Chapter 629: Lisbon I: Leaks
The room was quiet. Joel on the bench at the back with his head between his knees. Konaté next to him with a hand on the back of his neck.
Mama crossed the room. Pulled Joel up by the front of the shirt. Spoke quietly so Joel had to lean in.
"Look at me, Joel."
Joel looked at him.
"I have lost more matches than you have played. The match is the match. Today is not you."
"Mama."
"Listen. I left Konaté on the wrong post on the corner because I went short with the ball. I left him. That is the goal. The goal is mine before it is yours. Wayne saved the first. Ashley Barnes was Ashley Barnes. The eleven of us did not have the legs after Wembley. That is the match."
"Yeah."
"Sit."
Joel sat. Konaté put his hand back on the neck.
Mama did not say anything else for a moment.
"We win as a team. We lose as a team. We get on the bus."
He sat down on the bench between Wilf and Christopher.
I had not been expecting Mama to make the speech. I let the room sit.
"Lisbon Thursday. Three-one up. We do not lose by two and we are in Lyon on the sixteenth. The lads who did not start today get the start. Aaron back. Mateo not back. Mateo is having surgery on Tuesday at the Cromwell. He sends his love. He told me he wanted to be at Beckenham on Wednesday morning before the bus. So you will see him on Wednesday in his crutches."
The room held.
"Papers tomorrow morning, do not read them. Aaron, I see you with the Telegraph one more time this season I will throw it in the bin myself."
"Dad reads it, Gaffer."
"Your dad reads it at his house. You read it back home."
Small laugh from the room.
Pato spoke for the first time in an hour.
"James and I bought dinner. Grove. Private room. One hour stop on the way south. Whatever you want from the menu. Yeah?"
Christopher: "Steaks?"
"Whatever, Chris."
Mama from the bench: "Pato. James. I love you."
Pato grinned. James did not. The room got up. Got changed.
[Press Room. 18:48 BST.]
The fifth question was about my contract extension which had been leaked to the Times at half five during the match. The sixth was about the directorship which had been confirmed by a separate leak to the Athletic at six. I answered the first four. I did not answer the fifth or the sixth.
[Bus. M62. 19:38 BST.]
Sarah next to me. The Grove stop had been an hour and a quarter. The bus had been back on the road for forty minutes. James and Pato two seats up sharing one earbud.
"Four leaks in five days."
I did not say anything.
"Mateo’s diagnosis. The Mama footage. Your contract. The directorship."
"Three of the four from inside the club."
"Three of the four. Steve will know who by Tuesday. He will tell you Wednesday morning."
"All right."
She put her hand on my forearm. Took it off.
The motorway was the motorway. The bus moved south.
[Beckenham. Tuesday May 1. 09:42 BST.]
Steve was at my office door at twenty to ten.
"Daniel."
"Steve."
"It is Anthony Holland."
I did not say anything for a moment.
"How sure are you?"
"Certain. Holland gave the contract details on Friday afternoon to a man called Roger Hewitt who runs an advisory firm out of an office in Mayfair. Hewitt has done consulting work for United for six years. Hewitt brokered the Times leak. Holland did the Athletic leak himself on Sunday during the second half. He sent the directorship news from his personal email to the Athletic news editor at eighteen minutes past six. We have the email."
"How did you get the email?"
"He sent it from his personal account to the office system because his personal phone was on the same wifi as his office. The IT lads at Holmesdale Road forensicked it overnight."
"Why?"
"Holland was on the board ahead of me in 2010. He felt he should have been chairman. He voted against the directorship at the meeting Friday morning. He was outvoted six to one. He went to his car at half past nine on Friday morning and started making phone calls."
"What happens to him?"
"He resigned at eight this morning. We took his resignation. The press release goes out at noon. The line is that he is leaving the board for unspecified personal reasons. The real story will be in the Athletic by Friday because the lad at the Athletic who took the leak will start asking questions about why his source disappeared. We will not deny what the Athletic publishes."
"Steve."
"Yeah."
"Thank you."
"Do not thank me. I am the chairman who let Anthony Holland sit at my board table for eight years. I should have moved him out two years ago. The four leaks in five days is on me as much as on him."
"All right."
"Mateo is on the table at the Cromwell. Mr. Khan started at ten on the dot. He will be out at half past two."
"Yeah."
"Lisbon Thursday."
"Lisbon Thursday."
He went out.
[Beckenham. Wednesday May 2. 09:34 BST.]
Mateo came in at half nine on crutches.
Iza was with him. She did not come into the dressing room. Stayed in the corridor with Sarah. Mateo went into the dressing room on his own with the crutches and the brace on his right leg from hip to ankle.
The lads stood up when he came in.
He went to the front of the room. Did not sit down. Could not have sat down.
"Lads."
The room was quiet.
"I am at the surgeon’s office on the Cromwell every morning for the next two weeks. Then the surgeon goes on his holiday and Rebecca runs the rehab from Beckenham. I am here every day. I will be on the touchline for training when I do not have a hospital appointment. I will not be on the pitch and I will not be in any of the matches between today and the end of the season."
He breathed in.
"Iza is six weeks pregnant when I had the surgery yesterday. She is seven weeks pregnant now. The baby is due in December. She is in the corridor with Sarah. She is having lunch with Emma and Caitlin on Sunday. The wives’ table is going to know. So the lads are going to know. I wanted you to know from me before you knew from your wives or your girlfriends or the Telegraph."
The room came up in one second.
Mama got up first. Crossed the room. Did not say anything to Mateo because Mama knew. Just put his hand on the back of Mateo’s neck. Then Konaté. Then Wilf. Then Eze. Then the rest of them. They did not pile on because of the brace. They put their hands on his shoulders one at a time.
Pato spoke first.
"What is the baby called."
"Iza will not tell me until it is born. She does not want me telling other people what it is called before it is here. That is a Croatian thing she has from her mother."
"Tell her if it is a boy we want it called Pato."
"I will not be telling her that."
The room laughed.
Mateo waited a beat.
"Go to Lisbon. Go to Lyon. Beat City."
He turned. Came out of the dressing room. Iza was in the corridor with Sarah. Sarah had been crying without making a sound, the way Sarah cried at signings, only this was a different kind. Iza had Sarah’s hand. She let go to take Mateo’s arm.
The two of them went down the corridor and out.
The bus to Heathrow left at half ten.
