thejoshster
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‘Sir?’
Brenden opened his eyes and began to rub them he had dozen off, he re-gained his composure
‘Sorry what?’
‘Were going to land in the next half hour can I get you anything?’
‘No, thanks for telling’ he sat up and re-adjusted his tie this was not going to be a fun meeting he thought as he turned his head to look outside the window. Nothing but blue sky he didn’t particularly enjoy flying it just seemed so unnatural, having said he was insatiably comfortable credit to John and the boys they take care of their staff.
Stepping outside of the airport he was greeted by a chauffeur holding up a sign saying Rodgers. Brenden thought this might attract too much attention and people might realise who he was however he needn’t be worried it was the usa and this was an airport nobody really gave a **** at this time people far too busy looking for their own. ‘Sir, may I take your bag?’ the chauffer asked yes thank you said Brenden.
Brenden got out his tablet and began re-reading his notes he had told the press a week before that he was 150% certain of keeping his job, he lied he hadn’t achieved any of the targets that were set to him at the start of the season albeit there were various circumstances but make no mistake this was not going to be a fun meeting.
‘we’re here sir’
Thank you Brenden said getting out of the car and accepting his bag offered to him. For your trouble slipping him a $20 dollar note. ‘Thank you sir’.
Brenden took a few moments to prepare he was a little jet-lagged but John had set this time and date for the end of the season review months ago and just because the flight got delayed he wasn’t going to re-schedule.
‘Mr Rodgers?’ asked by a pretty young receptionist. ‘Yes’ Mr Henry asks for your apologies as his meeting has run late he will meet you shortly in conference room 67B you’ll need these (handing him a pass) in the meantime can I get you anything? Just a water would be great thank you, ‘of course in the meantime please take a seat’ he nodded and gave a brief smile as he sat down in the leather chair opposite him.
It was only 20minutes but it felt like hours to Brenden he was becoming more stressed it had been a rough year both for footballing and non-footballing reasons. ‘Mr Rodgers, he’s ready for you’ Brenden nodded and began to make his way to the conference room.
‘Brenden welcome how was your flight? Please take a seat’ John Henry said offering him a handshake he was accompanied by Ian ayre and two other men that looked familiar but whose name escapes me as well as a young man who was typing furiously on his laptop. ‘It was fine thank you very conformable’
‘Im glad Im glad’ John stopped he was irritated by the sound of typing ‘he gave the boy a fierce look’ he caught his eye and stopped.
‘Well then to business’ he said taking a seat so Brenden tell me how do you perceive how the season has gone?
‘Well I think we’ve done as well as expected given the circumstances obviously Danny’s injury was a big loss to the team as well as young flanno’
John nodded ‘Ok let’s go over the targets and see where we are at’
‘Target one was to win a trophy which you failed’
‘Okay but we did manage an extended run to the semi-finals’
‘Where we lost… to Aston villa a much inferior team to our own’
‘I’m afraid one of the disadvantages of having a younger team is that the occasion can over awe them and that was the case over the two legs’
‘Hmmm John was bemused ok well then target two was to make the knockout stages of the champions league which you failed to meet’
‘okay, we had a hard group make no mistake and at the start of the season we were still integrating all the new lads and getting them used to the system not to mention between the priority of the league I was reluctant to play a first team squad for all 6 of the games, realistically we were never going to beat madrid’
‘and basel?’
‘basel beat Chelsea a couple of years ago, there a good team but yes that was a match we could have won’
‘instead you got 1 point out of the two games and also failed to get 6 points off Ludogoretes’
‘yes’
‘ok so not a good a start so far target 3 qualify for the champions league well we all know what happened there sub targets of that was to achieve more than 61 points what you achieved in your first year while playing attacking, possession football’
‘Okay , well we did beat a points tally of 2012 and I do implement attacking free-flowing football we scored over 50 goals and would have been far greater if daniel wasn’t injured for nearly all of the season’
‘I understand how daniel Sturridge is a big issue for the squad however this is why we have a squad of players after all we added depth this summer to many positions across the board to help in circumstances like this Sturridge was bought for £12m and Balotelli 16m not to mention you wanted lambert we brought him in as well as retaining onto borini explain to me how between them they scored a total of 8 goals the same as stevie?’
‘ well with respect john we tried to move on borini and couldn’t as such he wasn’t utilised in the squad and only contributed one goal, lambert is a good technically gifted player he’s a nine and a half but he cant play week in and week out he was only meant to be an impact player so the amount of league goals he would contribute was always going to be a small amount’
‘and Mario?’
Brenden sighs ‘mario, Mario was a gamble we knew that he wasn’t my choice we all wanted sanchez and it didn’t work out Mario was a gamble and he just couldn’t deliver’
‘I know Mario wasn’t our first choice but you signed off on him Brenden and believed that you could get the best out of him where others failed ultimately this is another poor signing and a disappointment as I assume you want him sold now and that’s another big wage earner we might struggle in getting rid of’
‘okay’
‘ lets review the signings we’ve got your trio lovern, lambert and Lallana for a combined total of 50m dave tell us how have they performed?’
Dave fallows chief scout cleared his throat he didn’t want to throw Brenden under the bus but’ well quite honestly not great, lovern was absolutely terrible for the majority of the season however his form has picked up but he hasn’t exactly solved our defensive problems and it might need to be a position we will have to address again in the summer. Lambert has looked inept when he has played which in fairness isn’t very option but he’s too slow for our system and scored a total of 3 goals in all competitions and Lallana has shown potential at times but again has suffered from injuries but hasn’t lived up to his price tag’
‘brenden would you agree with that statement?’
‘dejan was poor to begin with, no doubt as he adjusted to our system and club but I’ve shown I can get the best out of him I believe he will improve and kick on and be a solid defender for next season, lambert gives me a different option and was relatively cheap I don’t mind if we decide to sell, adam has been unlucky with injures and also didn’t start the season great but he has shown his quality and I expect him to do so throughout next season’
‘but Brenden I thought the point of buying experienced premier league players was so that we didn’t have this problem with these players after all now we have a 27 year old who we paid good money for and has effectively had a wasted season along with 24 year 20m lovern this is unacceptable’
‘ok’
Let’s go over the rest of the summer signings Moreno, can, manquillo, markovic and origin dave how have they done weve already covered Mario of course
‘ well origin has been on loan at lille of course but hasn’t performed well he only scored 3 goals the coach says he was distracted by the thought of playing for Liverpool. Manquillo, Moreno and markovic have shown their potential in certain games but clearly are far from the finished article and will need more time before we can really judge if they have a role in the first team for future years. Can has been a brilliant signing showing his versatility and quality throughout the season.
‘Brenden anything to add?’
‘ok, well I agree with dave these are young lads that have taken time to adapt to England, the premier league and what it means to play for Liverpool I do believe they can have futures for liverpool’
‘Right then so Mario has been a poor signing as has lambert, lovern, Lallana and while showing potential markovic looks off the pace for 20m and manquillo and Moreno the jury is still out on’
‘so over a 100 MILLION was spent and we have one good signing’ this is just unacceptable right this transfer committee is being disbanded it clearly doesn’t work. Brenden smiled and Brenden your not getting any say over transfers were putting in what we should of done in the first place a sporting director’
‘John that’s not necessary and im not working with a sporting director ’
John raised his hand to stop him
‘my minds made up in fact Brenden John sighed while I appreciate everything you’ve done for me and this club… were going have to take things in a different direction’.
‘okay I think that might be for the best;
‘thanks for coming Brenden, Ian go with him sort out his settlement for his contract
‘yes sir’
‘good luck Brenden’ john said standing to meet him and shaking his hand
‘o-k, cheers for the opportunity’
Brenden and Ian exits.
Silence enters for a moment…
John: ‘who came up with the idea of signing can? Was that you dave?’
‘no john’
‘then who?’
*ahem* john and Dave turn their heads to the young man who had blended into the background throughout the meeting
‘that would be sir’ I said
‘Remind me who are you exactly?’
‘My name is Josh Steer, I am an economist(well getting there 2 years left on my degree but whatever money ball ftw) I often do contract work for Liverpool I suggested can to matt who is on the committee and they ran with it’
‘you came up with the idea of signing of can?’
‘yes sir’
‘John seemed sceptical prove it’
I began to show him my report on emre can labelling his strengths weaknesses and various statistic’s on my tablet. It was dated June 2013
‘you found him in 2013?’
‘yes sir, I have many reports on others players if you like to see?’
‘show me’
I handed him my tablet, showing thousands of saved reports of various players across the world each of them containing data about the player, his skills and his availability.
‘this … this is impressive Dave take a look’
‘this attention to detail of your reports are better than most of what my scouts produce’
John: ‘Josh how would you like to be our new sporting director
‘Actually sir I had a different idea in mind’
‘like what?’
‘ I want to become manager’
‘Manager! Do do you even have any coaching badges!?! Any footballing experience!?!’
‘I don’t however I do believe that I am the perfect manager for the job. You are correct in what you say I have no footballing experience at any level and I do not hold any coaching badges however I understand your philosophy and what you want to accomplish, I love football and Liverpool f.c, I watch the games, watch the players watch the club, I can identify targets reduce the wage bill and be successful.
John was in complete shock this kid had come out of nowhere and he was impressive but he wasn’t convinced ‘explain to me why I should hire a head coach without any football badges?’
‘you don’t you hire a manager, I do not need football badges currently as while I will learn and train on the job I will simply tell my coaches what I want them to do on a daily basis thus there is no need for me to actually to have coaching badges if you will I will be a ‘suit’ manager (xD). I can implement a philosophy through changes and additions to the staff, and I can pick the team based on fitness, form and quality as well as giving youngsters the opportunities to play when they show commitment and quality and as you have seen I can buy smart targets that have a high re-sale value on low wages. I can build a legacy at Liverpool achieving success and maximising profit, I will be the cheapest, most loyal and dedicated employee who will ever have I can run the club if you’ll let me’
I knew I was convincing him he was clearly tired of paying excessive compensation to both players and managers.
‘you can build a team through developing youngsters, buying young players on low wages, playing attacking football and whilst retaining our status as only the 5th highest salary in the league?’
‘Not only can I do this, I can do it far cheaper than anyone else out there and while the fans will take time to be won over, you lowering ticket prices will do just that’
‘im not lowering ticket prices’
‘you are if you want me for the job’
‘I didn’t say I did’
‘yea you did that’s why I’m still here talking to you and not going home like Brenden set up a press conference I’ll sign whatever contract you put in front of me I’ve got work to do’
John looked at dave he shrugged, john thought for several moments
‘this is a risk, Josh but given I’ve just paid 10million to get rid of Brenden and I expect his staff I really don’t want to pay that again for a new manager…’
‘I’ll be the last manager you ever hire and if you want to sack me at the end of the season I’ll go for free just give me a season’
John begins to take out his phone and starts dialling
‘who are you calling?’ I ask
‘Im setting up a press conference congrats you’ve got the job’
I smile finally I have dreamt of this moment for many years (press conference joke)
(Hoped you enjoyed reading this, apologies if there’s any grammar/spelling mistakes!)
Brenden opened his eyes and began to rub them he had dozen off, he re-gained his composure
‘Sorry what?’
‘Were going to land in the next half hour can I get you anything?’
‘No, thanks for telling’ he sat up and re-adjusted his tie this was not going to be a fun meeting he thought as he turned his head to look outside the window. Nothing but blue sky he didn’t particularly enjoy flying it just seemed so unnatural, having said he was insatiably comfortable credit to John and the boys they take care of their staff.
Stepping outside of the airport he was greeted by a chauffeur holding up a sign saying Rodgers. Brenden thought this might attract too much attention and people might realise who he was however he needn’t be worried it was the usa and this was an airport nobody really gave a **** at this time people far too busy looking for their own. ‘Sir, may I take your bag?’ the chauffer asked yes thank you said Brenden.
Brenden got out his tablet and began re-reading his notes he had told the press a week before that he was 150% certain of keeping his job, he lied he hadn’t achieved any of the targets that were set to him at the start of the season albeit there were various circumstances but make no mistake this was not going to be a fun meeting.
‘we’re here sir’
Thank you Brenden said getting out of the car and accepting his bag offered to him. For your trouble slipping him a $20 dollar note. ‘Thank you sir’.
Brenden took a few moments to prepare he was a little jet-lagged but John had set this time and date for the end of the season review months ago and just because the flight got delayed he wasn’t going to re-schedule.
‘Mr Rodgers?’ asked by a pretty young receptionist. ‘Yes’ Mr Henry asks for your apologies as his meeting has run late he will meet you shortly in conference room 67B you’ll need these (handing him a pass) in the meantime can I get you anything? Just a water would be great thank you, ‘of course in the meantime please take a seat’ he nodded and gave a brief smile as he sat down in the leather chair opposite him.
It was only 20minutes but it felt like hours to Brenden he was becoming more stressed it had been a rough year both for footballing and non-footballing reasons. ‘Mr Rodgers, he’s ready for you’ Brenden nodded and began to make his way to the conference room.
‘Brenden welcome how was your flight? Please take a seat’ John Henry said offering him a handshake he was accompanied by Ian ayre and two other men that looked familiar but whose name escapes me as well as a young man who was typing furiously on his laptop. ‘It was fine thank you very conformable’
‘Im glad Im glad’ John stopped he was irritated by the sound of typing ‘he gave the boy a fierce look’ he caught his eye and stopped.
‘Well then to business’ he said taking a seat so Brenden tell me how do you perceive how the season has gone?
‘Well I think we’ve done as well as expected given the circumstances obviously Danny’s injury was a big loss to the team as well as young flanno’
John nodded ‘Ok let’s go over the targets and see where we are at’
‘Target one was to win a trophy which you failed’
‘Okay but we did manage an extended run to the semi-finals’
‘Where we lost… to Aston villa a much inferior team to our own’
‘I’m afraid one of the disadvantages of having a younger team is that the occasion can over awe them and that was the case over the two legs’
‘Hmmm John was bemused ok well then target two was to make the knockout stages of the champions league which you failed to meet’
‘okay, we had a hard group make no mistake and at the start of the season we were still integrating all the new lads and getting them used to the system not to mention between the priority of the league I was reluctant to play a first team squad for all 6 of the games, realistically we were never going to beat madrid’
‘and basel?’
‘basel beat Chelsea a couple of years ago, there a good team but yes that was a match we could have won’
‘instead you got 1 point out of the two games and also failed to get 6 points off Ludogoretes’
‘yes’
‘ok so not a good a start so far target 3 qualify for the champions league well we all know what happened there sub targets of that was to achieve more than 61 points what you achieved in your first year while playing attacking, possession football’
‘Okay , well we did beat a points tally of 2012 and I do implement attacking free-flowing football we scored over 50 goals and would have been far greater if daniel wasn’t injured for nearly all of the season’
‘I understand how daniel Sturridge is a big issue for the squad however this is why we have a squad of players after all we added depth this summer to many positions across the board to help in circumstances like this Sturridge was bought for £12m and Balotelli 16m not to mention you wanted lambert we brought him in as well as retaining onto borini explain to me how between them they scored a total of 8 goals the same as stevie?’
‘ well with respect john we tried to move on borini and couldn’t as such he wasn’t utilised in the squad and only contributed one goal, lambert is a good technically gifted player he’s a nine and a half but he cant play week in and week out he was only meant to be an impact player so the amount of league goals he would contribute was always going to be a small amount’
‘and Mario?’
Brenden sighs ‘mario, Mario was a gamble we knew that he wasn’t my choice we all wanted sanchez and it didn’t work out Mario was a gamble and he just couldn’t deliver’
‘I know Mario wasn’t our first choice but you signed off on him Brenden and believed that you could get the best out of him where others failed ultimately this is another poor signing and a disappointment as I assume you want him sold now and that’s another big wage earner we might struggle in getting rid of’
‘okay’
‘ lets review the signings we’ve got your trio lovern, lambert and Lallana for a combined total of 50m dave tell us how have they performed?’
Dave fallows chief scout cleared his throat he didn’t want to throw Brenden under the bus but’ well quite honestly not great, lovern was absolutely terrible for the majority of the season however his form has picked up but he hasn’t exactly solved our defensive problems and it might need to be a position we will have to address again in the summer. Lambert has looked inept when he has played which in fairness isn’t very option but he’s too slow for our system and scored a total of 3 goals in all competitions and Lallana has shown potential at times but again has suffered from injuries but hasn’t lived up to his price tag’
‘brenden would you agree with that statement?’
‘dejan was poor to begin with, no doubt as he adjusted to our system and club but I’ve shown I can get the best out of him I believe he will improve and kick on and be a solid defender for next season, lambert gives me a different option and was relatively cheap I don’t mind if we decide to sell, adam has been unlucky with injures and also didn’t start the season great but he has shown his quality and I expect him to do so throughout next season’
‘but Brenden I thought the point of buying experienced premier league players was so that we didn’t have this problem with these players after all now we have a 27 year old who we paid good money for and has effectively had a wasted season along with 24 year 20m lovern this is unacceptable’
‘ok’
Let’s go over the rest of the summer signings Moreno, can, manquillo, markovic and origin dave how have they done weve already covered Mario of course
‘ well origin has been on loan at lille of course but hasn’t performed well he only scored 3 goals the coach says he was distracted by the thought of playing for Liverpool. Manquillo, Moreno and markovic have shown their potential in certain games but clearly are far from the finished article and will need more time before we can really judge if they have a role in the first team for future years. Can has been a brilliant signing showing his versatility and quality throughout the season.
‘Brenden anything to add?’
‘ok, well I agree with dave these are young lads that have taken time to adapt to England, the premier league and what it means to play for Liverpool I do believe they can have futures for liverpool’
‘Right then so Mario has been a poor signing as has lambert, lovern, Lallana and while showing potential markovic looks off the pace for 20m and manquillo and Moreno the jury is still out on’
‘so over a 100 MILLION was spent and we have one good signing’ this is just unacceptable right this transfer committee is being disbanded it clearly doesn’t work. Brenden smiled and Brenden your not getting any say over transfers were putting in what we should of done in the first place a sporting director’
‘John that’s not necessary and im not working with a sporting director ’
John raised his hand to stop him
‘my minds made up in fact Brenden John sighed while I appreciate everything you’ve done for me and this club… were going have to take things in a different direction’.
‘okay I think that might be for the best;
‘thanks for coming Brenden, Ian go with him sort out his settlement for his contract
‘yes sir’
‘good luck Brenden’ john said standing to meet him and shaking his hand
‘o-k, cheers for the opportunity’
Brenden and Ian exits.
Silence enters for a moment…
John: ‘who came up with the idea of signing can? Was that you dave?’
‘no john’
‘then who?’
*ahem* john and Dave turn their heads to the young man who had blended into the background throughout the meeting
‘that would be sir’ I said
‘Remind me who are you exactly?’
‘My name is Josh Steer, I am an economist(well getting there 2 years left on my degree but whatever money ball ftw) I often do contract work for Liverpool I suggested can to matt who is on the committee and they ran with it’
‘you came up with the idea of signing of can?’
‘yes sir’
‘John seemed sceptical prove it’
I began to show him my report on emre can labelling his strengths weaknesses and various statistic’s on my tablet. It was dated June 2013
‘you found him in 2013?’
‘yes sir, I have many reports on others players if you like to see?’
‘show me’
I handed him my tablet, showing thousands of saved reports of various players across the world each of them containing data about the player, his skills and his availability.
‘this … this is impressive Dave take a look’
‘this attention to detail of your reports are better than most of what my scouts produce’
John: ‘Josh how would you like to be our new sporting director
‘Actually sir I had a different idea in mind’
‘like what?’
‘ I want to become manager’
‘Manager! Do do you even have any coaching badges!?! Any footballing experience!?!’
‘I don’t however I do believe that I am the perfect manager for the job. You are correct in what you say I have no footballing experience at any level and I do not hold any coaching badges however I understand your philosophy and what you want to accomplish, I love football and Liverpool f.c, I watch the games, watch the players watch the club, I can identify targets reduce the wage bill and be successful.
John was in complete shock this kid had come out of nowhere and he was impressive but he wasn’t convinced ‘explain to me why I should hire a head coach without any football badges?’
‘you don’t you hire a manager, I do not need football badges currently as while I will learn and train on the job I will simply tell my coaches what I want them to do on a daily basis thus there is no need for me to actually to have coaching badges if you will I will be a ‘suit’ manager (xD). I can implement a philosophy through changes and additions to the staff, and I can pick the team based on fitness, form and quality as well as giving youngsters the opportunities to play when they show commitment and quality and as you have seen I can buy smart targets that have a high re-sale value on low wages. I can build a legacy at Liverpool achieving success and maximising profit, I will be the cheapest, most loyal and dedicated employee who will ever have I can run the club if you’ll let me’
I knew I was convincing him he was clearly tired of paying excessive compensation to both players and managers.
‘you can build a team through developing youngsters, buying young players on low wages, playing attacking football and whilst retaining our status as only the 5th highest salary in the league?’
‘Not only can I do this, I can do it far cheaper than anyone else out there and while the fans will take time to be won over, you lowering ticket prices will do just that’
‘im not lowering ticket prices’
‘you are if you want me for the job’
‘I didn’t say I did’
‘yea you did that’s why I’m still here talking to you and not going home like Brenden set up a press conference I’ll sign whatever contract you put in front of me I’ve got work to do’
John looked at dave he shrugged, john thought for several moments
‘this is a risk, Josh but given I’ve just paid 10million to get rid of Brenden and I expect his staff I really don’t want to pay that again for a new manager…’
‘I’ll be the last manager you ever hire and if you want to sack me at the end of the season I’ll go for free just give me a season’
John begins to take out his phone and starts dialling
‘who are you calling?’ I ask
‘Im setting up a press conference congrats you’ve got the job’
I smile finally I have dreamt of this moment for many years (press conference joke)
(Hoped you enjoyed reading this, apologies if there’s any grammar/spelling mistakes!)
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