Title: Dream
"Hello, Mr. Bart!"
"Good to see you, Mr. Levi!"
At the gate of the Newton Heath training base, Levi shook hands politely with the FA's CEO assistant, Bart, then greeted the members of the expedition team who followed Bart and welcomed them to the training base.
"Mr. Levi, I heard that the total area of this base has reached 165 acres?" Bart asked casually, walking beside Levi.
Levi smiled and nodded, "Yes, Mr. Bart, this is well documented in the city government."
"It must have cost a lot of money!" Bart said with a smile, leaving it ambiguous whether he was complimenting or implying something else.
When they arrived at the temporary office building, they saw that infrastructure work was everywhere. The training building would take at least a year to be put into use, and the training facilities such as the green belt fence and the standard venue would need another one or two months.
This is why the training base could not start construction until the end of the league.
"Alternatively, I can show everyone around!" Walsh offered.
Bart nodded toward the group behind him, and they immediately followed Walsh and Cassel.
Levi invited Bart into the office.
"Mr. Levi, are you of German descent?" Bart asked, noticing the furnishings and layout of Levi's office.
Levi nodded. "My family has always maintained traditions. For example, I prefer to drink beer rather than coffee on weekdays."
After they sat down, Bruce joined Levi.
After they sat down, Bruce sat beside Levi.
"To be frank, Mr. Bart, we were all surprised at the FA's shortlist for promotions this time. You know, we are just a new club," Levi said openly.
"Although that's true, we have also seen the strength of New Manchester United. You performed very well in the Northwest Division B last year, winning six rounds in advance, and breaking the record for goals and points in the tenth league. Additionally, you won the Northwest Division Challenger Cup and reached the third round of the FA Cup. Everything is impressive.
"Frankly, Mr. Levi, when you decided to set up New Manchester United, none of us thought that you could achieve so many brilliant results in just one season!"
Levi smiled politely, "But this is only the tenth league!"
"Of course," Bart laughed. "Actually, many Northwest Division B teams complained to FA officials last year. They said that playing at home against New Manchester United put a lot of pressure on them, not only on the pitch but also off it."
"For example, in the opening game of the Northwest Division B, New Manchester United played away at Lick. The game was wonderful, and New Manchester United won as expected. However, after that game, Rick had to spend a lot of money hiring someone to clean up and fix the stadium stands. Many teams in the second league had to pay for a security team or even police when facing New Manchester United at home."
Levi felt helpless because he couldn't suggest limiting the number of fans who traveled with the team.
"According to our survey, the average home attendance of New Manchester United last year was about 3,760. Even if this number were placed in the English League, there would still be many teams that couldn't match it," Bart said admiringly.
According to information released by New Manchester United, their official club membership has exceeded 20,000 and is growing rapidly. Many of these members are located near Manchester.
This means that New Manchester United's home attendance still has room to rise.
It is because of this that Levi desperately wants a bigger home.
"The FA's inclusion of New Manchester United on the shortlist is a decision made after careful consideration, and I hope you will consider it carefully," Bart suggested.
After the FA listed the candidate teams, they typically inspected the teams' home and training grounds. At the same time, the teams could decide whether to accept the promotion or not. If not accepted, the subsequent steps wouldn't be necessary. Once accepted, a series of relevant reviews would begin, including the assessment of the team's facilities and financial status.
Levi and his team escorted Bart back to the office.
During this time, there had been many discussions about whether New Manchester United should accept the promotion quota.
Walsh strongly supported acceptance, feeling the team should have better development opportunities. Many of New Manchester United's players came from higher leagues and had the strength to compete in the National League. Why continue to stay in the Northwest Division A?
Kassel firmly opposed it, believing the team should progress step by step. If they entered the National League and got relegated again, it could be embarrassing.
Bruce remained neutral, thinking it could go either way.
So when everyone returned to Levi's office, they all looked at Levi, waiting for him to make a decision.
"Frankly, there's a lot of pressure," Levi said with a grin.
He regarded New Manchester United as his own child. Although he knew his child was talented, hearing that his son would be promoted directly from elementary school to high school made anyone hesitate.
"I asked a lot of fans' opinions in the bar last night, and they were divided into three factions: one agrees, one opposes, and the last is neutral, like we are now!" Walsh said with a bitter smile.
This was a decision no one dared to take lightly.
New Manchester United's momentum was strong, but once promoted, who knew if they would be relegated?
If relegated, who could guarantee that New Manchester United could regain its strength?
Levi glanced at the crowd. He realized he had to rely on himself to find the answer.
Five days had passed since the fax was received, and Levi had seriously considered it for five days.
As someone with knowledge of football from more than a decade ahead, Levi's advantage was understanding future star players. This included stars like Evra and Messi, whom he had already found.
But there were only these two players.
The former was found by Levi when he was leaving the youth training camp in Paris Saint-Germain; the latter had a serious illness, and Levi paid for his treatment.
With the advent of the information age, players like Barak, Fanny, and Klose, who improved from lower-level teams to become superstars, were becoming rarer. With professional clubs' emphasis on youth training, good players rarely ended up in amateur teams.
From another perspective, even Levi couldn't guarantee that if his team stayed in the amateur league for a few more years, they wouldn't lose Evra, Messi, Curtis, Ismail, and others to big clubs.
Raul was loyal to Real Madrid because Real Madrid was a superpower, and Maldini was loyal to AC Milan for the same reason. For a lower-level team, where could you find such loyalty?
Sometimes professional football is that cruel!
If Levi didn't want to lose Messi and Evra in the future, he could only keep upgrading. But anyway, wasn't this an opportunity now?
Levi's greatest advantage was becoming less impactful the lower the league level. If New Manchester United were a Premier League team now, Levi could guarantee forming a championship team in a season. But in the lower leagues, he couldn't guarantee that.
It wasn't that he couldn't find good players, but even if he did, they wouldn't come.
Thinking of this, Levi took a deep breath, feeling he had found the answer.
"I've been thinking these days, if we accept the FA's promotion, are we going to struggle in the National League, or stay there, or even fight for the championship?" Levi asked suddenly.
The three of them looked at Levi thoughtfully.
"Steve often teaches players that we must have the belief that we can win, so I also told myself that whether we stay in the Northwest League or get promoted to the National League, we have only one goal: to win the championship!"
Levi's words surprised all three of them.
When they considered this, they had always been worried about the team securing relegation.
The national league championship was a distant dream for a semi-professional team that had just won the tenth league championship.
"A year ago, some people said that starting a club was a dream; later, some said that our fans wanted to run a club as a dream; then later, some said that winning a championship was a dream. But now? The club is running smoothly. We won the championship. Are we still dreaming?"
Levi now stood up, excited, because he had just made an amazing decision.
"If it's dreaming, then let's make our dreams bigger and bigger, preferably big enough to shock everyone, threaten all teams, and scare them as we scared Arsenal at Highbury."
As they thought of that game, Bruce, Walsh, and the others were full of excitement. It was considered the best game of the season by fans. Although they lost, New Manchester United won respect from their opponents, applause from fans, and their own dignity.
"Are you willing to accompany me in this dream?" Levi smiled and stretched out his hand.