Rob Ridgway's "Rat Pack"

[Petros7]

I was expecting Emiliani to make a come back. It'll be interesting to see how Ridgway is going to deal with him this time and what bones he's going to throw at him...

I'm really enjoying reading this - thanks and keep it up!

[tenthreeleader]

Thanks, Petros .. the character of Stefano Emiliani is just too smarmy to keep away for long. Much to Rob's chagrin, I'm afraid .....

___

Friday, August 22

Today was a very big day on the transfer front, for both ourselves and our opponents on Saturday.

I got a call from Germany this morning, which I took right as I entered my office prior to training. Hertha Berlin has made an offer of £2 million for Convey and I’m inclined to take it.

Unfortunately, this call took a bit longer than I had hoped it might – I had need of an interpreter, which doesn’t happen often. German isn’t one of my five languages, though at times I wish it were. Berlin, as the suitor, provided the translation service and the conversation proceeded more or less smoothly.

The language part was fine, but I wasn’t crazy about the money. The offer is about half the current valuation for the player, but at this point I wouldn’t mind restoring a bit of the transfer fund balance for reasons I will relate shortly. We accepted the offer and now it all goes to personal terms with Convey, who seems like he’d light himself on fire to leave.

Luton has also offered a modest fee of £100,000 for Michael Duberry, the veteran defender who is sitting on my reserve squad. I accepted that offer outright. I have young players like Cathcart who need all the games they can get in reserves in addition to seeing spot duty on the senior squad, and Duberry is taking playing time away from them.

So there’s the possibility the squad will be two players lighter and substantially cheaper if it all goes through. The second call I got this morning was frankly a bit of a stunner.

I had just hung up the phone with the Berlin front office staff when Paula Ryan, my personal assistant, buzzed me on the intercom.

“Rob, Bernd Schuster is on the phone for you,” she said. “From Real Madrid.”

“Paula, I know where Bernd works,” I replied, trying and failing to suppress a grin.

I could almost feel her blushing on the other end of the line and she recovered her composure after a short time. “Shall I put him through?”

“That would be great, thanks,” I replied, the smile still on my face. Moments later, the call was connected.

“Good morning,” I began. “This is Rob Ridgway.”

“Bernd Schuster here, good morning to you, Rob,” the Real manager replied in fine English. In fact, we could even have had the conversation in Spanish as well since we both speak that language.

“Thank you for calling,” I replied. “What can I do for you?”

“It’s about Gúti, and your loan offer,” he said. “As you know, he is not in my first team at the moment but he does have first team commitments. Therefore we are unable to loan you the player as you have requested.”

“That’s kind of you to tell me in person,” I replied. “But you wouldn’t be calling if you didn’t have something else in mind.”

“Quite true,” he said. “I like how you get to the point. Very well, I shall do the same. We are willing to sell you the player.” So much for ‘first team commitments’.

I swallowed hard. “All right,” I said. “We might be interested in that.” How much would a Galactico cost, anyway?

I pulled out a sheet prepared by our scouting department with estimated values of players at the major clubs in Europe. I looked at Gúti’s name and was rather surprised to see a valuation of £1.3 million on a player who still possesses undoubted talent. I figured age had to be one of the reasons for his depressed valuation.

“Make me an offer,” Schuster said.

The ball was firmly in my court. “We are prepared to meet the player’s valuation as estimated by our scouts,” I replied. “I show that as £1.3 million. I also knew Gúti had a minimum release clause of just over £9 million, which meant I was lowballing Schuster and I suspected he knew it.

But he then shocked me. “I will accept that bid,” he said, and I nearly fell out of my chair. “I will speak to the player this morning and his agent will let you know if he is willing to discuss terms.”

As a one or two-season plug-in, Gúti could be fabulously useful to us. He is still an exquisite passer of the ball, a fine finisher, a great team player and his love for big matches is well known. He’s got the “right stuff” for me and if he comes here, we just improved in a hurry.

Yet I’m not going to get my hopes up. We don’t have European football, we’re still trying to grow and the player would not be a part of the long-term plan to build the squad. He would probably need to take a substantial wage cut – but adding another salary could be at least partially offset by offloading Convey’s hefty wage packet to Berlin.

“Very well,” I finally replied. “I will have our financial department contact yours.” With that, we thanked each other and hung up after quite a cordial phone call. I know Schuster has bigger fish to fry than Rob Ridgway – after all, he’s still trying to prise Ronaldo and Tévez away from United – and I proceeded to go about my business.

I texted Madejski with the news – two possibly out, one possibly in on transfer at a net profit if everything all worked out – and received an affirmative reply within ten minutes.

Then I went out and ran my training session.

# # #

Meanwhile, Bolton spent £15.5 million before noon.

They snagged Scott Sinclair from Chelsea for £7 million and ex-Liverpool man Antonio Barragán from Deportivo for £8.5 million more in a rather expensive morning for them. Barragán is en route to London, where he’ll meet up with his new teammates at Heathrow after they are done playing us tomorrow. The Press Association reports that Sinclair may make Lee’s bench tomorrow, but isn’t likely to play.

# # #

Waters entered the press area at our training facility looking for Emiliani this morning. But as quickly as he had arrived, he was gone. He’s got matches in Italy to cover.

My old club opens its Serie B schedule tomorrow and has already been knocked out of the Coppa Italia. A quick internet search this afternoon showed they have already played twice and did quite well for themselves.

They started against fellow Serie B side Avellino in the first qualifying round and went through away – on penalties, no less – after playing a 1-1 draw. My old players hit five of five from the spot and frankly I never thought I’d live to see the day.

However, last weekend they got a sterner test, losing to Serie A Chievo 2-0 to drop them out of the tournament. Still, though, they played well.

I can understand why Emiliani left to go home – their opponent tomorrow is the same team that beat us for the Super Cup last season, in the same venue – Pescara, at Adriatico. When I was there last, they were playing us off the park in a 1-0 win that gave them the trophy on aggregate. I hope this year’s group of Biancoscudati does better.

# # #

[bingitz]

Gúti would be a fantastic signing, let's hope he comes!

[Spav]

I love reading 'transfer window' action in people's stories and seeing what players the various managers pursue in their games. You seem to have some decent targets, 10-3.

[tenthreeleader]

Saturday, August 23

Reading (2-1-0, 3rd place) v Bolton (2-0-1, 5th place) – EPL Match Day #4

It was a lovely day for a match. It started about as well I could have hoped.

Patty and I had a long talk last night about what she wants to do with her job situation and the idea of additional photo shoots.

She was quite honest with me – she is starting to like being recognized. The grief she’s going through with her co-workers notwithstanding, she has decided that she doesn’t mind exploring something new.

That’s going to cause a significant adjustment in our lifestyle if all goes as it might. If she is accepting jobs, or perhaps even leaving her current one to concentrate on what she wants to do, her husband is going to have to make some changes.

So she was up-front about it all. I appreciated that. We talked until nearly midnight before my need for sleep ended the conversation. Yet when I woke up this morning, Patty made sure I understood that even though she has career aspirations that don’t include me, she is very much in love with her husband.

# # #

Bolton has big aspirations, only some of which were shown by their transfer spending of yesterday. I’m glad we didn’t face them with their new boys in uniform, but what they’ve got on hand isn’t bad.

I knew as I pulled out of the garage and turned for the stadium that if we didn’t get Diouf under control we were in for a long afternoon. He has four goals in Bolton’s first three matches and is obviously in a rich vein of form. He would be Bikey’s responsibility today.

I was a bit preoccupied as I drove. Patty, seated to my left, looked wonderful in a blue and white summer dress. She smiled and touched my hand.

“Penny for them,” she offered.

I shook my head. “Not just yet,” I smiled. “I’m thinking about the match.”

“I’d like to distract you from that, but you’re driving.”

“I’m pretty well locked in,” I said. “Just going through some things in my head and making sure I’ve got everything accounted for. I’ve really been leaning on the staff these last couple of weeks and it’s been a busy time for everyone. If we leave anything out, it might cost us points.”

“You’re on the way to the office,” she said. “I shouldn’t bother you, then.”

“It’s not that,” I said. “I’m just doing my job.”

“I wouldn’t mind being able to do just one job,” she mused, as made the final turn toward the stadium.

# # #

As I entered my office, Waters greeted me with a suggestion.

“The match day planners liked the idea of a bit of random music,” he said. “So I’ve got a thought for this match that I wanted to show you before you got too busy. Won’t be a minute.”

Intrigued, I took a piece of paper he offered me, with a name and title written on it. I smiled, and handed it back to him.

“That’ll do,” I said. “Thanks for the idea. I don’t want to make waves but I like that thought.”

“I hoped you would,” the young PR man said over his shoulder as he left. “Good luck today.”

# # #

I met with Dillon next, to finalize the team sheet as the players arrived for work starting at 9:30. I like them to gather together at the training ground for a final briefing – handled by Dillon – and a pre-match meal before going to the ground. When we’re at home, this isn’t such a big thing since the indoor training area is directly adjacent to the stadium.

We finalized the eleven. Lobont, Halls, Pogatetz, Sonko, Bikey, Harper, Kalou, Convey, Maloney, Kitson, Dagoberto went on the sheet, which I signed for the referee’s official sheet.

“Looks good, Rob,” Dillon said, preparing to take the sheet to the referee’s room. “I think we’ll be all right.”

He’s supposed to say that, of course. We’re in decent form now with two wins on the trot, but Bolton qualified for Europe last year due to a fifth-place finish and brought in two new guns in PSV midfielder Ismael Aissati and Getafe goalkeeper Oscar Ustari. They are a younger side than Allardyce’s veterans – players like Ivan Campo and Stelios Giannakopoulos are gone through release, for example – and Lee is trying to build for the long haul.

We know they’ll be tough to beat so we held back a few key players in our last match and were fortunate to scrape that late win at Charlton as a result. This match, quite frankly, concerned me more, so we staggered our player rotation a bit to ensure fresh legs to the greatest extent possible.

I approached Maloney as he sat to dress for the match. He’s been ever-present and he’s a bit tired as a result.

“Give me as much as you can,” I said, and the Scotsman nodded in reply. “I’m going to give you a rest in the League Cup at midweek so give me ninety good minutes and you’ll get a break.”

He nodded, but put on a brave face. “I’m here to play, gaffer,” he said. “I can give you ninety minutes.”

“Good man,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder. “Good luck. I know you’ll be fine.”

# # #

It was time to meet another new face as the teams lined up for the entry onto the Madejski Stadium pitch. I greeted Sammy Lee with a smile.

“Good luck in Europe, Sammy,” I said, after accepting his introductory handshake. “Do us proud, you hear?”

“Happy to try, Rob,” he replied. “I trust you won’t mind if I say I hope to start today.”

“Not at all,” I answered. “As long as you don’t mind if I tell you you’ll need to wait until next week.”

He smiled at my tongue-in-cheek “guarantee”, and the teams took the pitch. Our standard theme music blared out followed by the Premier League anthem, while the clubs lined up for the traditional pre-match handshakes.

As the teams lined up for kickoff, I heard Peter Gabriel’s Big Time playing over the tannoy. I enjoyed that quite a bit – Waters had done his job well.

# # #

[O\'Hara_fan]

Guti, he must be guti-ted to be leaving Real.

Sorry, I've ruined your story , awesome stuff as per usual. Have Spurs got in any exciting talents as well?

[nette000]

Many people have told how much they enjoy this story. I guess you can handle one more.

[tenthreeleader]

Gotta catch up with a few kind replies here ... Bingitz, I was pleasantly surprised to learn about Guti. Even if O\'Hara has a more clever way to put it. But Spurs hasn't had much joy in this save with young talent. Spav, thanks for your praise on Rob's transfer targets - I have found that to be the most difficult part of the game. And nette, all I can say is thank you very much - I have been flattered by the reaction to this work and I appreciate your taking the time to post.

___

Bolton may be a younger team, but they are no less physical than they were under Allardyce.

Watching the first ten minutes of the match was not unlike watching kids playing ‘bumper cars’ at an amusement park. The shoulder challenges flew hot and heavy, hard but clean tackles left the pitch littered with players in both colors of shirt, and hardly a ball went near either goal while the teams battled for midfield dominance.

No-man’s-land wasn’t a place for the faint of heart. We had the advantage in pace whenever Kalou was on the ball, but Convey and Maloney had a difficult time against the Bolton foursome of Aissati, Kevin Nolan, Joey O’Brien and Tranquillo Barnetta. I really appreciated Harper’s work – his sound positional sense snuffed out attack after attack by the visitors so when Lobont was called upon, his work wasn’t difficult.

When we did get the ball forward, center half Abdoulaye Meïté had the answers for the Trotters. He drew Kitson as his marking assignment and watching the two big men battle for the ball in the Bolton penalty area was quite a sight. Dave was working as hard as he could but Meïté was giving him no room to operate.

Meanwhile, Diouf generated Bolton’s only good chance of the first half, shaking loose from Bikey just long enough to stretch Lobont to his right in 41 minutes. My Romanian keeper tipped Diouf’s rising drive over the bar looking like he did it every day. Otherwise, Diouf wore Bikey like a second skin, so I was certainly pleased with the play of my central defense.

The halftime whistle blew with a physical goalless draw still on the board. It had been a bit of a drab half but players had marked a lot of territory for the second half. I fully expected it to be a man’s game in the second half and as my players sat for the break, I encouraged them to redouble their efforts.

“That was good work against a powerful side,” I informed them as I stood at the front of the room. “Now we work on cracking them open. They’ve been crunching us pretty good in the midfield so now’s the time to hit them for pace. I want the ball played into space in the second half so we can run onto it. We’ve played the first half with the ball on the floor and that’s fine, but now let’s make our pace show. You can do it.”

Bolton’s eleven had a change as we started the second half and by the substitution Lee made I could tell he had probably had a very similar conversation with his troops as well. Offensively gifted winger Demy DeZeeuw was on in place of Barnetta, signaling that the visitors wanted better offensive flow.

I was quite surprised to see Theo Walcott as a non-factor in the match. He was Sonko’s responsibility and due to the size advantage my defender enjoyed, the on-loan whiz kid was having a real time getting untracked.

Now the pace of the match started to pick up markedly and it was white-knuckle time for managers, supporters and bench players alike. Aissati finally shook loose from Harper and rang Lobont’s crossbar with a powerful drive from twenty yards. The rebound fell right at Nolan’s feet and his reflex drive was parried by Lobont’s best save of the season, a lunging parry to claw the ball around the left post that drew a standing ovation from the faithful.

Not surprisingly, Bogdan was pretty jacked up about his save and he accepted a series of high-fives and gentle head-butts from everyone in a blue and white shirt in the vicinity. It was really something to see.

On the hour, though, I could see Kitson really struggling. He’s played quite a bit of late and it was time to give him a rest. This time I brought in Faé, but not in the holding role.

“Right side of midfield,” I told him. “Tell Kalou I want him up front with Dagoberto.”

As I did this, Lee prepared his second substitution, bringing on another midfielder. Daniel Braaten jogged on in place of Aissati, which as far as I was concerned was a break for us. The chess match continued as I elected to try to place as much pace forward as I possibly could.

Kalou then made his mark. Working a very nice 1-2 with Maloney, the raider passed the ball right at the feet of our new arrival. Salomon came within inches of opening his Reading account but his bounding shot was saved by the fortunate Ustari, who parried the shot and then controlled the subsequent rebound by falling gratefully on the loose ball.

Kalou arrived a heartbeat too late to knock the rebound home and flew gracefully over the fallen keeper, rolling in a heap behind him so as to avoid delivering a boot to the chops.

I liked both our shape and our spirit as the match entered its closing stages, but the breakthrough still was nowhere to be found. Lee gave me something else to think about when he pulled O’Brien in favor of Andranik in 72 minutes. Now Bolton was much more threatening in the midfield and it seemed like they were about to make their big push.

The worst of it was that Bolton was also starting to dominate the possession, partly due to my tactical desire to play a more mixed passing game. The numbers were alarming to me, though, since we were playing at home. Despite the occasionally solid quality of our play, we were seeing less and less of the ball and it was starting to worry me.

Also, the stretch of games we had played was really starting to show on some of the players. Dagoberto went down under a hard challenge from Ricardo Gardner and got up limping. I didn’t like the looks of that, so I turned down the bench with my gaze falling upon Shane Long and Leroy Lita.

“Guys, get ready,” I said. “I’m going to need one of you to run like a wild man for about fifteen minutes.”

They nodded and took off down the touchline to warm up. As they completed their second trip down to the corner and back, my Brazilian striker showed he had one more run left in him.

It came as Convey was fouled near the left touchline about forty yards from goal. Maloney crossed over to take the free and went to the middle, where Pogatetz was waiting. He moved the ball ahead and found Bikey straight on from Ustari’s goal. The defender’s entry ball was perfect.

He slid a seeing-eye pass into the area where Dagoberto had inside body position on Meïté. He then ran away from the big defender and ripped an unstoppable shot past Ustari twelve minutes from time for the breakthrough we needed. It’s rather amazing that even after a hard challenge to a striker can leave him gimpy, a really good entry ball can make him look like he just got back from Lourdes.

The place went nuts and Dagoberto, who is becoming quite a hero to some of the faithful here, took a bow behind the Bolton goal to the delight of our support. He was still limping a bit, but he had done his job.

Now I turned to the bench, which was still wild with celebration. I got Long calmed down by grabbing his jumper to get his attention.

“Shane, you’re going in,” I said. “I want you to watch Ustari. If they try to get the keeper involved in distribution I want you on the ball before he gets there. Understood?”

The Irishman nodded and I signaled to the fourth official to make the substitution. Dagoberto trotted off the field, applauding hands over head, but you could tell he wasn’t moving to his usual standard.

I offered a handshake and he grabbed my outstretched hand. “Just a knock,” he said in Spanish. “I’ll be fine.”

I nodded, and he sat on the bench to a happy greeting from his teammates. The physios moved over him, and set to their work, while I pulled us back to 4-5-1.

We managed to waste a few moments through Rosenior’s 88th minute introduction for the gassed-out Sonko, with Pogatetz moving alongside Bikey at the center of our defense. And then, it was over.

Our fourth match unbeaten to start the season was concluded. Lee approached for handshake and referenced our conversation at the start of the match. “I guess you were right after all, Rob,” he said. “We’ll look forward to the rematch.”

He wasn’t angry, but his expression was set. He feels there’s unfinished business and that’s fine with me.

# # #

“You know the club will have to pay Sao Paolo an extra £3.5 million if Dagoberto scores 25 goals,” I was informed in the post-match news conference.

“We’ve got the transfer budget for it,” I said. “If he keeps playing like this, he’d be worth the full amount. He was great for us today and he scored our goal after taking a knock. My hat’s off to him.”

“You’ve got three wins from four now and you’re right where last year’s team was at this point in the season,” I was informed. “Are you comfortable?”

“As comfortable as I dare to be,” I smiled. “You can’t get too comfortable in a job like this or something will happen to knock you off your perch. We got a late goal today, we got a late goal at Charlton in midweek to get a win, so I’m not going to stand here and say we’re carrying all before us. We have lots of work to do.”

“Yet you surely won’t argue with the three points,” Weatherby said, and I had to admit I liked both the line of the questioning more than I had in Italy as well as the looks of the questioner.

“I’ve never argued with three points,” I replied. “Sammy may have a bit to say about it because I’m sure he feels he deserved at least one today, but in the end we had the quality to finish and took points I feel we earned.”

Reading 1 (Dagoberto, 2nd, 78)

Bolton 0

A – 24,155, Madejski Stadium, Reading

Man of the Match – Dagoberto, Reading (2)

# # #

[mark wilson27]

Enjoying the work ten3, keep it up mate

[JimT]

Apart from the obvious interest in how you are progressing with your team. I find the re-introduction of Emiliani somewhat intriguing. What would possess him to follow you to England? In spite of all the arrests and trials, perhaps the vendetta is not dead after all.

Looking forward to future developments. KUTGW.

[SCIAG]

I just started to read "Calcio" to find out more about Emiliani, and I was struck by the quality of the writing. It's even better than this stuff. In fact, I forgot to read about Emiliani :slaps forehead:.

[bingitz]

Since the Calcio thread is closed I'll say it here, but I got to watch Padova today, they played against Catania (in Sicily) in the Coppa Italia, but they got thumped 4-0.

[tenthreeleader]

Catchup time ... Mark, thanks very much! Glad you are enjoying things ... Jim, between you and me I think Stefano is looking for a bit of a career change. Can't be sure, though ... SCIAG, I appreciate your kind words about Calcio. I had a great time writing it but it was never my intention to start writing Rob Ridgway with Padova. It was supposed to be background for this work. But it was too darn much fun! And bingitz, I'd very much enjoy the chance to see Padova play. The revised Calcio thread isn't closed- it's just that no one has posted to it for over a month and so it slips off most people's views after thirty days. Every so often someone mentions they are reading it and it brings a smile to my face. Thanks to all.

__

The table didn’t change around us, and probably won’t as the weekend progresses. Chelsea has now opened up a significant advantage in goal difference on us by pounding West Ham 3-0 at The Boleyn Ground today. Didier Drogba scored a brace including his second goal in injury time and Daniel Alves opened the scoring. The Hammers held Chelsea for 53 minutes but once the floodgates opened they couldn’t be closed.

Arsenal has games in hand on everyone and kept up the pressure with a 3-1 win over Everton at the Emirates. Joseph Yobo fired the Toffees into the lead just three minutes into the match but Emanuel Eboue equalized before the half hour. Emanuel Adebayor and Maxi Rodriguez scored for the Gunners in the second half.

Yet it’s Spurs who still top the table, thanks to a 2-0 win at Birmingham. Obafemi Martins and Jefferson Farfán scored for the visitors, who are playing brilliantly for Martin Jol.

Perhaps the biggest shock of the day came from Ewood Park where Brad Friedel, who always plays blinders against Manchester United, did it in spades today in a 1-0 win. The only scorer of the day was former Royal Kevin Doyle, who opened his account on 26 minutes and then promptly sprained his ankle. He’ll be out about a month.

As unfortunate as that was, it wasn’t even the most unfortunate injury of the day. That honor goes to Boro’s Thomas Buffel. The striker, who has been wonderful so far for them, suffered a fractured skull in a horrible clash of heads against Portsmouth and will miss 2-3 months. It was a dark day for Boro, which also lost Sulli Ali Muntari to a hip injury that will put him out for 6-8 weeks. Oh, and they lost 3-1 at home to Nilsson, despite Mariano Pavone opening the scoring. Benjani equalized in 28 minutes and then Jermain Defoe’s brace won it for Pompey. My rival now has his team up to seventh place in the table.

Søren Larsen’s 83rd minute goal gave Villa a 1-0 win at Cardiff City and you have to pity Sam Allardyce. Newcastle lost again today, this time 1-0 to Manchester City on Rolando Bianchi’s 11th minute penalty at the City of Manchester Stadium. The Toon Army is restless, having earned one point from five matches. Newcastle is now in the relegation places, in 18th place.

# # #

Yet to me, all those results pale by comparison to the one from Adriatico, where my old club won 1-0 away to Pescara in its first match in Serie B.

Nigerian striker Issah Eliakwu, a new arrival on a free transfer, scored the only goal of the match. I’m sure it was sweet revenge for those who were on the pitch when we lost to them in the Super Cup last season.

And I am quite sure that a certain reporter is dancing with joy tonight.

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

Sunday, August 24

The squad took a day off today as we now get ready to face AFC Bournemouth in the Carling Cup at midweek. My side will have quite a different look for that match.

The day off didn’t stop the club from doing business. We offered £200,000 to Newcastle for their 16-year old goalkeeping prodigy Simon Shaw, and they accepted the offer. The scouts have raved about him, calling him a “rare” talent. From the limited video I’ve seen courtesy of our scouting department, I’m inclined to agree. The boy can really play. I expect terms to be agreed very soon.

So much for our transfer news. It being Sunday, I didn’t expect to hear anything about Gúti even though Madrid plays most Sundays. There was other news, though, mainly because Madrid hasn’t given up on Cristiano Ronaldo yet.

That was the big news this afternoon, right alongside Spurs selling Obafemi Martins to Inter for £20.5 million. That’s the life of a footballer, I guess – score the winning goal yesterday, get sold today.

Birmingham have made a nice chunk of change as well, selling Frenchman Olivier Kapo to Bologna for £7.5 million. Kapo isn’t a bad player but unfortunately, it wouldn’t surprise me if he decided he wanted to get as far away from Joey Barton as humanly possible.

Kapo is going to Italy to escape. I had to escape from Italy. Sometimes life can be ironic.

# # #

Patty and I had a quite wonderful bit of snuggle time this afternoon. Between snuggles, she let me learn one important thing about Liverpool on the television.

I have decided that Liverpool know how to win 3-0 at home. For the third straight time, they emerged winners by that score, this time with Derby their victims. Steven Gerrard, Yossi Benayoun and Peter Crouch did all the damage.

We play Liverpool at Anfield about halfway through the season – and we close the season at home to them. Talk about bookends on your home schedule – Chelsea to begin, the champions to end. Somewhere in there I have to figure out how to try and handle Arsenal and United too, so the challenge will be immense.

I appeared lost in thought over such weighty matters, and my wife returned my attention to the here and now while I watched the live scoreboard of the West Brom / Charlton game. Those teams met in the Championship last season and I was wondering if Pardew was ever going to get Charlton untracked.

“Honey,” she said, kissing me softly,” stop watching the television for a moment.”

I grinned, and happily did as she asked. Over the next 45 minutes, we held a long and fruitful conversation.

“I’ve gotten another offer and we should talk about it, and what might come afterwards,” she said. “This one seems pretty harmless.”

“Where did it come from?” I asked.

“This one’s for a television commercial,” she answered. “They want me to appear in an advertisement for the Broad Street Mall and I think it would be fun. My company is handling the account and they want me in front of the camera as well.”

She had my undivided attention. “You know I won’t stand in your way when it comes to career,” I said. “But if you want a piece of advice, let me give you this: you should think about which career you want.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“In front of the camera or behind it,” I said. “And from my purely personal standpoint, there’s something else you should consider. What if we have kids?”

“You mean you just want me to be a stay-at-home mom?” she teased, before giving me a sly wink.

Her face grew serious. “Actually, I’ve thought about that too,” she mused. “Perhaps it’s best to indulge these fun little projects before the family arrives.”

“I’ve thought about the family arrival too,” I said. “Probably more often than is healthy.” This time it was my turn to wink.

# # #

When Patty and I started talking, the West Brom / Charlton match was scoreless. When we had finished talking, and she happily let me return to the television, the Baggies led 5-0 and I could hardly imagine what must have been going through Pardew’s mind.

West Brom scored about every ten minutes. Craig Beattie opened things on 41 minutes and scored again with the clock at 50. James Morrison scored ten minutes later. Chris Brunt converted a penalty nine minutes after that. Bartosz Slusarski finished things nine minutes after Brunt’s goal.

The Addicks are 0-1-4 and are last on goal difference due to being outscored 14-2 in their five matches. West Brom had 20 attempts at goal to Charlton’s three. My old boss is starting to feel the heat.

# # #

[font=Courier New]     
 | Pos   | Team          | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 1st   | Tottenham     | 4     | 4     | 0     | 0     | 13    | 3     | +10   | 12    | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 2nd   | Chelsea       | 4     | 3     | 1     | 0     | 11    | 1     | +10   | 10    | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | [b]3rd   | [/b][b]Reading[/b][b]       | 4     | 3     | 1     | 0     | 6     | 3     | +3    | 10    | [/b]
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 4th   | Liverpool     | 3     | 3     | 0     | 0     | 9     | 0     | +9    | 9     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 5th   | Arsenal       | 3     | 3     | 0     | 0     | 7     | 2     | +5    | 9     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 6th   | Blackburn     | 4     | 3     | 0     | 1     | 7     | 6     | +1    | 9     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 7th   | Portsmouth    | 5     | 2     | 2     | 1     | 12    | 9     | +3    | 8     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 8th   | Aston Villa   | 4     | 2     | 1     | 1     | 4     | 3     | +1    | 7     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 9th   | Bolton        | 4     | 2     | 0     | 2     | 8     | 4     | +4    | 6     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 10th  | Man City      | 4     | 2     | 0     | 2     | 4     | 4     | 0     | 6     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 11th  | Middlesbrough | 5     | 2     | 0     | 3     | 8     | 9     | -1    | 6     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 12th  | Birmingham    | 5     | 2     | 0     | 3     | 5     | 8     | -3    | 6     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 13th  | West Ham      | 5     | 2     | 0     | 3     | 6     | 13    | -7    | 6     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 14th  | Man Utd       | 3     | 1     | 1     | 1     | 2     | 1     | +1    | 4     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 15th  | West Brom     | 4     | 1     | 1     | 2     | 8     | 10    | -2    | 4     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 16th  | Everton       | 5     | 0     | 4     | 1     | 3     | 5     | -2    | 4     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 17th  | Cardiff       | 5     | 0     | 2     | 3     | 4     | 11    | -7    | 2     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 18th  | Newcastle     | 5     | 0     | 1     | 4     | 4     | 9     | -5    | 1     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 19th  | Derby         | 5     | 0     | 1     | 4     | 2     | 10    | -8    | 1     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 | 20th  | Charlton      | 5     | 0     | 1     | 4     | 2     | 14    | -12   | 1     | 
 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [/font]

[O\'Hara_fan]

We're top!!! You sure you haven't typed it the wrong way

As always, tip top quality stuff.

[Marchie]

Mmm... Is it just me, or is the stork changing its flight path?

Anyway, great story!

[tenthreeleader]

O\'Hara, the Spurs machine is just cranking up! Marchie, I didn't know storks had to file flight plans ... will look into that!

___

Monday, August 25

I welcomed the squad back for a light day today as we prepare for the trip to the south coast on Wednesday in the Carling Cup.

Bournemouth is about sixty miles away so we’ll coach down on the afternoon of the match. As I’ve mentioned, our eleven will look a lot different and my bench is shorter than usual in this tie as well. It’s the traditional five-player setup, and while I intend to play youngsters and squad players for the most part, the bench will have a veteran backbone in case we get in trouble.

Kalou approached me during the stretching exercises and frankly stunned me with a question. “Boss, you are taking me to the Cup tie, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Honestly, I had planned to let you rest,” I said. “You’ve played a lot of football lately, both here and at the Olympics.” His return expression told me I might want to re-think my plan.

“I’d like to go,” he said, “if that fits with your plans. I want to make my impression and the only way to do that is to be in the squad.”

I took a short walk with my newly acquired winger. “Salomon, just be mindful of what’s coming up for us,” I said. “We’re away to Portsmouth this weekend and then home against Spurs. Those are two big matches. I’m going to need you for at least one of them and probably both. The League Cup isn’t the best place for you at the moment in my judgment. If you want to be in the squad, that’s fine, I’ll consider it. But my intention is to let others play and save you for the league.”

He nodded. “That will have to do,” he said, and left for the warmup without another word.

# # #

The Reading paper has had nothing but good things to say so far – obviously due to the fact that we’re off to a good start – but a rather remarkable column has appeared in it, written by who else but my old friend Stefano Emiliani.

Weatherby wrote an accompanying story, but thankfully put it into context. The headline with the story read “Why Rob’s Here”, and contained Emiliani’s latest column in Padua, word-for-word.

Now this is more like it.

When we last visited Adriatico, it was a bad night to be wearing red and white. Pescara pushed Rob Ridgway’s Biancoscudati all over the pitch in winning the Serie C Super Cup, but Saturday, on this same pitch, the return visit was much different.

There’s a new wind blowing and that breeze swept aside Pescara on its own pitch. The breeze is named Francesco Guidolin, he wears the manager’s outfit now, and he’s a real breath of fresh air. As a result, the Serie B campaign is off to an efficient and effective start.

Guidolin has instituted a completely different atmosphere, both at the training ground and at Euganeo. He has to show the nation that Calcio Padova belongs a league up and with Saturday’s win he has taken the first step. He has done so after bringing in a new wave of talent including Nigerian striker Issah Eliakwu, who netted 16 times for Spezia last season and scored the only goal of the match at Adriatico; and veteran Serie A midfielder Michele Marcolini, a snip from Chievo for €22,000.

Most of former manager Rob Ridgway’s imports played no role, though goalkeeper Jeremy Busarello is on the first team and his purchases Angelo Antonazzo and above all Massimiliano Caputo continue to hold down regular places.

To find Ridgway’s mainstays, you need to look at Padova’s reserve team. Want to see Stefano Sacchetti play? That’s where you’ll find him. Pablo Paz? Reserves. How about the captain, Federico Crovari? Second team and on the transfer list next to Roberto Muzzi. How about last season’s leading scorer, Massimiliano Varricchio? You won’t see him on the first team either.

What about last season’s wonderkid, Milan Grujic? Gone to Arezzo, which means at least you’ll see him when they come to Euganeo.

So much for the players. Of course, we know where last season’s manager is – he’s rubbing shoulders with Salomon Kalou, Emanuel Pogatetz and the other millionaires he brought in to Reading. Meanwhile, his legacy in Italy is now second-rate and second-team.

The players he left behind, for the most part, can’t survive a league up – and perhaps the manager knew that when he left for greener pastures. He left it to Guidolin to clean up the mess and Saturday’s efficient result in which Padova counterattacked brilliantly from an intelligent 4-3-2-1 formation was a good start.

Meanwhile, this reporter traveled to London last week to see Ridgway’s Reading team defeat Premiership bottom-feeder Charlton Athletic in perhaps the most dire top-tier match I’ve ever seen. Surely anyone who believes the English league is any better than Serie A would recant that opinion after seeing those teams battle it out.

Ridgway showed he had learned nothing from his Padova experience by leaving key players on the bench or in the stands and relying on late substitutions to steal vital points. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Reading is predicted to finish mid-table in England this season and their neophyte manager might conjure up enough results with the players he inherited to keep his team up. Yet one needs only to look at this year’s crop of Padova players to see how badly he misjudged the second tier here in Italy. We have seen the back of him and that is for the best.

# # #

“Yeah, that’s one reason why I’m here,” I said to myself, noting Weatherby’s comment in the story that said Marcello Sestaro had paid Guidolin twice my old salary of €70,000 to take my old job.

In reading the story, and reminding myself that I no longer give a damn what Stefano Emiliani thinks about anything, one thing was crystal clear to me; I needed to get in touch with some of my old players.

I sent an e-mail to Sacchetti, knowing he would both understand the reason for my writing as well as keep it a secret. I have no desire or right to interfere in Guidolin’s side. But I brought Sacchetti to Padova and felt a need to get in touch. I wrote:

Stefano:

I’ve just read Emiliani’s column and it mentioned quite a bit about you and some of the old boys who are having trouble getting a game. I wanted to let you all know that you’re in my thoughts and I wish you nothing but the best.

Part of the issue surrounding my departure was in not getting a chance to say goodbye to the players. I regret that and I have no doubt that there are those in the dressing room who won’t forgive that. All I can do is apologize.

You were a wonderful player for me, Stefano. You, Pablo, Massimiliano, Eder, the whole group – you did everything I asked you to do and you never complained. I owe you a debt of gratitude for that and my hope and profound wish is that you get what you want from your career.

Thank you, and thank you to all the players, for all you did.

My best,

Rob

# # #

[nette000]

You'd almost start hoping for Reading and Calcio Padova to meet in a UEFA Cup tie.

[tenthreeleader]

Nette, wouldn't that be fun? Rob's old club has a bit more growing to do, though ...

___

Tuesday, August 26

More news as the window winds down, while I prepare for the trip to the south coast.

We may as well stay there, since we’re right back down south for Saturday’s match at Fratton Park. Portsmouth is an island city in an island nation and they do treat their home like a fortress.

Yet before I can worry about that, we have to deal with the club currently leading League One. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be expected to go there and get a result – we’re the Premiership club so we certainly should – but they aren’t half bad. I watched a DVD of their early highlights and midfielder Kemal Izzet and striker Bryan Prunty will take a bit of watching.

Not surprisingly, my squad is loose, but obviously the key to success will be in avoiding overconfidence. The youngsters are full to the brim with confidence but the squad players are bringing them down to earth since they know that if they mess up tomorrow they may not see the field for awhile.

I want us to play the 4-1-3-2 and make it sing against an opponent that is two leagues below us. I challenged the players today and I will be quite curious to see how they react.

# # #

I received a call from Weatherby today that accomplished two things.

First, she apologized. “Rob, I feel a bit badly about running that article from Italy in our paper,” she began. “I think it’s instructive for people to see how you were treated down there.”

“Most people don’t care how I was treated down there, Jill,” I said, “but thank you for your concern.”

“They seem to care about how Patty was treated down there,” Jill replied. “I hear she’s got a television spot in the works.”

“You’ll need to talk with her publicist about that,” I said. “I’m not going to spend the club’s time talking about it.”

Second, her call allowed me to dispel a rumor.

“I understand,” she said. “Though eventually, away from the club, I’ll need to get you on the record on that. But now to business. I hear you are in for Breno from Sao Paolo?”

She had named the 18-year old wonderkid defender for one of Futbol Brasilero’s best clubs – already with three full international caps to his credit, the boy is a prodigious talent. “We hear you want a long term replacement for Ingimarsson and Sonko.”

“I wouldn’t mind having a player of his talent but we haven’t approached him,” I said. “It would blow the transfer budget to bring him in, and I have other areas of the squad that need strengthening first.”

“Interesting thought, though?” she wondered out loud.

“No comment,” I answered. I have some very good defenders under contract and I have no desire to unsettle any of them, especially with the window so close to its end.

“If you change your mind on that, you know where to find me,” she answered, and I laughed in reply.

“I always know where to find the media, believe me,” I said. “Or rather, it always knows where to find me.”

Truth be told, Breno is supposed to go for around £9 million, and that would pretty well tap me out for the year. I won’t do that in August – if we really need anything in January I will probably have to pay over the odds to get it – so the budget needs to stay where it is. This is a top-half team and I feel it has been strengthened by our August activity.

Now if someone should come in and offer silly money for Sonko and the board accepted it, then I’d go all in for a player like Bueno. But that hasn’t happened yet, so I’ll wait. And get on the coach for Bournemouth.

# # #

[Kewell08]

Great stuff as usual. Just caught up after a week away, still great to read. Keep it up!

[mark wilson27]

How rude Manchester United only 14th,, its a fix I tell ya, a damn fix...lol

Enjoying the story ten3 keep it up

[tenthreeleader]

Kewell, thanks so much ... glad you are still enjoying and caught up! Mark, you know what they say ... can't keep a good club down, right?

___

Wednesday, August 27

AFC Bournemouth v Reading, Carling Cup Second Round

One of the fun things about cup ties on the road is the atmosphere they can sometimes generate. We learned a bit of that as we took the pitch for tonight’s match at the Fitness First Stadium.

Of course, to a local Bournemouth’s home is known as Dean Court, but in today’s day and age you can change the name of almost anything for a few quid. In our case, I don’t see my chairman changing the name of the stadium his own money built anytime soon.

We left Berkshire late this afternoon, arriving in the suburb of Boscombe, Dorset at 4:00. Looking around the coach I saw more than a few new faces, and just a bit of unease at wondering how they would react to each other in my first Cup match.

We headed off to the visitors’ rooms and I put the eleven on a board at the front of the room: Federici, Murty, Rosenior, Cathcart, Ingimarsson, Halls, Little, Hunt, Faé, Long, Lita.

Yeah, that looked a lot different, and as the players in the starting eleven prepared to play, I noticed that really, I had started only two young players – Federici and Cathcart. The others were on the fringe of the first team or else, in the case of Faé, reasonably regular performers. No one could accuse me of not putting out a decent side.

The League One leaders looked ready to meet our challenge, though, and I tried to settle the troops down as we had our pre-match discussion.

“Take it easy out there,” I said. “If you play like you can play this result will come. Just concentrate on the small things and don’t worry about making impressions. Doing the right things at the right time will make more of an impression than individual heroics will in a lost match. Just take it easy.”

We then went out and looked anything but ready to play. That was frankly disappointing, and as the minutes of the first half dragged on I started to wonder when we were going to find our feet.

Bournemouth’s Izzet made the first good scoring chance of the match out of nothing, creating well from the top of our area and slipping past both central midfielder Halls and holder Faé to sting Federici’s hands in 18 minutes. That seemed to wake us up a little bit, with the veteran Glen Little curling in a raking cross from the right that barely missed Long’s run four minutes later.

The two looked at each other with expressions that didn’t recriminate but instead showed that both players wanted the play to succeed for reasons other than a goal. Little’s look of frustration was met with a look of commiseration by Long, followed by a thumbs-up that was what I needed to see from a team standpoint.

We just couldn’t seem to get started, though, and it turned out our best player of the half was Federici, who made four good saves in the first forty minutes to really hold us in the match.

The fourth official held up his board to show two minutes of added time in the first half and the home crowd showed its appreciation for a first half very well played by our lower league opposition.

We just couldn’t find a way through, and now the home team was piling forward to my mounting frustration. Dillon would approach me on the touchline from time to time with ideas and observations, one of which was to play wider than I had originally planned. They were clogging the middle as both of us could see but my thought was that our central midfield was far superior and should have overcome.

Yet they hadn’t. It wasn’t looking good.

Then Long made a play that genuinely impressed, stealing the ball from Izzet and spraying it wide for the run of Little on the right. Immediately, we swung into attack and for the first time in the match looked something like a Premiership side.

Little looked for the cross but, seeing that it wasn’t there, fed Faé, there to support. Emerse looked to his right for Long and found him marked. He then saw Lita spin past his marker on the left and without a second thought pushed the ball straight into the middle of the Bournemouth defense.

Leroy latched onto the ball at the left of the penalty spot and whipped a shot past keeper Scott Loach and into the lower right corner for a 1-0 lead in 44 minutes.

Leroy’s expression wasn’t one of triumph as against United last season. It was one of relief that we had finally broken down a League One side. That was a bit of a different reaction.

We held the lead until the break and Dillon nodded to me as we headed toward the changing room. “I have a word to say to them,” I told my deputy, “and then I’d like you to have a go at this. What do you say?”

“I could do that,” he said. “I’ve a few observations.”

We sat the players down and I waited until everyone was ready and looking at me. “I don’t see a Premiership team here,” I said. “I said to relax, but right now you’re playing like you’re made out of concrete. Loosen up! You aren’t giving yourselves a chance to play well because you’re just too tight!”

I nodded to Dillon and he was more direct. “Fellows, that was bloody terrible,” he said. “You know it, I know it. Now let’s fix it.”

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

We also dropped to a flat 4-4-2 with a counter option for the second half to try to curb some of their enthusiasm.

That worked like a charm as the second half began, with our players doing a much better job of standing up to their marks and making Bournemouth work to move the ball. I hadn’t been happy with our defensive work at all in the first half and considered us lucky to have avoided conceding.

Cathcart and Ingimarsson were now working well and smoothly together, shutting down Prunty with some ease as the second half moved forward. We got to 65 minutes and I was starting to worry about the last twenty minutes and holding a one-goal lead. I looked down the bench and was happy it had some veteran steel in it. Bournemouth was waking up again and I had the players on the bench to put a stop to it.

I turned to Bikey, and he got to his feet as I nodded to him. He approached me and I started to give him tactical instruction. “I’ll want 4-5-1,” he said. “You’ll go in for Long.”

While highly annoyed by the fact that I’d need to resort to a five-man midfield against lower league opposition, I soon had more important things to worry about. My thoughts were interrupted by a roar from the crowd – Izzet had found Prunty absolutely unmarked between our central defenders and the forward beat Federici with ease in 66 minutes to equalize.

“You have got to be kidding me,” I fumed, now red-faced as I watched their players celebrate a good goal. Angrily, I waved for Ingimarsson, who had had his difficulties against Charlton as well and was culpable for failing to account for Prunty now.

“Ivar, you can wake up any time you like,” I snapped, and my Icelandic defender could say nothing in reply. “Come on – there’s just no way they should beat you like that!”

However, instead of pulling him out of the match, I waved him back onto the pitch even as I waved Bikey back to the bench. No need for 4-5-1 now.

# # #

Stung by their goal, we responded well. The central midfielders I was counting on to make the difference started to earn their money. Halls and Faé stood tall and pulled us back into the match after conceding.

Their crowd was screaming at the hope of their club taking a bigger scalp and Halls especially was determined not to let them. He quickly worked a 1-2 with Faé at the top of their area three minutes after Prunty’s goal and Halls, on the receiving end, got the ball to Long on the right. He squared for Lita, who took a hard shot that Loach made a fantastic reflex save to parry.

Only he didn’t stop the ball entirely. It trickled toward the goal where defender Will Antwi was closest to it. In desperation, he threw himself toward the ball as it reached the line, trying to hook it to safety. All he did, though, was tap it into his own goal.

It was a great four-way passing play and even though it would go in the books as an own goal, we didn’t really care how it wound up on the scoresheet. We were back in front and now I immediately turned to Bikey.

“Get in for Long, give me 4-5-1 and this time make it stick,” I said. Bikey nodded, still warmed up, and reported to the fourth official.

We showed a lot more defensive stability with Bikey in as a second holding midfielder with Faé, and our two moments of decent play appeared to be enough. Finally, with eleven minutes to go, there was one other substitution I wanted to make.

I walked to the bench and found Kalou. “You said you wanted to play,” I said. “Well, get warm and get in there for Little.”

The Ivorian nodded, and took care of his warmup. He came on, and his pace immediately caused Bournemouth all kinds of problems. We simply moved the ball wide to Kalou and dared them to catch him.

They couldn’t do it, and the full-time whistle saw us go through thanks to a 2-1 win – sloppy, but a win we will definitely take.

The players were expecting a roasting and I had already determined that I wasn’t going to give them one. What I knew I needed to do was a bit different.

Nervously, they sat down – expecting the worst. I was quiet but said what I needed to say forcefully. “Some of you are guys who say you want to play,” I said. “Well, what I needed to see, in the main, wasn’t the kind of play that will get you more time. I challenged you yesterday and I’m going to do it again now. You survived tonight but if you want more football you’re going to have to step up your games.”

# # #

“We got a scare,” I admitted after the match. “They played us well, they had a lot of momentum at too many points during the match, and in short it was a typical cup tie. We’ll need to improve. I won’t sugarcoat that. Our goalkeeper was excellent and we played well for about ten minutes in the match. Yet those ten minutes were enough and I wouldn’t blame the Cherries if they thought they deserved more than they got from tonight.”

AFC Bournemouth 1 (Prunty 4th, 66)

Reading 2 (Lita 2nd, 44; Will Antwi og 69)

A – 10,694, Fitness First Stadium, Bournemouth

Man of the Match – Leroy Lita, Reading

# # #

On the way back to Berkshire, I checked the scores on the night while I reflected on a match where we could have played a whole lot better.

For his part, Ingimarsson got his act together after their goal and, with Cathcart, turned our penalty area into his personal no-fly zone. Still, on the night, we came out looking like second best everywhere but the scoreboard.

They had more attempts than us – 13 to 10 – and more shots on target as well, by a margin of eight to three. At times they looked like they wanted to win more than we did, which was the most alarming thing of all.

I wasn’t happy. Yet we will hopefully learn a lesson from a match we won, which is perhaps the most fortunate combination a manager can have. It could have been worse.

League Two Cheltenham knocked Championship side Leicester out of the Cup this evening on penalties – at the Walkers Stadium, no less. I would have felt right at home in the penalty portion of the match – the sides missed seven out of sixteen between them from the spot before Scott Brown finally sent Cheltenham into the third round.

Also, League One’s Stoke City went to Ninian Park and knocked out Cardiff City 1-0. So yes, it could have been a lot worse. The Bluebirds are off to a terrible start.

# # #

[chesterfan2]

This keeps on being an enjoyable, entertaining, read tenthree, keep it up as it's really rather good.

[tenthreeleader]

Why, thank you, CF .... 'rather good' is a goal of mine

__

Thursday, August 28

Patty’s commercial will shoot next Monday and she’s really excited about the part. She was so excited, she called her dad to tell him about it. That wasn’t such a good idea.

As a result, father and daughter had a conversation this evening while I sat in my den, with the door closed, going through material on Portsmouth. We’re traveling tomorrow afternoon and I’m leaving nothing to chance.

Pompey is seventh in the table at present and Nilsson has kept his cards very close to his vest as he prepares to play us. Media have asked him about the comments he made about me before the season started, but he hasn’t said anything.

It really doesn’t matter to me. Right now, I feel a lot more insulated from the media than I ever was in Italy, and I have people like Waters to thank for it. If I don’t want to talk with someone at the training ground, I tell him so and I don’t have to. I think that’s fantastic.

Within reason, I’ve got great freedom to shape my media coverage, and that’s wonderful. There’s an element of security in that and as long as I don’t abuse it, I know the club will back me.

I haven’t made any enemies here – at least, not in the media – and I intend to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Yet, Patty doesn’t have that protection and as she talked with her father, it became painfully obvious. It wasn’t going well.

Finally, I couldn’t stand it any more. I got up from my chair, went into the downstairs sitting room where Patty was talking, and stood behind her, rubbing her shoulders.

She showed both her pleasure at my action and appreciation for my joining her. “Dad, the decision is made, and it’s shooting Monday,” she said. “It’s just a commercial!”

I could hear his voice on the other end of the line through the earpiece. “It’s just going to cause you more trouble,” he said. “I will not watch you go through what happened last year again. Ever. Can’t you understand that?”

“I don’t want to go through that either,” she said. “But we are much better able to face that sort of thing now. We have people to help us. Rob is right here, whereas he wasn’t always last season for whatever reason. It’s a whole different story.”

“Rob was the problem last season and you know it,” he said, and that pushed me over the top. I motioned to Patty, and she pushed a button on the phone.

“Martin, this is Rob, and you’re on speaker now,” I said. “This has gone far enough.”

# # #

Patty swore up and down that she hadn’t led her father to that conclusion – either now or last season – and I headed to work in a bad mood. I had a chance to calm myself on the pastoral drive into town, and that helped get my mind on my job for the day.

My mood didn’t improve when I arrived and found that Faty had rejected the idea of coming here on loan, choosing to stay in Serie A with Parma. I guess I couldn’t blame him for that choice, but he would have had a much bigger role with us than he will have for Parma.

So, with three days left in the window, I now got on the phone and my personal assistant, Paula Ryan, answered. “Please get me in touch with ACF Fiorentina,” I said. “I’d like to speak with Cesare Prandelli.”

# # #

Prandelli has a wonderful pedigree in Italy. He played sixteen seasons, all in Italy, and won the Scudetto three times with Juventus, featuring 197 times in Serie A.

He also managed Padova’s regional rival Hellas Verona for a time, which made me wonder how much traction I’d get with him on the phone. Eventually, he went to Fiorentina where he won the Panchina D’Oro, given to Italy’s national manager of the year. Yet even that wasn’t his greatest achievement.

That came when he guided Fiorentina to a place in last season’s UEFA Cup despite his club being penalized fifteen points in the standings two years ago for being part of the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal. That surely impressed me. Winning, that is. Not the scandal. His club reached the semifinals of last season’s competition.

Obviously Europe is the “final frontier” for me as a club manager and I’d love to go where Prandelli has been. And if I could get the player I had in mind from him, my chances would get a lot better.

Michele Pazienza is a strong workhorse of a holding midfielder and is 26 years old. He’s entering his peak years and if there were a way to bring him to Berkshire I wanted to know what it was. Faty had been my first choice based on raw potential, but when a club is in the “win now” stage, potential isn’t necessarily all you’re after.

I was pleasantly surprised when my call was placed straight through to the manager. He greeted me in Italian and I was quite pleased that we could hold this particular conversation in his native tongue.

“Rob, thank you for calling and congratulations on a great season last year,” he said.

“Cesare, I thank you,” I said. “I appreciate your kindness.”

“You know if it were me, you’d have won Panchina D’Oro last year,” he said. “You had the best season of any of us. Don’t listen to what that blowhard wrote in your paper. Padova is in Serie B because of you and don’t forget that.”

I frowned. “Thanks again, but how come his column reached you?” I asked.

“It was in Gazzetto Dello Sport,” he explained, and I fumed quietly as he spoke. “But don’t worry, it happens to all of us sooner or later.”

“That it does,” I said. “Can’t be helped, I guess.”

Then he laughed. “I did not mean to wreck your day when you have called to discuss business,” he said. “What can I do for you today?”

“Well, I’m calling to inquire about the availability of Michele Pazienza for a loan,” I said.

“Short or long term?” he replied, after a moment’s hesitation.

“As long as possible,” I said. “I’d take the whole season if you’re willing.”

“Well, as I’m sure you know he is not able to break through to our first team,” he said. “I also know, from having seen your base tactic last season, that he would be a superb fit for your side.”

“That’s why I’m calling, to be blunt,” I said. “I know that, and I know he would play a significant role for me. I think he’s certainly strong enough to play in the Premiership and I think he’s just the right fit for me.”

“Pity about Magallón,” he said, proving word does in fact get around. “He’s a fine player and Mexico has lost a key member in its World Cup qualifying run.”

“Without question,” I said. “But it leaves me with quite a hole to fill. Do you think Pazienza would be available?”

“I need him to play,” Prandelli replied. “I do think he would fit beautifully with your style of play and I do think he would play for you. Therefore, I am willing to loan him to you for the season provided you are willing to assume the bulk of his wages.”

That was good enough. “I think that would not be a problem,” I answered, knowing full well that Convey and his £900,000 annual wage packet are now Hertha Berlin’s responsibility. I’m well under the wage budget – to the tune of about £5 million per year – and that situation will improve with Bobby’s departure.

“What is his current contract?” I asked.

“Just under €1.1 million,” he answered. I did some quick conversion in my head and realized he was talking in the neighborhood of £850,000. Knowing what the board’s instructions were for loan players – at under £1,000,000 in salary I could spend as I liked in the current environment – I set to business.

“We can meet half that off the top,” I said.

“Seventy percent would get you the player,” he said disarmingly. I was in no position to argue, but I was still well under the limit and I didn’t want him to know that.

“Well, I think that’s possible,” I said, telling a good-sized fib since I knew perfectly well it was much more than ‘possible’. “I’ll have our financial people get in touch with you within the hour to confirm. Will you speak to the player?”

“I will,” he said. “When your financial department reaches ours, I will have an answer for you.”

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

Our training today was Portsmouth-related and our goal for the weekend is to stop in-form striker Jermain Defoe.

Portsmouth are a more mobile team than they have been in years past though they are still veteran at key spots on the pitch. Former Manchester City captain Sylvain Distin patrols the backline for Pompey and even though Sol Campbell is gone, David James is as spry as ever in their goal.

Yet it’s Defoe who worries me, and I expect him and strike partner John Utaka to give us a hard time on Saturday.

Today, Nilsson repeated some of his earlier thoughts about me, formally opening the media war. In his daily media gaggle, he remarked that he thought we were off to a good start but hoped to put it down to “beginner’s luck”.

“He is a hot commodity,” Nilsson said of yours truly. “We are out to cool him down, so to speak. He has a good group of players from Steve Coppell’s era to choose from but he has come under fire for the state in which he left his last club, so we are confident we can prevail.” Word does get around, I guess. I didn’t know they printed Gazzetto Dello Sport in Swedish.

# # #

I sat with Patty this evening and we watched the Champions League draw while discussing her day.

There are some interesting draws. Among British teams, Liverpool wound up in Group B with Celtic, Bayern Munich and Zilina of Slovakia. Manchester United was placed in Group C with Legia Warsaw, Osasuna and Inter, and Arsenal was placed in Group E with Rapid Bucharest, Rangers and Juventus. Chelsea wound up in Group F with Bordeaux, Sporting Lisbon and Standard Liege.

I still haven’t figured out how they get all those ping-pong balls to come out right so that clubs from the same nation don’t wind up in the game group, or even playing matches that would conflict with television. So I just enjoyed the spectacle and watched as the legends of the game came forward one by one to open up the little footballs containing the team names.

“I wish that were us,” I mumbled to myself, as Lisbon’s name was drawn from a plastic ball.

“Patience, babe,” Patty said, in an unusually comfortable position against my chest. “Do what you are capable of doing and maybe it will be someday.”

“If that did happen, our life would be a lot different,” I said. “We’re talking about a family and it would make things different if we were in Europe on a regular basis. And if it doesn’t happen, I’ll be home a lot more, I can say that for sure.”

She giggled. “Well, when I’m away on photo shoots, we’ll be apart too,” she said. I looked down at her as the commentators started talking about how hard Group H will be to win. I then forgot about the television.

“Shoots? You mean more than one?”

“You never know,” she said. “Rob, the thing I told my dad today that really set him off was that I like what I’m doing right now. I don’t mind someone really looking after me. I don’t mind people thinking that I’m somebody. That’s great, for as long as I can make it last.”

I looked down at her. I had to say it.

“Patty, do I not take good enough care of you? Is that it?”

Sensing my mood, she sat up on the couch. “Let’s get one thing clear,” she said, a flicker of passion showing in her bright green eyes. “I never asked for a substitute for you, okay? And I never would! You moved here to advance your career and I think it’s only fair that I should get to explore mine now that we’re near one of the biggest cities in the world. What do you think about that?”

“No one’s suggesting otherwise,” I said. “And in fact, I have told your father the same thing, almost word for word. But what concerns me is this notion that you want someone else to take care of you.”

“That wasn’t what I meant,” she said. “Look at it this way, Rob. You like the life here, don’t you?”

I nodded.

“You like going into a visiting stadium with piles of security and media who don’t ask you difficult questions, and the television coverage, right?”

“That isn’t why I took this job,” I said.

“Then why did you take it?”

“I took it because I wanted to advance, like you have already mentioned. The other stuff is nice but I want to win matches at the highest level. The things that go with it are the things that go with it. I was able to win matches with Padova last season and the trophies were wonderful to win. But it was time for something bigger – for me, and for the life I want to make for us.”

“Then how about allowing me the same space?” she challenged. “Besides, I don’t mind telling whoever wants to know that I’m married to you.”

“I understand,” I said. I didn’t see the point in arguing about it but she had a point to make.

“I adore you, Rob,” she said, “but I’m only going to get this chance once. I need to take that chance. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t do the same.”

# # #

I slept restlessly. Sound sleep just wouldn’t come. I kept looking over at Patty, snug and secure in our bed, and wondered why she had said what she said.

I lay awake, looking at the ceiling, and finally drifted into some sort of sleep. Then, I awoke to my wife’s gentle touch.

“Honey, I’m sorry,” she said. “I can’t sleep either.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t worry about it? How am I supposed to do that with you wondering whether I’m happy? I know you're worried.”

I looked over at Patty, her face in silhouette in the darkened room. “Yes, I am,” I said. “But I’ve been pretty self-absorbed and I should apologize for that.”

“You have a job to do,” she said. “But as long as we’re apologizing, how about we make up the right way?”

I rolled to her, pressing her down into the mattress with my weight. “I think that’s a wonderful idea, honey,” I replied. Her kiss was special and deep, and the passion of her action far exceeded the passion of our argument.

# # #

[Marchie]

....... the beckhams of football management... just don't hop to MLS so soon...

[tenthreeleader]

Marchie, I can tell you this ... while Patty may be tempted by golden spires for the first time in her life, earlier writing in this series shows that the last league on earth where Rob will be found is MLS.

___

Friday, August 29

Sacchetti e-mailed me back today and he didn’t rip my head off. I appreciated that.

Our schedule of fast-and-furious preparation continued today as traveled to the south coast on Saturday to face Portsmouth. Yet while on the trip, I was very glad to see e-mail from one of my more influential Padova players waiting in my Blackberry’s in-box. He wrote in Italian:

Hello, boss:

It’s good to hear from you. I appreciate you writing to me and I’ve quietly let the old boys know you wrote.

We were pretty upset too, that you weren’t able to say goodbye. We understand, of course – you had other things to do – but still, a chance to thank each other after the news hit would have been good.

We do not blame you. For the most part, though, the old players are fighting for the chance to show we belong in a better league. I am especially unfortunate in this regard – the club actually sold me two weeks ago but since I do not want to leave, I refused the deal. I never appreciated the two-year contract you gave me more than I did at that moment.

Pablo is determined to prove his worth as well and I think he can do it. We’re all down in the reserves, even Muzzi, as the article said. We find it hard to accept. Caputo gets a regular first team game and he ought to, as good as he is, but the rest of us feel abandoned.

There are so many new players and the boss has to show he knows what he’s doing, so they are the ones who get to play. It comes on our backs and that isn’t fair. I wrote Eder Baú last week and even he isn’t getting a game at Spezia. He would come back here if he was wanted but the opinion is that somehow he’s not. And he was the league’s player of the year last season!

We know you would have given us a chance, Rob. We were your players and you took the heat when we didn’t play to standard. We know what happened to you because of that and it’s one reason why we don’t hold your sudden departure against you.

We follow Reading’s scores and when we can, we watch the games on Sky Sports. We wish you nothing but the best. Just think of your old boys in Italy on Saturdays and please don’t forget to stay in touch.

All good wishes,

Stefano

I felt an inch tall.

# # #

It’s going to be an interesting weekend. The mid-week action, which sort of got lost in the middle of other events, has already heated things up.

Robin van Persie’s brace on either side of the interval fired Arsenal past Bolton 2-0 on Wednesday and into second place, behind arch-rival Spurs on goal difference. Yet in so doing, they also made a pile of money - £16.75 million, to be exact – by selling Bakary Sagna to Sevilla. That isn’t a bad win-win situation, with time still left in the window to spend should Arsene Wenger choose to do so.

In the Champions League, three British teams got through to the group stages. Chelsea went to perhaps the most intimidating stadium in the world game, the Ali Sami Yen in Istanbul, and got a 2-2 draw with Galatasaray to advance 4-3 on aggregate. I’m getting more and more proud of our opening day performance against them.

United struggled, managing only a 1-1 draw at Racing Club Genk but getting through thanks to their 3-0 win at Old Trafford in the first leg. And one of my old clubs, Rangers, are through, defeating Croatia’s NK Dinamo 1-0 at Ibrox to match their road triumph by the same score.

In the league, Arsenal’s win dropped us to fourth place. We are two points behind the Gunners and Spurs, level with Chelsea on ten points but their goal difference is already +10, so we trail them in the table.

That sort of firepower is really incredible to have and even though my players are light years ahead of where my Padova team was last season, it still would be great to be able to unleash a team and let them score like Chelsea seems to be doing for Grant. We’re the only team that could live with them so far, though, and that counts for much.

Magallón is the only serious absence due to injury, but we’ll also have another absence starting tomorrow, this one permanent. Convey agreed personal terms with Hertha Berlin and caught a flight out of Heathrow this afternoon on the way to his next adventure while the rest of us left for Portsmouth. We’re getting £350,000 up front and the rest of his transfer fee in installments over the next six months. We also got a 30 percent sell-on clause so it’s certainly in our best interests for the player to do well.

Before we left, though, Bobby came to see me. “I know you worked hard to do what I asked you to do,” he said, seated across from my desk. “I do appreciate that even though I let my frustration show through once or twice.”

“It’s a business,” I said simply. “I understand that.”

“Look,” he said. “You know I still want to play on the national team. You played on it yourself a few times, so you know what that’s all about. With Kalou here I wasn’t going to get the playing time because he’s your purchase.”

“You aren’t telling me anything I don’t already know,” I said. “So why are you here?”

“Just to thank you and wish the club the best of luck,” he answered. “I’ve had a great time here but it was time to go.”

I rose, ending the interview. “I guess it was,” I said, and we shook hands. “All the best in Germany, Bobby. Do well for yourself and Sam’s Army. We’ll be watching.”

# # #

Pazienza came through. He called while I was on the coach and is on a flight for London. He’ll be met at the airport and I’m going to put him straight into the bench for tomorrow’s match.

He is excited about coming here. We’ve got depth enough now at the holding position, with Andre Bikey, who can also play the position, now back to his accustomed spot in the center of defense. I like him better there due to his being 6’3” and a fine leaper. We can deny aerial service to most of the big men we play with Andre paired next to Sonko.

Harper is a solid professional and will start tomorrow, but lost the starting role to Magallón for a reason. I’m sure he will give his all but I need dominant play from that position for this team to succeed. Pazienza may well be that player.

Meanwhile, I don’t think we’ll hear back from Madrid on Gúti even though Schuster accepted the transfer bid over the phone. If it’s taken this long, there has probably been a snag with the player, so I’m going to stand pat with what I have in the midfield.

While my attention drifted due to pleasant thoughts about my bride’s midnight wake-up call, I was able to concentrate long enough to get the latest news as the transfer window draws to a close. Birmingham, West Brom and Cardiff are all bidding hard for Rangers’ Charlie Adam, with Steve Bruce expected to have the upper hand with a £2.6 million bid. Milan are ready to bid £18.25 million for Liverpool’s Javier Mascherano, which may unsettle him as the champions prepare to play Spurs this weekend in an early crunch clash. Also, Chelsea is ready to sell Hernan Crespo to Livorno.

It has been a busy day for Bruce, as he also bought Shola Ameobi from Newcsatle for £1.9 million and American defender Jay DeMerit from Watford for £2.3 million more. The Baggies made a double signing too, bagging Chivas Mexico’s striker Omar Bravo for £6.25 million and Borussia Moenchengladbach’s Israeli striker Roberto Colautti for another £4.7 million. Just like that – instant strike force.

With all that flashed across my e-mail, the most important was a three-word text from Patty that arrived on my phone at the same time we arrived at Portsmouth’s Queen’s Hotel:

“I love you.”

# # #

We had a team meeting this afternoon and some video on Portsmouth in the evening while the players took advantage of a final evening’s rest before tomorrow’s match. At our team dinner, we watched Sky Sports News and I was struck at how sometimes football can be a very funny game.

Alan Pardew got a rather interesting public vote of confidence today – from no less a source than Alan Curbishley. The two managers traded teams two seasons ago, with Curbishley latching on for West Ham after resigning from Charlton, and Pardew winding up at Charlton after being sacked by Eggert Magnusson in East London.

Curbishley said he thought Pardew could keep Charlton in the top flight – and since the teams are playing a London derby tomorrow, that seemed a bit odd to me. Curbishley’s affection for his old club is well known, but there are times in this business where blood really isn’t thicker than water. He has made quite an interesting statement – especially if he doesn’t win tomorrow.

Dillon and I went over the team sheet for tomorrow. Hunt is going to get one more shot on the left side of midfield with Kalou on the right and Maloney in the middle supported by Harper. After his gangbuster start, the Irishman has cooled and he needs a performance to keep his place.

I gave a quick interview to the official website after dinner this evening and the traveling media folks had it posted within an hour’s time. It’s turning into quite the operation, and in terms of providing quick access to official club information, it’s a terrific resource.

We have a tall task ahead of us tomorrow. I don’t feel a natural rivalry with either Nilsson or Portsmouth, but we’ve got ten points, they’ve got eight, and I want distance from them in the table.

Tonight, happily, I slept better than last night, though without the same happy end to the evening. You can’t have everything, I suppose.

# # #

[O\'Hara_fan]

I still haven’t figured out how they get all those ping-pong balls to come out right so that clubs from the same nation don’t wind up in the game group, or even playing matches that would conflict with television. So I just enjoyed the spectacle and watched as the legends of the game came forward one by one to open up the little footballs containing the team names.

You and me both mate.

Things could be getting intresting in the personal life of Rob. And I'll give you a tip, if you want a good midfielder, get O'Hara. I'll let you have him

[salkster2102]

I think they just have a computer giving them the possibilities and then just take out the teams in the pot they can't be drawn with. Anyhow KUTGW

[tenthreeleader]

Thanks, fellows ... I've seen how UEFA explains the Champions League draw but Rob doesn't have time for that sort of minutae

___

Saturday, August 30

Portsmouth (2-2-1, 7th place) v. Reading (3-1-0, 4th place) – EPL Match Day #5

Walking into Fratton Park is like going back in time. The Fratton End entrance features the famous mock Tudor façade and just looking around this grand old ground gives you the (correct) impression that this place has been around for awhile.

Portsmouth has called this place home since 1898. The old Frogmore Road has seen as many as 51,000 spectators for matches back in the grand old days, but in the new era of all-seater stadia, the capacity of the ground has dropped considerably.

When Alexandre Gaydamak took over the club he made some renovations, but what Pompey’s supporters are really waiting for is the new Spinnaker Stadium, scheduled to open in 2010 after a series of proposals as to its location.

Portsmouth is of course on an island, and access to any part of that island is key. But there isn’t much doubt that the club has to do something. Fratton Park is the smallest ground in the Premiership in terms of total capacity and even though just over 20,000 loyalists cram into the place for every home match, even the Madejski while it is undergoing an active expansion still holds more paying customers.

# # #

“Absorb their start, gentlemen.”

I looked around the new visitors’ changing room at Fratton Park and repeated my guidance during my pre-match team talk. “Absorb their start. As you know, they love to come out at home and take matches by the throat, and then drown you with the noise of their fans. We’ve got the talent in this room to get the result today. Now go and get it for yourselves.”

There was a whole different atmosphere today. Both clubs are off to strong starts so there wasn’t the usual easygoing early-season sort of mood as we lined up for the entrance to the pitch.

Especially not between the managers. We lined up, and I approached Nilsson. We shared a perfunctory handshake and from that point on neither of us looked at the other. I didn’t figure we’d be sharing any wine after the match and after what he’s said I don’t think he’d expect me to want to.

The lines moved forward, again without crosstalk among the players. It was a relief to get onto the pitch, even if it was like walking into a wall of sound.

Fratton Park was rocking, as you might imagine. Finally, I got away from Nilsson and headed off to my dugout for the start of the match.

There was a fair amount of energy on both sides from the kickoff. I expected the first few minutes to be active from Pompey’s point of view and they were, with Glen Johnson’s early ball from the right side of defense cut out by Lobont just ninety seconds into the match with Defoe lurking ominously in the box.

That brought their crowd into the match and the noise level started to grow a bit as they pushed forward again. Now Charles N’Zogbia was causing trouble, working a 1-2 with James Milner to finally flick on to Defoe about thirty yards from goal.

He took on Harper and went right past him. He took on Sonko, and went right past him too. Now Bikey moved off his marker to challenge and Defoe’s cutback was as beautiful to watch for the fans as it was frustrating for Lobont, now hung completely out to dry. Defoe finished powerfully to give Pompey the lead just seven minutes into the match.

“Well, I’ll be an SOB,” I muttered to myself as the Portsmouth players celebrated both a terrific effort and a truly fine job of shot-creation by Defoe. They were ahead, they were playing well and it was time for us to try to respond. I dared not look at Nilsson, and I could sense him looking over at me as the teams headed back to the center of the pitch.

Stung by Portsmouth’s early ascendancy, we put pedal to the metal to respond. The only issue was that, unlike Kazzer’s song before the Chelsea match, we were starved for gas. Kalou was completely bottled up on the right and Hunt was not having a strong start on the left. With the fine overall start Maloney has had, they were keying on him anyway, so in a flash the entire midfield was choked off by a very aggressive 4-4-2 with help from their full backs, especially against Kalou.

It was sort of like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I’d give an idea ten minutes or so, give it up as a bad job, and move on. I was starting to think the only way we could succeed was to change formation.

Then Kalou made something happen. He shook loose down the right after a terrific pass from Ferreira sent him away. He beat Distin on the turn and was heading in for a cross when French midfielder Arnold Mvuemba moved to cut him off. Salomon cut back and crossed, and Mvuemba lost his balance trying to correct. He flailed helplessly as he tried to cut back with my midfielder.

Kalou’s cross hit Mvuemba on his right hand with an audible slap, leaving no option for Mike Riley. He pointed to the spot and very much against the run of play, we had the chance to tie the score.

The Ivorian grabbed the ball and put it on the spot. I saw no reason not to let the player who had made the play also take the penalty, and I was amazed at how coolly he approached his work.

I was also very impressed at how Kalou gave James absolutely no chance to stop the perfectly-taken spot kick, which got us level six minutes from the break. It was completely undeserved, but we were level and that was all that mattered.

With the score now at 1-1, I elected to stay with 4-1-3-2 until halftime to see how it fared when we were on level terms. That wasn’t such a good idea as it turned out, with Portsmouth again carving us up with ease until Riley blew for halftime.

Portsmouth had played quite well but we hadn’t really asserted ourselves in any meaningful way except for the moment of good work from my ex-Chelsea men. I stayed calm in the changing room – even though it was hard.

“Guys, that wasn’t very good and I think we all know it,” I said. “They’re pressing us on the wings and taking the whole midfield away when they close us down. Look for the ball into space when they’re closing us down and don’t forget to use overlaps when they’re there. You know what to do. Now let’s start doing it.”

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

Only we didn’t. They continued their dominance and pressed us hard at the start of the second half. On the hour, I could stand no more and moved us to a 4-4-2 counter while we were still level.

Matching their formation was a much better idea as we started to show some signs of life. Everyone except Hunt, who couldn’t seem to get into the match, was picking up their play and on 65 minutes I prepared to make my move.

“Pazienza,” I called. “Get ready.”

Harper was playing well and the bench players looked at me quizzically. Dillon got up.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” he asked.

“Not for Harper, for Hunt,” I said. “I want two strong center mids with Kalou on the left and Maloney on the right. We’re going to take over the center of the park or die trying.”

He nodded. “Might as well try it. Nothing else has worked,” he said on his way back to his seat.

I wanted to correct his demeanor but really, I agreed with him so I couldn’t. Pazienza bounded onto the pitch with great enthusiasm – and immediately took over the match.

He had barely been on the pitch for sixty seconds when he won the ball on a crunching tackle against Gabi in the offensive half of the pitch, went straight up Route One with the ball, cut to his right and forced James into a fantastic full stretch save across his body to the keeper’s right.

James pushed the ball away – and right onto Kalou’s boot. With the midfielder’s eyes wide, he struck the rebound – and James somehow got his arm up to stop that too.

This time the ball squirted to the middle and it was Kitson’s turn. I jumped in the air, arms thrust high overhead in celebration – and Kitson drove the rebound into James’ legs. The ball spiraled behind for a corner kick, my hands went from over my head to on top of it in frustration and both Kalou and Kitson looked like someone had killed their dogs.

Pazienza, on the other hand, simply bounded back up the pitch. I couldn’t have been more impressed. He played with intensity and fire, and we were a different side the moment he stepped onto the pitch.

Nine minutes from time, Nilsson finally made a move, as we were clawing our way to the front of their goal thanks to a suddenly dominant midfield. He pulled off two of his midfielders in Mvuemba and Gabi, replacing them with Pedro Mendes and Sean Davis for a little more dash against our newly-found steel.

That was my cue. Dagoberto and Maloney were both worn out and it was time for me to counter. I replaced them with Lita and Faé respectively, matching pace for pace. Maloney had given all he could, and it was simply time to let him rest.

I shook his hand as he walked past me to the bench, sliding first into a warmup and then into a chair. Yet, there was no further damage done.

Riley’s full-time whistle brought an end to the proceedings and I approached Nilsson, our eyes making contact for the first time since the pre-match introductions. I extended my hand and thankfully he shook it.

“Looking forward to the rematch,” he said neutrally as he left with his team.

“So am I,” I responded. “Believe me, so am I.”

Portsmouth 1 (Defoe 5th, 7)

Reading 1 (Kalou 1st, pen 39)

A – 20,570, Fratton Park, Portsmouth

Man of the Match – Salomon Kalou, Reading

# # #

“Tactically, I think they were acceptable though I am surprised at how long it took them to switch away from 4-1-3-2,” Nilsson told reporters. “We had a good plan for them and we were the better side for ninety minutes. I am disappointed we didn’t win but we are looking forward to playing them again.”

Now his inquisitors zeroed in on his earlier comments. “Does Rob Ridgway belong in the Premier League in your eyes?” he was asked.

This time, the Swede just smiled. “No comment,” he answered.

# # #

“For the first hour, we were AWOL,” I said. “That was pretty disappointing. However, in the end we got it right and we had them on the rack for the last half hour. I won’t say we deserved to win but we didn’t deserve to lose either, based on a number of factors.”

“One of which was Mr. Pazienza,” an older gentleman who I took to be from Portsmouth’s local media suggested.

“One of which was Mr. Pazienza,” I confirmed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen, in twenty years in the professional game, a player come onto the pitch as a substitute and take over a game on his debut like he did. We weren’t very good until he came on, and after he did, we were darned unfortunate not to get three points. That sort of impact is just exceptional.”

Jill Weatherby now spoke. “Two players to ask you about,” she said. “Kalou and Lobont.”

“Salomon has adjusted well and it was good to see him get on the sheet with a perfectly taken penalty,” I said. “And for my money it would have been hard to bet against Lobont for man of the match. He’s done a superb job for us and there’s no doubt about that.”

# # #

Today’s draw won’t help us in the table but it won’t hurt us either. That’s because Chelsea didn’t win either, losing two points to Martin Petrov’s injury time goal for Manchester City at Stamford Bridge. Giuseppi Rossi – yeah, him again – scored in the 17th minute to put Chelsea ahead but Petrov’s heroics mean Chelsea stays third.

Bolton rebounded nicely from their disappointment against us to win 2-0 at the Reebok against West Brom, with El-Hadji Diouf and Daniel Braaten scoring second-half goals. And speaking of rebounding nicely, Alan Pardew proved Alan Curbishley right by beating him at The Valley. Mauro Zárate scored 38 seconds into the match and the Addicks got an Anton Ferdinand own goal plus markers from Andy Reid and Jose Semedo to win 4-2. The Hammers scored both their goals with ten men after Scott Parker was sent off for violent conduct just twelve minutes into the match. Yet, Dean Ashton and Lucas Neill both scored with their team down a man.

Robin van Persie was one for two for Arsenal today. Uriah Rennie put him on the spot twice – first in first-half injury time and again eight minutes from time – at Pride Park against Derby. Van Persie missed the first penalty and made the second in a 1-0 win that I am sure will have Billy Davies apoplectic with anger.

After starting the season with six points from six, Middlesbrough found themselves three down within fifteen minutes at Old Trafford this afternoon. Wayne Rooney scored on six and twelve minutes and Cristiano Ronaldo made it 3-0 within the quarter hour. David Bentley’s goal late in the first half was little consolation, and Rooney completed his hat trick eleven minutes from time in a 4-1 United win.

Now to the match we’re watching, since we’re finally getting to play them: Spurs opened the scoring through Tom Huddlestone seven minutes into the match but Liverpool equalized through Fernando Torres thirteen minutes later. The game degenerated into a chess match after that and the teams finished in a 1-all draw. Long story short – Arsenal has taken five wins from five and now vaults into the top spot.

# # #

The coach pulled into the stadium lot at 6:00 this evening and I trudged off home to find Patty waiting for me. That’s enough to make even the most disappointing day better.

It had been a bit of a draining day, and she was watching the league review show when I arrived. I hadn’t heard Nilsson’s comments in so many words after the match and Sky did its best to foster yet another Ridgway controversy by playing the whole exchange with their match reporter.

“For crying out loud,” I sighed, as she advanced to me.

“What a horrible thing to say,” she said. “You’d think people would have a little more respect than that.”

“This is cutthroat stuff,” I said. “It was like this in Italy too. You remember. Emiliani and all.”

“What a loser he is,” she said. “You just wait for him to stab you in the back.”

“He wants to make his name,” I said. “Sometimes, that sort of fame has to come on the back of another person. That’s how it goes.”

“It doesn’t have to,” she insisted. “He can show he knows the game in ways that don’t hurt people. Especially not my husband.”

“Like I said, this is a cutthroat business,” I said. “And I’m ready for a bit of a rest. After the window ends, and we get Wednesday’s match played, what would you say to getting away while everyone else is playing World Cup qualifiers?”

“I’d love to, but I do have to work,” she said. “We haven’t really had a honeymoon of any kind and right now I think we could use one.”

“If you can get away, that would be great,” I said. “Let’s see what happens.”

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

Sunday, August 31

On the last day of the transfer window, our world was quiet. Gúti finally got around to telling us that no, he doesn’t want to come here.

His delay meant that had I absolutely had to find another midfielder in this window, it would have been difficult to arrange on the last day. As good a player as he is, I don’t absolutely have to have him at the moment. I may try again in January, depending on where we stand.

I stayed at my desk all day in case there was need for me to make a decision on a player. That was sort of a downer – I don’t like to spend Sundays in the office unless it’s a match day – but Patty came to work with me and enjoyed a day out at the stadium.

There were moves – but they didn’t involve us. I arrived at my desk to learn that Chelsea’s Jon Obi Mikel is gone to Valencia for £13.5 million and Spurs splashed the cash again, this time for Leverkusen’s defender Gonzalo Castro for £13.75 million of Daniel Levy’s money. Meanwhile, Birmingham won the race for Charlie Adam’s signature late last night, and Rangers are now £2.6 million to the good for it.

When it became obvious that I didn’t need to sit at my desk all day, Patty and I went to the 1871 Suite to watch the noon matches on television with a gathering of staff who were asked to work on the last day of the transfer window.

For Patty, it was a fun experience. There was no talk about press or photography or any such thing. She just got to meet people and do what she does best, which is simply to relate with people. There’s a reason she has chosen the career she has – at least, I think she’s chosen it. No one can say for sure at the moment.

There were three matches today, and the featured match saw Newcastle get out of the relegation places with a 2-0 win at St. James’ Park over Birmingham. Alan Smith’s brace on either side of the interval did the trick and the Toon moved up to 17th place with the three points.

Aston Villa got a brace from Ashley Young and a single goal from Søren Larsen to crush Blackburn 3-0 at home. And Everton showed why Cardiff may well be in trouble this season behind two goals from Andy Johnson and a Phil Jagielka penalty in a 3-0 win. Charlton, Cardiff and Derby now occupy the three relegation places.

The commentators were talking about Billy Davies’ rant against Uriah Rennie after yesterday’s loss to Arsenal. Rennie gave the visitors two penalties at key moments in the match, one of which Robin van Persie converted in a 1-0 win. The speculation is that the County boss will have an FA charge to answer, but at the moment I’m not sure Billy really cares.

# # #

The action swirled around us as word of maneuvering from various clubs continued right up to midnight. Unfortunately, of all the players I was looking to move, Convey was the only one who found a new club.

In the evening, the word came in that Spurs had spent again, this time to the tune of £11 million to Portsmouth for Yakubu. He, and Castro, are both expected to suit up against us at midweek. After their match today, Villa acquired Lyon’s left fullback Fabio Grosso for another £7 million and Hernan Crespo finally left Chelsea, on loan to Livorno for the season.

But all was quiet with us. The phone didn’t ring and I didn’t call anyone. In a way, it was a real relief to get the transfer window over. Now I can concentrate on managing again.

But just for the fun of it, I fired up my browser before finally getting to bed at about 1:00 in the morning. I smiled as I saw a result from Renato Curi in Perugia – Caputo’s goal eleven minutes from time gave my old club a 1-1 draw with another club who had beaten us in a Cup match away from home. They have four points from two away matches against two teams who beat my squad last year, and have third place in the table in the early going. Maybe they’ll be all right after all.

Good for them.

# # #

| Pos   | Team          | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   | Arsenal       | 5     | 5     | 0     | 0     | 10    | 2     | +8    | 15    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   | Tottenham     | 5     | 4     | 1     | 0     | 14    | 4     | +10   | 13    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   | Chelsea       | 5     | 3     | 2     | 0     | 12    | 2     | +10   | 11    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| [b]4th   | Reading       | 5     | 3     | 2     | 0     | 7     | 4     | +3    | 11   [/b] | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   | Liverpool     | 4     | 3     | 1     | 0     | 10    | 1     | +9    | 10    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   | Aston Villa   | 5     | 3     | 1     | 1     | 7     | 3     | +4    | 10    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   | Bolton        | 6     | 3     | 0     | 3     | 10    | 6     | +4    | 9     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   | Portsmouth    | 6     | 2     | 3     | 1     | 13    | 10    | +3    | 9     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   | Blackburn     | 5     | 3     | 0     | 2     | 7     | 9     | -2    | 9     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  | Man Utd       | 4     | 2     | 1     | 1     | 6     | 2     | +4    | 7     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  | Everton       | 6     | 1     | 4     | 1     | 6     | 5     | +1    | 7     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  | Man City      | 5     | 2     | 1     | 2     | 5     | 5     | 0     | 7     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  | Middlesbrough | 6     | 2     | 0     | 4     | 9     | 13    | -4    | 6     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  | Birmingham    | 6     | 2     | 0     | 4     | 6     | 10    | -4    | 6     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  | West Ham      | 6     | 2     | 0     | 4     | 8     | 17    | -9    | 6     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  | West Brom     | 5     | 1     | 1     | 3     | 8     | 12    | -4    | 4     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  | Newcastle     | 6     | 1     | 1     | 4     | 6     | 10    | -4    | 4     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  | Charlton      | 6     | 1     | 1     | 4     | 6     | 16    | -10   | 4     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 19th  | Cardiff       | 6     | 0     | 2     | 4     | 4     | 14    | -10   | 2     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 20th  | Derby         | 6     | 0     | 1     | 5     | 2     | 11    | -9    | 1     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

[O\'Hara_fan]

We're second

Behind Arsenal :(

Shame you couldn't get Guti, woulda been some buy

[tenthreeleader]

I wasn't happy about Guti either, O'Hara ... but some people liked it even less ....

___

Monday, September 1

Today I had my first full meeting with the Reading board since I was hired.

On August 1 we were still in friendlies and there wasn’t a reason for me to sit with them. Now, with the season under way, there certainly was.

I spent about £15 million of their money in that window so they were interested in my thoughts on how things were going. The club remains in excellent financial condition for an organization of our size, and I am very cognizant of the fact that I am responsible for keeping it that way.

My morning began with the meeting, before training. I have Spurs on the brain at the moment, so I had to make absolutely certain that I was fully focused on the business side of the operation when I reported to the directors’ board room at the stadium.

My mood was affected a bit by the news that I’ve lost 14 players to international duty for the next week. Half of them are in the u-21 age bracket – which is great from a long-term perspective for the club – but seven of them are senior callups and unfortunately from a purely xenophobic perspective, none of them are English.

Faé, Kalou, Curtis Osano, Khalifa Cissé, Sonko and Bikey all got called up for their respective African nations and Adam Federici was summoned to Australia’s Socceroos. Further, all seven were called up for World Cup qualifiers so their nations have absolute sway over where and how much they play. So it’s time to cross my fingers and pray that no one gets hurt.

I also know this: without some selective reinforcement, I will be in a world of hurt during the next African Nations Cup. My two top wing players and both my first-choice central defenders would be gone for extended periods of time and that would hurt like a son of a gun. So it’s something to think about.

Those things were far from my mind, though, as I entered the board room.

“Rob, welcome,” Madejski said from the front of the room. “Please, take a seat.”

# # #

“Let’s begin with your assessment of the first month,” the chairman said. “Your thoughts?”

“I’m pleased,” I said. “Really, I see no reason not to be. The players are learning a new system, we’ve integrated two new fullbacks and two new midfielders into that new system, and everyone has contributed. We’re fourth in the table and I think that’s a terrific start. I’m frankly disappointed that we didn’t beat Chelsea. Even though the statistics didn’t favor us in that match, the score did until the last minute. Therefore I should have expected better.”

“And, your thoughts on the new players?”

“Kalou has incredible potential and I am delighted we were able to get him,” I said. “I’m very pleased to see him get on the scoresheet for the sake of his confidence and he has done absolutely everything I’ve asked of him. Maloney has been excellent even though he hasn’t scored in the last few matches. Pogatetz gives us a physical presence at left fullback, Ferreira does the same on the right and what has happened is that Ferreira's presence has made Liam Rosenior a better player. He wants a game too, and now he has to beat out two full internationals to get one. I have three fine choices at fullback thanks to the two players you allowed me to bring in.”

“And the young players? Cathcart and Gaspari?”

“Definitely players of the future,” I said. “I didn’t expect either of them to challenge for a first team place right away and my first thought is that Gaspari will be Premiership-ready before Cathcart. However, Craig has a skill set that is exceptional for a player of his age and with the right development, we’ll have purchased a real player that you’ll see becoming a mainstay for us.”

“The outflow in this window was disappointing from the perspective of finances,” the chairman said. “Your thoughts?”

“I agree,” I answered. “As you know, we had six players on the transfer list and one of them, Bobby Convey, left the club. So our transfer balance is skewed to the negative. We were in position to move other players on that wanted new clubs but to use Michael Duberry as an example, it just didn’t happen. We had agreed a fee with Luton to move him but the player wouldn’t go because Luton wouldn’t give him the squad role he wanted. That’s unfortunate from our point of view because Michael isn’t getting games here. In the long run it’s also unfortunate for the player, who is going to have to wait until January to move again unless we get short-term loan offers.”

I paused to take a drink of water. “Frankly, I’m disappointed we didn’t get more loan offers as well," I added. "The reserve squad is far too large and my thought is that both to keep everyone sharp and to maintain the payroll budget, we will need to pare down the size of that squad in the coming months.”

Madejski nodded. “The floor is open for questions,” he said.

Board member Sidney Richmond asked to be recognized. “Rob, tell us what happened with Gúti,” he said. “The player’s comments in the morning papers in Madrid were not kind to this club and I am concerned that your pursuit of the player cast us in a bad light.”

“You have me at a disadvantage, Mr. Richmond,” I said. Then I took a chance. “Please tell me what he was quoted as saying.”

This was dangerous, in that I was going to issue an ‘on the fly’ reaction to a statement that might or not have been accurately quoted in the first place, and I was going to do it in front of my entire board.

“He said that coming to Reading would be a step backward for him.”

I frowned. That was certainly definitive. I had simply heard through his agent that the player was not interested in a move. This was different.

“I can’t say I care for that,” I admitted. “This is arguably the best league in the world and we’re playing well in it. If that’s what he thinks, then he can enjoy Madrid’s reserves until he changes his mind.”

“But why consider him, with that attitude?” Richmond asked.

“Because he’s still an outstanding player who could help us,” I said. “Obviously, he has ties in Madrid that he didn’t want to break. But I am in full agreement with you that what he said does not reflect well on our club. So it’s fair to ask how that situation changes. There is only one way: through performance on the pitch.”

“How was the recommendation made to you to approach Madrid?” he asked.

“One of our scouts learned from a contact in Madrid that the player might entertain an offer to move to the Premiership,” I said. “As you now know, I spoke personally with Bernd Schuster and made an offer acceptable to him. However, sometimes players simply don’t want to change clubs and we have to accept that.”

“But not at the expense of our reputation,” Richmond said, sticking to his guns. “Please see that we do not encounter similar situations in future.”

“Believe me, I don’t want to create them,” I said. “I have every reason to believe we have made wise purchases in this window that will help us grow.”

There were no other questions for me so the chairman spoke again. “We are satisfied to this point,” he said. “Results have been good and players have been acquired within budget limits. We wish you the best of success and will look forward to the Spurs match on Wednesday as an indication of our growth to this point. Now, I understand you are due at training so is there anything you wish to add at this time?”

“Other than we’re still learning on the job, no,” I said. “The attitude of the squad is excellent and I feel there is room to grow. I hope in a month’s time we can evaluate ongoing success.”

With that, I was dismissed to the more mundane matters of management.

# # #

[salkster2102]

Shame Guti didn't come. Bet he was scared that death boxer will follow him

[Kewell08]

Your board doesn't seem too mean this time round

Keep it up.

[tenthreeleader]

Gentlemen, thanks for reading ... I did want Guti but in the end I think not having European football had a lot to do with losing the player. Kewell, it's hard for the board to be too angry when a club on limited budget starts well, I think ... but we'll see how long that lasts!

___

It was a day of answering questions. Our match with Spurs will be televised so I sat for twenty minutes with the match broadcasters answering questions about our players and our strong start to the season.

They did it properly, which is to say they sat me down on an interview set they had built along a back wall of the players’ tunnel at the stadium. They interviewed Martin Jol in London in a similar setting, so I’ll have my first meeting with the Dutchman via television during the league preview show before meeting him for real on the pitch.

The media is a lot different here, obviously. It’s more pervasive when they are around me, but it’s also much more structured thanks to the massive help I get from Waters and his buddies in the media office.

It’s great to have help in dealing with them. Even though my old friend Emiliani wrote his usual divisive stuff last week, he didn’t get near me and the media staff wouldn’t have allowed it without first checking with me. That’s life at a bigger club and it’s fantastic.

That isn’t to say that I won’t have one-on-one contact with reporters. It’s part of the job. But now the contacts get to be on my terms and that makes all the difference for me.

# # #

Also, the August awards are out. After five wins from five matches, it isn’t surprising that Arsene Wenger took the manager of the month award from the pundits. It’s also not surprising that Giuseppi Rossi has won the young player of the month award after basically carrying Chelsea on his back for the first weeks of the season.

Jermain Defoe is the newly-anointed player of the month, leading the Premiership with seven goals. He’s a worthy winner and right now he’s the hottest striker going.

I suppose my meeting with the board could have been worse. I could be David Moyes, who was roasted in the media by one of his own players over Everton’s sale of Yakubu to Spurs. Mikel Arteta, perhaps Everton’s most gifted all-around player, went off the deep end to the press. He slammed Moyes, the management, you name it. He was not a happy camper.

So it could be worse. As I worked with the defenders on a plan to stop Defoe, I realized that all in all, especially with the media, I’ve got it pretty darned good. For a change.

# # #

So does my wife.

She reported early for her own television shoot this afternoon and actually wound up on both sides of the camera.

There was no speaking role for her – but the point of the advert was to show her walking through various points in the mall, visiting shops, and generally looking like Patty – which is to say, increasingly recognizable and tastefully wonderful.

Mall shoppers start to follow her until she leads a parade, similar to the Verizon commercials on American television. That meant about a hundred extras were needed, and they all had to be organized and receive their instruction.

That meant she had work to do for her job, and she did it very well. She moved smoothly among the extras and if you didn’t know that she had another job to do you would never have guessed she was going to lead their procession in a few minutes’ time.

Finally, she stepped to the directors’ area where she was handed a set of headphones. “This is the music we’re using for this advert,” she was told, and she slipped on the headset to hear a 30-second snippet of Chris Standring’s bouncy smooth jazz hit ‘Hip Sway’. “That’s the mood we want to create in your movement.”

They handed her an outfit to put on, which was fall attire due to the commercial’s anticipated holiday airing. She headed to a dressing area to put on a knee-length maroon skirt and a white fall blouse, and emerged ready to work. A makeup artist touched up her face and she turned to the director.

“Ready when you are,” she said.

# # #

September 1 World Updates

Coca-Cola Championship (promotion and playoff places only)

QPR (16), Sheff Utd (13), Preston (12), Crystal Palace (12), Sunderland (11), Watford (11)

League One (promotion and playoff places only)

Bournemouth (15), Bristol Rovers (14), Leeds (12), Walsall (12), Stoke (12), MK Dons (10)

League Two (promotion and playoff places only)

Brentford (15), Lincoln (14), Rotherham (14), Grimsby (14), Morecambe (13), Dag and Red (12), Cheltenham (10)

Conference National (promotion and playoff places only)

Tamworth (13), Weymouth (12), Aldershot (11), Grays (11), Kidderminster (10)

Ligue One – Lyon (19), PSG (17), St. Etienne (13)

Bundesliga – Hamburg SV (12), Alemannia Aachen (12), Hertha Berlin (9)

Eredivisie – Sparta (10), FC Gronningen (10), PSV (9)

Serie A – Atlanta, Lazio, Milan, Roma, Piacenza all with six points

SPL – Celtic (15), Rangers (13), Inverness CT and Falkirk (8)

La Liga – Celta, Betis and Levante all with six points

# # #

[O\'Hara_fan]

Martin Jol still manager! I love Levy!

And erm, yeah, decent story

[JimT]

Decent is hardly an adequate description.

[masta p]

It is an awesome story! The best of the best

[tenthreeleader]

Gentlemen, I trust you know how much I appreciate your comments but I'll again express my thanks for your support!

___

Tuesday, September 2

With 24 hours until the match against Spurs at the Madejski, I threw in a bit of a wrinkle to the 4-1-3-2 that I hope will have some effect.

“I do think their defense can be put under pressure,” I told the players in our team meeting before this morning’s training session. “So, I want the midfielders to play further forward.”

As I said this, I looked at Pazienza, who will now play a purely central midfield role – while fulfilling the holding mid’s responsibilities in the base formation. It will mean Kalou, Maloney and Faé will now feature as attacking midfielders, giving us the option of five in the box if I want to take it.

“We’re going to work on this today and if you do it well, we might see a bit of it tomorrow,” I said. “I’m confident in your ability to perform tomorrow but if we do it properly it’ll be a wrinkle in our tactic that no one has seen.”

The general reaction to the thought of tactical chicanery was positive, so we headed out to the training pitch to see if it would work.

Our scout team, consisting of our reserve and fringe first-team players, had a simply awful time trying to work the ball forward against five pressing attacking players. Obviously, Spurs’ first team will be different, but the midfielders worked their roles to near perfection in just a few repetitions. I was very pleased and happy with what I saw.

The morning training session was rock-solid, and we’re a relaxed bunch heading into the match. Provided we can get Defoe under control I think we have a chance to do well. It’ll be an excellent test – neither side has lost in five starts so far – and as a result the match was prominently mentioned on the weekly EPL Preview Show.

Patty and I had a quiet dinner this evening while watching the television. They showed excerpts from yesterday’s interview and she was impressed.

They shot my interview in front of a black background upon which they superimposed the club logo waving like a flag in a gentle breeze. It was a great effect and they even chose a part of the piece that made me sound reasonably intelligent.

I was asked about facing the ‘new-look Spurs’, which was certainly a reasonable question. “They’ve spent over £40 million in the August window but they sold nearly £35 million at the same time,” I said. “If you haven’t seen Spurs recently they may look a bit different in places. But the key to winning will be stopping Spurs from doing the things they traditionally do well – and it doesn’t matter what players they have on the pitch. That’s a function of their manager and Martin Jol is doing a great job.”

They then cut to portion of Jol’s interview and he talked about us. “They haven’t spent like we have, but they’ve spent wisely,” he said. “They have brought in players who can help them like Kalou, Pogatetz and Ferreira. They aren’t big spenders, but we know what we face when we go there. Rob has got a lot on his plate now in adjusting to the Premier League but we know we will face a side that will play the game the way he wants it played. It will be a challenge for us.”

“You looked hot,” Patty teased, as the segment ended. “I think I’m in love with a star.”

“Bite your tongue,” I smiled. “Or better yet, let me do it for you.”

# # #

A bigger portion of the show was devoted to the first match of the season between Arsenal and Manchester United at the Emirates.

Arsene Wenger said an extraordinary thing on the preview show – five matches into the season, he’s said the Gunners will top United at the end of the season.

“Both teams have elected to go with existing players,” the Frenchman explained. “But in the end, I believe they will not be capable of sustaining a season-long challenge.” Arsenal pipped United by two points for second place and the automatic qualifying spot in the Champions League last season, so he has the advantage of finishing ahead of United to back his claim.

I expect Coppell’s team to come out ready to play tomorrow as a result. He’s getting a serious mind-game challenge from a manager who is extremely good at them, so the result, which will be nationally televised immediately after our match, will be interesting to see.

Neither side spent much in the window. United spent just £2.4 million – or what I spent on Maloney alone – to bring in Fabio and Rafaél from Fluminense. Fabio has played in three reserve matches so far and Rafaél has yet to kick a ball in anger wearing a United shirt.

As odd at that seems, Wenger added no one at all during the window. Obviously, when January rolls around both clubs will have flexibility, but the January window is notorious for players going for ‘over the odds’ prices. Still, though, if I had to pick two players in January for new faces, Arsenal and United would have to top my list.

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

I also swapped e-mail today with the fellow who was first.

Copper Horse is the first American manager in England, currently toiling with Blyth Spartans in the Blue Square North, a step below the Conference National. Reading is five leagues above Blyth, but the struggles Copper has faced there are as serious as any I’ve faced in England.

He has invited me to come to the northeast during the World Cup qualifier weekend as his club will host Workington on Saturday at Croft Park. I’d love to go. I’d like to take a bit of a step back and would like very much to talk with him face to face.

My thought is to get away to clear my head. We swapped notes briefly last year when he was hired and I was in Italy, as Americans looking for a chance to commiserate about the pressures of management.

He wrote:

Dear Mr. Ridgway:

Congratulations on your appointment at Reading! That is a fantastic achievement. To have an American do it makes it even more special. Forget Mourinho being "The Special One", I was getting lonely toiling away in the lower leagues as "The Only One." Now the attention can be focused on you.

I'm still at Blyth, but I don't know how much longer I'll be welcomed here. If you have the weekend of the 6th open, I'd be honored to have you as my special guest for our home match against Workington. We don't have much of a press following compared to the Premiership, so I could sneak you into the dressing room before the match to fire up our lads. Speaking on behalf of my Chairman, he'd be delighted to have the pleasure of your company as well. He's quite different from the stereotypical Premier League Chairman. I think you'd enjoy his company.

Besides, it might help your reputation in the press by coming to see the other American manager in action. I can supply the drinks and my wife can feed you a delicious home-cooked meal. Interested? If you can't, I understand completely.

As a more reasonable favor, since you've made the jump from lower leagues successfully, I'd be very grateful if I could trouble you occasionally to get some professional advice from you. I know you're extremely busy, but as a fellow American, I'd like the chance to work together in whatever capacity you are willing.

I wish you the best and sincerely hope for your success at Reading.

Warmest Regards,

Copper Horse

And I replied:

Hello, Copper!

First, you really do need to call me Rob. My dad is Mr. Ridgway!

Long time, no chat – thanks so much for your generous offer! I would like to take you up on it – I’ll need to talk with my wife first but I have no doubt she’ll loose me from my proverbial tether long enough to get up to Tyneside for the weekend. I think she’s ready for a weekend away from me anyhow.

As for your kind comments, if it will take pressure off you, of course I’ll be happy to be your sounding board. I don’t know how much good I’ll do since you know your players much better than I do but if there’s anything I can do to help you along – even if it’s just letting you vent and sharing old war stories – I will be happy to do it. If you feel that talking with your players would help in any way, I’d be thrilled.

I wouldn’t want to presume that I necessarily know any more than anyone else – in fact, if you ask certain people in Italy they’ll tell you just the opposite – but again, I’d be delighted to ‘fly the flag’ on your behalf.

I can grab a room in Newcastle for the night but otherwise I’d like very much to see you manage Blyth at Croft Park. Thanks again and don’t hesitate to drop a line any time.

My best,

Rob Ridgway

# # #

[O\'Hara_fan]

Oh god, two Americans down the town. This cannot be good

Nice mix between two stories, as always canny stuff

[tenthreeleader]

Wednesday, September 3

Reading (3-2-0, 4th place) v. Tottenham Hotspur (4-1-0, 2nd place) – EPL Match Day #6

There was an air of anticipation at the stadium as Patty and I rolled up for today’s match. Many in the crowd arrived quite early, wanting to spend as much time around the top-of-the-table clash as possible.

I guess you could call it ‘quiet excitement’. Last season at this time, Reading was about to spring to the top of the table before running out of steam. Now, we’re basically in the same situation we were in a season ago – starting quick but expected to tail off.

Obviously, that’s what I want to avoid. I kissed Patty goodbye-for-now and she headed to her new season ticket location just below the directors’ terrace, with a stop in the 1871 Suite until kickoff.

I was the first into the changing room. The stillness of the place, temporary for now, seemed to reach out for me as I entered my office.

“I need some sound in here,” I mumbled to myself as I turned on the television to catch the pre-match pundits. The white noise of the television calmed me down a bit and one by one, the players arrived to give the room some life. Then the set went off and we got down to business.

# # #

In listening to the player chatter around the room, a fair bit of it was devoted to yesterday’s training and particularly how much the midfielders liked being “turned loose”.

That kind of mass buy-in after such a short time told me that it might not be the worst idea in the world to try the new twist sooner rather than later. Dillon noticed it too, and as we talked between ourselves, he urged me to take a chance.

“Start with it,” he advised. “Give it a try for ten minutes and let their enthusiasm carry them on.”

“The first ten minutes rarely win you a match, but they can sure lose you a match,” I mused. “Yet, I see what you’re saying and I hear what they’re saying. I need to think about this.”

I then thought about, out loud, in front of Dillon. “We’ve given them a plan for this match that we’ve started to implement three times due to the match being rescheduled twice. I don’t know if it’s a good idea to change it now.”

“It’s not so much a change in the plan as a change in how it’s applied,” he noted. “The defenders’ roles and responsibilities are unchanged. All you’d do is have the forward players close down more aggressively and play higher up the pitch. If they want to run, there’s little to be lost in this.”

“Give me a few minutes,” I said. “I’ll consider what you’ve said.” With that, I retreated to my office and closed the door.

# # #

After warm-ups, I came out to address the squad.

“I’m going to turn you loose,” I said, and Dillon was ready with a smile and indication of support. “You say you want to try it, I’m going to let you do it. But you’re on a short leash – mess this up and we’re going right back to our original plan, and we’ll stick with it. I’m going to show some faith in you because I think you can win this match. But you’ve got to show me that you deserve to keep that trust.”

The looks on the faces of three players – the attacking midfielders, namely Kalou, Maloney and Faé – told me I could count on full effort.

We then took the pitch, with my faith in my players and my assistant about to be put to a firm test. The Body Rockers’ Round and Round rang out over the ground, and we started the match.

# # #

I had to rub my eyes. Four minutes into the match, Paul Robinson was already picking the ball up out of his net.

The scorer was the unlikeliest of men – Liam Rosenior had put a terrific move on, skinning Gonzalo Castro at the edge of the penalty area and whipping a terrific shot past Robinson, picking the top left corner of the keeper’s net from eighteen yards. The fans were hardly into their seats and right away, they were up and out of them in full voice. Rosenior had scored his first goal for the club and was thumping his chest like a crazy man.

It was a terrific goal, no question about it. Everyone had gotten into the act – the fullbacks had gotten forward too, and Rosenior’s moment of magic had made a huge impact on the early match. Spurs were rattled and a few minutes later we were forward again, with Robinson denying Kitson from in close eight minutes into the match.

The ball went over for a corner and Rosenior grabbed the ball, jogging to the corner for his effort. I saw men moving forward and every one of them had attacking intent.

“This ought to be interesting,” I thought, as Liam moved toward his kick. He skied the ball into the six-yard box and there was Bikey, climbing a mass of humanity in front of the goal to smash a header past Robinson. It was two-nil inside the first ten minutes.

The place was going wild, and I turned to Dillon on the bench. I couldn’t hear him for the noise from the crowd, but I could read his lips.

“I told you so,” he was saying. I couldn’t argue.

We smelled blood, and the midfielders were all over the Spurs backline. They were disorganized, struggling to find their feet, and we generated another excellent chance moments later, with Maloney barely missing Robinson’s left post from just outside the area on his left.

My tactical idea – and Dillon’s insistence on using it – were paying huge dividends as we had Spurs firmly under the cosh.

Two down, Spurs finally came to life through Didier Zokora. A few minutes after Bikey had made it 2-0, Zokora and Tom Huddlestone worked a bang-bang passing play that had the former free and clear to the right of Lobont ten yards from goal. His pace had allowed him to slip past Sonko and he had ample time to size up his options.

With his strikers, Anelka and Keane, both screaming for the ball, Zokora elected to shoot. We gave him the time to wind up, and Zokora cranked off a low bullet that cleanly beat Lobont to the right. He never had a chance.

Unfortunately for Zokora, the shot didn’t beat the right goalpost, which seemed to shudder under the impact but kept the ball out of the goal. A grateful Sonko recovered to slam the ball into touch and kill Spurs’ first signs of life in the match.

Jol stood on the other side of the center line, scarcely able to believe his eyes. A goal there could have changed everything, but we still led by two and Lobont was taking his time with the goal kick.

His restart was long and authoritative, seeking out Faé on the right. The kick found him, and Emerse immediately started on another voyage toward the byline, whipping in a fine cross from deep that Ledley King headed behind for another corner.

This time Ferreira went to take the set piece. His effort to the six-yard box wasn’t the best kick I had ever seen, but to Kalou, who was standing absolutely unmolested right on the angle of the six, it looked just great.

Salomon pounced, and rifled a header over Gareth Bale guarding the left post to make it 3-0 just sixteen minutes into the match. Kalou was the only one who didn’t looked stunned at the outcome, even though my players on the pitch seemed to be having a hard time keeping both feet on the ground.

All I could do was applaud, and I was certainly willing to do that, with Spurs reeling and my side enjoying a commanding, and early, advantage. Most every thought I had expressed to Dillon before the match had evidently been wrong, and I’d have to be man enough to admit it.

So I walked over to my deputy, as the crowd screamed its approval, and extended my hand.

# # #

[O\'Hara_fan]

I've decided that this story is awful, I mean you cannot beat Spurs 3-0 if you want to impress me.

[tenthreeleader]

3-0, O\Hara? That was just the first 20 minutes!

___

Obviously, we were really, really good in the first half, not letting Spurs off the deck. Equally obviously, I was not interested in any changes to the tactical plan, and the players rewarded me for it by dominating the rest of the first half.

We even scored again, with Kitson latching onto Maloney’s sublime little through ball in first half injury time to slot past the beleaguered Robinson. My target striker jumped high into the air in celebration and when he came down noticed the far side assistant’s flag up for offside. That put a damper on things, obviously, and my big striker held his temper. He thought – and I agreed – that it was a good goal, but didn’t protest the call.

Moments later, it was halftime and we left the pitch to the thunderous cheers of the home support. The players sat down and it was time to stoke their fire a little bit.

“Okay, the gaffer learned something today,” I said. “You showed me what you wanted to do and then you went out and did it. Well played for that. Kevin, that was a good piece of psychology you used on me but Spurs were the ones who wound up paying the price for it!”

“Liam Rosenior, that’s the best half I’ve ever seen you play,” I said, and my fullback looked up with some pride. He wants to play and he did a tremendous job scoring our first goal and setting up our second. “All of you – this is very good work. Now close it out in the second half.”

I opted to keep on the press for the second half – not because we needed more goals, but because it seemed to keep us possession. The first few matches of the season have not seen us hold much possession, which is actually the style I prefer. If we don’t give up the ball we’re not likely to concede, and I’ve learned that it’s much easier to score when the ball is in your possession. The things twenty years in this game will teach you.

What really impressed me in the second half was the play of Kalou. The Ivorian was everywhere, and his raw pace was giving the Spurs fullbacks fits. He also finished one of the greatest plays I’ve ever seen in football that didn’t wind up in the net.

It happened because Ferreira overhit a cross from the right and it nearly turned golden. On 63 minutes, Paolo shook loose down the right and overlapped with Faé, getting to the byline halfway to the corner flag at full speed. He hauled a cross back to the middle and got too much on it, skying the ball over the strike force in front of goal.

However, he didn’t overhit Kalou, who was waiting thirty yards from goal and forty yards from Ferreira’s cross. He didn’t even let the ball hit the turf – he met it flush with a first-time laser-beam that arrowed toward Robinson’s top right corner.

This time, though, England’s number one showed why he is England’s number one. To call Robinson’s parry of Kalou’s rocket ‘stupendous’ would be an understatement. Moving with the cross, Robinson somehow reached the ball at full stretch and fisted it around the post. It was a stunning strike that would surely have earned Kalou a goal of the month honor – but the save, perhaps of the season, had denied him.

Instinctively, I applauded both Kalou’s talent and Robinson’s amazing save. Most of the crowd did as well, with some rising to their feet in appreciation of brilliance from both attacker and keeper alike.

Not surprisingly, Spurs were a lot better in the second half than they had been in the first. We broke them down with ease early in the match but had no such luck in the second. Not needing it, though, I was able to relax a bit and enjoy watching my players try to keep Lobont’s clean sheet.

They did.

Reading 3 (Rosenior 1st, 4; Bikey 1st, 9; Kalou 2nd, 16)

Spurs 0

A – 24,150, Madejski Stadium, Reading

Man of the Match – Salomon Kalou, Reading (2)

# # #

The win moved us up a place, with Spurs dropping to fourth. We also picked up points on the league leaders, as Arsenal are not able to fully celebrate their bitter rivals’ loss.

That’s because Wayne Rooney got the winner for United at the Emirates today, as Coppell took Arsenal’s measure by 2-1. Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring 19 minutes in, Cesc Fabregas equalized two minutes later and Rooney got the winner ten minutes before the break.

Chelsea kept pace with us on points and still leads us on goal difference after Andrei Shevchenko’s goal sank Blackburn 1-0 at Ewood Park. Yet there was a significant injury in that match too, as Giuseppi Rossi sprained an ankle and will miss one month.

Arsenal wasn’t the only member of the Big Four to lose, though. That’s because West Brom pulled off the shocker of the season by dismissing champions Liverpool 3-0 at the Hawthorns behind goals from Chris Brunt, Craig Beattie and Roberto Colautti. The post-match interviews with an ebullient Tony Mowbray after the match said everything that needed to be said. It was a famous victory, no doubt about it.

Yet our victory was pretty darned sweet as well. We were comprehensive against a very good side and we’re now up to third place as a result.

Patty’s expression said it all as we met after the match. “I don’t have to worry,” she said. “If you keep winning like this, there’s no way I’ll match your brand of celebrity.”

I blushed. “Don’t even talk like that, babe,” I said. “Please. Don’t jinx this.”

# # #

[weeeman27bob]

Good result, and a fantastic story!

[tenthreeleader]

Thank you, Bob! I thought it was pretty good myself ...the result, that is.

___

Thursday, September 4

I heard from Kate again today.

As a football fan, she’s naturally pleased to see how well the club is doing and given her past relationship with me, she thought she’d say so.

Patty and I had a very relaxing morning – the entire squad is off until Monday now, excepting of course those players involved internationally – and we laid around the house together until I decided to check my e-mail right at lunchtime.

That was where I saw Kate’s note. Unfortunately, I can’t help but think there’s an ulterior motive in her writing. Paul Marsley’s trial is finally set to begin in Venice next week – and Patty will have to return to Italy to testify.

The members of Marsley’s group were convicted last week of conspiracy in the plot against Patty – and me – and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Our public prosecutor had promised longer sentences after the trials of her two physical assailants and he had delivered.

Marsley’s case, since he had worked at the Consulate with Patty in Venice, was a bit more complicated. It’s going to get a bit warm for Kate and Mini-me now – he will need to testify as well, which means he may be in the same courtroom as Patty.

I don’t care for that and I don’t care who knows it. My disdain for Peter McGuire is well known now, and Patty too has no desire to be subjected to any more of his garbage.

He hurt Patty a heck of a lot worse than he hurt me. I view him as an annoyance, but she views him as something quite different.

So in that context, Kate’s note was a bit curious. I read it, with Patty, this morning.

Rob:

First, congratulations on your early success. You must be very proud of your team and I’ve been quietly proud of you as well.

Unfortunately, I have to limit my pride to the quiet variety, as Peter won’t allow the use of your name in the house. Still and all, he knows I’m writing you and he has been good as gold since Christmas. I allow him to express his feelings about you since I obviously expect higher standards from him in other areas.

He is traveling to Venice to explain his brief relationship with Paul Marsley, which he broke off upon hearing of the incident involving Patty. This is part of the trial, of course, and I realize it is very possible Patty may be called to testify as well.

You, and Patty, should know that she has nothing to fear from Peter. Obviously, I haven’t spoken directly with her about the relationship she had with my husband but Peter has spoken what I believe to be the entire truth and I am confident he will not seek her out in Italy – or anywhere else, for that matter.

He does know you turned him in to the authorities, though, so I wanted to let you know that he’s quite cross with you at the moment. Should you meet him, please be aware and try not to cross him.

All good wishes to you. I see Patty is getting a few modeling shoots – my best to her as well.

With love,

Kate

“With love?” Patty asked.

“Hey, I didn’t ask for her to write to me,” I said.

“I know you didn’t,” she answered. “It just seems pretty presumptive.”

At that, she pulled a letter of subpoena out of her folio and handed it to me. “I have to go this weekend anyway,” she said. “Enjoy your time in Newcastle.”

I frowned. “Honey, if you need me with you, I can certainly find another weekend to go see Copper.”

“I saw his note,” she said. “He’s worried about his job and if you can help him, you ought to go. I’ll be fine. I’ve got friends in Venice from the consulate who will look after me.”

I didn’t like the thought. Yet, she insisted.

“Really, Rob,” she said, giving me a sweet kiss. “It’ll be fine. Have your boys’ weekend away and I’ll be back next week.”

# # #

I also found out today that eleven more Reading players are going to be gone for the next week, for international matches. The most exciting one, at least from my standpoint, is an international veteran.

Ferreira was called back into the Portugal squad by manager Felipão for the World Cup qualifier against Moldova scheduled for the weekend. Paolo was dropped from the squad in August 2007 and had failed to make the last five national squads.

I’m thrilled for him, and happier still that his recall was due to good form for my club. I called his mobile phone to offer congratulations and found the player in a great mood – to the surprise of no one.

“Go and play your heart out,” I said. “You’ve earned it.”

“I’m just glad to be playing again and glad to be considered,” he said. “Coming to Reading was a good move for me.”

“I’d like to think so,” I agreed. “It was good for the club, too. Have a great trip and I’ll see you in training next week.”

In addition to Ferreira, Ingimarsson and Gunnarsson are gone for Iceland, Oster will play for Wales, Hunt and Long will play for the Republic of Ireland, Lobont for Romania and Maloney for Scotland. It would have been a quiet week in training anyway, but now it’s going to be virtually silent.

# # #

[salkster2102]

Patty away for the week and Kate in the same city as you? You hinting something there