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Even now as Will looked back on the past year or so, it seemed like something out of a Hollywood comedy. How could it be that some Rookie could be handed the reigns of a Championship football team? The beginnings were innocent enough, just a normal Wednesday evening visiting his friends Lee and Alex. Sitting back on the sofa he watched his the pair battling out in a game of Pro Evolution Soccer on the PS2. The door buzzer sounded and as the other two were still preoccupied with the game he got up to answer it.

"That'll be Dave", announced Lee as he punched the buttons on the controller in a vain attempt to intercept a pass, "he said he'd probably come along tonight".

William had only met David Livermore a few times before but the Millwall midfielder been a good friend of Lee and Alex for some time.

"Hiya, whose winning?", said Dave as he walked in.

"Alex, as usual", replied Will with a grin as he turned back to the game, "how's things?".

"Oh, don't ask! It's been a nightmare! Dennis Wise quiting as Manager, the chairman almost coming to blows with the IT guy before firing him and all sorts of administrative screw-ups in the head office, quite an eventful few days".

"Ouch! Sounds bad."

"Yeah, we need to find a new manager fast but I heard that there is no money to bring in anyone decent. Apparently, the new computer system that was installed a few weeks back is to blame. Us players don't really pay attention to what goes on in the offices, but even we had to sit through this presentation on how this new system would 'revolutionize' facilities and bring every aspect of the club 'into the technological forefront'."

Dave glanced over as the computer game ended and Alex jumped up and cheered in triumph. "Load of rubbish if you ask me, I don't think a single day has gone by lately without some kind catastrophe. No doubt that's why the IT Manager was sent packing."

"Maybe I should apply for that", joked Will. "If I know about anything it's computers and it's not like it could be worse than my current job".

Dave laughed as he picked up the console controllers and threw one to Will, "I wouldn't recommend it, but if you're serious then I'll put in a good word for you. Now take this and let's play."

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The striker situation had still not changed by the time the following Monday rolled round and Fulham's coach pulled up into the car park. Will stood at the window watching his 'Hospitality Taskforce' (a name they'd chosen themselves) welcome the Fulham team and showing them to the VIP reception area. It was a gorgeous day and the sun was out in full force yet he was stuck in his office trying to finalise his strategy for the game. He turned back to the scattering of paper on his desk with line-ups and formations scribbled all over them. A Premiership side as the opening friendly was a tough challenge, especially with players still far from match fitness and a loss would not be anything to be ashamed of.

As it turned out, both sides assembled on the pitch in mirroring formation - employing a 4-1-2-2-1 formation. It was Richie Foran who grabbed the opening goal on 17th minute. A terrible back-pass by Fulham left the keeper way out of position and the striker easily dispossessed him of the ball and slotted it into the open net. Millwall then gifted Fulham a goal in return 3 minutes into the second half as one of the U18 defenders launched himself at an advancing Ahmed Elrich. There was no doubting an obvious penalty and Darren Pratley was certainly not going to pass up the opportunity.

The game ended at 1:1 and Will walked over to shake hands with Chris Coleman. Neither could argue about the result and despite being the opening friendly it was still difficult to really take any positives from either team's performances.

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Pacing from left to right, Will was back in his office going over the game in his head.

"It was only a friendly and the guys are still not fit", he said to himself, "they need a few more matches to get back into the swing of things".

It was bad enough that he was actually talking out loud to himself, but it's not like he could hear himself thinking over that stupid tinny music that was following him around.... Oh!

Will reached into his pocket, pulled out his mobile phone. Taking a quick look at the display he pushed the button to answer the call, "Hi Brian, what's up?"

" ...... "

"It went OK, I suppose. Not really encouraging in any area and the only goals scored were because of defensive errors"

" ...... "

"Yeah, you've told me that before, twice. But he's an Arsenal player so obviously you'd think he was amazing."

" ..... "

"OK! OK! You win, I'll go check him out. See ya mate!"

Returning to his laptop, he quickly fired off an email to Robert Turner, the scout he'd assigned to the Premiership. Brian had constantly been singing the praises of Arturo Lupoli, a 19 year old Italian 'wonderkid'. He did want another striker so wouldn't hurt to have a look and at least it would shut Brian up for a while.

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Only three days had passed and he was sitting in the club coach on the way to Milton Keynes. In his hands he held a three page fax from Robert Turner regarding his latest scouting assignment and it had certainly proved promising reading so far. The player didn't quite fit the 'Target Man' role he was hoping for, but more than made up for that with some superb talent that justified his £3.4 million price tag. He'd gone on loan to Burnley last season and clearly hadn't done anything of note else Will, himself, might have noticed when playing against them. However, he would certainly provide an exciting option and so he reached for his laptop emailed a loan offer to Arsenal.

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Deja-vu for Will; Once more his formation had been mirrored by his opposition and once more he had found his team taking the early lead. At least this goal had come from some decent football; Livermore lofting over a perfect cross for Cogan to tap home. Livermore was again the architect as he slotted a thru-ball into the path of Foran who coolly nudged the ball between the legs of the advancing keeper. Great stuff!

It was not to last tho as despite continuing to push forward, all Millwall's further attacks were thwarted and on the 45th minute a quick counter-attack by MK Dons saw a long cross whipped in and Symes out-jumping two defenders to head the ball into the net - 2-1 at half time. Both teams came out blazing for the second half and the 1378 supporters that had shown up were treated to some exciting football. Neither team could get lucky it seemed and as time drew to a close it looked like a nice win for Millwall. That was until the 93rd minute when MK Dons threw 5 men forward and a long ball from their own half had found Millwall lacking in numbers. Kamara, as the unmarked man, received the pass in his stride and fired a low drive past the Millwall keeper.

It was a good performance tho and so he congratulated his players on the ride home. Hopefully, the mistakes could be worked out with some extra training and he made a mental note to ask the defensive coaches to push a little bit harder this season.

Good news followed tho as he opened up his email. Arsenal had accepted his offer and if the player agreed then he would have use of the striker till the end of the season. He leaned back in the chair and smiled. Now all he had to do was find a way of explaining away the extra £1,500 a week in wages to the Chairman.

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The game had finished 5-2. Will's Czech Republic side had been easily out-gunned by Dave's England team. "Perhaps I should go back to playing as Argentina?", Will grinned as he put down his controller and the two shook hands.

"Nah, you played well", replied Dave, noticeably happier after the brief distraction from his day. "We get loads of practice after training and on the coach between games. You might give one or two of the other lads a run for their money tho, maybe you'll get a chance to beat them if we can get you that IT job."

He'd faxed off his CV from work the very next day. He didn't expect anything but as talk of a new job had given him the motivation to update the stupid thing, he thought he might as well send it off. His job really was boring him and there was no place for him to get promoted to within the company. The people were nice enough but the pay was shockingly bad.

He was certainly not expecting a call on his mobile 30 minutes later and even less an interview arranged for later that evening. 'They really ARE desperate!', he thought to himself as he trudged over to unjam the Purchasing Team's printer.

The interview that evening had been short and to the point. Basically, the former head of IT had somehow persuaded the chairman at the time to invest a LOT of money in a brand new computer system to take over every other system they had and ultimately allow them to down-size (such a lovely word) the head-count in the offices while increasing efficiency 500%. That was the theory and the practice had held true at first. It took almost 2 weeks to realise that something was not quite right and after 3 weeks the whole office was in chaos.

"... And that's when I took over as Chairman", said the interviewer as they made their way to the server room.

The man had introduced himself as Jeff Burnige, a self-confessed Millwall fan who wanted to make a success of the club. "First thing I did when I came in was to tell that no-good idiot to scrap this system and bring back the old one. I was livid when he told me it was impossible. You must understand that I am under a lot of pressure and don't normally get so angry."

Will nodded, politely.

"Anyway, after he was gone I made some calls to various contractors. Obviously, I had to be careful as we couldn't let the press and especially the fans know just how much we'd spent on this system." He sighed as he surveyed the banks of computers humming away. "I could tell that none of them wanted to touch the system and the prices they quoted us were way out of our budget. We just simply don't have the funds anymore."

Turning away from the machines to face Will he continued, "Basically, we need someone to straighten out this mess and you have the qualifications. I can only offer you a third of what the last guy was on but if you want it the job is yours."

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It was another warm sunny day and Will was standing at the side of the training pitch watching his latest signing in a practice match.

"Wow! That lad really does have some talent. Should definitely increase our potency upfront, don't ya think?" He turned to face Maurizio Guido who was standing next to him and the Italian coach blinked back at him, English not being his first language.

"Oh, umm ... ". Will searched for some simpler words. "Lupoli", he said, pointing at the player. "Very good. Score many goals." He added a thumbs up sign for good measure.

The Italian seemed to understand this and nodded in agreement, reeling off a string of foreign words that Will failed to comprehend.

'Mental note:', Will thought to himself. 'Find someone to teach these guys English.'

On second thoughts that was quite a selfish thing. After all, he couldn't exactly speak anything except his native tongue.

'And find someone to teach me .... ', he paused for a second as he thought about the players and staff he had. '.... Italian or Portuguese or .... whatever it is those lads from Belgium speak.'

There! That's better.

He turned back to the action on the pitch in time to see Lupoli curl a super shot into the far corner of the net. Guido was the loudest with the applause and the youngster gave him a little salute before running back to continue the game. The two had clearly been getting on well in the few days of training and Guido seemed immensely proud to have a fellow country-man under his wing. He saw that as a good sign that he'd see some dedicated performances from the player during his season-long stay.

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"Looking for a new job?", asked Lisa as she placed the mug of coffee on the table, noticing the web page Will was browsing.

Will looked up at the pretty young waitress and grinned. "No, no, I'm just trying to find some decent translators to help out at the club. Not having much luck so far."

A thought suddenly occurred to him, "Hey, you must be able to speak a second language surely? Portuguese? Italian? French? ... Even German could be useful."

Lisa giggled, "Sorry, I know a few phrases in French but that's about it."

"Oh well, was worth a try", Will grinned.

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" .... I still think they're the wrong way round!"

"No, you see this way we get the easy morale-boosting game first. Then we follow up with a tough game, fresh and fired-up from the win and with every chance of getting a result. Even a draw would work. We can't fail to start the season positively that way."

"But what if we get get hammered in the next game? That will dent the confidence of the lads right before the season starts. We got lucky against Fulham because their fitness was low, but in the week before the first game of the season Wigan are going to be match-fit and raring to go."

"Trust me, it'll work." David Tuttle stood up and made his way to the front of the coach before pausing and turning back with a grin on his face, "Just make sure you don't lose this one!".

Will was still not entirely convinced but it was too late now and he needed to focus on the task at hand. He followed after his Assistant and stepped out onto the grounds of Worksop Town FC.

He had only just sat down on the dugout bench when Lupoli netted his first. Linking up with Beaumont the two confused the defence and allowed the young Italian space to fire a cheeky shot across the face of goal and into the far corner of the net, the keeper completely rooted to the spot. The two teamed up again to increase the lead 2 minutes later. This time the striker threading the thru-ball to Beaumont who took the ball wide to draw out the keeper before firing it back into the same corner that Lupoli had picked. A third from Fangueiro and two more from Lupoli had made it 5-0 in the first 20 minutes. Fortunately for Worksop, the match settled down after that and only a 72nd minute goal from substitute Foran spoilt their second half.

Millwall's visit had attracted 2,900 spectators which was close to full capacity of the little ground and Will was very pleased to see them all clapping both teams as they walked from the pitch. It was good to see they hadn't been disheartened by the defeat. He walked across and firmly shook the hand of Ronnie Glavin, the Worksop Manager and wished him well in the Conference North.

"You outplayed us today, but I promise you won't get so lucky if we meet you in the Cup"

"I don't doubt that for a second", replied Will as the two men grinned and headed back to their respective teams.

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Three days later Millwall played host to Wigan. Will was hoping that his assistant manager was right, even so he really wanted to avoid losing. He was pleased to give De Vlieger his first start between the posts and hoped his lack of match fitness would not be an issue. As it turned out the keeper was barely tested in a rather drab and very unremarkable 0-0 draw.

"Not a very convincing performance", sighed Will turning to look at David sitting next to him in the dugout.

"But we didn't lose.", was the reply.