New Manchester United's opponents in the second round of the UEFA Cup were Basel.
The Swiss club were one of the traditional powers of their domestic league and regular participants in European competition, even if they had never established themselves among the continent's elite.
In Ethan's previous life as a supporter, he had occasionally mixed up Basel and Auxerre when following European results.
That was no longer possible.
Basel were coming to Old Trafford.
They were the opposition.
Ethan might occasionally confuse names or fixtures from years ago, but he certainly did not forget the team standing between New Manchester United and the next round.
Basel generally lined up in a 4-4-2.
Mourinho responded with New Manchester United's usual 4-2-3-1.
Villa started up front.
Cristiano Ronaldo returned after serving his domestic suspension.
Palacio remained on the right.
Kaká was rested, so Ribéry moved into the central attacking midfield role.
Beckham partnered De Rossi in the double pivot.
Across the back were Philipp Lahm, Terry, Curtis, and Maicon.
Čech started in goal.
Terry's domestic suspension did not apply to European competition, so he was available.
Although Basel were away from home, they showed no intention of simply surrendering territory.
They knew how dangerous New Manchester United could be at Old Trafford, so they protected the centre with two deeper midfielders and looked to counter whenever possession changed hands.
The approach worked reasonably well.
Basel's defensive organisation caused New Manchester United plenty of frustration.
But they lasted less than ten minutes before conceding.
Beckham received the ball deep and sent a long pass forward towards Villa.
The Spaniard combined quickly with Palacio in a one-two, broke into the penalty area, and finished low at the near post.
1-0.
New Manchester United appeared ready to take control.
Basel refused to collapse.
They remained compact, competed aggressively for second balls, and denied Mourinho's side the space they normally exploited around the penalty area.
The score stayed 1-0 until the final whistle.
New Manchester United had won the first leg.
But a one-goal lead was hardly comfortable.
Three weeks later, the tie resumed in Switzerland.
This time Mourinho changed his approach.
Rather than protecting the advantage, he ordered his team to attack from the beginning.
Basel had expected to use their home support and greater attacking freedom to pressure New Manchester United.
Instead, they were forced into an open game almost immediately.
That suited Mourinho's players perfectly.
The second leg became a shootout.
Basel created chances.
New Manchester United created more.
And over ninety minutes, the difference in overall quality became increasingly obvious.
By the final whistle, New Manchester United had secured a convincing victory at St. Jakob-Park.
They advanced 5-2 on aggregate.
The UEFA Cup knockout rounds awaited.
...
The other English clubs experienced mixed fortunes.
Manchester City drew both legs of their tie against Polish opposition.
A 1-1 draw at home was followed by a 0-0 draw away.
That meant City were eliminated on the away-goals rule.
Newcastle and Liverpool had no such problems.
Both won their respective ties and progressed.
The field for the next stage of the UEFA Cup was beginning to look remarkably strong.
Barcelona.
Valencia.
Villarreal.
Mallorca.
Roma.
Perugia.
Parma.
Borussia Dortmund.
Schalke 04.
Bordeaux.
Auxerre.
Lens.
Feyenoord.
Sporting CP.
Benfica.
And New Manchester United.
That alone would have made the competition highly competitive.
Then came the Champions League.
That was when things became extraordinary.
In Ethan's previous life, he remembered this particular European season as one in which several traditional powers stumbled unexpectedly.
Even so, the scale of what was happening surprised him.
As the UEFA Cup field took shape, the fifth round of the Champions League group stage was also completed.
One match remained.
Yet several major clubs were already in serious danger of elimination.
In Group A, Lyon led the standings.
Celtic were battling Bayern Munich for qualification.
Bayern had collected only five points from five matches and now faced enormous pressure going into the final round.
Failure to win could eliminate them entirely.
Even victory might only be enough to send them into the UEFA Cup.
Group B remained complicated.
Arsenal, Inter Milan, and Lokomotiv Moscow were all still fighting for position.
Any one of them could potentially fall into third place and drop into the UEFA Cup.
Group C was similarly tight.
Monaco were in the strongest position, while Deportivo La Coruña and PSV Eindhoven continued battling over qualification.
In Group D, Juventus found themselves under serious pressure from Real Sociedad and Galatasaray.
Elsewhere, Rangers, Marseille, and Lazio were all among the clubs in danger of finishing third in their respective groups and moving into the UEFA Cup.
Group H was perhaps the most unpredictable of all.
Ajax.
Celta Vigo.
AC Milan.
Club Brugge.
With one round remaining, almost every possible outcome was still on the table.
Qualification.
Elimination.
Third place.
Nothing was certain.
After the fifth group-stage round, newspapers across Europe began asking the same question.
What exactly was happening to the Champions League?
Too many established clubs were struggling.
Too many favourites were in danger.
And then the final round arrived.
The chaos became even greater.
Bayern Munich won their last match but still failed to reach the Champions League knockout stage.
They dropped into the UEFA Cup.
Inter Milan followed.
So did PSV Eindhoven.
Then came even more startling names.
Juventus.
AC Milan.
Suddenly, the UEFA Cup knockout field looked less like Europe's secondary competition and more like a convention of elite clubs.
Barcelona.
Valencia.
Liverpool.
Roma.
Borussia Dortmund.
Feyenoord.
Bayern Munich.
Inter Milan.
Juventus.
AC Milan.
And New Manchester United.
The reaction from the media was immediate.
Some joked that the Champions League and UEFA Cup had somehow swapped identities.
The Champions League had lost several of its most glamorous names.
The UEFA Cup had become packed with heavyweight clubs.
Real Madrid, who had completed a perfect Champions League group stage, and Manchester United, who had also performed strongly, were increasingly being discussed as possible finalists.
Arsenal were another Premier League side attracting attention for their European form.
For New Manchester United, however, Europe was only half the story.
Their Premier League campaign remained just as important.
...
In the twelfth round, Birmingham City visited Old Trafford.
The match was far more difficult than Mourinho expected.
New Manchester United were clearly feeling the effects of competing on multiple fronts.
The players looked tired.
Their pressing lacked its usual sharpness.
Birmingham took advantage.
Twice, the visitors went ahead.
Twice, New Manchester United fought back.
The match remained level late into the second half.
Then Beckham stepped forward.
He found space outside the penalty area and drove a long-range shot beyond the goalkeeper.
3-2.
Another victory.
Another three points.
But the effort required to earn them said plenty about the strain beginning to build within the squad.
After Birmingham, the Premier League paused for two weeks.
When domestic football resumed, New Manchester United travelled to Goodison Park to face Everton.
Moyes's team had not reproduced the consistency of the previous season.
Their form fluctuated badly.
At home, however, they remained difficult opponents.
Everton competed aggressively and refused to let New Manchester United settle.
At one stage, they even pulled level.
But late goals from Kaká and Beckham finally broke their resistance.
New Manchester United left Goodison Park with another win.
The fourteenth round brought Newcastle United to Old Trafford.
This time, Mourinho's side were made to pay.
For most of the match, a single goal looked as though it would be enough.
New Manchester United led 1-0 and appeared close to seeing the game out.
Then, in the closing moments, they made a defensive mistake.
Alan Shearer needed no second invitation.
The Newcastle striker reacted immediately and scored.
1-1.
Two points gone.
That draw proved costly.
Manchester United moved above New Manchester United, dropping Mourinho's side back to third.
...
The League Cup came next.
Crystal Palace visited Old Trafford in the fourth round.
Once again, Mourinho rotated heavily.
Messi and several other youngsters started.
They did not disappoint.
Crystal Palace defended stubbornly and made the match difficult, but one set piece decided it.
A corner arrived into the penalty area.
Chiellini attacked it.
Goal.
1-0.
New Manchester United advanced again.
After Palace, Mourinho took the squad south to London to face Tottenham.
The first-team regulars had been given more rest and looked much sharper.
Tottenham scored first.
It did not matter.
New Manchester United responded with four.
Drogba scored twice.
Kaká added one.
Palacio scored another.
Tottenham 1-4 New Manchester United.
After the match, Mourinho finally had the luxury of giving the first team an entire day off.
The players needed it.
Their next Premier League fixture was away to Aston Villa on Sunday.
Ethan had travelled to London with the squad for the Tottenham match.
He did not return to Manchester with them.
Instead, he left for Argentina with Villas-Boas and several members of the recruitment staff.
There were several pieces of business to handle.
First, Ethan wanted to watch Javier Mascherano in person at River Plate.
He also wanted to speak with the midfielder directly.
The second matter was more advanced.
Sergio Agüero.
New Manchester United had already been negotiating with Independiente.
Now Ethan wanted to finalise the transfer.
The deal was eventually completed for £1.5 million.
Independiente's original valuation had been closer to £1 million.
Ethan deliberately agreed to pay more because he wanted something beyond the player himself.
He wanted a long-term relationship with the Argentine club.
The two sides therefore discussed cooperation in youth development and transfers.
New Manchester United would receive priority consideration when Independiente were prepared to sell certain players.
In return, promising youngsters identified by New Manchester United's scouts in Argentina could potentially remain with Independiente for development and competitive football before moving to Europe.
For Ethan, that relationship was worth the additional money.
Independiente's system already contained several players he recognised.
Gabriel Milito was one.
Oscar Ustari was another.
Milito had once been close to joining Real Madrid before the transfer collapsed over concerns raised during his medical.
His career would eventually take him elsewhere in Spain.
In New Manchester United's current squad, however, centre-back was hardly an urgent need.
Terry.
Curtis.
Vidić.
Chiellini.
Mourinho already had four strong options.
Milito's relatively modest height also made Ethan cautious about how naturally he would adapt to the Premier League.
Rather than pursue him, Ethan told Independiente he would use New Manchester United's growing network in European football to help them establish contacts when the time came for the defender to move.
While in Argentina, Ethan gave Villas-Boas two more names to investigate.
Nicolás Otamendi.
Javier Pastore.
One was a centre-back Ethan remembered particularly well.
The other was an attacking midfielder with enormous potential.
He had no intention of bringing either player to England immediately.
The idea was to monitor them, secure relationships if possible, and allow them to continue developing in Argentina.
When the time was right, New Manchester United could reconsider.
That kind of arrangement was hardly unusual in South American football.
European clubs, particularly those in Portugal and the Netherlands, had long built networks designed to identify players early and move them only when circumstances were favourable.
In Portugal, ownership structures around players could become particularly complicated, with economic rights sometimes divided among multiple parties.
Ethan preferred New Manchester United's approach to remain simpler.
Find the player.
Help him develop.
Move him only when it made sporting sense.
...
Once the negotiations were complete, Ethan returned to Manchester with Agüero and his family.
Agüero had grown up in one of the poorer areas around Buenos Aires.
His family had never had much money.
His father had worked as a driver before Argentina's economic crisis cost him his job.
Later, he found work around Independiente.
Now that Agüero was moving to England, Ethan wanted the transition to be as stable as possible.
The club therefore helped the entire family relocate to Manchester.
His parents were offered work connected to the Newton Heath training complex.
This was not unusual for New Manchester United.
The club had taken similar steps with other young players.
Messi's family had been helped after moving from Argentina.
The families of De Rossi and Palacio had also received support in settling.
Across both the first team and academy, relatives of several players had either found employment directly through the club or received help securing work elsewhere.
It was not charity.
It was part of the academy's philosophy.
If New Manchester United expected a teenager to leave his home, his language, and his entire life behind for football, then the club had a responsibility to help make that move sustainable.
Stability off the pitch made development easier on it.
And naturally, it also strengthened the relationship between the player and the club.
For now, Agüero would play in the youth setup.
But Mourinho had already made his opinion clear.
He wanted the Argentine.
He believed Agüero possessed qualities that could eventually fit perfectly into New Manchester United's attacking system.
The future could wait.
Agüero was still only a boy.
...
The day after Ethan returned to Manchester, New Manchester United travelled to Aston Villa.
They won 3-0.
Another Premier League victory.
But Mourinho barely had time to enjoy it.
The next challenge was already approaching.
Liverpool.
Then Arsenal.
Two of England's strongest teams.
Back to back.
The most demanding stretch of the winter schedule was about to begin.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ 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.)