Villains of Birmingham

[madog308]

I was by no means an expert in technology but I had seen enough spy films to know what the little disk of green, which had been ejected from the phone when I smashed it, was. The detectives found another two around my office, one under my desk and another on the table behind me.

I had gone from manic depressed to extremely happy and relived, I was still shaken from just the though that I was so close to losing this club, and the things that I held so close in my heart.

I was so tired, unbelievably so with the match, and the police and everything I was mentally drained and I could feel myself falling asleep where I stood. I asked the detective is I was alright to go home, he said yes and I walked down to get in my car. Because it was nearly midnight there was no one outside the ground and I was pleased to get some peace and quite and just stand in the coolness of the black night.

I know that I would have to be up early and on the ball tomorrow morning so when I got in I set my alarm for 8.am and decided to sleep on the sofa so as to not wake Zoe. As soon as I put my head on the pillow I fell asleep and in what felt like 5 seconds I was woken by my alarm.

I woke up groggy, and for a few seconds I forgot what had happened before it all came rushing back. I turned on the TV, put it on mute and went to get some breakfast. Sky sports were running though all the biggest transfers that had taken place, and over my bowl of coco-pops I watched the names and numbers pop up on the screen

The most important of which were:

Arsenal-

OUT

Mathieu Flamini-1.1mill(Derby)

Henri Lansbury- 2.7mill (Rangers)

Bakary Sagna- 16.25mill (A.C. Milan)

IN

Christian Pander –Free

Ricardo Quaresma- 31mill

Jack Hobbs- 1.1mill

Aston Villa

OUT

Gary Cahill -7.5mill (Everton)

Gabriel Agbonlahor- 2.6mill(West Ham)

IN

Cutis Davies-10mill

Joao Carlos- 1.2mill

Arturo Lupoli -7.5mill

Yoann Gouffran- 10.mill

Blaise Matuidi- 15.5mill

Fabricio Coloccini-10.25

Rafael Van Der Vaart- 11.5mill

Bolton

OUT

Chris Gunter-1.2mill(Blackburn)

Joey O’Brian-P/ex

IN

Pablo Redondo -free

Kevin Doyle-P/ex

Christian Wilhelmsson-2.1mill

Liam Rosenior- 4.6mill

Miguel Pallardo-3.4mill

Joleon Lescott- 6.75mill

Cheslea-NONE

Liverpool-NONE

Man City

OUT

Vederan Corluka-19.25mill (A.C. Milan

Elano -14.75mill (A.C. Milan

IN

Steve Sidwell- 1.1mill

Andy Carroll- 11.5mill

Duda-1.6mill

Andre-Pierre Gignac- 11.5mill

Man Utd

OUT

Anderson -18.75(Roma)

Danny Simpson-2.6mill(Tottenham)

Gerrard Pique- 12mill(A.C. Milan

IN

Rafael-1.2mill

Fabio-1.2mill

Kim Kallstrom-12.25mill

Angelo Palombo- 26.mill

Matais Fernandez -21.5mill

Newcastle

OUT

Charles N’Zogbia- 11.75mill(Fiore

Andy Carroll-11.5mill(Man City)

Derek Boateng- 5mill(Everton)

IN

Steven Reid- 5.5mill

Matt Derbyshire- 2.6mill

Pascal Feinduono- 4.8mill

Alou Diarra- 8.75mill

Scott Sinclair- 14.75mill

Pape Diakhate- 10.25mill

I knew it was going to be a busy day but I wasn’t prepared for the shear amount of stuff that was packed in. I already had a press conference booked; we had booked it months ago, to coincide with the drawing of the Champions League balls. However it would now have to double as a press conference about Lacy Jordinson and the past 24 hours. However my first port of call was a meeting with Randy Lerner. I got in my car and drove quietly into the club. A small crowd of reporters were waiting at the entrance to the car park, and their camera flashes welcomed me back to Aston Villa.

It wasn’t long before I was sat in Randy’s office, facing my employer.

‘The police have told me everything’ he said sternly

‘Right’ I replied

‘I want you to know that the club is going to press charges, phone tapping and bugging can lead to prison, blackmailing is also on the list of charges brought against Lacy and her friend’

‘Right’ I said again.

‘The police searched Lacy’s house during the night and they found a hard drive with all the phone recordings from your office. I must say if it wasn’t for her camera man doing a deal with the police we might not have got any evidence’

‘So what happens next’ I said looking up at Randy

‘Well they will go to court, we’ll appoint a lawyer on your behalf, and he will deal with it all if you want, or you can attend the court hearings, although I wouldn’t advice it’.

‘Very well, what about the press?’

‘Yes, you will have to talk to them today, I can come and talk with you, but I feel it would be better if it was you’ he replied in a friendly tone.

‘Yup, ok, what time is the draw?’ I said.

‘We’ve timed it so the press conference will start just as the draw finishes, I’m going to set up a screen in the conference room so anyone who wants to can watch it, and you’re very welcome to join me.’

‘Thank you, that’s a nice offer and I will take it up’ I said looking straight at him.

‘Very well, I’ll see you after lunch then.’ He said standing up and walking round to open the door.

‘I just wish you could have come to me about all this’ he said as I walked out the door.

[Scalamunger]

Huzzah!! Go Alex!

[madog308]

Sorry for the long delay but i have been up to my eyeballs in work. mad

I had a couple of hours to kill before the draw, and because the players were away I could concentrate on preparing for our next game, which was against Bolton, in two weeks time. I was looking at the team sheets and formations, when suddenly I realised something was out of place.

Lloris had been called up for the international fixtures and he would be away for the next fixture. This was a problem, because I had no back up keeper. Joao Carlos I had sent away on loan, and was not able to recall him, this meant that I had to call on reserve keeper Stuart Taylor. Although he was no Lloris he was a adequate keeper, but we would have to defender better than we had done recently if we wanted to beat a dangerous Bolton side.

It was nice not to worry, it was like a weight had been taken off my shoulders, I could relax and concentrate on what I loved doing. The time ticked away and I had lunch, and then when into the conference room to see the Champions League draw. In our first ever season in the tournament I of course wanted to see how my team would fair against the big guns, but an easy group is always nice. We were seeding in the first round so that meant we would miss most of the big guns, but we were not out of the woods by any means. Ball after ball came out of the bag and after a tense hour or so we had our group.

Real Madrid

Aston Villa

Panathinaikos

Benfica

It was not the easiest of groups but my entail reaction was one of great anticipation, I felt and expected that would make it past the first round. We would probably not beat Madrid, but we should win our games against Benfica and Panathinaikos, and progress in the second spot. I could only hope that we would play as well in the Champions League as we do in the PL. With the draw over it was time to take the press conference.

I walked down into the press room and it was crammed fit to bust with reporters, many of who I had never seen before.

I sat down took a deep breath and threw myself to the wolves, I had asked the press officer to come and help keep control, it was he that chose who should ask the questions.

However he first read out a small statement outlining what had happened and that we would be taking no questions over the issue and that all questions must be football related.

The first question came from a reporter for the evening standard.

‘What do you think of the Champions league draw?’

‘I think its good, I think we’ve got a tough team, but I’m looking to progress, and I cant wait to play Real Madrid, but I don’t think getting through to the next round should be just a dream for us, I believe we can do it’

A geeky looking guy at the front was next.

‘Villianfans.net. You’ve been playing well in the first games this season, do you think you can keep it up against Fulham?’

‘I believe we can, were losing players to international fixtures, but Zarate is back from injury and we can shuffle players around. Fulham are a good side, but I believe we can beat them.’

The BBC reporter was next.

‘Do you think the off field goings on will effect your players?’

‘Not at all, they weren’t aware and I will talk to them and explain all. All they have to do is concentrate on is playing football, which is what they do best.’

The sky reporter changed tack.

‘With the transfer window closed, what do you think of the signings that have been done’

‘I think like everyone else, I think the transfer window one of the most exiting times in the football calendar, and I enjoying seeing who has gone where. I think some people have overpaid, and I think some people have got great bargains. But at the end of the day I have to look at my squad and find players that will benefit the squad, which I think I have done, and I’m very happy with the new players’

‘The sun. The average of your squad is only 23, do you think you can still perform at the highest level with such a young squad?’

‘Yes my squad is young, but they can perform at the highest level, and they will only get better with time, and in a couple of years this team will be the best in the world. If they are already competing with the best the premier league can offer, imagine what they can do in several years time.’

‘The daily mail. Your next game is against Bolton is in a couple of days, what are your thoughts going into the game?’

‘I’m looking forward to it, they are a good team, there attacking options are particularly strong and we will have to watch them closely. We were close in both games we played last season and I predict the same again.’

With the worry of Lacy off my mind I could concentrate on playing football again.

I answered a couple more questions before I had enough and called it a day, and left it to the press officer to answer any other questions.

I had a couple of days to prepare the lads, but more importantly myself mentally for the next match.

It was the 13th of September and we were hosting Sammy Lee’s Bolton at home. I had more trouble with international duty; Lupoli, Lloris, and Matuidi were all away. This meant I had to make some chances to the squad.

GK- Stuart Taylor- my reserve keeper, he was good but we would need to defend well.

DR- Coloccini

DC- Breno

DC- Laursen

DL- Guilherme

MR- Young

MC- Van Der Vaart

MC- Reo-Coker

ML- Barry

ST- Zarate

ST- Carew

Subs:

Kewell

Maloney

Petrov

Moore

Knight

Bolton sent out a strong as normal with Anelka and Diouf leading the attack. I don’t weather the off field events had effected the lads, but Bolton, right from the first whistle were all over us. To say that they came out of the blocks fast was an understatement, they flew.

They were all over us and Stuart Taylor was pushed into making saves within the first 10 minutes. That was exactly what I didn’t want, although he was six years older than Lloris, he didn’t have much first team experience. I could only hope that he would stay calm and play well. For the first thirty minutes Bolton had all the possession, however they couldn’t do anything with it, my defence had come to the aid of Stuart and they were blocking every attack. Bolton just couldn’t break us down, however I was worried that one of the attacks would eventually go through.

Thirty minutes in and Bolton had still not scored, and they had slowed their pace accordingly. Bolton attacking again, and again my defence nicked the ball away, however instead of lobbing the ball up field Breno passed to Barry. He in turn passed to Carew who was standing further up the field in a ML position. Carew turned, took two touches and then lobbed a ball for Zarate to chase. Zarate was sprinting with the Bolton back two, trying to anticipate where the ball would land. The Bolton, goalkeeper Jaaskelainen started to run out. The ball was dropping fast out of the sky but it looked like Zarate had the legs on the Bolton defence, and it was clear he was going to get to it first. Now could he deal with the onrushing goalkeeper? He could!!. He hit a first time volley straight along the floor, and straight past Jaaskelainen. He it the ball first time. Amazing. The ball had dropped from a mile in the sky. Amazing. Zarate had hit it from thirty yards out and still managed to find the net. Amazing. It was an amazing goal, truly amazing. I turned to Claudio in disbelief. He said four words to me. ‘That kid has talent’. Damn right he did.

1-0

We had scored against the run of play, but who cared, we were in front at home.

With only fifteen minutes left of the half, Bolton could not find a come back and we went in at the interval still ahead.

‘Well, what a brilliant goal, however we still have lots of work to do. Up until that goal, we have been playing poorly. I want you all to clear your minds and focus on the game. Bolton are dangerous, and although we have kept them at bay most of the time, they are knocking on the door and its only a matter of time before they get through. Make them work it more in midfield, lets turn this into a midfield battle instead of a defence against attack. Keep looking for the counter, because we break fast and there defence is slow. Keep going, lets look for the second goal.’

The second half started, and Bolton, it was clear, were still going hammer and tongs to get back into the game. A couple of minutes after the restart they won a corner. Nolan took it. It was a mad scramble before finally the ball was poked in our net. GODDAMMIT I said. However I was cut short by the refs whistle, he had seen some pushing by the Bolton team and the goal was ruled out. We had dogged a bullet, but how many more could we get away with.

Bolton raked up the pressure. Annoyed by their goal being disallowed they turned it on. Less than ten minutes later, Anelka was played in my Diouf with a cute ball through pass. Anelka had no trouble slotting it past Taylor. However again the ref denied him, this time for being offside. Bolton were enraged, however they only made it worse for themselves. Andranik, furious with the decision ran straight up to the referee and was giving him a piece of his mind, forgetting that he was already on a yellow card. The ref took less than a second to show him a second yellow and send him from the field.

Bolton felt very aggrieved and had good reason to feel so, two goals had been disallowed and now one of their players had been sent off.

My squad, it was nice to see, stayed calm and collect and made the extra man count. Just after the hour mark we won a corner. Young stepped up to hit a in swinger. Knight who was standing at the near post, rose highest and flicked the ball past the goalkeeper and into the net.

2-0

We were now two up, again against the run of play, but goals were the thing that mattered not how much possession you had.

A few minutes later I brought Moore and Maloney on for Zarate and Carew. The change had a big impact. Both players were fast and they created havoc with the already tired Bolton defence. Right after the substitutions Bolton again made a big mistake. Lubomir Michalik, deliberately pushed over Van Der Vaart, on the edge of the box. He didn’t even have the ball, luckily one of the assistant ref’s saw it and called Mike Dean over. It took a couple of seconds to pass the message but Dean soon turned and gave Michalik a straight red. Now Bolton were down to 9 men and had no chance of coming back. The game was now in the bag.

With 15 minutes to go, I brought on Gouffran for Young, so Young could get a little bit more rest.

In the 90th minute we put the already won game beyond all doubt. Barry had made a mazy run into the box, however he was forced wide, and right up the by-line. He stopped looked up and couldn’t find a cross so he ran back up field away from the goal. Again he looked up but this time he saw VDV standing on the edge of the box. Barry laid VDV up and he took a first time shot. It deflected off a Bolton body and into the net. The game was won in emphatic style.

Aston Villa 3 – 0 Bolton

Zarate(31), Knight (67), Van Der Vaart(90)

Attendance- 39567

MOM- Knight

[salkster2102]

A nice little story arc you put in here. Good work.

[OHH TO BE A GOONER]

:thup:Good win against the trotters mate

[Scalamunger]

Come on Van de Vaart, need to earn your price tag!

[madog308]

scalamunger, thanks for your comment, VDV has alot to live up to, but he is also extremly talented

Ohh to be, Thanks for your comment, and welcome to the forums

Salkster. a compliment from one of the big guns :O . Thank you very much, it means alot.

It was a good win and I was delighted but my mind had already turned towards out next game and a significant one, it was mine and the clubs first ever game in Europe. We had already sold all our allotment of tickets so I knew we would have a good support in Greece. The match was only four days away, but in reality it was only three as I had decided to fly out the day before, as I didn’t want a plane journey to affect my players. Although, jet lag was the least of my problems, I had received a call from the France u-21 coach Rene Girard. In an extremely brief telephone exchange he explained that he was keeping his players one more day than expected to de-brief them, he also hung up on me when I started to swear. I now had a major problem, but to be honest it was one of my own making.

Lloris would not be back for the game and against Panathinaikos, and my reserve keeper Taylor had not been registered to play, so I had no goalkeeper. This meant that I had to choose one of my outfield players to be in goal. It really was a monumental **** up, in our first champion’s league game that we had a good chance of winning and we didn’t have an actual goalkeeper.

Claudio and I looked over the team sheets to see who could be in goal, eventually we settled on Shaun Maloney, the young Scot was athletic and was the best of the rest. In an attempt to help Maloney as much as possible I also went with a 4-1-4-1 formation with Barry in the DMC position and Zarate the long front man. I would go for a defensive approach and look to hit them on the counter attack. A method that I knew we were good at. On the first training session back after the Bolton game I gathered the players around and explained the situation. None of them were particularly happy but they all agreed there was no point getting frustrated about it, I watched over Maloney’s goalkeeping training and I was given hope. If we could defend well and stop the long shots I think we could have a chance. I would be happy if we could get a draw. Training in the formation went well and I was almost confident getting onto the plane.

I have never been to Greece although people tell me it’s a wonderful and beautiful country. We landed in darkness so I didn’t get to see much of it, and to be honest I was too busy worrying about the game to enjoy the coach ride to our hotel which was right next to the stadium. I spent an uncomfortable night on a lumpy mattress; I just wanted to get to training and then the game. The stadium was about half the size of ours back in England however walking around the pitch I could just imagine what it would be like during the game. Intense!

Again I watched over Maloney training, he seemed alright but like most footballers and most importantly goalkeeper’s confidence was everything. At the end of training I walked over to him.

‘Well done Shaun, if you had told me you were this good you could have a permanent spot in the team.’ I was trying to keep his mind of the game.

‘Haha gov thanks but I think I will stick to midfield.’ He said with a smile on his face.

‘I suppose, Hugo wouldn’t be too happy if I replaced him with you’ I said clapping him on the back.

When we got back to the hotel there was a scrum of media, but I was determined not to speak to any of them, until after the game and maybe not even then. I put some headphones in and ignored all of them as I walked into the hotel.

I then spent an uncomfortable couple of hours pacing around the hotel waiting for time to slip by, it was painfully slow but eventually it was time to go to the stadium and get ready for the match.

Both teams warmed up then it was time for my pre-match talk, I knew it would be important.

‘Ok lads, its out first night in Europe; let’s make it one of many. You played wonderfully last season to get here so let’s take the opportunity with both hands. Obviously under the circumstances we have to play defensively but I want you to look for the fast counter. They don’t know how we play, and they don’t know how fast we can counter, so I want you to hit them hard and fast. Take the opportunities that present themselves. I want you to close them down quickly in our own half. I don’t want them to have time to shoot from far. Go out there and make our travelling fans proud, I believe in you.’

My team was as follows:

Gk- Maloney

DL- Guilherme

DC- Breno

DC- Knight

DR- Coloccini

DMC- Barry

ML- Kewell

MC- Petrov

MC- Reo-Coker

MR- Young

ST- Zarate

Subs:

Laursen

Wijnaldum

Carew

Van Der Vaart

Luke Moore

Cutis Davis

Gouffran

The ref blew his whistle and we were under way. I’m not sure how football is played in Greece but Panathinaikos were unprepared for the level of speed that we were playing at and we hit them early on, when they were still getting up to speed.

Guilherme ran up the left wing, then when he got challenged he passed inside to Petrov who faked a return pass and instead passed forward to Barry who had galloped up the midfield. Barry received the ball and immediately passed to Kewell who had just run into the box. Kewell took two touches to go into the centre of the box and then hit low into the right corner.

0-1

We had struck first, exactly what I wanted; it would be harder for us to claw back goals. If we had to chase goals it would leave us more exposed. I was happy; Panathinaikos had to bring the game to us, which was exactly what I wanted. It meant we could break against them. Our first goal in Europe, hopefully one of many.

As I predicted the Greek team, thundered forward annoyed at conceding so early on and less than ten minutes later my plan had worked. We countered quickly. Kewell ran forward up his wing. Zarate and Barry were sprinting up the centre and screaming for the ball. Kewell saw them and lobbed a ball for them to chase. The ball bounced closest to Barry, he controlled and took one touch to set himself up then fired high past the rushing keeper. We were two up in less than twenty minutes. I was beginning to enjoy myself.

0-2

Although we were two goals up, I was wary of parking the bus just yet. It would be along 70 minutes if we were to close up shop now. I decided to leave things as they were. The Greek team roared on by there thousands of diabolical fans charged forward eager to get a goal back. They knew that Maloney and were taking lots of shots from far, however they were all of target and it just allowed us to regain possession.

Just before the half hour mark, they won a corner. Set pieces were a real concern and I just hoped Maloney would be able to cope. Karagounis hit a high hanging corner to the far post. Mattos who was standing on the far post headed it back across goal and the ball fell to the feet of Ninis who fired past Maloney from 2 yards out. Even Lloris would have struggled to keep that one out. They had pulled one back, but the way their fans were cheering you would have thought they has just won the game.

1-2

The game had started at a frenzied pace and after there goal, it slowed down. My team were now only looking to counter, so when they had the ball and no counter was on they just passed it around midfield, slowly making their way up field. Panathinaikos were no wary of attacking to quickly or over committing men to the attack. Therefore chances for both teams dried up and the game slowed to and almost snail pace.

The fans were saved by the half time whistle and both teams trooped into the locker rooms.

‘Well done lads, you did exactly what I asked and I’m really pleased. However now comes the hard part, I still want you to break if there is an opportunity, but I would rather hold onto this lead than go looking for another goal and squander the one goal advantage. Keep you’re tackling strong but clean, don’t give them too much time on the ball and keep going lads. Well done.’

I replaced Zarate with Carew. Zarate had not come into the game with full fitness and he getting tired. Plus Carew was a bigger target to aim for and he could hold the ball up well and play in other players.

The second half started, much as the first had ended, slow and steady. I was quite happy for my team to tick away the time, just passing it around midfield. It was almost as if they were using the game as pass practise. The Greek side were getting increasing frustrated and they were starting to commit fouls, although this just made the game slower. With less than twenty minutes to go, they started raking up the tempo encouraged by their manager.

I decided that it was now time to park the bus, and I brought everyone back and told them to defend and only left Carew up field.

Panathinaikos were now shooting on sight and Maloney had to make some smart saves but he was managing well. We were making good tackles left right and centre; however we just couldn’t get the ball and we were coming under increasing pressure. I sat biting my nails, trying not to clock watch.

However time was running on by and it looked like we might just scrape a win. With one minute of normal time left, Mattos played a brilliant 30 yard ball for Karagounis. Karagounis collected, took one touch to take him into the box and away from Breno and smashed it past Maloney. The Greek fans erupted into jubilant scenes. Our fans on the other hand, were quite and disheartened. I was gutted; I really believed that we might have snuck a win. However I couldn’t let my team see my disappointment and I was on my feet encouraging my players.

As soon as we were re-started I brought Laursen on for Coloccini and Wijnaldum for Kewell, just to run down the clock. Panathinaikos went in search for the winner, however time was not on their side and the match finished as it had started.

Panathinaikos 2 – 2 Aston Villa

Ninis (24), Karagounis (89), Kewell (2), Barry (16)

Attendance- 16617

MOM- Kewell.

[madog308]

I had made a mistake, and at possibly the worst time, in our first champions league game. We were on the bus back to the airport when I got my first text.

Alex, please come to my office tomorrow, 9 am sharp. Randy

I knew he would be angry, I just hoped that he would accept my apology.

I had praised the lads for their hard work and had put all the blame on myself which was due. In reality I just wanted to forget the whole situation and focus on the next game, but that thought was driven out of my head when I received my second text.

Hey babe, just thought you should know that the press are murdering you, be prepared for a crowd when you land. 
I’ll come and pick you up. xx.[/Code]

That one was from Zoe. I spent the whole plane journey back in my own world; I put my headphones on and tried to pretend that I was asleep, like most of the squad. It had been a hard game and it was now late, and two plane journeys in two days plus a game in the middle took its toll and almost everyone was slumped in their seat.

The plane landed, and it was now time to face the music, or getting ready to get slaughtered.

As we walked out the departure gate, I was trying to hide behind both my players and the bags I was carrying. I continued to wear my headphones in an attempt to not asked questions. There was a large crowd of reporters, but I pushed my way through in an attempt to get out. I had already told my players not to talk to the press and I had also told them that I would not be joining them on the team bus. It was perhaps not a good move in hindsight.

I shoved and pushed my way to the pick up area where I saw Zoe in my car. I quickly got in and we drove off.

[i]‘How are you’[/i] she said quietly

[i]‘Um, i'm alright I think; I’ve got a meeting with Randy tomorrow’[/i]

[i]‘You think he will be alright?’[/i] she said half looking at me.

[i]‘That’s annoying think, if we had won, no one would have cared, yet because they scored at the last second, everyone is going to want my blood’[/i] I said sighing.

[i]‘That’s the world of football for you’[/i] she said smiling.

[i]‘Yup’[/i] I said quietly still depressed.

[i]‘You gotta learn how to separate your self from the game sometimes; you should have work time and then non football time.’[/i] She said more seriously now.

[i]‘I know I know it’s just hard’[/i] I said looking out the window at the passing countryside.

[i]‘You could always use me as a distraction’[/i] she said with a small smirk on her face.

I immediately looked over. It took me a couple of seconds to compute what she had said. [i]‘How close are we too home?’[/i] I said, trying to act normal.

[i]‘Depends, how long can you wait?’[/i] she said with a bigger grin.

[i]‘Look the sign says there is a service's in 1 mile, you can pull in there.’[/i] I said pointing at the sign. She laughed but a minute later we had pulled into the services and all my worries seemed to melt away in the warm embrace of Zoe.

******

Because of our diversion we got home later than expected. I immediately flopped on the bed and fell asleep. The alarm woke me up annoyingly quickly, and last nights fun was wiped from my mind. I had breakfast alone as it was Zoe’s day off and I drove to the club. A group of reporters were outside but I ignored all of them and slowly pushed my car through them.

I walked up to Randy’s office and on the dot of 9 I knocked on the door.

[i]‘Come in’[/i] I heard him say.

I walked in and sat down.

[i]‘What the hell were you thinking, playing Maloney in goal’[/i] said Randy. Getting straight to the point.

[i]‘I didn’t have another goalkeeper registered to play in the Champions league’[/i] I said looking at him.

[i]‘I’m very sorry but I made the mistake, but the team did very well, and it could have been a lot worse’[/i] i continued

[i]‘I agree the team did very well, but the papers are murdering us, just look at these’[/i] and he through down several papers in front of me, all the back pages had the same sort of headline.

[b]‘Diaz makes biggest of blunders’[/b]

[b]‘Diaz-aster’[/b]

[b]‘Managers mistake could be costly’ [/b]

[b]‘Diaz-Steptoe, is he for real?’[/b]

[b]‘Steptoe in crazy selection horror’[/b]

[b]‘Is this the real Diaz-Steptoe?’ [/b]

All headlines from the biggest papers, Independent, Sun, Express, the Guardian, the Times.

[i]‘I’m sorry’[/i] I didn’t really know what to say.

[i]‘You have been extremely good to this club, but if you make this kind of mistake and bring this kind of publicity to the club again, your contact will be under review.’[/i] He said sternly.

[i]‘Right’[/i] I said standing up. I shook his hand and walked out. Fuming.

***********

I had not called a press conference, so I did not have the opportunity to explain myself, and quite frankly I didn’t want to, so I got the press officer to write a statement and put it on the club website.

With the lads taking the day off, I could focus entirely on our next match, on the 21st which was in three days time. The games were coming thick and fast now and we had four games to play in 10 days, the first of which was a premier league game against Reading.

Reading were playing above expectations and were 9th in the league and from past experience I knew they could be a dangerous side. Last season we had scraped a win and drawn when we had played against them, and like us they had invested heavily during the transfer window, bringing in nine new players.

The next few days were a see-saw of emotions, when I was training the lads, I was calm and collected and happy even. But when I was not training the lads I was forced to dodge reporters and camera crews who were still trying to get a story about out Champions league game.

Zoe was helping me out lots, taking my mind of things with a combination of lots of sex, good cooking and friendly banter. When I had a chance I would try and take her on holiday, but finding the time would be tricky.

For the game against Reading I made couple of chances, I reverted back to a 4-4-2 formation, with Lupoli and Zarate up front. Gouffran came in at MR for Young and Lloris was back in goal.

[b]GK-[/b] Lloris

[b]DR-[/b] Coloccini

[b]DC-[/b] Breno

[b]DC-[/b] Laursen

[b]DL-[/b] Guilherme

[b]MR-[/b] Gouffran

[b]MC-[/b] Van Der Vaart

[b]MC-[/b] Reo-Coker

[b]ML-[/b] Barry

[b]ST-[/b] Lupoli

[b]ST-[/b] Zarate

[b]Subs:[/b]

Young

Petrov

Carew

Maloney

Matuidi

It was pleasing to note that the players did not seem affected by the off field troubles I was having it showed their maturity.

Both teams lined up and we were all ready to kick off.

The ref blew his whistle and we were playing the sixth game of the season.

Both teams started off slow, feeling each other out, not wanting to make a mistake. However with each passing minute the tempo became faster. Like a generator being wound up, the tension increased.

Just before the twenty minute mark, disaster struck. Reo-Coker was involved in a crunching tackle that left him on the floor after being thrown up and landing face first.

He stayed on the floor and I started to worry. None of my lads were the silly girls who rolled around on the floor trying to win a free kick, if they were down; it was because they were genuinely hurt. My players were gesticulating wildly to the touch line and Gianni Nanni sprinted over to the player. As soon as he got there it got up turned and signalled for a switch. I told Petrov to get ready, but my attention was quickly back to the huddle of players in the centre of the pitch.

Four marshals with a stretcher ran onto the field.

Please gods don’t let it be a leg, I thought. Reo-Coker was a key player for us and although Petrov was an excellent replacement I was still concerned. After what seemed like an eternity the marshals stood up with Reo-Coker on the stretcher between them.

There was a morbid fascination as Reo-Coker came closer, I couldn’t wait to see what was wrong but I was dreading what I was to see.

They walked up to the touchline and down the tunnel. As they passed I saw that Reo-Coker’s left arm was heavily bandaged. I turned to Nanni.

[i]‘Broken arm’[/i] he said simply as he followed he stretcher.

[i]‘****’[/i] that could mean along time out. All my players seemed pretty shook up over the whole incident, its never nice seeing someone get injured but when they break a bone it is particularly stomach churning.

[i]‘Stay focused’[/i] I shouted at my players, I knew it would be hard but they had to concentrate on the game.

The game re-started and Reading took the advantage and started to take control.

Less than five minutes after Reo-Coker was taken off they made their new found dominance count. The countered one of our attacking moves. Gavilan found Long who had come deep. He was given time to turn and he passed a ball for Bias Perez to run on to. Perez, took three touches to take himself away from Laursen, with his third he cut back and on his right foot he smashed the ball past Lloris, who saw the ball late.

[b]1-0[/b]

It was a swift counter attacking coupled with an excellent finish, and we had conceded away from home. Reading buoyed by the goal started passing it around beautifully. A couple of minute’s later Hall beat Guilherme with his pace and crossed a ball into the box. Lloris came and missed the ball, and the ball fell to Perez who made no mistake from 2 yards out. Reading had scored twice in five minutes

[b]2-0[/b]

[i]‘What the F**K. Concentrate. Slow it down, hold onto the ball for god’s sake’ [/i]I shouted from the side line. I think all my emotions from the champion’s league game, Reo-Coker’s arm and Randy’s lack of support were bubbling to the surface.

My team started to listen to me and we did hold onto the ball for a little bit. However Reading were posing a real threat any time they had the ball. Their confidence was high and that was evident in their game play.

Just after the half hour mark they won the ball in midfield. Long ran forward, then just as Breno closed up he passed to Gavilan who held up the ball waiting for support. He didn’t have to wait long because Perez was sprinting infield. Gavilan saw the run and passed to Perez who received the ball on the edge of the box and again hit a powerful rising shot that beat Lloris. His hatrick confirmed our fate.

[b]3-0[/b]

This time I just sat in my chair, trying to fathom how this had happened and how to retrieve the situation.

Reading seemed happy with their lead and they backed of the pace, which allowed my lads to catch their breath.

The half time whistle gave sweet relief to my torture and it was now that I had to earn my wages.

The lads walked in down heartened and beaten.

[i]‘What the hell guys. What are you doing? I know you got distracted but you need to get your head in the game. Reo-Coker is going to be alright, he’s been taken to the hospital, and he’s going to be out for a while. But just think what if he’s watching this on his TV while he is sitting in bed. What the hell is he going to think?? EY??? Get your head back in the game and give the fans who have paid money to come and see you a game, Lets try and come back and give reading the shock of their lives. You all have the talent. But do you have the belief?? Do you have the will?? Do you want to win??’ [/i]

I shoved my lads out early, to show that we were reading, but to also stop them moping about.

Reading came out soon after and the second half began. From the very first second I knew we were not going to win. Because Reading had parked the buss. They had made one change and brought Long off and brought Bikey on and had changed their formation to 4-1-4-1.

My team, had they been at their best form could have broken through, but while they were playing as badly as they were, we could do nothing. We were restricted to long shots, and failed attack. On the hour I brought Young on for Gouffran. We were attacking more, but Reading were defending well and we were just not getting through. I brought Carew on for Zarate soon after Young, just to try and shake things up, but nothing was working. I was extremely frustrated at the lack of movement from my team and the ugly tactics Dave Jones was using.

Time was not on our side and it was slipping away extremely quickly. With 15 minutes to go, I gave up and sat down. However, some of my team hadn’t, although a few had. We won a corner with 9 minutes to go. Young took the corner and Petrov at the far post headed home.

The fans that had stayed were given a little bit of hope but it was too little to late and we recorded our first loss of the season.

[b]Reading 3-1 Aston villa

Blias Perez (24, 28, 36), Petrov (82)

Attendance- 24247

MOM- Bias Perez.[/b]

[Scalamunger]

tough couple of matches there, but you can turn it around, bad bad blunder in the goalkeeping department though, why didn't you register Taylor and instead of Maloney could you have not played a youth keeper?

[madog308]

I'm sorry for the long delay but posts should be back to normal from now on. mad

Scala, thanks for your comment, i really appriciate it. I just hope Alex can keep it together and his squad doesnt loose confidence.

The bus ride home was quiet, almost awkwardly quiet. My Aston Villa squad had never played that badly before. For my part I just stared out the window watching the inky night slip past. No one talked, Claudio and I usually talked about the game or the next game or at least something. This time we just sat side by side looking opposite ways. For my post match talk I had said nothing, I just sat in the changing room until it was time to get onto the bus. The lads knew I was angry and I think it scared them that I wasn’t talking.

I was worried; it had been a bad couple of weeks with the Lacy incident, Champions league and now Reading games. I didn’t want it to start a cycle of bad luck, or fortune. What we really needed was an emphatic win over another team, and it was just my luck that we had Wigan next in the League Cup. There had been some important matches in my time, but I really felt that if we didn’t win against Wigan and slippery slope was heading our way.

We only had two days to prepare for the match and I spent one of those days going to visit Reo-Coker in the hospital. He was awake when I arrived; he had been moved to a private hospital so he had his own room which was nice. He had broken both his Radius and Ulna which was bad, but the doctors had managed to reset it fine and they said that he could go back to training in a month’s time. They made it very clear that if he did train before then and fell on it the bones would never heal back properly. It was a blow to loose such a crucial player for so long but we had an immediate replacement in Petrov and a possible replacement in the form of Matuidi. I left him in the hospital with his girlfriend and family, he would be ok. He was a mentally strong lad.

Wigan had appointed their assistant manager to the head spot less than a year ago, but as PL managers went the simple fact he still had the job 10 months on was something to take note of. Again it was a home game which was nice, that meant I would have longer to prepare my players and they wouldn’t be thrown by travelling.

I had decided to make a lot of chances to my squad and my team looked like this:

Gk- Lloris

DR- Coloccini

DC- Breno

DC- Knight

DL- Guilherme

MR- Young

MC- Matuidi

MC- Van Der Vaart

ML- Kewell

ST- Moore

ST- Carew

Subs:

Gouffran

Petrov

Maloney

Lupoli

Barry

It was time to give my post match talk; the lads were all sitting down in front of me.

‘Right lads we didn’t perform last time out, but you don’t need me to tell you that, you all know it. This League cup is a piece of silverware that we can win, we have the ability to win, but we need to take it a step at a time. Wigan has the ability to cause us problems. But with hard work we can win. The fans want you to win, they love you guys, they shout your name’ I pointed at Lloris, ‘your name’ I pointed at Young ‘they shout all your names, you are their team. They take time and money out of their day to watch you. Let’s give them something to shout about’ I finished, stood and held the dressing room door open. I patted each player on the back as they went out.

I walked out behind them and went to shake Chris Hutchings hand.

‘Have a good match mate’ I said. Then I walked to go and sit down. The ref blew his whistle and we were under way in the third round of the league cup.

My lads are a good group and they were determined to prove that the result against Reading was a one off. They were passing the ball quickly on the floor, and the white ball zipped along the lush green grass. It was a beautiful sight. Less than ten minutes in a beautiful passing move paid off.

Young received the ball wide on his wing. He looked up and saw Carew making a run. He his a 40 yard lob over the top of the Wigan defenders. Carew managed to control the ball beautifully. Kirkland saw the danger and was running out. Carew saw him and tried to take the ball round him, and take a shot at goal. However Carew just couldn’t manage the angle and smashed it right at the keeper. However Kirkland couldn’t hold the ball, he could only palm it away. Unfortunately for him he only palmed it back to Carew, who took no trouble in slotting his second chance away, into an empty net.

Yes!! I shouted and pumped my fist before my brain got the better of me and told me to act like nothing had happened. For some reason managers in the PL don’t like to show their emotion.

1-0

Kirkland was annoyed at his error, Wigan were annoyed at their error and Hutchings was extremely annoyed at his team’s error. As I predicted, Wigan were a good team and they were attacking well. My lads had to concentrate if they wanted this win.

Wigan were forcing good saves out of Lloris but yet again he was up to the task. Most of their chances were long shots which gave Lloris along time to watch the balls.

The half was coming to a close, and we were still carefully hanging on to our lead. However the lads were still attacking, still looking for that goal. It was nice to see them want to win, an aspect of their game that was so lacking against Reading.

Moore got the ball in midfield and ran at the Wigan defence. They made the crucial mistake of backing of the onrushing forward. Moore saw that he had time and he stopped and waited for teammates to come and help him. VDV was only seconds behind him when he stopped and carried on his run past him. Moore saw the run and laid the ball of for VDV. VDV killed the ball with his first touch while looking up. He saw Kirkland off his goal line and hit a beautifully exquisite lob which shaved the bar as it dropped in the net, over the head of the back peddling Kirkland. It was a stunning bit of skill. Another reminder of how good this player really was.

2-0

The ref blew his whistle soon after that stunning goal and I walked into the tunnel and into the dressing room.

‘Great work lads, really great work. Two fine goals and what a piece of skill ‘Rafa’. We have a nice cushion but let’s not loose it. Keep concentrated and think of this next half as a training session. Keep the ball on the floor and pass it around and quickly and as accurately as possible. Lets wear the other team out make them chase you. They will want revenge so stay concentrated just after the break. Well done, I’m really pleased’

I left them to get some water and get some energy food.

I discussed tactics with Claudio while we were waiting for the second half to begin but it was mostly just talking. It felt good to feel good. It was strange sensation but I had been feeling so stressed lately that I was almost kiddie with a lack of tension.

The second half began and my lads did exactly what I had asked of them. They passed the ball around beautifully and the opposing team were getting more and more frustrated as time went on. Every now and then my team would make an attacking run into the Wigan half, take a long shot or try a skilful move, it was wonderful to see them having fun.

Just after the hour mark I brought Maloney of for Lupoli. Ten minutes later I brought Petrov for VDV. Van Der Vaart got a standing ovation when he walked off, it had been a good game for him and the fans knew it. Wigan started to loose hope with twenty minutes to go and that made my time sitting in my seat very comfortable indeed.

We ran out the game comfortable winners.

Aston Villa 2-0 Wigan

Carew (7), Van Der Vaart (42)

Attendance- 8220

MOM- Van Der Vaart.

[madog308]

I was a happy man; my team had shook off the previous defeat and were back to playing good football. Just in time as our next match was against Arsenal, at Emirates in three days time. It was a big game and it was going to be a hard game. But first I had to deal with some press questions.

‘Nice win, what was your assessment of the game?’ asked the BBC reporter.

‘I thought it was a good controlled game that we deserved to win. Nice to get back to normality’ I replied.

‘What is your response to Javier Aguirre comments?’ asked the Sun correspondent. Then seeing me looking puzzled he read them out.

‘My team are extremely eager and ready to take this Aston Villa team on, we have no fear.’

‘Well I’m glad that Javier thinks his team are ready because we will be looking to beat them…again!’ I said smiling sweetly.

I answered a few more normal run of the mill questions before I was allowed to leave. I chuckled to my self; Arsene did like to play mind games. However, I was genuinely worried about the upcoming game. If I wanted other people to realise my belief in this Aston villa team we needed to beat the big guns. We needed to become a regular part of the top four, with the word regular being critical.

We had very little time to think tactics, do we go defensive, do we attack and try to play them at their own game, and do we bog down the midfield? All these questions Claudio and I were trying to answer. Arsenal had an excellent team; they had quality players in every position and the man that pulled all the strings, Fabregas, the man, the myth the legend. If we wanted any chance of beating Arsenal we would have to nullify the threat of this player.

In training we player around with different formations including our tried and tested 4-5-1, but we also played around we a new one, a 4-1-2-1-2 formation. With only two days to practise anything I was wary of making a big change. It would have helped lots if I knew what team Aguirre was putting out.

The Emirates is a castle and that castle is owned by Arsenal, very few teams win there, as we drove into car park I was feeling nervous but eager to get the game under way.

As we walked from the coach to the dressing rooms I was pleased to see a number of Aston Villa fans trying to get autographs. I happily went over to sign some programs, fans were the lifeblood of the sport and we needed every single fan on our side shouting for us. I walked straight out onto the pitch before I went to the changing rooms. Even with less than a quarter of the stadium full it was an impressive sight. I took in the whole atmosphere before I walked back to the changing rooms.

‘Right lads, get some balls and have a kick out about. You know what to do get your eye in and get warmed up.’

I followed the lads out before I walked over to Claudio.

‘I’m thinking a 4-4-2’ I said looking at him.

‘Really!!’

Just as he was about to say what was on his mind, Pincolini walked over.

‘Here is the Arsenal team sheet’ he said handing me a sheet of paper.

I looked at for a couple of seconds before I handed the paper of to Claudio.

He gasped in astonishment, ‘You still thinking 4-4-2?’ he said.

I said nothing, I was deep in thought.

Javier had mixed it up and put out a team in a 3-5-2 formation. With a sweeper defender in Senderos, Both full backs attacking and moving into the ML and MR position and three across the centre midfield. It was a very attacking line up and I knew that we would be under a lot of pressure; however it also got me thinking. If we could get behind the full backs we would against a weakened defence. I had two fast strikers in Lupoli and Zarate and a fast winger in Young.

By the time I got back to the dressing room and it was time to make my team talk I had set upon a formation. It would be a normal 4-4-2; I would keep my defence the same, put my two strongest midfielders in the centre. My team looked like this:

Gk- Lloris

DR- Coloccini

DC- Breno

DC- Knight

DL- Guilherme

MR- Young

MC- Van Der Vaart

MC- Barry

ML- Kewell

ST- Zarate

ST- Lupoli.

Subs:

Gouffran

Petrov

Maloney

Carew

Moore

I had decided to go with the ‘Play them at their own game’ tactic. Arsenal would press hard and being in a defensive formation would only encourage this. However it was a dangerous tactic leaving our defence no better protected. It was time for my team talk.

‘Ok lads, we’ve got a big game on our hands, but it is a game we can win. Yes arsenals have talent but so do we. We beat them last year, so we can do it. We have a better team this year, whereas Arsenal’s team has stayed the same. We will have to weather the storm, but if we stay concentrated and calm we can look the break and hit them when they think they are in the ascendency. Barry I want you to stick to Fabregas like glue, don’t give him two seconds on the ball. I want you all to tackle hard and close down fast, do this to every arsenal player apart from the defence and goalie. Make them loose their stride, keep the tackles clean but hard. Make them feel uncomfortable, they like playing the beautiful game. To beat them we must play the ugly side. Make them scared of running at us. Go out there and show everyone that this team and this club deserve to be at the top of the table.’

Again I patted every player on the back and said good luck.

I walked out with my players to the roar of a stadium with 60 thousand people in it.

Both teams lined up on the field and the referee stood ready to blow his whistle and let battle commence.

I tried to break Javier Aguirre’s hand when we shook hands but he just smiled and walked away, but as I sat down I’m sure I saw him rub his hand. This made me smile.

The game kicked off with a roar from the crowd. From the very first few seconds I knew that Arsenal were following up their formation with an attacking tactic. They were throwing themselves at out goal and within five minutes Lloris had already made several crucial saves. It was a worrying sign. I was biting my finger nails wondering not if but when the first Arsenal goal would come.

I was just thinking about getting up to shout encouragement to my players when Young managed to skip past Pander and was in at the defence, Young ran forward and saw the run of Lupoli; he flighted in a fast in swinging ball to the far post. Lupoli was sprinting for all his might and only just managed to get to the ball; he stretched out a leg and poked the ball past Lehmann and into the net.

‘Yes you little beauty’ I shouted as I started to run to the side line to jump up and down. A few milliseconds later I had the joy ripped from under my feet. The far side linesman had his flag up.

‘What!!!’ I shouted, ‘NO, Like seriously?’ I walked over the fourth official and spent a few seconds shouting in his ear before Claudio got me to turn away and go and sit down. I crashed down into my seat like a petulant child.

For F**K’s sake I thought. We wouldn’t get many chances in this match and the referee had just taken one away.

Arsenal had been let of the hook, but they were annoyed that they had even been broken against, and they returned fire with a vengeance. Within the next twenty minutes we did not get out of our own half and Lloris made a score of wonderful saves. We did get the ball a couple of times but as per my instructions my team were passing it about not wanting to make a mistake that led to a scoring opportunity. However this meant that Arsenal were pressing us for long periods.

I was pleased with Barry’s performance; he was taking Fabregas out of the game by not giving him time and blocking him off from potential passes.

I could see Javier standing on the edge of his box urging his players to push forward, however that was not the problem. All the Arsenal players were forward, they just could get that final killer pass of final killer shot. They were having lots of shots on goal; however few of them really tested Lloris. They had such patience in the build up, but when it came to taking the shot, they all seemed to be rushing it.

I was fidgeting in my seat, my team were fighting bravely but the shear number of arsenal chances meant that at least one would go in, and I couldn’t see us getting a goal anytime soon. I looked up and saw that our fans were extremely quiet; they were feeling nervous, anxious, hoping for the team to pull though the bad phase, not to concede a goal.

With fifteen minutes of the half left, we still had not conceded, I just hoped we could hold on, if we could get to half time, then we still had a chance in the game. We were holding the ball better now, making Arsenal chase us. They were starting to show signs of annoyance, and it boiled over with five minutes to go when Fabregas made a rash tackle on Barry, his tormenter.

All at once players from both sides were dragging each other away from the two players who were eager to have a fight. I was immediately on my feet shouting for my players to calm down and walk away. Eventually the ref took control, he motioned for both Fabregas and Barry to come over and talk to him. The ref had a lengthy chat in which he made multiple hand gestures indicating stop it. He then turned to Barry and waved him away, and then he turned to Fabregas and gave him a yellow card. To the jeers of all the Arsenal fans, which were a lot! They felt aggrieved that Barry had not received the same fate. The half came to an end a couple of minutes later and both teams walked in.

‘Well done lads, you’ve played really well, they put you under a crazy amount of pressure and you survived. Excellent football Lloris keep up the good work. Right now the game is ours for the taking. Javier Aguirre will be telling them to keep going that the goal is only just around the corner. But the players, in their hearts will know that they have just given their best, and they couldn’t score. It’s now our turn to control the game. They will come out of the traps fast, so in the ten or so minutes after the restart be as focused as you have ever been. Let them attack but defend well, look for the quick counter and try to get beyond the fullbacks. Young try and use your skill to get behind Pander. Maloney you’re replacing Kewell, I want you to do the same. If we can get behind them we have an excellent chance to score. You all saw how close we came in the opening minutes. Lets give our fans something to cheer about, if we get a draw great, only one other team has done that this season, lets be the first to win at the Emirates.’

I subbed Maloney for Kewell and waited for the second half to begin. Both teams were out. Aguirre had made a change as well; he brought Bendtner on for Walcott.

The ref blew his whistle and we kicked off for the second half. As I predicted Arsenal, clearly spurred on by their manager, threw everything at us, in the opening minutes. However my team were looking like they were holding firm.

Ten minutes past and although Arsenal had several chances they had not managed to score. However I could see that Fabregas was starting to get the better of Barry, although not by much. Close to the hour mark, he made the most out of one of his opportunities. He skipped past Barry, and Breno went forward to cut him off. Fabregas looked up, saw that Breno was advancing; he also saw the run of Bendtner. He slid the ball to the right of Breno; it was beautifully weighted ball that was perfect for Bendtner who was free behind my defence. He is a quality striker and made no mistake slotting the ball past the onrushing Lloris.

NOOO I thought, all our hard work had been undone. I was gutted; I truly believed that we could have come away from Arsenal with at least a point. I saw my entire team heads drop. Could we find a way back?

[madog308]

I was too quick with my conclusion, this time it was Arsenal and Javier Aguirre’s time to get upset, again the touchline ref had his flag raised, Offside.

Yes I thought. I got up to the edge of my box. ‘Common lads, lets make the most of this.’

Young had tried his best but he was having no luck getting past Pander, so I replaced him with Gouffran with 18 minutes to go.

There are very few occasions that a manager has a direct impact on the game, during half’s. However, it was one of those special occasions when a substitution is made at just the right time in the right game. Gouffran had been on the pitch less than two minutes when we received the ball for the first time. Pander, eager to make his impression known to this young new player, rushed up ready to make a hard tackle. However Gouffran saw him coming and with the outside of his foot, facing away from Pander, poked it through his legs, spun and was running at the goal behind Pander, and therefore the midfield.

Again he showed a touch of class by looking up. He saw that Zarate was sprinting up the middle of the pitch. He saw the run and hit a weighted pass. Zarate had been quiet up to this point with only long shots being his contribution to the game. He managed to beat the backpedalling Gallas and get to the ball first. He picked the ball up on the edge of the box, just off centre. Both Gallas and Senderos were inches from him snapping at his legs. However Zarate stayed calm and collected, he looked up, saw that Lehmann was racing out to meet him. He chipped the ball over Lehmann’s head into the empty net.

The emirates was quiet for a millisecond before the away part of the crowd roared, I was on my feet punching the air and jumping round like a mad man. I was hugging all my coaches, Claudio, my subs even the Physio’s.

YOU BEAUTY I shouted. I was thrilled and screw looking calm, I would show my emotion. Zarate ran off to celebrate with the away fans, before he was quickly mobbed by all his team mates.

Eventually they were all back in place and the game kicked off again. Because Arsenal had thrown everything at us already, there was nothing more to throw. Aguirre threw on Adebayor and Denilson in an attempt to shake things up. But my team could feel the win, and we were defending with class that did justice to their young age.

I brought Petrov on for Barry a couple of minutes later. I also told my team to fall back and to time waste at every opportunity.

With every minute, every second I became more and more happy, getting ready to celebrate a famous and brilliant win. My team could feel it to, and our travelling fans watched the Arsenal fans walk out. Eventually the ref blew that all important whistle and our win was confirmed. I immediately raced out onto the pitch to congratulate my team, hugging each and everyone and shaking the hands of the Arsenal players. I had totally forgotten about Javier, and when I got back to the sideline he was gone.

O well I thought, he’ll get over it, or maybe not. Who cares? Because I didn’t!

Arsenal 0-1 Aston Villa

Zarate (74)

Attendance- 60402

MOM- Hugo Lloris

I was thrilled with my team’s performance and the MOM award could have equally gone to Barry who had played a crucial role in midfield. It also could have gone to Zarate who showed a great maturity in a crucial period of the match. But Lloris truly deserved it. Arsenal had 27 shots at goal, 20 of them on target. It was a Brilliant match and it showed that we could defend and beat the big teams.

[madog308]

The mood of the team could not have been better; it was a total contrast to the team bus a couple of weeks ago. I was happy that we had beaten arsenal, I was happy that we had not fallen into a rut and I was eager to get the next game under way.

The game against Arsenal had been important but the next game we would play, in three days, would be just as important. It was against Benfica in the Champions league. Because of my **** up, we needed to win all the rest of our games in our group. We could not predict wins against Real Madrid but if we could win against Benfica and Panathinaikos we could still get through to the next round.

Fortunately the game against Benfica was at home, so no travelling was necessary. I made three changes to the side that beat Arsenal. Carew replaced Lupoli, Petrov replaced Van Der Vaart and Matuidi replaced Barry. My team looked like this:

GK- Lloris

DR- Coloccini

DC- Breno

DC- Knight

DL- Guilherme

MR- Young

MC- Petrov

MC- Matuidi

ML- Kewell

ST- Carew

ST- Zarate

Subs:

Zeefuik

Gouffran

Van Der Vaart

Maloney

Moore

Wijnaldum

Barry

I included the two Dutch youngsters because I wanted to give them some match experience, and I still felt that the Premier league was our priority and I couldn’t risk them upsetting the balance of the team. The Champions league was perfect; it was big game experience without the pressure. No one expected us to even get through to the next round. Benfica were a good team with a strong attack but their defence was weak and if we could hold off their attacks we stood a good chance of winning.

The stadium was packed out, all our tickets had been sold and I knew it was going to be a rocking atmosphere, I attempted to stress this point to the players.

‘Right lads listen up, Benfica are a strong team, but we have shown we can beat the big boys of our own league so lets beat the leaders of the Portuguese league. Matuidi stick to Palacio like glue, make his night uncomfortable. I want you all to close down their strikers, both are experienced front men and they will try and make life difficult. Do not let them have a sight off goal. As always look for the counter, you guys know what your doing just play your game and have fun, because if your having fun the crowd will have fun and they will love you for it.’

I sent them out, confident that we would perform.

Both teams were out, and the capacity stadium was ready for a great game of football.

With our confidence buoyed by the game against Arsenal, coupled with the fact that we were playing at home, my lads started quickly and were troubling the Benfica defence straight away. The first attack Benfica had we defended well and won the ball and started a quick counter. Young received the ball on his wing; he immediately turned and ran at goal. There was only Zarate ahead of him, Young looked up and saw that Zarate had managed to shake the slow Benfica defence. Young passed a inch perfect pass to Zarate. Zarate received the ball and ran into the box, he was forced wide and he ran to the by-line. He looked up and saw that no one was in the box, so he held the ball up while his teams mates ran to help him. The Benfica defence closed in on him, however Zarate was too quick for them and dribbled round them, he was now in at the goal, but because he was at the by-line everyone including the Benfica goalkeeper was expecting Zarate to cross the ball for someone. Kewell and Carew were screaming for Zarate to pass the ball however Zarate was a confident boy and he looked up, and smashed the ball into the left side netting of the goal. A wonderful goal from and incredible angle. We had taken the lead inside ten minutes.

1-0

Benfica were shocked, and our fans danced and screamed Zarate’s name.

I was happily sitting in my chair watching the game when I was shocked into standing. A ball was lobbed forward for Carew to chase, as he turned and started to sprint, he crumpled into a ball. I was on the edge of my technical area, screaming at the ref to stop the whistle so my Physio could go and tend to him. It was clear to see that Carew was in agony. He eventually had to be stretchered off, breathing gas to help him with the pain. It was earlier than planned but I mentioned for Zeefuik to get his kit off, he was going on.

‘Go on lad, this is your chance have fun’ I said into his ear, just before he ran on.

My lads were obviously worried about Carew and just after the incident there were a couple of wry passes and mistakes, however we didn’t concede and the lads soon got back into the rhythm.

We ran out the half with a comfortable lead without having to work to hard to keep it.

‘Well done lads, but now comes the hard part, to keep this lead, we have to play it sensible and not spread ourselves to wide. I still want you to close them down in our own half, but you can let them run in their own half, apart from the strikers, you can still run them down in their own half. Matuidi keep doing what you’re doing, we’re blocking their main route of attack, and it’s great. Just keep playing how you do’

I was happy; Benfica didn’t look like the posed much of a threat. However I was wrong. The Benfica team had obviously been given the hairdryer treatment and they come out looking to win. They were all over us, and I was extremely glad that I had put Matuidi a defence midfielder and Petrov a calm head, in the middle off the park. Benfica were dominating and Lloris was called into action many times in the first 20 minutes. However after half an hour of this treatment I began to relax again. If Benfica couldn’t score when they had thrown everything at us they wouldn’t score.

Just after the hour mark we scored again. It was a corner and our resident corner kick taker, Young, again hit a beauty. The defence couldn’t clear it and the ball bounced around like in a pinball machine before it fell at the feet of Matuidi who didn’t take a second to smash it into the roof of the net. It was his first goal for us and he took great pleasure running to the fans and celebrating before he was mobbed by the rest of the team.

2-0

I brought Wijnaldum on for Kewell, who was limping slightly, in the 64th minute. I then brought Barry on for Petrov with 12 minutes of regular time to go. The clock was ticking down, and with every second Benfica’s belief was ebbing away. In the end we ran out comfortable winners although it could have been so different if they had scored when they were in control.

Aston Villa 2-0 Benfica

Zarate(8), Matuidi(38)

Attendance- 39429

MOM- Matuidi

The MOM award was justly given to Matuidi, he had scored his first goal, and he had played excellently nullifying the threat of Palacio.

[madog308]

The conversation had been along time coming, and in the back of my mind I wasn’t surprised. I had received an email from Hossam Ghaly’s agent saying that the player wanted to talk to me. Why the player didn’t come to me himself I didn’t know but I wasn’t surprised.

I had bought Ghaly in the January transfer window, I had bought him as I was having a little bit of an injury crisis, and he was only bought as cover. He had cost me 750K and had only started four times for the team, one full game and three starts from the bench. I don’t know why he had slipped from my mind but with the introduction of Van Der Vaart he had slipped down the pecking order even further.

The next day he walked into my office and sat down, acting quite normally. I was about to open my mouth when he started talking.

‘Thank you for meeting me Alex. I know there are players better than me in this team, and that we are playing well at the moment, but I want to show you that I can fit into this team. I mean I haven’t even got a place on the bench all season, even the youngsters are promoted ahead of me, please all I’m asking for is a chance. You have seen how well I have played in training; let me transfer it to the pitch.’

His speech was impassioned and quite touching; he clearly loved playing football and desperately wanted a game.

I sat in thought for a few seconds before I answered him. ‘Right, I will watch you very closely in training over the next two weeks. If you impress during those two weeks I will give you a start. Aim for Portsmouth, the game against Portsmouth on the 25th of October, I will give you a start in that game. If you have impressed! If not, and don’t take this as a threat, I will look to loan you out, you clearly want to play football and any club would love that fire.’

It was a harsh reply and not the one he was wanting, but I had answered him truthfully. He was way down in the pecking order, even below the youngsters. However I was honest that I would watch him closely in the training sessions for the next two weeks. He walked out with his head down; I hoped that he would take my words seriously and work in training.

We now had the luxury of five full days before our next match. We had played six games in the month of September and although the lads had coped admirably I gave them a day off.

Our next game was against Derby in the Premier League. Derby were not playing well and were sitting in the relegation zone with only three points from their first 7 games. However I was not going to take it easy on them, we still needed every win we could get. My team looked like this:

GK- Lloris

DR- Coloccini

DC- Breno

DC- Knight

DL- Guilherme

MR- Young

MC- Petrov

MC- Van Der Vaart

ML- Barry

ST- Zarate

ST- Lupoli.

Subs:

Gouffran

Matuidi

Maloney

Kewell

Moore

Barry and VDV had been brought in for this game. It was about as strong as my team could be.

It was another home game and it was pleasing to see another full stadium, even if the opposition was only Derby.

The teams lined up on the pitch and we were ready for our 8th game of the Premier League season. Derby had spent big, especially for them, in the transfer window most of the money was blown on the acquisition of Roque Santa Cruz from Blackburn. It was almost an all or nothing approach from Paul Simpson their manager. There was no way a club of Derby’s size could afford to spend 17million.

However as the game kicked off it looked like the money was well spent. Derby were passing the ball around like a team from the big four. It was no question that the striker partnership of Santa Cruz and Miller was a formidable one. The style of football I liked my squad to play was one of fast paced football, looking to tire the opposition out, however our real asset was our counter attacking skill. We could counter in the blink of an eye, the only problem relying on a counter attack as a tactic means that the other team have to be pressuring your goal, and it’s a very fine line between just pressuring and scoring.

The ball flew across the pitch going back and forth with neither team really getting anywhere. The half hour mark came and went and neither team had scored although both had come close. For a team I had deemed beneath us they were playing very well, even putting us on the back foot.

I was starting to feel uncomfortable in my chair, it was coming up to half time and we still hadn’t scored, at home! To Derby! I was trying to come up of ways to rectify the situation, when my players did it for me.

Zarate had come deep to receive the ball; he turned and ran at the Derby defence. The one think a defence should not do to Zarate, he back away. The Derby defence did just that and Zarate had time and space to create magic. He looked up and saw that Lupoli was haring up the field on the left of him. He saw a gap and passed a through ball through the defence. Lupoli had timed his perfectly and picked the ball up behind the Derby defence. He ran into the box and calmly slid the ball into the net. A calm and collected finish from a young player.

1-0

We had scored at the perfect time, a couple of minutes before the half time whistle. The boys were still on a high from scoring and they were happy as they walked into the changing room. However I knew it could have been so different if we had not scored. I would have been trying to pep the players up, instead I focused my team talk on keeping them going on the same track.

‘Great goal guys and great performance, now that we have the first goal lets go out there and get some more. Look to run at their defence, get behind their midfield and we might have more joy.’

I brought Moore on for Zarate who was tiring and I sent my boys back out. The second half started much as the first had played out. Both teams had chances although none were very good. Derby were still playing a high tempo fast passing game and were still troubling us. Although we had scored just before the break, we didn’t score directly after the break; in fact we didn’t have a clear cut chance for a good fifteen minutes. To help my team get that second goal that would put the game beyond doubt, I brought Gouffran on for Young. A few minutes later we scored, although Gouffran was not involved.

We won a throw in, in our own half; Coloccini threw it short to Petrov. He looked up and hit a 40 yard lobbed ball up field. Barry on his wing ran inside to head the ball down to Moore who passed a perfect ball for Lupoli who was making a run. Again Lupoli had beaten the defence and he made no mistake from 5 yards out, his second goal, a real team effort.

2-0

Derby were incensed they were pleading with the referee to rule the goal out, they were sure that the goal had been offside. The ref only waved away their protests and the goal stood.

Derby, amazingly kicked their game up another gear, they were going all out for a goal. However this benefited us, because it gave us more chances to counter attack. However that fine line between pressure and goal was finally crossed. Tudgay hit a 20 yard pass which Miller received with his back to goal. He was given time to turn, and he started to run at the defence. He jinxed left and right confusing Knight and making him trip over his own feet. With Knight off balance he moved the ball onto his right foot and blasted the ball at goal. The ball shot past Lloris into the top right corner, a wonderful goal.

2-1

Derby now felt the momentum was with them, and they went in search of an equaliser. I brought Maloney on for Barry, to increase our counter attacking threat. This time my substitution had an immediate effect. Maloney won a corner with his first touch of the ball. He then stepped up to take the corner. Most of my team was in the penalty area. Maloney hit an in swinging corner to the far post. The ball was dropping quickly, but Lupoli judged it perfectly and headed home for his hatrick, and our win.

3-1

Derby were beaten, they had thrown everything at us but only managed to score one goal and concede one. We ran out the next 10 minutes easily enough.

Aston Villa 3-1 Derby

Lupoli (45, 68, 83), Miller (77)

Attendance- 39571

MOM- Lupoli

[madog308]

It was a good win against an opposition that shouldn’t have troubled us as much as they did, however I was happy, it was another win, another three points and it bumped us up to second in the table, behind Chelsea. We now had almost two weeks off for an international break, which several of my players were playing in. However I took it as a sign to spend some much needed time with the lovely women in my life.

A manager more than any other person lives his job, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 365 days a year. People who are connected to Managers accept that football plays a big part in their others half’s life. The only time when normal club managers can take it slow, note not take time off, just slow, is in a international break. For my team we now had two weeks off, our next game was on the 18th of October. I had 21 players playing for their respective countries, and because of that I had a sizeable interest in how they played. It was nice to be watching the games from the sofa instead of from pitch side, there was considerably less to worry about. The games in question were world cup qualifiers, u-20’s friendly’s and u-19s Euro Qualifiers. As an England fan I was extremely interested to see how England would do. However first came Zoe.

Although it was not a two week holiday it felt like it, half my team were away, and although the other half were still in training, my coach’s could handle it and there was very little for me to do apart from watch training and think of possible tweaking tactics, but as we were winning I was reluctant to do that. Therefore I spent more time at home than I had in the last month. Zoe had always had dreams of becoming a teacher but when she had flunked out of University nearly seven years ago she had thought those dreams were over. However she had been working at Aston Villa for five of those years and had saved up enough money to put herself through University again as a mature student. She had often mentioned going back but I never realised how close to happening it actually was.

I walked into, what was basically, our flat. Zoe was not home yet as she had fixed working hours, (I didn’t) and even if I wasn’t there she still had to be manning the desk. I picked up the mail and leafed through it looking to see if there was any for me. My attention was caught by a A4 letter that was about an inch thick.

The University of Birmingham was printed in big bold blue letters. I was surprised and a little bit frustrated, although Zoe was her own women she hadn’t told me that she was applying to Uni’s.

I knew better than to open another persons letter so I left it on the table and went to make myself a cup of coffee. I sat down and switched the TV on, but I wasn’t really watching it. Although Zoe and me had ‘been together’ for less than two years, just the thought that she might be leaving filled me with a weird mix of sadness and anger.

Zoe walked in about an hour later, since she worked a normal 9-5. I didn’t say anything, I wanted her to initiate the conversation, but the letter was right there in full view. She walked into the kitchen area then seeing the letter on the table she said,

‘I guess you figured it out then?’

‘yea, you could have told me’ I said turning to look at her.

‘Well I didn’t want to worry you, plus you’ve been really busy with the club and stuff’ she said reproachfully.

‘Now come on, you know you can tell me anything’ I said.

‘Well not really Alex, if you’ve lost a game there’s no talking to you, you come in all moody and wont talk about anything. If you win, your great, happy and bubbly but I feel that you don’t listen, its all about the match and how great the lads were.’

‘Well I’m sorry if I enjoy my work, I just thought you should tell me that your thinking of going away to university’ I replied my voice rising.

‘Well its all right for you to say that, you don’t have to worry about anything. You are in your dream job, you’ve got money you don’t have to worry about anything. I don’t want to be stuck as your assistant for the rest of my life’ she said beginning to cry.

‘Look, babe’ I said my tone changing instantly, ‘you know that I’m here to support you, in whatever you do, I just wish you would let me help you. Your so damn stubborn’ I said walking over to her and giving her a hug.

‘Tell me about this uni course then’ I said.

Over the next couple of hours we talked over all the potential possibilities and different places she could go. We looking if it was possible to commute and how expensive that would be. We eventually decided on Leister University. It was to far for her to commute every day but not to far that she could not come home on her weekends.

‘Hopefully I won’t have any lectures on a Friday or Monday’ she said.

In the end it all came to a comfortable conclusion, it was going to be hard we both agreed but we would try and make it work, and she would still be using my flat as ‘home base’. I was glad that we hadn’t agued because it would have been a miserable couple of weeks with no games for me to get m teeth stuck into.

Over the next two weeks I totally indulged myself, I was allowing myself lie ins till 9 and watching lots of football. England won their game against Switzerland but could only manage a draw against Malta. But while they were still top of their group there was little reason to worry, yet.

I got the reports back from my scouts about the various players, of mine, that had played for their countries.

Zeefuik and Wijnaldum both played in each of their three games, with Zeefuik scoring twice against Latvia and once against Slovenia.

Matuidi continued his good form my scoring for France u-21s against Serbia and against Montenegro.

Kewell played well in the one match against Bahrain, scoring twice.

All my other senior players did well apart from Maloney and Ghaly who were only used as substitutes and didn’t really have any impact.

All too quickly the international break was over and we were gearing up for our next Premier league match against newly promoted Sheffield Wednesday. Sheff Wed were, as predicted loitering in the bottom three and I was confident that we would be able to win, even if we were away. Some of my senior players were tired after playing for their respective countries so I made quite a few chances to the team that joined me on the coach to Sheffield.

GK- Lloris

DR- Mellberg

DC- Knight

DC- Davies

DL- Guilherme

MR- Maloney

MC- Matuidi

MC- Petrov

ML- Barry

ST- Moore

ST- Lupoli

Subs:

Gouffran

Van Der Vaart

Young

Wijnaldum

Zeefuik

The Dutch pairs impressive performance for their country and earned them a place on the bench.

It was our normal 4-4-2 formation that lined up in the Hillsborough stadium.

I shook the hand of Brain Laws a talented young manager like myself.

I sat down in my technical area, confident that my team would pull off the expected win.

The game started and our 9th game of the PL season was under way, and it started well for us, with the Sheff Wed goal under pressure right away.

We won a free kick just inside the Sheffield half. Knight pumped the ball into the box. Barry rose highest and knocked it down at goal. Lupoli who was waiting in the box reacted quickest and managed to flick it at the goal, however the goal keeper had seen the danger and managed to palm it away, although he didn’t know much about it. It was clear that he didn’t know much about it because all he could do was palm it straight back to Lupoli who made no mistake with his second chance, and headed it over the floor bound keeper.

1-0

Our ascendancy was quickly confirmed a couple of minutes later. Maloney stole the ball from Gilbert and he lobbed a ball for Lupoli to chase. Lupoli the young 21 year old had no trouble catching up the ball and lobbing the out rushing keeper.

2-0

After that brief intense period of football the game calmed down a bit and my team took their foot of the gas pedal slightly, to our own downfall. Sheffield might not have been the most technical of teams but they had heart, and they calm right back at us.

Pattison won the ball in midfield and started to run straight at our goal. He beat Petrov with his dibbling skills before picking out a beautiful pass to Miller. Miller cut inside then out then in again, totally confusing Davies. Miller then laid the ball up for Folly to take a hit. Take a hit he did Folly smashed the ball into the roof of the net past the diving Lloris. Sheffield were back in the game.

2-1

They say that after you score you are at your most vulnerable. It was true, however not for Sheffield but for us, less than two minutes later they had equalised. Jeffers beat Petrov and ran at the defence, when Knight had run out to meet him he passed wide to Johnson, the full back who had made a forward run. He crossed it with his first touch. The ball flew a curved route to the back post where Miller headed it past Lloris. He then went to celebrate in front of the Sheffield faithful who were bouncing around.

2-2

We had squandered a two goal lead, and I was not pleased. I was out in my area, shouting at my players to go forward, to concentrate, basically to play better than they were. I was furious, for any team to lose a two goal lead was bad, but for my team to lose a two goal lead was unforgivable. I was fuming and I was already walking to the dressing room when the half time whistle went.

I was inside and sitting down when the rest of my staff and the players walked in. They all knew what was coming, they did their normal activities but extremely quietly.

‘Lads’ I paused, ‘what was that, we had them on the ropes, we had them were we wanted them and you let them back in the game. All the momentum is with them now, and we will have to work very hard to win this game. What a story the press will have tomorrow if we lose this game. Comon lads, you all know how to play football, so bleeding well show it. Use the space, use the wings, play around them, make them chase you. Tire them out then hit them with the fast break, you know how to do this. This is our bread and butter, you’ve got to perform better, all of you, much better. Just think, and believe, you’re a great squad so go and show those already celebrating home fans a thing or two’ I finished, my anger had dissipated but it would rise again if we did lose.

I put Zeefuik on for Moore who had played terribly and was suffering a bit of fatigue.

The second half began and both teams went in search for the win, Sheffield could feel it and were buoyed by their home fans, and my team had something to prove.

Both team cancelled each other out in the early minutes and with each passing minutes I was getting more and more anxious. Finally after the hour mark we got the break though and funnily enough it was from a tactic that I never told the lads to play. Mellberg hit a long ball forward. Zeefuik came deep to head it down for Petrov who produced a wonderful first time pass, which bisected the defence, to Lupoli who yet again made no mistake from 10 yards out. His second hatrick in as many games, he was turning out to be this seasons Zarate.

3-2

I brought on Van Der Vaart for Petrov who was tiring.

Sheffield went in search of their third equaliser but my team either afraid of what I would say or sensing a win started to play extremely well and defended with the highest class. I brought Wijnaldum on for Matuidi with 15 minutes to go.

We managed to hold out, even though Sheffield had a goal ruled out to the anger of the home fans, players and manager.

Sheffield Wednesday 2-3 Aston Villa

Folly (24), Miller (27), Lupoli (10, 14, 65)

Attendance- 22973

MOM- Lupoli

Lupoli had no scored 10 goals in 8 matches, he was really beginning to prove his 7.5million pounds transfer fee.

[madog308]

However the way that Sheffield Wednesday worried our defence was not an encouraging sign for the game against our next opponents. For the next game we would play, in three days time was the biggest of all our careers. Neither the players nor the coaching staff had any experience in playing the biggest club in the world, Real Madrid.

Real Madrid were a club not bound by normal limits of money, they had no wage budget, they had no transfer limit. Their first team comprised of 25 players coming to a total cost of 310million in transfer fees, the wage budget? Who knows, try doubling that.

It was the away tie to Real Madrid in the Champions League group F, we would be travelling to the Bernabeu the next day. The Cauldron of 80thousand baying Spaniards would not be an easy place to play and I had no expectations of winning, and I even told this to the media.

The media were hyping this up as a chance for the new leading team in England, which I personally thought was a little premature, to beat the best club in the world.

‘Its going to be hard, there’s no question they have a great team and a great coach in Bernd Schuster, he will no doubt set them up in an attacking formation. All we can hope for is to hold out and hopefully nick a goal to either win or draw. If we can draw I will be happy. This is our first time in Europe and we want to keep the journey going as long as possible’. That was my statement to the worlds press just before we were due to fly out.

I took heart from our performance against Arsenal a couple of week back and I named an attacking line up. However I was well aware that the only way we would score was from a counter attack, so I told my players not to push to far out in search of a goal. I hoped that if we didn’t give in we might be able to hold Madrid in midfield for most of the game giving us a chance to hold out for a draw.

I had never travelled to Spain and there was a great deal of excitement on the plane over. I would be relying on my coaches to give me a lot of help considering I had never played any teams in Spain and most of them had come from Spain.

I was very much of the belief that the players shouldn’t be stressed before going into a match so I had given them from when we landed, about 2pm till 11pm, to do whatever they wanted as long as it didn’t include drinking. I meanwhile went back to the hotel with the backroom staff. I had all intentions of looking round Madrid however as soon as I walked out of the hotel I was accosted by several reporters. So my visit of Madrid would have to wait, because I wasn’t prepared to be followed round Madrid. However I was hungry so Claudio and some of the first team coaches went out the service entrance to go and get a meal.

We found this beautiful little café right in the heart of Madrid down one of the backstreets. It was intelligently named Café central and when we walked in there was a Jazz saxophonist on a stage playing some great music. This is a cool place I thought as our party took a seat in the back corner.

We weren’t sitting there long when a waitress came round asking what we would like to drink. I was looking at the wine list while my colleagues ordered, I eventually found one that looked good and I asked for a class of Artadi. When the waitress had walked away one of the first team coaches Kike Linero said.

‘That waitress liked you’ he said with a grin on his face. I looked up to see all the other staff grinning to. I sensed a trick.

‘What, what do you mean’ I said in a suspicious tone.

‘O she just couldn’t stop looking at you’ he said still smiling.

‘O that, I get that all the time’ I said laughing it off. The conversation returned to football.

I went to the bathroom, and when I came back the drinks had arrived and a different waiter was waiting to take our food orders. I took the advice off one of the Spanish coaches and asked for Paella.

We were all discussing the qualities of the Real Madrid players and their fierce opponents Barcelona when the waiter and the first waitress came back with our food. The waitress was staring at me again, and I noticed something oddly familiar about her, I couldn’t put my finger on and the thought eventually slipped from my mind when I tasted the excellent food.

It was a wonderful meal with wonderful conversation and wonderful company. It was a great introduction to Madrid with its fine food and even better music life. The Café that we were in turned out to be a haven for Jazz musicians and there was constant music. It was coming up to 9:30 when we decided to leave and after much haggaling and persuading I went to the bar to pay the bill.

I walked up to the cash register and the waitress that had been staring at me was behind it.

‘Hey, could I pay for the meal please’ I said wallet in hand.

‘Yea sure’ she said smiling. That voice, where had I heard it before?

I got my American express card out and handed it to the waitress.

A few minutes later I got it back.

‘Thanks’ I said and started to turn still raking my brains as to who this person was and why I thought I knew them.

Suddenly the waitress spoke.

‘Alex, Alex Diaz?’ she said

‘Yea’ I answered and turned round.

‘You might not remember but we grew up together, its Rachael’

A smile spread across my face. ‘you know, I thought I knew you from somewhere, Rachael Laine, the girl next door. Its so nice to see you, how have you been, how long has it been’ I said half laughing and smiling.

‘Too long’, she said walking round the bar, she walked right up to me and gave me a hug, one of the best hugs I have had in a while.

‘What are you doing here, actually when do you get off, let me buy you a drink?’ I said, looking at her intently.

‘Amador’ she shouted over her shoulder ‘Can I take off now’ she shouted in Spanish.

‘Rachael’ came the reply ‘why you must leave’ said the voice coming closer. A large man walked out from a door behind the bar, behind I could see the furious action of the kitchen. ‘Ahh, I see’ he said looking at me. ‘Bueno, very well you can go’ he said smiling at me.

‘Come I know this great little bar’ she said taking me by the hand.

The next couple of hours flew by. Rachael had been my next door neighbour growing up, she had been my best friend and a girl that I secretly fancied since the age of 8. Her beauty had only increased with time. We had been inseparable when we were younger and our mothers used to joke that we would get married one day. However she went to uni and I went to Gillingham and we hadn’t seen each other till tonight, which made it about 10, actually closer to 15 years.

We spent ages catching up, she had gone to uni and trained as a marine biologist and was working in Madrid part time for the University, however she funded part of her way by working in Café Central 4 nights a week. She had travelled all over the world including Indonesia and Australia and had now settled in Madrid. She was extremely interested and impressed that I had become a manager, and a manager of a big club in England. We swapped phone numbers and I said that I would get her VIP tickets to see the game if she liked. She did and we parted ways at about midnight.

I had told my lads to be in at 11 and to come back at midnight was not a good show of discipline from my side, so I sneaked in the back entrance and managed to get into my room unnoticed.

I took a quick shower and got into bed. My phone was flashing, it was a message from Rachael.

‘Had a really nice time seeing you again, ill see you at the game good luck. Xx

I went to bed with a smile on my face.

[madog308]

I was rudely woken from dreams of my childhood by the alarm. All thoughts of last night were quickly erased from my brain. Today was match day and we needed to get going. It was late get up, at 9:30. Because the match didn’t start until 7:45. I had told the players not to get up before ten, there is nothing worse than hanging around to get nervous. However there was still lots to do, we had to go through tactics, have a full training session on the pitch and start getting mentally prepared. Sooner than I had hoped the 7pm mark passed. A few minutes earlier I had gone outside the ground to give Rachael her VIP ticket and apologised for the fact that I couldn’t sit with her. She said I was stupid for apologising she fully understood.

It was time to talk to my squad before the match.

GK- Lloris

DR- Coloccini

DC- Breno

DC- Laursen

DL- Guilherme

MR- Young

MC- Petrov

MC- Van Der Vaart

ML- Kewell

ST- Zarate

ST- Lupoli

Subs:

Barry

Gouffran

Matuidi

Maloney

Moore

Mellberg

Zeefuik

I put Laursen on instead of Knight, who was my usual centre back partner to Breno, because I hoped that with Laursen being a bit older he might be able to get into better positions and be less flappable.

‘Right lads listen up, you all know this is a big game, there is no point in me denying it, but to come here and ask you to win is a crazy request, they are a great team and we are a good one. We can play against them, I just want you to go out there, soak up the atmosphere, and learn from the great players. Try to do what you do best, defend well and look to hit them on the counter attack. I want you all to close down at all times in our own half, but most importantly have fun. If you don’t have fun playing football against the best then your not a true footballer. Right good luck and lets try and give our fans something to cheer about’

It was an odd team talk and the kind that I was not used to giving, but it was the realistic one.

Both teams lined up in the tunnel and Lloris and Raul shook hands. Then both teams ran onto the pitch and I went to walk to my technical area. The stadium was full but not at capacity, there were some empty sections in the upper tiers.

Finally the ref blew his whistle and we were under way. We had the kick off. The ball was passed back to Coloccini who killed the ball and looked up for someone to pass to. Mutu had sprinted right from the whistle and was on Coloccini as the ball arrived to him and he didn’t have time to pass it on. Mutu stole the ball and ran at goal. My team was scrambling back; Mutu ran into the box and crossed the ball along the floor. Van Der Vaart managed to thump the ball clear. Ramos collected the ball and passed infield to Gago. Gago held the ball then passed back to Ramos who had made a forward run. Ramos crossed it first time towards the back post. Yet again one of my players was in the way. Coloccini rose highest to head the ball away. Gago collected and passed to Van Nisterlrooy who was standing on the Penalty spot, he turned and fired past Lloris. It had taken Real Madrid 40 seconds to score. It was not a good sign.

I was destroyed, how could we go behind so early and what do that goal foretell about the match.

1-0

I always knew that it would ‘not be if but when’ but I thought that we wouldn’t have conceded so quickly. However my lads were a good set and they started playing how they liked and we almost hit right back and would have done but for a good save from Casillas. The game was an open fast flowing one a real advert for the sport. Real Madrid hit the post on the 15 minute and we had a chance cleared off the goal line by Torres. However there was no getting away from the fact that every time Real attacked, they threatened to score. They flew through our midfield and only the skill of Lloris kept us in the game. However there was no second goal for Real, at least not straight away. Both teams had score’s of chances although Real had the better looking ones. However their aim seemed to be off. For every three chances they created only one was on target.

We slowly but surely started to push them back up the field and our counter attackers were always deadly. However Casillas was just as good a keeper as Lloris and every attack we made was thwarted by him. The half was coming to an end and although both sides had chances, some gilt edged the score was still 1-0 to Real.

We were in stoppage time when we won a free kick just inside the Real half. The defenders trooped forward. Guilherme stepped up to hit the ball. However to everyone’s surprise he hit the ball low and hard to Petrov, who in turn hit it just as hard and fast to Young who was standing on the edge of the box. Young beat Torres with a drop of his shoulder and was behind the defender. He centred the ball along the floor and Lupoli beat the other defenders to the ball and hit it hard and firm into the goal off the right upright.

We had drawn level just before half time.

I was on my feat and pumping my fist up and down, a brilliantly worked goal, and we were back on level terms. Brilliant.

1-1

The half finished soon after and it was time for my half time team talk.

‘Ok lads, really well played out there, you did well not to give in after that first goal. Even better you scored, that shows that this team is vulnerable, you’ve done a great job so keep concentrating and don’t let them back in, keep going your playing excellently.’ Short and sweet, they knew what they needed to do.

The second half started with 60 thousand Madrid fans baying for our blood. They wanted to see their beloved Real Madrid win against these cocky young upstarts.

The game progressed quickly with both teams having multiple chances, however it was Real Madrid that were having the best of them, but unusually their finishing was dreadful with several good chances being wasted by blasting the ball over the net. It was almost as if they were trying to hard, but I wasn’t complaining.

Once we passed the hour mark, I started to feel really nervous, if we could only hold out for another half hour it would be a really great result. I brought Barry on for Petrov to give the defence some more help.

Real were throwing on substitutes that I would die to have, including Robinho and Wesley Sneijder.

Ten minutes after I put Barry on I put Matuidi on for Van Der Vaart. I wanted this draw and I wasn’t afraid to look happy about it.

I started to pace my technical area, more out of nervousness than to urge my players on, they knew what was expected of them.

The 90 minute mark came and went and we were in injury time. I threw on Zeefuik to waste some more time. Then suddenly the beautiful sign that the match was over. The ref’s Whistle. We had held out, we had managed an incredible feat. It really showed how far my team had come, we had arrived prepared to fight Real, and we would leave as their equals.

Real Madrid 1-1 Aston Villa

Van Nisterlrooy (1), Lupoli(46)

Attendance- 61258

MOM- Lloris.

[madog308]

Dum, dum, dum dum.

Someone shouted. ‘IN FOUR, THREE, TWO’

Suddenly bright lights were shone onto me and the smiling host began his introduction.

‘Hello and welcome to ‘In depth, in person’ I’m Harry oldam and joining me in the studio is a talented young manager who is lighting up the modern game, defying the odds and leading Aston Villa to dizzy heights. He turned to me. ‘Welcome’

‘Thank you’ I said with a thin smile, I never particularly liked TV chat shows but some how I had been convinced that this one would be a good idea.

‘lets start off with a look at your time with Aston Villa’ the host said and the VT was run.

It was collection of clips from last season, goals by Zarate, saves by Lloris, Clips from interviews I had given to the press, pictures of fans celebrating and lastly pictures of me running onto the pitch after wins against Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd. The VT ended and the host turned to me.

‘You’ve had quite a start at Aston Villa, taking them up to second in the league in your first season in charge, did you think you would manage when you took the job?’

‘Defiantly not, to be honest I didn’t know what to expect, I knew Aston Villa had a good team and were capable of pushing up the table, but the players worked extremely hard and we got some lucky results and well we ended up just losing the title to Liverpool.’

‘Do you regret some decision in those final few games?’

‘I did at the time, I was distraught that we had come so close and lose out right at the end, but I forgot what a total surprise and amazing the lads had been in getting us to that position anyway’

‘Now you’re a relatively young manager, only 34, but you haven’t been afraid to make some big decisions. For example the use of all of the transfer budget, the selling of Agbonlahor, and Cahill, plus the sacking of almost all the back room staff. Do you ever worry before making those kinds of decisions?’

I sat in thought for a second. ‘Worry is perhaps not the right word, I think about the decisions long and hard, I look at every possible outcome before I make them. The club appointed me manager and I’m going to manage the way I see fit. I believe that a manager is given a job to make his team the best they can be, he doesn’t need the added stress of a owner or president bugging him or overruling him. I’ve been very lucky that Randy Lerner lets me get on with my job’

‘The premier league has seen some big changes over the past couple of season with some of the big managers moving on such as Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Rafael Benitez all leaving. What is your take on the situation in the PL at the moment?’

‘Well first let me say that all those managers have been very harshly treated by being sacked, each and every single one of them had given his all to the club and although Wenger and Benitez hadn’t delivered they were due a little bit more respect that what they received. Owners who buy premier league club don’t appreciate how difficult it is to move up in this league, and the fact that it takes time, no man can do everything in one season, let alone half a season. Managers need to be given time.’

‘You have now played ten games this season and you are again sitting at the top of the table, how do you feel this season is going?’

‘Well we’ve had a good couple of results, or course we drew against Real Madrid’ This brought applause from the audience. ‘Then we had a solid two nil win against Portsmouth, who are a dangerous team, then we managed to follow that up with a 2-1 against Man U in the league cup. I was extremely pleased with my lads after that match, especially Luke Moore, who managed to keep calm and shoot past Van Der Sar in extra time. I’m pleased, the lads have been playing well, the new boys are fitting in and the old guard has welcomed them admirably.’

‘You have brought a lot of new faces into the team this season, 7 in pre-season at an estimated cost of over 40 million, what is your opinion on the theory that too many new players disrupt a team’

‘I believe that theory is true, if they go straight into the first team. Although I have bought 7 players, only two have gone straight into the first team. Coloccini was needed and he was always going to go into the first team. Arturo Lupoli has worked really hard and has got himself into the first team. The others, Matuidi, Gouffran, Davies and Van Der Vaart, have been working very well and they now slot into the team perfectly, they give us an extra option which keeps the opposition on their toes.’ Anticipating his next question

‘I have only spent money that was given to me, and we will have to spend money if we are to stay near the top of the table and promote ourselves into a leading club in the premier league.’

‘Now I’m sure every manager feels the same but you’ve had your far share of runs ins with the press, including your office being bugged, what is your opinion on the press?

‘haha, well I suppose I have been unlucky with the press, but at the end of the day they are only providing a service to the supporters who love football. True sometimes I hate them and want to smash their microphones but other times I am willing to try my best to give them what they want in interviews.’

‘Your are currently still in the Champions league, second in your group and likely to qualify, your in the quarter finals of the league cup an you have still got the FA cup to start. Are you worried about your players burning out?’

‘That’s a very serious concern, we have got a lot of games to play this season and if we want to win things we will have to be on top of our game, its going to be a long hard run right up until the end of the season but if the players have the will then we can manage it and we have a good chance of winning several pieces of silverware, something that we haven’t done yet.’

‘We have covered your recent career quite a lot, but what was it that persuaded you to go into becoming a manager, what inspired that kid to take up football seriously?’

‘wow, well I guess it was watching my beloved Southampton play and ‘le great one’, Matt Le Tissier. I loved watching football, but I loved playing any sports, and it wasn’t until quite late 17 that I decided that school wasn’t for me and that I wanted to become a footballer. As you can imagine starting that late wasn’t great and I didn’t manage to become the player I wanted to become. I eventually gave up at the age of 26 , took a couple of years doing odd jobs and travelling the world, however where ever I went I was compelled to watch the football in that country. Eventually I arrived back in England and decided to get my coaching badges then I did stints at Southampton and up in Scotland. Then quite by chance my agent said that he had heard wind that Aston Villa were going to sack Martin and start looking for a new manager. Through a friend of a friend I managed to get my self to Birmingham and get an interview with Randy, the rest it, so you say, is history’

‘Excellent, it has been my up most pleasure Alex, and we wish you luck in your future games. He turned away from me and looked into the camera. After the break we have Leona Lewis and her rise to fame’

The lights went down and the house lights came on.

‘Excellent really excellent said Harry shaking my hand.’

‘Yea thanks a lot mate’ I said smiling at him.

It had been a crazy couple of weeks. We had played two games and won them, I had done an interview, Zoë had started to look for flats near the uni, and I had struck up a daily correspondence with Rachael.

I walked out of the television centre to a crowd of people all asking for my autograph, I signed a couple before I made my excuses and made my way to my car.

I feel I had made a good impression of my self on the TV show; it was to be aired the next day, so I was looking forward to sitting down and watching it. Luckily the Birmingham television centre was not to far away from my flat. I was back by about 4 o’clock. Our next match against Newcastle was in two days time, however I was taking today off, with the television interview, I had already missed the morning training. Zoë was at her new flat closer to the uni so I was on my own in flat. It was quite nice in a sense; I had never had much time to myself with sharing a flat and working with a whole squad of players and staff, it was nice to just sit down.

I watched some TV, watching some footage of Newcastle this season, because as a manager you never stop working, played a bit of Xbox. I went to check my emails about 7pm, and there was a new one from Rachael.

‘Hey Alex, hope your alright, hope the interview went well and they didn’t bore, or annoy you with their questions, work is going really well. Knowing that I going to have an email waiting for me when I get back gets me through the day. Amador says you have made me a worse waitress, not sure how I could have gotten worse lol, because I don’t concentrate any more. Anyway hope the game against Newcastle goes well, I will follow the team all the time now. Ill see if I can get a cheep flight over for the return leg of the Real Madrid game. Because I would really like to see you. 

Love Rachael.’[/Code]

It was nice to get an email; it was like getting a letter showed that they cared. I got a bottle of wine and sat on the sofa in a very contended mood.

[madog308]

It was nice to get an email; it was like getting a letter showed that they cared. I got a bottle of wine and sat on the sofa in a very contended mood.

I went to sleep in a happily slightly drunk state, however the next morning I was all work, we had one day left before our match against Newcastle. Newcastle were doing alright and were fifth in the league having just come off a three win streak. We would have to play well to beat them at St. James park.

Their obvious danger men were Michael Owen and new singing Scott Sinclair, who they had bought from Chelsea for 14 million pounds. They were a formidable attacking threat but the way Steve Hayward set his team up gave us a very good chance beating them. For they were set up in a 4-3-1-2 formation which meant there would be a lot of space for my wingers to create havoc. The team I named for the coach ride up north was as follows.

GK- Lloris

DL- Guilherme

DC- Breno

DC- Knight

DR- Coloccini

ML- Kewell

MC- Van Der Vaart

MC- Petrov

MR- Gouffran

ST- Lupoli

ST- Zarate

Subs:

Young

Matuidi

Barry

Moore

Mellberg

It was a very strong team and It showed how seriously I took each game. Gouffran was now challenging Young for his MR position, however I still felt Young was the better footballer but Gouffran was younger, though not by much.

We arrived at St. James park in plenty of time, I said a few words to the camera’s though not giving anything away of course before I moved to the dressing room. Newcastle have the famous toon army the fanatical support that loves the club, and are most of the time a 12th man on the field, I made this point clear in my pre-match team talk.

‘Ok lads, this is going to be a tough but you guys are good and have beaten bigger and better teams, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to work, they will come hard and fast both Owen and Scott are great players and you will have to watch them closely, but we can do it and I want you to break down the wings, make them chase us, and above all don’t be sloppy with the ball.’

I thought that was quite a good and clear team talk, but for all the good it did my team I may as well have talked to the wall, because 45 minutes later they came in puffing and panting, after being tossed around by Newcastle. We had managed to keep them from scoring, but that was more due to the brilliance of Lloris than the skill of my defenders, I was not pleased.

‘What in gods name was that, I told you to watch Owen not to ignore him so he could set up camp in our penalty box and take lazy flicks at passing balls. Jesus do you guys now how to mark. I dread to think what the travelling fans are thinking right about now, I wouldn’t blame them if they wanted to leave. Start bloody concentrating use the wings, use your pace use your trickery, you all have the ability now show this Newcastle team who think that they have already won this that you are not done yet, don’t let me down.’

I brought Barry on for Van Der Vaart who was a little fatigued.

I hoped a little fire and brimstone would help them on their way. I walked out and went to sit down in our technical area.

If my first team talk had been a damp limp squib well this one was a hard erect….yea.

Right from the kick off we looked like a different team, all the players were pulling out tricks and were more importantly pulling them off. Barry passed across field to Petrov who quickly passed it forward to Gouffran. He cut inside and ran passed the Newcastle left back Jose Enrique. Zarate saw Gouffran running inside and move to his right behind Enrique. Gouffran saw the run and made a cute through ball to Zarate and continued to run into the box. Zarate let the ball run past him before crossing it first time on the floor. The ball rolled perfectly for Gouffran who smashed it, unmarked, into the top left hand corner of the net leaving Given with no chance.

1-0

The early goal after the restart was exactly what I wanted; I just wish the players would have got in with it earlier in the match.

Newcastle annoyed that they had let us back into the game and had not taken their chances when they had them, threw themselves at us. However my defenders were now, as I asked concentrating. In a break in the game I waved Barry over.

‘I want you to stick like clue to Owen’ he was the real danger man, if anyone could score an equaliser it was him.

I brought Moore on for Lupoli on the hour mark to boost our counter attacking option, and I brought young on for Gouffran in the 89 minute just to give Young a run out.

It was a little desperate at times but we managed to hold on and the toon army was left disappointed, but I was left happy, glad that my team had turned around their shocking first half performance.

Newcastle 0-1 Aston Villa

Gouffran (46)

Attendance- 52146

MOM- Lloris

 Holders - Liverpool






| Pos   | Inf   | Team          |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Aston Villa   |       | 11    | 10    | 0     | 1     | 23    | 7     | +16   | 30    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Chelsea       |       | 12    | 9     | 3     | 0     | 19    | 5     | +14   | 30    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Liverpool     |       | 12    | 8     | 3     | 1     | 20    | 8     | +12   | 27    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Arsenal       |       | 12    | 8     | 2     | 2     | 20    | 5     | +15   | 26    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Newcastle     |       | 12    | 8     | 1     | 3     | 20    | 10    | +10   | 25    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Portsmouth    |       | 13    | 8     | 0     | 5     | 19    | 16    | +3    | 24    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Man Utd       |       | 9     | 6     | 1     | 2     | 18    | 6     | +12   | 19    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Fulham        |       | 13    | 5     | 4     | 4     | 18    | 13    | +5    | 19    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Reading       |       | 12    | 5     | 3     | 4     | 20    | 22    | -2    | 18    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | Middlesbrough |       | 11    | 5     | 2     | 4     | 10    | 12    | -2    | 17    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  |       | Everton       |       | 12    | 5     | 1     | 6     | 16    | 21    | -5    | 16    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  |       | West Brom     |       | 13    | 4     | 3     | 6     | 15    | 18    | -3    | 15    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  |       | Tottenham     |       | 12    | 4     | 2     | 6     | 16    | 17    | -1    | 14    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  |       | Man City      |       | 12    | 4     | 1     | 7     | 15    | 16    | -1    | 13    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  |       | Bolton        |       | 13    | 3     | 2     | 8     | 14    | 22    | -8    | 11    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  |       | West Ham      |       | 12    | 2     | 4     | 6     | 10    | 17    | -7    | 10    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  |       | Derby         |       | 13    | 3     | 1     | 9     | 16    | 24    | -8    | 10    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  |       | Wigan         |       | 12    | 2     | 2     | 8     | 5     | 14    | -9    | 8     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 19th  |       | Sheff Wed     |       | 13    | 0     | 5     | 8     | 5     | 23    | -18   | 5     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 20th  |       | Preston       |       | 13    | 1     | 2     | 10    | 10    | 33    | -23   | 5     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
|       |       |               |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

[/Code]

[madog308]

Coming off another win was excatly what I wanted to go into our next game in four days against the biggest club in the world.

Yup it was time for the mighty Madrid to take a trip to Birmingham to see what they were made off against a table topping British team.

The media were going crazy and the game was being aired on free to watch television, this meant many millions would be watching on TV as my boys tried to beat the Los Blancos.

With the boys having one day off after their win I only had the 3rd, 4th of November to work with, however to be honest I wasn’t going to change that much. We were now on a 11 game unbeaten streak and three game winning streak, and that streak would have been longer had it not been for the very same Real Madrid just under two weeks ago.

Obviously with such a strong team I played my absolute strongest team, I replaced Petrov with Barry and brought Young on for Gouffran.

The stadium was packed out long before the 7:45 kick off, the media presence was huge and after a number of interviews that all asked the same thing I was free to concentrate on how to get the best out of my players.

I had not heard anything from Rachael about coming over for the game, to be honest I was a little disappointed but with all respect I had bigger things to worry about. Zoe was also unable to attend, she was busy during the day getting furniture for the flat, and to come with all the traffic would have been to much hassle, but she promised she would be watching and that she would give me a call after the game.

The coach bearing some of the best players in the world rocked up and the boys in white got off, many had headphones on totally ignoring the waiting fans, they were focused, they knew that we were a dangerous team.

Time ticked by, and I was just about to take my team talk when a security man with an earpiece came over.

‘Sorry sir but there is a women insisting that she should be allowed into the VIP area, she says she knows you personally’

Had Zoe came anyway? I thought ‘right lead me to her, come on lets go’ I said moving to a jog.

As I turned the corner to the entrance to the VIP area I saw Rachael.

‘Hey you came!!’ I said.

‘Yea I told you I would, just these fools wouldn’t let me in, it would have been horrible to come all this way and miss the game, meters from seeing it live.’

‘Haha, of course’ let her in. I sat her down before I had to go. I sprinted back to the locker room, I was slightly concerned that I was out of breath when I got to the door. But I paused took a deep breath before walking in.

‘Rights lads, it’s the big game, probably the biggest game that many of you will play. We shocked them last time, but they wont be shocked again. They will have done their homework as we have done. Claudio and I, the whole back room staff have worked you hard, and we work you hard so that when it comes to the big games you can all perform. We are sitting atop of the Premier league table, the biggest and best league in the world. Concentrate through out the match, be confident in yourselves and you will all be the toast of the town and country. Do your respective countries proud and do your adopted home proud.’

I opened the door, and gave each player several pats on the back as they walked out the door. I could see the tension on their faces, but tension was good, it showed that they cared. That was key.

Both sets of players were out, the players in white on the left, the players in claret and blue on the right. I shook hands Bernd Schuster.

‘We have the home advantage this time, we will make it stick’ I said smiling at him. He merely gripped my hand and then walked back to his technical area.

Ivan Bebek blew his whistle and we were under way. Just as in Madrid, Real flew out of the blocks. They quickly moved the ball to the right wing, a cross flew in and the ball was in the back of the net.

‘For F**K’s sake’ I said. However when the luck is with you, the luck is really with you. The line’s man flag brought an abrupt end to the Real celebrations.

My players thanked their lucky stars and the game got back underway. We attacked and defender well in the early minutes, the players eager to put their early blunder behind them.

We won a free kick 10 yards from the edge of the Real area on the fifteen mark. Our resident Free kick expert Mauro Zarate stepped up. Mauro had not had the best of starts this season only scoring, three goals so far. However this was clearly not on his mind as he confidently stood over the ball making it clear that it was he who was going to take this free kick.

He took a couple of steps back then ran forward and hit the ball. The ball rose and curved, however it didn’t rise far enough and it clipped the top of the wall, however lady luck was once again shining on us and the deflection took it to the opposite side of the goal from which the ball was originally travelling to. Casillas was still in the air as he helplessly watched the ball bobble into the net.

1-0

It was a lucky goal but thirty, odd, thousands fans jumped up and down cheering, and pumping their fists, just as I was doing.

‘Yes lads’. We had taken the first hit, Real would be the ones players catch up now.

Real Madrid had taken a blow, and their game play suffered accordingly. Their attacks came with less frequency and with less speed. We were the ones just about in control of this game.

Fifteen minutes later we were in another good opportunity. We won a throw in 10 yards from the Real Madrid By-line. Coloccini, our resident long thrower ran up to take it.

It fizzed it into the box, aiming for Lupoli, who was standing in the box. Cannavaro normally an excellent central defender inexplicably tried to clear the ball with a bicycle kick. Needless to say the CENTRAL DEFEDNER, made a hash of it, and the ball looped, instead of out, across the box. It fell perfectly for Kewell who made no mistake with his volley from 5 yards out.

2-0

Another element of luck, however this was more Real’s fault that our good fortune.

The Spanish commentators were left speechless whereas our were shouting with glee. No one bar a few nutters would have predicted a two nil lead going into half time. We played out the rest of the half with ease, and the boys full of confidence and brimming with happiness walked into the dressing room.

‘Well done lads, really well done, I…well..gosh’ I laughed. The lads all smiled. ‘Seriously though, don’t take this lead for granted, Real are a good team and they can and potentially will overturn this lead. We have not won this one yet, we still have 45 minutes to play and you all know what needs doing.’

The half was up and both sets of players were back out on the field. Our fans cheered the start of the second half while the Real fans mutely clapped.

The first few minutes were a tense affair with neither team wanted to make the first move, however as time ticked by the game began to open up.

We won a throw just inside the real half. Guilherme ran up to take it. He took it quickly and passed it to Kewell who knocked it back to the brazilin. Guilherme then passed it to Van Der Vaart, he looked up and saw that Kewell and Zarate had created a triangle around Ramos. Van Der Vaart passed to Zarate, who was immediately closed down by Ramos. However Zarate was on the ball and managed to find Kewell, which put Kewell in behind the defence and left Ramos dizzy and confused. Kewell put a dangerous cross in. Barazgli, facing his own goal tried to flick the ball away for a throw rather than concede a corner. However, he just as Cannavaro made a mistake, he miss kicked the ball, and the ball bounced in front of Lupoli who was standing behind the defender. Lupoli wasn’t going to be asked twice, and he smashed the ball into the net from 10 yards. The Real back two were have a nightmare of a match.

3-0

We were three goals to the good, truly unbelievable. I immediately made some changes, after a small warm up, Matuidi and Maloney were on the field replacing Kewell, who was on a yellow, and Barry.

Real Madrid were in shock, but it didn’t take that long for that shock to turn into anger, and they began a all out attack. They started to fly into tackles and the ref was forced to start showing cards.

After fifteen minutes of pressure they finally got the breakthrough they were pushing for. Barazgli, punted the ball forward. Guilherme rose and tried to head it away, however he missed time his jump and the ball span sideways into the centre of the field. Raul pounced on the ball who with his first touch found Van Nisterlrooy, with his back to goal. However the Dutch man showed his class by turning on a dime and firing past the diving Lloris.

3-1

However it was merely a consolation goal, for my players tasted victory and they needed no encouragement to stay back and only counter attack when it was likely to produce reward.

Real were still lunching into tackles and Van Der Vaart was on the wrong side off one with 10 minutes left, he left the field on a stretcher. I replaced him with Reo-Coker.

In extra time the win was totally void of sweetness when Young was floored with a crunching tackle that left him limping. However without any remaining substitutes, I could do nothing and he merely waited with the defenders for the game to finish, which it did a couple of minutes later to the standing ovation off our support and to the quiet cold empty seats of the away stand.

Aston Villa 3-1 Real Madrid

Zarate(14), Kewell (36), Lupoli (54)

Attendance- 39578

MOM- Lloris

The dressing room was a cacophany of sound, it was like we had already won the champions leauge, the players were jumping around, the coaches were jumping around, water was flying everywhere and everyone had a big smile on their face.

‘RIGHT!!!’ I shouted and eventually everyone calmed down and looked at.

‘Just got something to say’ I said with my most serious face on.

I paused.

‘BRILLIANT’ I shouted and moved forward to hug various players, the noise and shouting immediately started again.

I had to be dragged away to do the press conference.

‘What did you think of your players performance?’ asked the BBC reporter.

‘Brilliant, really brilliant, we have shown the world that Aston Villa is ready to play with the big boys of the footballing world’

‘Who stood out for you today’ asked a local reporter.

‘Every player played extremely well and we couldn’t have got this result if each and everyone one of them had not given their all, but of course you have to look to Lloris, he, yet again, pulled off some remarkable saves, he is a true great and someone who can fill this role at the club for the next ten years.’

‘What did you think of the real Madrid team’ asked a reporter in heavily accented English.

‘Well its simple really they didn’t turn up, they are a good team, one of the best, but they had an off day today, and we took advantage. Simple really.’

I answered a few more questions but my mind was on getting back to the player and calling Zoë.

[madog308]

I walked away from the press room, said goodbye to the players and went to offer my condolences and a glass of wine to Bernd Schuster, only to find him and his team already getting on their bus home.

‘I am sorry I can not join you’ Bernd said in accented English. However even through his accent I could tell he was not sorry at all, but I didn’t blame him.

I had the wine with my back room staff instead although two bottles to go around several of us didn’t last long. However, it was enjoyable and before long it was time to go home. I was walking out to my car when I heard my name being shouted.

‘Alex, hey alex!’ I turned and saw Rachael walking towards me. I had totally forgot about her, but I was happy to see her.

‘Hey, how are you, what are you still doing her’ I asked as I embraced her warmly.

Just then several flashes came from beside us. A guy with a camera was standing there taking pictures of us.

‘Leave off mate’ I shouted.

‘Come on, my cars just here’ I said putting my arm around Rachael and leading her to my car.

‘Nice, a Morgan, very nice’ she said as she got in.

‘You know what Morgan’s are, I’m impressed’ I said smiling at her and getting in the car.

‘So when are you flying back’ I said as we drove out of the car park.

‘Tomorrow’ she said looking at me.

‘So where are you staying? I can take you there’ I said, eyes on the road.

‘Well I haven’t actually booked anywhere so if you can just take me to the nearest hotel that will be fine.’ She replied.

‘Don’t be stupid, you can stay with me and ill get a cab for you tomorrow morning.’ I said making the relevant turns to my house.

‘Are you sure, its not to much hassle’ she protested but I was having none of it.

We got home in no time, I made up the bed while she went to the toilet. When she came out smelling fresh and looking stunning, I was ready.

‘The bed is all set up for you, the fridge is there and the bathroom well you’ve already seen it, its not much I’m afraid.

‘Its perfect’ she said, as she walked over to me, she gave me a hug, and I could smell her perfume. She kissed me on the cheek and walked into my bedroom.

What was that feeling in my stomach, a tingling warm sensation?

I flopped onto the sofa pondering what exactly it meant, but I fell asleep before I could work it out.

When I woke there was sunlight streaming into the flat, although there was no training today I still jumped up.

‘Rachael?’ you up yet. I slowly padded to my room and opened the door, what I saw shocked me.

The bed was perfectly made with a folded piece of paper on the bed. I walked over and picked it up.

‘Dear Alex, thanks for letting me crash at yours, I had a really nice time seeing you, but when I got up you were still asleep. I hope you don’t mind but I got my self some breakfast. I got a cab this morning and I’m probably in the air if not landed by the time you read this. Sleepy head!! Lol. Look forward to your email.

Rachael.’

Cheez she could have said goodbye I thought.

Anyway she was safe and I didn’t have to worry about her.

As it was another win, I had the day off and I was beginning to plan in my head a perfect relaxing, stress free day, when the phone rang.

[madog308]

‘yello?’ I said into the receiver.

‘Who is she alex? Huh who the hell is she?’ shot an angry female voice.

‘Zoe? Is that you, what do you mean?’ I said holding the phone slightly further away from my ear.

‘The girl you took home last night, there are pictures Alex, pictures in newspapers.’ She said still in a high pitched half scream.

‘What’ I paused while I walked over to my door and picked up the papers that were delivered every day.

On the back page of the Sun was a photo of me and Rachael in an embrace, and a smaller one of me handing her into my car.

‘Right I know it looks bad but it is not what you think, she is an old family friend that I bumped into in Madrid and I said that I would get her tickets to see the return match. Honest’ I said in my most normal voice I could muster. But was I feeling a little bit of guilt? Why?.

‘Right, well I’m coming to yours now and you can tell me face to face whether you are cheating on me’ she then hung up and all I heard was the dialling tone.

Great there goes my relaxing day, I thought. Girls just don’t understand.

With the worry of Zoë and I’s inevitable argument I didn’t fully appreciated the fact that with that win over Real Madrid we had leapfrogged them for the first qualifying spot for the second stage of the Champions league. We would need another win to make certain.

Our game against Real was the start of a three game run which would severely test my young team, our next match was against Manchester Utd at Home, and then we faced Chelsea Away.

However the for front of my mind was firmly on Zoë, and it wasn’t long before the door opened and there she stood.

I could see that she had been crying and she looked like she was about to start again.

‘Do you want to explain or should I just stand here?’ she said staring at me.

‘I thought I did, she is an old family friend that I met in Madrid, nothing more’ I said looking her dead in the eye.

‘Did she stay here last night’ she said taking a step towards me.

I paused before answering. ‘Yes’

‘What!!’ she shouted.

‘And I slept on the sofa’ I said before she could speak. I took a step towards her.

‘I promise I did not cheat on you with her. She needed a place to stay before her flight back this morning. We did not sleep in the same bed, we did not have sex!’ I said taking a couple of steps closer. I was almost at arms length.

‘What’s her name?’ she replied still looking mad.

‘What? Why? Rachael’ I said before I said something I shouldn’t.

‘So her name is Rachael. Is she pretty’ she said, now looking extremely serious.

‘Don’t be stupid, I told you, I did not, and I am not, going to cheat on you’.

‘AHHH’ she let out a cry and ran out of the door, with me quickly in pursuit.

I followed her down stairs, however by the time I had burst through the doors of the building, she was already getting into her car, and by the time I made it to the where the car had been, it was speeding away up the street.

‘goddamit’ I shouted.

This was exactly what I didn’t want before some crucial big games.

The man U game was on the 8th of September, which was two days away, that meant that I had one day of training with the lads. With my relaxing day gone, I decided to go watch some footage of Man U’s games this season. They had been playing well in the league and had only lost three times this season.

The next days training went well and it helped take my mind of what had happened the previous day. I had left countless answer phone messages on Zoe’s mobile yet none we returned, I could only wait for her to make the first contact.

We had beaten Man U in the league Cup, so there was an air of confidence in training and the same air of confidence carried over the next day in pre-match meeting.

Another bit of bad news hit me in the pre-match meeting, the Physio report had arrived concerning Ashley Young and Rafael Van Der Vaart. Both were better than I first expected, Young was only going to be out for a week, meaning he would be back for the Chelsea game, whereas Van Der Vaart would be out for three weeks meaning he would be back for our return Champions league leg against Panathinaikos. That meant that I would be without for two very important players against, today’s match against Man U.

Aston Villa- Manchester Utd, Home, PL, 8.11.2008

The team that I named was:

Gk- Lloris

DR- Coloccini

DC- Breno

DC- Knight

DL- Guilherme

MR- Gouffran

MC- Petrov

MC- Barry

ML- Kewell

ST- Zarate

ST- Lupoli

Subs:

Reo-Coker

Maloney

Matuidi

Moore

Mellberg

Still a very strong team with the heart of the team remaining the same.

Our morning practise went well and all the players were in high spirits, which made my own lift from the lows that they had sunk to, due to Zoë not calling me.

As time ticked closer to 3pm nerves started to bite.

It was time for my pre-match talk.

‘Well lads, it has been a great few weeks and a great run of games, but it could all end tonight. Man U are an excellent team and we cannot take them lightly. We have been playing extremely well and beat the best team in Europe, but that will mean toffee if we cant follow it up at home. Pundits are still calling us lucky, on a Cinderella season, show them they are wrong, show them Aston Villa are here to stay.’

We walked out to a wall of noise, the Stadium seemed to vibrate with the stuff, you could almost feel it. I’m sure all the players, as I did, felt the power of it, felt the power of the support. There wasn’t an empty seat in the house. Nearly forty thousand fans were packed in like sardines.

The teams lined up and Barry and Neville shook hands before running to their respective places. The ref looked at his watch and we were under way on a dry, chilly but beautiful winter Afternoon.

Last season we had been known to start quickly, we had lost some of that reputation this season. However, with both teams looking to attack, from the off, goals were guaranteed. It wasn’t long before I was proved right.

In the early phrases of passing we won a throw in 15 or so yards inside the Man U Half. Guilherme took the throw and found Petrov, who turned and found Barry further up the field. Barry held the ball up while Petrov ran forward before passing back to the Bulgarian. Petrov was now close enough to the Man U box to warrant attention, however he stayed calm and cool. Petrov waited until Palombo was almost on him, when he span and found Lupoli edge of area. Ferdinand saw the pass and started to close Lupoli down but the young Italian nutmeged the great defender to find Zarate free in the box, and Zarate was not the kind of player to miss from 10 yards out. The bottom of the net billowed as the ball hit home.

1-0

We had scored inside 5 minutes, a disaster start for the Red Devils.

Man U were not a team to get caught napping and they responded in force, and forced Lloris to a couple of saves soon after the restart. However it was on one of these attacking runs that we had the best chance of a counter attack. And exactly that happened several minutes later.

Guilherme won a header against Ronaldo, and found Knight. Knight looked up and saw space ahead of him, however he decided to pass to Lupoli who was standing on the half way line. The Man U defence were scrambling to get back, and our players were sprinting for all their might to get into a good position. Kewell was one of the first in those good positions, and Lupoli who had held the ball up briefly found him wide on his wing. Meanwhile Zarate was sprinting up the middle looking to worry Vidic and Ferdinand. Kewell saw the run and first time lobbed a ball for Zarate to chase. Zarate is a quick player and when I say quick and I mean real quick. He overtook Vidic and was odds on to get to the ball first. Van Der Sar saw the danger and started to rush out of his goal. Zarate controlled the ball, and brought it out of the air with his left foot before lobbing the Dutch keeper with his right. A sublime piece of skill and a attack that took 30 seconds to go from Our own penalty box to back of Manchester Utd’s net.

2-0

The fans were in raptures and were jumping up and down for joy rejoicing at the fact that the biggest team in England were two nil down within quarter of an hour.

However, their jumping was stopped mid flow by a quick and penetrating Man U attack. Evra run forward with the ball allowing Giggs to move forward. Evra faked a pass to Giggs before finding Tevez in the middle of the park just up field from our penalty box. Knight closed in of Tevez, however Tevez looked up and hooked a pass in behind the defender for Ronaldo to chase. Ronaldo reached the ball first and had no trouble smashing the ball emphatically home from the penalty spot. Silence erupted in the stadium.

2-1

After the busy start, the calm slowed down, not by much, it was still a run and gun affair but the defender got better and the attacks had less impact. The concentration from both teams got a lot better, and slowly but surely the game turned into a possession war. Who could pass and the quickest and most accurate was the name of the game.

The half time whistle approached with both sides having some good chances, with Man U having the better. However thanks to our wonderful French goalkeeper we still held a one goal lead at half time.

The lads walked in tired and in need of a pick up for the next half. The Madrid game was starting to show its full impact.

‘Well done lads, brilliant goals both of them. But as you all know, now the real game starts, Man U are brilliant at scoring late, great goals, and it’s up to us to stop them. Concentration is needed, maturity is needed, and skill is needed. All of you posses these things but its up to you as to whether you use them or not. Remember how it felt to beat Madrid here, imagine how it will feel to beat Man U here. Hard work is required but the reward is sweet.’

I replaced Gouffran with Maloney and sent the lads out.

The game started again, and the quick pace and brilliant passing appeared. Man U seemed to come out with a more sensible attitude. They were holding the ball for longer, and although their attacks didn’t come any more frequently ours dried up to an almost non-existent trickle. However they say that quality is better than quantity and our quality beat their quantity.

A rash tackle by C. Ronaldo won us a free kick inside our own half. Guilherme passed the ball along the floor to Knight who was stood on the half way line. He turned and passed a 20 yard ball to Zarate who ran deep to collect. He was tracked every step of the way by Vidic. Zarate let the ball run through his legs and he turned to run back towards goal. Vidic missed the trick and the ball rolled past him. Zarate was now in behind Vidic and running at goal. He was quickly being closer down by Ferdinand, but this left a gap for Lupoli. Zarate saw the gap and passes to his strike partner who, from the edge of the area, fired low past Van Der Sar.

3-1

Our two goal cushion was replaced, we could breath slightly easier although not much, for we still had twenty minutes to play.

I brought Matuidi on for Barry for a like for like switch to keep my midfield slightly defensive. Man U, were now chomping at the bit looking for goals, however in their haste they lost they composure, and good chances went begging.

With only a couple of minutes left I brought Reo-Coker on for Zarate and changed my formation to 4-5-1. Man U still needed two goals and only had 10 minutes to find them.

The fans watched intently, I chewed my gum and Ottmar Hitzfield paced the touchline. However all their endeavour was in vane and we managed to run out with our two goal cushion intact.

Aston Villa 3-1 Man U

Zarate (3, 13), Lupoli (49), Ronaldo (16)

Attendance- 39597

MOM- Lloris

[madog308]

It was another brilliant win by a team that was really coming together, again the highlight of the show was Lloris and in the back of my mind I whished that he didn’t have so much work to do, but while we were winning I wasn’t concerned. With the win in the bag, and words said to the assembled press we were done for the day, and that meant that we had two weeks off for the international games. Twenty of my players in first and reserve teams had been called up; however as these were friendly games I had the option to dictate how much my players good play. I didn’t like pulling players out of their respective national teams but after the run of games we had just had I didn’t want them getting more tired and jetlagged playing games that didn’t actually mean anything.

Therefore I pulled Lloris from the French u-21 side, and I gave half game instructions to Barry, Lupoli, Petrov and Coloccini.

Other big name players involved that I didn’t say anything to included Kewell, Carew and Maloney.

With the break in games, I gave the players two days off training, before some of them had to leave. The others I would see at the training ground.

In my two free days I had to go and talk to Zoë. She still had not answered any of my calls, so I decided to go round to her new flat near the university. Luckily the press had not been very interested in me with the main press being covering the tragic school collapse in Haiti. Compared to that, an Englishman’s troubles with is girlfriend were inconsequential.

As she had not returned any of my calls the only thing I could do was go over to her new flat near the university. I didn’t frequent that part of the city much and I took my GPS with me. It took me a good hour to find her place, with the GPS being as much us as a chocolate kettle. However I did find it, but there no parking near it so I spent another 15 minutes finding parking, then I walked back to her place. As I didn’t have a key yet and I didn’t know the code on the door, all I could do was press the buzzer to her flat and hope she would pick up. I pressed the buzzed once, twice, then I lent on it for a good 30 seconds. Eventually her voice came through.

‘What the F**K do you want, go away’ came a sleepy annoyed voice.

‘Zoë it’s me, please open up’ I said in a quiet voice.

‘ALEX!’ she shouted, and not in a pleased way. ‘What the hell are you doing here, just go away goddamit’

‘Please you have to talk to me at some point, I’m telling the truth’ I said pleading through the intercom.

At this point to old ladies walked past on the pavement, shaking their heads and tuting in a typically English fashion.

‘Hi’ I smiled and nodded in an embarrassed fashion.

‘Zoë you there, common let me in’ I said, but I got no reply. Eventually after five minutes I walked to the other side of the road and just looked at the building. There had to be a way to get inside. However before my ideas of becoming spider man and scaling the walls I decided that I should get and get some flowers or chocolate or something, girls always like that sort of stuff. So I got back in my car and drove into the centre of town. I ended up getting both flowers and chocolate and a bottle of wine. I hoped my peace offering would get me inside the building.

I parked in the same place and walked back to her apartment.

I pressed the buzzer.

‘Zoë does not want to talk to you’ said an unfamiliar voice.

‘Who the hell are you’ I said angrily.

‘Someone who cares about her, unlike you’ shot the venomous reply.

She had got friends to come over to keep her strong, right plan B.

I was debating how to climb up the building when someone else walked out.

I tried to look as normal as possible with a big bunch of flowers and a chocolate box. I edged closer to the door, then when the guy and turned away I ran and just caught it as it was about to close. Sweet I was in.

I ran up the stairs to her apartment, she bloody well had to get the one on the top floor, Jesus.

I hammered on her door. The door opened a fraction and an unfamiliar face appeared.

‘Hello, who are you’ she said.

It was then that my brain went into overdrive. If she didn’t know what I looked like then she didn’t know I was Alex.

‘I live downstairs on floor 2; some guy paid me twenty pounds to bring these to your door.’ I said holding up the flowers and chocolate.

‘Right well we don’t want them thank you’ she and she made to close the door.

‘Ok that’s fine’ I said quickly. ‘But at least take them, I can’t keep them after he paid me, just toss them in the bin if you want’ I said smiling.

‘Fine' she said and she undid the chain and opened the door fully.

It was then that I pounced, I pushed the door open and the girl out of the way, and she tripped over and fell on the floor.

‘I’m really sorry darling’ I said as I strode into the apartment and headed to the bedroom.

I opened the door and there was Zoë on the bed, and she looked shocked.

‘What the hell Alex’ she shouted at me. ‘What the hell are you doing?’

‘I brought you chocolates and flowers’ I said holding them up.

‘I said I don’t want to speak to you’ she said looking extremely angry.

‘Oh common I pro….’ Something very heavy and hard hit me over the head and everything was spinning and faded to black. The last thing I heard was Zoë voice.

‘Jesus Julie, what the hell did you do that for, that was Alex not some burglar.

**********

I have no idea how long I was out for but when I woke up I had a splitting headache and I was in my own bed.

‘Ohhh’ I groaned as I slowly got out of bed. I felt the back of my head and I could feel a big lump the size of a kiwi fruit. ‘What the hell’ I thought to my self.

I walked out of my bedroom into the living area. ‘F**K me’ I said. And walked into the kitchen to get a drink.

I poured myself a class of milk and was drinking it slowly when I heard a key in the lock and the door open. I froze to the spot. Zoë walked in.

‘Oh you’re awake’ she said awkwardly.

‘Yes I am, mind telling me what the hell happened’ I said in a quiet annoyed voice.

‘Well my friend thought you were a burglar and hit you over the head with a vase’ she said walking closer to me.

‘Right’

‘The vase came of worst’ she said with a small smile.

I couldn’t help but smile. ‘Really? I don’t think you know what the other side feels like’ I said with no real conviction.

I looked around and realised that it was night time, I looked at the clock in the kitchen. It was still the same day, 6.00. I had been out or sleeping for a good 4 hours.

‘I got us some food’ she said holding up the shopping bag in her hand.

‘Right’ I said still unsure of what exactly was going to happen next.

What did happen next was unexpectedly pleasant. Zoë made me dinner and we had a long talk about what had happened, both sides were very sorry and at the end of the dinner it was as if nothing had happened. Humans are fickle beings. However, I still had a headache and I went to bed around 9:30. I kind of remember Zoë getting into bed with me a bit later. But she was there when I got up to go to the club.

[madog308]

Over the next two weeks I watched a lot of international football. And trained the lads that had not gone very hard indeed (it was only going to make them stronger). However all too soon the lull was over and we were preparing for our next game.

Most of my players had played well for their respective countries.

Tobias Mikaelsson (a promising striker in my reserve squad) scored in both of his games.

Blaise Matuidi opened the scoring in his first game and was captain in both of his games.

Georginio Wijnaldum and Zeefuik won both of their matches with both players scoring twice in their first match.

Lorenzo De Silvestri played well in his first match even setting up a goal but played poorly against England u-21’s and was subbed at half time.

For my senior players:

Fabricio Coloccini played well even setting up a goal, but as Argentina were played the republic of Ireland he didn’t have that much defensive work to do.

John Carew only played 45 minutes for his country but showed promise, and was showing why he should be put back into the starting line up for Aston Villa.

Shaun Maloney played well, setting up several good chances that were wasted, and he was subbed with 10 minutes to go, a good performance.

Hossam Ghaly played well for Egypt setting up a goal, but still did not prove himself worthy of starting for me.

Olof Mellberg played 85 minutes for Sweden and was confident and calm throughout.

Martin Petrov like Mellberg was a rock for his team and played the full 90 minutes.

Gareth Barry didn’t start for England and only played 7 minutes in an awful performance from the England team as they lost 2-1 to Paraguay.

Harry Kewell was one of the best players for Australia even though they fell short and lost to Greece.

The international break was over and we had a big game on our hands, against the high spending high flying Chelsea. We had managed to beat them twice last season but this season they had been playing well, although not at their imperious best. But if we wanted to beat them, on their home ground we would have to pull out the same sort of performance that we did against Real and Man U.

Van Der Vaart had recovered although I left him on the bench, not wanting to risk him with a full game. Young had picked up another knock in his first training session back and was therefore left at home while I and the team took the bus down to London.

Aston Villa-Chelsea, Away, PL, 22.11.2008

Gk- Lloris

DR- Coloccini

DC- Breno

DC- Knight

DL- Guilherme

MR- Gouffran

MC- Barry

MC- Petrov

ML- Kewell

ST- Lupoli

ST- Zarate

Subs:

Matuidi

Van Der Vaart

Maloney

Moore

Mellberg

Chelsea had an extremely good team with Drogba leading the attack; he was a fearsome player, very strong and very good. In my pre-match talk I mentioned him.

‘Ok lads, this is our first game after a couple of weeks and we need to find the magic again, this is not an easy game to play of the back of an international break but we can do it. Barry I want you to mark Drogba all the time in our own half. Both sides will look to make the early break. Lampard and Drogba are the danger men and I want you to close them down and force them onto their weaker foot at every opportunity. Don’t let have time to create something.’

The confident air that had inhabited the dressing room over the past weeks was left evident, although some players had won their friendly matches, several had lost and for these players, including Barry and Zarate, it was their first loss in almost ten games. But we had a good team and this game was not vastly different from the big games we had recently played.

The stadium was a sea of blue, and a small pocket of claret and blue could be seen in a section of the stands, but it was very clear that we were in the enemy’s territory. The referee blew his whistle and we were under way.

What became immediately obvious is that the match would be a midfield battle and a battle of who could pass the best ball. Both defences were on song and only a great pass would unlock them. Drogba and Shevchenko were a great partnership with Drogba getting the attention and Shevchenko making the runs and darts in behind the defence.

I felt we were playing a little bit defensively and I told my defence to hold a slightly higher line up the field, just to give my midfield a little bit of support. However it was a move that backfired spectacularly. Drogba received the ball in a deep forward position, turned and started to run at the defence. He passed the ball to his strike partner Shevchenko and continued his run forward. Shevchenko held the ball up to wait for Drogba to pass him before firing a through ball for Drogba to chase. Drogba and knight were neck and neck before Drogba shoulder barged my defender out of the way and had no trouble calmly slotting the ball past Lloris. My players and I screamed for a foul but none were given, and we were behind at Stamford Bridge.

1-0

My team had not often had to come back from behind, but them put on their work hats and set about trying to even the score before half time. But Chelsea’s defence were nothing if not organised and they blocked every through ball and every trick my players tired to pull. Terry and Alex were in imperious form, and I could tell it was going to be a hard slog to out fox them. Half time approached and we still had not had a great chance, a couple of long shots and a scuffed deflection were the best we could muster.

The Chelsea support cheered their players in at half time, with Chelsea in cruise control.

My players walking in tired and disheartened, something was amiss today, something was not clicking.

‘Cumon lads, we have a job on our hands now but we can pull it out of the back, try playing it down the wings some more, look to pull the defence around, make them run. Most of them are approaching thirty and their stamina won’t be what it once was. Look to make them run, look to play some through balls for Lupoli and Zarate. Gouffran and Kewell run to the by-line before crossing, lets just mix some things up. Concentrate and we will find a gap.’

I slapped everyone on the back and we were ready to get underway again.

The second half started better for us, with Zarate winging a shot against the post and a brilliant save from Cech denied Barry.

However it was those sorts of chances that needed to go our way. On the hour mark I gave in and made some chances, I brought Matuidi on for Kewell and Van Der Vaart for Petrov. I moved Barry to ML. I hoped the brilliance of VDV would shine and would create us a chance. But he spent most of his time fighting to get the ball back.

Time was ticking away, but Chelsea were still only one goal up, there was still time to find a reply and deny them three points.

However all hopes of a come back were dashed with less than fifteen minutes to go. Chelsea took a short corner, which caught our defence out. Malouda found Lampard on the edge of the area. He faked shot and teed up Essien who was running from deep. Essien blasted the ball through the crowd of players; it took a deflection which took it cruelly away from Lloris and into the net.

2-0

We were a broken team and there was no come back. Our first loss in seven Premier League games.

Chelsea - Aston Villa

Drogba (22, 78)

Attendance- 41986

MOM- Drogba

Drogba’s first goal was great his second was lucky but it was enough to award him the MOM.

[lads]

Just a little update. With the reboot of the forums i have taken the oppotunity to create a new account and my new name is lads. I am/was madog who started this story. With the forums being down for so long it has allowed me to write quite alot of story and i have infact finished the season with some sucsess and some faliures. hope you are still enjoying it, lads.

It was our first loss in a while and it couldn’t have come at a worst time, I would have liked to come through this tough period of games without losing. We had managed to win two against Man U and Real Madrid but now we had lost to Chelsea we had our work cut out to get back up to speed for our next three games which were against Panathinaikos and Liverpool in the PL and League cup. Last year the schedule had been crazy but now we were in the Champions league as well it was that little bit more hectic. I now had three days before our Champions league Home Leg against Panathinaikos. With some of my more important squad members having played lots of games lately I had an idea to put out a slightly weaker squad. One, this would allow my fringe players to put a marker down, and two, it would allow my more important players to rest up ready for our two games against Liverpool.

Because we had lost there was no days rest, and we were back at training on the Sunday. With my idea to switch my team up I concentrated on looking at the fringe players and decided who should make the squad for Tuesday’s game.

Zoë and I were still not quite back to normal but things had defiantly moved along, she was still living at her other apartment however we made an effort to call each other every night just to chat about how the day had been. The regular contact was important, and it made me less worried, which in turn meant I could concentrate on the next game.

We had drawn with Panathinaikos in the away leg but that was only because we didn’t have a proper goal keeper, so I was quietly confident going into this game.

The squad I named included 5 chances from the squad who played against Chelsea.

Aston Villa v Panathinaikos, Home, Champions League, 25.11.2008

Gk- Lloris

DR- Mellberg

DC- Breno

DC- Davies

DL- Guilherme

MR- Maloney

MC- Barry

MC- Petrov

ML- Kewell

ST- Moore

ST- Zeefuik

Subs:

Van Der Vaart

Matuidi

Young

Carew

Coloccini

Wijnaldum

Ghaly

Probably the most surprising aspect to the outsider was the fact that I had left Zarate and Lupoli out of the squad and had given the 18 year old Dutch Zeefuik his first start for the team. I had also given 10million pound Cutis Davies only his second start this year.

The ground was filling up fast and the opposition had arrived, having said my various non-committal answers to the press I went to give my pre-match talk to my players.

‘Right lads listen up. We drew with this opposition last time and that was without a proper keeper. Take this opportunity to impress, play like you always do in training, stay calm and take your chances. This will be a tough game but we can and should win. Good luck’

It was an odd speech and perhaps not one of my finest and it perhaps explained the result.

Dougie McDonald blew his whistle and the game was under way, and in similar fashion to our game against Manchester Utd we started quickly and hit the opposition before they had a chance to switch their brains on.

Panathinaikos kicked off and passed wide to Ninis( a player who I had scouted after our first match but had now faded from my mind). Barry was quickly up on him and snatched the ball, he then passed wide to the feet of Maloney. Maloney took a couple of touches down his wing, while looking for a pass, before he saw the run of Moore. He his a lobbed through ball for the speedy Moore to chase. Moore beat the Greek defence to the ball and hit the ball savagely into the net past the despairing keeper.

1-0

A good start but a goal was not unexpected and I settled down confident in the belief that my team would pull through easily.

However I had underestimated the Greek side and they immediately started to fight back, and fight back hard.

With an unfamiliar back central defence pairing mistakes were predicted but the mistake that led to the equalising goal was not acceptable.

Panathinaikos had a goal kick and the keeper punted the ball long down the field. Breno moved up to head the ball clear but he was out jumped by Dimitris who looked like he had thrown an elbow. A thought backed up by the fact that Breno was left on the floor holding his face. However the referee didn’t stop the game and play continued. Dimitris had headed down to Ninis who played a one to with the striker who was running into the space provided by the stricken defender. Davies was slow to react had started to move across to help his defensive partner. However he was to slow and Dimitris facing goal un apposed slotted home calmly.

1-1

I was shouting hard in the ear of the assistant referee pointed to Breno who was only just picking him up of the floor. A replay was shown on the big screens and the whole crowd groaned, I looked up and it was clear that Dimitris had left his elbow up and it had hit Breno in the head, weather deliberate or not only the Greek striker will now but it defiantly played a roll in the goal.

My team were no bad players but they were young and inexperienced and after the equalising goal they lost their cool and passes started to go awry, and I game was falling away from us.

Their mental strength was not helped when Mellberg was left on the ground after a tremendous tackle from Ninis. It was clear that something was wrong, badly so. He was carried off in a stretcher and I was forced into putting Coloccini on in the 40th minute.

The players trooped in annoyed at them self and frustrated that they hadn’t created better chances.

‘Ok lads quiet down and listen. You are a talented bunch of lads and who can all play a mean game of football but you need to calm down. Look for the quick small pass than the difficult long one, drag them round and make them run, wait for the opening. It will come and when it does take advantage. We can do it’

Although I was worried about the lack of chances created I was still confident that we would manage to score another goal.

The second half got under way and the lads tried to do what I asked. However I had not counted on Panathinaikos, they played like a different team in the second half. Instead of making them run at us, it was us running at them. They controlled the game right from the whistle.

Although they were controlling the game, they were happy to hold on to the ball, it looked like a weird defensive tactic, but it was working.

On the hour mark I used the rest of my substitutes in an attempt to create some more chances. I put Van Der Vaart on for Barry and Young for Moore. Both players were amongst the strongest in the squad, and if anyone could create a chance it was these two.

However even they couldn’t break through the wall of possession Panathinaikos were throwing up.

It was a disappointing second half for the fans and for me. We couldn’t get another goal, but then again neither did they.

Aston Villa 1-1 Panathinaikos

Moore(1), Dimitris(10)

Attendance- 38209

MOM- Dimitris.

It was not the outcome I wanted, and not the outcome we as a team deserved after a good run against bigger teams. More importantly it meant that Real Madrid had leapfrogged us into first spot in the table, which meant that we would have to rely on Panathinaikos to beat or draw with Real and for us to beat Benfica if we wanted to get the first spot. Not good, it was not a good result.

However as a manager you don’t really have time to dwell on your mistakes, I had to consecutive games with Liverpool to worry about first, and before that I had a press conference to do.

I walked into our press room sat down and took a swing of water before answering the first question.

‘How did you think your team did, considering your made so many changes’ asked the BBC reporter.

‘Well I’m not going to lie, I would have liked to win, and it was perhaps my own fault in underestimating the opposition. But I believed that the team I put out was strong enough, I made lots of changes which will always throw the team but I expected better.’

‘You gave a full debut to Genero Zeefuik today, was that a mistake?’ a question asked by the Birmingham Gazette man.

‘Not at all, I have full faith in Zeefuik’s ability, he is a talented individual and was the skill to play in the first team, its just Zarate and Lupoli are doing such a good job it’s hard to displace them. I am fully confident he will continue onto amazing things.’ I answered truthfully.

‘Cutis Davis has only played two games since arriving at Aston Vila, surely he cant be very happy about that?’. An annoying question asked by the News of the world reporter.

‘well yes, every player wants to play but like Zeefuik, Davies is in the unfortunate position where Breno and Knight have created a good partnership and a lot of work is needed if he wants to break it.’ I replied.

I answered a few more questions about the opposition, Liverpool, the upcoming transfer window before I had enough and ended the questioning.

It was now quite late and all I could think about was going home and dropping into bed, which I did do 20 minutes after the end of the press conference.

[lads]

I woke up bright and earlier and eager to get to work, our next match against was against Liverpool in the PL.

Liverpool were a dangerous team and were currently sitting in fourth. They had extremely dangerous players in Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres and if we wanted any hope of winning we would have to neutralise those two players. However training in the few days we had went well and with the main players coming back into the squad I was hopeful.

One bit of bad news amongst the pleasing training was the Physio’s report on Mellberg. He had torn a calf muscle and as everyone in any sport knows that’s a terrible injury, he would be out for three months at best, then who knows how long it would take him to get back to first team standard. It probably meant the end of his career at Aston Villa. At 31 he had already been replaced by Coloccini and De Silvestri was in the pipe line as well. It was a cold hearted way of looking at it, but it was the truth. Mellberg had served Aston Villa since 2001 and had been a real stalwart of the team, he would not be forced out but it was unlikely he would play again.

It was coming to the end of November and our last game before December would be at home to Liverpool.

Aston Villa v Liverpool, Home, PL, 29.11.2008

With one of the big four coming to town my team was back to normal.

GK- Lloris

DR- Coloccini

DC- Breno

DC- Knight

DL- Guilherme

MR- Gouffran

MC- Van Der Vaart

MC- Barry

ML- Young

ST- Lupoli

ST- Zarate

Subs:

Petrov

Matuidi

Maloney

Carew

Kewell

Kewell was not one hundred per cent fit so I decided to put Young in his place and but Gouffran on the right. It was not a combo I had tried many times but I hoped it would work as both players were good attacking threats.

We had some good news in the days leading up to the game; Steven Gerrard had been given a red game in his previous game against Bolton. This was a positive but it did not change our game plan much because control of the midfield was still vital.

Our fans were great and the ground was almost completely full, nearly forty thousand avid fans were shouting for glee at seeing their favourite players on the field.

Alan Wiley looked at his watch and blew his whistle and we were under way. The game started slowly with both teams focused on holding onto the possession, it was clear that the game was going to be about midfield possession and passing accuracy.

I was happy with the way Van Der Vaart and Barry were paring up; they were the perfect couple with one attacking and the other defending. Both had good passing and great vision. Barry was perhaps the slightly better player with the confidence and maturity to hang back and that allowed Van Der Vaart to push forward and support the strikers.

The early minutes showed positive signs for us with passing accurate and quick. However good Van Der Vaart and Barry are, Xabi Alonso was a player equal to both and he was a very dangerous player with passing able to devastate defences.

However Barry and Van Der Vaart were playing at the top of their game and we looked most dangerous in the earlier minutes.

The half hour mark was approaching and neither side had created a good chance. Barry received the ball on the half way line. He killed the ball and looked up. Sissoko charged up to close him down, there were several screams from the fans warning him of the approaching danger. But Barry was aware and buzzing with creativity. He lobbed Sissoko with a pass that was aimed at Zarate. Zarate won the header with Carragher and headed down to Lupoli who was running off his strike partner. Now everyone knew Lupoli was a kid with great skill but no goal he had scored showed more than this one. The ball was dropping out of the sky off Zarate’s head and Lupoli was running at full tilt. He smacked the ball on the volley and the ball rocketed into Reina’s net. A magical goal from the young Italian

1-0

There was a brief moment which was required for everyone to take in what they had just seen before the ground erupted in noise and Lupoli was mobbed by his team mates.

‘Goal of the season’ said Claudio. I just smiled and hugged him in reply.

No team likes going behind away from home, it makes their job infinitely harder. All the momentum was with us, and Liverpool couldn’t wait for the half time whistle to sound. I would have loved for the lads to score a second goal but it was not to be and Alan Wiley a laid their fears for fifteen minutes.

‘Stunning goal, and brilliant play from all of you. Your all doing exactly what you should be doing and we are reaping the rewards. Keep doing what your are doing and we will find another goal. Liverpool will attack us hard in the second and we have to be prepared for that and be ready with the counter attack. Hit them hard and fast and we can get another goal just when they hoped they would score.

The teams walked our to the roar of the crowd eager to see more excitement and great football.

My prediction about Liverpool coming at us hard was correct and they had three shots on goal early in the second half. The third of which ended in a corner. Alonso took the corner which was easily headed out. However the ball only dropped at the feet of Hyppia who excellently killed it out of the air. He then teed himself up and smashed it through the bunch of players in the penalty area. Lloris unsighted by the amount of players in front of him, had no chance and the ball hit the back of the net.

1-1

Liverpool had equalised and we now had a game on our hands. The away section of the ground cheered in response to the goal.

My players were angry at allowing Liverpool back into the game after such a dominate first half. However luckily I didn’t have to bite my fingernails for long. Lloris had a goal kick 5 minutes after the Liverpool goal. He smashed it way up field. Again Zarate won the header against Carragher. However this time he headed back to Van Der Vaart who was running to back up his strikers. Van Der Vaart saw the run of Lupoli and passed it first time to the young Italian. Lupoli had beaten Hyypia to the ball and was goal side and he made no mistake from 10 yards and calmly slotted the ball into the net. We were back in front.

2-1

However just like our second goal disaster struck soon after, Breno was involved in a crunching tackle with Torres which left both men on the floor. However the Spaniard picked himself up and managed to walk off. Breno however was not so lucky and had to be carried off in a neck brace, however it didn’t look that bad with the player making a thumbs up to the fans. Without a proper defender on the bench I put Matuidi on for Breno and swapped the formation around. I turned our 4-4-2 into a 3-2-2-1-2. Three central defenders in Knight, Guilherme and Coloccini. Two Central defensive midfielders in Barry and Matuidi. Young and Gouffran stayed wide and Van Der Vaart moved forward into an attacking midfield role, just behind the two strikers. Not ideal but the best I could do.

The change in formation seemed to work although we had never practised it before. Less than two minutes later we scored again, and in much the same fashion as the previous two goals.

Coloccini lobbed the ball forward from central defensive. Yet again Carragher was beaten to the high ball, however this time it was Lupoli, who returned the favour and flicked the ball to Zarate. Zarate ran sideways along the edge of the penalty area looking for space. But he found none and the chance looked gone. However Zarate turned and started to run back along the line. With the ball now on his favoured right foot he smashed the ball high and fast towards goal. The speed beat the defenders, beat the goalkeeper and nearly took the net off. Some more brilliant skill from my front men. We now had a two goal cushion.

3-1

Liverpool started create a lot more chances, our new formation was now showing its weakness and Lloris was called into action many times after our third goal. However he was equal to all, and we managed to nullify the threat by bringing everyone back behind the ball every time Liverpool had it.

Liverpool were beaten ten minutes before the end of the match and it was mere formality that they continued to play. Our fans started to celebrate early and I sat happily in my chair watching my lads run out the game.

Aston Villa 3-1 Liverpool

Lupoli(29, 57), Zarate (65), Hyypia(51)

Attendance-39597

MOM-Lupoli

We had not dominated Liverpool but we had defiantly embarrassed them to beat a top team by two goals and keep them out for the last 30 minutes was not good. For them obviously. But it wasn’t for me to worry I was just thrilled with the lads and 14 games into the season we were still top of the table.

I heard news about Breno on our day off, although he had been complaining of his neck hurting they had run some scans and it was just a strained neck, no long term damage. However he would be out for our next game.

I quite happily bounced into the press room ready to answer questions on another great win from my team.

‘So another win for you team and your sitting pretty on top of the table. After losing out to Liverpool last season was it nice to get a win over them this season?’ Asked the BBC man.

‘Well to be honest I’m not thinking about last season, your right, it was a good win and we are sitting on top of the table but we haven’t even reached the half way stage yet so we need to keep pushing.’

‘Many people questioned buying another striker last summer but your gamble with Lupoli seems to be paying off’ asked the BskyB reporter.

‘Well I have to say it wasn’t a gamble. I was given a brilliant report by my scouts, I went to watch the boy and I knew that he was worth paying money to get him, and I’m delighted that he is playing so well’

‘Your going well in all your competitions think you can win them?’ asked the correspondent from the sun.

‘Not at all, there is no point in looking to far ahead. We need to take each game as it comes and hope that other teams make mistakes so that we can profit from them. We have by no means won any competition yet’ was my measured response.

After a few more questions I was able to leave and go back to my office where I found a note on my desk.

‘Alex please come to my office a soon as possible.
Randy’

A note from the Chairman was never a particularly good sign. I had a drink then I walked to his office.

I knocked on the door and walking in.

‘Ahh Alex good of you to come so soon, please come in’ he said looking up from some papers.

‘Thank you’ I said sitting down. ‘What is this about?’

‘I’m sure you remember our last meeting about the stadium upgrade and the debt that upgrade had produced. Well I have found some extra cash to get rid of some of that debt. But most of that debt has been nullified by our gate receipts and prize money from various competitions. So I am happy to say that for the first time in five months we have broken even and are now in the black.’

‘Well that’s great’ I said happily, to be honest I had been worrying about that debt and whether it would mean selling players in the January transfer window.

‘Yes it is, but we as a club need you to keep winning games to keep the stadium full. I don’t want to put pressure on you but that is where most of our money comes from. Also there will be no money for transfers in January and any we will take 20% of any money you gain from selling players. We need to be secure of our finances before we can start spending again. We don’t want to be in the same situation again any time soon’ he said looking stern.

‘Yes, right ok I understand, anything else’ I was a bit peeved at the club taking 20% of my transfers dealings, if any happened of course, but I didn’t really have any potential transfer targets in mind anyway.

‘No that’s all thanks Alex, and great game today’ he said as I walked to the door.

‘Thanks Randy’ and I walked out of the door.

[lads]

The premier league has been described as a weekly slog and that is what it felt like at the moment, we had barley finished celebrating one win when we would have to start preparing for the next game. And our next game was in three days time. That meant we only had one days training (as I gave my players a day off if the won). Not ideal but this was the premier league during the winter.

Aston Villa v Liverpool, Away, League Cup QTR Final, 2.12.2008

Our second game in four days against Liverpool. This time it was in the league cup, a piece of silverware that we had a good chance of winning. However to progress we had to get past a very annoyed Liverpool team, who would be out for revenge.

I made two changes to my squad that was last out. Davies came in for Breno and Kewell came in for Gouffran and swapped wings with Young.

GK- Lloris

DR- Coloccini

DC- Davies

DC- Knight

DL- Guilherme

MR- Young

MC- Van Der Vaart

MC- Barry

ML- Kewell

ST- Zarate

ST- Lupoli

Subs:

Petrov

Matuidi

Maloney

Carew

Gouffran

This time we in Liverpool’s turf, they had the home advantage and the thousands of screaming fans. It was our turn to be dominated, but not if I could help it. I made this clear to the lads.

‘Right lads, we can beat this team, we did less than 4 days ago, however they have the advantage, they will be wanted revenge and they will come at us hard. But we can use this. Wait for them to come to us then counter them. All they will be thinking about is attacking and scoring against us making us pay for what we did last game. We need this; we need to approach it with a concentrated mind. Keep the passes quick and accurate. Use the wings and let the front two run at the defence.’

Liverpool had Steven Gerrard back which would make our task a lot harder but one man could only do so much. Both teams lined up and Gerrard and Barry shook hands then ran to their respective places. Martin Atkinson looked around then decided he was happy and blew his whistle and we were under way.

I was normally quite happy to sit in my chair only coming down to the touchline if something urgent was needed, however for some reason today I was on the edge of my seat, as if my body was unsure as to whether I should stand or sit.

However my fears were laid aside pretty quickly. Liverpool had started very quickly stringing passes around and making my players run. We didn’t even touch the ball in the first 5 minutes. However when we did we made use of it. Barry stole the ball from Gerrard and passes to Zarate who was inside our half. Zarate turned and set off towards the Liverpool goal, he sprinted into the Liverpool half skipped over two tackles it was a brilliant 30 yard run. However Zarate was skilled enough to look up to see if there were better options. He found Lupoli on the edge of the area who let the ball roll past him before swinging his foot and smashing it towards goal. However Carragher got in the way of the shot and the ball deflected sideways along the goal line. Kewell was in a straight foot race with Maicon to reach the ball. The wing back having been to far forward had sprinted back to help out. Kewell beat the brazilin to the ball and passed it in the direction of Young who was running in the penalty area. The ball was perfect for Young however he was been closed down quickly by Reina. However at the last second he managed to poke it back towards Kewell which happened to be the perfect set up for Van Der Vaart who was galloping into the area. The midfielder smashed the ball home from 3 yards. It was a beautiful move but it almost did too much. However Van Der Vaart’s 5th goal of the season gave us the lead within 6 minutes. A Disaster start for Liverpool and the ground was bathed in silence.

0-1

Yet again Liverpool’s defence had not reacted quickly enough to our counter attack and their muddled response cost them a goal. It was definitely not the start Juande Ramos wanted and he was standing on the touch line shouting at his players to get their head in the game. I meanwhile was sitting on my chair quietly smiling to my self.

Liverpool upped the tempo again and it was working for they were having lots of shots at goal, but Lloris was equal to all. The fifteen minutes mark approached at Liverpool had been forced back and were about to start the attack again. Maicon hit a hopeful ball up field towards Kuyt, however the Dutch man was out jumped by Coloccini and the ball fell again to Zarate. Again Liverpool had pushed to many men forward and Zarate had a free space to run into. He received the ball on our side of the centre circle and proceeded to run towards goal. However this time his pass to Lupoli was a lot better. Lupoli was the right hand side of Maicon. Zarate threaded the ball in-between Lupoli and Carragher perfectly and the defenders could not match Lupoli’s speed. Lupoli got to the ball first and lobbed Reina, who was running out of his goal, from the edge of the area. The Liverpool players were screaming for offside, whereas ours were running to congratulate Lupoli. Another goal from another counter attack and another brilliant goal from our strikers. And yet another mistake from the Liverpool defence.

0-2

Liverpool’s day got even worse 15 minutes later, after another counter attack we won a corner. Our resident corner taking Young stepped up and hit an in swinging corner. Everyone started making runs but it was Van Der Vaart that lost his marking and rose high at the near post to head a brilliant laser like header into the near post corner of the net. And just like that Liverpool were three down.

0-3

As in the game four days ago, Liverpool were desperate to get to the half time whistle so they could regroup after three quick attacks. For the most past I was happy for them to do that. We had scored three, just like last time but we had done it with over half the match to go.

The half time whistle came quickly and my lads bouncing with enthusiasm walked into the dressing room.

‘Well guys what a showcase of counter attacking football. Brilliant skill all of you, however now comes the other side of the coin. We have scored three and have a nice cushion but Liverpool now have 45 minutes to fix that. So we need to keep concentrated, help out the defensive half of the team if and when they need it. I want you all to concentrate more on keeping Liverpool out than looking for another goal.’

I was confident that my team would be able to keep Liverpool out but strange things can happen in a game that you thought was over.

The teams walked back out and we were all ready for the second half, although it looked like several Liverpool fans had not bothered to come back.

We were under way and my team were doing what I had asked of them and Liverpool were doing exactly what I thought they would do, attack.

Liverpool were tackling hard eager to pay some revenge and eventually it hit us home. Young collapsed under a hard tackle from Gerrard, he did get up quite quickly but it was clear that he wasn’t quite right. So I decided to play it safe and replace him with Maloney.

My team was playing well and were keeping the potentially dangerous Torres quiet, Kuyt was showing more danger and had several shot but Lloris was equal to all.

Eventually after much difficulty Liverpool did score and as it was just after I had subbed Matuidi for Van Der Vaart and Carew for Zarate I was a bit annoyed. Liverpool won a corner near our right hand corner flag. Xabi stepped up and lobbed it into the penalty area. However Knight rose highest to head it away, but he only managed to head it back towards Alonso, who tricked everyone with a pass that my defenders thought was heading along the edge of the penalty area. Instead the ball went straight to Babel who was just outside the right hand corner of our penalty area. He hit the ball first time and managed to find the corner of our net, past the fingers of Lloris.

1-3

There was a brief period where Liverpool dominated but they couldn’t find another goal and we managed to hold out to the whistle for another brilliant win.

Liverpool 1-3 Aston Villa

Babel (77), Van Der Vaart (5, 35) Lupoli (16)

Attendance-45346

MOM- Van Der Vaart

Van Der Vaart fully deserved his MOM award and it was pleasing to see him start to play really well again. He had played magnificently when he first arrived but he had gone through a bit of a dip but now he was scoring again it was brilliant. He was also starting to earn his 67 thousand pound a week wage.

[lads]

We were now into December and rumours about potential transfers were circling with various clubs telling the press about interest in one or more players and the various replies from clubs saying they wouldn’t sell their players for all the money in the world. However as I had no money my only interest was seeing if the various players on my wish list were being targeted.

We now had two days training before our next premier league game against Wigan, who were not playing well and were just above the relegation zone.

Having beaten Liverpool twice I didn’t really have any worries but as the game was away from home a shock result was more likely to happen.

As my team was playing very well at the moment I didn’t really want to change the set up but Carew needed game time and Lupoli was still a little fatigued.

Aston Villa v Wigan, Away, PL, 06.12.2008

GK- Lloris

DR- Coloccini

DC- Breno

DC- Davies

DL- Guilherme

MR- Young

MC- Barry

MC- Van Der Vaart

ML- Kewell

ST- Zarate

ST- Carew

Subs:

Petrov

Matuidi

Moore

Maloney

Gouffran

Our game was the early kick-off of the day so the players were up early and we were at the ground by 11.

After a bit of a kick around and a few tactic instructions to individual players it was time for me to take the pre-match team talk.

‘Right lads, another game and its no less important that the last. Yes it’s a smaller weaker team but if we don’t take our chances against the smaller teams then there won’t be any point taking on the big teams. This is an important game and I expect a win, so go out there and play like you have been playing and lets have a great game.’

After two three nil wins against Liverpool I was supremely confident that my team would pull a win out of the bag.

Peter Walton was the man with the whistle and after he soon got the game under way.

The game started quickly with Wigan trying to play us at our own game, with a couple of quick counter attacks and hard tackling all over the pitch. However it was us that took the first blow. Zarate picked up a knock after tackle which required the Physio on, but he continued playing, but with a noticeable lack of speed.

I had perhaps underestimated Wigan with them holding off our attacks for long periods of the game and even making some quick counter attacks. The first half hour passes with Wigan proving themselves admirably.

The half time whistle was approaching with neither side having made the breakthrough and it was just before the half time whistle when we had another bit of bad news. Carew, like Zarate went down under a heavy tackle. But unlike Zarate he didn’t bounce up straight away and it took him a good 5 minutes before he was back on his feet. However it was so close to the half time whistle that I didn’t bother with substituting him. The half time whistle blew and two frustrated teams walked in. It was now that I had to earn my money as a manager.

‘Right lads, good work out there, we created several chances, but we need to keep pushing. Wigan has played out of their skins to keep us at bay and they won’t be able to keep it up. Keep pushing the ball around, look for the wings and long through balls, make them run. They will eventually tire and that is when we must take advantage and take our chances.’

I brought of Carew as he was still limping and replaced him with Moore. I held off subbing Zarate seemed to have run off whatever injury he had received.

The half time break over, the players walked out to start the second half. The second half was a completely different beast to the first. Wigan had seemed to fall away straight from the beginning which I can only attribute to a poor team talk by Chris Hutchings. Less than four minutes after the restart we won a penalty. Our resident penalty taker and man of the moment Van Der Vaart stepped up and coolly slotted it into the top left hand corner. A brilliant penalty that would have taken two keepers so save and even then they might not have saved it.

0-1

Wigan were brought out of their slumber and started to play similar football to how they played in the first. They rebuffed all our attacks and even had several of their own.

After the hour mark they were finally rewarded for their hard work. Jiranek was allowed high up the field close to our goal. He managed to trick his way past Guilherme and he put in a low cross. Aghahowa beat Knight to the ball and on the turn smashed it towards goal; the ball skidded low and beat Lloris at his near post. A bad bit of play by both Guilherme and Knight allowed that equalising goal.

1-1

As a response to their goal I brought Maloney on for Zarate (as I had no proper striker on the bench) and I put Matuidi on for Barry.

With the game now at its most exiting both team through caution to the wind in an attempt to win the game. With 20 minutes left to go in the match we won a free kick 30 yards from goal. Maloney stepped up and tried to curl the ball in. However he misjudged and the ball hit the wall, and bounced away from the goalkeeper. It was rolling incredibly slowly towards goal. It bumped gently against the left post. Kirkland was scrambling from where he had jumped to get to the ball. Our nearest player was Kewell who sprinting as fast as his 30 year old legs would carry him. He managed to beat Kirkland to the ball and smashed the ball towards goal from an incredible angle. We were back in front

1-2

It looked like we had snatched victory from the jaws of a draw. The minutes past and we now had less than 10 minutes to play.

I was happy with a one goal win but my players had other ideas.

Maloney won the ball in midfield he turned and saw the run of Moore and hit a 20 yard through pass. Moore beat Makoena to the ball and he hit the ball high past the keeper from the edge of the area. A brilliant controlled shot from a full sprint. The advantages of having two speedsters in attack were shown in a beautiful attacking move.

1-3

The game was now over, with less than 8 minutes to go Wigan somehow needed to fine two goals. They threw everything at us, which allowed our counter attacks to be more deadly.

After one counter attack we won a corner. Young stepped up and hit an in swinging corner to the far post. And again the man of the moment Van Der Vaart produced a stunning diving header which curled the ball into the net.

1-3

The last 20 minutes had been the most exciting of the game, and it confirmed our win with ruthless authority.

Wigan 1-4 Aston Villa

Aghahowa (62), Van Der Vaart (48, 88), Kewell (78), Moore (82)

Attendance- 17255

MOM- Van Der Vaart.

 
Holders - Liverpool






| Pos   | Inf   | Team          |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Aston Villa   |       | 15    | 13    | 0     | 2     | 33    | 13    | +20   | 39    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Newcastle     |       | 15    | 11    | 1     | 3     | 27    | 11    | +16   | 34    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Chelsea       |       | 15    | 10    | 3     | 2     | 22    | 8     | +14   | 33    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Liverpool     |       | 16    | 9     | 5     | 2     | 26    | 14    | +12   | 32    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Arsenal       |       | 16    | 9     | 3     | 4     | 25    | 13    | +12   | 30    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Portsmouth    |       | 16    | 10    | 0     | 6     | 25    | 18    | +7    | 30    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Man Utd       |       | 14    | 9     | 1     | 4     | 29    | 13    | +16   | 28    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Fulham        |       | 17    | 8     | 4     | 5     | 28    | 20    | +8    | 28    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Middlesbrough |       | 15    | 7     | 4     | 4     | 19    | 18    | +1    | 25    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | Reading       |       | 17    | 7     | 4     | 6     | 27    | 32    | -5    | 25    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  |       | Tottenham     |       | 15    | 6     | 2     | 7     | 21    | 21    | 0     | 20    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  |       | West Brom     |       | 17    | 5     | 4     | 8     | 19    | 24    | -5    | 19    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  |       | Bolton        |       | 17    | 5     | 3     | 9     | 18    | 25    | -7    | 18    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  |       | West Ham      |       | 16    | 4     | 5     | 7     | 21    | 20    | +1    | 17    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  |       | Everton       |       | 15    | 5     | 2     | 8     | 18    | 25    | -7    | 17    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  |       | Man City      |       | 16    | 5     | 1     | 10    | 19    | 25    | -6    | 16    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  |       | Derby         |       | 16    | 5     | 1     | 10    | 20    | 29    | -9    | 16    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  |       | Wigan         |       | 16    | 3     | 2     | 11    | 9     | 22    | -13   | 11    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 19th  |       | Preston       |       | 17    | 1     | 4     | 12    | 14    | 44    | -30   | 7     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 20th  |       | Sheff Wed     |       | 17    | 0     | 5     | 12    | 5     | 30    | -25   | 5     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
|       |       |               |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

[lads]

Our next game, which was in three days time, was a big game, a game that we had to win. It was our final game in group F of the Champion’s league. Real Madrid were currently in top spot and we would need them to draw or lose if we were to leapfrog them. However, they were playing Panathinaikos in Greece, so there was a chance that a draw could happen.

We still needed to win and win comfortably against Benfica to give us the best chance of leapfrogging them into top spot. But I believed it could be done especially considering Benfica were bottom of the group with one point.

We would still need to play well, playing Benfica at home was never easy from anyone. With the flight out we only had one days training at home and I decided to take it easier with some gentle shooting and passing routines and a couple of 5 a side games.

The flight over was comfortable enough and the hotel that we were booked in was beautiful but like everyone any sort of travelling over one hour makes me tired and all I did was go straight to sleep. The next day we trained in the Benfica stadium a beautiful 65thousand seat bowl.

Again I had brought the Dutch youngsters along for the ride with an idea of giving them twenty or so minutes if we were winning.

However I lined up my strongest team to start the match.

Aston Villa v Benfica, Champions League Grp F, Away, 10.12.2008

Gk- Lloris

DR- Coloccini

DC- Breno

DC- Davies

DL- Guilherme

MR- Young

MC- Van Der Vaart

MC- Barry

ML- Kewell

ST- Zarate

ST- Lupoli

Subs:

Petrov

Matuidi

Maloney

Carew

Gouffran

Zeefuik

Wijnaldum

Davies had taken his chance while filling in for Breno, while he was injured, and after good games against Liverpool and Wigan he had retained his place at the expense of Knight. I was still to be fully convinced but I was growing to like the hard working quiet Englishman.

The days training went far to quickly and before I knew it, it was game day and then in a blink of an eye it was game time.

Ivan Babek was the man in black and with both teams our in the middle and fans in the stadium we were ready for a game of football.

With Benfica having the home advantage I told my players to hold back slightly.

‘Right lads, its an important game today, we have to win if we want to progress in the first qualifying spot, you’ve shown how good you can play in Europe but that great win against Real Madrid will be for nothing if we cant back it up with a win here. Concentrate on the passing and take your chances when they pop up and be ready to hit them on the counter attack. Come on lets go get them’ I said, patted each one on the back and led them out onto the pitch. In a far corner of the pitch our fans roared their support but that was easily drowned out by the thousand of Benfica fans cheering their team.

The game started quickly with Benfica pushing us back straight away, they were looking for a quick early goal, to catch us out before we had got into our rhythm. And their tactic of hard and fast worked.

Rodriguez beat Young and passed forward to Adu. Davies ran out from his position to close the striker down. However Adu managed to slip a pass round the oncoming Davies for Palacio to chase. Palacio got to the ball before Breno, he teed himself up and slotted the ball with his right along the floor and it just sneaked in at the far post. Poor communication from my defence allowed that goal. The Benfica players jumped on their talismanic striker and the Benfica fans roared their delight. A bad start for us, a lot of work was needed to repair the damage.

1-0

However my team was a good bunch of lads, and they worked hard and less than ten minutes later they got their reward. We won a corner and Young stepped up to hit an in swinging corner. With both Breno and Davies in the box and both being over 6ft something was likely to happen. However it was Davies who managed to wriggle free from his marker and head home from the near post, his first goal for us and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

1-1

Benfica’s hard work had been undone and the true nature of the match started to form itself. Over the next 30 hour we dominated. Five minutes after Davies’s goal we had scored again.

Kewell ran forward on his wing and passed forward to Zarate. Zarate shoulder barged Vargas out of the way. The ref should have giving a free kick but he waved play on. Zarate picked the ball up wide on the left side inside the penalty box, he cut the ball back into the middle of the box hoping someone on our team would get on the end of it. Someone did, it was our Lupoli who beat everyone to the ball and smashed a pile driver towards goal which gave Butt no chance. We were in front and had scored twice in 5 minutes

1-2

My team were firing on all cylinders and the creative juices were flowing. Young made a run on his wing, but unlike Kewell he decided to cut inside towards goal. He beat Adu and faked a shot while he passed sideways towards Barry who was standing on the edge of the box. Barry didn’t take any chances and smashed a beautiful dipping shot towards goal that snuck in the top right corner from 25 yards out. A brilliant shot set up by a stunning run from Young.

1-3

Benfica’s day went from bad to worse 10 minutes later. Vargas brought down Van Der Vaart who was charging at goal. The ref had no choice and brought out the red card. Van Der Vaart picked himself up and stood to take the free kick. He took a couple of steps back before smashed a curled ball towards goal. However he misjudged and the ball hit the wall. But lady luck was on our side and the ball deflected into the net into the opposite side to the way Butt was diving.

1-4

The half time whistle could not come quickly enough to Benfica.

The game was over and I was thrilled with my team.

‘Brilliant guys, truly brilliant, just keep going and have fun’

I put Zeefuik on for Zarate and Wijnaldum for Kewell. Both senior players had picked up knocks and to keep on the safe side I brought them off.

Benfica had given up and we were quite happy to let them have the ball because we knew we could keep them out whatever they threw at us.

There was no doubt that we would win the match and having heard that Panathinaikos had drawn level with Real my day was getting better and better.

With 15 minutes to go I brought Gouffran on for Young however it was only to give the youngster a run out.

We walked out the game with ease and we had qualified first in our group as Real had not been able to find another goal.

Benfica 1-4 Aston Villa

Palacio(06), Davies(11), Lupoli(16), Barry(20), Van Der Vaart(32)

Attendance- 43239

MOM- Lupoli

‘Excellent game lads really brilliant. We have qualified first, you have played like real champions in our very first visit to the champions league. Lets keep this good form up in our other competitions and we can really start push on and become a leading team in Europe. Just brilliant guys’.

It was a little bit of a gushing speech but I truly believed it I was so thrilled for my team in qualifying first that meant that we would miss most of the big teams.

[lads]

However as was usual this time of year the schedule of games was so crazy that we only had two days before our next match, which was against West Brom in the premier League. Yet again my method of giving the players one days rest after every win affected us again. We would only have one days training before that game but I hope and believed that my team would be able to carry their good run. In the days running up to our next game we got two bits of exiting news, we had drawn Chelsea in the League cup semi-final and the Stadium expansion that Randy had put in place nearly 7months ago had finally been finished and our lovely home stadium was now 12416 seats bigger.

Aston Villa v West Brom, PL, Home, 13.12.2008.

The knock that Zarate had picked up against Benfica had affected him more than the physio’s first thought; therefore I had to make some chances to the team.

Gk- Lloris

DR- Coloccini

DC- Breno

DC- Davies

DL- Guilherme

MR- Gouffran

MC- Van Der Vaart

MC- Barry

ML- Kewell

ST- Carew

ST- Lupoli

Subs:

Zeefuik

Petrov

Matuidi

Maloney

Young

I had good faith that my team would produce the goods even though West Brom were playing ahead of themselves and were sitting in 13th place.

‘Ok lads we have had a good run of games but we need to keep up the momentum keep the passes accurate and take the chances when they show up’

I was confident and I comfortable took my seat and waited for the match to start. However every team has an off day and my team decided to take today off. This season we had beaten the likes of Real Madrid Man U, Liverpool however for whatever reason my team could not break down the defence of the West Brom side.

In the entire first half we only had two shots on target and neither of them were good opportunities. At half time I put Zeefuik on for Carew. I had great belief in the young striker but he had not scored in the one start and five substitute appearances I had given him and it was slightly frustrating for me, because I knew that he had great talent.

Yet even my substitution had very little effect and with half an hour to go I decided to throw on my other two substitutes. I put Maloney on for Lupoli and I replaced Van Der Vaart with Petrov.

However my team just couldn’t find a way through and the 41 thousand fans that had turned up left disappointed and I was left annoyed. I made sure that the team knew I wasn’t happy.

‘What was that lads, come on your better than that, how did we just draw with West Brom, Jesus. We need to play considerably better in the next game guys, considerably.

Aston Villa 0-0 West Brom

Attendance- 42579

MOM- Paul Robinson

[lads]

Aston Villa vs Middlesbrough, Home, PL, 17.12.2008

The unusual nature of the football time schedule around December threw up another oddity. We would be playing Middlesbrough twice, one before the Christmas break and the other on boxing day both times in the premier league so this was potentially six easy points if we won the first game.

I made two changes; I brought Zeefuik and Reo-Coker into the starting line-up.

Gk- Lloris

DR- Coloccini

DC- Breno

DC- Davies

DL- Guilherme

MR- Young

MC- Petrov

MC- Reo-Coker

ML- Kewell

ST- Zeefuik

ST- Lupoli

Subs:

Matuidi

Moore

Gouffran

Maloney

Van Der Vaart

It wasn’t the strongest team I could put out, and the midfield was probably the weakest with Petrov and Reo-Coker in midfield. But my defence was the strongest it could be, as were my wingers and I had full faith that Zeefuik was good enough to play in the first team.

Middlesbrough had a strong defence with Huth and Woodgate at the heart of it, but I was confident of a win, especially at home.

It was a 7:30 match so we had plenty of time during the day to do some light training and talk tactics. Middlesbrough was a team that we should beat however they did have danger players and anything can happen in a football match. But I expected a win.

‘Right guys we have had a tough few games recently and this one won’t be any easier. Middlesbrough will be counting on us being tired and they will try and hit us early. If we can hold them of and start to slowly push them back we can create chances and win the game. Play your normal style and we will win’

With both teams out on the field the match kicked off. I was right about Middlesbrough trying to hit us early on. They ran down every ball and created a couple of chances. After our draw against West Brom I was beginning to worry that my team were starting to slide into a slump. Both West Brom and Middlesbrough should have been dispatched quickly yet here I was sitting down with less than five minutes to go and we still hadn’t scored. Time was ticking down and it was now the period where scoring would be crucial to set up the second half.

It was as I was sitting there sweating that my gamble with the players paid off. We won a free kick on the half way line. Davies stepped up to take it as the rest of my team had pushed up. He hit it wide to Young who ran to the by-line and managed to whip a cross in round the chasing full backs legs. Zeefuik, all 190 cm of him rose highest at the near post and beat both defender and goalkeeper to the ball and slotted neatly into the net.

1-0

‘Yes get in son’ I shouted jumping up from my seat. Zeefuik was mobbed by the rest of the team. He was a popular lad and people were eager for him to succeed.

The half time whistle blew less than 30 seconds later, the perfect time to score a goal.

The lads walked in still on a high from the goal but I knew there was work to do.

‘Right lads excellent work playing right up to the last whistle but we need to push on. Middlesbrough have played really well today and we can’t let them get into a rhythm next half. We need to find another goal to give us a bit of a cushion. Keep playing the way we do and we will be fine but we need to keep the concentration high.’

I was happy to leave it there and wait to see what the outcome would be.

The second half started and the crowd was quiet hoping that the game would pick up pace. Luckily for me and great for the watching fans, my squad seemed to take my message on board, we were creating chances left right and centre and the goal before have time seemed to have left Middlesbrough players deflated.

Less than five minutes after half time we got our cushion. We one a free kick on the left side 25 yards from goal. As Zarate was not on the field Young stepped up to hit the ball with his right boot. He stepped back then quickly moved forward to hit the ball. It was a beautiful Beckham esc free kick which just curled into the top corner. A thing of pure beauty

2-0

From then on it was one way traffic with only the best of the Middlesbrough players putting up a resistance.

Within five minutes we had moved our advantage to three. Reo-Coker played a cute one two with an advancing Coloccini. Reo-Coker then punted a hopeful ball up field. It was a nothing ball really but it was just in the right place to cause a miscommunication between Enyeama and Huth. Enyeama started to run out, which made Huth stop running. This meant that Zeefuik had no one to challenge him as he jumped and poked the ball goalwards with his head. Enyeama had misjudged his run and was stuck in no mans land and both keeper and defender were left gesticulating at each other while Zeefuik pealed off to celebrate scoring his second goal.

3-0

With a three goal lead my squad were content to not push to hard and Middlesbrough were determined not to concede again. The game slowed down. However when opportunities are gifted, you have to take them. Huth tried an audacious cross field ball in a position of no danger. Zeefuik easily cut the ball out and put a ball for Moore to chase who was already running past the sorry looking Huth. Moore made easy meat of his one on one and slotted the ball high past the despairing keeper.

4-0

Middlesbrough’s second half display could not have been further apart from their first half, it was a shame to see a team crumple like that but the win and three points was all I cared about.

Aston Villa 4-0 Middlesbrough

Zeefuik (46, 54), Young (49), Moore (85)

Attendance- 41972

MOM- Zeefuik

[lads]

Zeefuik fully deserved his MOM performance; he had shown a silver of what was capable from his young body. It was frightening to think how good he could one day become. With that win we went into the Christmas break at the top of the table and as the myth went those who were top over Christmas usually stayed top. It was as much as I could wish for.

With the break I had given the squad 10 days holiday, asked them all not to eat too much and not to drink too much. But deep down I was extremely proud of what the lads had achieved and I couldn’t wait for the next half of the season to begin.

With all this spare time I had thrust upon me I couldn’t exactly dodge anymore press conferences so it was with a heavy heart and sense of rising anger that I stepped into the press room at my beloved club and sat down waiting for questions to be darted towards my direction while a herd of recording devices were thrusted in my direction.

‘With the transfer window so close do you have anyone you have your eye on’ asked the BBC reporter.

‘Not at all, as everyone knows player prices are hyper inflated in the January transfer window and any players that could be bought and priced out of the market by managers who do not want to lose their star players mid-season. I can guarantee that I will spend none of the clubs money this January. I will only spend what I make from selling players, if I sell any at all.’ I hastily backtracked. Mentioning selling players was never a smart thing to say at a press conference.

My reply was not entirely true, I did have my eye on several players but as I had little to no transfer money left I could only watch them and hope that no one else bought them.

‘You mentioned players being sold, are there any you have in mind.’ Asked a switched on Sky reporter.

I paused for a moment deciding whether to tell the truth or not, finally I made up my mind.

‘Yes there will be one player for sale from my current squad, Stuart Taylor’. It was no mystery to anyone really; he had already gone to the press complaining that he wasn’t getting enough football and that if he wasn’t put into the first team then he wanted to leave.

Whenever players went to the press it annoyed me extremely and just for going to the press they were almost guaranteed to be leaving the club at the next opportunity.

‘You are top of the table going into the Christmas break, how confident do you feel going into the second half of the season’ this from the Birmingham Gazette man.

‘Well of course it’s a nice position to be in but just because we have worked hard in the first half doesn’t mean we can relax in the second. We have more work to do now, we are getting down to the hard games in all competitions and if we want to stay fresh and competitive we are going to have play excellently every single game, there must little to no errors, it is the way of champions and we want to become champions.’

It was the normal response from mangers unless they were stuck up pricks who thought too much of themselves, like Mourinho.

‘People have said that you can’t win anything with kids, and your squad’s average age is 24. Do you think you can prove that myth wrong and win the premier league?’, asked a suited reporter at the back of the room.

‘I think that it is too early to say whether we can or not. Yes we have a young squad but their all talented professionals that work hard, and it doesn’t matter how old you are, as long as you work hard you will succeed’.

With that the press conference was over and so began my short Christmas holiday which of course was no real holiday at all, however it did give me a chance to reflect on how our season was progressing so far. The new signings were fitting in well especially Lupoli who was beginning to forge a brilliant relationship with Zarate. We were still in all our competitions including the Champions League in which we had qualified first in our group. It would be just after the Christmas break that we would find out who we had drawn in the first knockout round.

It was only when I had some free time, after the players had gone back to their separate countries that I could reflect on my relationships. Although Zoë and I were now talking it was still not what it had been, although perhaps the separation was influencing that particular feeling. Rachael and I still sent emails back and forth but with nothing like the regularity that we had corresponded in those first few weeks.

I was facing a choice, do I spend Christmas alone or do I go back to my parent’s house. It seemed like a nice idea to go and visit the parents just to be in the company of some one who unquestionably loves you. However both were getting on the prospect of cooking a full Christmas dinner was a little to much I thought.

Like last year I extended an invitation to my coaches and backroom staff to come to mine if they were not already going home.

I woke up on the 21st of December relaxed. We had done our last training session yesterday and I had nothing to do, apart from watching the transfer window, trying to keep all my players, making sure Randy didn’t overrule me, deciding how we were going to play the next game, trying to figure out whether I was going to try and sort things out with Zoë, trying to make up my mind over contracting Rachael, going to get food for the Christmas dinner, cleaning the flat, doing my tax forms. Sigh.

Despite all this the feeble attempt of snow the weather gods had sprinkled over Birmingham made me smile, even if it was the grey, polluted sort.

I got my proper shoes on, took a coat and jacket and walked out to get some food. It was while I was out at the supermarket that my phone rang.

‘Yhello’ I said, not really concentrating, I was trying to decide between a 4 and 5 kilo turkey.

‘Hi, Alex, it’s me’ said a familiar female voice.

‘Ye wha, who sorry?’ I said, deciding on the 5 kilo and putting it into my trolley.

‘Alex it’s me Rachael, how are you’ she said a bit louder.

‘Oh hi, ye I’m fine thanks how are you?’ I said stopping to concentrate.

‘Ye I’m good thanks, I just thought I would give you a call because I’m coming back to England, in fact I’m in the airport now.’

‘Oh wow that’s great, you spending the holidays with your family?’

‘Ye something like that, I was wondering if I could come and see you, just have a drink talk about the old times and stuff’, she replied.

I was a little taken aback but I was glad she asked. ‘Ye sure you can even come to mine for Christmas if you want, It will just be me and some of the staff at Aston villa’

‘Ah yes that sounds great I’ll see if I can make it, i will try and see you before as well, if thats alright?’ she asked.

‘Yes I think so’ I replied.

‘Ok I might drop by just to say hello, oh there is my flight being called, sorry I’ve got to go, I will see you sometime and I will try and come on Christmas as well.’ She finished and hung up.

Well that’s will be nice I thought, and I finished my shopping in a breeze of contentment.

************

Over the next two days I called various family members and continued prepping for Christmas day. I had four members of the back room staff joining me including Rachael so my flat was going to be a hub of happy merriment, or so I hoped.

I moved the sofa out of the way and moved the table into the centre of the room and folded out the extra ends. I have to say I almost forgot about football for those two days, it was a happy period. I don’t usually like working but when it comes to food and drink, I am happy and willing to put a lot of effort in because the rewards are usually great.

24th. it was Christmas Eve, and I was alone in my flat watching the crap Christmas telly with a bottle of wine, when my door bell rang.

I moved to the door and opened it to see a resplendent Rachael standing there, in a fancy dress.

‘Wow’ I managed to gasp after a few seconds of staring.

‘haha’ she giggled, ‘you going to invite me in?’ she said, holding out a bottle of wine.

‘Yea, come in, thanks’ I said as I took the bottle of wine and stood back to allow her into the flat. As she walked past I couldn’t help but tilt my head. Man, that dress was figure hugging.

We spent the next couple of hours having a lovely meal and drinking the excellent wine she had brought with her from Spain.

Unusually for someone who I had only recently re-discovered a few weeks ago it was remarkably easy to talk to her, I didn’t feel any need to impress her or make her laugh, it was just natural.

It was coming to midnight when she said she was leaving.

‘Oh, ok then, are you coming round tomorrow, we will be eating at about 2.’ I said as I walked her to the door.

‘Yea I’m going to try and make it,’ she as she turned at the open door. Then she lent in and gave me a tender kiss on the lips. ‘Happy Christmas Alex’ and with that she turned around and walked down the stairs.

I closed the door in a daze, ‘holy ****’ I thought to my self. I looked over at the clock.

00:10. wow it was actually Christmas. I went to bed happy and contended.

[lads]

I woke the next morning with a sense of contentment, although that vanished pretty quickly one I realised how much I had to do. I had often been teased of my womanly skill of cooking but I always answered it with the fact that it brought in the ladies pretty well.

Within 40mins of waking I was in the kitchen prepping all sorts of vegetables and putting the turkey in the oven.

All to soon guests began to arrive. Many of the back room staff who said they were coming brought their wives or girlfriends, so in the end there was nearly twelve of us. We spent a very happy afternoon drinking and eating. The conversation flowed nicely and everyone was having a good time.

The time passed quickly as it often does when you are having fun, but there was no hurry for people to leave, and the merriment went on and could have carried on right up until midnight, however we had a Boxing Day game, and just before 11:30 people started moving out. By 12 it was only me and Rachael left in the flat, she had helped me clean up but now that was done I was waiting to see what would happen next.

‘Alex, I’ve had a wonderful time’ she said walking over to me, and standing quite close.

‘Ye me too’ I said quietly, looking into her eyes.

‘There is something I want to say’ she said.

‘Ye anything’ I said trying to decided when to pick my moment to try and kiss her.

‘I’m leaving for Peru in three days time’ she said.

Her sentence invaded my brain and devoured my thought.

‘What’ I spluttered, my dreams of a Christmas gift gone.

‘Yes, I wanted to mention it earlier but we were having such a good time I didn’t want to mess it up’ she said her eyes glistening.

‘In a different place and different time, perhaps things could have been d’

‘different’ I finished.

I stood there dumbfounded, while she got her stuff gave me a hug and walked out of my life.

‘F**k me’ I thought, I was stupid to have thought anything would happen.

I eventually decided that there was nothing else for it but to go to sleep, however sleep was not easy coming and I ended up just lying there staring at the ceiling and listening to the clicking of the clock. I barely had time to close my eyes before my alarm went off, 7:00 am, Boxing Day, match day. Sigh!

[lads]

sorry for the long time between posts, second year at uni is crazy and i havnt had much time to sleep let alone post here. lads

Our game was against Middlesbrough in the premier league, we had thrashed them 4-0 in our previous game at home. They would be out for revenge as we travelled to the Riverside.

Middlesbrough vs Aston Villa, Away, 26,12,2008, PL

I named a similar team to the one that beat Middlesbrough last time out.

Gk- Lloris

DR- Coloccini

DC- Breno

DC- Davies

DL- Guilherme

MR- Young

MC- Van Der Vaart

MC- Petrov

ML- Kewell

ST- Lupoli

ST- Zeefuik

Subs:

Gouffran

Matuidi

Maloney

Moore

Wijnaldum

Boxing Day matches were notoriously un-representative; teams were tired, hung over from the Christmas break of to much excess, however, the team looking in high spirits, and the short bus journey passed in merriment with the players discussing their holidays. The three o’clock game helped things but I still felt dog tired, and I hoped that my mood would not influence the team.

We went though our pre-warm up rituals and I watched them calmly from the side. Our form going into this match had been impeccable and considering we had beat the same side 4-0 nil in the previous game.

As game time approached my mind started to clear and thoughts slowly turned to the game.

‘Ok lads, break over, we have to play exactly like we did before the break, we have an excellent record this year, and we need to keep up the good work. You have had a good break and now we have to go back to work, remember you Christmas break, and challenge that good energy into your playing. Go out there, watch the long balls and look for the counter attack.’

I watched every player out of the door, patted them on the back and walked out behind the team.

The stadium was packed with fans dressed in red and white, the referee, Chris Foy, oversaw the captains shaking hands and then checked his watch and blew his whistle.

The players kicked off. The game started with an eclectic mix of slow possession with desperate attempts at the quick counter. It was obvious from the start that the home advantage had pushed Middlesbrough onto new heights, and they were not the pushovers that we had played a few weeks earlier.

We had a couple of attacks that came close, with Zeefuik continuing his good form, however both his early chances he squandered and with twenty minutes gone, no goal had been scored.

Then on the half hour mark, the deadlock had been broken. Our attack had petered out into a goal kick for Middlesbrough. Enyeama surveyed the field and tried a long kick up field, as our defenders were higher up the pitch than normal.

The ball soared over our attacks and retreating midfielders, Mido headed the ball onward, on the full, the ball looped up again, Breno who had tried to challenge Mido for the original header was out of position and Aliadiere gratefully ran into the space provided. Davies had not moved across to cover Breno’s space in time, and Aliadiere took the ball on the second bounce and lopped Lloris. The ball arced through the air and fell just inside the bar. A quick counter attack had made us feel the pain.

1-0

My lads put up a good effort of trying to score before the break, but Middlesbrough were equal to everything we could throw at them. The closer half time came the less likely we were looking like to score. The half time whistle blew, and my players walked in sweating and dispirited.

‘Right lads; wipe that sweat away, especially since it’s so cold. Listen up; you knew this team would be up for this match, considering how hard we beat them last time. You all expected to come here and get an easy win, you were wrong. You are some of the most talented players in the league, so bleeding well show it. Start getting the passes together and take your opportunities when they take it, concentrate.’

I was angry, not helped by the tired hung over feeling from last night, but at the moment I didn’t care.

I replace Zeefuik with Luke Moore and put Shaun Maloney on for Van Der Vaart. Both players having disappointed in the first half.

The players have something to drink and took on some energy gels, but they mostly sat in silence and waited for the next half to begin. Even the biggest characters in the room, the likes of Barry and Kewell were unusually quiet. Looking back I can see that it was not the right sort of atmosphere for a team to have. But at the time I was grumpy and tired, and overlooked it.

The players went out for the second half. We hadn’t played the first half badly, but if the first half wasn’t our best then the second defiantly was bad.

Our passing while quick wasn’t spectacular and our chances all but dried up.

At the hour mark I subbed Gouffran on for Kewell and moved Maloney to the left and Gouffran in the middle. I had put on all my substitutes and now all I could do was hope that my team would score an equaliser.

They didn’t, and we lost the game, our first loss in a great while. I was disappointed, I knew coming back of the break would be difficult and having an away game making it doubly so, but I had expected better from my team.

Middlesbrough 1-0 Aston Villa

Aliadiere (29)

Attendance- 29516

MOM- Aliadiere.

I was not pleased and my post match talk was short and simple.

‘Not good enough lads, double training session tomorrow.’ That was it. I didn’t shout it; I just said it as normally as possible. Football is as much about rhythm as it is about skill of a team, and I didn’t want my team to get into a losing streak right after Christmas.

The bus home was quite but not abnormally so, it was usually quite after a loss, it was just that we hadn’t had many this season.

[lads]

The next day I was at the club bright an early, and in a significantly better mood, but I had not forgotten the previous days games and as soon as the whole squad was assembled I said.

‘Right shuttle sprints, go’ and I set off.

Over night I had realised that my mood had influenced the team and although it couldn’t be entirely blamed it was a definite factor. For that reason I also participated in the 3 sets of shuttle sprints I made my team do.

I was shattered by the end of it, and let Claudio carry on while I went and had a shower. I arrived back to see the last exercise of training before the 6 aside games.

After training I went to my office and started to prepare for our next match, in four days against Tottenham.

In more ways than one Tottenham were our closest rivals, they were the other team that were challenging the top four and although we had beat them twice in the league last season they were a dangerous well balanced team.

Unfortunately it was not the team I wanted, or we needed after a loss, an away game at Tottenham was not going to be easy. Amongst all this the January transfer window was under a week away and the papers were full of potential moves from this club to that and there were a couple of players in my squad that were in nearly all of the papers, and I knew I would have a job holding on to them. But the Tottenham game came first.

Tottenham v Aston Villa, Away, 30.12.2008, PL.

Gk– Lloris

DR- Coloccini

DC- Breno

DC- Davies

DL- Guilherme

MR- Young

MC- Van Der Vaart

MC- Barry

ST- Zarate

ST- Lupoli

Subs:

Gouffran

Matuidi

Maloney

Moore

Wijnaldum

The respect that I had for Tottenham was shown in my team selection, apart from Davies it was the strongest team I could field.

The team had performed well in the training sessions leading up to this match and I was hopefully of a positive outcome, even if that meant a draw.

‘Ok lads; let’s get back on track with this game. You’ve worked so hard the first half of the season and it makes no sense in throwing it away in this half. So go out there and perform like you would normally do, we have got great fans that love you, so give them something to cheer about.’

The teams walked out and I went to shake hands with Steve Coppell.

I then went to take my seat and await the start of the game; it was another of those beautifully crisp clear days.

The game started in fine form, with a beautifully flowing style of football, with both sides mixing defence well with attack. We had a couple of half chances early on but we could not convert them, and with twenty minutes gone, it had calmed down to slow attacking football, passing it around making the opposition chase.

With half an hour gone neither side had great chances. We had come close with Robinson palming a shot round the post.

The half time whistle was fast approaching and neither side had struck first, and I was considering how to change things up to get my desired result, when my mind was made up for me.

Defences or good defences rarely let a pass from in front of them get a striker in behind them. Just the angles involved are enough to boggle the mind. But Lennon pulled one of these passes out of the bag. He passed a ball from his right wing for Keane to run onto. Keane timed his run perfectly and as the ball was perfect also, the two met just on the edge of the penalty box and Keane had not troubled sliding past Lloris. Who stood up and berated Davies and Breno, for not being more aware.

1-0

The goal came at the worst time, just as the half time whistle blew, and the lads disappointed by the goal trooped in for drinks and the half time team talk.

‘Ok lads, unfortunate mix up for the goal, but we have been playing well, before that goal, they didn’t have a sniff at goal, just keep plugging away and look for the gaps, we can do it, just keep pushing.’

I talked over some tactics with Claudio and then showed what we had decided to Van Der Vaart and Barry, as they were the string pullers in our team.

The game restarted and the normal course of things resumed. The English game is not renowned for defending a one goal lead, unlike some European countries, but Tottenham although not in full blown defence mode, defiantly were not attacking as much, and they weren’t closing down quite as fast. All of which they were entitled to do.

But I was getting frustrated, my team had played so well before the Christmas break and now, frankly, they were playing horribly. Before the break we had pushed Tottenham hard, but after the break, Tottenham did not look like giving a goal.

15 minutes after the restart I put on Matuidi for Barry and Gouffran for Young. The two players I could usually rely on to score goals, or make something happen, were tired out.

The substitutes had a good effect and our pace of passing picked up, however we still could not find that chance that would bring us equal.

As time ticked by, I couldn’t help but get up and pace up and down my technical area. I couldn’t do much apart from urge my players on; my two best strikers were on the pitch.

Towards the end it got worse; Van Der Vaart pulled up chasing a long ball, and had to be helped off the pitch. In a fit of desperation I put Wijnaldum on in his place, thinking that the youngster would be something new for the Tottenham defence to content with. But with only ten minutes left, we could not find a way through, and we recorded our second loss in a row.

Tottenham 1-0 Aston Villa

Keane (46)

Attendance- 36228

MOM- Keane

‘Well played lads, a lot better than last time out and we were unfortunate to lose. However we are back on track and I am please. Just keep up the forward momentum and we will be back to winning ways soon enough.’

I didn’t fully believe my own team talk, but it was better than being annoyed at them. I needed them to feel comfortable, which was not easy especially as the January transfer window was now open.