Page 14 of Playing the Field
‘I don’t suppose there’s any way we can get another look at him before we make our final decision?’ Bob questions.
I shake my head. ‘Not if we’re letting everyone know whether they’ve been successful tomorrow.’
‘We’ve got enough candidates to recruit a full set of eleven reserves,’ Marge points out. ‘So if we pick him and he doesn’t turn out to be up to the task then we could always switch things up later.’
‘Agreed,’ Dad says. ‘So while I understand the reservations, I’m comfortable with giving Jacob the opportunity to prove himself in our first team. And we’ll just make sure we pick our reserves carefully.’
‘Fair enough,’ Barbour says, and Bob also nods his acceptance, so Dad moves Jacob’s Post-it into the corresponding box on the chart and we turn our attention to the last position to be filled. Craig Campbell and Billy Holt are the two strikers we’ve narrowed it down to.
‘Before we get into it, there’s something I should probably mention,’ I tell them.
‘What’s that?’ Dad asks.
‘I had an email from Craig’s dad William this morning.’
‘I know William Campbell,’ Barbour says. ‘Lives in one of those fancy mansions up on the hill. Fingers in a lot of pies.’
‘Well, it seems he wants to stick a finger in this one too,’ I explain. ‘I wasn’t sure whether to bring this up, but according to his email, he strongly disapproves of his son’s current career and is willing to do whatever it takes to get him on to our football team. So he’s offering a significant investment in the club to help persuade us to make that happen.’
‘How much?’ Dad asks.
‘Ten grand.’
I watch his eyebrows fly up his forehead, in much the same way mine did when I first read the message, and Marge sucks in a deep breath. Cassie sits back in her chair and whistles.
‘I can’t even tell you how much I wanted to give him our bank details,’ I admit, because a sum this size would comfortably cover the deposit for our ground share and mean there was a lot less of a burden on Dad. ‘But we’d be no better than Hamcott Park if we start letting money influence our decisions and we’d be crucified by the press if they found out we’d accepted a bribe.’
‘It’s bloody tempting though,’ Marge agrees.
‘Ten grand,’ Bob repeats. ‘There’s a lot we could do with that.’
‘I know it would take the pressure off our finances,’ Dad says, ‘but aside from the ethical question, we wouldn’t want to feel indebted to him. If Campbell is trying to pressure us into bringing his son on board now, how do you think it will go if we ever want to sub him off, or if there’s a player he takes a disliking to?’
‘That’s true,’ Marge concedes. She shakes her head and sighs. ‘He must really hate Craig’s job.’
‘He’s a life model,’ I tell them. ‘I think his dad’s exact words were: “He gets his kit off at hen parties and lets people draw his penis.” He reckons half of Hamcott have probably seen his son naked.’
Marge’s eyes go wide. ‘I didn’t even know that was a job.’
‘I did write in my notes that he’s a bit on the cocky side,’ Cassie says.
When we’ve stopped laughing, Dad suggests we forget about both the money and Craig’s anatomy and take a vote to select our eleventh player.
‘Based on performance alone,’ he says, ‘raise your hand if you think we should offer the last spot to Billy.’
No one moves.
‘So we’re all agreed on Craig anyway?’ Dad checks.
‘He is pretty nifty with the ball,’ Cassie says.
‘Then, ladies and gentlemen, it looks as if Crawford United has passed another milestone and we’ve got ourselves a team.’
9
With Dad and Cassie back at work on Monday, it falls to me to contact the successful candidates– and for the most part it’s an absolute joy. My video calls are met with excitement, gratitude and delight, even when I’m honest with them about the fact that we haven’t got everything else in place just yet. Regardless, every one of the players is thrilled to be part of this little bit of footballing history we’re trying to create.
My favourite conversation is with Jacob, who’s probably the happiest of all to be chosen after missing the second tryouts. At seventeen, he’ll be the youngest player on the team, but what he lacks in experience I’m confident he makes up for in raw talent.
