Glory Of The Football Manager System

18 minutes. Ben Chilwell overlapped Zaha on the outside and put one across the 6 yard box and Christian Benteke got in front of Stones and could not get his head over it.

Aaah.

21 minutes. Rúben Neves from 25 yards, and it was going in, and Claudio Bravo got a hand on it and turned it round the post.

OOOOOH.

84,617 people stood up for the corner and Bray was off that bench before the ball had gone out.

He does set pieces at this football club. He has done set pieces at 4 clubs and he has a laminated card in his back pocket with 9 routines on it and every man in that squad knows all 9 by a number.

”FOUR. FOUR!” Both arms above his head at Rúben Neves, 60 yards away.

4 is the one where Christian Benteke goes to the near post and takes 2 men with him and does not attack the ball at all.

Neves put it on the penalty spot.

23 minutes. Benteke went near and took John Stones and Aymeric Laporte with him, both of them, because you cannot not go with Christian Benteke, and James Tarkowski came in behind the pair of them from 12 yards out with nobody on his shoulder at all.

He got over it and put it down.

Thump.

And Claudio Bravo, who has had a difficult 2 years at that football club and knows exactly what a difficult 2 years does to a goalkeeper, went down on his line and got both hands on it 4 inches off the grass.

Prrp. Free kick out. Bray put both hands on top of his own head and turned round.

”Number 4,” he said, to nobody, on his way back to the bench. ”That is the 3rd time that has worked this year and the 3rd time it has not gone in.”

25 minutes. Kyle Walker put Wilfried Zaha on the floor 30 yards out and Jon Moss went into his pocket.

RRRRAAAA.

Yellow card, 25 minutes, England’s right back, in a Community Shield.

He got up and said something to Walker and Walker said something back and neither of them meant a word of it.

And 27 minutes was Nick Pope.

Sané, 1 v 1 with Chilwell, and Chilwell showed him inside for the first time all afternoon, and Sané hit it early across goal from 18 yards.

Thwack.

Pope got down and got a strong hand under it and put it out for a corner instead of parrying it back into the middle.

That is the difference between a good goalkeeper and the England number 1. There are 3 men in this country who make that save and 2 of them were born somewhere else.

He got up and pointed at Aaron and shouted something about the near post.

And Bray was already down that touchline before the corner was taken.

”NICK. NEAR POST. NEAR POST.”

Nick Pope put a hand up.

”What is it?” I said, when Bray came back.

”They have had 3 corners and all 3 have gone near.” He had the laminated card out. ”Same delivery, same runner, and the runner is Stones and he is coming from outside the 6 yard box every time.

”Danny, they are going to score off a corner today if we let them take a 4th one like that.”

”So what do you want?”

”Ibrahima on the near post instead of Tarky, and I want it now, not at half time.”

”You cannot have it now. Tell Tarky.”

”I have told Tarky,” Bray said. ”I told him at the 2nd one.”

Prrrrp.

The drinks break came at 29 minutes and Jon Moss gave us 90 seconds, and Rebecca had 30 of them before I got a word.

That is not a courtesy. That is the arrangement, and it has been the arrangement since October, and the 1 time I tried to take those 30 seconds off her she stood in my office afterwards and offered to resign.

”Drink it. All of it. Do not sip it.”

”Rebecca.”

”Wilf. That is not empty.”

Wilfried Zaha drank the rest of it.

Then she turned round and gave me the numbers, and she gives them to me in the same order every time.

”29 degrees on the grass. It was 27 in the shade at 2 o’clock and that pitch has been watered twice and it is throwing it all back up at them.

”Christian is at 4.1 kilometres. That is a full match for a 9 and we are 29 minutes in, and he is doing it at walking pace because he is marking a man, and marking a man in this heat costs more than running does.

”He will go at 65. Not 70. 65.”

”Rebecca, I need him for 90.”

”You need him for 65 and then you need somebody else.” She did not blink. ”And James McArthur is at 4.4 and you have just asked him to do 2 jobs, and I am telling you that now so that you cannot tell me later that nobody told you.”

”Anybody else?”

”Everybody else is fine and Aaron is the fittest man on that pitch by 400 metres.” She stepped back. ”You have got 40 seconds. Go.”

And here is what I did with them.

”Right. Heads up. All of you.”

11 men in a circle in 29 degrees with their shirts stuck to them and a goal down.

”We have had 4 shots. They have had 2. They have got 1 goal and it came off a decision I gave to a 20-year-old that I should have made myself in an office on Thursday.

”So I am taking it back and I am making it now.

”Aaron.”

”Gaffer.”

”You do not go inside with him. Not once, not all afternoon, whatever he does.”

He did not answer straight away.

”He is going to get it every time.”

”He is going to get it every time and it is not your problem any more,” I said. ”You have got Mendy and that touchline and nothing else exists. If Foden walks past you into the middle you let him walk.”

”And who has him in there?”

”Rúben.”

Rúben Neves looked up from a bottle.

”Christian. Fernandinho. Nothing changes.”

”Nothing changes,” Benteke said.

”Pierre. You have got Bernardo Silva.”

Pierre-Emile Højbjerg had a bottle upside down over his face.

”Where?”

”Wherever he stands. If he goes and stands next to their goalkeeper, you go and stand next to their goalkeeper.”

”Then who is in front of the back 4?”

”James is.”

James McArthur, 30 years old, 250 appearances for this football club, had not said 1 word since 20 past 1.

”And Foden?”

”You have got Foden as well.”

He looked at me for about a second and a half.

”On my own.”

”On your own, James. For 61 minutes. In 27 degrees.”

Nobody in that huddle said anything.

James McArthur has never had a paragraph written about him in his life. He has never been the reason anybody bought a ticket. He is 30 years old, he is out of contract in 2 seasons, and this is the last summer anybody is going to ask him to do the hardest job on a pitch at Wembley.

”Aye,” he said. ”Right.”

Sarah got in front of me before they had gone 4 yards.

She is my assistant. She has been since the day they made me permanent and she ran an under 18s with me before that, and she does not do this on a touchline in front of 84,617 people unless she has decided it is worth doing in front of 84,617 people.

”That is not enough and you know it is not.”

”Go on.”

”You have just given Rúben Neves 3 jobs and he is 21.” She had the folder open against her forearm. ”Mark Foden in the pocket, hold when Pierre goes, and start our attacks, because he is the only man on that pitch who can play the ball Bowen ran onto.

”You cannot have all 3 of those out of 1 boy for an hour.”

”So what.”

”So put James on Foden and let Rúben play.” She turned the folder round and there was a shape on it in blue pen that she had drawn in the 90 seconds since Marcus showed me a red box. ”James does not need to start anything. James has never started anything in his life. Let him have Foden and let Rúben be Rúben.”

”And who holds when Pierre goes?”

”Nobody holds. Pierre does not go.” Sarah shut the folder. ”You take Pierre’s overlap out of this football match and you keep your 21-year-old.”

I stood there for about 3 seconds with 84,617 people making noise at the back of my head.

”No.”

”Danny.”

”If I take Pierre out of that middle third we do not score. We have had 4 shots in 29 minutes and 3 of them started with Pierre going.” I put my hand on her arm. ”You are right about Rúben and I am doing it anyway, and I want you to write that down.”

”It is already written down,” Sarah said.

That is the sentence. He said it with his hand on my chest and Sarah 4 feet away and Marcus pretending to look at a laptop.

”Yes,” I said.

Bray got 4 seconds at the end of it, and he used them on the only thing he is paid to use them on.

”Corners.”

”Go on.”

”If we get one in the next 10 minutes I am going 6 and not 4.”

”6 is Wilf short.”

”6 is Wilf short and Bravo has come for 2 crosses in 29 minutes and got nowhere near either of them,” Bray said. ”He does not want to come. So let us make him come.”

”Do it.”

They went back out and Sarah sat down and shut that folder for the first time all afternoon.

”You are going to have to say it to me eventually.”

”Say what?”

”That I was right about Rúben.”

”I said it on the touchline 40 seconds ago in front of Marcus.”

”You said I was right. You did not say you were wrong.” She had the folder shut on her knee and she was watching the pitch. ”There is a difference and you have been doing it for 14 months.”

”Sarah, I have got a match on.”

”I know. I am not having it out with you at 1-0 down.” She wrote 1 line in that folder. ”I am telling you it is on a list.”

”How long is the list?”

”Tuesday,” Sarah said.

And then a 30-year-old Scot played 12 minutes on his own in front of a back 4 and I have watched every one of them back.

***

Thank you to Sir nameyelus for the support.