Dynasty Awakening: Building My Own Football Empire-Chapter 261: See you at Anfield

Michael felt his stomach rumbling in protest to the alarm that had woken him up. Since he parted ways with the contents of his stomach last night thanks to the Elixir, he felt the full effects of his hunger this morning.

He quickly turned the alarm off and opened the notification waiting for him.

[You have consumed: A-grade Tactical Insight Elixir.]

[Tactical Insight grade has been increased by 3!]

MANAGER STATS:

Tactical Knowledge: A+ (Avg. A+)

Man Management: A

Media Handling: A

Negotiation: B

Influence: S+

Tactical Insight: A+

Seeing the blue screen in front of him, Michael’s eyes sparkled. He finally had a tactical grading of A+, filling him with pride and a sense of achievement. This was probably the highest he would be able to reach without managing in the Champions League final.

Michael had never seen S-grade Elixirs even mentioned before by the system, but perhaps they would appear once he won the Treble.

Either way, he felt another layer of confidence after his Tactical Insight had increased. He needed to perform well against Liverpool and get the attention of the world press.

With these grand thoughts in his mind, Michael left his room to start his morning routine. Today was the last day of the transfer window which ended at midnight. From there he would go to the final training session before the big game at Anfield tomorrow.

When he arrived at the training ground, everyone seemed to be in a much better mood than they were on Monday. That was to be expected since it was the last day of rumors before the deadline passed.

Michael and Arthur were both more excited for the final signing which Kenji had promised to fund. The billionaire was due back from a "secret meeting" sometime today which the two were looking forward to.

As he walked towards the office, Michael could still feel the stares directed at him from the admin staff. A few marketing assistants walked up to him in the hallway and stopped in his path, looking as if they wanted to ask him something.

"Hey Boss, what are you doing after the window closes? Did you want to go celebrate in Leeds with us? Your assistant can come too."

Michael almost couldn’t believe his ears, turning to Arthur as if to ask him if this was an illusion. However, Arthur’s face was beet red and filled with panic as he clutched his jelly babies.

Now that he thought about it, he had never seen Arthur talk to a woman before apart from the lunch lady. His nervousness caused Michael to let out a mischievous grin as he had finally found out his assistant’s weakness.

Thankfully, Michael was happily married, so he was easily able to decline their invitation. The reason he was so shocked in the first place was because he had never been invited to such things even as the Manager of the Year.

"I’m sorry, we both have transfer paperwork until midnight today. We’ll be playing Liverpool tomorrow after all." He replied with an apologetic face.

Seeing the girls look so disappointed, Michael’s eyes flashed for a moment as a wicked idea entered his mind.

"How about you exchange numbers with Arthur here and we can go celebrating during the international break?"

Arthur felt a shock run down his spine as he slowly turned to Michael with a horrified expression.

’This is what you get for eating the last red jelly baby.’ Michael laughed inwardly, snatching Arthur’s phone from his pocket and handing it to the three girls.

They all entered their numbers and turned to Michael expectantly.

"Ah sorry, my phone is out of battery. But don’t worry, you can reach me through Arthur here."

Outwardly Michael looked apologetic, however inwardly he was cackling like a Bond villain. Even after the girls walked away and his phone had been returned, Arthur had yet to recover from the whole ordeal.

Michael didn’t bother to collect Arthur, choosing to walk straight into his office in case he was stopped by anyone else.

’Have I gotten more handsome or something?’ He thought, humming a merry tune as he went and sat down at his desk.

"Ah..." Michael exclaimed, finally thinking of a reason for all this unwanted attention. His reward from the mission against Tottenham was that weird skill with hardly any description.

Chaos Aura.

Everything started to make sense now. Chaos Aura seemed to not be limited to the football pitch, working in his everyday life to create random social interactions. While it wasn’t a lie to say that he was enjoying a little extra attention, it might turn out to be annoying in the future if random agents started calling him.

While he was deep in thought, Arthur finally managed to collect himself and sit down at his desk next to Michael. He was staring at his phone in a daze, looking at the 3 new entries in his contacts list.

They were easy to locate because he only had 3 contacts on his phone to begin with. Michael, Kenji, and "Pizza Place".

The fax machine was what finally woke Arthur up from his mood, prompting him to put his phone away. When he looked over at Michael all he could see was a giant toothy grin, giving him the feeling of wanting to throw a jelly baby right at his face.

Once Kenji walked in, the room went silent and the final block of negotiations for the window commenced. Since the final target was a striker, Michael was able to analyze the stats in record time.

While it may have been a breeze for himself who could see hidden traits, the rest of the scouting team was in crisis mode. Kenji seemed to have a better time considering he had been actively trying to learn with Michael at home.

Since the two wanted to build a Dynasty in the future, he would be best to learn the market as soon as they could.

Once the clock struck midnight, there was a collective celebration around the room. The window had officially closed and they wouldn’t have to worry about selling Lorenzo for 4 months.

Michael and Arthur quickly left the office and headed down to the pitch. This was the last training session before Anfield tomorrow.

When they arrived, everyone seemed to be in high spirits.

The coaches took the players through some warm-ups and a light tactical session. Considering the game was tomorrow, Michael didn’t want to push them too hard, yet he was a little worried that since there hadn’t been a full session all week that there might be some chemistry issues.

However much to his surprise, everyone seemed to be in good shape. That was especially the case for Vladimir and Diego who looked like they could wrestle a bear if asked to.

After a little over an hour, Michael called for everyone to gather around.

"You’ve all done well this month and I couldn’t be more proud as a Manager. This is probably one of the strongest squads we’ve had at Barnsley, but none of that matters if we can’t win tomorrow."

He moved his gaze over his players, stopping on Vladimir for a few moments longer than the others before continuing.

"Liverpool are a tough team, they’ve blown out most of their opponents thanks to their heavy metal pressing. Vladimir, Diego, you will need to work your magic in the defense for us to have a chance."

Vladimir and Diego both nodded, their faces solemn.

"Kaito, Mateo, your job is to find the space no matter what it takes. It’s going to be a high-tempo game so we’ll need all the advantages we can get from the very start of the match."

The two also nodded, understanding their roles. As long as they could break the press, Victor Osimhen would have a chance to send them all home happy.

"I won’t say too much else. All I ask is that we do our best and have fun while doing it. Remember the chaos."

Michael then extended his hand, prompting the players to place them on top.

"Captain, take it away."

Sergio Ramos had a serious expression as he called out.

"MISFITS!"

"CHAOS!"

Everyone else shouted the word chaos as loud as they could, raising their hand together in unison. Afterward, Michael sent them to get changed and headed home, reminding everyone to be at the airport an hour early for the flight to Liverpool.

Arthur walked next to Michael and Kenji with his hands behind his head, he seemed in a weird mood.

"This will probably be our biggest test in the Premier League." He said solemnly.

"Yeah. We’ll be too busy with the Champions League to worry about easy games after this." Michael replied, feeling a little nostalgic for the Championship days.

However, he was even more excited for Anfield and the chance to face Klopp. The real Klopp, not the ghostly figure within his Zone simulation.

"Where are we going to finish this season?" Kenji asked Arthur curiously.

Arthur smiled wryly, "My number 1 choice is Top 4, but I’m not sure if we’ll be accepted into the elite so fast. If that doesn’t work out I’ll probably just settle for Europa League." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"It’s always good to aim high. We’ll be trying for the Title." Michael replied, his face full of determination.

"Wow. Kenji probably has a good chance of buying it, but you?" Arthur scrunched his face, squinting as he looked at Michael.

THUD

Michael sent a quick kick to Arthur’s behind, propelling him forward a few steps and almost causing him to drop his jelly babies.

"Eek! I’m kidding Boss!" He yelped, causing the other two to break out into laughter. Arthur soon joined in, feeling his nerves calm down significantly.

If he was honest, he didn’t think that he was good enough to be the assistant manager of a title-winning team with his current talent. However, seeing Michael work so hard to make Barnsley elite after giving up his sanity made him want to better himself.

He would never admit it out loud, but he was thankful to Michael for giving him the motivation to improve his skills this season.

His gaze moved to the person in question and he couldn’t help but take a closer look.

’Did this guy get better looking or something?’

Michael noticed the stare and winked.

"Don’t fall in love, Arthur. We have a game to win."

Arthur groaned. "I hate you, Boss."

"I know," Michael grinned. "See you at Anfield."