Monday, September 18, 2023
Temporary Apartment, Manchester
Night
The apartment was quiet, the recovery drink half-finished on the desk and his boots lined against the wall, and Demien sat with his phone face-down while the Bayern clips kept running behind his eyes.
The Brighton draw still sat badly in him, not because United had lost — they hadn't — but because they had looked like a side that could be played through whenever the press broke. Brighton had been calm and clever about it. They had invited the mistake, waited for the gap, and punished the impatience.
Bayern were worse.
