As The Kid continues his recovery, he asks his new coach for an opinion on football’s latest managerial merry-go-round, only to discover that replacing one particular manager may require something far more unusual than tactical expertise.
Finding a successor is difficult enough. Finding someone capable of replacing “The Normal One” might require transporting his brain across Europe under the cover of darkness.
The Man with Two Brains
The Kid’s rehabilitation is progressing well enough for him to spend more time around the training ground.
With another managerial change dominating football headlines, he decides to ask his new coach the obvious question.
Can anybody really replace one of the game’s great tactical minds?
The Normal One
The discussion naturally turns towards the manager affectionately known as “The Normal One”.
His achievements at his previous club have set an exceptionally high standard.
Replacing somebody of that calibre is never going to be straightforward.
As The Kid points out, football clubs often discover that replacing success is considerably harder than creating it.
The Brain Behind the Operation
The conversation quickly takes a surreal turn.
Instead of searching for another elite manager, somebody proposes preserving the original brain itself.
Safely stored inside a large scientific specimen jar, it becomes the most valuable piece of football intelligence imaginable.
After all, if tactics cannot be copied, perhaps the brain responsible for them can.
A Delicate Transfer
Unfortunately, transporting such precious cargo presents its own challenges.
The coach points out that only a truly fearless individual would attempt to carry football’s greatest tactical brain through the streets of Liverpool after dark.
It is hardly the sort of transfer normally covered by the sports pages.
Even by Storybook standards, this recruitment strategy feels ambitious.
Work Permit Problems
The complications do not end there.
The prospective assistant manager may struggle to obtain a work permit.
Suddenly, replacing an elite football manager begins to resemble an immigration exercise rather than a tactical appointment.
The Kid quietly concludes that perhaps clubs should simply hold onto successful managers whenever possible.
Football’s Managerial Brain Drain
Managers are often described as footballing brains.
Storybook takes that familiar expression completely literally.
If the manager’s greatest asset is his football brain, preserving it becomes the logical solution.
Whether the football authorities would approve is another matter.
The Football Inspiration Behind the Comic
This episode was inspired by Jürgen Klopp’s arrival at Liverpool during 2015 and the contrasting managerial philosophies dominating European football at the time.
Rafael Benítez, José Mourinho and Klopp all featured heavily in discussions about elite coaching, while work permits, recruitment and backroom staff regularly became part of the wider managerial story.
Storybook exaggerates those discussions into a tongue-in-cheek science experiment where tactical genius can literally be preserved inside a laboratory jar.
Characters Featured
The Kid
Still working his way back from injury, The Kid follows football’s managerial developments with as much interest as the action on the pitch.
The New Coach
The new coach offers his assessment of football’s latest managerial changes before the conversation descends into increasingly bizarre solutions.
The Normal One
The successful former manager casts a long shadow over his previous club, leaving everyone wondering whether anybody can truly fill the role.
The Tactical Brain
The preserved brain becomes the comic’s central visual joke, symbolising the priceless tactical intelligence every major football club wishes it possessed.
Behind the Gag
Football supporters regularly describe great managers as footballing brains.
Storybook simply asks the obvious question.
What if someone actually tried to preserve one?
By the end of the discussion, replacing a manager has become less about coaching and more about transporting highly valuable scientific cargo.
Looking Back
Originally published in 2015, The Man with Two Brains reflected one of football’s most fascinating periods of managerial change.
Using science-fiction humour and exaggerated football logic, the strip poked fun at the way clubs search endlessly for the next tactical genius while supporters continue comparing every new appointment with the manager who came before.
The next episode takes The Kid from laboratories and managerial brains to an altogether different fantasy involving time travel.
