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“I know you’re in there, Hannah. Come on. Open the ****ing door.” My summer had been spent in much this way, the neighbours had long since realised they were best just to ignore me, to let me get on with my begging. I’d found out Hannah’s address not long after I made the move down to London – if she’d wanted it kept secret she should perhaps have gone ex-directory – and at some point in pretty much every day since I had tried to get her to acknowledge me.
“Open the ****ing door.” Still nothing. “Come on. How many times do I have to say I’m sorry?” A window cracked open. Bølløcks, it was a guy. “**** off.”
“Who are you?”
“The dalai ****ing lama.”
“Impressive.”
“Look, she doesn’t want to talk to you. I would have thought that was pretty clear but evidently you need it spelling out. She’s not interested. Now **** off.”
Needless to say, I hadn’t had much luck, and as the summer wore on my visits became less frequent, my hours in the office longer. I had inherited a good squad at Arsenal, but there were still plenty of ways to make it better and plenty of money to do it with.
Jens Lehmann (to Crystal Palace – free transfer) – Too old for the top of the game now, Jens it seemed have proved himself a liability in the ultimately unsuccessful campaign the previous season and what little transfer fee could be commanded was forgone in order to get his astronomical wages off the budget.
Matteo Ferrari (to Blackburn - £7,500,000) – A player I had not wanted to part with, the previous management had obviously deemed the fee Blackburn had to pay as worthy of Matteo’s services given that it was a clause written into his contract. I was in the process of renegotiating with the Italian international when Blackburn’s bid came in, and the chance to join the champions proved too big a pull for him.
Matthieu Flamini (to Middlesbrough - £1,000,000) – Clearly not good enough for a side like Arsenal, particularly given the presence of Gilberto in the holding role he coveted, and my intention to bring in further cover for the same role. Matthieu and his sulking Gallic face were sent packing to the north-east where they belonged.
Robin van Persie (to Feyenoord - £5,000,000) – Another with a fee written into his contract, I wasn’t overly concerned with the loss of Robin as he had proven himself only to be a part-time player and there were much better prospects on my shortlist; the only trouble now was to bring them in.
Adrian Mutu (to Barcelona - £28,000,000) – Even for a player of Adrian’s calibre, I couldn’t refuse the pound signs that flashed before my eyes when we received Barca’s bid. He had netted twenty-two times during the previous season at the Emirates Stadium, but with Thierry Henry still on the books and Arturo Lupoli progressing well through the ranks, I thought the money rather than the player would end up being that bit more useful.
Players In
Lassana Diarra (from Chelsea - £3,000,000) – Lassana had played over a hundred games for me at Nottingham Forest and was a player I knew well and trusted implicitly. They may not have liked him at Stamford Bridge, but for whatever reason that was, I was more than happy to take him onto our books as I was sure he would provide wonderful competition to drive Gilberto and Torsten Frings on.
Rune Pedersen(from Nottingham Forest - £3,500,000) – Exploiting a clause I myself had inserted in Rune’s contract at Forest, his was my first transfer as Arsenal boss and the one I had absolutely most confidence in. In the one hundred and forty-nine games he played, he kept eighty-six clean sheets and conceded only eighty-nine goals. How the twenty-seven year old was not a full international I could not understand, but he was definitely my #1.
Ivan Pelizzoli (from Reggina - £5,750,000) – Our lack of goalkeeping options did, however, mean that I had to bring in a second face, and that face was in the shape of former Roma and single Italy cap holder Pelizzoli. Once regarded as the best young ‘keeper on the continent, he seemed to have wandered in his career of late, but still only twenty-six, he had his best years to come, of that I was sure.
Kevin Kuranyi (from Schalke 04 - £7,000,000) – Adrian Mutu’s sale to Barcelona had left us a little light in numbers up front, and with thirty-two caps already amassed for Germany at the age of twenty-five, Kuranyi possessed the experience I was looking for to lead – alongside Henry – the development of a number of young strikers who were trying to make their way at the club. Add to that a distinct talent for finding the back of the net, and I was well pleased to have Kev on board.
Tomas Hübschman (from Southampton - £6,750,000) – Another to fill a summer sale void, Tomas was brought in to be a direct replacement for Blackburn bound Matteo Ferrari. A member of the Premiership Dream XI in both of the previous two seasons, Tomas was clearly a talented player, and alongside his fellow centre backs Touré, Heinze and Campbell, I was sure he could do a fantastic job.
Squad
Goalkeepers: Rune Pedersen; Ivan Pelizzoil; Manuel Almunia Defenders: Kolo Touré (DR/C); Tomas Hübschman (DR/C); Gabriel Heinze (DL/C); Sol Campbell (DC); Alan Hutton (D/DMR); Lauren (D/DMR); Gaël Clichy (D/DML); Ashley Cole (D/DML) Midfielders: Lassana Diarra (DMC); Torsten Frings (DMC); Gilberto (DMC); Cesc Fabregas (MC); Freddie Ljungberg (AMR/L); Robert Pires (AMR/L); Sebastian Deisler (AMR/C); Wayne Routledge (AMR/C) Strikers: Kevin Kuranyi (SC); Thierry Henry (FL/C); José Antonio Reyes (FL/C); Arturo Lupoli (SC); Anthony Stokes (SC)
Author's Note: This is, for the unknowledgable, the second (of what I intent to be three) part of my tale concerning the career of young manager, Stephen Beckett. Part 1 (Whisky and Women) can be found here and stretches to nine pages which, if you know my reputation, is epic proportions. I suggest you do read it, it is rather good.
If there is a chairman in English football at the moment who has perplexed his club's fans quite as much as Arsenal's Peter Hill-Wood, he must be one seriously messed up fella. In two of the past three seasons, the head honcho at the Emirates Stadium has fired his manager with the side embroiled in a battle for the league title. Perhaps it's that his standards are so high that not having wrapped up the title with five games to go is written into contracts as a sackable offence, or perhaps he just has an itchier trigger finger than Hearts madman Vladimir Romanov, whatever the reason it would be a brave man that next stepped into the Gunners' dugout.
And it is that reason which has seen Stephen Beckett, unheralded and untested, suddenly finds himself forced into the spotlight with no experience of knowing how to deal with it. Beckett's career so far, an entertaining tale of success with a far superior side and a wealthy chairman.........
"What do you want, Stephen?" I nearly spat my drink all over the table in front of me. I'd finally managed to speak to Hannah the previous morning, cornering her at work and demanding that she met me for a drink, but I hadn't for the first moment expected that she'd turn up.
"Good to see you, Hannah."
"Yeah, cut the cr*p. What do you want?"
"Fancy a drink? Vodka and Coke, right?"
"Just tell me what you want."
"To say I'm sorry."
"You've said that a million times over the phone, shouted it at me from the street, sent me cards saying you're sorry. I get the message."
"look, what I did was sh*tty, I know we can never go back to the way we were, but I just wanted you to know that I truly am sorry. And I want us to be able to be friends." She may not have smiled, but the scowl slowly disappeared off her face and she sat down at the table. It was a start at least.
--
Pre-season was three games before we faced Ferencváros in the qualyfying rounds of the Champions League, and it began with a visit from French side Marseille. With Channel Five picking up the TV rights and over 18,000 in the stands, I was eager that we put on a decent show, but like any friendly - and a mid-week one at that - the game meandered along with the bare minimum of interest from the players involved. We did end up with the win, the only goal of the game set up for Lauren to sweep home from the penalty spot by Fabregas' darting run into the penalty area; a moment which was about the only one of true energy in the entire affair.
We looked a little more lively five days later when Portuguese champions Benfica made their trip to the Emirates Stadium, and a quickfire start had us a goal in front inside two minutes, José Reyes firing in from the edge of the box. Reyes grabbed another just three minutes into the second half, and then set up Kevin Kuranyi, who had begun both games on the bench, to score his first goal in an Arsenal shirt.
Our final warm-up game took us north of the border to face Rangers at Ibrox. Playing what I expected to be my starting line-up in Hungary, we looked a very strong outfit. Two up inside ten minutes (Deisler and Henry), we could have gone on to post almost double figures, but settled for just one more, Henry's second on the half hour mark. The game came at a cost though, Reyes suffering a broken toe in a challenge with Chris Burke late in the second half; an injury which would keep him out for the best part of two months.
“We have with us now former West Ham defender Tony Gale to talk through the prospects for this season. Tony, it’s probably best to start with everyone’s biggest talking point of the close-season, Arsenal and their new manager. A number of bookies have them as favourites for the title, do you think they can live up to that tag?”
“They’ll struggle. I mean, it’s nice to see a young English manager being given a shot at a top club, but to be drafted straight in with no experience of top flight football at all, I think they’ll struggle.”
Everyone and his dog, it seemed, was convinced that I was set to fall flat on my face. The bookies who had us as favourites – Oddschecker, for instance, had us 7-4 – could only be going on the strength of our squad, as even I was beginning to believe that I wasn’t ready for the challenges presented at the top of the game.
Our chances of getting off to a good start in my first competitive game were suffering blows left right and centre and first Gilberto was ruled out – and for a month with a broken wrist – and then Heinze caught an elbow from Hübschman in training which would see him miss three weeks with a fractured cheekbone. I thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse, but that was until about ninety minutes before kick-off when Thierry Henry twisted a knee in warm-up, meaning youngster Ryan Smith, who had been brought along just for the experience, was now needed on the bench.
Ferencváros, on the other hand, were at absolutely full strength, and when news broke that Henry was out, you could sense a real optimism amongst their supporters. Lupoli started alongside Kuranyi up front but neither got even a sniff of a chance in the first twenty minutes. Indeed, we had only Rune Pedersen to thank that we weren’t behind, he had pulled off two superb saves with his feet when it seemed certain that the deadlock would be broken.
It was us, however, who got on the scoresheet first, our first chance of the match falling to Arturo Lupoli’s feet in the twenty-fifth minute after he was played in be Cesc Fabregas. The diminutive Italian took one touch to steady himself, and then from ten yards slid the ball underneath Ferencváros ‘keeper Gábor Lengyel to give us the lead.
The rest of the game was, to be honest, pretty dull. Lupoli was withdrawn to a second striker role as we desperately tried to hang on to what we had, and it wasn’t until youngster Ryan Smith was introduced with just ten minutes left that we had any spark at all. It was a big spark when it came though, Kuranyi playing Smith clear and the kid marking his debut with a delightful chip over Lengyel to seal our victory.
My Sunday paper did not make enjoyable reading on the day after the opening match of the season. Sometimes as a manager you have to hold your hands up and admit you got something wrong, and it was clearly one of those times for me against Middlesbrough. With ten minutes remaining, I replaced the superb Tomas Hübschman with the cumbersome, ageing Sol Campbell, and within two minutes the lumbering centre back hauled down Kris Commons in the penalty area, giving former Gunner Matthew Upson the chance to steal two points from us, something he duly did, sending the Riverside crowd home pretty happy in the process.
To be fair, we should have been out of sight by then given the amount of possession we had, but clear cut chances had been difficult to fashion, only Arturo Lupoli’s third minute strike from David Bentley’s through ball separated the sides. It was perhaps the venom with which some of the fans and media reacted to the result that surprised me most. Though losing points in your first game as title favourites is hardly the smartest thing to do, I didn’t think it deserved the vitriol that was hurled in my direction on any number of phone-in shows on the evening of the game, but it made me determined that we would bag three points in our next outing.
By that time, Sunderland’s Portuguese winger Vieirinha had joined the Emirates Stadium ranks. Only twenty-one years of age – and having cost the Black Cats just £2,500,000 eighteen months previously – the twice capped star set me back some £12,000,000, but his arrival did mean that I would rarely, if ever, have to even consider playing Wayne Routledge.
My third league game in charge of Arsenal saw us face Bolton at the Emirates Stadium, and everyone was well aware just how many problems they had caused us over the years. I couldn’t fathom this time being the same, especially after the first ten minutes in which we rained four shots on Jussi Jääskeläinen’s goal, but the Bolton ‘keeper would not be beaten, and no matter what we threw at him, we could just not find a way past. In the end, we were lucky to escape with a point as Alan Hutton headed a cross onto the inside of his own post and watched in despair as the ball rolled onto the line, only for Hübschman to come to his rescue and thump the ball back into Bolton’s half of the pitch.
All Sorted for E's and Whizz 
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