Glory Of The Football Manager System

[Beckenham. Thursday 9 August 2018.]

Achraf Hakimi came back on Wednesday morning and 3 people noticed.

He walked into that building at 8 o’clock with a bag on his shoulder and a tan and 10 days of doing nothing behind him.

A Croatian was on the front of every newspaper on the reception table, and a television burned yellow above it with a countdown clock in the corner. The window was shutting in 33 hours, and the best young full back in Europe stood in a corridor for about 40 seconds waiting for somebody to tell him where to go.

Rebecca got to him first because Rebecca always gets to him first.

I got him at 20 past 8.

”Gaffer.”

”Achraf.”

”I have done nothing for 10 days.”

”I know. I told you to.”

”I have done nothing for 10 days and I have watched 4 matches on a television and my brother has asked me 60 times why I am at home.” He put the bag down. ”I want to know if the 15th is still the 15th.”

”The 15th is still the 15th.”

”45 minutes.”

”45 to 60, and Rebecca decides which, and she will decide it on the morning and not on the Tuesday.” I let that sit. ”Against the club that sold you, in a final, in front of a television audience of about 40 million.”

Achraf Hakimi picked his bag back up.

”Then it was worth 10 days,” he said, and went and found Rebecca himself.

Bzzz.

Thursday started at 5 past 6 with Dougie, because everything starts at 5 past 6 with Dougie.

”Everton have gone to 22.”

I had a coffee halfway to my mouth.

”Say that again.”

”Everton. 22 million pounds, in writing, to Inter, at 11 o’clock last night.” Paper. ”Marco Silva wants a left side, they are still trying to get a centre-half out of Barcelona and a winger off Shakhtar before the clock stops, they have got 32 million of our money in the bank from James Tomkins, and 1 of their people watched Sky on Tuesday night the same as the rest of Europe.”

”And?”

”And Inter said no at half past midnight.”

I put the coffee down.

”Why?”

”Because Ausilio gave me his word on Tuesday afternoon and Piero Ausilio has been sporting director at that club for 12 years and there are about 9 men in this game whose word is worth the telephone call it comes on.” A drawer. ”He is 1 of them. That is the entire reason. There is no clever answer, son.”

”Did they tell Everton that?”

”They told Everton the player had chosen,” Dougie said. ”Which is also true, and it is a nicer sentence, and it is not why.”

Hnnnnn.

The plane landed at Heathrow at 9:52 and he was through a side door and in a car at 10:14.

There were 40 people at the front of that terminal with phones out and Ivan Perišić did not go anywhere near them, because Sarah had put a man on it on Tuesday night at 21 minutes past 9 and the man had booked a different exit.

He came into Beckenham at 10:51 with 1 bag, an agent who said good morning at 10:51 and used about 20 more words before he got back in a car at 3, and a lawyer from Milan in a suit that had been on a plane.

The television in reception was still yellow. A man in a yellow tie was shouting about a goalkeeper in Bilbao going to Chelsea for 71 million pounds, and Jim White had said the word fax twice before 11 in the morning.

I met him in a corridor by the medical room.

He is 6 foot 2. Photographs do not do that. He put a hand out and shook mine and looked at my mouth for about a second and a half and then looked back up at me and started talking about the traffic on the A232.

”Mister Walsh.”

”You are late.”

”I am 9 minutes early.”

”Rebecca has had the room since 9,” I said. ”In this building that is late.”

Clk.

He went in at 11 and the next time I saw him was 3 hours later.

I went and took a session.

Bray had pitch 2 from half 10 and he had 22 men on it doing the thing he had told me about on Tuesday. Christian Benteke starting 2 yards deeper on an out-swinger, and Benteke got it wrong 6 times in 40 minutes and said a word in French at about the 5th one.

”He is going to be late for a fortnight,” Bray said. ”I told you he would be late for a fortnight.”

”He is not late. He is early.”

”He is early because he is thinking about it.” Bray had the sheet rolled up in his fist. ”In 3 weeks he will not be thinking about it and then he will be on time, and I do not have 3 weeks, I have got tomorrow.”

Prrrrp.

”AGAIN. CHRISTIAN. AGAIN.”

Michael Olise did 40 minutes on that pitch and was the best player on it and did not know it. Antoine Semenyo did 40 minutes on the left and was told by Sarah at 11:20 that he might be starting on Saturday, and he said ”okay” and went and did some more crossing.

18 years old. Okay.

Tk. Tk. Tk.

Rebecca came out at 25 past 1, and 20 minutes before that I was in the analysts’ room with Marcus, watching a promoted club sign 5 players in 1 afternoon on a screen with the sound off.

He had 3 windows open and a Fulham shape on the wall that he had built on Monday and had already changed twice since lunch.

”Boss. Left back.”

”Go on.”

”They have signed 12 men this summer and 5 of them today, and we play them in 46 hours.” He did not look round. ”Everybody in England is going to laugh at that on the television tonight. 5 players on deadline day, a promoted club, no coherence, they will not know each other’s names.

”1 of the 5 is going to start against us on Saturday.”

”Which 1?”

”The left back.” He put a face on the wall next to his shape. ”Joe Bryan. Bristol City. 4 year deal. He is 24, he has done 200 matches in that division, and Jokanović has spent the whole window playing a 19-year-old at left back and moving him forward.

”They have not got a left back. They have just bought one. He will be in that team on Saturday and he will have had 1 session.”

”And that helps me how?”

”Because Sessegnon goes forward the second Bryan is behind him, and Sessegnon is the best 18-year-old in England and he has spent a season at left back because they had nobody else.” Marcus turned round. ”You have got Aaron on that side. Give him the winger and let Bryan run past him all afternoon.

”They have bought Ryan Sessegnon a licence to go forward and they bought it 46 hours before we get there.”

I looked at that wall for a while.

”When did you work that out?”

”About 25 minutes ago. It was on Sky before it was on my screen.” He picked the can back up. ”That is the first time that has happened to me in 2 years. I have written the time down.”

Tk. Tk. Tk.

Then Rebecca’s shoes came down that corridor and she did not knock.

”It is not clean.”

Marcus put a can down.

”Say it,” I said.

”The April flag was a right hamstring and there is nothing wrong with the right hamstring. It is fine. It is better than fine, it is a 29-year-old’s hamstring in the top 10 per cent for his age.” She had the printout. ”The left one has got 8 millimetres of old scar tissue in the biceps femoris that nobody has ever written down anywhere, and Inter do not know about it, and I do not think he knows about it.”

”How old?”

”3 years. Maybe 4. It has healed and it has healed badly and he has played 180 matches on it.”

”So what are you telling me?”

”I am telling you what it is and then I am going to tell you what I think, and you are going to let me finish both.” She put the sheet on that table. ”It is not a reason to fail a medical. If I fail him on that I am failing half the wingers in Europe and I would be wrong.

”What it is, is a man who is going to pull that hamstring at some point in the next 3 years, and when he does it will be a bad one, and it will be 8 to 10 weeks and not 3.”

”And if we manage it?”

”If we manage it he plays 45 matches a season instead of 55 and he is worth every pound.” She looked at me. ”And managing it means he does not play Saturday and Tallinn and the Saturday after. It means I get to say no to you about 8 times a year and you do not argue, and 4 of those will be big matches, and 1 of them will be a big match you can see coming from October.”

Marcus had not moved.

”Rebecca,” I said. ”Do you sign it?”

”I sign it. With that written on it, in my handwriting, and Steve reads it before he signs anything and so do you.”

She was already going.

”And Danny. He is going to ask me what I found. He is entitled to ask me what I found and I am going to tell him the truth, and he might get on a plane.”

He did ask.

She told him at 10 to 2 in a room with his agent and a lawyer and nobody from this football club except her.

That is the arrangement. I did not know it was the arrangement until Tuesday.

He was in my office at 2 o’clock on his own.

”She has told you.”

”She has told me.”

”Nobody has ever told me that.”

”Nobody has ever looked,” I said. ”Inter have 2 years of records on you and they are clean and they are honest and nobody scanned the other leg because nothing was wrong with the other leg.”