"Beep! Beep!"
Mourinho blew his whistle, jogged a few steps, and headed straight towards Beckham.
"David, didn't you see that?"
Breathing heavily, Beckham nodded apologetically.
"I saw it, boss. Rodrigo."
He pointed towards Palacio on the right.
Palacio was walking back with a frustrated smile. Moments earlier, he had made an excellent run into space and stayed onside. A properly timed pass would have put him in a dangerous position.
"The ball had to come earlier," Mourinho said.
"The moment he was running at Philipp, you should have released it. Either into his feet or into the space behind Philipp so he could break the line."
Beckham nodded.
"Sorry, boss."
Mourinho patted him on the shoulder and pointed back towards the pitch with the whistle in his hand.
"Remember what I told you.
"When I ask you to slow the game down, I don't mean stay slow.
"You slow it down so everyone can reset their positions.
"Then, the moment the opening appears, you change the tempo instantly and hurt them."
Beckham understood.
Earlier in preseason, he had often tried to play too quickly.
His combinations with Kaká, Cristiano Ronaldo on the left, and Palacio on the right had looked dangerous precisely because all three were fast and aggressive.
Once they accelerated together, they could overwhelm a defence.
But the second team was hardly weak.
De Rossi and Yaya Touré were especially aggressive.
With Mourinho constantly directing them, the substitutes pressed hard, covered ground relentlessly, and deliberately disrupted the starters' rhythm.
Whenever the first team's attacks broke down, Mourinho would immediately correct Beckham.
When to accelerate.
When to pause.
When to recycle possession.
When to strike.
As a wide midfielder, Beckham had always possessed excellent technique, passing, and control.
His vision was outstanding.
So was his awareness of the overall shape of the pitch.
And because of his stamina and movement, he could connect the attacking four with the defence behind him even more actively than Juninho had.
His biggest weakness in the new role was tempo control.
Beckham could slow the match down.
That part was easy.
When he dropped the pace, the players around him naturally adjusted with him.
The difficulty came afterwards.
Juninho had spent years with the squad.
He knew exactly when Kaká would move.
When Palacio would sprint.
When Drogba would check towards the ball.
When Robben would attack the full-back.
So after slowing the game, Juninho could suddenly play the decisive pass almost without thinking.
Beckham could see those passes.
He had the technique to execute them.
What he lacked was the same instinctive understanding with his new teammates.
That would take time.
Mourinho had identified several other issues during training as well.
Beckham accepted every correction without complaint.
He also regularly spoke with Mourinho about what he was experiencing on the pitch.
As the training match neared its end, Mourinho blew his whistle again.
The coaches moved the goals.
A smaller rectangular pitch was marked out between the centre circle and the edge of the penalty area.
Next came an eight-a-side exercise.
The purpose was simple.
Reduce the space.
Force quicker decisions.
Demand more movement.
Demand more communication.
Demand cleaner first touches.
Mourinho divided the twenty-four players into three teams of eight, each including a goalkeeper.
Each mini-match lasted ten minutes.
And the worst-performing group would face an additional conditioning punishment afterwards.
...
Ethan sat quietly on the touchline watching training.
Eva sat beside him.
She did not interrupt.
The biggest difference Ethan could see between Beckham and Juninho was movement without the ball.
Beckham's stamina was exceptional.
He worked constantly.
His football intelligence was high enough that he naturally found passing angles and supporting positions.
Mourinho was already adjusting the system to take advantage of that.
Kaká had been pushed farther forward.
He now operated much more aggressively behind Drogba.
Beckham, meanwhile, was given greater freedom.
He could step forward and support Kaká.
Or drop alongside Essien and organise from deeper areas.
He could also help defensively when possession was lost.
Beckham's defensive contribution was no worse than Juninho's.
His work rate arguably made him even more useful without the ball.
Essien remained the main ball-winner.
But Mourinho was also experimenting with situations where, during sustained pressure, Essien could push forward and attack the edge of the area.
When that happened, Curtis could step out from defence and help maintain the team's territorial pressure.
Beckham's medium and long passing was already exceptional.
Now Mourinho was demanding more quick combinations in tight spaces as well.
For a player of Beckham's quality, the technique itself was not the problem.
The real challenge was learning the timing and tendencies of the players around him.
"Can David really become the centre of the team this quickly?" Eva asked.
She was not questioning Beckham's quality.
A player of his stature hardly needed to prove that.
She simply wondered whether Mourinho could really reshape the team around him so quickly.
Ethan smiled.
"It's not just about whether he settles immediately.
"Think about one thing.
"David can hit accurate passes over thirty or forty metres.
"Now look at the players ahead of him.
"Kaká.
"Robben.
"Cristiano.
"Palacio.
"Drogba.
"They all attack space quickly.
"If David sees the run early enough, one pass can completely change the situation."
He looked back towards the pitch.
"José doesn't make changes like this without thinking them through.
"Neither do I.
"David may need time to fully adapt, but even before that, you'll notice what he adds.
"And once he understands the system completely..."
Ethan smiled.
"I think he'll surprise a lot of people."
His own understanding of football had improved enormously over the years.
He was nowhere near Mourinho or Cassell tactically.
But compared with when he first founded the club, the difference was enormous.
He could now recognise the influence Beckham was already having.
What he could not yet judge was exactly how important Beckham might become once everything clicked.
That was what made the coming season so fascinating.
...
New Manchester United played four preseason friendlies against professional clubs around Dublin during their training camp in Ireland.
The results were mixed.
And none were particularly impressive.
Considering Beckham had just joined, some sections of the English press found it amusing that the team somehow looked weaker.
Four matches.
One win.
Two draws.
One defeat.
Beckham's most notable moment came in the first friendly, when he sent Palacio through on the right, only for the goal to be ruled out for offside.
After that, he produced few obvious highlights.
Palacio was the player who attracted the most attention.
Perhaps because the attacking patterns from the previous season remained familiar to him, much of New Manchester United's play continued to develop down the right.
With Hleb gone, Palacio seized his opportunity.
During those friendlies, he outperformed Robben, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Ribéry.
He scored twice.
One of those goals was a late winner in the opening match.
Across all four games, New Manchester United scored only twice and conceded twice.
It was a dramatic contrast with the attacking form they had shown at their peak the previous season.
The defensive issues were especially noticeable.
The back four had barely changed.
The problem was the protection in front of them.
Beckham and Essien were still learning how to function together.
Their positioning and timing were not yet automatic.
Ethan was not especially concerned.
Preseason results meant very little.
If they had scored four or five goals in every friendly, that would not necessarily have been a good sign.
Better to expose weaknesses now.
Mourinho could identify them.
Correct them.
And solve them before the Premier League began.
After completing the four Irish friendlies, the squad travelled south from Dublin to London.
They arrived accompanied by plenty of criticism from the English media.
Even so, the reception at the airport was huge.
New Manchester United had already become one of the most watched clubs in England, behind only a handful of established giants such as Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool.
And with Beckham now in the squad, attention had increased again.
Supporters crowded the airport to welcome them.
Most were waiting for one man.
David Beckham.
The London schedule was tight.
Two days later, New Manchester United would play a preseason friendly against Wimbledon, the famous Crazy Gang.
All ticket revenue from the match would go to Wimbledon.
Before that, however, the players had another obligation.
Audi was holding a major new-car launch in London.
As one of the club's sponsors, Audi expected New Manchester United to provide several players for the event.
That was part of the commercial relationship.
And Audi's sponsorship had become considerably more valuable than it had been the previous season.
The company had also purchased advertising space at Old Trafford.
Discussions were already underway regarding a larger partnership once New Manchester United's own stadium opened the following year.
After the club's remarkable previous season and the rapid rise of players such as Kaká and Cristiano Ronaldo, the commercial department had renegotiated almost every major sponsorship agreement.
The increases were substantial.
Adidas was the clearest example.
Following Beckham's arrival, Adidas increased its annual payment to New Manchester United to £5 million.
There were also performance bonuses.
Qualify for the Champions League and the club would receive another £2 million.
Win the Premier League and another £5 million would be added.
Vodafone's sponsorship had risen as well.
The base payment was now £4.5 million.
Performance clauses could take it as high as £8 million.
There were additional incentives linked to New Manchester United's progress in the UEFA Cup.
The better the club performed, the more the sponsors paid.
All of those clauses had been negotiated by the commercial department.
Taken together, New Manchester United's sponsorship income was already comfortably in the upper half of the Premier League.
They were earning more commercially than several clubs that had spent decades in the top flight.
Mark David had been right.
The club's story itself had value.
A supporter-founded team.
Built from nothing.
Promoted repeatedly.
FA Cup winners.
UEFA Cup winners.
Now entering the Premier League with Beckham as captain.
The commercial department wanted to build an identity around that story rather than relying on individual stars alone.
Their preferred message was simple:
Built by the supporters, run for the supporters.
It had already become closely associated with the club.
But sponsorship was only part of the attraction of reaching the Premier League.
The biggest change was the league's own revenue.
Television income alone guaranteed approximately £15 million.
Then came merit payments based on final league position.
The bottom club received around £800,000.
Every place higher added another £800,000.
Finish first and the prize money could reach roughly £16 million.
There was more.
Premier League central sponsorship and overseas broadcasting distributions could contribute another £10 million or so.
And television appearances generated additional payments.
A live league match could be worth roughly £500,000.
Every club was guaranteed a minimum number of televised fixtures.
Despite being newly promoted, New Manchester United had already been selected for eighteen live broadcasts.
That alone could bring in approximately £9 million.
And if the club became involved in important matches later in the season, more television selections could follow.
Once Ethan added everything together, the numbers became astonishing.
Premier League participation alone could generate more than £50 million in relatively dependable revenue.
And that was before matchday income.
Ticket sales.
Merchandise.
Shirt sales.
Individual sponsorship deals.
Commercial events.
Hospitality.
Advertising.
International marketing.
New Manchester United were already virtually certain to turn a profit that season.
The only question was how large that profit would be.
Sometimes Ethan would sit down with the figures and realise what the Premier League's rise actually meant.
It was not only about supporters.
It was not only about the quality of the football.
And it was not only about results in Europe.
The financial machine surrounding the competition was becoming enormous.
The Premier League was turning into the richest league in European football.
And the gap was only beginning to grow.
(To be continued.)