[Greenbeard]

Chapter XII – ‘The Final Destination’

Bienvenido a Madrid

Things were becoming chaotic, I was receiving offers to join clubs all of the world and I was sure that the Semi-Final would lead to yet another proposition to join a club. We’d travelled to Johannesburg which was the host city for both the Final and the Semi-Final match between Spain and Mexico, the very same match I’d been invited to watch by the Chairman of Los Merengues, otherwise known as Real Madrid.
It was all quite obvious and very well planned; I’d meet up with him outside the Stadium before entering to the VIP Box, where we’d be watching the game. To be honest I was so confident that my hunch of what the whole thing was about, that I’d already decided what to answer him.
Before the old man even had a chance to ask me the question, I told him the answer was yes hoping that I hadn’t made a fool out of myself being very arrogant, Caldron praised me for for-seeing what he had in mind, and that I was the right man for the job having loads of talent. It turned out he’d been to St. Mary’s Stadium a few times during my era at Southampton, he’d seen the vast changes that had happened there, and was very pleased to have the knowledge that, I’d be interested in taking a chance with Real Madrid.

Before we knew it, the first half of the match had gone past, without us knowing it didn’t matter that much as nothing had happened more or less during the first opening forty-five minutes. It was also 0-0 between England and Germany in their Semi-Final encounter, but a brief text from Nebojsa told me England were outclassing Germany on every front, and that things were looking very good for the lads, even though both Zac and Scott where sitting on the bench. We continued to talk about Real Madrid, and we’d already started to negotiate a possible contract when suddenly the other side of the Stadium erupted into a sky of Green papers bits, a loud thump and what I guess was some very nasty words in Spanish could be heard by Caldron beside me, but he didn’t need to. Only seconds after the kick-off Spain would equalise when Cani hit a long ball from the right to Reyes who netted with a excellent volley into the far top right corner, Reyes had once played for Real Madrid during a season on loan from Arsenal. But he couldn’t achieve what the Madrid manager wanted from him, and was sent back to Arsenal, which sold him the following season to Inter Milan. Flano a young Spanish wing defender would take to the field only minutes after the equalising goal, it was his first international match for Spain and it would be a game he’d forever dream of at night time. Both Semi-Final matches would go to extra-time I’d just received a text from Nebojsa telling me Sinclair was on the field and Ledley King had just been dismissed, and that it was still 0-0. When Caldron stood up shouting loudly in Spanish, I looked up quickly to see Mexico advance with Castillo hitting a low cross from the left, towards Luduena who seemed to be off-side, the Mexican striker got a foot to it but was heading straight towards debutant Flano who lunged foot forwards against the shot to clear the ball, unluckily for Flano and the Spaniards the ball took a late dip and bounced up brushing the knee of Flano deflecting the ball into the other end of the goal, leaving Casillas with no chance to reach the ball. Caldron didn’t seem to be to disappointed as we left the stadium, Spain had lost 2-1 thanks to the late own goal, and England had made it trough to the final, thanks to an amazing volley from outside the penalty box by Scott Sinclair only two minutes the dreaded penalties. Caldron told me that he expected that the whole negotiating thing would be finished soon, and that I’d should get ready for the big move to Madrid, before the official announcement.

I decided walk the fifteen minutes back to the hotel in which we were staying at, instead of taking a Taxi as I tried to convince myself that what had just happened was actually not a dream, I was within short time to be announced the new manager at Real Madrid. To make things even better Scott Sinclair called be on his way out of the Stadium, he sounded very happy and thanked me for helping him, taking him up from Chelsea and now the World Cup Final. I must say it’s an honour to manage such a player. To be honest I didn’t know very much about Real Madrid’s current state, I’d have to return home and do a bit of research during the remaining five days before the exciting encounter between England and Mexico in the World Cup Final.

[The Skyler]

This is fantastic GB! :thup:

Whats next? Los Norling?

[Greenbeard]

Chapter XIII – 'A State of High Honour'

Every Boy's Dream

The boy to the right of me was devastated, tears coming out of his eyes like water falling down a waterfall. To the left the same as the boy, but instead of tears of sadness was tears of joy. The mother of Giovanni dos Santos must have been the proudest and happiest mother on earth, having seen her son score the deceive goal in the World Cup Final, to give his nation their first ever World Cup glory. What goal it was, it was Giovanni himself who created the opportunity from the start playing an amazing pass out to Guardado just inside the England penalty box, who crossed a knee high ball towards the penalty spot, where Giovanni hit the ball with an acrobatically kick, which even in Kong-fu standards would be classified as World class, as it hit the back of the net with a thickening thump, before the crowd went wild as Mexico were now in the lead 2-0.
I could see Scott Sinclair lying on the green turf in which he’d hoped all of his dreams would come true but were brutally crushed by current teammate Giovanni. There wasn’t much Scott could of done, Peter didn’t put him on before the last five minutes, and that was enough time for the Sinclair to score one goal back by putting Walcott’s cross between the legs of Ochoa. Mexico had been given the early lead thanks to a miss clearance by Stewart Downing who cleared the ball into his own net, to his and the rest of the nations dismay.

We left the stadium, as we were in a hurry to take the next flight out to Madrid to finalise the finishing touches of the contract with Real Madrid, in time for tomorrow’s announcement. I sent a quick text to Scott and Zac in consolation for their defeat, whilst sending a text to Giovanni for his immense performance during the final. Before we were rushed away in the Taxi to the nearest airport where surprisingly Caldron had already organized a private plane to take us out to Madrid.

[Greenbeard]

Chapter XIII – 'A State of High Honour'

The Passion of Madrid

We’d checked in last night at one of the finest hotels in the entire Madrid, Chairman Caldron told us we were welcome to stay here as long as we wanted to, and that the club would pay all the financial expenses.
It was during this morning’s press conference that I was revealed as the new manager, of Real Madrid.
The applauds never seemed to stop when Caldron proudly presented me, the entire room was filled with journalists and photographers, with the odd lucky supporter which had sneaked pass the security team, for the special occasion. Fabio Capello had made three transfer during the end of the previous season, by signing Alexander Frei, Julien Sablè and Silva from Valencia for a transfer fee of 4,100,000 pounds, I couldn’t really understand why because in my opinion they weren’t good enough to take a place in the starting eleven.
The Press had a go at me of course, asking how it felt to have just recently sold the famous Raúl whom I was desperate to land, with Southampton. ‘Of course it’s sad to lose such a player of Raúl’s quality, but I’m pretty sure he’ll have a nice time at Southampton, and if he doesn’t settle in he’s always welcome back.’ I replied which seemed to be a well-chosen answer, which was rewarded with a massive round of applauds. What they didn’t know was that Paul Le Guen had already had a bust up with Raúl, and that he was willing to loan him out to us for the rest of the season, and that Raúl himself was actually already at this very moment on a plane back to Madrid. They asked me if I knew anything in Spanish and daft as I’m, I said the only thing I could remember Caldron saying, or at least I thought he said something like that, ‘El Árbitro es un cabron’ they all laughed not taking it seriously, Caldron himself was in tears of laughter, turned out I’d said the referee is a b-astard in Spanish, what a fabulous way to present yourself to the fans I thought.

Thankfully the rest of the press conference was in English, as I presented the pre-season fixtures a little tour in Spain and a match against Italian club Sampdoria. Last night had also been the draw of the Champions League Qualification Round Three, in which we were drawn to the Fins, HJK.
I was completely shocked when it was time to leave the conference, and return to the Real Madrid training ground, as the streets were packed with Real Madrid fans, I’m talking thousands and thousands had come to see their new manager. They were overjoyed and chanting my surname, Norling, Norling …
With roughly three weeks before the pre-season started it was time to settle down and bring in some new talents and make a change in the Staff Team. Caldron had only approached me and not Nebojsa, but after a meeting with clubs board the current Assistant Manager’s were sacked giving room for me to bring in Nebojsa as my Assistant manager, on a 11,000 pounds a week deal, less that half of what the club was giving me, but that didn’t seem to bother him a bit.

[Fola]

bloody amazin mate :thup:

You hav to deffinately be the best writer ever on here :thup:

Also not only is the story amazin but the graphics are superb too :yes:

Well Done and Keep It Up

[Greenbeard]

Chapter XIII – 'A State of High Honour'

Pre-Season Becomes Breakfast

A few days would pass before Nebojsa confronted me with some very interesting news; back during my third season at Southampton I’d been very interested in a particular goalkeeper whilst travelling with Giovanni dos Santos to his first national cap for Mexico. It was indeed the promising Franciso Guilllermo Ochoa that had caught my attention; through out the season I tried to negotiate a transfer fee with his then current club America (MEX), but they wanted a over ten million and I couldn’t afford to splash out that kind of money.
Ochoa would finally move to Barcelona during the previous season, in which we had another encounter during the Semi-Finals of the Champions League, but being a foreign in a league, which won’t let you have more then three foreign during the same match. This had seemed to be come a trouble at Barcelona having already signed a new Brazilian for the next season, the young had been put aside, it was here Nebojsa game into the picture with the useful information that the young Mexican internationals contract was expiring during the summer and that we’d be able to sign in more or less free. It wasn’t long before I was back in the press conference room presenting two new player’s Raúl who had returned to the club on a loan deal and Ochoa from archrivals Barcelona for only 2,500,00 pounds.

Our rivals made yet another big mistake, when I approached them for one of my favourite players which had been at Southampton for the past two years on a loan deal. Yes your right, his name is Giovanni dos Santos the lad which had scored the deceive goal in the World Cup Final, who also went on to be named in the World Cup Dream Team, in a four man midfield containing names as Ronaldinho, Adu and the Spaniard Cani from Villarreal. Giovanni himself was overjoyed by the chance to play under my management again, and I’m pretty sure he helped out securing a deal, which saw Giovanni come to us for a 15,500,000-pound deal, which in my opinion was a splendid deal for a player of dos Santos quality. My wife fell extremely sick the day before our first pre-season match, and with the permission of the clubs board, I was given the day of leaving Nebojsa in charge, he was up for the task wining 5-0 against German Mainz, as man of the match Robinho scored a double. Whilst the team was travelling back to Madrid, I’d secured yet another two players for the club and yet again two very familiar people to the club. I’d been in contact with Paul Le Guen, and he confirmed that the two players I’d sign from Southampton weren’t in his plans, which was a delighting news for me as I signed for the second time during my management career both David Beckham and Italian bad boy Marco Materazzi. David was overjoyed being given the chance to rejoin his former club, at the age of thirty-five whilst Marco understood that he was more of a backup for any possible defence crisis. Bradley Wright-Phillips was also on the plane from Heathrow airport on a week’s trail having been released by Southampton, who were making massive changes.

Beckham, Wright-Phillips and Materazzi would all star in the match the following day against Sampdoria, a match that ended 3-0 in favour thanks to two goals from Ruud the man and an easy tap in for Bradley. He’d also score in the next match, which ended 6-0 to Madrid in a game which Giovanni, Beckham and Materazzi all got a goal a piece. Sadly for Bradley it would be his final game, with his weeks trail over at Real Madrid I decided not to give him a contract having already a few excellent strikers. But as one leaves two other game, but this time the media hadn’t a clue who they were, way back in time whilst I was still at AIK in Sweden, we played this team from Uppsala, IK Sirius the same club that I signed Sebastian Lindroth from. Anyway there was another two youngster which had impressed me a lot during the match, and I had a scout looking at them during my stay at Southampton, and things were looking very good for them both, and with the club not wanting a lot f money for them I signed both Ian Ekstrand and Eldin Podrug for a minimal fee of 50,000 pounds. Only three days after signing for Real Madrid, Podrug would score his first goal in the white shirt whilst Ekstrand played the entire ninety minutes in a game that we trashed opponents Granda 7-0 with Ruud scoring an amazing four goals. Podrug would continue his fine form in the last match against Ferrol where both himself and Ian played the full ninety minutes, as Eldin scored his second goal, and with the Champions League match just around the bend the two youngsters had both shown capacity to play in such matches, would I really play them in front of players like Cicinho and Ruud, had I become mental? The club didn’t seem to bother that much having scored twenty-five goals and only letting in a single goal in the five pre-match season games, the fans and the board where ecstatic, and there were high hopes that the haunting demon that had seen us finish five years in a row in second place would finally end.


---
Thanks for the comments Hadfield17, Tanel and The Skyler.
www.greenbeard.deviantart.com

[Tanel]

Great stuff. Good to see you buying Marco back... Banners keep on being fabulous! Dos Santos should be a huge signing aswell as Ochoa.

[Aaron Sinclair]

Quite possibly the best FM Story i have ever read, loved the gfx and the detail, most certainly Hall of Fame quality!

[Greenbeard]

Thanks for the comments lads

[Greenbeard]

Chapter XIII – 'A State of High Honour'

Real Madrid Club de Fútbol

My first ever-competitive match with Real Madrid was one I’d never forget, before hand the media had received news that there were problems between the new manager of the club and Brazilian international Cicinho. With only the newly signed Swedish international defender Ian Ekstrand who’d been caped with the Under-17’s the possibility to start the game against HJK in Real Madrid’s opening match of the Champions League qualification, one which they were expected to pass with ease.
The media for once knew about the truth, as I took yet another risk in managerial career as Ian Ekstrand ran onto the pitch for the kick-off, with Cicinho no where to be seen, the Brazilian hadn’t even made the 16-man team for the game. Another big surprise for the fans was that Eldin Podrug the second player to be signed from IK Sirius during the summer transfer window was on the bench with the likes of Swiss international Alexandre Frei having to watch the game from the stands. The familiar sound of the referee’s whistle shrieking noise was the signal to the beginning of what would be the second biggest win in Real Madrid’s history. Only forty seconds into the game and the clashing noise of Raúl’s shot hitting the crossbar echoed around the stadium, before Ruud van Nistelrooy hit the rebound in the far corner, giving us the lead fifty-five seconds into the game.
The rampage was to continue just thirteen minutes later when Robinho took on the HJK defence on his own, before unselfishly passing the ball back to an incoming Ruud who shot the ball into the opposite corner from his previous goal to give us a 2-0 lead. In a period of ten minutes after Ruud’s second goal he’d double his tally whilst Robinho scored one, with Real Madrid looking to track a new club record. As the lads walked into the tunnel for the half-time interval the score was already 7-0, with Ruud already scoring five goals. Ekstrand had been faultless during the first-half with HJK not managing to barley get into the Real Madrid half. The second half continued the same was as the first half had ended, with Ruud notching up another two goals adding to his final amazing seven goals during the match tally. Giovanni dos Santos, Silva and Beckham got one each during the second half, as Eldin Podrug replaced captain Raúl with minutes left of the game.

The return in Finland wasn’t to be the same demolition as the first leg, but two goals from Ruud and a single goal from David was enough to see Madrid trough to the group stage of the Champions league having one the qualification round on an aggregate score of 14-0! Amazingly it seemed like I’d already achieved god status at the Bernabéu stadium, after the best pre-season in the clubs history. Sadly the opening match in the league wasn’t as pleasing as the previous matches, with Raúl opening the scoreline after fifteen minutes, opponents Bilbao equalised just minutes into the second half. The famous Madrid captain would score yet another goal ten minutes later, only to be substituted before Athletic Bilbao continued the match by being replaced by Frei. Artiz Aduriz killed the Madrid glory by scoring a late final minute header as we shared the point in the first match.
The following day before the transfer window closed the final piece of the puzzle was added when Norwegian right defender Alexander Gabrielsen joined from Aston Villa a 1,4 million fee, many would expect the Norwegian to go into the side directly for the next match, but no Ekstrand continued to have my faith as we won away from home against Espanyol 1-0, thanks to Raúl who scored the only goal of the game.
Back to wining streak and we’d crush Sevilla 3-0, before travelling to Scotland to face Celtic in the Champions League Group stage, 3-0 goals from dos Santos, Ruud and Frei. I’d take a big risk for the following match against Racing Club, hoping that it would pay off, with all the injury problems the club was having.

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www.greenbeard.deviantart.com

This post has been edited by Greenbeard: 10 July 2007 - 10:36 AM

[Tanel]

You must have very sh*t support in Bernabeu if a cross-bar hit echoes around a 80k seater stadium.

Though great story! Cannot wait for more. Was long pause since last update.

[Greenbeard]

The crowd were silenced and then they went awwwh and then YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

there for during that fraction of a second the cross-bar echo could be heard around the stadium.

[Greenbeard]

Tanel, on Jul 10 2007, 05:28 PM, said:

You must have very sh*t support in Bernabeu if a cross-bar hit echoes around a 80k seater stadium.

Though great story! Cannot wait for more. Was long pause since last update.

Sadly mate but I'm off to France tomarrow morning and there won't be any possible chance of an update until the 27th of July. I'm very sorry, but I hope everyone whos reading this story will continue to read it even though the long break might put you off, whilst I'm gone please do give any possible feedback and suggestions on what to make it better etc.

[Greenbeard]

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