Swansea had already entered a steady path of developnt.
After facing two strong league opponents in succession — Hull City and Scunthorpe, who had been relegated from Division Two the previous season — Swansea picked up one win and one draw.
During that sa stretch, Cardiff City only managed one win and one defeat, allowing Swansea to extend their lead over them by one point. However, Brighton also recorded one win and one draw, which ant Swansea missed the chance to climb to the top of the table.
Lynn did not feel regretful.
The heavy pressure of the Division Three schedule, along with the need for frequent rotation, made him realize that he had to use his substitutes even more flexibly.
Therefore, he used the points he had just earned to exchange for two Super Sub cards, giving them to Balitsch and Nelson respectively.
Horatio Nelson had been an unexpected gain for Lynn in recent matches. This local Welsh player's resilience and drive had finally made Lynn begin paying serious attention to his presence.
Although his talent potential was only 72, clearly far from the superstar-level threshold of 85 or above, if he could fully transform that potential into ability, then he would still have a place at Swansea in the future — even after Swansea fought their way into the Premier League.
Because of that, Lynn was willing to invest skill cards in him.
On October 27, the day before the League Cup round of sixteen.
After training ended that afternoon and the pre-match preparation eting was completed, Lynn ca to the club's press conference hall.
Walking into the room gave him a strange feeling.
Previously, he had only glanced at this place casually from the outside. Today was the first ti he was holding a pre-match press conference here.
At Division Three level, there was absolutely no need to "mobilize the troops" for pre-match and post-match press conferences.
But this season, Swansea had beco Wales's star team. On top of that, their League Cup opponent was Premier League giant Liverpool.
It was no exaggeration to say that although Liverpool had never won a Premier League title, when it ca to the number of English top-flight titles, Liverpool still stood at the top. The Reds were the dostic kings of England!
Because of that, both the Welsh dia and Fleet Street were very interested in this League Cup round-of-sixteen clash.
Seeing around twenty reporters seated below, Lynn walked onto the stage and sat down behind the long table at the center, where the microphone had been placed.
He cleared his throat, then spoke into the microphone.
"All right. Sa old rule. Three questions. What do you want to know?"
The thirteen reporters who had traveled all the way from London's Fleet Street were stunned.
Ian Clark, a reporter from The Sun, imdiately questioned him with resentnt. "What kind of rule is that? Only three questions? Who do you think you are?"
Lynn's gaze turned to Clark. He looked at him calmly, then swept his eyes across the room.
No other reporter spoke. Everyone was watching Lynn.
Lynn said softly, "It seems everyone thinks you asked a question. Very well. You asked three questions. The first and last were idiotic, so I will only answer the second.
"Yes, I only answer three questions. Now the first one is finished. Who wants to ask the second?"
The mont Lynn finished speaking, Ian Clark imdiately mocked him. "You've only won a few matches in Division Three. Do you really think you're invincible?"
Lynn looked around the room again. Still, none of the other reporters spoke. It seed they were all focused on the confrontation between Lynn and Clark.
Lynn nodded and said, "All right. Second question. My answer is: no, I do not think I'm invincible. You're all very efficient. Good. Last question. Hurry up."
Clark was just about to speak again when Rona Whelan, seated slightly behind him to the side, imdiately raised her hand.
She had interviewed Lynn at Hartlepool and did not want to make a wasted trip to Swansea today.
After she raised her hand, Lynn also rembered where he had seen this female reporter before.
She looked to be around twenty-five years old, wore black-rimd glasses, and was very thin, almost like so kind of alluring snake spirit. Still, her figure was pleasing to the eye.
Lynn pointed in her direction.
Whelan imdiately asked, "Will Swansea be driving supercars to Liverpool this ti? After all, the distance is much shorter than going to Hartlepool, and it would definitely save more ti than taking the train."
Lynn smiled when he heard this. "No. We've already booked flights from Cardiff to Liverpool Airport tomorrow. That's three questions answered. Goodbye."
With that, Lynn stood up and left.
Ian Clark of The Sun angrily shouted at him, "You have no respect for press conferences at all! You're far too full of yourself! Kid, do you think you're a star? You're just a piece of shit!"
Lynn suddenly stopped.
He turned back to look at Ian Clark, then said flatly, "Look. Compared with you, can I really be considered full of myself? But since you've said that, it would seem rude not to be a little full of myself.
"I don't know what position you hold at The Sun, or how long you've worked there, but I hereby announce that for as long as you remain at The Sun, Swansea will blacklist The Sun. We will not accept any interviews from The Sun, and we will refuse The Sun attendance at our press conferences.
"This will also beco an internal club rule.
"If one day you leave The Sun, we will consider lifting the ban. But as long as you remain in the dia industry as a reporter, whatever outlet you represent will be blacklisted by Swansea.
"Mm. That's it. I wish you all a pleasant day. Goodbye."
This ti, Lynn truly left without looking back.
When Ian Clark heard Lynn's outrageous words, he laughed in anger. After sitting back down, he said to the other reporters, "He really does have sothing wrong with his head. Is he insane? Who does he think he is? Blacklist? Hahaha! Does he think we, the uncrowned kings, are so easily frightened?"
The local Welsh reporters collectively remained silent. They packed up their briefcases one by one and left in an orderly manner.
Before leaving, however, they looked at Clark with aningful eyes.
Clark reminded them of soone — a colleague who had recently disappeared from view.
David Livingstone.
The news that Livingstone had been fired by ITV Wales had not caused a major sensation, but it had still left them with a certain sorrowful feeling, like a fox grieving for the death of a rabbit.
It was true that reporters were known as uncrowned kings.
But that did not an a single reporter could represent a massive dia organization.
In this realistic and profit-driven society, if a reporter could not bring in enough benefits — or worse, if he hard the interests of the dia organization — it was very common for that reporter to be abandoned.
Lynn was a star at Division Three level. In Swansea and Welsh football, he was also a star.
Therefore, the local Welsh dia had basically stopped opposing Lynn directly.
Neutral and objective comnts were normal.
But they absolutely must not provoke Lynn!
David Livingstone was the lesson from the past.
As for Ian Clark of The Sun, right now it looked as though Lynn was arrogantly threatening him. It sounded extrely ridiculous.
But who dared say what the future would bring?
At the very least, everyone now believed that Swansea would be promoted to Division Two next season.
One more step would be Division One.
Another step after that would be the Premier League!
A Premier League-level club could be criticized and mocked by reporters who had no stake in the matter, but it absolutely could not be insulted. Once the club was truly angered, it would definitely announce a blacklist!
At that ti, a dia organization might very well sacrifice the pawn to protect the king and abandon the reporter. That kind of loss was sothing they could completely bear.
Among the reporters present today, there was actually one very big na.
He was Ben Smith from BBC's Fleet Street branch in London.
Compared with BBC Wales, the authority naturally belonged to the BBC without a regional suffix. In fact, across English football and European football, BBC's football news carried enormous weight. Whether it concerned transfers or club intelligence, BBC's information was, on one hand, highly reliable, as it almost never released false news, and on the other hand, supported by a vast network of sources.
After all, it was the largest dia organization at the center of European news. From the governnt cabinet down to ordinary street vendors, BBC's channels of information were incredibly broad.
The reason Ben Smith had co to Swansea to attend a pre-match press conference for a Division Three club was simple:
He was Liverpool's intelligence specialist.
As for Liverpool's opponent tomorrow, Ben Smith also wanted to understand them a little. Originally, Swansea had not been worth taking seriously.
But while looking up Swansea's recent information, he discovered that the current Swansea was very different from what he had previously understood. So he personally ca to investigate.
On top of that, Lynn had a bit of history with Liverpool.
No, it should be called a grudge.
The reason Lynn had been given a lifeti ban by the FA in the sumr was because he had also rushed onto the pitch at Anfield, recomnding himself to Liverpool manager Houllier. In the end, he was subdued by stadium security and then prosecuted.
Ben Smith inspected Swansea's training base, watched Swansea's training session, and now attended the pre-match press conference. He gained a deeper understanding of Lynn.
On the way back to Liverpool, he opened a new page in his notebook and thoughtfully wrote down two nas:
Swansea. Lynn.
After returning to Liverpool, Ben Smith wrote a thought-provoking article in his column.
"Lynn? A Chinese Fox Who Learned Cunning in Britain?"
Smith used a British fable familiar to everyone as a taphor for Lynn.
The story originally went like this:
In order to escape with its life, an English fox played a trick.
It was chased by several sharp-nosed hunting dogs until there was nowhere left to run. At the end of its road, it ran beneath a gallows. There were many captured animals there — all creatures that had done bad things, such as cats, foxes, and owls. They had been hanged there as a warning to passersby.
With disaster looming and nowhere left to hide, the fox mixed itself among the dead animals hanging there.
Like Hannibal, the Carthaginian commander pursued relentlessly by the Roman army, the fox used a trick to shed its shell and lose its pursuers.
A pack of well-trained hounds arrived at the gallows, coming right beside the fox that was pretending to be dead and hanged. The hounds sensed that sothing was strange and barked as they searched everywhere.
Their master stopped the barking. He had not yet noticed the fox's ridiculous trick and muttered to himself, "Has that wicked thing gone into a hole? But my dogs keep barking at the gallows, and there are so many distinguished mbers of society hanging there!"
Smith was clearly comparing Lynn to the fox in the story.
When English football collectively rejected and humiliated Lynn, an ordinary person would already have been sentenced to death. He would certainly have fled English football and never wanted to remain here!
But Lynn had continued living in English football, right on the edge of despair.
Division Three was like that lifeless gallows. It had little future and attracted little attention.
Ben Smith still could not determine exactly how strong Swansea truly were. But he had a feeling:
Lynn would not be a flash in the pan!
Only brainless followers would drift with the crowd and make reckless conclusions before understanding the truth.
At the very least, Ben Smith had never believed from the beginning that Lynn was ntally ill.
Now Lynn had started from Division Three and was managing Swansea impressively. Who could say how many years it would take before Lynn beca the first Asian manager active in the Premier League?
Aside from Ben Smith, the other Fleet Street dia outlets whose reporters attended Swansea's pre-match press conference all launched verbal attacks on Lynn.
Ian Clark of The Sun dug up old matters and once again labeled Lynn as delusional.
Mark Cady of the Daily Star directly called on Fleet Street to blacklist Lynn.
Even Rona Whelan of the Daily Express wrote in her article that Lynn lacked respect for the journalism industry.
Lynn ignored all of it completely.
Fleet Street was a place where a hundred flowers blood, not a place ruled by one giant. There was no possibility of the dia truly standing together as one.
News represented attention.
Attention represented user numbers and market share.
Combined, that ant profit.
If anyone wanted the entire Fleet Street to unite as an alliance, that would not happen even on the day the Earth was destroyed.
When Fleet Street's dia went mad for profit, even the British pri minister had to be afraid!
Right now, Swansea simply could not bring Fleet Street enough profit.
When the day ca that Swansea had the capital to beco Fleet Street's darling, only then would Lynn care about his relationship with Fleet Street!
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