Fàbregas was rewarded with a place in the starting eleven in place of Beckham.
The captain badly needed the rest.
Beckham had started almost every meaningful match of the season, and against Fulham he had looked physically drained. The Lab advised Mourinho to leave him in Manchester rather than risk pushing him too far.
Fàbregas partnered Essien in midfield. Ahead of them were Drogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi, and Kaká, while Evra, Terry, Chiellini, and Kolo Touré formed the defence. Čech started in goal.
Sparta Prague had been excellent domestically and remained unbeaten in the Czech league.
Their captain, Karel Poborský, provided an intriguing subplot. The former Manchester United winger had once lost his place as Beckham emerged at Old Trafford and had been eager for another meeting with him.
He was disappointed to discover that Beckham had not even travelled.
Poborský still caused New Manchester United problems.
Operating from the right, the experienced Czech repeatedly tested Evra with clever movement and intelligent use of the ball. The Frenchman looked uncomfortable at times, forcing Mourinho to adjust the midfield press and give him greater protection.
That reduced Poborský's influence without eliminating it completely. From a corner, he eventually delivered the cross that allowed Sparta to score with a header.
By then, however, New Manchester United had already done the damage.
Drogba scored.
Messi scored.
Kaká scored.
Sparta's late response did little more than give the home supporters something to celebrate.
New Manchester United won 3-1 and made it two victories from two in Group H.
In the other group match, Porto hosted CSKA Moscow. Luís Fabiano gave Porto the lead, but CSKA fought back in the second half and earned a draw.
The result left New Manchester United alone at the top of the group with six points. CSKA followed with four, Porto had only one, and Sparta Prague remained bottom.
After returning from Prague, Mourinho's attention turned immediately to another Manchester derby.
Manchester City were coming to the new stadium.
But football was not the biggest story surrounding them.
Manchester United were already caught in the growing controversy over the Glazer family's attempt to take control of the club. Arsenal were also attracting interest from American investors, while ownership speculation had begun spreading throughout the Premier League.
Manchester City were one of the clubs most frequently mentioned.
Before the season began, reports had claimed that Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra wanted to acquire Liverpool. Liverpool showed little interest in the proposal, and the price of purchasing the club was believed to be beyond what Thaksin was prepared to accept.
Attention then shifted elsewhere.
Manchester City began appearing regularly in takeover rumours, although nothing concrete emerged at first.
As the season progressed, another source of money entered the discussion.
Middle Eastern investors.
Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton, Tottenham, and Manchester City were all linked at various times with wealthy groups looking for a way into English football.
No other European league attracted outside capital on the same scale.
Real Madrid and Barcelona were member-owned institutions and could not simply be purchased by a private investor. Beyond those two giants, La Liga offered few clubs with comparable global reach.
Serie A had enormous footballing prestige but a business environment that many foreign investors regarded as difficult. The Bundesliga was professionally run, yet its ownership structures and commercial reach made it a very different proposition.
For anyone seeking both financial opportunity and international visibility through football, the Premier League was increasingly difficult to ignore.
The new television contracts only strengthened that attraction.
Abramovich's spectacular investment at Chelsea had demonstrated how quickly ownership of an English club could produce global attention, while the rise of New Manchester United showed how rapidly a well-run project could grow within the league.
According to the information Ethan had gathered, most serious investors were coming from two regions.
The United States and the Middle East.
American money generally came from established investment groups or businessmen who already understood professional sports through ownership of franchises in the NFL, NBA, MLB, or other major leagues.
Middle Eastern investors were often interested in something broader than immediate profit. Football offered international exposure, prestige, business relationships, and influence that would be difficult to purchase through conventional advertising alone.
Once the new Premier League season began, the appeal only increased. Whether England could already claim to have the best football league in the world remained open to debate, but there was little question that it had become the most commercially visible.
The Premier League itself was also moving forward with several reforms discussed at the owners' summit.
Beginning the following season, clubs lower down the table were expected to receive a larger share of central broadcasting income, while television exposure would be spread more widely rather than concentrating so heavily on the biggest clubs.
Other measures designed to strengthen the finances of mid-table and smaller teams were also being developed.
The reforms were still evolving, but the direction was obvious.
The league wanted its weaker clubs to become healthier rather than merely richer clubs becoming richer still.
That made Premier League ownership even more attractive.
More investors began making enquiries. More wealthy individuals began studying clubs. More consortiums began looking for a way into England.
Then, one day before New Manchester United were due to host Manchester City, the speculation surrounding their rivals finally ended.
Manchester City, who had left Manchester more than a year earlier in this alternate football landscape, formally announced that the club had been acquired by a consortium.
The Premier League's ownership revolution had begun.
(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.)