Chapter 25

The atmosphere in the board room was heavy and thick, almost like being under water. The faces around the room were downcast and hopeless, all bar one. The team had limped forward and grabbed a further loss and a draw for their troubles in the next two matches. This meant that they were sitting squarely in the relegation zone with four points from a possible eighteen. The statistics didn't make pretty reading for anyone and that was especially for the staff who had been sold dreams about promotion and the like. The frustration of being so far from what they hoped for required an outlet and an obvious one existed in the manager who had disturbed the progress of all the players. The frustration wasn't completely unwarranted either, he was aware that what he was waiting for was a pipe dream and to explain it would be to attract ridicule, so he hadn't been able to truly get them on board. The staff had been working with half of the picture on what they were doing so it made sense they felt he was the main problem with the team. The board had publicly been very supportive, spouting the usual platitudes that the season is a marathon and not a sprint, but privately the pressure from the top had already started to be felt. The staff had been content to keep quiet up until now, but it had been threatening to boil over for a while and the moment finally came.

"Our next game is against Millwall, they are a defensively solid team who might not score many goals, but they don't concede many either. They were joint for lowest goals against and utilise a low block, we will need to work hard to break them down." He replied nonchalantly, ignoring the atmosphere around the room.

"Should we just wait for the players to level up like usual?" a dismissive voice that belonged to his assistant said.

"It sounds like you have something you want to say, speak up then you have the floor"

"There is something I want to say, and I think I speak for everyone when I say this experiment has to end"

"I disagree, the only way we will reach the level we need to be is for each of the players to improve on an individual basis. The cumulative effect of all those improvements will be far more important to us then squeezing out a little from the squad as it is now."

"Are we just supposed to wait until that happens as if by magic, the season is passing us by, and we are only sinking further and further. That isn't even to mention the effect this is having on them. They are young players who have moved to a foreign country and as if the pressure wasn't already high enough, you are adding more. They aren't characters to play with they are real people with real feelings"

"You think I don't know that I care about each and everyone of them more than you could understand. I believe in their potential though and what they can achieve, if they weren't as good as they are I would never attempt something like this."

"We won't see eye to eye on this, that much is for certain, but I really hope you know what you are doing for their sakes and your own." The last bit was whispered out but somehow was also the loudest and he couldn't help but wonder if this was really the right path.

The meeting was essentially over after that last declaration and after waiting a customary time it was wrapped up. The staff quietly filtered out and he couldn't help but think if he would soon have a full-blown mutiny on his hands. The staff still believed in him, in particular those who he had recruited but Harsley had seniority and had know those who were already here longer. The young manager had ruffled a lot of feathers when he had joined the club and there were many who couldn't wait to see his fall. Harsley was someone he respected though and very knowledgeable, between them was only a disagreement on methods which was completely normal. He had seen the politics in football multiple times at his previous clubs and it made him think of a proverb he once heard. When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. There was a lot of truth in that statement, and he knew he couldn't even trust his own people to always remain loyal, but he still had time.

He decided to use that time as well as he could and find someone, he felt could be key to getting them out of the situation they were in. He found the person he was looking for practising his finishing on the training ground and pulled him away to speak with him. The diminutive forward had a short tuft of hair with the sides tapered. He was lightly tanned and had a sturdy physique with heavily tattooed arms. The image of a rebel but his eyes held a confused and uncertain light to them.

"Talk to me, what has been going on with you" he asked as gently as he could, projecting as much sincerity as he could.

The reply took time to come, with the translator trying to act as the go between but it was mainly because the young player took a while to reply unable to articulate how he was feeling.

"I don't know, it just feels so different here" was the message that finally came across.

"Football is the same everywhere, the same two goals and the same twenty-two players. It's people that complicate it, the only thing that matters is how much you want it?"

The next reply took even longer than the previous one and he could see the player barely croaked his reply out.

"What if I'm not good enough, what if I don't want it enough?" This made the manager laugh out loud uncontrollably, it was only when tears had started to run out of his eyes that he finally stopped to see the confused faces of both the young man and the translator.

"Do you know why I was so adamant to sign you?"

"It wasn't about your goals, assists or any of that easily quantifiable stuff. It was because I saw a young man who had been beaten by fate, who had faced adversity his entire life and refused to let himself stay down. I saw a young man who simply needed a platform to demonstrate his worth to the world and decided I wanted to provide it for him. This wasn't some favour either, it was because he deserved it and deserved the chance to be adored."

The player was visibly shaken by the speech, and he could see it had truly affected him, but he needed someone with full belief in himself, so he pushed one step further.

"A wise man once said It's the bad and ugly memories that make you strong, those are the ones keep you grounded and those are the ones that will keep you moving forward ."

It was like a light had come on in his head and the indecision in his eyes was wiped out completely and replaced by a burning fire. This fire demanded action, so he quickly said his farewells and returned to the training ground with a frightening will.

The translator stayed behind, and he could tell the man had a question for him so he indicated to say he should ask it.

"Who was the person you were quoting; it had a massive effect on him?"

A wry smile crossed the face of the manager as he turned around to walk away, while replying " It was his own words, often times people know the answer for themselves and just need to be reminded of it"