November and December were expected to be smooth sailing after the Millwall match.
Most of City's upcoming opponents were struggling near the bottom of the table—with the exception of Leicester City, who were currently holding a strong sixth place in the First Division.
"We have six matches in the First Division, two in the League Cup, and one in the FA Cup second round — which means we've got nine matches in the span of two months," Richard said, tapping his finger on the fixture list.
He looked around the room, eyes settling on each member of the staff.
"That's a lot of football. And if we want to come out of this stretch with our momentum intact, we need to manage it smartly — squad rotation, injury prevention, recovery sessions, all of it."
As the chairman who brought the vision to develop Manchester City through a modern high-performance team led by Fevre and Schlumberger, Richard had no choice — it fell on him to act as the bridge between them and O'Neill's coaching staff.
