Glory Of The Football Manager System

”Front 3.”

Christian Benteke, 27, scored, and won 9 of 12 in the air, and pointed at a poster in front of 38,000 people because a manager gave a press conference about him.

Jarrod Bowen, 21, scored, and made the run for it before the pass existed.

James Rodríguez, 27, 45 minutes, 2 assists, and did not take a penalty because he was not on the pitch, and that is on me.

Jesús Navas, 32, has 1 year left on his contract and knows it, and played 25 minutes on Wednesday like a man who has read his own calendar.

Alexandre Pato, 28, scored, has been the loudest man in this squad since Tuesday, and is on the best run of form I have had out of him since he walked in.

And then there is the 3rd number 9, who did not get on the pitch.

Clk.

Connor Blake, 19. 0 minutes.

”Do we have to do him?” Bray said.

”We have to do him.”

I know that boy better than anybody in this building. I have known him since he was 16, when Gary Issott sent me an email with 3 names in it and I sat in a flat in Moss Side with a laptop, watching grainy phone footage somebody’s dad had shot from a stand.

Elite finishing. Top percentile for his age group. Instinctive movement in a box.

And a work rate that was abysmal, and a body language when it went against him that I would call toxic if I were being polite about it.

That is what he was at 16, and I wrote it down at the time, and 3 years later he is 3rd choice behind a 27-year-old and a 28-year-old and he did not get a minute in a friendly.

”How was he at the whistle?” I said.

”That is why I did not want to do him.” Bray put his coffee down.

”He was the 2nd man off that bench to Cartwright, boss. Second. And he warmed up 3 times without being asked and did not moan at anybody.

”18 months ago he would have sat there with a face on him and I would have had to have a word.”

Marcus scrolled to something without being asked.

”April, against Watford. 30 minutes, 4 pressing actions.” He turned the laptop. ”Last 4 friendlies before the World Cup. 22, 20, 25 and 18 minutes. 9, 11, 10 and 12 pressing actions.”

”He is doing the work when nobody is watching.”

”He is doing the work when he is not scoring,” Marcus said, ”which at 19 is the harder one.”

Verdict: nothing to do. And that is the point. He is not playing at Wembley and he knows it, and in November when Christian pulls a hamstring he gets 6 weeks of it, and we find out whether he is the best 19-year-old in this country or a lad who was good at 16.

And Wilfried Zaha, 25, sat in Beckenham on 71 per cent condition with Marcus’s watch on him.

”What is he at?”

”84 as of Tuesday. He will be 92 by the 5th.” Marcus tapped it. ”You made the right call and Nathan will forgive you in about a year.”

Verdict: solved for the Shield. Not solved for the season.

63 matches with Zaha, Benteke, Pato, Blake, Rodríguez, Bowen, Townsend and Navas is 8 forwards and 3 of them are centre-forwards, and it is enough, and it is the only department at this football club where the number is enough.

But Navas has a year left and no extension on the table, and if I get to Christmas with Zaha carrying it on his own I have failed at the only part of this job that is actually mine.

And then there is the other list.

Clk.

Marcus put a slide up that was not a formation. It was 8 boxes and 4 of them had names in.

25 places on a Champions League squad list. 8 have to be locally trained. 4 of those 8 have to be trained at this club, 3 years between 15 and 21.

We have got exactly 4. Zaha, Wan-Bissaka, Mitchell, Kirby.

”There is a 5th now,” Bray said.

”There is.”

Ellis Cartwright, 18, on our books from 9 to 18, released on the 6th of June and re-signed on the 23rd of July, took the 5th penalty in a shootout in Pennsylvania in front of 38,712 people 5 days into a professional career.

And Eberechi Eze is club-trained, and Nya Kirby is club-trained, and neither of them is a prospect. They both played senior football for me last season. Eze made 19 appearances and Kirby made 11 and neither of them looked out of place in any of them.

And Michael Olise is club-trained.

Antoine Semenyo is not, and that is the 1 rejection at this football club that was not mine.

So it is 7.

7 club-trained men for 4 compulsory places and 8 locally trained places, in the first European Cup campaign this football club has had in 113 years.

3 weeks ago I stood at a whiteboard in Beckenham and it was the thing that frightened me most, and last night a 16-year-old scored the 4th goal and an 18-year-old scored the 5th penalty.

Verdict: solved. And I did not solve it. Sarah did, with a text message at half 6 in the morning that said bring your eyes.

Clk.

The board went white and Marcus sat down on a table.

”Penalties,” he said.

”I know.”

”Danny, you have got no penalty taker and last night you got away with it because 5 men held their nerve in a friendly.”

”I have got 5 men who held their nerve in front of 38,000 people.”

”In July,” Marcus said, ”with nothing on it, in a competition that gives you a point for losing. That is not the 89th minute at the Etihad.”

He is right and I hate it.

James Rodríguez has never taken one for me. Christian Benteke wants to and is not the best in the building at it, and Jack Grealish told me that in my own office in 20 seconds and was correct.

And on the 5th of August, if it goes to a shootout at Wembley against Manchester City, I have got 90 seconds to name 5 out of whoever is stood on that grass.

Which is exactly how it happened last night, and last night it worked, and that is the most dangerous sentence in football management.

Verdict: not solved. And I am going to solve it on a training pitch this week and not in a stadium in August.

At 8 o’clock I put it up on the wall the way I do it every summer, because Bray likes a list and because I have never once been able to think without one.

SOLVED. Goalkeepers. Midfield. Club-trained.

16 DAYS. A centre-half. A penalty taker. And which of Wan-Bissaka and Hakimi plays.

THE SEASON. Navas out of contract. Kovačić back in October. 2 right backs who both want the shirt. And 3 number 9s for 1 shirt.

3 lines. That is the whole of it, and 2 of those lines have to be finished before 5 o’clock on the 9th of August.

”That is a short list,” Rebecca said, from the back.

”It is a short list.”

”Danny, last July that list had 9 things on it.”

”Last July we were 14th.”

”Yes,” Rebecca said. ”So do not stand there looking like a man who has been robbed.”

Bayern Munich on Sunday.

Niko Kovač took that job 6 weeks ago and he has a squad who lost a World Cup semi-final and a country that has not stopped shouting at them since the 27th of June. Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller, Joshua Kimmich, Robert Lewandowski, and a set of Germans in a foul mood in a stadium in New Jersey.

They will not be pretending it is July.

Then home on Tuesday. Then 4 days. Then Wembley, Manchester City, and a trophy this football club has won once in 113 years and that was 1990 and it was shared.

Marcus shut the laptops at 20 past 8.

”Boss.”

”Go to bed, Marcus.”

”There is a 4th thing on that list and you have not put it up.”

I looked at him.

”Say it, then.”

”The 18-year-old in the Benfica shirt,” Marcus Reid said. ”I have had the release clause since 20 past 10 last night, and I have had the agent’s name since 4 this morning, and Dougie has been awake for an hour.”