Page 14 of Playing the Game

“Who do you have in mind, Boss?” Ewen asked.

Steven joined Javier in the centre.

“It’s all decided,” Steven said. “Noah with Goran.”

They nodded at each other awkwardly.

“Tito and Ewen.”

They both groaned.

A bit of forced proximity might do them so good. They hadn’t got off to the best of starts after all.

“And finally Jonas and Adam.”

No exemption then?

Jonas sidled up to him.

“Hey, buddy,” he whispered.

“Right,” Javier said, clapping his hands. “I want to see some fire.”

Adam turned to Jonas.

“You heard the man,” he said. “Time to show us what you’re made of.”

With a nod, Jonas ran onto the pitch. Adam watched for a second. The potential for Jonas, Udo and Adam to control most of the games was huge. But there was something else about this man.

If he was honest, Adam was unsettled by him. It had been a long time since he’d felt that.

Oh well. They were buddies now. There was no avoiding this man. Even if he wanted to.

FOUR

JONAS

The next two days passed in a flurry of activity. The PR guy, Howard Clooney, had proposed they do a press conference. Thankfully Javier had blocked it, which came as a relief. The scrutiny would be strong enough without courting it.

It took time to settle into a team. Especially one like Brockton that had experienced such a turbulent end to their previous season.

They drove through the Lancashire town they’d decided to call home. The high street of takeaways and vape shops came as a marked contrast to Canonbury, a charming town on the south coast of England.

The nastiness between the two teams was odd. Usually rival teams were local to each other. Maybe it was the north-south divide. Or it might date back to a certain game.

Either way, Jonas would find it doubly hard being accepted in this town.

He sat in the back of Noah’s Range Rover. Tito had claimed the front seat before they even got in. They were going to view the apartments that the club had rented for them.

“I can’t wait to move in,” Tito declared. “I hate having most of my stuff in storage.”

“Agreed,” Noah replied.

Jonas wasn’t the type to accumulate things. He did miss his bed. It had cost enough.

“Are you nervous about Sunday?” Jonas asked.

“No chance,” Tito replied. “I can’t bloody wait.”