Glory Of The Football Manager System

Behind me somebody moved.

Bounou had got up off the sofa. He did not look at anybody. He put his cup down on the table and walked out of that lounge and up the stairs, and Munir got up about 10 seconds later and went after him without being asked.

Steele, against the back wall, took his arms out of the fold, and I have known that man 2 years and that is what he does instead of talking.

He went out after the pair of them.

”And the goal,” Jones said. ”We have to.”

Tap.

GOAL OF THE TOURNAMENT: EN-NESYRI (MOR) v FRANCE, 71’.

They ran it. The cross from Achraf, too high and behind him on purpose, and a 20-year-old on a torn adductor deciding that the only way he can reach a ball he cannot turn for is to throw himself backwards over his own head.

CRACK. Bar. Down. In.

”He could not turn,” Carragher said, quietly, for him. ”That is the bit that has done me all night. He physically could not turn on that leg. So he did that instead.”

”And he does not get up,” Neville said.

”He does not get up. He is stood on one leg with 19 minutes to go in a World Cup final and he has just scored that, and they have to carry him off.”

Nobody in that studio said anything for a second.

”That is the best goal I have seen at a World Cup,” Carragher said. ”I have thought about it since 10 o’clock last night and I am not changing it.”

Then Neville got up.

He does not get up much. When Neville gets up it is because he has been chewing something over and has decided he is going to be right about it.

”Before I do the football,” he said, ”I want to say a thing about our lot, and then I will let it go for the summer.”

Jones sat back. He knew what was coming. So did I.

”I sat here after the semi-final and I said do not be angry at Danny Walsh, be angry at the men who let it happen. And I have had a fortnight of people telling me I was harsh.”

Tap.

ENGLAND SQUAD, RUSSIA 2018. PLAYERS COACHED BY WALSH: 0.

”There it is again. Nought. He wins a treble with Crystal Palace, and England take not one of his players, and they let Morocco walk in and take the manager for 6 weeks for what I am reliably informed is not a great deal of money.

”And this morning I have read 900 words in an English newspaper wondering whether the FA should be looking at him.”

He turned round.

”Now they are interested. Now he is in a final and half of Africa is on the street for him, now they are interested.”

”Gary, can I just say something about that,” Carragher said.

”I knew you were going to.”

”He took the job. Right? Nobody made him. He was under contract at Palace, he took a 6-week job with another country in the middle of it, and he knocked us out with it.”

Carragher shrugged.

”You cannot have it both ways. You cannot be furious that the FA did not pick his players and also furious that they did not stop him going.”

”I am not furious that they did not stop him,” Neville said. ”I am furious that they did not want him.”

”Same thing.”

”It is not remotely the same thing and you know it is not.” Neville stayed on his feet. ”Nobody at the FA rang that man. Not once. In 13 months. He wins a treble and a European trophy and not one person picks up a telephone.

”And then he goes and does this, and this morning there are 900 words in an English paper about whether he might be available. That is not bad luck, Jamie. That is a governing body that only knows what a thing is worth when somebody else has taken it.”

”And I am saying he made a choice.”

”He made a choice because nobody here offered him one.”

Carragher held his hands up. ”Fine.”

”Are you agreeing with me?”

”I am agreeing with about 70 per cent of you, which is more than you normally get off me.”

He put a hand up.

”That is the last I will say on it. I am going to do the football.”

In the lounge, Bray made a noise through his nose. Hnf.

Neville took the screen off Carragher, pulled the second half up and froze it at 47 minutes with 3 green shirts arriving on Pogba at once.

”Everybody tonight is talking about that comeback like it was emotion. It was not emotion. Look at the shape.”

He drew on it.

”Half time. 0-3. 15 minutes to change a football match against the best counter-attacking team on earth.

”He takes his right-back and turns him into a winger. He presses with 3 men inside 6 seconds. And he leaves the entire left channel open. On purpose.”

Tap.

”He knows Mbappé is stood in it. He knows exactly what happens if it turns over.

”He does it anyway, because a draw is worth nothing to him.”

He put the pen down.

”And the hole he opened to get back into that match is the hole they scored the winner through in the 92nd minute.

”He knew that before he got off the pitch. And you have all just watched him say it out loud.”

”So he was right, then,” Jones said.

”He was right.”

”No,” said Keane.

Neville turned round from the screen. ”Go on then, Roy.”

”The press at 47 minutes was right. The full-back was right. All of that is right and I have said so.” Keane had not moved in his chair. ”The corner in the 91st minute was reckless and it lost them a World Cup.”

”He is 3-3.”

”He is 3-3 in the 92nd minute of a World Cup final having come back from 3 down, against a side that has been running on empty for 20 minutes.” Keane opened one hand. ”You take extra time. You take it every single day of the week and twice on a Sunday.”

”With what legs?”

”With their legs. They have got the momentum, Gary. France are gone. France cannot get out of their own half.”

”France have got Mbappé stood on the halfway line with all the stamina in the world,” Neville said, ”and Morocco have got 10 men on 12 kilometres apiece, and if it goes to extra time that same counter happens in the 104th minute instead of the 92nd, and there is no corner involved in it at all.”

”You do not know that.”

”I know that his physio had 10 of 11 in the red. It has been in every report out of that camp for a fortnight.”

”Then you take your chances at 0-0 in extra time and you go to penalties,” Keane said, ”with the best goalkeeper in the tournament. Which they had. Which they have just used to knock Croatia out.”

That stopped Neville for a second. It stopped me as well, stood in a hotel lounge, and I will be honest and say I have gone round that exact loop more times since than I am going to admit here.

”That is a proper point,” Carragher said.

”Thank you.”

”It is a proper point and he is still wrong,” Neville said. ”Because you are managing that game as if a draw is worth something. It is not. A draw at 3-3 in the 92nd is 30 minutes of a team that cannot stand up, and then a shoot-out.

”He decided he would rather lose it going forward than lose it stood still. And I will defend that to anybody.”

”Fine. Then defend the other bit.” Keane leaned in about an inch, which out of him is a shout. ”He said himself he told the dressing room at half time that this would happen.

”He saw it. He described it. He warned 23 men about it. And then he did it anyway.”

”Yes.”

”So it is not bravery, Gary. It is a man who knew the price and paid it with somebody else’s tournament.”

”It is his tournament.”

”It is their tournament,” Keane said. ”That is the whole argument, and that is why the lad was right to be raging in that dressing room tonight, whatever he says on the television about who is to blame.”