On the morning of June 10, after arriving at the club, Lynn finally began to play his role as manager.
The club was undergoing transformation.
Expansion work was already underway. The expansion and renovation of the training ground were the first projects to begin, and they were expected to be completed within a week.
Construction had also started on the training and rehabilitation centre, as well as the new community west of the club.
As for the purchase of the apartments, Renault Green had promised that they would all be delivered before June 25.
Nearly forty newly recruited scouts had also begun their work, travelling across Britain and Europe to collect player information.
Lynn called a meeting of the first-team coaching staff.
He had accepted the entire coaching team left behind by Ray Kennedy.
This coaching staff had one advantage: they were young and their average age was thirty-three.
...
The meeting room was very quiet.
Assistant manager Emlyn Hughes sat on Lynn's left.
On his right sat, in order, fitness coach Ernie Shackleton, goalkeeping coach William Tyndale, possession coach Guy Fawkes, tactical coach Eric Morecambe, defensive coach Thomas Paine, attacking coach John Harrison, and shooting coach Aneurin Bevan.
Before this, Lynn had already met with the coaching staff, so everyone knew one another.
He cleared his throat and said, "First of all, I hope everyone can understand the club's decision to cancel the holiday. We need to prepare early for next season."
The eight coaches all shook their heads.
They understood completely.
Especially because after the club cancelled the holiday, it had given them double pay.
That was what they cared about more.
Besides, Lynn had already raised the coaches' wages. They were still too excited and delighted to complain.
This was also an important reason why, after Ray Kennedy left, none of them followed him despite Kennedy trying to persuade them to go.
No matter what Lynn did to the club, at least he was extremely generous to the staff.
The benefits he offered had already surpassed those of clubs in the Football League Second Division.
Lynn continued, "The first team does not have many players right now, but we will soon build a brand-new squad. I hope none of you lose heart because of the current situation, or slack off in your work."
"I need you to believe one thing: every player in the first team will have great potential. Whether they become stars, whether they become valuable assets to the club, depends on your input, efficiency, quality of work, and so on."
Lynn's words affirmed the value of the coaching staff, and everyone nodded in agreement.
"I also have an announcement. For the time being, Hughes will also be responsible for arranging the reserve team's work. Fawkes will temporarily take charge of the youth team. Once we find better candidates, new coaches will come in to share this part of the workload."
"I need the training principles and player-development policies of the reserve team and youth team to match those of the first team, so that the whole club follows one consistent footballing philosophy."
Assistant manager Emlyn Hughes and possession coach Guy Fawkes said together, "No problem!"
"Good. Then let's get to work and draw up the first team's daily training plan."
The Swansea coaching staff began formulating reasonable and scientific training methods and training plans based on Lynn's requirements.
A team's training was actually flexible, varied, and diverse.
It had to be designed according to the manager's tactical style and technical requirements.
It was also affected by the time interval between matches.
Kerry McConner, director of the training and rehabilitation centre, was also called in halfway through the meeting.
He and fitness coach Ernie Shackleton would serve as the bridge connecting the team and the medical centre in daily work.
Integrating fitness work into the first team's training plan was inevitable.
No matter what tactical system the team wanted to play, and no matter how they wanted to develop players, they could not do without physical conditioning as the foundation.
That included training the most basic physical qualities: endurance, speed, strength, and so on.
With fitness training as the foundation, Swansea's first-team training cycle was roughly divided into four days.
The first day was passing training.
The second day was defensive training.
The third day was transition training, moving between attack and defence.
The fourth day was attacking training.
The remaining time would belong to individual-specific training, either to improve players' weaknesses or sharpen their strengths.
Every type of training would be interwoven with team-coordination drills.
This training direction was something Lynn had set after observing and studying several famous European clubs.
During the past four years, his efforts to become a coach had not simply consisted of reading books.
He had visited many clubs and observed their public training sessions, studying how those teams trained.
Clubs such as Ajax, Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid, AC Milan, and others.
However, Swansea's training this season would still be based mainly on physical conditioning.
That was because below Premier League level, physicality was the most important foundation.
Looking further ahead, if they one day reached the Premier League, the physical demands on the players would become even higher.
After a full morning of work, Swansea's coaching staff completed a full training plan.
...
At noon, after lunch in the staff canteen, Lynn took a short nap in his office.
At two-thirty in the afternoon, he changed into sportswear and arrived at the training ground.
Including Lynn, nine coaches stood casually chatting beside the pitch.
The players arrived one after another and assembled before three o'clock.
The scene was indeed somewhat bleak.
Cromwell, Brunel, Nelson, Cook, Badenberg, Wellesley, and Glendower.
Only seven players in total.
Cromwell might not have found much joy in the training itself, but when he saw Lynn, he almost laughed.
The scene itself was quite amusing.
There were more coaches than players!
Everything currently happening at Swansea City seemed interesting in his eyes.
Lynn led the warm-up, and the afternoon's training began.
Before July, training would mainly focus on physical conditioning.
These seven players had rarely played matches in the past.
On top of that, they had not been valued at Swansea, so their physical qualities had to be strengthened quickly if they were to meet the demands of future matches.
During training, Lynn gradually came to understand the characteristics of the seven players.
Oliver Cromwell, the player with the highest potential, did not yet have particularly solid technical ability.
However, he was very willing to use his intelligence to improve his performance.
He was good at observing and thinking, making him a strong candidate to become a leader on the pitch.
In his notebook, Lynn set his position and role: midfield playmaker.
Brunel was tall and powerfully built.
At one metre ninety, his height almost determined that he could only play two positions: either defender or centre-forward.
In the past, the position he had trained in at the club was centre-back.
Nelson, who was only 1.71 metres tall, had the qualities of a small, quick, agile player.
He was also left-footed.
According to future usage of wide players, he would definitely be placed as an inverted winger on the opposite flank.
However, he had been trained on the left side since childhood, and Lynn did not want to change that rashly.
Before reaching a truly top-level stage, using an inverted winger could easily backfire.
In his notebook, Lynn wrote beside Nelson's name: left midfielder.
James Cook was the best of these players in terms of technical ability.
From his hardworking and serious attitude in training, it was clear that this Swansea University top student really was a good kid.
He did things seriously, treated people kindly, and often showed a charming smile on his handsome face.
His preferred foot was his right, and he could play a decent pass.
Lynn positioned him as a right midfielder.
Badenberg's general technical ability was rather disappointing, such as his passing and dribbling. However, his physical qualities were good.
He was a flexible player with decent pace, and his finishing was the best among them.
In shooting training, he could often hit beautiful volleys.
Without question, he was a striker.
Wellesley was also left-footed.
At just two centimetres short of 1.80 metres, he had decent physical strength and could hold his own in duels.
His overall technical ability was fairly average.
He was not as clumsy as a centre-back, but he was not as outstanding as an attacking player either.
Therefore, Lynn placed him in the position he was familiar with: left-back.
Glendower was nearly two metres tall.
At 1.96 metres, he was tall with long arms. Before the age of fifteen, he had played basketball and volleyball.
His flexibility, agility, and ability to read the flight of the ball were all good.
He was the obvious choice as goalkeeper.
After confirming the positions and roles of the seven players, the coaching staff would train them specifically according to the roles they needed to play within the team's tactics.
Although there were only seven players training, the sessions were not dull.
Cromwell was the most active among them. He always brought a sense of competition into the group.
For example, shuttle runs had to be races.
Mistakes during passing drills had to be punished.
Endurance drills had to have a winner.
Even explosive-power tests had to determine who was the strongest.
He did not always finish first. Sometimes, he was the one at the bottom.
The loser had to accept punishment, such as doing a few push-ups, being pranked by teammates, or chatting up a random girl when they went out to eat together.
Cromwell's presence made Lynn discover another strength in this player: he could bring the team together.
During training, the scientific training concepts brought by Kerry McConner also helped the players grow in a better way.
He corrected some of their bad habits and taught them healthy, scientific nutritional principles.
For example, do not wait until you are thirsty before drinking water.
By the time you feel thirsty, the human body is already dehydrated.
Another example was avoiding fried food in their diet.
On this point, Wellesley was the unluckiest.
He had two great loves in life.
The first was outdoor sports.
The second was enjoying good food.
Asking him to control his diet was practically more painful than killing him!
...
While Swansea City was getting on the right track, the latest news came from the Football League Third Division.
Former Swansea manager Ray Kennedy had taken charge of Barnet, who had finished sixth in the Third Division last season and failed to win promotion.
He brought with him three former players: Mike Howard, Roger Freestone, and Jonathan Curtis.
Kennedy's appointment speech was perfectly ordinary.
However, after completing his transfer, Mike Howard launched a fierce attack on his former club and mocked them.
"We will begin a new life and career in London. The Swansea I once loved has become unrecognizable. I believe Barnet will be promoted to the Second Division next season. As for Swansea, they will definitely be relegated, because they have a terrible owner!"
The other three players, Christie O'Leary, Lee Jenkins, and Stuart Jones, transferred together to Blackpool.
After their move, they also showed no mercy toward their former club in their comments.