Starting Eleven (2 page)

‘You think the other players will be better than us?’ I asked, changing the subject to something
I
wanted to talk about.

‘
No!
’ said Jason.

‘How do you know?’ I added, pleased that they seemed so sure.

‘Because we’re
too
good,’ replied Abs.

‘When we play at the park we’re always the best ones there.’

‘My dad showed me this Brazilian lad on YouTube,’ said Chris. ‘They call him “The Seal”. He was running with the ball on his head.’

‘
No way!
’ the rest of us said together.

‘It’s true. I’ll show you if you like. He was wicked,’ replied Chris, before stuffing some more nuts into his mouth and crunching on them noisily.

‘I don’t think
he’s
going to be there,’ said Abs. ‘Or Wayne Rooney.’

Jason groaned. ‘Trust you to bring a United player into it,’ he said.

‘We were talking about the best,’ Abs told him. ‘So I mentioned
the
best.’

I told Abs and Jason to shut up.

‘We aren’t just going to walk into the team, are we?’ I added.

‘Prob’ly,’ replied Chris.

‘But we have to show the coach what we can do,’ I insisted.

Abs shrugged. ‘We will,’ he said, acting confident.

‘Yeah – and what if you don’t make it?’ I asked him, starting to sound like a skipping CD.

‘P.M.A.,’ he replied.

‘Huh?’ asked Jason.

‘Positive Mental Attitude,’ said Abs. ‘My dad says that’s what you need to succeed. We have to think like winners to be winners. That’s how I know for certain that I’ll play for Man U when I’m older.’

After school I walked home with Chris. When we got to my house, I saw my dad’s car on the drive. He’d finished work early, just like he’d promised me.

‘My dad’s going to drive us to the trial,’ I said to Chris.

‘Nice one,’ he replied. ‘I’ll just run home and get my kit.’

Chris lives around the corner and he was back in ten minutes, with a sports bag hanging from his shoulders. I was standing by the car with my dad when he arrived.

‘Hello, Mr Singh,’ Chris said to my dad.

‘Hey, Chris,’ replied my dad with a smile.

‘Did you remember your new boots?’ I asked my best mate.

‘Yeah – my mum had my stuff ready for me. Are we picking up Abs and Jason too?’

‘They’re coming with Jason’s mum,’ my dad told him.

‘I’m nervous,’ I admitted.

My dad ruffled my hair. ‘You’ll be fine. Just do your best – you can’t do any more than that.’

I nodded.

‘Right – let’s go!’ Dad said. He looked more excited than me and Chris.

The drive to the youth club took ten minutes.
It
was on the edge of Stoneygate Park and the football pitch was behind the clubhouse. We met up with Jason and Abs in the car park.

‘Hi, Mrs Partridge,’ I said to Jason’s mum.

‘Hello, Dal,’ she replied.

‘Are you staying to watch us?’ I added.

‘Of course I am,’ she beamed. ‘You’ll be great – all of you.’

I nodded, looking around the car park for the competition. There were loads of cars and lots of other parents. And more importantly there were lots of other boys too.

I nudged Chris. ‘Have you seen how many players there are?’ I said.

‘Yeah – I didn’t think there’d be so many,’ he told me.

I looked around again and my stomach started to do funny things. I was so nervous. But I held it in and took a few deep breaths. We could only do our best, I told myself, repeating what my dad had said.

*

There were fifty lads in total, according to Abs. He’d counted them. The coach, Mr Turner, came over. He was friendly looking but with a serious face. He split us into five groups for the warm-up. I was in the same group as Abs, but Chris and Jason were separate. We ran and did short sprints and then worked through a course of ladders and cones. Very quickly a few lads had to stop because they weren’t fit enough and that made Abs laugh.

‘We’re going to breeze through this,’ he whispered to me as we lined up to take another run through the ladders. ‘Half of them are tired already and we haven’t even started playing yet.’

Mr Turner blew his whistle and told us to stop. ‘Stay in your groups and get two balls for each group,’ he said, nodding towards a pile of footballs. ‘I want to see
what
your juggling skills are like.’

Abs ran over to the balls and picked up two. He brought them back to our group and gave one to a lad called Steven.

‘Split your group into two and form a circle each,’ instructed Turner. ‘I want to see the ball in the air. Two touches each. One to control the pass and one to lay it off. I do not want to see the ball touch the floor!’

We started doing what he’d asked. Straight away the ball hit the ground. We tried again and still we couldn’t get it right. One boy, Dipesh, couldn’t control it for toffee. Every time he got the ball it flew off him at weird angles.

‘Come on!’ shouted Turner. ‘This is the easy bit!’

I decided to concentrate better. I took the ball and juggled it from foot to foot and then sent it looping into the air for Abs. Abs took it on his left thigh and then cushioned a
pass
to Steven. Steven did exactly the same as Abs and the ball came back to me. I took it on my right foot and then passed to Dipesh. The ball came off his shin and shot off out of our circle.

‘Dipesh!’ shouted Steven and the fifth lad, Gurinder.

‘Soz,’ replied Dipesh, going red in the face.

Mr Turner blew his whistle five minutes later.

‘That was horrible!’ he told us. ‘I asked you to do the simplest thing and half of you look like you’ve got lead shoes on. And you want me to put you in my team? I’d rather coach the girls!’

I looked at Abs and swallowed.

‘This is going to be
really
hard,’ I said.

Chapter 3

THE TRAINING LASTED
for another twenty minutes. Then it was time for a game. Mr Turner split us up. He made two groups of twenty because ten boys had already given up. I smiled as he put Abs, Jason and Chris into the same team as me. We also had Steven, Gurinder and Dipesh on our side. And a group of lads who we hadn’t met yet.

‘We should go and introduce ourselves,’ I suggested to Chris.

‘Yeah – it’ll be good for team spirit,’
replied
Abs. ‘Man U’s manager is always saying how important team spirit is.’

‘You sitting on the bench would be good,’ joked Jason.

‘Shut up, Captain Flowerpants,’ said Abs.

I looked at Chris and we burst into laughter. Jason went red. Captain Flowerpants was Jason’s
other
nickname after Jughead.

‘That’s an old joke,’ he protested.

‘Still funny though,’ said Abs.

The joke about Captain Flowerpants had started the year before. We’d been doing PE at school and Jason forgot his shorts. Our teacher, Mr Warner, made Jason do PE in his pants. And his pants had little swirls on them that looked like flowers. We’d been ribbing him about it ever since.

I went over to the other boys and started to introduce myself and the others. As I was doing that another coach, Mr James, walked
over
to us. He’d been helping Mr Turner with the warm-up but hadn’t spoken to us yet. He looked and sounded like someone you wouldn’t mess with.

‘OK, lads,’ he said in a northern accent. ‘Let’s get you organized . . .’

He split us up into defence, midfield and attack, with Gurinder as the goalkeeper. That was Gurinder’s position and he even had his own brand-new gloves with him.

‘Wicked,’ he replied, smiling.

Mr James randomly picked out eleven of us to start the game, but neither me nor Chris were in the team.

‘
Sir!
’ moaned Chris.

‘Relax, son,’ replied Mr James, ‘you’ll get your turn. It’s rolling substitutes, which means that you’ll be called off and sent on throughout the game. This is just the
first
trial. If you are asked to come back on Thursday, we’ll sort out who plays where
then
. For today, just do your best . . .’

I looked at Chris, who smiled. He was obviously over his moan.

‘Not everyone will make the squad,’ added Mr James, ‘but those of you who do should know that our first game is this Saturday morning . . .’

This time I smiled. A big, beaming smile. I couldn’t believe the first game was so soon! It made me even more determined to play for the Reds. There was no way I wasn’t going to play come Saturday. No way.

The game kicked off five minutes later and that was when we saw Adam for the first time. He was on the opposing side and he was
huge
– tall and wide. He looked fifteen years old, not ten, and I gulped.

‘
Wow!
’ said Chris in amazement when he saw Adam. ‘He’s a giant!’

‘So?’ said Abs, getting all cocky. ‘He might be big, but can he play?’

‘We’re about to find out,’ said Jason. ‘All I know is, if he tries to tackle me I’m jumping out of the way!’

The lad called Adam walked slowly out onto the pitch and took up his position in defence. He’d be facing Jason and Abs, who’d both been given strikers’ roles. He looked weird. Like his arms and legs were too big and he couldn’t control them properly.

‘
See?
’ said Abs. ‘He’s like a big bear, Dal. We’ll just pass the ball
around
him . . .’

Mr Turner started the game as me and Chris watched from the touchline.

‘Keep stretching, lads,’ Mr James warned us. ‘You could be on any minute . . .’

I grinned as the action started. The other team passed the ball to each other, and Steven, who’d warmed up with us, tried
really
hard to get the ball back. But the rest of our team didn’t do anything. They just let the other team play! Very quickly they were
bearing
down on our goal and it was the big lad, Adam, who had the ball. I looked across at the defence and groaned when I saw Dipesh and another lad called Danny playing there. Both of them had been rubbish during the warm-up and now they looked scared. I glanced over at Abs, who was running back to help the defence. His face was red and his arms were all over the place as he ran.

He was shouting: ‘STOP HIM!’

Steven caught up with Adam and managed to get him to run wide of the goal but then Adam passed the ball to one of his team-mates. The lad who got the ball touched it past Dipesh and then put it through Danny’s legs. Nutmegged! As Gurinder, our goalkeeper, came rushing off his line, the lad pushed it past him too, and into the back of an empty goal. Our entire team groaned and the other team cheered.

It was 1–0!

The ball went back to the centre circle, and Mr Turner, who was refereeing the game, blew on his whistle to restart the match.

‘Get organized, lads!’ Mr James shouted from the touchline. ‘Four-four-two, like before!’

Steven got the ball in midfield and passed it on to Jason, who dribbled it past two of their players. Then he pushed it forward to Abs. Adam was right behind Abs but didn’t make a tackle. Abs faked a turn to his left but instead swivelled and went right, leaving Adam standing.

Abs looked up and let go a powerful shot which sailed just over the bar. Another groan went up.