On June 20, New Manchester United became the first club to make the announcement.
The Red Rebels confirmed on their official website that they had signed David Beckham from Manchester United for £18 million.
Beckham had agreed to a four-year contract.
The club did not disclose his salary, but the media widely speculated that he would continue earning roughly the same £90,000 per week after tax that he had received at Old Trafford.
That would immediately make him the highest-paid player in the Red Rebels squad.
Later that afternoon, Manchester United held their own press conference confirming the transfer.
The club's spokesman wished Beckham every success with New Manchester United.
The news caused an enormous sensation around the world.
Only two days earlier, almost everyone had been convinced Beckham was heading to Real Madrid.
Now, without warning, one of the most famous footballers on the planet had joined a newly promoted Premier League club.
It was almost unbelievable.
Pressed by reporters, Manchester United's spokesman insisted that the decision had been made by the board after careful consideration.
He then refused to answer further questions and ended the press conference.
New Manchester United did not hold a press conference at all.
Instead, the club announced that Beckham would return to Manchester on July 1 and report for duty.
He would undergo his medical that morning.
At 3:00 PM, the club would formally present him at Old Trafford.
Afterwards, the squad would leave for a preseason training camp in Ireland.
The decision to train there was deliberate.
The club wanted to escape the media frenzy surrounding Beckham and prepare for the season with as little disruption as possible.
While in Ireland, New Manchester United would play four friendly matches against local professional sides.
Then, on July 26, they would travel south to London before facing Wimbledon's famous Crazy Gang in a preseason friendly on July 29.
After returning to Manchester, the annual Newton Heath Cup would be played on August 3 at the expanded Butcher's Arms Ground.
Droylsden had already earned promotion to League Two.
As usual, all proceeds from the match would be donated to the Red Rebels Charity Foundation.
Then came August 10.
The Community Shield.
At Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, FA Cup holders New Manchester United would face Premier League champions Manchester United.
It would be the first competitive meeting between the Red Rebels and the Red Devils.
Even before Beckham's transfer, the fixture would have attracted enormous attention.
Now it had become one of the most anticipated matches of the summer.
...
After selling Beckham for only £18 million, Manchester United immediately intensified their pursuit of Ronaldinho.
At the same time, they announced the £2.3 million signing of American goalkeeper Tim Howard, indirectly confirming Ferguson's dissatisfaction with Fabien Barthez.
During the Beckham negotiations, Manchester United had tried to include Čech in the deal.
Ethan rejected the idea immediately.
Čech was not for sale.
No offer would change that.
Manchester United also spent £3.5 million on Eric Djemba-Djemba from Nantes and signed David Bellion on a free transfer from Sunderland.
Ferguson hoped Ronaldinho could fill the creative void left by Beckham.
United also allowed stories to circulate that they were interested in Hleb.
But Hleb had become one of the hottest young players on the market.
Chelsea.
Arsenal.
Barcelona.
Real Madrid.
Several major clubs were watching the 22-year-old closely.
Arsenal were the first to make a serious offer.
£10 million.
New Manchester United rejected it.
Many Red Rebels players were attracting attention from elsewhere, but Ethan had no intention of selling most of them.
Only Hleb and Juninho were genuinely available at the right price.
The rest were tied to long-term contracts and showed no desire to force their way out.
Even Hleb, who was open to leaving for a bigger club, had handled the situation professionally and communicated through his agent rather than creating trouble publicly.
The day after Ethan's conversation with Florentino, Real Madrid sent representatives to Manchester.
Mark David and Walsh met them.
The negotiations moved quickly.
Juninho would join Real Madrid for £14 million.
For Florentino, it was a far more football-driven signing than many of his Galáctico deals.
Juninho's arrival would immediately improve Real Madrid's ability to control matches from midfield.
Several analysts believed that if he adapted quickly, a partnership between Juninho and Makélélé could make Madrid significantly more balanced.
Real Madrid's move for Juninho also increased the pressure on Barcelona.
They responded by accelerating their pursuit of Ronaldinho.
The Brazilian's brother was seen repeatedly around Barcelona, which made Manchester United increasingly nervous.
United had believed for months that Ronaldinho's arrival was almost certain.
Then the nightmare scenario happened.
On June 23, Barcelona officially announced the signing of Ronaldinho from Paris Saint-Germain for $28 million.
The deal was widely interpreted as Laporta's response to missing out on Beckham.
Manchester United had now suffered two major transfer setbacks in quick succession.
They had sold Beckham.
They had lost Ronaldinho.
And Hleb's price continued rising.
Eventually, United withdrew from the race for Hleb and turned their attention elsewhere.
Ferguson began looking at Joaquín.
José Antonio Reyes.
Ricardo Quaresma.
All three were highly rated young attackers from Spain and Portugal.
Chelsea and Arsenal remained interested in Hleb.
Chelsea had Abramovich's money.
Wenger had admired Hleb for some time.
Their competing bids drove the price higher and higher.
Then, on June 27, Barcelona entered with a £15 million offer.
Ethan met with Mark David and Gardner.
Internally, they had valued Hleb at roughly £12 million.
At £15 million, the offer was simply too good to refuse.
Ethan accepted.
Hleb joined Barcelona.
The deal achieved two things at once.
New Manchester United maximised the transfer fee.
And they avoided strengthening a direct Premier League rival.
Arsenal, having missed out, immediately switched their attention to Reyes.
They eventually signed the Spanish winger for £13.5 million, slightly more than Ethan remembered from his previous life, beating Manchester United to his signature.
Chelsea also moved quickly after losing Hleb.
They turned to Blackburn's Damien Duff.
Two days later, Duff joined Chelsea for £17 million.
That was only the beginning.
On the same day, Chelsea also announced the signing of Joe Cole for £6 million and Adrian Mutu from Parma for £15.8 million.
Suddenly, while the transfer markets in Italy, Spain, and Germany were freezing, England had become the centre of European football.
Chelsea in particular dominated the headlines.
The newly wealthy club was already being nicknamed "Chelski."
And they were still chasing more.
Verón.
Crespo.
Other established stars.
For the foreseeable future, Abramovich's Chelsea would remain one of the biggest stories of the transfer window.
...
England's growing importance was not limited to transfers.
The wider economics of European football were changing as well.
The collapse of Germany's Kirch Group the previous year had devastated the Bundesliga's television market.
The league had lost roughly £140 million, around €200 million, in broadcasting income over a single season.
Serie A and La Liga were also under pressure.
Broadcasters and sponsors were aggressively trying to renegotiate rights fees downward.
As a result, Italian clubs were spending cautiously.
Outside Barcelona and Real Madrid, Spanish clubs were relatively quiet.
Bundesliga sides were struggling financially.
England was the exception.
The Premier League's broadcasting agreement for the three seasons from 2001 to 2004 had been worth approximately £1.1 billion.
That guaranteed every Premier League club at least around £15 million per season in television income.
The recently concluded negotiations for the next cycle, covering 2004 to 2007, had produced an even larger figure.
£1.3 billion.
That surprised Ethan.
In his previous life, he remembered the deal being closer to £1 billion.
Now it was significantly higher.
After discussing the numbers with Mark David and Gardner, however, Ethan understood why.
New Manchester United had changed the commercial landscape.
Their rise had given the coming Premier League season an entirely new storyline.
Only months earlier, the Red Rebels had been playing in the second tier.
Then they won the First Division.
The FA Cup.
The UEFA Cup.
An unprecedented treble for a non-top-flight English club.
That alone had dramatically increased interest in their first Premier League campaign.
Then came Beckham.
In Ethan's previous life, Beckham had already left for Real Madrid by the time the new broadcasting negotiations were taking shape.
His departure had reduced some of the Premier League's global appeal.
This time, he had stayed in England.
More than that, he had joined Manchester United's new city rivals.
The commercial value of that alone was enormous.
Manchester United against New Manchester United.
Beckham against Ferguson.
The established Red Devils against the rising Red Rebels.
And that was before considering matches against Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, and the rest.
Even the Community Shield was already generating huge demand.
If a preseason curtain-raiser could attract that much attention, the coming Premier League season promised to be extraordinary.
For years, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool had been regarded as England's traditional Big Three.
Now the picture was changing.
Chelsea suddenly had Abramovich.
New Manchester United had exploded onto the scene.
Newcastle remained strong.
Everton and Aston Villa were improving.
More and more newspapers began predicting that the Premier League was entering a period of genuine competitive expansion.
A two-horse race between Manchester United and Arsenal had grown predictable.
A league with five or six ambitious clubs fighting near the top was far more valuable.
Especially when English football's wider commercial market was still growing.
Bookmakers quickly released their odds for the new season.
Manchester United and Arsenal were clear favourites for the title.
Chelsea and Liverpool came next.
New Manchester United were ranked eighth.
The market considered them too strong to be obvious relegation candidates, but nowhere near ready to challenge for the championship.
The dark-horse betting told a very different story.
There, the Red Rebels were overwhelming favourites.
Punters clearly believed that if New Manchester United carried their previous season's form into the Premier League, they could surprise almost anyone.
Some even believed a challenge for a Champions League place was not impossible.
The other promoted clubs received far less optimism.
Portsmouth and Leicester City were both considered serious relegation candidates.
Few expected either to become surprise packages.
Staying in the division would be difficult enough.
The contrast showed just how highly the outside world rated the Red Rebels.
Ethan, however, remained cautious.
New Manchester United were still Premier League newcomers.
Survival came first.
Every match would demand maximum concentration.
Every point would matter.
That was why the club's bonus structure for the season was built around one objective.
Avoid relegation.
Nothing else.
Ethan wanted the players to understand exactly what mattered.
They were not entering the Premier League as conquerors.
They were entering it as a newly promoted club that first had to prove it belonged.
Compared with Premier League survival, the UEFA Cup, League Cup, and FA Cup suddenly felt secondary.
The economics alone made that clear.
Under the new Sky broadcasting arrangements, simply remaining in the Premier League would guarantee New Manchester United at least £17.5 million in television revenue.
That was before commercial income.
Matchday revenue.
Sponsorships.
Merchandising.
And everything else that came with Premier League status.
In England's new football economy, even a club finishing near the bottom of the Premier League could earn more in one season than the winner of the UEFA Cup.
That was the reality.
And it was exactly why the Premier League was beginning to rise above the rest of Europe.
(To be continued.)