Tuesday morning arrived at the Sterling Era Training Complex with a strange kind of calm.
Outside the gates there were television trucks from Sky Sports and BBC and even a crew from Japan here to see Kenji Sato. The world was watching Barnsley. The little team from Yorkshire was one win away from the Premier League.
But inside his office Michael Sterling was hiding.
He locked the door. He pulled the blinds down. He made himself a cup of coffee.
He needed a moment of peace. He needed to see the truth.
He sat in his leather chair and opened his laptop. He did not open the email or the news sites. He pressed the secret button combination that only he knew.
The room shimmered. The blue light of the System flooded the air.
[SYSTEM REPORT: END OF SEASON PROGRESSION]
Michael took a deep breath. He remembered looking at this screen in August. Back then his team was full of red numbers and low ratings. They were boys playing a man's game.
Now the screen was glowing gold.
