Glory Of The Football Manager System

Bzzz.

That projector fan, and 3 people not talking, and a lad in a corridor outside dragging a kit skip past the door.

Rrrrmmm.

”So I do nothing,” he said. ”For how long.”

”You land on Tuesday. You get 8 days.”

”8 days.”

”Getafe, Morocco, wherever your mother is. No ball, no gym, and if I find out you have been on a pitch with your cousins I will know, because your mother will tell Nadia and Nadia will tell me.”

He almost smiled at that and then decided not to.

”The Community Shield is on the 5th.”

”It is.”

”So I am not in the squad.”

”You will be sat at home in a chair with your feet up watching it on a television,” I said, ”and in 10 years you will not remember what you did on the 5th of August 2018, and you will remember every minute of the 15th.”

”The 15th.”

”Tallinn. Real Madrid, the Super Cup.” I let that land. ”That is the first competitive match this football club plays this season and it is the one I want you fit for. 45 minutes, Achraf, maybe 60, against the club that sold you.

”And if you spend the next 10 days doing nothing at all, you will get them.”

”And if I do not?”

”Then Joel Ward plays right back in Tallinn and you sit next to me in a coat,” I said, ”and I will not enjoy it and neither will you, and in November you will pull something and we will have this conversation again with 6 weeks on the end of it.”

Bzzz. That fan.

He looked at Rebecca. Rebecca did not look up from that tablet, and not looking up is Rebecca agreeing with somebody.

He did not say yes and he did not say thank you.

He stood there working it out. He had not decided whether he had won or lost by the time he went off down that corridor, and I am not sure he has decided since.

Clk.

Rebecca waited about 4 seconds after that door went.

”You have just promised a 19-year-old 45 minutes against Real Madrid.”

”I have promised a 19-year-old 45 minutes against Real Madrid if he does nothing for 10 days.”

”He will do nothing for 10 days,” Rebecca said. ”He would do nothing for 10 weeks for that.”

He was on a bike at 7 the next morning with a towel over his head, and I went past that glass door and did not stop, and he did not look up.

Which left me the other one.

Saturday, 10 past 9, and I did not have a meeting with either of them.

I put them both on the same pitch, in the same team, and moved Aaron inside.

He had the bib out of my hand before I opened my mouth.

”Where am I?”

”Right side of a 2. Next to Ibrahima.”

He stood there for about a second and a half.

”Since when.”

”Since about half 6 this morning.”

”Is this for City or is this for him?”

He nodded at the far pitch without turning his head. That is about 19 questions in 1 and he knew it when he asked it.

”Both.”

”Right.” He pulled the bib on. ”Then tell Ibrahima to stop stepping. He steps when I go and he does not know he is doing it, and I am not shouting at him for 45 minutes in front of everybody.”

That is a 20-year-old telling me how to coach a 19-year-old, and he was correct, and I did not tell him he was correct.

Prrrrp.

He hated the first 10 minutes.

He got dragged out of position twice by Alexandre Pato, who does that to people for fun.

”AARON. AARON, NO.”

And he shouted at Ibrahima Konaté once, and it was not fair, and Konaté took it and said nothing.

Then, at about 14 minutes, this.

Andros Townsend picked it up 40 yards out and came straight down the middle at him. You do that to a full back playing centre-half in his first hour. Everybody does.

Aaron did not go.

Everything in a right back tells you to go. He held his ground and walked backwards for 4 yards, and let Townsend come all the way onto him, and then took it off his standing foot with the outside of his own boot without making contact with the man at all.

Tk.

Townsend went past him without the ball and did not know it for another 2 strides.

”OHHHH.”

30 men on a training pitch in Pennsylvania making the noise you make at a snooker hall.

And then Aaron Wan-Bissaka put his head up and ran 40 yards through the middle of a football pitch.

He has never done that in his life. At right back there is a touchline in the way. In the middle there is nothing at all.

He gave it to Nya Kirby on the edge of the box and stood there with his hands on his head like a man who had surprised himself.

”AGAIN!” Sarah, from 40 yards, before anybody could enjoy it. ”From the goalkeeper. Again.”

[AARON WAN-BISSAKA. TACKLING 18. POSITIONING 16. CONCENTRATION 14.]

Positioning 16 is the number I want. Concentration 14 is why he is not doing it against Manchester City in 8 days.

Joel Ward played right back and did it the way Joel Ward does everything. Properly, and without anybody noticing.

And Achraf Hakimi stood behind the goal for the whole 45 minutes with a bib on that he was not going to need, watching a man play the position he was signed for.

Prrrrp. Prrrrp.

At the end of it Aaron came off and stood next to me and drank about a litre of water before he said anything.

Glug.

”Chilly has to come inside more.”

”Go on.”

”If I am in there and Joel is up the line, there is a hole behind Chilly every time we lose it, and Ibrahima cannot cover it and me.” He drank about half of it. ”You need Pierre dropping into the left of the 2, not the middle.”

I have got a whiteboard upstairs with that on it in green pen and I have had it there since Thursday.

”You have been thinking about this.”

”I have been playing right back for 3 years watching people not do it,” Aaron said. ”It is easier in there. You can see everything.”

”I am still a right back,” Aaron Wan-Bissaka said, and went in.

Steve Parish rang at 3 in the afternoon. 8 at night in Croydon, and he started talking before I had said hello.

”The shirt has sold 41,000.”

”In a week?”

”In 6 days, and it does not go on general sale in America until Monday, and Adidas have rung me twice about a second production run.” A door went. ”Danny, last season we sold 19,000 shirts in a whole year.”

”Right.”

”You do not care.”

”I care about it on the 5th of August when 41,000 of them are at Wembley.”

”And that,” Steve said, ”is why I signed off your academy money. Which brings me to your academy money.”

”Go on.”

”You have got the money. All of it, the scouts, the psychologist, the block, the Bouknadel doubling.” Paper. ”1 condition.”

”Steve.”

”Do not Steve me, it is a good condition. I want a name on it.”

”Whose?”

”Yours,” he said. ”Not a stand. Not a sign. A programme, and I want your name at the top of the paperwork, because in 3 years when somebody offers you 15 million a year I want a 19-year-old in that building who knows exactly who paid for his bed.”

Rrrmmm. A coach reversing 20 yards away with a man behind it shouting in American.

I stood in that car park in 32 degrees.

”That is cynical.”

”It is extremely cynical and I am not embarrassed about it.”

”Do it,” I said.

Marcus found me at half 5 with a laptop and no can. He only puts the can down for 2 reasons and neither of them is good.

”Bayern.”

”Go on.”

”Right. The good news first, and you are not going to think it is good news.” He turned it round. ”Neuer is not here. Müller is not here. Hummels, Boateng, Süle, Kimmich, Goretzka, none of them.

”They all went out of a World Cup in the group stage on the 27th of June, and Bayern gave them 4 weeks, and they went back into training in Munich on Wednesday with a man called Peter Hermann while this lot flew to America.”

”And Lewandowski?”

”Munich. Same as the rest.”

I looked at that screen for a while.

”So who is here?”

”Sven Ulreich. Rafinha. Javi Martínez. David Alaba. Thiago. Arturo Vidal. Renato Sanches. Arjen Robben. Franck Ribéry. Kingsley Coman. Sandro Wagner.” Marcus scrolled. ”And Serge Gnabry.”

”And?”

”And they have watched Wednesday.” Marcus scrolled. ”Their analyst has requested the Benfica full match feed from the tournament. Which is fine, everybody does it, except they requested it at 8 o’clock on Thursday morning. 6 hours after the final whistle.”

”So they have had it since 6 hours after the whistle.”

”They have had it since 6 hours after the whistle, and Kovač has had 3 days with it, and I would bet you a month’s wages he has watched Højbjerg fill for Neves about 40 times.”

”Marcus.”

”I know.”

”Say it out loud so I have heard somebody else say it.”

”Serge Gnabry played 41 matches for you last season,” Marcus Reid said, ”and he knows every single thing this football club does, and he has had 6 weeks to tell Niko Kovač all of it.”

Marcus shut the laptop.

”Boss, they are not coming here to be in a friendly.”

Bzz. Bzz.

There is 1 more thing on Sunday and Nathan rang me about it twice.

40 minutes before kick off, on the pitch, in front of whatever New Jersey turns up, Crystal Palace are going to walk a 19-year-old out to the middle in a shirt with 2 on the back of it and hand him a microphone he does not want.

He has not kicked a ball for us. He is not on the team sheet. He is not going to be on a team sheet until the 15th of August in a stadium in Estonia.

And there will be 30,000 people in that ground, and about 4,000 of them will have driven there for him, because a fortnight ago he was the best player at a World Cup and this is the first time anybody outside a hotel has been able to see him in these colours.

”Does he know?” Nathan said.

”He knows.”

”Is he all right about it?”

”He is 19 and he is not playing,” I said. ”He is going to walk out there and wave at 30,000 people and then sit in a stand in a suit and watch Arjen Robben do it instead. No, Nathan. He is not all right about it.”

”So do I tell them to drop it?”

”No. He said yes on Thursday and he has not tried to get out of it since, and he is 19, and he could have.”

I did tell him, in the end. Sunday morning, 4 sentences, in a corridor again.

He listened to all 4 of them with his boots in his hand.

Clk. Clk.

Then he asked 1 question.

”Do I wave?”

”Yes.”

”With 1 hand or 2?”

”Achraf.”

”I am asking a serious question, coach. In Rabat it was 2 and my father says in England 2 is showing off.”

I looked at that boy for a second.

”Wave with 2,” I said. ”You are not in England. You are in New Jersey and they have paid 60 dollars.”

He waved with 2.

That was 8 hours before anybody kicked anything.

***

Thank you to Sir nameyelus and Kostas_Gounakis for the support.