Harbinger Of Glory

After finishing their respective drinks, they came out of the cafe into the afternoon with white envelopes in hand.

Noah checked his watch before turning to the three of them one last time.

”For the contract situation at the club,” he said while keeping his voice down out of habit.

”Ezra, I’ve already put in a request for a renegotiation on your behalf. They know it’s coming.”

Ezra nodded before Noah turned to Jake.

”Yours was done a few weeks ago, so they won’t be looking to open that conversation again anytime soon. You’re sorted there.”

Then he looked at Leo.

”For you,” he said, ”I’m waiting on them to come to us first.”

”I know you want to stay,” Noah continued. ”And that’s fine. That’s your call, and I respect it. But the moment a club senses that a player wants to stay at all costs, they start treating it like leverage.”

”They’ll lowball the first offer and wait to see if you flinch.”

He looked at Leo directly.

”You might be their player, but I am not, and I am not letting that happen. Should they call you, which I doubt, but won’t put anything past them, don’t respond. I am your first point of contact at least for the next couple of weeks.”

”You’ve played well enough, so now it’s their job to determine how bad they want to keep you. Let them come to us. Let them make the first move. And when they do, we will negotiate like we have options, because we do.”

Leo nodded once as Noah looked at his watch again, then picked up his bag from where he’d set it down on the way out.

”Right,” he said. ”I’ve got somewhere to be.”

He looked at the three of them standing there with their envelopes.

”Read those properly. Both sides.”

He said his goodbyes and then walked off down the street.

The three of them watched him go for a second before Jake broke the silence.

”So what are we eating?”

Ezra shrugged before he slipped his envelope under his arm to fix his headphones, and then he began moving towards the car afterwards.

”You choose,” Leo said, also already walking toward the car and pulling the door open.

Ezra got in the front asJake came around to the driver’s side, got in, started the engine, and pulled away from the curb, heading towards whatever food place he had in mind.

Away from the gloomy weather in Wigan, La Concha was doing what La Concha does in the early summer.

It looked like somewhere that was designed specifically to make you forget that work exists.

And at the moment, two men were enjoying it to the best of their ability.

Dawson was lying back in his chair with his phone to his ear, and the energy he was giving the call was the energy of a man who had already decided how it was going to end before it began.

He looked completely unbothered, with his free hand settling on his stomach like he was deciding what to eat later.

”Whose money are you trying to save?” he said into the phone after listening for a while.

After that, he went silent again.

And then a moment later, he took it from his ear, set it face down on the armrest and lay back properly.

Seated beside him in an identical chair, Nolan turned to face Dawson.

”Who was that?”

”Xavier,” Dawson said.

At that, Nolan exhaled heavily through his mouth.

”What did he want this time?”

Dawson looked at the sky for a moment before answering.

”Same thing he wanted yesterday. He wants me to use my relationship with Leo to get him to come to the table since his agent isn’t behaving like the others.”

”Isn’t that good?” Nolan questioned genuinely because, to him, Xavier was looking at things the wrong way.

Because if it were up to him, he would use Leo as a deterrent of sorts to push the other players away or make them think before they came forward, since the player who had been Wigan’s talisman for the better half of the season wasn’t asking to sit at a table yet.

”And he wants me in the room when it happens. Like having me there is going to make Leo sign something he shouldn’t,” Dawson continued.

Nolan went quiet for a moment before he slid on his sunglasses.

”Just give the kid what he’s worth,” he said.

”That’s what I told him yesterday.”

”And?”

”And he called again today.”

”Hmmm,” Nolan grunted finally as Dawson sat up slightly.

”We’ve got about a week here, but he wants me to use that time to handle matters I shouldn’t be handling.”

They had come to San Sebastián with a purpose beyond the sun.

And that reason was a Real Sociedad B player who they’d been watching from a distance for a year now, and had transitioned well to playing for the main team in the past few months.

Dawson had seen the kid and had thought of how helpful he could be to the team to take them to the next level, even before he became the main coach.

But he had stopped pursuing after he found Leo, and since the player had started playing for the main team at that time, Dawson’s interest had cooled down, but with them heading to the Premier League, their talking points had been upgraded massively.

Dawson, escaping from his reverie, began leaning back into the chair slightly and slipped his sunglasses back on, but halfway through both actions, he paused.

There were three women a little way down the beach, a ball going between them, and two of them were looking in the direction of Dawson and Nolan’s chairs with suggestive smiles.

Dawson turned to Nolan, who had his sunglasses on, so it was hard to tell for others, but for Dawson, the angle and direction he was looking was clear.

Nolan felt the gaze and turned slowly to meet Dawson as the duo looked at each other for a moment.

Then, without a word exchanged, both of them stood up.

Dawson cleared his throat, squared himself up, and called across the beach in Spanish that was much more confident than it was accurate.

”Señoritas, ¿les apetece jugar?” [Ladies can we join you?]

The women looked at each other before breaking out into a fit of laughter, but for Dawson and Nolan, that was the biggest yes one could ever give.