Glory Of The Football Manager System

Dougie Freedman rang at 10 past 6.

”Are you sat down?”

”Go on.”

”I have had 20 minutes with Michael Zorc and 10 with Piero Ausilio, and I went looking for neither of them. They came to me.” A door shut on his end. ”Zorc opened by asking how much of Hakimi we own outright.”

”What did you tell him?”

”All of it, and I said it slowly.” A pause.

”Danny, they had that boy agreed in June. Loan, 2 years, medical booked. He rang them on the 3rd of July and told them he was coming to us instead, and Zorc has spent 8 weeks not understanding it, and he has just found out he has to play him twice.”

”And Ausilio?”

”Ausilio wanted to talk about Perišić, and then about a 20-year-old of theirs, and then he asked me what we are doing in January.”

Dougie let that sit. ”That is the sporting director of Inter Milan asking the sporting director of Crystal Palace what we are doing in January. In 2016 I could not get a League One club to ring me back.”

”Money.”

”15.25 million euros for turning up. 2.7 a win, 900,000 a draw, and a market pool on top that is worth more to an English club than the wins are.”

”1 sentence.”

”2nd in that group and out in the last 16, and this club earns more from it than it earned in the whole of 2016.”

”And if we win it?”

”Then Steve rebuilds a stand and does not borrow to do it.” A pause. ”I am not saying that to you again until December, so do not repeat it.”

James Rodríguez came over while the room was emptying, with his boots in his hand and his bag already on his shoulder.

”You have seen it? The television?”

”I have seen it.”

”The Englishman with the pen is right about Rúben.” He put the boots down on the table. ”So I will tell you what I have been thinking since the ball came out, and then I will go home. San Siro. Brozović goes on Rúben, and Rúben is 21 and he has never had that. He will want to win it on his own and he will lose the ball 3 times in 10 minutes and the crowd will get louder every time.”

”So?”

”So put me next to him.” Rodríguez said it flat, without asking for anything. ”Not instead of him. Next to him. I have been in San Siro 6 times, I have had Brozović, I know where the ball goes when they do that, and when he loses it the second time I will be the one talking to him and not that crowd.”

”You would be playing a holding position.”

”I would be playing 20 yards deeper than I like and running more than I want to, and I am 27, and I will do it in November and I will do it in Milan.” He picked the boots back up. ”And then in December you can put me back where I am useful.”

”I will think about it.”

”Do not think about it too long,” he said. ”He needs to hear it before Monday, not after.”

Achraf Hakimi found me before I had moved.

”Boss. 20 minutes. Please.”

We did 40, and I let him get 15 out before I said anything.

”They will put a number 8 on Rúben and they will not care who scores.” He had both hands going. ”Dortmund is not Madrid. Madrid waits. Dortmund runs at you every time, and if you are 1 pass slow it is 3 against 2 and it is finished, and their crowd...” He blew his cheeks out. ”Their crowd is not like here.”

Thierry Henry had said the first half of that on a television 40 minutes earlier and Hakimi had not seen it.

”You know their staff.”

He stopped with his hands still up.

”Somebody told you.”

”An hour ago.”

”They had everything ready,” Hakimi said. ”The number, the flat, a school for my sister. Zorc was good to me. He was very good to me and he did not lie to me 1 time.” He put his bag on the table.

”And in June you rang me and you did not talk about the flat. You said, come and be the best right back in the world at a club that has never done anything, because at Dortmund you are the 14th good player they have had.”

”I said something like that.”

”You said exactly that.” He picked the bag back up. ”I have to shake his hand in a tunnel now, and I want you to know that I chose this. Nobody can say I fell here.”

He stopped in the doorway and looked back at the group table on the screen.

”Boss.”

”Go on.”

”Group B.” He pointed at it with 2 fingers. ”Real Madrid is group G.”

”They are.”

”Good,” he said, and went home.

Emma went off air at 4:58 and came back on at 5:26, and somebody at that station made that call for her. It will happen 12 more times before Christmas. Marcus told me on the Friday. I have not mentioned it to her.

The room emptied at 25 past 6, because Rebecca had a curfew on a whiteboard. Ellis Cartwright went out last with a bag on his shoulder and 4 lads shouting at him across the car park.

This club released him on the 6th of June and re-signed him on the 23rd of July.

Sarah was in the doorway with her coat on and the television still going behind me.

”1 thing, and then I am gone. A list, midnight Monday, 25 names. Under 21s go on the B list and do not count against it.”

”Then there is nothing to talk about. Cartwright is 18, Olise is 16.”

”I have read the whole rule.”

”Go on.”

”Born on or after the 1st of January 1997, and registered here without a break for 2 years since the player’s 15th birthday.” She was not reading it off anything. She has not needed to read anything off anything since 2015. ”Olise turned 15 in December 2016. That is 20 months.”

”Fine. Cartwright has been here since he was 9.”

”Cartwright was not registered to this football club between the 6th of June and the 23rd of July.”

I did not say anything.

”47 days,” Sarah said. ”It has to be unbroken. We broke it ourselves, and he is not eligible for the B list until July 2020.”

”So he takes an A list place.”

”If you want him at San Siro, yes. And 25 is 25.”

”Put him on it.”

She had the pen out before I finished the word.

”Then I want a name by Sunday night.” She wrote EC and put a box round it. ”And both of the 2 you are thinking of won a Europa League in May.”

She was halfway down the corridor when Nathan came the other way with a letter and did not wait to be asked.

”Boss. FIFA. The Best, Royal Festival Hall, 24th of September. They want the club there and they have sent 4 seats.”

”That is 6 days after Dortmund.”

”Yeah.” He turned it round so I could see it. ”And the finalists go out Monday. Achraf is on the 10 man list for the player, there is 3 places on it, and Modrić is not on it this year. Croatia went out in a quarter-final in Nizhny Novgorod.”

”Who has got the other 3 seats?”

”Steve. Achraf.”

”And?”

Nathan looked at the letter instead of at me, and went to find Marcus.

On the wall behind him David Jones was winding the programme up, with the 4 badges back on the screen.

”Last word, 1 sentence each. Jamie.”

”They win the group and they enjoy it more than they think.”

”Gary.”

”They win the group, and by March everybody will have stopped calling them a surprise.”

”Thierry.”

”I want to watch them in Dortmund. That is my sentence.”

”Roy.”

”Monday,” Roy Keane said. ”Watch what he does on Monday.”

Sarah had stopped in the corridor and come back to the door with her keys in her hand.

”Boss. Can I ask you something?”

”Go on.”

”If that boy is worth a Europa League winner’s place at San Siro, why did we let him go in the summer?”

In 3 years she has asked me 4 questions I could not answer.

That is 5.