When Hammers toll

[madog308]

A few notes about the game – I am using FM 2008 version 8.0.0 with a medium database and USA (MLS/USL), England (all leagues to Blue Square North/South), France (Ligue One and First Division), Germany (to Regionnaliga), Italy (Serie A/B/C), Spain (La Liga, Liga BBVA), , Scotland (SPL/1/2/3), Portugal (Bwin Liga) playing. I’ve also included players from the major footballing nations not fully running in my game.

It should be noted that names of all non-public characters who do not appear in the standard game database are randomly generated and are not intended to represent actual people. As before, attitudes and observations about actual people are generated and driven by the FM 2008 game engine.

i hope you enjoy my first try at writing

madog308

P.S i know its an ask but any feedback would be greatly appreciated, if its crap tell me how to improve it, if its good then that's fine, but if its all right tell me and i will try harder.

[madog308]

“Finally” I sighed. And I slumped down into my chair.

Funny how good that sounds “my chair”, and what a mighty find chair it was too. I drummed my hands on the top of the table…wait my table

“Whoop”, this was my chair, my table, my job, and my club!!

“I think you’ll find it isn’t, came a voice from the door. I had been speaking aloud. The voice came from Eggert Magnusson the Icelandic football fanatic; I believe it is my club, my chair, and even my table.

“Yes quite right sir, I’m just expressing my excitement and honour to be…. “He cut me off

“There’s no need for the sucking up Alex, you know that I trust you, I wouldn’t have appointed you if I didn’t believe in you”

“Thank you sir”

“No need for sir, call me egg”

“Egg??”

“Yes egg, that’s what my nickname is”

“Alright I think I can manage that”

“Good anyway I will leave you to it, you got a lot of work to do” and with that he walked out of the door.

***

Let me fill you in on some details about me and myself. My name is Alexander Diaz, and as the name suggests I am have Spanish, specifically from a town called Bilbao. This wonderful city was founded in the 14th century. However my grandparents moved to England during the fighting, with the refugees, and my mother married an English man, so I am half Spanish. However I do speak Spanish and English and even a Basque dialect called Euskera.

***

My childhood was a safe on however perhaps out of the norm; my parents moved to the Middle East when I was six weeks old, and where the first teachers at a new British style school in a small island called Bahrain. I was given a good education, and in the norm with the region played a lot of football. I was so good that I was scouted by some of the clubs on the island, which is not that big of an achievement as there were only 7. However there was a snag, I had to be Bahraini to play, however I was persuaded to get a Bahraini passport, which required me to speak Arabic. (This in later years provided much benefit).

***

Anyway I stayed in Bahrain till I was 18, I had started to play for the clubs at the age of 16, and I looked even younger due to my late growth spurt. I moved back to England for university, I was going to geophysical studies (heavy stuff I know). However the university I was going to, Southampton knew my football-ing history and suggested I try out for Southampton, a good mid-club premiership side.

So I did and I was given a youth contract, I primarily played as a winger but I could play pretty much anywhere, apart from central defence, where my height put me at a disadvantage. However I was quick and was very naturally fit, always had bags of energy, I quickly got my chance in the Southampton first team. Ironically playing against West Ham.

***

It was a dream debut I set up the winning goal with a cross from the left wing, the one cross really put me on the map so to speak.

I stayed at Southampton for several years before moving to Tottenham, for five years, before finally playing for Liverpool for 4 years, before (and I can still hardly believe I’m saying this) played for Barcelona for my last two years) I brought in 11.5 millions pounds to the Liverpool coffers. I made lots of friends during my time at these clubs, and that has proved invaluable. I loved football, the fluidity, the almost dance like motion of running feat, and the tricks, the tricks I learned at the Nou camp was out of this world.

*****

I retired, however didn’t spend long, and went into scouting; my first job was at Schalke, a mid sized German club, I mostly scouted Africa, the Middle East and a short stint in Brazil. However I soon asked the manager if I could try my hand at coaching, and I duly got the Schalke youth team. It was only up from there, moved onto the reserves, before becoming a first team couch at me beloved Southampton, and then I moved back to Nou camp for move first team couching. However know at the ripe old age of 45 I have got a managerial position.

*******

I am the new manager at West Ham, a mid league club, which could do better. I was approached by them at the end of the 2006-07 season and I jumped at the chance. They had narrowly avoided relegation and it was between me and Alan Curbishley. And well we know who won the job.

[BenArsenal]

Interesting start.

Bit of a tip. If you're doing dialogue (as you did for your start), try to leave a space between lines. Makes it easier to read.

Cheers.

[madog308]

many thanks, next instalment in procress

[madog308]

As I looked at the team sheets I immediately knew why west ham had only just avoided relegation, almost all of their team was over 28, the team I inherited was Robert green GK, Richard Wright GK, George, McCartney DL, John Pantsil DR AMR, Jonathan Spector DR, Anton Ferdinand DC, Matthew Upson DC, Lucus Neill D/WBR, Nolberto Solano D/WB/AM R, Scott Parker DM, Mark Noble MC, Lee Bowyer AMC/R, Fredrik Ljungberg AMR/L, Matthew Etherington AML, Luis Boa Morte AML, Kieron Dyer AMC/R, Craig Bellamy FC, Dean Ashton ST, Carlton Cole ST, Bobby Zamora ST.

I am not a fan of massive overalls of teams however I felt that this was perhaps in order. I mean for a start we only had one DL, this was a serious issue. However Before I could get properly acquainted with the team Egg turned up and said one word

‘Press’

My heart sunk I really didn’t like the press and wasn’t particularly knowledgably in the ways of dealing with it.

I followed egg with more than a hint of trepidation. I entered the room; it was like lightening had struck the room, flashbulbs exploded into action just feet away. I was momentarily blinded; however Egg took my arm and sat me down. If you ever wanted to see power, you only had to watch the way Egg took control of that room. Every one went silent.

‘As you all know Alex here is our new manager, and the board and I have full faith in his ability to manager this club, over to you Alex’

I almost had a heart attack, one sentence, one ruddy sentence and he was throwing me to the reporters.

‘What are you first impressions of the club’ a female reporter asked. I think I could make out a BBC card around her neck.

‘Well to be honest I haven’t had much time to mull things over, but we defiantly need more backup on the left side of defence’ I replied.

‘Do you think you can handle the premiership’ I frowned slightly

‘I’ m not sure if you know but I have worked at Barcelona, I think I can handle the pressure’ however I decided to keep things balanced, ‘I know that the premiership is the greatest league in the world, but in answer to your question yes can handle the pressure’.

‘Your unmarried, looking for any partners while at West Ham’ excuse me (I thought I hadn’t heard it write). She repeated the question.

I saw a THE SUN card around her neck. (That explained everything)

‘Um...no err…I will be focused on football-ing matters first and foremost’ I replied

‘What about the issue with Tevez’ a male reporter near the front asked

I looked at the chairmen next to me for help, 'Tevez issue' I whispered.

He quickly took control ‘that matter is not to do with Mr Diaz, it is a legal issue and I would ask that no journalists report anything false information’

The media questioning took about 45 minuets to complete and I was pretty mentally drained by the end. Football, tactics, and substitutions I can deal with. Question about my personal life, my hobbies and where I was living I could not.

That’s a good point actually I still hadn’t found a solid living place!

I finally got back to my office and I could relax, an environment I was happy in. however that doesn’t mean slacking I had lots of work to do.

I had been given a transfer budget of 10.5 million pounds and a wage budget of 846K. If my first impression I was going 2 need all of it to get this west ham team where I wanted it.

Over the course of the next two hours, I used my contacts in Germany and Brazil to good effect, however had not made any purchases. If you can believe it West Ham employs no scouts, I was gob smacked!!

[madog308]

Probably being a youth couch for most of my career influenced my desire to get some young talent in. I mean my team are not that old, but I have 7 over 28 year old and I know that isn’t old but, in terms of skill they weren’t much better than my youngsters.

I have quite a good defence, Ferdinand, and Upson are both young and have bags of talent. As I mentioned before I needed to change my left back McCartney really isn’t good enough to play at this level.

My midfield is all right, I have no trouble with wingers however my midfield is lacking some talent. Parker, Noble and Bowyer are my only natural midfielders. Lacking any scouts I had to call in some favours. One major find is from Germany. When I was at Schalke he was still a teenager, however they were raving about him even then. His name is Marko Marin.

He is a natural midfield and can play in a attacking midfield role, his first touch and technique are better than most of my midfield players at the moment. And he has all right, fitness and stamina. Passing which in my game is key, needs to be worked on. However I can deal with that. I called up Jos Luhukay manager of Gladbach. We spoke in German

I think he was pleasantly surprised to be talked to in German

‘good morning, is that Mr Luhukay, Alex Diaz here calling from west ham’

‘good morning, what can I do for you’ came the deep voice. I couldn’t believe he was the same age as me, he sounded a lot older

‘I was wondering how much you would like for your youngster Marko Marin’

‘Well to be honest not to pleased, he is one for the future, however I am willing to listen to offers’

I was told by my contact that his value was 250K

‘How does 350K with 15% sell on clause sound’ to be honest I wouldn’t have sold him for that much. unfortunately it seemed that Jos thought so too.

‘I’m sorry but that offer is not good enough’ But then he did something quite unexpected, ‘how does 500K straight up sound’ I almost bit his hand off!!

‘Well, I suppose so’ I said

‘Very well I will let the player know’ And just like that my first transfer was done, pending Marko was up for it.

Just as I put the phone down, another call from Europe arrived. However this time from a colder place. Russia.

Привет, Это - Валери Газзаев от ЦСКА Москва. я спрашиваю о Луисе Боа морте

‘Pardon’

However a translator had entered the fray now

Hello, …..This is Valery Gazzaev……. from CSKAMoscow……. i am inquiring about Luis…… Boaaa…… morte .

Of course Louis Boa Morte our Portuguese left winger. He had only been at the club from the 06/07 season, however at 30 I was willing to listen. I had intended to use him as my anchor in my team. But needs must

я буду предложение 2.3 миллиона от с дальнейшим 700 КБ более чем 6 месяцев

I waited for the translation

‘I will offer 2.3 million up from with a further 700K over 6 months’

‘I’m afraid that just wont do, I will need at least his asking price, perhaps more I said

прекрасный, я свяжусь с Вами позже

‘fine I will contact you later’ and the phone was dropped on me. I reckon Valery was going to the higher echelons of the management.

Other big news of the day, was that the big spenders, Chelsea, were flirting with Goran Pandev.

we can but dream, cant we..

[madog308]

Marko Marin called my office this afternoon.

‘Hello this is marko Marin, I would like to speck contract?’

I thought I better do this in German

‘Hi marko nice of you to call, i'm sure your manager has filled you in’

‘O you speak German, I have to say I was nervous about the language barrier’

‘That’s quite alright, where shall we begin’

The conversation didn’t last long; we got the contract ironed out within 30 mins

He will be getting 4, 500 per week with bonus, I didn’t particularly like the bonus part, but if my hunch is write about him, its going to be worth it.

Luis Boa Morte will be leaving as well. CSKA Moscow called back and offered his asking price plus 35% sell on clause and 1million after he plays 30 games.

I duly accepted and Luis will be packing his backs to go to Russia next week.

Matthew Etherington approached me today.

‘Oi gaffer, am I getting sold?’

‘No, where did u here this’

‘The press said that you were selling a left winger’

The bloody press!!

‘No, I was actually selling Luis’

‘Really!! How much for’

‘Well…5million plus clauses to CSKA Moscow’

‘Wow I always thought he was better than me, anyway nice talking’

I was quite glad that he didn’t want an answer to that question, however, our friendly against Cambridge is coming up and I decided to go down and start an all new regime of training.

Up until this point I had been letting the senior coaches get on with it, and I was watching, assessing my players.

I called the lads together

‘right guys, you have seen be watching your training sessions, and I can see that you have been working to impress, however we are going to have a full game of 11vs11 right now’

I saw a couple of disgruntled looks from several players.

‘Key aspects of my tactics are passing, stamina, and drive. I play a normal 4-4-2 with the winger absolutely bombing up and down the wings, so you guys in particular have to get fit.’

‘Right let’s split into to teams, now!! Let’s go!!’

We ran a full 11 vs. 11 with 25min halves. This only enforced the message that my midfield needed work. My wingers for the most part were fine. I had the older, more sensible heads of guys like Ljungberg, coupled with that I have the younger guys like Etherington. Winger would be fine I decided, perhaps a couple of loan players could be useful.

However midfield, was a problem, that didn’t seem to be able to run, marko was making some of the others look like amateurs, attacking wise I was quite pleased, all my attacks wanted to show what they could do, perhaps after every other department was sorted, I could focus on strikers.

[madog308]

It was coming to the end of July and I had my eye on some interesting players from Brazil.

More of my players had moved on, some I didn’t wish to and other who I was quite pleased to see the back off. One in particular was Jonathan Spector. He had come to me earlier in the week.

‘Hi gaffer, I was just wondering whether I was a first team defender’

I decided to be truthful with him, at 21 he was a bit young and there were several other players better, i.e. Anton Ferdinand DC, Matthew Upson DC, who I had planned to be my back two, both fairly young as defenders go, both of them had a good set of brains and both were quick and fit.

‘Well no your not really, you will be backup to both DC and DR, but if you apply your self in training you might get a few chances.

He didn’t seem to like this

‘how am I supposed to get better as a player if I don’t play full time, c’mon man, do us a favour and put me in first team’

‘I’m sorry but you aren’t in my first team plans and you’ll just have to accept it’

‘But man what about my fitness, and passing, and everything you said you wanted’

‘You will have to work on it during training’

‘But seriously you are going to use Anton over me’

‘Yes’ I was starting to get tired of this now’

‘Look I’m the manager and I make the decisions, you will just have to accept it’

‘Right whatever’ and he stormed out and slammed the door’

Mary my assistant who dealt with all the calls walked in, ‘is everything ok’

‘Ye I could do with a cup of café

‘Well there is a machine right next to your head, on the left’

I gave a rueful smile

‘Ahh, cheers’ and she walked out.

**********

The next I woke up in my studio flat just on Plashet rd, not more than a 5 min walk from the ground. Got up had a cup of café and turned on the sky sports news.

I almost dropped by drink, in bold letters across the bottom

Pandev moves to Chelsea for 15million. They had done and dusted the deal within 24 hours and Pandev was winging his way here, and 15million was been wired to Lazio.

As if Chelsea needed another striker, Drogba was contention enough.

Just as I was about to turn off the TV, another banner came up. This time I did drop my cup.

Luis Boa Morte moves to Russia. Now I know for a fact he hadn’t left yet, CSKA were going to release the news, and I had told no-one.

I tell a lie, I had told Matthew E.

I stormed out of my flat, and did the journey to the ground in under a minute. My team weren’t in for training as they had beat Shelburne 6-0 in our friendly the day before yesterday. I went strait to the weights room. Whenever I was angry I did exercise, over the next hour I lifted a stupid amount of weights, and only when Merv (Mervyn Day my assistant manager) walked in and told me players were arriving, did I stop.

My fore arms were on fire, I think I had pulled something, my day was getting worse.

Just as I was walking out of the showers I saw Matthew.

‘You!! Follow me, now’

We walked into the office, and for the first time I closed door, never had I closed the door even when talking contracts and selling players.

‘What….’

I cut a cross him

‘I would just like to full you in on some details, I don’t like the press, I don’t like the press making up stories, but the thing I hate the most is people telling the press confidential information about this club, its players, or its staff.’

A look of dread crossed his face

‘I know what you’re talking about; it’s the Luis thing isn’t it.’

‘Well done for reading the papers’ I snapped at him

‘Honest gaffer it wasn’t me who went to the press

‘Well you’re the only person I told’

‘Yea but I told someone two’

‘The press?’ I hissed

‘No Jonathan’

‘right go and find him and send him in here, if he’s not here, call his phone and tell him to get his lazy ass out of bed’

[madog308]

‘I’m not late am I’ it was Spector as he walked into my office

‘No I want to see you about something else’ I could barley control my anger

‘So what am I doing here?’

‘Did you release news to the press?’

‘No…course I didn’t, want are you accusing me of’

‘I’m accusing you of leaking the information that Luis is going to Russia’

‘Yea but you only told matt about that’

I'd got him

‘But I didn’t tell you, did I and matt must of told you for you to be so unsurprised about it’

His attitude change in the blink of an eye

‘So what if I told the press

‘I’m not sure if you know but I don’t like the press, and I don’t like information been leaked, if the club wanted to tell the world something, the club, here that word, club would release the news.’

‘So what it was going 2 happen anyway?’

‘Still you shouldn’t have done it, and will not tell the press anything in the future’

‘You cannot tell me what to not do’

‘Regarding club matters I can, what does the brass place say, M A N A G E R. that means I manage you’

‘Don’t you talk to me in that tone again, you here, I don’t even care’

I suddenly changed from getting loader to being deadly quiet.

‘If you don’t care about this club tell me know, and you can be transfer listed’

‘Whatever’ and he stormed out

I called my assistant, and in the calmest voice possible.

‘Please put a fax out offering Jonathan Spector’s services’.

‘Right away sir’

I went down to the others players. They were still in the changing room.

‘Guys, shut up one sec, I would just like to make one thing clear, and no one is under any circumstances to release information about this club to the press. As most of you have heard already, either from Luis or the press. Luis will be leaving us at the end of the week.’

I proceeded to lead the warm up and then gave them a challenged

‘If you can beat me round the touchline of the pitch I’ll buy you drinks’

This was perhaps a rash decision as I ended up buying 12 people drinks, although in all honesty I would have liked to buy the whole team a drink. I then left the couches to take over training and went back up to my office.

I had two important calls to Brazil to make. One to the club Vasco and the other to Cruziero. Luckily the main language in Brazil is still Spanish.

My first call was to Dorival Júnior of Cruziero.

‘Hi this is Alexander Diaz calling from west ham’

‘Hello what can I do for you?’

‘I’m enquiring about Guilherme’

‘Yes’

‘Um...how much would you like for him’ I knew he had a release fee clause of 5.75 million

‘I’m afraid he is not for sale’

I could see this wasn’t going to be easier, so I decided to offer the full price straight up.

‘How about 5.75million?’ I asked knowing full well he would have to accept

‘Very well, I will let the player know once your transfer team contacts me’

‘Thank you nice doing business with you’

‘I wish I could say the same’ came the reply and he hung up.

No one really wants to sell their star player.

My next call was to Vasco, I had to, in my eyes, to get this contact done and dusted today. For this one was a fix for my left back problem.

This time I was speaking to Celso Roth

‘Hi this is Alexander Diaz; i’m calling to ask weather you would be willing to sell, Guilherme’

Yes they have the same name

‘Ahh straight to the point I see’

‘Sorry but I’m in a bit of a rush’

‘You could always call back later’

‘No no, sorry how much would you like for him’

‘Well to be honest…’

‘How does 5.25 million sound?’

‘Sounds very nice indeed, I will contact the player… thank you’

‘Cheers’

I was shaking, never had I pushed so hard for a transfer, usually I would have bargained for weeks, however I needed this player, and I needed him now. A sudden new realisation came into sight. I had just spent my entire transfer budget on two players! Crap!! Had it not been for the sale of Luis Boa Morte, I would be in the red…already! Today was not Turing out to be a good day.

Both called Guilherme, both Brazilian, both talented, both, I hoped, to become very good buys. One was a WBL and other an AM/FC, both needed.

[Balthazars]

Hi madog308, I believe you posted in the community thread that you're new and this is your first attempt at a story? Don't worry if that kind of got skippedo over, the community thread is a bit barmy most of the time!

Anyway, welcome. It's a good start, I like the not-quite-so-serious attitude you give Alexander and those around him. Your formatting has tidied up a lot too, which is great. There are still a few simple errors lying around that more practice with proof-reading etc will surely help to iron out (noted at least one of the dreaded 'your' instead of 'you're', and also an 'overall' instead of 'overhaul', for example).

Keep it up, and enjoy the writing and the FMS community.

[madog308]

thankyou. i appreciate anyone who takes the time to read my story, and will endevour to iron out the kinks

[madog308]

Still reeling from the shock of spending so much money, I was kind of in a day dream and I only realised on the three ring, that my phone was going off.

‘Hello’

‘hi Egg would like to see you…now’ it was my assistant

‘very well, thank you’

‘good luck’ and she hung up.

Good luck, what was that meant to mean.

I walked into Mr Eggert Magnusson office.

‘hi Alex please sit down’

I sat.

‘the finance department have just contacted me and told me that you have authorised 11million pounds worth of sales in one day’

‘ahh, yes I have’

‘and I gatherer there only on two players’

‘yes, but very good players and players that I think the club would be worse off without’

‘I just want to say that, I have full trust in you and if you think that the club needs these players then very well, however you will have a job convincing the press’

‘yes I realise that sir but I believe they can do the job’

‘very well just be aware that we have a press conference tomorrow 10 am sharp’

‘very well sir’

I walked back to my office and when I got there my phone was ringing

‘ye hi’

The speaker was German

‘hi I am enquiring about the services of Jonathan Spector DR’

‘hi yes who’s calling’

‘a representative from Schalke, the manager is in a meeting but has authorised me to do this deal’

That was a bad move on their part as I knew, now, that they would pay to dollar, or pound, for Jon.

‘very well make me an offer’

‘how does 5 million sound’

‘well considering he is still only 21 and a very good right back, that is a good offer, however because of those reasons I am going to have to decline’

‘very well 6.5million’

‘you bump that up another million and you have a deal’ I wanted to get the most out of this deal as possible.

‘how about over 24 months’

‘very well, I will contact the player once your financial team contacts mine’

‘thank you, nice doing business’

‘quite’.

After a hard days work all I wanted to do was go home lie on the bed and watch some kind of sport.

My walk home, as mentioned before is only 5 to 10 minutes long however, just as I was turning down my street, some idiot in a fancy car; obviously some boy racer game roaring up the street, he had one of those funny exhausts which made a loud growling noise, I looked round, to see this car swerve up onto the pavement knocking over a paper stand. The fool had obviously lost…

he was heading straight for me, I dived into a shop door just in time to see sparks fly past me and a loud scrapping noise. It was gone round the corner in less than five seconds. I stood up shakily only to realise that my shoulder ached like hell. The last time I had felt pain this bad, was when I got stung by a jellyfish and was in hospital for a week. I looked around for anyone; there must have been someone who saw this. However I realised that it was 5 o’clock on a Wednesday and most people would be indoor eating. I staggered home where I made two calls. One to the police, I also asked them to send an ambulance and another to Egg; I had to leave him a message.

[madog308]

‘your not being very forthcoming’ the police man asking..again.

‘its because I have nothing to be forthcoming about’

‘you didn’t see anything’

‘look that’s the fifth time you’ve asked that, and I will tell you again, I cant remember anything other that what I have already told you’

‘nothing, apart from the car was red, you think the driver was male, and I quote ‘it had a funny exhaust thingy’’

‘yes’

‘are you trying to protect someone’

‘pardon’

‘are you trying to protect the identity of the driver’

‘no, because I don’t know the identity of the driver, if you don’t have any more questions I will have to ask you to leave, please’

‘very well Mr….Diaz, we will contact you later, if you remember anything you wont hesitate to call us’

‘first person, promise’

After the police left I had a bath, soaked by shoulder.

Why would anyone want to hurt me. Was it an attack, perhaps it was just a drunk driver. No-one could hate me because of bad results as I haven’t started yet that’s in two weeks. Signings maybe, got rid of Spector and Boa Morte two good players?

O god I’ve got a press conference tomorrow and I’m going to turn up and look like hell

I went to sleep as soon as I soon as the pain killers started taking effect.

I opened my eyes, I looked at my bedside clock

09:45 am

I have never moved so fast in my life, and don’t get me wrong I was a quick guy in my youth. I skipped having a shower and shave, I could have those once I got to the club, I just jumped out of bed shoved some clothes on and was running towards the stadium by 9:50.

Puffing and panting I got into my office

‘coffee, and mail, desk now!!’ I managed to gasp as I ran past my assistant.

She brought them in, in about 5 seconds.

‘you late’

‘ ye thanks, got that bit’

‘you’ve got a press conference in 5 mins’

‘yes I also know that, cheers’

I gulped down my coffee burning my throat.

I quickly ripped open my letters, to find out that Luis had arrived in Russia, and Guilherme and Guilherme were on their way here. I sorted out my tie and walked as fast as I could without running to the press area.

As I walked in I heard Egg

‘….we will be realising information as soon as we know, but at the moment the courts are decided weather it will go to full trial’ he was talking about the Tevez issue, a part of this club history that I still didn’t understand.

‘and here he is now Mr. Diaz’

[Blanco]

£7.5 million for Jonathan Spector??? Bite his hand off

[madog308]

£7.5 million for Jonathan Spector??? Bite his hand off

i know to say i was surprised is an understatement

thank you for reading my story

[madog308]

‘why did u sell Luis Boa Morte’ this a question from a tall blonde from news of the world

‘Well they offered a good price and I accepted’

‘was he not in your first team plans’ originally yes however I believe that we have other players that can fill this role

‘are you going to bring anyone in to replace him’

‘yes’

‘would you like to elaborate’ I gave a small smile

‘No’

‘What about this rumour of bad feelings between you and recent departee John Spector’ this time from a man from the BBC

‘Well I admit that I had not intended to sell him, however we had a talk and we both decided that it was time for him to move on’. It was only a small white lie.

‘And where has he gone?’

‘To Germany’

‘Which club?’

‘I’m afraid it will be for that club to tell you’

‘What about these rumours that you have spent a large amount of your budget already’

‘well I assure you that I will not be spending recklessly and you have to take into context that we have sold around 10million pounds worth of players’

‘How is new singing Marko Marin settling in?’

‘Well, very well, I believe he can become a good player and a driving force behind this club in years to come’

‘Have you filled your left back worries?’

‘Yes, however I would not like to elaborate’ anticipating their next question

‘What about the reports that the police were at your house yesterday’

Egg looked at me, I couldn’t quite determine weather it was worried or alarmed

‘Yes that it quite correct the police were at my house, but I was the victim of a road accident’

‘Can you give us any more information?’

‘About the accident, no, about the football club or football-ing matters yes’

The questioning carried on for about 20 minutes more.

After the end Egg called me into his office.

‘What is this about a car accident’

‘I left you a message on your answer phone’

‘there was no message’ and to prove it he played through his last messages

‘but I was 100% sure that I left it on there, could you have deleted it by accident’

‘no’

Someone had deleted it!

13August

Today has been the best day of my life. One because it happens to be my birthday but the other because I have made some major signings, five in all. First of all I have got Harry Kewell AMC/L on loan from Liverpool with future fee clause of 2.5 million. I have bought a backup to my left back position a young Portuguese player by the name of Manuel Da Costa who is already better than McCarthy. So that means I can sell him, which is exactly what I did, to Wigan for 2.5 million which offset the 2.5 million for Da Costa. I also got Chris Eagles on loan from Man UTD, a backup to my old gun wingers, and another left midfielder on loan by the name of Santiago Solari from Inter. I also bought Mauro Zárate for 3.3million from Al-Sadd, who will add another talent to my front four.

Furthermore two players are also leaving the club, long time veteran GK Jimmy Walker for 450K to Sheff wed, also John Pantsil will be leaving us for 3 million pound for Borussia Dortmund. Now if I’m not mistaken and my sums are right then we are still 1.3million up, with a stronger team.

Here’s what my first team looks like now

GK Robert Green

DR Lucas Neill

DC Anton Ferdinand

DC Matthew Upson

DL Guilherme

MR Nolberto Solano

MC Kieron Dyer

MC Scott Parker

ML Santiago Solari

FC Dean Ashton

FC Craig Bellamy

In almost all of these positions there is good competitions for match time, with new signings challenging for LB, MC, FC, ML.

[madog308]

Big day today, my first premiership match, and I admit, against an opponent which I wish we didn’t have. Tottenham a good side that has the potential to break into the top four. They hadn’t been as active as other teams in the transfer market, they had just brought in two players, Yury Zhirkov AML and Simon Ferry but he was put straight into their reserve team. There was one good point about the game, it was at home, I hoped with my signings, and the prospect of a good game a large crowd would turn up.

I arrived early at the stadium before all my players and just took a walk around the ground soaking up the atmosphere, it wasn’t an especially big stadium at 34500 capacity, remember I had been used to the Nou camp; I was out there for at least 45minuits. When I went in a few hardy supporters had started to arrive, I walked back into the changing room to see my new signings Guilherme, Marin and Kewell all sitting at their respective cubicles with their heads in their hands. I walked over to them.

‘hey guys, remember I brought you to this club for a reason, I believe that you have the ability to be show stoppers, just relax, don’t worry about a new atmosphere’ I said it in all three languages, to try and make them feel at ease.

Slowly in one’s and two’s my other players turned up and when they were all there.

‘Well guys I know I have not been with this club long, but I feel already that we have come so far, you have responded well to my new tactic and have trained well. I believe in you all. Right lets go out and warm up’

We all jogged out and I led the warm up, right next to my club captain Lucas Neill.

As we were jogging round the pitch I had a quiet word in Lucas’s ear

‘Lead from the front, even if we don’t win I want effort put in, ill be relying on you to keep the moment up’

‘Sure thing gaffer’ came the positive response.

Ten minuets into our warm up Tottenham players started to pour onto the pitch. I left the warm up in the hands of my head coach and ran over to the opposite changing room. Just I was walking into the tunnel Martin Jol walked out.

‘Welcome to the premiership he said as I jogged up’

‘Thank you’ I replied ‘I wish your team the best of luck’

‘We won’t need luck, but thank you anyway’ and he walked off towards his team.

I stood perplexed for a second, before returning to kick some balls at my GK Robert Green.

20 minutes before kick-off we all walked back into the changing room, and I took to the middle of the floor.

‘Alright guys were up a strong opponent, however we can beat them, and they are there for the taking if we have the drive. Remember what I have been teaching you over these past few weeks keep the ball on the floor, look to hit it out to the wings, and remember, we can take them on the counter attack. I haven’t been making you run sprints every day because I’m a sadistic Ba****d’ this brought out a few smiles.

'Remember you man marking, keep tight imagine they are a really hot date, you don’t want to let them out of your sight’

‘Are you saying we have to give them presents and pinch their butts’ this from Anton Ferdinand (quite the joker of the group)

‘What you do in your spare time is your business, but it explains why you never go on dates’ this brought a few chuckles.

I then let my Assistant manager Mervyn Day, take to the floor

‘now guys I have seen you work harder a better under Alex than I have every seen you work before, makes me thing where I have been going wrong over these years, keep the work load up and don’t worry about the big names in their squad.’

My final word to them before they went out was slightly humours

‘Right good luck guys, and go out there and pinch some butts’

Anton pretended to punch me, but it was all in good humour, I liked this squad mainly because it was always in good humour.

[madog308]

My team looked like this: GK Robert Green, DR Lucas Neill, DL Guilherme, DC Daniel Gabbidon, DC Matthew Upson, MR Nolberto Solano, ML Harry Kewell, MC Kieron Dyer, MC Mark Noble, FC Craig Bellamy, FC Dean Ashton. Subs: MC Marko Marin, AML/R Fredrick Ljungberg, FC Guilherme, DL Da Costa, Lee Bowyer.

I took my place in the dugout and waited for kick off.

We started off well keeping the ball well, passing it around however I was slightly worried by the lack of forward motion; we would get into the opposition half, only for my midfielders to pass it backward, after 15 min’s of this, the 34454 people watching started a chant ‘cross, cross, cross it’ I marched out into my technical area, and shouted at Kewell who was closest

‘Cross it, it doesn’t matter if we lose it, but let’s give Bellamy something to chase, perhaps a long ball’

Not 2 minutes after I said it Kewell lifted in a long ball from our half down the left hand side, Bellamy raced after it and put a good cross into the box, Dean Ashton who was arriving hit it with a diving header.

I was jumping out of the dugout, the crowd gasped!

However it was not to be, hit was palmed over by Paul Robison; at least we got a corner.

‘Well done lads keep it up’

Kewell ran over to take the corner; again he lifted it high into the 6 yard box. It was easily gathered by Green. I started to walk back to my seat, only to hear the crowd roar.

Green had realised Aaron Lennon up the right side, Robbie Keane was sprinting up the middle being followed closely by Ferdinand. Lennon put and early ball in, and Keane, turned with it putting Anton on his arse. It was now one on one; however Keane didn’t run round the keeper, which everyone expected, he shot from where he had turned, and Green who was out of position by this point, anticipated a charge down, couldn’t get close to it, the ball ballooned the top right hand corner.

After 30minutes of pressure from us, they were 1 nil up.

I tried to calm my players, by clapping and pushing my hands down, to emphasise, don’t rush. Form then on till half time it went back to the slow passing that the first 15 minutes had seen. We walked in at half time 1 nil down, it should have been nil nil. I walked in, into the changing room to see all my players sucking on their energy drinks. I clapped my hands for silence.

‘Good job guys, Kewell and Solano what did I say about crossing, put a couple in, because at the moment we are just wasting time by passing it around the middle of the field. Don’t worry about taking someone on, just make sure if you lose it, run back and help out. They{Tottenham} are playing for this one nil win, make it hard for them, tire them out, try a couple of long shots’ I was basically trying to get them to be a little bit more original, try a couple of tricks, we needed some inspiration.

I brought Solano off, he had been woefully inadequate on the right hand side, and I put Ljungberg on in his place.

As they were walking back out on to the pitch I took Anton by his arm.

‘Don’t stress about it, everyone makes mistakes, just get your head down and prove a point’

We came out of the blocks a lot better, we were running circles around them, and Dyer had a shot only just palmed around the post. The best chance of the half fell to Dean Ashton when we found the ball at his feet at the edge of the box. He rifled in a shot, only to see it cannon off King and only a superb save my Robison, who had to chance position in mid air, denied him. There is a good reason why he’s England’s number one. The rebound was sky-ed by Noble.

The clocked ticked round to 80minutes and I decided to go for it, we had kept Tottenham pecked back in their own half for 10 or so minutes. I threw on Guilherme for Noble, to give us an attacking presence in midfield. A long ball up was headed down by Ashton to Guilherme who jinxed past King and sent a stinging shot towards the top corner, it had Robinson beaten, I was starting to jump and punch the air, only to see the ball bounce of the top left hand corner.

Damn it would have been a great debut goal for the Brazilian.

The following corner again went to nothing. Mental note, we had to work on corners.

However Robinson again set up the attack, a quick throw, and again it was Aaron Lennon who raced away, however this time Ferdinand was more aware and moved to cut him off, however Neill who was rushing back took it upon himself to tackle Aaron. It resulted in a free kick and my vice-captain had a few words to say to the captain. The free kick was taken by Bale, it zipped over the wall and it took a deflection on its way through the mass of people.

I couldn’t see but from the cheer I guessed it was a goal. My worst fears were confirmed when I heard the whistle. We had gone in search for an equaliser and we had conceded right at the death, to give the match away.

In the last 10 minutes Tottenham were happy to keep it in their half. That’s how the game finished

West ham 0

Tottenham 2

Goals (Keane 37, Bale 82)

Cards (Neill yel, Bowyer yel, King Yel, Zokara yel, Boateng yel)

MOM Robison

[madog308]

‘What went wrong?’

‘ well not much in reality, we were jut unlucky, that we didn’t score, and they made two very good breaks that we didn’t pick up on’

‘Did the number of signings create a concentration or understanding issue?’

‘no not really I don’t think so, we have been training well over the past few weeks, and I think as the team gets used to my system we will get better’

‘You were pretty timid at times went you’ this from a women who I had seen around a couple of times before.

‘I have to say I don’t agree, I think we showed them what we were capable of, we had a couple of clear cut chances, and it was only because of their goalkeeper that we didn’t score’

‘What about the chant of ‘cross, cross, cross’’ this was still the same women

‘What about it’

‘Were your wingers scared of crossing?’

‘I don’t appreciate your tone concerning my team, I admit that crossing was inconstant, but we will look into it’

‘How well do you think your new signings player?’

‘well they all played well, but Guilherme at left back played very well, he kept Zhukov quite for most of the match, and was a threat bombing up the wings on the counter attack’.

‘will you be dropping Ferdinand next match’ this again from the women who had asked before’

‘Your asking me a lot of questions, what should I call you by’

‘Asking questions is my job, but my name is Nancy Kent’

‘Very well Nancy, no I will not be dropping Anton from my next squad, he made a mistake, but played well overall’

‘Thank you Alex’.

With the questioning over I walked back into my office, when I walked in Anton Ferdinand was sitting in the seat opposite my desk.

‘What can I do for you Anton?’

‘I just want to say I am really sorry for what I did and I promise that it will never happen again’

‘Steady on, it’s not one persons fault that we lost, it’s the teams fault, including mine, don’t stress about’

‘Am I still in your first team plans?’

‘Yes’

‘Cheers and he walked out’

I called my assistant

‘See if you can get Merv in here please’

He walked in moments later

‘What can I do for you?’

‘I think we need to talk about tactics, they need a little bit of a tweak’

‘Yes I was thinking so to’

‘Good just next time, tell me, I’m not afraid I can take any criticism you can throw at me’

‘Ok but what have you got’

‘well I was thinking that we need to stop our DL and DR from running forward to many times as it was that that led to the goals’

‘Yup I agree, and I think we could also make our back line stay very deep, as I don’t think they are fit enough to compete for pace, with wingers yet.'

‘ye good idea, what do you think about making our wingers cross from deep, as this would allow Bellamy and Ashton to use their pace to get in behind their back four.'

‘We can try it in training, I also thing we need to practise crossing on the run’

‘Ye ok, I things that enough things to change for now, I’ll see you bright an early on Monday morning’.

[madog308]

16August

The players started to trickle in my assistant and I were waiting for them, finally Etherington rocked up and I took the floor.

‘right guys following our defeat yesterday, I am going to make a few changes, now as we have a match tomorrow I wont do a lot of running or aerobic exercise, however we will do a lot of skill level exercises.

First of all I will go off with the wingers and attacks to practise crosses on the run, and Merv here will go through a small defending routine to get you to understand the new tactics’

I spent a good 45 minutes getting their crosses up to standard, and by the end they were getting it really well, I just hope they will be able to concentrate when we are in a match environment. We all walked into the video room. And watched the key highlights from Saturday’s match, and I talked through my new tactics.

Right first of all my DL and DR don’t always run up on an attack, if you have the ball and can break then go, but don’t run up an assist if a MC is on his way, you wingers cross often and cross early, Bellamy and Ashton have great pace, give them something to chase.

You didn’t think I would just let you wonder round did you. This directed at my forwards. It brought some rye smiles.

Finally, we will, from now on be man marking, not zonal. So get tight to your opposite number. Right we will go back out for a little 6 vs. 6. Then I will let you go, we get on the coach at 2:00 tomorrow, I would like everyone there at 1:30 at the latest’s.

‘Let’s go’

I went home and studied some footage of Aston Villa, they had some very good youngsters in Ashley Young and Gabi Agbonlahor. However they had also gone a spending frenzy of 19million pounds bringing in players like: Aaron Hunt, Jefferson Farfan, Kostas Katsouranis, Abubakari Yakubu, and Diego Placente. We would need to be sharp at the back if we were going to get a win out of this game. And I believed we could get a win.

I was so engrossed in my watching that I didn’t notice that a letter had slipped under my door, I only found it when I was locking up.

You know that Banter is a sign of healthy relationship

I have a secret admirer it seems.

17 August

Before I went to bed I updated my Ipod, it was going to be relatively short journey to Villa Park, 133miles about 2 hours, however I knew that traffic would be bad, and that’s why I decided that we leave at 2 even thought the match started at 7:45.

I arrived at the stadium at 1:00 and started to get my things together, once I had done that I still had 20 minutes to kill, so I decided to relax a bit and turn on some music and try and relax. My music of the moment is Alison Krauss, she has the voice of an angle, if I die and go to heaven and the angles don’t sing as well as she does, then I will ask to go back.

I looked at my clock 10 minutes to go; I jumped up and jogged to the parking area, to get on the bus. However as I opened my door a letter flew out from underneath it. I opened it as I was walking to the bus.

See you at the match, hope it goes well

Was someone stalking me or just being very juvenile in their way to get me to like them.

I was still pondering the question when I got on the bus, I was glad to see that everyone was there and we could get off early. The Bus was magnificent each player had their own little cubical, like a first class seat on a major airline.

I settled into my seat and put my Ipod on. I quickly dosed off. I told myself that I was only going to sleep for an hour or so. So I was slightly annoyed when I woke up, and the driver told me we would be there in 15minutes, I was even more annoyed when I was told that it was ten to seven, that means we would only have a short warm up and I wanted my players to get used the hostile atmosphere

[BenArsenal]

You know that Banter is a sign of healthy relationship

I have a secret admirer it seems.

Ooh.......

[madog308]

it is a rather nice twist i feel.

thank you for reading my story

[madog308]

‘Right guys, we only have around about 30 minutes so lets get out there and get warmed up, chop, chop’

We almost ran to our changing rooms, and got dressed into warm up kit and double quick time and ran out onto the pitch. The Aston villa players were already there doing shooting practise.

‘Gentle sprints.’ I said to Merv

As my players started to warm up, I took in the atmosphere, slowly circling the ground, that wasn’t big, but it was still bigger than ours. It was while I was still circling when a women report walked up; it was the same one that asked all the annoying questions earlier in the week.

‘Scared?’ she asked

‘Oh how nice to see you’ I said with as much sarcasm I could muster

‘Think you can manage a draw?’

‘The last I checked this is the pitch, a place for men, so why don’t you scuttle off to wherever you came’

‘Skipping the pleasantries I see, I’ll see you after the game’

She walked off and I went back to my players, I went over and talked to Gabbidon

‘Stay sharp today; there are a couple of quick players here, keep you guard up’

I went back into the changing room and wrote up my starting eleven. There were only four changes to my squad last week; I wanted to get all my players match fit. I brought in Ljungberg for Solano, Scott Parker for Mark Noble, Da Costa for Guilherme and Gabbidon for Anton. My subs would be Zárate, Guilherme (FC), Marin, Bowyer and Etherington. Unlike many managers I take a risk and don’t put a secondary goalkeeper on the bench.

Five minutes later my squad walked in, and looked at the team sheet, everyone seemed ok with it apart from one. Anton Ferdinand.

‘You said you still trusted me’

‘I do’

‘Then why am I not in the starting eleven, I mean I’m not even on the bench’

‘I am merely trying out a different tactic; anyway I think you can learn a think or two about positioning from Gabbidon’

‘Still you could have told me’

‘I still hadn’t made up my mind until today, look I know your good and you will play the majority of the games, just relax and enjoy the game’

‘Alright’ and he slouched off.

‘Alright guys lets have a little hush’ this from my assistant Merv

‘ok guys, you played well last week and we didn’t deserve to lose, however remember the changes I put in place, and lets see how well we can do’

I patted each of my players on the back as they waked out. Then finally I walked out into my technical area.

The ref blew the whistle and we were off and 42569 fans cheered us on, almost immediately Aston villa put us under pressure, Farfan jinxed past Kewell and put a sweet pass into Ashley Young who was playing in a striking position, my defence was caught flat-footed and it took a brave charge from Green saved our collective bacon.

‘Come on guys concentrate’ I bellowed from the touchline, remember what I told you, Matthew, Daniel keep a low back line’

The next 20 minutes passed pretty uneventfully, both sides had a couple of chances; we had a good shot from Kewell pushed round the bar by Carson. However they did have a sweet cross which was headed by Hunt blocked on the line by a fiercely back-pedalling Gabbidon.

‘Well done, good heart’

They was one pleasing note, the crossing practise had gone in well, at least three time Bellamy was in behind the defence, twice it was exceptional saves from Carson that denied him, and one time he screwed his shot wide. It was really good to see Ljungberg giving the young Farfan a good run for his money, there was obviously some petrol left in his tank, he was a Ji-sung type character, always running for every ball, even though not having the best pace.

From about 35 minutes on it was clear to see that both sides were getting tired and this was the time for a counter attack.

‘Bellamy stay up, Kewell see if you can put him in from out wide, when they have a corner’

As if reading my mind, Green tipped a ball over for an Aston Villa corner. It was all set; Kewell was standing on the edge of the penalty box, Bellamy by the centre circle. The corner curved in and was headed out my Upson, Kewell ran after it and took it half way up our side of the pitch, before releasing a low skidding cross to Bellamy, who in turn and turned away from Cahill and was one on one with the keeper, his first touch was brilliant, taking it to the left of the keeper, he then switched back onto his right foot, and lifted it over the post, we were all craning our necks to see the ball roll towards an empty net….

Except it missed the empty net and hit the post. I said a four letter word that I’m sure most of the crowd heard, I noticed I was on the big screen and took control of myself. Half time ticked round and we went into the changing rooms.

Well done guys, it’s a good open match and we almost had them at the end guys, more of the same, Scott and Kieron make the midfield yours, you have the skill, stop them wandering over the park, you can feed the wingers from a better position than my wing backs can. Green you’ve been excellent today keep it up, Craig, keep it up, you almost had them at the end, I feel for you.

We went out for the second half and I put Mark Noble in for Scott Parker and I gave Mario Zárate a debut, I hoped he would like up to the 3.3million I paid for him and he came from a relatively unknown club from Saudi, and its all due to my contacts that I signed him.

The second half started relatively slowly, if I was Martin O’Neill I would have probably said that they could win this, yet they came out and they looked like they were playing for a draw, wingers were not attacking, and they were giving long balls over the top to the strikers. I decided to go into a more attacking mode, I shouted for my wingers to move up more, on the attack and I told my midfielders to do what felt natural, i.e. I was given they free reign within a box of tactics.

We immediately started making chances, first they were long ranger shots, by Noble, and Da Costa, we were so dominant to the point where it was hard for the opposition to get out of their own half, however at every cross they had everyone back except for one player. They were defiantly playing for a draw.

Ljungberg dribbled past Reo-Coker, however was brought down by Placente and we had a free kick 10 yards from the right hand corner of their penalty box. Ljungberg and Ashton were standing over it, while my defenders were arriving in the Aston villa box. Ljungberg floated in a cross, which has headed straight at Carson.

He took a quick throw and released Hunt who raced past Noble, there was only Da Costa tracking him, he rapidly moved to cut across him, and went in with an excellent sliding tackle to disposes Hunt, and the ball rolled back to Green who booted it up field.

With 20 minutes to go both sides decided to call it enough, I was egging my players on, but whether they were tired or couldn’t here me they didn’t push for a goal. That’s how the match ended.

Aston Villa 0

West Ham 0

MOM- Craig Bellamy

In such a dull match it was hard to find a MOM and it was obvious they decided it on entertainment value, and Craig had produced the most of that so he won. But I wont take anything away from my player.

[madog308]

‘Well done guys, we almost had them, lets keep the work rate I saw tonight, up for the rest of the season and we will be somewhere we deserve’

They were all tired; it had been a very physically tiring game, lots of running. I left them to my assistant manager and went to face the press.

‘Two points lost or one point gained?’

‘Good question, I don’t think its two points lost as we were away from home against a good team, however to say it was one point gained, suggests that we didn’t expect to get anything and that’s not right. I suppose you could say we got the result we expected.’

‘Bellamy had a couple of good chances, were they missed chances?’

‘I agree that he had some good chances and that on a another day he would have slotted home almost all of them, however Bellamy is new to this team and is getting better everyday’

‘Zárate didn’t have a very good debut, do you agree?’ this from Nancy Kent

‘You like to rip my team don’t you?

‘You haven’t answered my question’

‘I don’t think it is fair to say that, Zárate has only just come to this team from a country where they play a very different type of football. So I think he will become a great player for this team once he gets used to the way we play’

‘Next week is Sunderland at home, another similar team to your own; it’s these teams that you have to beat if you want to be in the top half’

‘yes your quite right we have to win against the middle teams, and aim to get a draw with the bigger teams, if we can do that we will be where we want’

‘How is your team getting used to your tactics?’

‘Well as very new manager knows, bringing new tactics into a team takes time to work, the players have to get used to it. However I think that my tactic is not that out of the ordinary so I think the results will pick up soon’

With the press conference I was walking back to the coach when two policemen stopped me. Luckily there were no photographers around, which would have been a nightmare.

‘Mr Diaz we have finished the investigation, about your attack’

‘O good, and what have you found out’

‘Well it seems that it was an accident, we found the car you described, because another person was nearly ran over by it, and the driver has admitted to being drunk’

‘O but what about the message I left on Mr Magnusson’s answer phone’

‘Well it seems that he doesn’t know how to listen to them, we left a message and then went over and asked him to play it, it deleted by accident. So therefore the investigation is over’

‘Thank you; I appreciate your hard work’

With the conversation over I walked over to our coach for the drive home

[madog308]

It was quiet drive home; no one was particularly happy about the result however no one was sad either so it was just a tired silence. We got back to our stadium for about 11. I decided to go straight home, any mail I could deal with later. However I told the players to get an early rest as we had three days before our next match and one of those would be a day off.

August 18th

Today I didn’t wake up till about 12. Lazy I know but I was tired, it had been a hectic couple of weeks. After I woke up I got some tapes of our next opponent Sunderland who are a team much like us. They finished 12th last season a good result, and they are one of our main rivals in the main pack area. I spent a good 3 hours watching their games and getting to know there style. Roy Keane is a normal sort of manager playing a normal 4-4-2 style with man marking, however his team are very disciplined and are working hard on their skill. We will have to be as disciplined to get through their back line.

I decided to go into the club just to check my mail, and because there was nothing else to do.

As I walked into my office my assistant ran up to me.

‘A journalist asked to see you; she wants to see you in person’

‘How did they know I was here?’

‘I don’t know’

‘Who is it, not sure, tall leggy blond?’

‘Send her in then’

I was to regret that decision. Who else but Nancy Kent, walked through the door.

‘Hi Alex’

‘O its you’

‘You sound so happy to see me’

‘Well our last conversation was so enjoyable I was starting to miss you’

‘Ah that’s sweet but there’s no need to suck up’

‘What do you want?’

‘Would you kick me out if I said to see you?’

‘No but I would call you a liar, what do u want?’

‘To interview you’

‘To interview me, you would like to interview me, you have as much hope playing football for the club than to interview me’

‘So you’re saying that if I play football for the club, you’ll give me an interview’

‘Yes’

‘It’s a challenge then, goodbye’ and she walked out of my office

It was a bloody well impossible challenge, and to think I came in today to get some work done.

[madog308]

I spent the rest of the day, just checking through the transfer market news, Arsenal splashed out 13.75million on Vincent Kompany, I would give anything to get that player, he will become a superstar, mark my words. Surprisingly neither Man Utd nor Liverpool have bought anyone yet, however they are both probably working on something behind the scenes as they often do. At 6 o’clock I decided to call it a day and decided that I would go out into town to eat tonight. I took a taxi to a restaurant I had found when I was in negotiations with Magnuson.

A Fish bar called Curve, its only 15 minutes away but I was tired and indulged myself with a taxi. It’s just outside the West Indies Millwall docks, which is a nice part of town. I walked in and the concierge floated over.

‘Table for one please’ I didn’t particularly liked eating alone but having a fake relationship just to keep the public appearance up, I hated more.

‘Certainly sir’ he crooned.

I decided on the sea food platter, with which I had 2004 Chablis which is quite dense but goes beautifully with white fish. I had just finished my bread sticks and was sipping my wine, when the one person who I didn’t want to see walked in. Nancy Kent.

I prayed that she wouldn’t see me, and I pulled a menu from a nearby table and held it over my face.

‘What would you like sir’

‘Ah no I’ve alre….’ It was Nancy

‘Mind if I sit’

‘If I say no, you’ll still sit wont you’

‘Yup, its so lonely eating alone, do you mind if I join you’

‘Are you wearing a wire?’

‘Reporting is my job, not my life Mr Diaz’ was the cert reply.

‘Is Madame joining you?’

I don’t why I answered how I did, but I said 'yes’

‘Very well, what would you like Madame’

I don’t know why I said yes, to this women who had been my nemesis since I took this job, however it seemed that she was a different person when not reporting. With a little help from the Chablis, we talked about the transfer dealings, not west ham’s mind you, I didn’t trust her, we talked about the possible title challenge Liverpool would form. Me thinking that they could do it, and Nancy thinking that they couldn’t. Another bottle of wine was ordered, with every sip of wine I could here my brain shouting at me to stop, hold on, think what you’re doing. However for some reason I didn’t listen.

We finished our meal around 9:30, I paid the bill which was considerable larger than If I had dined alone. We went out side and hailed a taxi.

‘Where to Guv?

Without thinking I said the address to my apartment on Plashet rd. 20 minutes later we stumbled into my apartment.

‘What would you like to drink’ I asked Nancy

‘Nothing, nice apartment though’

‘Jack Daniels and coke it is then’ I brought the drinks over and we slumped onto the couch. We quietly sipped the drinks until I plucked up enough courage.

‘Have I ever told you how pretty you look’ I asked her.

She blushed ‘I thought you said you hated me’

‘I told a lie’

‘Do you like the notes, I left?'

‘That was you!! But you’re such a bitch.'

She playfully slapped me; I caught the hand ‘you know you have beautiful hands, very delicate’

‘And they can do more than just type’ she giggled

‘Is that an offer?' I slurred.

‘Maybe she said and walked into the bedroom’

A little voice in my head started talking ‘she’s a reporter, you hate her, she’s going to ruin you, throw her out now’ however I decide to ignore it and I walked into the bedroom

[madog308]

I woke up to the worst headache I have ever had, I don’t particularly like drinking and now I knew why. It was like several small children playing drums really badly coupled with the irritating tisk, tisk of other peoples ipods when they are turned up really loud and all you can here is the bass line. I turned over and the shock of my life, a woman was sleeping in my bed.

She was kind of hot, tall blonde, I sat up to have a look at her face, and I almost fell out of bed. It was Nancy Kent, bloody Nancy Kent, how the, why didn’t I, is this real.

I decided to wet my face and have a cup of coffee and then go back a see if she was still there. Five minutes later I walked in. she was still there. I decided that I had to go to work and hopefully she would be gone. I would have to write a note though.

Here in lies another problem, what kind of note should it be, not to fancy, or ‘lovey dovey’, I spent a good 5 minutes thinking about what I should write before I started.

I decided on a plain, ‘have gone to work, be back late’

I was still in a daze when I walked into my office. I checked my mail to see if there was anything serious that needed my attention. And then I went down to the training area, and got the balls out to practise a couple of free kicks, I then practised some pile drivers, I was taking some spent up confusion and frustration out on the ball. I didn’t notice Merv walk out behind me.

‘You could teach our players a think or two’

‘Haha maybe I should!’

The team jogged out 10 minutes later. Ok guys let do a slow jog round the pitch to get the joints warmed up. I joined them, I would like to say I was near the front but I wasn’t, I near the middle with the likes of Da Costa and Solano. We then moved it up a gear and went to sprints, one goal line to 5 yard box, to penalty spot, to edge of box and so on, until they were sprinting the length of the pitch. This time I sat out and watched. We then did a good 20 minutes of stretching and I went over and talked with my assistants Mervyn Day, Glynn Snodin(first team manager) and Kevin Keen(head coach). They all seemed to agree that the overall fitness of the team was rising and Craig Bellamy in particular was processing nicely.

We then split into teams of 11 vs. 11 and played a game with 20 minute half’s.

I think my team is processing nicely, Da Costa and Guilherme (WBL) are having a real battle of who is going to get the LB position, I might consider rotating them every match or so. Craig Bellamy has cemented his place in my attack with Guilherme (FC) Zárate and Ashton battling it out for the other forward place, with Cole being the last choice. I’ve decided that Marko Marin is not quite good enough to start every match however he will probably be on the bench all the time, and getting quite a few sub appearances. Right back is pretty much sorted with Solano and Neill having that to themselves, however I will be looking to replace Solano probably next season as 33(by next season) is a little too old for me.

I’m more worried about midfield. Kewell and Solari have the Left wing position to themselves, that’s all well and good however they are both on loan, and I have to think seriously about buying one or both of them, or finding a new replacement. However it is the central midfield and attacking right midfield that I am most worried about. I am playing Dyer and Noble in the middle, with Ljungberg and Bowyer having the right attacking position with Ljungberg playing all the games his fitness will allow. However neither Dyer nor Noble are good enough to allow my wingers to bomb up, I want my midfielders to supply my wingers while holding their positions so they can cut out any counter attack.

Next summer I am going to have to find some good midfielders that do what I want. However it is too early to be looking to drastically change my team like that. The only area I am not worried about it central defence Ferdinand and Upson will start every game I can get them to start, with Gabbidon, Davenport and Collins being good reserves, however being three off them I anticipate one or more of them getting annoyed at the lack of playing time.