bruno

Following my assault, the media had come up with tons of theories, about what the real intention of the attack was. One of the theories circulated in the press was that one of many radical Irish movements was trying to scare me away from football. It might sound preposterous and mind boggling, but no one really knew. However I myself didn’t rule that out. And since I had vented my disgust with the IRA, and movements like them, widely quite a few times, you’d never know if they were out to get me.

This day I had been scheduled to meet one of the most experienced safety experts in England, Gordon Malone. Both the club and I figured it was time for me to get some protection, maybe even a bodyguard, especially after the recent events.

PC You must be Mr Malone.

GM That’s correct.

PC Nice to meet you. Since you almost certainly already know who I am, lets get down to business. What do you have to offer me?

GM A businessman with hands-on approach; I like that… Well, we have various packages we can offer you, all from reinforcing your cars to a full-time protection squad. For you however, the best option probably is a full-time bodyguard and a more secure home-alarm system. We also should consider the option of mounting security cameras all around your resident, all to make you as protected as possible. How does this sound to you?

PC As you might understand it’s a bit overwhelming. I’ve never needed this before. Is this really necessary?

GM I know this is a new situation for you but if you want the truth to be told? Yes, this really is necessary. You can’t be too careful these days, especially not when you’re a high profile target such as yourself. I strongly recommend that…

PC Ok, I’ll guess it’s for the best then… How much will all this cost then? Surely it won’t come cheap… However, money isn’t an issue but I still want to know.

GM It’s all in these papers. Read them through careful and if you find the terms acceptable then just sign them. If you have any questions I’ll be just outside. I need to make a call.

As he leaves my office, I start to read the bunch of papers. It contained a ****load of unfamiliar, juridical terms, which made me feel like a total imbecile. But the deal looked alright, perhaps a bit expensive, almost over the top but I didn’t have the energy to complain. Soon after I had signed the last paper, Mr Malone entered the room again. After him a 300 pound massive giant followed.

GM Let me introduce you to Dave McIntyre. He’ll be your bodyguard from now on.

DI Nice to meet you Mr Campbell. It’ll be a pleasure working for you.

PC Nice to meet you too, Mr McIntyre.

I swallowed with a gulp, staggered by McIntyre’s size. He looked like Arnold Schwarznegger in his bodybuilding days. Fortunately for me, McIntyre was apparently under my command.

DI Just call me Dave, will you?

PC Ok, Dave it is.

However, I would always call him Mr McIntyre. I turned to Mr Malone

PC Mr Malone, do you have anything else to add?

GM Since you ask… Listen to Dave here, and do as he tells you. He knows what’s best for you.

PC Thanks for your advice but I’ll still make my own decisions. I don’t need a nanny telling me what to do.

retired_sander

AN excellent story keep up the good work

I myself am playing a game as leeds on CM4 and ihave finally managed to get rid of one of the loans

Thats the only thing i dont like about it is that if you make a profit you can't use the profit to pay of some of the loans. I am stuck with this £1 mill a month loan until 2011, yet i made a £12 mill profit over the last season.

Here you are signing loads of Star players were as i am stuck with ditching loads to keep the bill down, my current weekly wage target is £200k which would cover two of your players i iamagine

bruno

Thanks for your encouragment... And your right about the wage thing. Ronaldo and Totti earns £215,000 between them... Total wage bill: about £915,000 p/w

bruno

Meanwhile

They met at O’Connell’s, an Irish bar located in downtown New York. It had a good reputation, although not many “out of towners� knew about it. Mark Owens sat in the corner, smoking his cigar, with a glass of whiskey in front of him. He looked at the telly hanging from the ceiling over the bar; he took a gentle sip of his whiskey.

A man takes a seat a few barstools down, but moves closer and closer by the minute. And before you know it he’s sitting on the stool next to Owens. The man goes by the name Ashley O’Flanagan.

MO So you found it…

AO’F Yeah, after some difficulty. Couldn’t you have found an easier place to meet in?

MO Oh, that wouldn’t be much fun, would it?

AO’F Perhaps not…
Flanagan orders a pint

MO When did you arrive from England?

AO’F Yesterday.

MO And the flight went?
The reason that Owens asked Flanagan this was that he knew Flanagan couldn’t stand flying

AO’F Real funny… He, he, he… Just make fun of the bloke afraid of flying.

MO I’m sorry, I just couldn’t resist.
Owens was now laughing his brains out

AO’F I bet you couldn’t…

MO So, did anyone follow you here?

AO’F I don’t think so, no.

MO You don’t think so?… Ok, you don’t think so.
Owens looked cunningly at O’Flanagan

AO’F Ok, I know I wasn’t followed.

MO That’s better… We need to be careful with this, you know?

AO’F I know, I know...

MO So tell me... How did everything go? Any problems?

AO’F None, everything went just according to the plans; actually it went even better. I scared him just as you’d requested and now that dim-witted fecker thinks it’s some subdivision from IRA that has it in for him… Not that it’s surprising; he has been quite open about his feelings towards the IRA.

MO Well, this is just perfect for us… We’ll make him think that if he leaves Leeds United, everything will be fine. But we both know it won’t, don’t we?

AO’F Yes, that we do sir.

MO And you’re sure he doesn’t have a clue to what’s going on?

AO’F I’m positive. Would I ever mess up?

MO I remember the episode in Chicago 3 months a …

AO’F Ok, ok… Enough said. But this time I won’t feck it up. I assure you. I have everything under control. It’ll be a walk in the park from now on.

MO It’d better be. Because if you mess this up, then you’ll have a meeting with the grim reaper along with our friend Mr Campbell…

[This message was edited by Bruno on 10 March 2004 at 23:14.]

bruno

Middlesbrough vs. Leeds United – The Riverside Stadium
Premier League

Squad: Gianluigi Buffon; Carles Puyol, Ian Harte, Lúcio, Walter Samuel; Jermaine Pennant, Francesco Totti (c), Andrés D’Alessandro, Jermaine Jenas; Adriano, Ronaldo

Report: We had started the season very well; Leeds United had not started the season in a way like this for many years. And with 1 000 fans travelling with us to The Riverside Stadium we were in no doubt. However Middlesbrough put up to a fight at first. But Colin Cooper didn’t have his act together when he stuck out his leg to bring down Ronaldo in the penalty area. Ronaldo himself ran up and struck the penalty with ease.

10 minutes later Ronaldo scored another penalty after Adriano was pushed by Gareth Southgate. However the parody wasn’t completed until Barry Knight blew his whistle for another penalty. Ronaldo stepped up yet again, scoring a fine goal. Many home supporters now thought that the situation of getting away with one point, or possibly winning, was totally hopeless. With their work cut out, Middlesbrough set out on an attacking spree. And with two goals, from Juninho and Stuart Parnaby, within the next 10 minutes their hope of snatching a point from us was rejuvenated. The nerve had now been put back into the game.

But in the midst of the Middlesbrough attacks, Ronaldo got clean through on goal after he went by the challenge of Southgate. And as the real goal scorer he is, he had no troubles whatsoever of putting the match to an end, with an easy flick past Carlo Nash.

Middlesbrough 2: Juninho 60’, Parnaby 67’
Leeds 4: Ronaldo pen 26’, pen 34’, pen 59’, 86’

Attendance: 35,059

bruno

Sunlight comes through the soot on the windows, more brown than bright. The bar is dirty, more than a little run down. If there is ever a cook on duty, he's not here now. On the floor lies crushed pretzels and I can smell the odour of last night’s beer. I came to think about how I ended up in this dump, in the middle of the day.

Adrian Heath had called me earlier today, telling me he had a few details he wanted to go over with me. He left me in the dark over the actual details but I figured I had nothing to loose. More than a few hours of my life, that will say. He might even have something useful to say, for a change. If he hadn’t, well at least I had had an experience of a lifetime sitting in this dump.

As Adrian came in through the door I sat enjoying a glass of beer, perhaps enjoying is the wrong word; at least I drank it. At first Adrian didn’t see me, amazingly enough because it was only I in the bar at this time of the day except from Mr McIntyre sitting in one of the corners sipping on a diet coke. However Adrian spotted me after some time of eye-scrutinising the place. I waived him over. He sat down. The brown attaché case, which he had in his right hand, he put under the table. Before I had got the chance to ask what we were doing here, he shoved a paper in my face.

I took a good long look at the paper. I noticed most of the names on there were crossed over, guessing they were of no quality. Adrian insisted that signing Riccardo Montolivo was the right thing to do but I was still a bit reluctant. However I was finally persuaded, mainly because I couldn’t stand his nagging anymore. He also revealed that he had found another promising Italian based player; Labinot Harbuzi. Adrian spoke so very highly of the youngster that I decided we would try to sign him as well. However Adrian thought that Juventus would be unwilling of letting the player leave so soon after joining them; after all he had only been there for a few months. But we would not let anything stand in our way.

Later that same week it was time for the European Championship Quals Playoff matches. England faced a difficult task in beating Norway. But they produced a good display this afternoon to see off the challenge of Norway at Ullevål Stadion. England were seldom put under any significant pressure during the game and rarely needed to get out of second gear during their 2-1 victory. But the home game didn’t go according to plans. Norway won with 1-0 after a 90th minute goal from Morten Gamst Pedersen and Norway played real well, earning the victory. However England went through to the European Championships due to scoring 2 away goals. Bulgaria, Scotland, Holland and Wales also made it through from the playoffs.

Also the officials from Atalanta, negotiating the Riccardo Montolivo deal, and I came to agree of a sum of £2,4 million to be paid as soon as the player joins our squad when the transfer window opens again in January. Provided he wants to leave his native country; that isn’t at all sure. But our hopes of him doing so were high. The bid for Labinot Harbuzi was on the other hand rejected; he wasn’t available for any price.

bruno

Leeds United vs. Wolverhampton Wanderers – Elland Road
Premier League

Squad: Gianluigi Buffon; Carles Puyol, Ian Harte, Lúcio, Walter Samuel; James Milner, Francesco Totti (c), Andrés D’Alessandro, Seth Johnson; Adriano, Ronaldo

Report: Jermaine Jenas and Jermaine Pennant had both played for England in the playoff matches and Eddie Gray decided they needed a bit of a rest. Seth Johnson and James Milner replaced them with Johnson taking on the role as the defensive midfielder.

Wolverhampton started the match off guard and it lead to 1-0 for us already after 12 minutes. Francesco Totti picked up the loose ball far out on the right, somehow trickled his way through the compact defence before scoring a masterpiece chip over the stranded Matt Murray. Totti was also involved in 2-0 when he crossed the ball into an unmarked Adriano, who scored on the volley.

Never had I seen a worse organized defence than what the Wolverhampton defence showed in the second half. Every mistake was followed by another mistake that was followed by another, and so on. In the 68th minute Ronaldo got free in the penalty, way to easy if you ask me, and put away the ball behind Murray.

Not long after Andrés D’Alessandro extended our lead with a 40-yard pile driver, which went straight into the right corner. To finish off the goalscoring was substitute Alan Smith; after being on the pitch less than 2 minutes he forced the ball, Matt Murray and Jody Craddock went along with it, into the net.

With 14 matches played we have won 13 of them. The only loss in point came in the first competitive match of the season; the 1-1 draw with Man Utd on Old Trafford. Since then we have won every game we’ve played.

Leeds 5: Totti 12’, Adriano 44’, Ronaldo 68’, D’Alessandro 78’, Smith 90’
Wolves 0:

Attendance: 40,182

bruno

Riccardo Montolivo seemed like a nice lad when I first met him. Polite, not at all shy but he faced problems with the language barrier. He needed his agent to translate everything that was said during the negotiations this day. However we had no problems agreeing on the personal terms for him and I was satisfied with how the negotiations had gone. Only bad thing about the whole transfer deal was that it wouldn’t be completed until the 1st Januray 2004, due to the transfer window being closed at the moment.

Later on that evening I found myself sitting in the local pub. Of course my faithful companion Mr McIntyre sat a few chairs down; observing everything that was going on.

Man You’re that rich dude that bailed out Leeds, aren’t you?
The man was seemingly pÃ*shed

PC What if I am? Does that bother you?

Man No, not at all. I was quite pleased to see you, or not you, help us in these troublesome times. Though if you were he, I would buy you a drink.

PC Well in that case… No I’m not him. So get the feck away from me will you?
Once again I let my bad temper in control.

Man I’m so scared… What you going to do? Please don’t hurt me.
The man laughed; not knowing what was coming to him

PC I’ll let Mr McIntyre over there deal with you.

I snapped my fingers and that was that.

bruno

As I entered my office this cold and grey morning, Eddie Gray stood by the window looking out, philosophising.

EG Morning Mr Campbell.

PC Morning to you too Eddie.

EG Nice day, isn’t it?.

PC I guess so… You’re here early this morning. Is something the matter?

EG Not really. But I heard a fascinating rumour this morning.

PC Dare I ask what that might have been?

EG Riccardo Montolivo…

PC Eh, yeah… What about him?

EG What about him?… I think you know what I mean.

PC Actually, I don’t. But I have a feeling that you will tell me.

EG Perhaps…

I started to get irritated now

PC Eddie, if you’ve got something to tell me, then just come out and say it. But don’t leave me hanging in the dark. Have I done something to offend you?

EG Ok, I’ll be forthright with you. When did you decide to sign Montolivo? Cause I sure as héll didn’t know. Not until this morning when I heard it by one of the secretaries.

PC Oh, I’m sorry… There must be a misunderstanding here. I didn’t know I needed your permission when purchasing new players. Perhaps this is your club and not mine?

EG No, but...

PC What did you say?

EG No…

PC Great… Perhaps I haven’t made it clear to you, and everyone else for that matter, that this is my club. And since I own this fecking club, I do as I like with it. Capisc’?

EG Yeah…

PC Furthermore, if you’re not pleased with my management of the club, well tough ****! You’ll just have to put up with it cause I’m not going anywhere.

EG All I ask from you is that you to confer with me before you go out and buy anymore players. I would want a saying in it to you know.

PC Yeah, yeah… Perhaps I made a mistake not conferring with you; that’s my bad. But I don’t appreciate you coming into my office, and then pester me when I arrive. You’d better not do this again cause if you do… Well then you might have to look elsewhere for employment.

EG I understand.

PC Do you really?

EG Yeah, you’ve made it perfectly clear…

PC Excellent… Now, get the héll out of my office.

bruno

Leeds United vs. Blackburn Rovers – Elland Road
Premier League – Sunday 30th November 2003

Squad: Gianluigi Buffon; Carles Puyol, Ian Harte, Lúcio, Walter Samuel; Jermaine Pennant, Francesco Totti (c), Andrés D’Alessandro, Jermaine Jenas; Adriano, Ronaldo

Jermaine Jenas and Jermaine Pennant were picked up again in the starting XI, not that the match should bring any difficulties, but Eddie wanted them getting match training again. The team were very confident before the match.

Perhaps too confident as Blackburn started the match very well; creating a lot of chances. We were saved only by the marvellous goalkeeping from Gianluigi Buffon. Even when Andy Todd was sent off in the 25th minute, after a dreadful behaviour when pushing Andrés D’Alessandro, Blackburn kept their spirit up.

Lorenzo Amoruso was about to get clean through on goal but Lúcio clipped his feet and the referee had no other choice than to blow for a penalty. Steven Reid ran up to take the penalty and he set Gigi Buffon the wrong way; scoring an easy goal for the Rovers. Not exactly the start we had hoped for but we would not let this bring us down.

Just a few minutes into the second half Adriano and Ronaldo wound up the Blackburn defence with Ronaldo ending the attack with a nice blast past Brad Friedel. And with that goal we got our attack working; Jermaine Pennant hit a 30 yard ball past Friedel after the American miscalculated the ball trajectory. 10 minutes later Friedel had to get the ball out from the net once again after a powerful header from Adriano, leaving him keeper with no chance.

Leeds 3: Ronaldo 47’, Pennant 51’, Adriano 61’
Blackburn 1: Reid pen 34’, (Todd sent off 25’)

Attendance: 40,181