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"I guess you're right…" he finished his drink, clearly relieved. "So, how was your cannibal today?" Johnny laughed. "He probably ate their red headed Scotsman and made a mess of everything."
"Yes well, the main thing was that he was not praised too much…"
‘Well, you wouldn't expect that from the old man." Johnny said.
"That's for sure. So what? One for the road? I have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow."
"Okay, let’s do it. By the way, how are you going to get to Sheffield on Tuesday?" If you want, I'll get a spot for you."
"No, thanks. I'll get there on my own, I need to stop by Doncaster on the way."
"Someone interesting at Rovers?"
"There’s one kid who’s an attacking midfielder but he’s not very stable yet. We need to check him out in a serious situation."
"And who did they get for the Cup?"
"Norwich."
"Well, if he can do anything against those bone crushers, then the bloke really has talent."
"Yeah, we’ll see. Shall we get out of here?"
"Yeah, come on."
As he got into the taxi, he gave my hand a firm squeeze.
"Alex, don't tell anyone what you just heard from me," Johnny said, giving me a conspiratorial nod. "You're a good mate. Thank you!"
"Yeah right," I laughed. "Cheers, take care of yourself mate!"
2
The bone crushers were up to par as Johnny had predicted, my boy from Doncaster couldn't do anything against those Norwich City boys and was just trampled over and flattened in the first half. Then by the seventieth minute, when the Rovers already had a score of nil-three, he was completely replaced. I didn't stay to watch the beating anymore so I went back to Sheffield.
It's a great idea that they play Cup matches at different times, that way you can watch a game in one city, and have plenty of time to get to the neighbouring one to see another match.
"Hey Alex! How's your ward doing?" asked Johnny who was the first of our people I met in Bramall Lane.
"He’s a little weak so far. How are our blokes doing?"
"There's a warm-up session in twenty minutes and the mood after Reading is combative."
"Well, may God grant such a mood as that…"
Mood is very important in football but unfortunately, it is not everything. We started quite briskly, and in the first half-hour we could have opened the scoring twice but in one case the ball struck the crossbar slightly and then went out of bounds and in the second the United goalkeeper stopped the ball from going into a corner with an incredible jump. They had no mercy on us and by the time the break came we were already losing nil-two.
I would be better not to tell you what happened in the locker room, but everyone got it, including my Cameroonian, although I think he did his best. However old man Harris needed blood and fresh meat and finally, he told everyone to get out, and promised that if we lost we would all be walking home.
Apparently it worked as during the second half, the blokes went all out and my ward was also in top form. First during one of his attacks he almost reached the point where he could have struck from the left flank and if it had not been for their defender, who knocked the ball away at the last moment, we would have scored. Then, from one of the corners, Fleming spun the ball right into Iron Mikey's bald head, and Iron Mikey had no choice but to score. It was his first goal of the season and in fact I don't remember him scoring last season either, but Mikey is Mikey and he didn't even change the expression on his mug, as if everything was how it was supposed to be. He just tore the ball away from their defenders and took it to centre pitch.
After that, the score stayed the same until the last minutes. United was already doing everything they could to run out the clock, old man Harris was raging on the sidelines and the referee kept checking his stopwatch, trying to decide whether to go straight to the judge room or give us a couple more minutes of stoppage time. Their fans began to sing their sad song, which they should have considered a victory song, while ours just yelled, spat at security and tossed all sorts of rubbish onto the pitch. In general, everything was going as usual, another lost cup match on the road, but then all of a sudden my cannibal did something unexpected.
Who knows whether it was something he picked up in Belgium, or something they teach them at the Ajax school, but he suddenly abandoned his flank and went on the attack with our central defender, the big Icelander Sigurdsson, who had already been playing second striker for the last five minutes.
You had to see it. At that moment the game was reduced to the good old "kick the ball forward and you’ll see, something good will come out of it". In fact I don't even remember which of the blokes put the ball into the penalty box. Sigurdsson was struggling, the ball somehow flew up sideways out of the havoc, where Parker also missed it, so that the ball now flew up somewhere at a level just above the waist. And then Fabrice performed a scissor kick, I don't know how he did it in the fight against their defender, but the fact remains. Our Cameroonian folded, executed the scissor kick and the ball bounced off the turf and went straight into the goal! That was it, so much for "a pinch of snuff", or "a Night Out in Sheffield".
Most of all, however, I felt sorry for the judge. The wanker was probably already getting ready to go to the pub with his co-conspirators on the sidelines, and then bang! Added time, and then there might be a penalty. The United fans had forgotten all about their "packet of Woodbines" and were roaring and whistling and hooting, but they were nowhere near as loud as our idiots. Our people staged a real orgy in the guest sector. How little the blokes needed to be completely happy!
"Parker! You fucking bastard!" Harris couldn't contain his excitement, either. "How could you not hit the ball, you bitch? What the fuck is this?! After every training session I'll have you hitting rugby balls for half an hour! Do you understand me, you fucking Pinocchio?"
"I love you too, Coach!" he said, proving what a wanker he was.
"Get it together! Focus!" The old man didn't let them rest on their laurels. "Be careful with the defence! Make them shit themselves and then squeeze the faggots!"
And the blokes did it! We did it in extra time, so the referee and his linesmen would be happy as they didn't have to watch over a penalty shootout. They carried it off so well that it was one for the road!
First, our left winger, Varga, made such a cross that he could at least now be sent to the Hungarian national team. Parker pushed past their defender and kicked the ball to Kenneth, who ran up, and kicked the ball so hard that it almost tore through the net of the goal. Then when the entire United team moved forward, our team ran away in a three-in-two counterattack. After that it was just a matter of technique. Fabrice, Adam Varga and Parker played the game perfectly, and my team-mates just rolled the ball into an empty net.
Four-two. Turn out the lights, game over. Now it would be possible to get plastered on joy alone. I even wished I hadn't been driving, but I didn't want to leave my car in Sheffield.
How the boys got home, I'm afraid to imagine that. Our next game was on Sunday, so Harris let the blokes celebrate. Anyway, Johnny Martin told me later that he didn't remember much, and to get a machine like Johnny plastered, you'd have to try hard.
* * *
After the match, Fabrice appeared in all of the newspapers. The blokes from an online-publication did an interview with him in which he, without much hesitation, compared himself to Choupo-Moting. However in general, it all turned out quite well. For only two shitty matches, the cost of my kid on a well-known German portal jumped up one and a half times.
On Saturday, at the pre-match press-conference, it was only the lazy who didn't ask about my Cameroonian. "Where did you get him?" Bitches, don't they know how to use the Internet? And, "Are you sure he's nineteen?" Fucking racists, and, "Have you thought about moving him to a position with the attackers?" What fools they are.
Old Harris, of course, was as impenetrable as a fifth-grader in class, and I think that in his heart he was laughing at everyone. I must say that with journalists it is always better to behave as you would with small children. Suddenly they could all be offended again and start writing all sorts of crap. Although exhausting, this game of cat-and mouse, of course, is also great. So Harris probably got tired at the end and when some creep from a local paper asked him about rumours surrounding his resignation, he couldn't stand it any longer.
"I'm not holding on to my seat! If the management makes such a decision, I will pack my bags and then worry about the club as a fan."
That's exactly what he shouldn't have said. However it was clear that the fans liked that. Harris is his own man, even though he didn't play for us, and he comes from-somewhere up north, but to say what he said is to pit yourself against the Big Boss. To say it's up to him, and that you’re deeply committed to the club. Well, it was a setup of course. Something like that is not forgiven.
It then started on all the social networks. "They're pushing out our coach!" "The money bags have completely lost their minds!" "To the club's management, this is just business!" "Honour the colours" and all kinds of stuff like that. In the evening, as Johnny later told me, old Harris was called "into the pit."
They probably did a good job of dressing him down because in the morning at the base he was like a wet towel and the overall mood of Rovers, which had been fiery, flew all to hell. In the pre-match warm-up, the blokes were running around like sleepy fish, looking at each other in disbelief and glancing at old Harris, who kept his mouth shut.
Our captain finally couldn't stand it any longer.
"Coach, I'm sorry to bother you but-we need to wind up the blokes."
"So wind them up!" Harris exploded. "You fucking idiot! Are you trying to teach me now? Come on, move your arses! All of you! What the fuck are you doing? Do I have to go round and round in circles for you?!"
That was better and it worked. The blokes started running around and I could even see smiles appearing on their mugs.
"Roberts! Why the hell are you grinning? That's what I got from Harris. "Where is your place?! On a bench or something?! Who the hell are you here?! A Scout?! So fuck off and watch these fuckers from Blackburn! What the hell are you doing here?"
Johnny patted me on the shoulder. Grinning from ear to ear, rubbing his hands together.
"I thought it was all over." Martin leaned in close to my ear, and a wave of garlic and some other familiar smell washed over me.
"Are you drinking something?" I asked in a whisper.
"How’s that?!" He laughed.
Contrary to all forecasts we rolled out strong against the Rovers. Three-one. Twice it was Parker, once with a penalty for playing using his hand, and then Johnny Kenneth, with a long shot from-behind the penalty area. And then even Sigurdsson's own goal in the end did not spoil the mood of anyone but the Icelander himself. They laughed at him and teased him in the locker room afterwards, and that was it.
Our fans were so happy! Three wins in a row, which by the way, this season had not happened even once, and they just went mad. They were already not quite normal if they supported a club like ours. The only time I've ever seen people who were more unhappy was when I was watching hockey in Buffalo one winter. It was cold and windy, and there's just nothing in that city, no normal entertainment, no booze, nothing. Then they huddle in their ice palace and yell: "Let's go, Buffalo!" And so on for three periods in a row, although after the first they were already in the hole nil-six. Probably, in comparison with them, ours are still a little less unlucky. At least you can pop someone in the mug out of grief. And you don't even need to go far for that, there are Chelsea or Yids right next to you.
So, from such happiness, our blokes just went insane. The Fans arrived at the base on Tuesday. They knew that Monday was a day off, and no one would be at the base. Songs were shouted out, flares were lit. They acted like the Tiffozi, only they were dressed more decently.
On Wednesday, some blokes met little Fleming in one of the establishments and they didn't let him go until they'd made sure he drunk himself senseless. What discipline? Fleming was barely alive and could barely move his legs in training for two days. I won't even say anything about the social networks. All over the net they were still going nuts about Harris and the scoundrels in the club's management. Generally speaking, this entire orgy of happiness should have ended badly, and thus it so happened.
* * *
Johnny picked me up on Friday.
"Come on, Alex, let's sit down."
"Johnny, thank you, but I don't have time. I have to go to Exeter."
"Bloody hell, Alex. What haven’t you seen there? There are also only black ones. And ones that compared to your Cameroonian, are like way before Premier-League."
"You're a racist, Martin. You know, money doesn't know colour."
"Are you taking the car or the train?"
"I’m going by train."
"Then let me give you a ride. We need to talk."
He was driving badly. He twitched, broke sharply, and in general was somewhat nervous. I was silent. There's nothing I could do to help him. Let him speak for himself.
"That’s it."
"What’s it?"
"It's over. Harris is being removed."
"Oh, come on? How do you know that? Did you talk to the Big Boss?"
"Yes. I honestly explained to him that I didn't want to be a rat and couldn't work with the blokes without the old man. That today there was nothing better than Harris for the team. I told him that we have gained momentum and do not need to break anything."
"What about him?"
"Well, what about him… You know. If he's got the reins under his tail, there's nothing you can do about it. Generally speaking Harris is not permanent."
"That's disgusting. That’s bad."
"Too bad," Martin agreed. "I don't know what to do now…"
"When will it be announced?"
"Tomorrow, before the match."
"Wankers…"
"Yeah."
At Exeter, I was checking out a bloke to play as a fullback. He was a tough Irishman, aggressive and mean but for serious work still a little green. Losing his head he picked up yellow cards during the season. So in this match he got his "sick leave". Although he must be given his due, he always sees everything on the pitch and was good during the selection process, true that was by Exeter City standards. I'll have to watch him a couple more times. It would be interesting to watch him in the cup, against a stronger team than the one from Oxford.
It was almost midnight when I got back to London and I immediately fell asleep. In the morning, I had twenty-nine thousand new messages on my smartphone.
As soon as I read the first one, the phone rang.
"Alex, you owe me one." It was O’Grady, "What's going on at the club? Are they filming Harris?"
"Sean, bloody hell, I just got up. I got in really late last night."
"Alex, stop whining!" He was insistent. "You know if it's true, I should write about it first!"
"Sean, what are you talking about? We’re on the way up, they have never been in better form and the blokes are ready to carry the old man in their arms. What possible dismissal?"
"Bloody hell, Alex. You are a real arse!" He didn't seem to believe me.
It looked like it was going to be a hot day. It was worth getting ready. I had a couple of whiskies at breakfast. I took a taxi right to the stadium as it was better not to go to the base.
Our bus arrived at the stadium forty minutes earlier than it was supposed to and I have never seen anything more heart breaking in my life than the way our blokes crawled out of it. Iron Mikey led them to this match as a playing coach and neither Harris nor Johnny Martin was with the team.
I didn't go to the locker room as I had nothing to do there. I walked around in the stands, met a few friends from the club, and talked to them about Harris. One of the doctors told me that Johnny also seemed to have refused to stay on with the coaching staff, although this may have been a rumour. I watched the warm-up from the bench. The blokes were running around nervous and they were all wound up. It was like there were electric shocks in the air. Something was going to happen.
From the very beginning of the game, the pitch was covered with smoke, one of our loudmouths lit something which produced serious smoke and in response the hooligans from Cardiff lit their own flares. They must get them into the stadium in their arses, I thought, for me it was always a mystery. As far as I could see no one actually watched the football match for the first twenty or even thirty minutes. The stands roared with curses at the Welsh and the guest sector kept pace. In general it was just the usual thing for such matches and that was mostly what any decent audience was going to watch. After all you can't really watch football when there is such line-up as Millwall vs Cardiff City. It was definitely not Barcelona vs. Real Madrid.
Towards the end of the first half, when the flares seemed to have run out for both our idiots and the dear guests of «Den», the smoke finally cleared and it became clear that there was nothing but complete rubbish taking place on the pitch.
As a coach Iron Mikey turned out to be quite brutal. I do not know how he motivated our blokes or how he pumped them up, but it all came down to the ruthless extermination of enemy midfielders, to endless jabs and fighting for the ball in the centre of the pitch. The entire tactic of our team today was hitting the ball as powerfully and far away as possible, everyone seemed to have forgotten about some sort of passing in the game. Overall it appeared to be more like rugby than football.
We have to give due tribute to the Cardiff players, they probably also missed playing such a game and gladly accepted the proposed rhythm and intensity, taking hits and tackles hard in the legs, using their elbows and knees, like in Thai boxing. Well, you can probably understand them, as their coach had also been a defender and a bone breaker in the past. At the beginning of the season he was still trying to teach his "masters of the leather ball" to exit a defensive game through short passes, something which Guardiola was also looking for, but when in the first few matches this «tiki-taka» brought them a series of goals into their own net, he returned, so to speak, to the roots.
At the break, the team line-ups were incomplete when they left the pitch. Their team removed two players and we only took out Davey Roberts, but five more were hanging on yellow cards.
My ward got kicked in the legs a couple of times, but he seemed to be doing a great job and didn't get into any fights. I simply couldn't miss the second episode of the show called "the setup from Iron Mikey" and found my way into the locker room.
Our new coach was pleased with the "dedication and team pressure". I didn't even know Mikey knew such words. He was especially pleased with how the "Welsh faggots" ran to their dressing room with their tails between their legs and seemed afraid to come out for the second half. Well, that's what he said for good measure. Ours, of course, had also paid a price. Adam Varga couldn't even step on his left foot and Parker had a deep cut to his eyebrow, but Mikey was relentless, and his pumping up of the team ended with a roar of "For Harris!" What the blame of the blokes from Cardiff was for the resignation of the coach is something history is silent about but they had to be held responsible for this.
Just before going back out onto the pitch I caught Mikey's arm.
